Darren McCarty is still pulling for the Tigers. This is only newsworthy because McCarty has been in Anaheim as well.
In Rob Neyer’s most recent chat featured several Tiger questions. He was asked about Chris Shelton and had this to say
I still think he’s going to finish with 35-40 homers, because he really is a guy with fantastic hitting ability. And he’s strong, so some significant number of those balls he hits will carry the fence.
But there was also this snippet:
Matt, Boston: What pitcher do you think has the best pure stuff in the game right now?
SportsNation Rob Neyer: Hard to say. But Verlander was regularly hitting 97-98 on the gun in Seattle the other day. He’s gotta be on the short list.
And Kevin Goldstein chatted with scouts about Lakeland Tiger closer Kevin Whelan who has been tearing up the 9th inning since he was drafted last year.
One scout was surprised at Whelan’s arsenal when he recently saw him pitch for High-A Lakeland. “I thought he’d throw harder; he’s low 90s, but he’s interesting because he basically does it with three fastballs,” said the scout. “He throws the straight fastball, a splitter with good fade, and a big forkball that just goes straight down and can be unhittable.” However, the scout was concerned with Whelan’s mechanics. “He short-arms everything. He was a catcher, and it looks like it when he pitches. I put him down as a potential closer, but it could depends on if his arm holds up.”
PREGAME: The Tigers finish up their 9 game western swing with a matinee in Anaheim. By all accounts it has been a successful roadtrip with the team sitting at 6-2. Mike Maroth will be on the mound for Detroit and John Lackey will be pitching for the Angels.
POSTGAME: So Detroit is coming home 6-3 from the road trip. Without looking it up, it is the most successful west coast trip in recent memory for this team. It also brings their record against the AL West to 9-4.
The game was pretty sloppy for the Tigers, with all of the runs coming after a couple errors. It also featured 8 Tiger strikeouts, which is becoming problematic. However, I don’t think it was a give-a-way on get-a-way day type situation this time. Without seeing the game, it sounded like the Tigers were taking decent approaches at the plate drawing 5 walks. To me it seems like a team that is probably a little worn out on the last day of a long road trip.
Louisville 8, Toledo 6
Ryan Ludwick seems to be heating up with a two hit game including his 4th home run and a walk. Max St. Pierre also homered and singled. David Espinosa, Jack Hannahan and Ryan Raburn all had multi-hit games. Josh Phelps struck out 3 times for the second consecutive game. Lance Davis and Tony Fiore were responsible for all 8 runs in 4 1/3 innings. Chris Spurling pitched two scoress innings allowing 2 hits and a walk.
Erie 3, Bowie 3 (11th in progress)
I can’t make it for the end of this game. Preston Larrison went 5 2/3 allowing two runs on 8 hits and two K’s.
Lakeland 7, Clearwater 2
Jeff Frazier was 2 for 2 including a homerun, a walk, and a sac fly. Clete Thomas added two hits and a stolen base. Jeff Larish reached base 3 times with a hit and two walks. Jair Jurrgens continues to pitch well allowing only 2 runs in 7 innings. He struck out 7 and walked none. His season totals are now 24 innings, 21 K’s, 1 BB. Kevin Whelan pitched a scoreless ninth striking out 2.
West Michigan 3, Kane County (12 innings)
Erik Averill went 7 innings and allowed a single run. Orlando Perdomo had his first struggles and blew the save by giving up a run on two walks and two hits in the 9th. West Michigan’s offense consisted of 3 singles (Rymes, Maybin, Justice) and a triple (Ryan). Michael Hollimon had a rough night, striking out twice and making two errors.
This is an analysis free post, but I have several site-related odds and ends I’ve been wanting to mention.
First, you may have noticed a link labeled ROSTER up in the navigation bar. If you haven’t visited, it has the complete 40 man roster as well as links to various stat sites for each player. There are links to Baseball Prospectus, Baseball Reference, Baseball Cube, and Retrosheet for each player where there are stats available. Also, if you want to search for times this site has mentioned a particular player, each player’s name is a link to just such a search. I plan to add a couple more data sources including ESPN and Baseball Musings Day by Day database. Continue reading Site news→
Toledo 7, Louisvill 0
Colby Lewis only allowed 4 hits and a walk in 8 innings of work to go along with 4 strikeouts. Mike Hessman had two homers and Ryan Raburn added one. Josh Phelps struck out 3 times in 4 plate appearances.
