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Sean C from Illinois penned this take on Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and left it in the comments. I thought it deserved a little more prominence:

WHAT’S GOING ON?

Tigers, Tigers
Not too many of you trying
Batters batters batters
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To DL Sheffield - yesterday

Hitting’s weak
And pitching’s sick
The starters can’t
Make it through the 6th
Come on bulllpen guys
Oft criticized
Don’t blow the game
Don’t blow the game
Jonesy don’t blow the game
Guillen’s error blew the game

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Lehigh Valley 3 Toledo 7
Mike Hessman hit his 12th homer. Freddy Guzman, now with Toledo with the promotion of Matt Joyce, had 2 hits and a walk. Chris Lambert went 8 innings allowing only a walk and 2 hits while fanning 5.

Trenton 7 Erie 2
Josh Rainwater only pitched an inning and surrendered 5 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks. In all the Seawolves ended up needing 6 pitchers.

Vero Beach 3 Lakeland 4
Mike Bertram had 3 hits. Scott Sizemore doubled and walked. Matt O’Brien allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings while fanning 3.

West Michigan 2 Lansing 0
Casper Wells, Audy Ciriaco and Joe Bowen each had 2 hits. Ciriaco also made his 15th error of the season. Ramon Garcia picked up the 3 hit complete game shut out walking 1 and fanning 5.

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PREGAME: Justin Verlander and Josh Beckett tonight.

Sorry for the brevity, gotta run.

BOS @ DET, Thursday, May 8, 2008 Game Preview - Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME:  That winning thing was short lived.  I missed the first 3 innings of this game while coaching my son’s team but it appears to be more of the same. Tigers starting pitching allows runs early, but not so much to make it a blow out.  Red Sox starting pitching looks golden allowing some baserunners, but they were all singles.  And it’s yet another loss.

Curtis Granderson fanned 4 times, besting (or worsting) his 3 K’s performance last night.  Miguel Cabrera is slumping again going 0 for 4 with a couple ugly looking K’s.  If it weren’t for the subs at the bottom of the order - Thames, Inge, and Santiago - stringing together 2 out hits it would have been another shut out.

I just don’t know.

Red Sox 5 Tigers 1

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A startling amount of news from the beat writers and analysis from bloggers today. Inge likes catching, Cabrera at first base, and more.

Inge says catching is fun

Brandon Inge is just too fascinating to resist. The very different views of his defense, the despair over his offense, the sympathy and lack of sympathy over his plight to get traded, his early season success while essentially being a full time player the first 25 games, people clamoring for Inge to return to third base, it’s the gift that keeps on giving for bloggers. Now it appears that Inge thinks catching is cool.

Inge said Tuesday that he still prefers to play third base — “my first love” — and that a chance to play at third regularly could persuade him to play elsewhere.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m not gonna lie,” Inge said, “but I’m good with the catching, too. I don’t like sitting.

“And I love Detroit. I love everything about it.”

It’s quite the shift from his stance this spring when he was catching and complaining about it, and doing it enough to draw ire from me. He later backed off those statements when it became clear Vance Wilson wouldn’t be breaking camp with the team.

I’m in agreement with Ian and Kurt that the possibility of Inge catching next year if Pudge Rodriguez isn’t back would definitely be a nice option for the Tigers to have.
Read the rest of this entry »

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PREGAME: The Tigers are in a 3-way battle for AL suckitude with the Rangers and Mariners. It would be nice to not be in that position.

It’s Armando Galarraga and Clay Bucholz if the rain holds off.

Bucholz has been money with only 3 runs allowed total over his last 3 starts since a shellacking at the hands of the Yankees. He has a reverse platoon split with righties hitting an 846 OPS against him whereas lefties are struggling to the tune of .564.

Here’s your lineup.

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, 3B
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Cabrera, 1B
6. Sheffield, LF
7. Joyce, DH
8. Renteria, SS
9. Rodriguez, C

BOS @ DET, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Game Preview - Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: You know, when a game last 4 hours it gives you quite a bit to comment on. I’ll start with the finish. The Tigers got the win. Good. Very good. Much needed.

The 9th inning rally wasn’t one of shock and awe. It consisted of a check swing dribbler, an error, a bunt, a ground ball to second, and a broken bat single. But it’s still two runs, and it’s still a win. And to each guy’s credit that inning, they found a way to put the ball in play.

Now a ton of bullet points: Read the rest of this entry »

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I apologize for the quality of the photo. It’s the best I could do with my camera phone. What you are looking at is a custom made (I’m assuming it’s custom made anyways) #49 Rod Allen T-shirt. The shirt on its own is a stroke of genius, but it is enhanced greatly by being paired with a custom made (I’m assuming it’s custom made anyways) no number Cobb T-shirt.

