And I don’t want Andrew Miller being the next answer. I’d prefer him to follow the Verlander path and spend a full year in the minors if at all possible. Unless he’s DOMINATING Double-A when he gets there.

Sheffield is STRUGGLING. I still think it was a brilliant move (especially given that the Yankees won’t get anything out of the major part of their return for at least another full year) and I really think his track record is just too strong for his skills to diminish this quickly. I’m more annoyed then I am concerned with him right now. In a month and he’s still riding the interstate batting averages, I’ll be pressing as many panic buttons as I can find.

Sheffield? I don’t know. I hope he is not another juan Gonzalez. I really think that it is just early in the season, and we shouldn’t worry too much. There’s a lot of crappy players hitting .400, and good players hitting .190. Shef will be fine.

The one thing that boggles me though, is what do we do about Marcus Thames? It is nice to have a good reserve outfielder like that, I suppose. But even in the world series, its like the Tigers don’t have any purpose or place for him, but at the same time, they don’t want to get rid of him.

GO TIGERS!!!

we are losing too many close games.

Suggested reading:
http://www.detroittigersweblog.....bumminphp/

I still don’t understand starting Thames and lifting him with a lead in the 5th inning. Both times the Tigers went on to relinquish the lead. I hear Leyland talking about defense and such, but I guess I still just don’t get it.

Try thinking of it as a mid-game platoon. Leyland managed to get two L-R matchups and a R-L matchup. He also forced Guillen to use Thornton to avoid a fourth advantageous matchup. That could have been huge if we forced extra innings.

It’s also a way of averaging two players with complimentary skills. By splitting time between them, he’s essentially adding a little balance to team. It’s balance in the same way that a bar magnet has balance, so it’s clearly not ideal, but it is in interesting attempt to work with the available talent.

It’s also an interesting way to get Thames at-bats more regularly. It’s been said that Thames is the kind of guy that would do even better if he were a regular. If that’s true, he probably benefits from having at-bats every night evening if he is in the clubhouse by 9 o’clock.

I also have a hunch that this strategy would (if it continues) increase his overall playing time. Like it or not, he’s a man without a position, so Thames supporters should just take it a sign that Leyland’s trying to find him some time wherever possible.

The Tigers, surprisingly, are only 10th in the majors in K’s (not updated for tonight). But the four mentioned above are killing us. Yeah, I know, Inge has three homers (including a meaningful shot tonight), and Grandy has solid power numbers, and Sheff is taking walks. But that window dressing doesn’t hide that we are losing too many close games.

If we want to go to the post season we need to stop bleeding out games, and a big part of that is all of these stinking K’s.

I was really worried about losing 2 of 3 at home to the Chi Sox. Now we will have to kick it in gear offensively for the rest of the weekend to avoid a sweep. My gut tells me Nate loses a heartbreaker tomorrow… 3-2. We beat up Conteras late last year, but in the spring he dominated us. Right now I think his pitching is stronger than our whiffing, oops, I meant to write our batting.

Hope I am wrong.

and honestly, of all those tiger teams i don’t know if i’ve EVER seen a team strike out more than these bucs…ugh. could be a REAL long season.

thx

BTW, my wife’s from Pittsburgh, so I’m there all the time. I do like the Bucs, too. There are worse parks to spend your time in…

“Durbin has a habit of having good springs followed by lousy regular seasons at the ML level. Hopefully he is mature enough now, that this will not be the case.”

Follow Up:
He has to learn to trust his stuff. I feel bad for the guy. He has performed at every level and obviously has the talent to be a MLB pitcher. I’m just not sure he has it between the ears.

Aquilino Lopez did look good though. He has ML experience and owns a respectable 3.72 lifetime ERA.

-Sam

now i’m in pittsburgh, so i get to yell, “NO! Not Wasdin!”