Billfer likes long walks in Comerica Park. Check out the About page for more about me and the site.
billfer @ detroittigersweblog.com
PREGAME: The Tigers kick off an asinine 4 game road trip that takes them to California for 2 games and Chicago for 2 games. The team flight arrived in LA about midnight eastern time last night.
It will be Mike Maroth taking on Jered Weaver. Let’s hope they can avoid extra innings tonight.
Game time 10:05pm
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{ 98 comments… read them below or add one }
Asinine? Anyway. Maybe they’ll win. Although the Angels are 8 and 2 at home.
That’s gotta be the best home record anyone has.
Let’s not pitch to Vlad…that’ll help our chances.
As for home records, the RedSox are 7-1, but other than that, yeah, the LAA’s are next best. Interestingly, they’re only 10th in runs scored at home, but are also in the top 10 in runs allowed. 49 runs for, only 27 against. Yeah, that’ll help you go 8-2 at home.
Hey look, a first inning lead!
Wow. Granderson homers to start to the road trip…I think we’re going to have a lot of those - for this reason:
His pitches have absolutely no movement. Looks like they’re coming out of a pitching machine.
……aaaaaaand Sheff swings at ball 4.
Nice hustle, Maggs.
Sarcasm. I like it. At least a 30 pitch inning for Weaver…so that’s good.
That ball was hit pretty hard, I don’t think he makes it to third.
Pretty productive inning. See if Casey can build on his last 2 ab’s yesterday
I was referring to ball 4. He stopped to talk off his shinguard while the catcher retrieved the ball.
man, is it me or does weaver balk from the stretch when he moves his glove like that…
Why is it Casey can always seem to hit it hard, but it just goes right at people?
That’s almost 3 innings worth of pitches for Weaver.
I think Maroth picks someone off tonight.
Mario always says Inge “gobbles up” every ball that he has hit to him - Inge must have some big hips by now.
yeah..money ball stats on Casey would show a much higher average…seems like he’s always hitting seeds at people
“It’s nice to have a huge target over at first base.” - Rod Allen, about Guillen throwing to Casey.
good walk.
I’m not sure my Grandpappy watched the ball game like this: I have a purring cat on my neck, a lap top on, well, my lap and and am drinking an iced green tea latte from Starbucks. What a late night rebel i am…
Grandy! My Tiger!
Wow, an early lead again. Let’s hold it this time.
Granderson might be the new Carlos Beltran
EVERYTIME Sheffs up with men on I’m certain he’s going to lauch a 400 foot laser and kill someone in LF.
Anyone else see the Yankees lose? Two things I like - watching the Tigers win and the Yankees lose. A-Rod hit home runs number thirteen and fourteen - AND THEY STILL LOST…Ha.
SHEFF GETS ONE OF HIS PATENTED 2-OUT RBI HITS!!!!
…and as I say that he about puts a hole in Weaver’s stomach for an RBI. Nice. I hope that’s the start of his rebound. I’m looking forward to seeing him when he’s locked in. I saw it when he was with the Braves and they had a lot of games on TBS.
SHEFF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Way to go Sheff, that’s why we got him. About time.
hey, it’s a start! Go go Sheff!
Close enough. Maybe that is the spark.
Nice to see all the line drives. Let’s pile it on now.
Weaver’s getting owned.
were going to put 15 runs up
Now you can say “Nice Hustle, Maggs,” Jeff…that was a beauty.
Wow. Wow. Go-Go Gadget Two-Out Hits.
I think I figured out what we can do when Sheff hits.
You are right Adam, it’s always a great day when the yanks lose. Weaver is done.
I’d be interested in seeing Weaver’s release points for this game. See how inconsistent they are.
Amazing hitting in this one. Weaver seems to have gotten ahead of everyone 0-2. Then everyone lays off the breaking balls low and away and smoke the fastballs.
This is a treat so far.
Shortest outing of his career. Wow.
Just read Grandy’s blog entry from today — he’s awesome and entertaining, btw — and a couple items of note:
1.) Super, SUPER classy. He mentions the All Star Ballot, and does NOT mention that he’s not on it. Instead he suggests that people vote for Polly at 2B. I’m beyond impressed.
2.) He mentions the Brian Bluhm memorial fund and gives the address to make contributions. Again, SO classy.