This duo ranks second in “best ball park wear” behind the guy I saw in 2004 with a duct taped VINA and number 9 applied directly to his back. Sadly there is no photo.

However their work will live on along with other T-shirt greats like this.

So thanks to two very creative gentleman I now have a post tagged with both Rod Allen and Ty Cobb.

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Some observations from last night’s game that help to express just how sad things have become for the Tigers and their fans…

It could be worse…

…You could be a Yankees fan sitting around wondering “How the hell did we get swept by these guys?”

…You could be rooting for the team that let Gavin Floyd carry a no hitter into the 9th inning. That’s gotta suck and it’s way worse than the time the Tigers broke one up in the 8th inning.

The Tigers offense was so bad…

…That the only situational stats that the scoreboard operator could display were “Career with nobody on base.” (Shockingly enough the HR total always matched the RBI total. Like every single time. Talk about your statistical anomalies.)

…The scoreboard operator celebrated a Dustin Pedroia error resulting in the Tigers 2nd baserunner with a great big flashing “OH YEAH!”

…The folks at MLB.com felt the need to celebrate the Tigers first extra base hit in 25 innings with a pity highlight.

Did you know…

That the largest possible improvement in ERA occurs when a pitcher who has given up one run before recording an out then records a triple play? It goes from infinity to 9.00. My friend Russ and I realized this last night when Freddy Dolsi’s ERA went from infinity to 27.00 when he recorded his first out. Three more outs later and it was lower than Zach Miner’s. By the time he was done he had recorded 5 outs and his ERA was lower than 60% of the starting rotation.

Some people go to games to watch baseball and drink beer. I go to baseball games to watch baseball, drink beer, and do math.

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PREGAME: Here we are with another extended losing streak and the light at the tunnel to .500 just keeps getting dimmer. Tonight it will be Tim Wakefield going up against Nate Robertson.

With Wakefield you don’t know what you’re going to get, aside from a bevy of knuckleballs. The last time the Tigers faced Wakefield they drew 5 walks, but like we saw last night it doesn’t translate to runs without some extra base hits.

Robertson had a typical Nate outing allowing 4 runs. He’s allowed 4 runs in 4 of his last 5 outings.

I’m off to the game!

BOS @ DET, Tuesday, May 6, 2008 Game Preview - Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: It’s a tardy postgame report because I make a rule to try and not blog angry. Plus I couldn’t even muster the words to express my disappointment in that game. And the morning after I still can’t. So just some bullets will need to suffice:

• I saw cib and tiff and Samara prior to the game. So a lovely early summer night started off lovely.
• Robertson struck out the lead off hitter on 3 pitches. That seemed like a good omen.
• Nate is at least remarkably consistent. My friend and I debated how he would give up the 4th run of the night in the 7th inning. He had Manny going deep. I had a double to Pedroia that would be let in by the bullpen. We were both wrong.
• I feel I bear some responsibility. When Carlos Guillen singled in the first I said “at least we don’t have to worry about the no hitter tonight.”
• Curtis Granderson saw 23 pitches in his 3 ab’s against Wakefield
• Pudge’s double was the only time a Red Sox outfielder had to make a movement away from the infield.
• Can you believe that Manny Ramirez swung at the first pitch from Freddy Dolsi. What was he thinking?
• Being in the stands it was hard to judge the effectiveness of the knuckle ball except to say it was slow. But I can recall only one pitch at all getting by catcher Kevin Cash which seems remarkable.
• There are times that I think the batting order doesn’t matter that much. Tonight was one of those times.

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• Scout.com: TigsTown Q&A: Schuyler Williamson
  A great interview with a former Tigers draftee from West Point. He’s given up baseball and has served 15 mos in Iraq
• tigers one sixty two: Prospect Profile: Alfredo Figaro
• Ex-Tiger Morris plays doctor
  Jack Morris says Verlander’s shoulder is bothering him because Verlander isn’t extending like he used to. While there’s still questions about pitch f/x, we saw that a little bit earlier on with his release point.
• Pitcher Analysis: Andrew Miller | Driveline Mechanics
  A detailed look at former Tiger Andrew Miller. The conclusion isn’t surprising. He has some flaws in his delivery, was rushed to the Majors, and needs a third pitch.

