In August of 2019, I decided to start a little passion project called The Warm Take. I love my teams, and I love my hometown. I already spend a significant amount of my time devoted to watching, researching, and expending emotional energy into the Detroit sports scene. Why not put that time to good use and turn my knowledge and opinions into poetry that I can display in my own personal little art gallery? This was going to be fun! I couldn’t wait to get started.

Then 2019 happened. Quite possibly the worst combined year in the history of the four major professional Detroit sports franchises. I should’ve seen that coming.

In an effort to find something, ANYTHING positive to take into the new year, I will recap the best moments from each of the professional Detroit teams in 2019. It’s not gonna be easy, but dammit, I only have so much negative energy to go around. Time to find the light amidst the darkness. 

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Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers finished 47-114 in 2019, the second-worst mark in the history of the franchise, and will select first in the 2020 MLB draft in June. They had the worst offensive output in baseball by 33 runs, and in a historic home run season across the league, finished with less than half of the total (149) set by the league-leading Minnesota Twins (307). Their team leader had 15. His name was not Miguel Cabrera, who only managed 12 in 136 games (ooof). He makes $30 million per year. That’s like 150 million Hot-n-Readys. They also only played 161 games, as the league mercilessly gave them No. 162 off. The world was robbed of seeing Tigers vs. White Sox for the 19th time.

2019 Highlight: Casey Mize’s no-hitter in Double-A debut

Let’s be honest – The Tigers are in the middle of a deep, dark, depressing rebuild. There was no chance of anything meaningful happening at Comerica Park in 2019. Most of the Tigers’ best prospects are still in the minor leagues, anxiously awaiting their debuts with the big club. 

One of said prospects is Casey Mize, the Tigers’ 1st overall pick in 2018. He hit the ground running after his April promotion to Double-A Erie by throwing a 98-pitch no-hitter, striking out seven in the process. On the season, across two minor league levels, Mize posted a 2.55 ERA and 106 strikeouts over 109 innings. Such an impressive performance, in his first appearance with a new team in a new league, says a lot about the mental makeup of Mize.

For the Tigers to expedite the rebuilding process, they can’t afford to botch any of their top draft picks. They appear to have nailed the Mize pick, who may make his Tigers debut sometime in 2020. That could provide a fun new narrative for a team that has not only been bad, but thoroughly uninteresting and difficult to root for, considering nearly 60% of their payroll is currently allocated to Cabrera and Jordan Zimmerman. The latter will, thankfully, be playing out his final year in 2020 before he is out of our lives. Cabrera, on the other hand, still has roughly 73 years left on his deal. Which is a shame, because I’m sure his families (plural) would love to spend more time with their loving husband and father.

For what it’s worth, GM Al Avila appears to have drafted well since taking over the job from Dave Dombrowski in 2015. Matt Manning, Mize, and Riley Greene (the Tigers’ top-ten picks since 2016) all project to be quality assets for the Tigers at some point. Here’s hoping they make good on their next top pick. Free agency, on the other hand, has been full of swings-and-misses (baseball pun).

Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings currently lead the race for the first overall pick in 2020, though they must succumb to the whims of the lottery gods. They have yet to notch their 10th win of the 19-20 season and trail the field by a full 11 points in the standings. Their minus-69 goal differential ranks dead last in the NHL, lapping the next worst team (-34). Hey, at least Stevie Y is back!

2019 Highlight: Anthony Mantha scores four goals in home opener win

In the spirit of true transparency, I thought this might be a sneaky-good year for the wings. Maybe not playoff-good, but I did think they would have a solid chance to go over the 75.5 points vegas had them tabbed at before the season (they posted 74 last year). After beating Nashville 5-3 on opening night, Anthony Mantha single-handedly disposed of the Dallas Stars 4-3, bringing his two-game point total to seven (5 G, 2 A). Mantha scored in the final minute of regulation to secure the win, after digging the Wings out of an early two-goal deficit. How many goals did Mantha score again, Mr. Joel?

Two nights, two Ws. It took Detroit nearly four weeks to get their 2nd win in 2018. The future is now, boys and girls. We have an overwhelming top-line full of young studs. Old reliable Jimmy Howard still patrolling the net, providing a solid floor. Prospects up and down the farm system. Steve Yzerman looking all studious in his new specs. Take the over baby! I tried to tell ya. 

Got anything to add, Slick Ric?

Fast-forward a couple months, and the Wings, of course, are in the league cellar. Like, way in the back, with cobwebs and dust all over them. Behind a bunch of stuff you couldn’t sell at the last garage sale. They have the fewest goals scored, most goals against, and are currently on pace for a 44 pt season. That escalated quickly.

Hope you took the under.

Detroit Pistons

The Pistons made some nice offseason moves which should have taken them up a notch or two from last season’s .500 record and 8 seed in the eastern conference. Instead what we have is a 12-22 team who clearly needs to pull the plug on the mediocrity treadmill, because at this point, even mediocrity sounds like a distant memory. I have an app on my phone that alerts me whenever Blake Griffin jumps higher than six inches off the ground. I can’t remember the last time it went off. Maybe it needs to be updated?

