Monthly Archives: April 2006

Injuries, Minors, Players, Uncategorized

Tiger Links – and quick

1 Comment

A lot of interesting stuff the last couple days, but I’m short on time so here’s a Joel Zumaya -fastball-esque link round-up:

Tiger Stuff

Other baseball stuff you might care about

  • striketwo.net: Summarizing the latest news and discussions from 678 MLB blogs: This is a newish site that I’ve become a big fan of. It tracks discussions across the blogosphere. You can view the hottest topics, or keep up to date with what others are saying about your favorite players or teams.
  • Ballbug : This is another tool that tracks discussions on the hottest topics in baseball. Ballbug just launched on Monday. If you’re familiar with memeorandum, this is the same thing but for baseball.
  • ATM Reports: Lee Sinins who publishes the very popular Around the Majors newsletter is doing it via a blog now.

detroit tigers, baseball, ballbug, striketwo

2006 Season, Statistics

Tracking WPA on Opening Day

4 Comments

Yesterday you got my emotional and giddy breakdown of Opening Day. Today I’ll take a look at the game, but from a much more analytical perspective.

For those that read the Hardball Times on a regular basis last season, you may recall Dave Studemund writing about Win Probability Added. That preceding link has a very nice explanation that if you are intrigued I highly recommend reading. If you want the cliff-note version I’ll give it a shot here.
Continue reading Tracking WPA on Opening Day →

2006 Season, Uncategorized

Winning makes me smile

2 Comments

Aside from getting a win on Opening Day, there were quite a few things from today’s game that made me happy.

Not to diminish Kenny Rogers outing, or Chris Shelton doing what Chris Shelton does, but I think the highlight probably had to be seeing Joel Zumaya in action. I’ve heard all the praise, and I saw him at the Future’s game (from the next to last row of the upper deck). I was ecstatic to see that he lived up to the hype – at least in this outing.

His fastball was consistently 97-99, and his curve ball seemed to have serious break. In fact, even though he ended up walking Mike Sweeney, it wasn’t before he put him on his seat with an inside curveball. (Jeff Weaver may have been a punk, and Sweeney may otherwise be a decent guy, but I’ve always hated him since the helmet throwing incident of 2002. As such I took glee in the confused look on his face after the pitch) As Eddie said in the comments,

Multi-inning dominant relievers are an assett. If they are 21 and throw 99 mph while keeping the ball down, all the better. I am looking forward to the Joel Zumaya era.

As exciting as it was seeing him come out of the pen, I couldn’t help but have visions of him in the rotation.

In any case, it was nice to see him get in right away and to succeed in a game that was still very much in doubt.
Continue reading Winning makes me smile →

2006 Season

Opening Day Thread

12 Comments

I’m not going to be doing game thread’s on a regular basis this season. However, opening day is a special occasion. Feel free to post any thoughts about the game in the comments.

I’m heading home from work early to enjoy the game with my family. I planned on breaking out a bunch of junk food as a special treat. Unfortunately the stomach flu has wreaked havoc on the kids this weekend. Instead of hot dogs and pretzels they’ll be enjoying traditional ballpark foods like Saltines and Jello.

Do you have any special plans for today, or do you save it all up for the home opener?
detroit tigers, opening day

Minors, Pitching, Roster Management

Jordan Tata Takes Jones spot

4 Comments

Jordan Tata - Photo Credit: Roger DewittJordan Tata who was set to open the season with Erie will be the beneficiary of Todd Jones’s hamstring injury according to Danny Knobler. Tata had an excellent season for Lakeland last year (2.79 ERA, 3.27 K/BB ratio) as well as a solid spring.

The move surprises me. Tata hasn’t pitched above A ball, and there are other pitchers (namely Mark Woodyard) who have a little more experience and would have been a decent fit. That said, Tata probably won’t see that much action over what will hopefully only be a 2 week stint. Tata is also 25, so while he lacks experience at the higher levels of the minors, he isn’t exactly a kid, and this doesn’t feel like a “rush job” that could be detrimental to his development.

As for other roster implications like option years and service time, these will probably both be a non-factor. This is already an option year for Tata, so calling him up won’t make a difference in terms of options. As for service time, if this is truly only a stint that will last a couple weeks, it is doubtful that it would advance his arbitration clock significantly.

Injuries, Pitching, Roster Management

Todd Jones Injured

1 Comment

With one out to go in spring training, Todd Jones left the game with a pulled hamstring. According to Danny Knobler Jones is headed to the DL. A replacement hasn’t been determined yet, and I’d guess that the Tigers are waiting to see the severity of the injury.

I’m not worried about the loss of Jones as closer. I actually think that Fernando Rodney, who is yet further removed from Tommy John surgery will have a pretty good year, and should post comparable numbers to Jones. It’s more an issue of cascading roles with the loss of Jones in a bullpen that has several question marks.

If it looks like Jones will only miss a couple weeks, I’d imagine that the Tigers would go with one of the players currently on the 40 man roster like Mark Woodyard or Roman Colon. My guess would be Woodyard because I really think the organization wants Colon working as a starter.

If it looks like the injury will take a long time to heal, the team may be more inclined to look at a non-roster player. Unfortunately, there don’t appear to be any likely candidates in that group.

If you’re wondering about Franklyn German taking the last spot, I wouldn’t count on it. To me it didn’t seem like German was that close to making the team. His longevity in big league camp was probably more due to his option status than him being the last player cut. Adding German also gets tricky because he’s no longer on the 40 man roster. While there is room to add him, I believe a later demotion would mean him once again clearing waivers.

In other roster moves, the Tigers officially designated for assigment the contracts of Franklyn German and Rob Bowen. They also put Troy Percival on the 60 day disabled list and Craig Dingman on the 15 day DL. Why only the 15 day DL for Dingman? I’m not really sure.