A.J. Hinch offers blunt assessment of his terrible 2-7 Detroit Tigers

Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch has been known for being cool, calm, and collected in the face of an abysmal baseball product.

His team went 66-96 last season and they seem to be well on their way to another abysmal campaign. In fact, at 2-7 and coming off getting swept by the Boston Red Sox in their first home series of the season, the Tigers could very well be flirting with their second 100-plus loss season since 2019.

They're bad, and the usually stoic Hinch has finally reacted (a bit) to Detroit's struggles.

First off, Hinch spoke frankly about a pitching staff that has the second-worst collective ERA in MLB (6.84) and is just two games removed from giving up 14 points to Boston.

“We're not a good first-pitch strike pitching staff right now and we're not missing a ton of bats,” Hinch said, according to the Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. “We're not getting into leverage counts. If you do that against teams that can roll their lineup to some pretty good hitters, you are going to find yourself behind.”

Against Boston, Detroit walked 15 batters, nine of which ended up scoring.

Hinch wasn't content to just criticize the pitchers, though. His offense has the third-worst batting average in baseball (.205) and is dead-last with an OPS of .553. The Tigers seemingly have no patience at the plate and when they do hit the baseball, it rarely leaves the infield.

"We keep fighting, but we still continue to chase a bunch and that comes back to haunt you a little bit when you have guys on base and you get a little anxious and swing outside the zone," Hinch said.

Detroit fired long-time general manager Al Avila last season and he left new general manager Scott Harris with few tools at his disposal and an empty cabinet in regard to any real prospects.

The players that do show potential, mainly first baseman Spencer Torkelson and centerfielder Riley Greene, have flashed from both the plate and the field, but they're young still and can't be relied on to turn this thing around on their own just yet.

It could end up being another very long season for the Tigers as a result, but it's worth noting that pitcher Matthew Boyd, who picked up the loss against Boston, thinks his team can still turn things around.

"We all have things we can work on. As fast as the 2-7 happened, it could be 7-2, as well. You always realize you are a game away," Boyd said. "You just have to make that adjustment and put in the work. We have a good group of guys to do that and we've got great leadership to do that.

"And we plan on doing it."