Sorry about my brief hiatus. Between some personal obligations, and the fact I just haven’t had a lot to say about the team, I decided to take a little break. Since I last wrote the Tigers lost 4 in a row, and did it in a variety of ways. Ramon Santiago seemed to have caught the error virus that plagued Eric Munson a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully this was just a temporary thing. One of the bright spots for the Tigers this year has been the defensive play of their young infield (just ask Nate Cornejo) so there is reason to believe that this is just a slump.

Something a little more troubling is that Bobby Higginson appears to have a bad back/leg. If you’ve been watching him bat for the last week or so, it was clear something was wrong. Pretty much every at bat had been a soft ground out to second, and he didn’t look like he was swingining aggressively. If the Tigers lose Higgy for awhile, it won’t be pretty. As bad as their offense has been with him in the lineup, it will only be worse without him. Unfortunately the Tigers don’t have any exciting young outfielders to bring up and take his place like the Indians and Twins.

Again I have to call into question Tram’s penchant for sacrifice bunting. In the ninth inning on Saturday, the Tigers had scored a couple runs to get within 3. They had runners on first and second, and still nobody out. Gene Kingsale then sacrifice bunts to move the two “stay behind” runs into scoring position. Kingsale is pretty quick (once he gets out of the box) and the chances of a double play were pretty slim. For a team that has such a hard time getting hits, I can’t fathom why you would want to give away so many outs.

Prospect Watch: Here’s how Kenny Baugh, Joel Zumaya, and Jon Connolly fared in their last starts (courtesy The Prospect Report)
Baugh:4.2IP, 10 hits, 7 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Zumaya: 6IP, 8 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 9K
Connolly: 9 IP, 6 hits, 0 R, 1 BB, 7K – He’s now 11-0 with a .84 ERA

Getting Linky
Rob Neyer’s all-time Tiger team (from “The Big Book of Baseball Lineups”)
The Grand Rapids Press takes a look at Jon Connolly. The Tigers currently have no plans to promote him.
Danny Knobler’s Inside the Tigers column mentions that NL scouts are interested in Dmitri Young
Davey Lopes likes Alex Sanchez. Sanchez already has nine steals, just think how many more he’d have if he took a walk.