Stuff of note from the last few days:
- Dmitri Young’s return seems close. He’s heading to Erie for a rehab assignment. To keep track of Young’s progress, make sure to check the minor league reports.
- Remember when TV play-by-play man Mario Impemba was blogging on MLBlogs? That blog was kind of abandoned this winter. Well, I just found out he’s been blogging for Fox Sports. This incarnation looks to have launched during spring training and is kept up to date.
- It also looks like Mario fancies himself a webmaster. He maintains a site about baseball broadcasting called the Sound of Baseball
- I also happened across a couple of Tiger blogs. Mack Avenue and The Daily Fungo.
- Much of the Tigers pitching staff success this year is being attributed to meetings that Chuck Hernandez holds with the staff and catchers. In the meetings they discuss how to approach the coming series. According to Vance Wilson this level of preparation is new
We’re getting good scouting reports. We’re getting together as a group and talking about their lineup and getting good feedback. Chuck’s been awesome. I don’t think we’ve had this kind of preparation in a long time here in Detroit.”.
Now I always thought that Bob Cluck was a decent pitching coach, and I guess I just assumed this was taking place in the past. Hmmmm
- In other pitching news it appears that Justin Verlander is battling a blister problem. It sounds like it only causes problems for his curveball.
- Chris Shelton and Kenny Rogers were named Tigers player and pitcher of the month for April
- And last but not least, the Tigers are certainly not last nor least. On Baseball Prospectus’ Hit List the Tigers hold the number one spot.
Amazing stats from the BP Hot List:
. . . the Tigers lead the majors in homers (39, while allowing the second-fewest, 18), Defensive Efficiency (.754), and ERA (3.22, with four-fifths of their rotation under 4.00).
And that’s five-fifths of the rotation with Bonderman’s ERA sneaking under 4.00 after yesterday’s outing.
One thing from listening to tonights game…I was miffed last night when Todd Jones was brought in to pitch the ninth, but nearly blew the game.
Maybe Todd Jones is being used correctly, though. By having Zumaya and Rodney pitch the 7th and 8th may be more effective as it cuts down the chance for the Royals to make a late inning comeback. These two have been lights out all year, especially Rodney, that having him pitch in the eighth as opposed to the ninth is a better move.
With the Tigers’ win on May 2, this is the first time they’ve been 9 games over .500 since 1993….
Who do you think heads down when Dmitri comes back?
I would like to see Ramon Santiago go down or a pitcher.
I’m sure it’ll come down Santiago or Gomez. Neither has decent numbers, so the decision will probably come down to whether or not Leyland considers DY a backup outfielder.
They sure don’t need 12 pitchers at the moment either. But I think it will be Gomez.
I read somewhere that Tata would make sense. There aren’t enough innings for him at this point and he needs to get some work at the minor league level.
Don’t think it will be Santiago, unless they suddently trust Infante’s shoulder.
Thanks for the link. I really like your daily minor league wraps and check this place out nearly daily.
Agreed that Tata wouldn’t be a bad move given the lack of work. Thames will get squeezed out of the bulk of ABs, right?