54-111
That is the combined record for each Detroit sports team this year, including the Lions 2020 season. For 8 months us Detroit sports fans have only seen our teams win 54 times. However, the losing might not be such a bad thing though. More losing means higher draft picks, which can speed up rebuilds.
The Lions, Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers are in the midst of a rebuild right now. No, it is not fun to watch, but with all the teams rebuilding now it does give them a chance to all be good at the same time after the rebuild. Obviously that would be ideal, but some teams may finish their rebuild before others.
Let’s take a look at which teams I think are rebuilding the best and who will succeed first out of the four teams.
4. Detroit Tigers
In year 5 of the Tigers’ rebuild they find themselves not only last in the AL Central, but at the bottom of the entire league. With a record of 10-24 and a run differential of -68 the Tigers are on pace to have one of the worst seasons of all time. The product of year five of this rebuild has been unacceptable as Al Avila seems clueless to the direction he wants this rebuild to go.
Despite all of the high draft picks over the past few years, it can be argued that we don’t even have a top 5 farm system in baseball. Yes, players like No.1 pick Spencer Torkelson and former No.5 pick Riley Greene are guys to look forward to in the future. However, our former top prospects that are in the league now are just not living up to expectations. Players like Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, and even Isaac Paredes last year are not playing good baseball by any means. I could even go as far as saying that none of them, besides maybe Mize, have even showed flashes of being a future star or even a key piece in the rebuild. Mize and Skubal have combined for a ERA of 5.08, with a W/L of 1-8.
Now there are some decent players on the Tigers like Matthew Boyd and the red hot Jeimer Candelario, but it is not certain that they will be on the team after the trade deadline. Al Avila needs to do something fast before we are stuck in this rebuild for another 5 years.
And yes, the Akil Baddoo hype is over, he isn’t good.
3. Detroit Lions
In my opinion, the gap between the 4th and 3rd spot is quite large. The Lions just have so much to look forward to. A new fiery head coach in Dan Campbell, good surrounding staff, and a very promising new GM in Brad Holmes. This new regime should bring a lot of excitement to the city of Detroit. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of holes on this Lions team and they will be bad for the next 1-2 years. However, I think a lot of Lions’ fans can agree with me that we haven’t felt this type of energy and excitement for a fresh start in a while.
I think the rebuild officially starts when a team parts ways with their quarterback, which the Lions did back in January of this year sending Matthew Stafford to the Rams. Although it may seem like the Lions have been rebuilding for the past decade almost, they really haven’t. The losing was unintentional under GM Bob Quinn, as year after year he would sign veteran players that he thought would put us over the hump but they never did.
Young players like Penei Sewell, Jeff Okudah, D’Andre Swift, Frank Ragnow, etc., along with this new regime. We finally have something to look forward to.
2. Detroit Pistons
The Pistons are currently sitting last in the Eastern Conference with a record of 20-49. But man, this young core is exciting. Leading the pack is 22 year old first round pick Saddiq Bey. Bey averages 11.9 points on 38% shooting from three as a rookie. He is a fantastic 3 and D guy for the Pistons and will be for years to come. The No.7 overall pick, Killian Hayes, has been hurt for most of the year, but has shown some flashes when he does play. He reads the court exceptional well as a guard and is big for the position at 6’5″.
I think basketball is the easiest to rebuild in, as you really only need one star and a few quality starters to make the playoffs. 27 year old Jerami Grant might just be our star, averaging 22.3 points on 43% shooting. The pieces we have now along with a potential top 3 or 4 pick we will have in the upcoming draft, makes the future definitely bright for the Pistons.
1. Detroit Red Wings
I’ll keep this one short and sweet. This was an easy #1 ranking.
Steve Yzerman is a hockey mastermind and brought his expertise to the Wings’ front office back in 2019. The most recent Yzerman move came from the Anthony Mantha trade with the Capitals, where we received 25 year old Jakub Vrána, a 2021 first round pick and a 2022 second round pick. Those two draft picks add to the Wings’ already crazy draft capital. Yzerman has 22 selections in the next 2 years, including 3 first round picks. Adding those picks to our young talent in Filip Zedina and Joe Veleno, and up and comers Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider make for the brightest future in Detroit sports.
The Red Wings are still a struggling team at 19-27, but the quality of play is night and day compared to last year. Sooner rather than later we will see Hockey Town back in the Motor City,
We love you Steve Yzerman.
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