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Lehigh Valley 7 Toledo 11
Mike Hessman, Jeff Larish, and Timo Perez all homered. Hessman and Larish now have 20 combined homers. For Perez his was part of a 4 for 4 day. Mike hollimon had two hits and a walk. Brent Clevlen was 3 for 5. Virgil Vasquez returned to the rotation and fanned 6 in 5 innings while allowing 3 runs.

Trenton 9 Erie 5
Wil Rhymes and Deik Scram had 2 hits a piece. Jon Connolly was knocked around for 13 hits in 6 innings including 2 homers.

Lakeland 9 St. Lucie 2
Cale Iorg homered and singled driving in 3 runs. Ryan Strieby added 2 hits. James Skelton went 0 for 4 and saw his average slip to .262. Rick Porcello threw 6 shut out innings allowing only 3 hits. He walked 3 and struck out 2 and picked up 12 ground ball outs.

Kane County 2 West Michigan 1
Kyle Peter doubled, walked, and stole two bases while being caught once. Manny Miguelez scattered 8 hits over 5.2 shutout innings. Noah Krol took the loss allowing 2 runs on a hit and 2 walks.

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Isn’t it something that we waited and waited to get the anticipated lineup together. First Granderson was injured, and then Sheffield and Polanco. And then everyone was set to come back and Carlos Guillen missed a couple games. Finally, on April 27th the 1000 run lineup took the field. And 8 days later on May 8th it’s been altered because it just wasn’t working. In that 8 day span was an off day and a sweep of the Yankees. Part of me can’t help but think it’s a little bit of an overreaction.

Now the Jacque Jones dismissal is a smart move and I applaud the relative swiftness of it. The Tigers gave him a month to do something, and it just didn’t happen. And this was with Jones facing almost exclusively right handed pitching. He only had 4 plate appearances against lefties, all of which result in strikeouts. His arm was as bad as advertised and Leyland respected his defense so little that he was always lifted for Ryan Raburn in late innings. If you can’t play defense and you can’t hit and you’re track record is marginal there is little to contribute and little reason to expect it to change. Jones amassed 5 line drives in his very brief Tigers career.

As for the “drastic” lineup move I hardly consider the swap of Carlos Guillen and Gary Sheffield to be drastic. The more drastic move is Gary Sheffield assuming left field duties. Sheffield had surgery to repair a torn labrum which you’d think would inhibit his throwing ability. But even odder is that the DH rotation will be between Sheffield and Ordonez.

Ordonez is an average fielder, and hardly a liability. There is talk about his bad knees, but in actuality he has 1 surgically repaired knee. The injury hasn’t appeared to be chronic and he isn’t as close to DH-dome as many make him out to be. While the semi-rest is probably a good thing, it does nothing to help the infield defense. An area of concern that could be remedied by rotating DH duties to Carlos Guillen (who does have bad knees) and Miguel Cabrera.

So like the Guillen-Cabrera switch, this realignment seems to be a reactionary move that solves little. The move was at Sheffield’s request because he thinks he can focus better by playing the field. That may be the case, but if he’s not healthy the focus part won’t make a big difference. Like Lee, I’m skeptical that it will result in an increase in his numbers.

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PREGAME: It will be Daisuke Matsuzaka taking on Jeremy Bonderman. Matsuzaka shut out Detroit for 6.2 innings despite walking 4 the last time the two teams met. Bonderman is coming off a start where he went 7.2 innings and only allowed 2 first inning runs to the Yankees.

The Tigers unveil their new look lineup which has Carlos Guillen and Gary Sheffield flipping spots in the order. Matt Joyce who has been with the team about 2 hours will get the start in right field while Sheffield will man left. (I’ll have extended comment on this later tonight)

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, 3B
4. Ordonez, DH
5. Cabrera, 1B
6. Sheffield, LF
7. Joyce, RF
8. Renteria, SS
9. Rodriguez, C

BOS @ DET, Monday, May 5, 2008 Game Preview - Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: Well, they grinded out at-bats. Matsuzaka made lots of pitches and the team drew 10 walks. The trouble is they only had about 5 line drives (the same number that Jacque Jones had this season BTW). The Tigers couldn’t muster an extra base hit meaning it was hard to get people in motion. And with out a speed team the Tigers are more reliant on things like the hit-and-run. But with a pitcher nowhere near the strike zone, it’s a tough play to call.

Highlights were a Marcus Thames pinch hit single and a Curtis Granderson diving catch. And Jeremy Bonderman fanned 4 while only unintentionally walking 1. A definite improvement. Unfortunately Clay Rapada and Todd Jones allowed runs to score as the bullpen has allowed runs in the last 4 games. I just dont’ know where this team is headed.

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