Bowie 6, Erie 5
Chris Homer allowed a homer in the 9th inning as Erie couldn’t hold onto the lead. Virgil Vasquez allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, in 5 2/3 innings. He walked 2 and struck out 4. Kody Kirkland hit his 6th homer with two men on. Kurt Airoso added two doubles and a walk.
Clearwater 3, Lakeland 1
The Lakeland bats were silent as they only mustered 7 singles and no walks while striking out 10 times. Brent Dlugach picked up two of the hits, but committed his 7th error. Kevin Ardoin allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, in 6 1/3 innings.
West Michigan 8, Clinton 2
Matt Joyce and Ryan Roberson each picked up a double and a single. Michael Hollimon and Cameron Maybin singled but struck out 3 times. Ramon Garcia pitched 8 innings and allowed 2 runs. He struck out 5 and walked none to raise his season ratio to 20:2 in 26 innings.
It’s not often that a team can only muster 10 runs in a 3 game series, and still double the production of your opponent. Fortunately the Tigers had the 10 runs, and it was good enough for a road sweep of the Mariners
Tigers
Mariners
Wins
3
0
Offense
Runs
10
5
BA
.240
.185
OBP
.306
.276
SLG
.370
.207
HR
3
0
SB/CS
4/0
1/2
Pitching
BB/9
3.3
2.7
K/9
6.7
7.3
ERA
1.67
2.30
Of course the story for the Tigers was the starting pitching, which is good because the offense didn’t give them a lot to work with. In 20 innings of work they gave up one lone run. That’s giving even the 2003 Tigers a chance to win. A manufuctured run, anda late inning cushion via the homer were all that the pitching staff needed. Continue reading Tigers-Mariners Series Wrap→
Toledo 4, Columbus 3
Chad Durbin went 6 innings and only allowed 1 run while striking out 4. David Espinosa hit his first homer of the year, and Ryan Ludwick hit his third. Tike Redman added two hits including a double.
Erie 15, Binghamton 4
It was an offensive explosion for Erie today. Tony Giarratano had two doubles, a triple, and a walk. Kurt Airoso had 4 hits, two of which were homers. Kody Kirkland and Mike Rabelo added home runs as well. Kirkland reached base 4 times and had 5 RBI’s. Juan Francia posted an unfortunate 0 for 6. Humberto Sanchez didn’t really need the runs. He pitched 7 innings and allowed only 4 hits while K’ing 8. His ERA now stands at 1.96.
Clearwater 14, Lakeland 9
Christhian Martinez was hammered for 9 runs and didn’t make it out of the 2nd inning. PJ Finigan was then tagged for 4 unearned runs. Brent Dlugach made two errors to bring his total to 6. Jeff Larish had a tough week, but rebounded with his 3rd homer, a double, and a walk. Clete Thomas reached base 3 times. Victor Mendez homered and added a double as well.
West Michigan 6, Clinton 4
Michael Hollimon switched spots with Cameron Maybin in the lineup, and both responded. Maybin tripled and walked while Hollimon added a double and a single. Both were caught stealing. Matt Joyce homered. Lucas French allowed 4 runs in 7 innings despite poor peripherals. He allowed 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, and 3 homers. Ricky Steik pitched two scoreless innings for the save. Steik, who was obtained via the Kenny Baugh trade, now has 12 strikeouts and no walks in 8 1/3 innings.
For a few minutes there in the 8th inning, I thought I might be titling this post “Sweepless in Seattle.” Fortunately the Tigers held onto the lead and Detroit heads into Anaheim wiht their second 5 game winning streak of the season. In the process of knocking off the Mariners, Detroit guaranteed themselves a winning record on the road trip. When the team left Detroit last Monday, I think everyone would have been content coming back 5-4. But thanks to their recent play I can enthusiastically say a 5 win trip would be disappointing.
Toledo 3, Columbus 2
Josh Phelps had two hits, including his first home run. Jack Hannahan added two more hits, and David Espinosa reached base twice via the walk. Espinosa’s OBP now stands at .421. Zach Miner pitched 6 shutout innings. He only allowed one hit, but 5 walks (and 6 K’s). Chris Spurling saw his first action since his demotion and allowed two hits, a walk, and a run in one inning.
Erie was postponed due to rain
Fort Myers 9, Lakeland 1
I’m sure Lakeland would have liked to have had this game postponed. The L-Tigers had as many hits as they did errors (2). Jeff Larish continues a tough week striking out 3 times in 4 at-bats. Dallas Trahern was pounded for 7 hits and 6 runs in only 4 innings.
