8 Damning Detroit Tigers Stats And Facts That Should Get Al Avila Fired
A groundswell of Detroit Tigers fans have organized a sort of protest for the team's Tuesday, July 26 game at Comerica Park to call for general manager Al Avila's dismissal.
"Fire Al Avila Night" has picked up steam among the various social media platforms and online circles.
The Tigers are 39-58 as of July 25. They're dead last in the Al Central, 13.5 games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins. They're 13 games out of the American League's last Wild Card spot.
Detroit is on pace to finish with a 65-97 record, a year after a promising 77-85 campaign. The disappointment of this season has brought Avila's track record as Tigers GM into sharp focus and under intense scrutiny.
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Avila was named general manager toward the end of the 2015 season. He's more than halfway through his seventh full season at the helm of the Tigers. Most MLB general managers are given three, maybe four seasons to oversee a successful rebuild — that means taking a bad team and returning it to postseason contention.
Tigers owner Chris Ilitch appears ready and in fact eager to give Avila at least double that time frame. Just a few weeks ago, Ilitch gave Avila a ringing public endorsement.
"I'm very pleased with the progress at the Detroit Tigers," Ilitch said on July 1. "Despite a very slow start this season with our team, there's actually some good progress happening with some of the young guys that have come up and developed and so on and so forth."
In light of the grassroots effort to get Avila fired, we've put together eight facts and stats that demonstrate the undeniable reality that the Tigers will not return to contention until Avila is gone.