The sky is not falling. There is very little you can determine about a season from 18 games of baseball. We have 144 more regular-season games to watch over five months.

Also, not for nothing, but our guys are still tied for first in the division at 10-8.

Please stop freaking out, Tigers fans. A baseball season is a marathon, and you're acting like they're losing a 1500 meter race. Stop the rosterbation, the calls for trades regardless of the long-term cost, the belief that there's something fundamentally wrong with this team and that what we're seeing is how they'll perform over the rest of the season. You know what? That may be true -- although this isn't 2008 -- but there's no way for us to know just yet.

At the very least, wait until June before freaking out. If you're a traditionalist, wait until the All-Star Break.

Have you looked around the league recently? The Orioles are tied for first in the AL East, and the Angels are last in the West at 6-12. The D-Backs, Brewers, Phillies, Marlins, Angels and Red Sox were all expected in the preseason to compete for playoff berths, and they're all under .500 right now, while the freaking Nationals are 14-4. We're still at the point of the season where teams performing according to their preseason expectations, for good or ill, are the exception rather than the rule.

Remember how the Royals were the baseball hipster pick to give the Tigers some competition for the Central this year?

Importantly, don't forget last year. The Tigers were 8-10 at this point in the season and Cleveland was running away with the division. You remember what day the Tigers finally climbed above .500 for good? May 29. At that point, the Tribe was 31-19. Four months later, they were 80-82 and the Tigers were leading them by 15 games on the way to their first division championship since 1987 and an ALCS appearance.

I'm certainly the last person to say "don't complain about the way the team is playing" or even "don't complain about Player X" (for values of "X" that equal "Inge" and/or "Schlereth" in my case), but it's getting to the point where the constant DOOOOOOOM from the fanbase is becoming the sole topic of discussion and it's just annoying. It's crowding out rational discussion and it's about to start driving good people away.

Please, take a deep breath. Attempt to gain some perspective. Pledge to yourself not to get too worked up about anything at least until you can go to a game in a t-shirt and shorts.

And then thank God you're not a Royals fan.