Tigers' wobbly offense is no walk in the park

The Tigers think big, which isn’t necessarily bad. But part of the problem is, they’re thinking too big, too often.
Their hitting has been a major disappointment, so far. Their record is mediocre, so far. Their inconsistencies are puzzling, so far.
I suggest they stop pressing to fulfill their high-powered expectations in one week, or one game, or one swing. I strongly suggest they embrace the most-basic of baseball weapons: The humble walk.
The Tigers are not a small-ball team, so keep that hit-and-run, bunting garbage to yourself. But even big-ball teams need to draw walks, and the Tigers’ stubborn reluctance to do so is glaring and annoying. At its best, free-swinging is considered aggressive. At its worst, it’s selfish.
I think the Tigers’ free-swingers occasionally have been aggressive, selfish and impatient. It must be fixed. The Tigers are 11th in the A.L. in walks. You know who’s first, by a wide margin? The surprising first-place Indians.
When the Tigers won 95 games a year ago, they were fifth in walks. Home runs are great. Home runs with actual runners on base are better. It’s no surprise the Tigers hit three home runs the other day in a loss to the Twins — and all three were solo shots. Look at some of these walk-to-strikeout ratios:
Brennan Boesch: 5-30
Delmon Young: 6-28
Alex Avila: 12-30
Ryan Raburn: 8-27
Not good enough, fellas. Not patient enough. Miguel Cabrera is one of the great hitters in baseball, and also one of the smartest. Even his walk-to-strikeout ratio (11-23) needs to be better. In fact, the only Tiger with more walks than strikeouts is .369-hitting Andy Dirks.
As the old saying goes, you have to walk before you can run before you can score a bunch of runs. Before the Tigers drive their fans beyond frustration, they must take a few more pitches and swing at better ones. It’s called plate discipline, and it’s time we see more of it.
Bob.wojnowski@detnews.com