West Michigan 4, Clinton 3
Burke Badenhop allowed 3 runs in 4 innings, but Andrew Kown came in and allowed a single hit in 3 innings of relief along with 4 K’s. Kown hasn’t allowed a run, or a walk in 12 innings of work. Orlando Perdomo didn’t allow a baserunner and struck out two for a one inning save. Offensively there wasn’t much of note. Pedro Cotto had two hits, and Michael Hollimon walked twice. Cameron Maybin was 0 for 3 with a walk.
Do you rememer the last time the Tigers went to Seattle? It was in July of last year. The team had just finished a big homestand in which they took 3 out of 5 games from the Twins to evelvate their record to 49-49. While still not in the thick of th wild card race, there weren’t any teams pulling away at that point so the Tigers were one of 7 or 8 teams with some sort of shot. They went into Seattle looking minimally to take two of three, and ideally a sweep from a team that was struggling. After splitting the first two games of the series, The Tigers took the field for the rubber game.
Mike Maroth was on the mound, and Craig Monroe was in center. Mike Maroth struggled early and staked the Mariners to a three run lead in the first inning. The Mariners came back in the second inning and loaded the bases with two outs. Adrian Beltre hit a routine flyball to Monroe that should have ended the inning. Instead it bounced out of his glove, 3 runs scored, and the Tigers went on to lose 9-3. After another defeat, this time to Oakland, Pudge got himself ejected and suspended. The Tigers were swept by Oakland, eliminated from any sort of contention, and Kyle Farnsworth was traded. The players gave up, Pudge took his suspension/vacation, the lockerroom went into disarray, and Trammell was fired. Continue reading I like this better→
Charlotte 6, Toledo 3
It was another strong start for Wil Ledezma who allowed 3 runs in 7 innings. He struckout 9 against only two walks. For the season his K:BB ratio is 26:6. Ryan Raburn homered and frove in 3. Kevin Hooper raised his average to .404 with two more hits. Josh Phelps struck out 4 times in 5 at-bats. Mark Woodyard continues to struggle. He took the loss allowing 3 runs and his ERA now stands at 15.19.
Binghamton 8, Erie 4
Tony Giarratano and Brent Clevlen each had two hits – including a double for Clevlen. Nate Bumstead was roughed up for 5 runs in 5 1/3 innings. He allowed 6 hits and 3 walks while striking out 3.
Lakeland 6, Fort Myers 5
Josh Rainwater allowed 4 runs, 3 were earned, in 5 innings. He struck out 6 and walked none. Victor Mendez picked up 4 hits, Gil Mejia added 3, and Chris Robinson had two. Jeff Frazier struck out 4 times, and Jeff Larish was 0 for 5. PJ Finigan, Eddie Bonine, and Jeff Hahn combined for 9 strikeouts and one hit in 8 scoreless innings.
West Michigan 3, Clinton 0
Sendy Vasquez threw 6 shut out innings. That brings his total to 16 innings with no runs allowed. Tonight he struck out 8 and walked 2. Orlando Perdomo picked up his 6th save with a scoreless 9 inning. Perdomo has now struck out 11 in 7 1/2 innings. Cameron Maybin was 1 for 3 with a walk. Justin Justice picked up two hits.
Baseball is a funny sport. We have all kinds of statistics to look at how things have gone in the past, and what to expect in the future. And then you have a series like this one between the Tigers and the A’s. The Tigers are notorious for not walking, and at least this year for hitting home runs. Meanwhile the A’s have had books (or at least a book) that looks at their plate discipline. The Tigers have been labeled this year as a team that can’t score without a home run, and they are typically solo shots. In fact, coming into the series, the last Tiger runs (over two games) had all come on solo shots. So what happens when the Tigers go to Oakland to face a team they have typically struggled with?
Tigers
Athletics
Wins
2
1
Offense
Runs
18
11
BA
.288
.172
OBP
.377
.245
SLG
.384
.354
HR
0
4
SB/CS
0/1
0/0
Pitching
BB/9
3.1
4.3
K/9
4.5
4.3
ERA
3.46
5.00
Detroit takes two of three without slugging the ball at all. They post a .377 team on base percentage that was largely fueled by walks and 3 hit-by-pitches. They score 18 runs in the series while only slugging .384 and not hitting a home run.
On the pitching side, the Tigers pretty much kept the A’s off balance and off base. While it should be noted that the A’s had been struggling coming into the series, mustered only a .599 OPS. Continue reading Tigers-Oakland Series Wrap→
News, views, and analysis on the Detroit Tigers and baseball