2019 Highlight: Opening night win at Indiana 119-110

I’m sensing a theme developing here. All the Detroit teams came out of the gate strong in 2019 (even the Tigers started 8-4), and for the Pistons that included a road win against their old rivals – the Indiana Pacers. With no Blake Griffin, their clear best player from the 2018-19 season, this was a surprising and encouraging result. We were graced with the presence of “engaged” Andre Drummond, who imposed his will for 41 stat-stuffing minutes (32 PTS, 23 REB, 4 BLK, 3 STL). Coming from someone who has watched nearly every second of Drummond’s professional career, I can honestly say this was the most impressed I had ever been watching him play. We also saw the emergence of Luke Kennard, as well as the Pistons debut of Derrick Rose, who showed he still has plenty left in the tank.

And now is the part where I tell you about how things fell apart soon after…

The real Blake Griffin has yet to debut in 2019-20. The shell of a man with Griffin on the back of his jersey is not an asset to this team (or any other), and in fact probably hurts them as he tries to play through his injuries. Andre Drummond is averaging a career-high 18.0 PPG and 16.0 REB, but also turns the ball over at a career-high clip (3.5) and gives his trademark spotty defensive effort. This team is an absolute mess and really difficult to watch. At least the season was fun for one game. That’s better than zero games (1 > 0). Sorry (not sorry) to flex on you with my UofM education there.

On the plus side, their performance has been so bad that there really isn’t much reason to think it’s just a rough patch. Though they are currently only 2.5 games back of a playoff spot, the Pistons have played one of the easier schedules in the league so far, and it’s going to get a lot worse for this team in a hurry. Why is that a plus? So we can finally kick the tires on a fire sale with confidence, without fear of missing out on the Disney magic of a Cinderella-type playoff run.

It’s time, Detroit. Put on your hard hats, grab that sledge and some dynamite, and let’s go to work. Time to blow this thing up.

Detroit Lions

Who can forget my Detroit Lions, who finally put a bow on the 2019 season with yet another blown lead and last-second loss to Green Bay. In case you haven’t heard the most fun of fun facts yet, the Packers beat the Lions twice this season despite leading for a grand total of 0.00 minutes. That’s right, both game winning FGs went through the uprights with zeroes on the clock. No rebuttal. Go home sad. You can’t write this stuff.

The end-of-season damage report: 3-12-1 (damn that tie!) and 47 players on injured reserve. They even got Kenny Golladay concussed in the finale, just so he wouldn’t feel left out. 

2019 Highlight: National reaction after Green Bay loss (week 6) 

What a sad existence I lead. I’m ending my “best moments of 2019” article with a Lions loss.

I could go with the win over Philadelphia here, which pushed the team to 2-0-1 heading into a marquee matchup with Patrick Mahomes and KC in Week 4, but what is the point? In the end, because of Matthew Stafford’s injury, all of the Lions’ wins in the first half of the season merely kept them from securing the second (or first) pick in the 2020 NFL draft. Instead, I will pick a game where, for a brief moment in time, Detroit was a source of national sympathy, rather than being a national punchline.

The Lions have made a living being screwed by officials. This game wasn’t the first, and it certainly won’t be the last. But instead of it happening during a 10-game slate on a random Sunday afternoon, it happened on Monday Night Football. The world was watching, and they largely agreed: the Detroit Lions were jobbed by the officials as Trey Flowers picked up two bogus “illegal use of hands” penalties. Both occurred in the 4th quarter in crucial moments. Both were called against a player in Flowers who had never been flagged for said penalty in his career. Then there was the cherry-on-top post-game league apology, just to end any debate of whether the calls were correct or not. 

You always get the “same old Lions” local narrative following a loss like this (that train’s never late). Everyone knows, of course, that you should lead your opponent by 30+ at all times just in case you need to survive an onslaught of bad calls on the road against an eventual 13-3 team. But it was quite refreshing to see the less “since 1957” biased national response to this game, and to a greater extent, this team. The Lions had the highlight reels and debate shows all to themselves the following Tuesday morning, and the consensus was that the Lions got boned.

Not only that, but the Lions were being labeled as a team that no one wanted to play.  When you combined this game with their Week 4 slugfest with Kansas City, the Lions were gaining the reputation of a team that could compete against anyone on any given Sunday. It seems like forever ago, but for a brief moment in time, the Lions were America’s team. Not really, but they did get some rare national attention (for being good, not 0-16). 

Also worth noting is that this result is the difference between the Lions being above .500 with Stafford healthy and below .500. It would be so much easier for the organization to sell the “injuries derailed 2019” excuse they so desperately want to use (despite what they might tell you) if you could simply say they were 4-3-1 in the games Stafford did play. In a first-half schedule that was always viewed to be difficult (.511 opponent winning %), it would have been hard to argue that the Lions were not headed in the right direction if they came out of that stretch as a winning team.

Alas, we all know how it turned out. No Stafford = no wins. Questions abound, and the same GM and head coach will need to provide the answers in 2020. Will they be able to do it?

Drop the damn ball already

There you have it. Those were the best Detroit sports moments of 2019 since the birth of The Warm Take. While that little exercise was thoroughly depressing and highlighted just how little joy has come out of the D in 2019, it has proven to be a bit cathartic writing about these teams. I can vent, I can dive deep for answers, and I can laugh to keep myself from crying. Hopefully, you enjoyed The Warm Take in 2019, and I would be extremely grateful and flattered if you continue to follow my work in 2020. Like, follow, subscribe, and share with anyone who might enjoy a new voice on the scene. I’m in this for the long haul.

These teams can’t kill me. They can only make me stronger.

Happy new year!

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