That’s my Tiger. No doubt about it.
Now, back to the game. See ya, Jered Weaver!
Mike - They definitely varied, but part of that is he’ll drop down a little side arm on some deliveries.
Good god! You guys are crackling tonight!
i love the pissed off weaver face
These Angels announcers are the worst. Seriously. I’d rather listen to Hawk and DJ.
“…And the shorting outest…….shortest outting I should say…” - Mario about Weaver
AND HOLY CRAP TWO MORE RUNS!!!!
Guillen is such a good base runner.
Meanwhile Bonderman says “What the hell?”
Seriously…poor Bondo - why couldn’t he have been pitching today?
I didn’t think the Angels could have someone give Chone Figgins a run for his money for “worst throwing arm in the AL from a position player” but I’m pretty sure Robb Quinlan can give him some competition.
billfer — now that’s funny.
Mario’s had a few slips lately. One of the drives down the line the other day he excitedly exclaimed “It’s either going to be foul, or be fair!”
He also said Grandy had 13 walks this year.
This is going to be a long freakin’ game. They’ve already thrown almost 90 pitches. An hour in and it’s the second inning?! Jeez.
I got class in the morning.
Wow…this is great. Hope Maroth can mow through a few innings.
Wow, you guys are as hot as the Tigers’ bats tonight.
So benching Sheff for a game seems to have helped, the Yankees lost, AND we’ve still got the lead. Yep, it’s a good night. Finally I feel like they’ve got the game in hand, but let’s get out of the 3rd inning at least.
And yeah, I noticed Grandy wasn’t on the All-Star ballot, even if he won’t mention it. (And since when do we vote for the All-Star game in April?) I’ve already written him in.
Billfer: Good point about him dropping down. I wasn’t thinking about that.
…aaaand Monroe strikes out twice in the same inning. That’s gotta be worth a medal.
First batter in the top of the 2nd…
“Monroe struck out swinging”
Last batter in the top of the 2nd…
“Monroe struck out swinging”
Great inning for the Tigers, not such a great inning for poor Craig!
Hey guys, Anne just said we were hot
Wow, 5 runs with two out. I love stuff like that.
Adam — It’s worth a somethin’…I need to tell the wife to get on her Tiger’s case.
By the way, big ups to the Wings for last night’s win.
Now c’mon Mike, let’s give the pen a night off…
OK, let me re-phrase that…
billfer/anne — as hot as Nate Robertson’s…
you know what, nevermind.
Alright, I’m turning in. Wake me up when we get to extra innings:)
I’m gonna go get a case of Mountain Dew….Gonna be up all night.
Hey sorry for all of you having to stay up all night…:)
This is one of the advantages of baseball in Asia…I’m following this game online while I work!
Aww…Ingey…
just watch what you do with those peanut shells in Singapore…don’t want to see you get caned
Feel free to go right at Guerrero now, Mike.
Aw crap. We’re not out of this one by any means.
Maroth needs to pull it together.
On Maggs’ double, the left fielder caught the ball and threw a high lob over to the third baseman. However - the third baseman was at the edge of the outfield grass - nowhere near third base.
Maggs, if he was paying attention, could have gotten to third easily.
Not that it ends up mattering…another 2-out RBI by Pudge.
So where exactly did you all go?
I’m smellin’ a golden sombrero for Craig tonight. Someone tell me I’m wrong.
I think they went to bed.
Trouble brewing for Maroth here in the fifth…might it be time to pull him?
“You’re swinging at it and you’re missing at it and it’s six to eight inches outside…” Rod Allen on Maroth’s pitch.
I don’t think I’ve ever missed at anything.
This Kotchman at-bat is killing me. Get this guy, Mike!
……and Maroth gets taken out before he can record a W.
Wait, who gets the W in this situation? Grilli? (Obviously, only if we win)
Wow, Maroth can’t get the win. Really poor outing from him.
No Control for Mike tonight 105 pitches 54 Strikes 51 Balls 1 K.
They just said that a number of fans have left. They must not have been watching the Tigers in the late innings.
A four pitch walk? C’mon Grilli
Going down for the game tomorrow
Wow, good game thread for a late game! Glad to see some other people suffering with me tonight!
