I don't really get the hate for Ausmus. There is so much that goes into winning and losing games in baseball (it is the most luck dependent sport out there), that what can I really say was on Ausmus?
Continuously batting Don Kelly sixth did not endear him much to me. The Soira and Sanchez disappearing act didn't either.
Ausmus didn't assemble a team with no bullpen.
DD tried to address that with the Soria trade and Ausmus completely botched his workload for reasons still unknown. Two games come to mind that Nathan gave back as Soria was playing Gin Rummy in the pen.
He didn't decide that Verlander would become one of the worst starters in baseball.
No but JV was Dartmouth's choice to start G2 rather than the guy who led MLB in strikeouts! That and his botching of the 8th inning cost the Tigers the ALDS.
He didn't injure our starting SS and pick up a bunch of scrubs to fill in. He can't force Castellanos through the rookie learning curve nor demand Cabrera play like the best hitter in baseball every night. Ausmus was handed a good, but flawed team, and he produced a good, but flawed result. What could he have done to change our bullpen from imploding two straight games?
For starters, not going back to the rancid well the second day. Extending Sanchez's outing ...this 30-pitch excuse does not fly with me. (As I write this Hyun-Jin Ryu, who has not pitched in a MONTH, is on PITCH 90 in G3 of the NLDS!) As an alternative, Dartmouth should have at least using Al'querue in the 8th inning. Ausmus didn't even know that Al had a 1.76 ERA with 23 Ks in 22 appearances in the 8th. "He's a sixth inning guy," he was quoted as saying after G2. Al pitched 7.1 INNINGS in the SIXTH. 15.2 in the 8th. Why is this significant? It's obvious. He's clueless. Or making shit up. Or both. And guess who was getting loose in the 8th inning of G3: Hint, it sounds a lot like a city in New Mexico.
What could he have done to change our offense laying a dud today? The answer is pretty much nothing.
Activating McCann and Collins rather than Holaday and Perez would have given the Tigers a fighting chance in the 9th of G3. Instead he is left with the series hanging on a player with SIX PAs on the SEASON! McCann has 12 PAs? He also had an 800-plus OPS versus RHP. Was it against pitchers like Britton? No, but is Perez the guy you want in that spot?
As far as next season goes, it's time to start building a balanced team. We have 4 pitchers coming back. Lobstein probably takes over the 5th role, but may outplay Verlander by year's end. The team obviously has holes to fill (bullpen, RF, DH/1B), but finding good players is certainly within reach.
The Tigers CUT TIES with three good players in 2013 (Peralta, Benoit and Fister). I have little reason to believe that this same GM will do what he should have done last year and improve the BP. JV, Miggy, Anabal and Ian are owed an average of $83,000,000 total over the next three seasons, leaving and average of 4,000,000 per player at the present payroll total. That's without signing Scherzer.