Grilli’s Mechanics look horrible.
2:43 minutes to play 6 innings. It’s getting late for me and I’m on the West Coast.
Dickerson just said that it’s up to the official scorer to decide “who was the most effective reliever” to award the win. Weird rule. Let’s hope they have to use it tonight.
Even without much control (even though the gameplan was to walk vladdy), he still only had 2ER in 4 and 2/3 = 3.85 ERA
One inning left. You use Seay? Or give it to Jones? I don’t know how much it matters anymore anyway - we didn’t use Zumaya.
I keep Seay. Don’t use Jones unless you really need to. I’m glad Grilli and Seay salvaged it so that a 7-0 lead didn’t require the best relievers to finish it.
I’d give Seay a baserunner.
….aaaaaaaaand Sheff’s got his first 2fer.
::sigh:: Nice hustle, Maggs.
why zumaya in a 5 run game?
I LOVE the curveballs.
Zumaya. Are. You. Kidding. Me. Although the Vlad Guerrero at-bat was something to love.
Sit down, Todd. You’re not pitching.
It’s a Tiger win! Good night everybody. Good afternoon Cameron.
Well,
The top 6 in the order were 12-26, and the bottom 3 were 0-11. Inge and Monroe are both going to evetually hit (about .250) and Inge’s defense is so good you can live with .250. Casey is the one I am worried about. He is looking awfully old these days. Maybe we can get Carlos Pena from the Rays
-Sam
Great win last night!
Also, Billfer, i think the clock is back on central time again….
Just over 10% of the season gone and here are Brandon’s projections for the year:
26.7 Homeruns. Not bad. Pretty good in fact.
26.7 errors. Only if Polanco and Casey continue to to save error after error on his Scud Missle throws. Otherwise he will have something on the order of 32 errors.
196 strikeouts. Um, that is so bad I can’t even come up with sarcasm or a wise crack.
.117 batting average.
53.6 RBI’s. Trully Rob Deer type numbers.
Now those “sample size” Apologists will say “Sample size is too small, you just wait until he gets to 100 AB’s before you are a Meanie Feanie to Ingey”.
Ok.
But to cut Inge’s projected 196 K’s in half he now has to go 60 AB’s without a strikeout. Let that sink in a bit. 60 at bats without a K to ONLY average 98 k’s for the year!?!?
If Inge goes 12-12 over the next three games he would only raise his average to .268 and he STILL would have more strikouts than hits.
Inge is 15th in fielding percentage among third sackers. He would be a lot further down the line were it not for Polanco and Casey. Sure, he makes many many great plays, but for every great play made he has been saved an error by a great play by someone covering for him. Add to that a penchant for errors (23 in ‘05, 22 in ‘06, tied for 3rd in the league with 3 so far this year) and you have gone a long way to negating his much ballyhoo-ed range.
I have not even touched his spring numbers, which when combined with this season would give him 118 AB’s with a jaw droping 39 k’s. That would give him a staggering whiff rate of .330 (and a 118 at bat batting average of .186). But why bring in spring training to the equation? He was only hitting against AA, AAA pitching, and against MLB pitchers working on one specific pitch for the most part. That would not be fair to Brandon, you know, to list his stats against that type of pitching
When does this stop being funny and even the rosiest of the rose colored Ingeheads (Jim Price) start to question whether there may be a better alternative at third. We are trying to win a pennant, and playing with a liability like this does not in any way help the team achieve that goal. If he were merely servicable (.250 ave, 15 errors, 20 hr’s, 80 k’s) I could live with him and his adoring Public. But right now he is killing us. It is easy to focus on Sheffield, Rodney, Grilli, Monroe, and Casey with their struggles, but Inge lags far behind all of these players.
Put Infante at 2nd and Polanco at third (he has played there before with St. Louis and Philly). Put Infante at 3rd. Both of these options put a much better hitter in the line-up and won’t cost us nearly as much defensively as some of the Rangeheads might imagine. Infante is wasted on the bench while Inge flounders at the plate.
Bottom of the league batting and middle of the league fielding means time for a change at 3rd. Inge has about 40 more at bats to get his act together or there very well may be some drastic changes in order. Chris Shelton was banished to Toledo for a lot less than what Inge is doing now.