Tigers Minor League Wrap 5-13-08

Toledo 3 Durham 5
Mike Hollimon singled, homered, and walked. Jeff Larish and Jackson Melian each had 2 hits. Jeremy Johnson allowed 3 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings.

Erie 3 Bowie 5
Wilkin Ramirez, Dusty Ryan, and Jeff Frazier all had 2 hits apiece including homers for Ryan and Frazier. Danny Christensen went 5.2 innings allowing 3 runs while walking 3 and fanning 2. Casey Fien pitched 2.1 scoreless innings.

Lakeland 1 Tampa 3

Cale Iorg and Ryan Strieby had multi-hit games. Jonah Nickerson fanned 5 and walked 1 in 7 innings while allowing 3 runs.

West Michigan 11 Fort Wayne 3

Casper Wells had 4 hits including 2 homers. Audy Ciriaco tripled as part of his 4 hit game and stole 2 bases. Cory Middleton homered and Kyle Peter had 3 hits. Jon Kibler allowed 1 unearned run in 7 innnings of work fanning 6 and walking 2.

Justin Verlander in 150 words or less

Justin Verlander, the young stud pitcher and AL Rookie of the Year winner in 2006 was anointed ace of the Detroit staff and named the Opening Day starter. However with a 6.43 ERA and only one win he’s been anything but an ace.

Early on there were concerns when his fastball lost velocity. He changed his arm angle and found some mph’s and a tighter breaking ball. But still the results haven’t caught up to his stuff. It has led a former Tigers pitcher to think Verlander is injured, and others to think that Justin is in need of some Doc Halladay type adjustments.

A look at his components is encouraging because he’s not being hit hard, but he is walking too many and not striking out enough. Tigers fans need optimism about Verlander, because remaining playoff hopes rest largely on his shoulder.

Game 39: Tigers at Royals

PREGAME: Two days without baseball seems like an eternity. It’s why the All Star break is so painful. Fortunately the Tigers return to action tonight. Unfortunately it will be against Zach Grienke.

Grienke went 7 innings on 99 pitches the last time he faced the Tigers, limiting them to 1 run on 6 hits. He’s thrown a quality start in every outing, save for one when he only made it through 5 innings. In his last two starts he’s fanned 17 and walked 2.

The Tigers will send out Nate Robertson. Robertson has kept the team in most games, lasting 5 to 7 innings and allowing 4 runs with remarkable consistency. But while he’s kept them in games, with those stats, it doesn’t make for a good ERA (6.64) despite a 3:1 K:BB ratio.

Matt Joyce DH’s again.

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Guillen, 3B
  4. Ordonez, RF
  5. Cabrera, 1B
  6. Sheffield, LF
  7. Joyce, DH
  8. Renteria, SS
  9. Rodriguez, C

DET @ KCR, Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 8:10

POSTGAME: Another punch in the gut.

I didn’t like Nate Robertson being removed from the game. Robertson had been in a ton of trouble throughout the course of the game, but aside from the Jose Guillen double he wasn’t being hit hard. He had gone through 7 innings on 82 pitches and he was attacking the strike zone and was helped out by an aggressive Royals offense.

But Leyland taking him out isn’t the reason the Tigers lost. It was a bad move especially considering it was done to avoid Robertson pitching to Mark Grudze… who is 8 for 9 in his career against Robertson but who had yet to hit the ball hard in any of his 3 hits that night. It was also the polar opposite of what Leyland has done on several occasions this year where he would leave a floundering and out of gas Justin Verlander in to try and “get him a win.”

The inability of the offense to generate extra base hits, or cash in on scoring chances are reasons the team lost. Edgar Renteria trying to make an inning ending play and failing is a reason they lost. Bringing in Cruceta who got two quick outs and got to two strikes on Jose Guillen before allowing a double wasn’t the problem.

I’m not defending the decision, but it’s not why they lost. Robertson allowed multiple baserunners in 4 innings and didn’t have a 1-2-3 inning all night. The same thing that happened to Cruceta could have happened to Robertson.

But reasons and blame aside, enough is enough already.

It doesn’t add up

In today’s Detroit News Tigers beat writer Tom Gage writes about RISP. RISP of course is runners in scoring position and Gage goes on to explain part of the Tigers woes by looking at their performance in RISP situations. Along the way he creates a new metric and applies some faulty logic.

Gage notes that the Tigers are the only team in the AL Central with a RISP batting average lower than their overall batting average. Gage then goes on to compare the Tigers to the division leading Twins:

The Tigers are hitting .264 as a team but .251 with RISP. That’s a difference, math majors, of minus 13. The division-leading Twins? After Sunday’s game, they were at plus 46. Their overall batting average was .265, but with RISP, they were hitting .311.

But here’s the kicker, the Tigers have outscored the Twins this year despite the disparity. The Twins have a better record because they are allowing a run a game less than the Tigers, not because they have a better RISP batting average differential.
Continue reading It doesn’t add up

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5-12-08

Toledo 6 Charlotte 5
Dontrelle Willis made a rehab start and he struggled. He walked 3 and allowed 7 hits in 5.2 innings including 2 homers. He threw 46 of his 79 pitches for strikes. Mike Hessman and Jeff Larish homered again, and Mike Hollimon joined in on the fun.

Erie DNP

Lakeland 6 Tampa 2 11 innings
Mike Bertram had two hits. Duane Below fanned 10 in 7.1 innings while walking one and allowing 2 runs.

West Michigan 1 Fort Wayne 2
Kyle Peter had 2 hits. Lauren Gagnier went 7 innings and allowed 2 runs on 6 hits, no walks, and 7 K’s.

Miguel Cabrera in 150 words or less

In case you hadn’t heard the Tigers traded for Miguel Cabrera this off season. They then signed him to a record contract. Cabrera then felt a lot of pressure to perform, but started to hit better when Jim Leyland told him to relax.

While he hit better his defense was a concern so the Tigers moved him over to first base. A position that is a natural fit for him, but Leyland is personally working with him to make sure it’s a smooth transition.

Meanwhile, his offense was coming around when Leyland said Cabrera could be even better if he focused on every at-bat. Since being challenged Cabrera has gone 161/235/161. The slump has columnists calling him a slug and a bust and Cabrera went on the record as missing his Marlins days. But fear not because it smells like he’s on the verge of breaking out of it.

Bonderman stays away

Jeremy Bonderman turned in another disappointing performance in his latest start against the Yankees. It seemed to follow a pattern than Bonderman has established and has led to the worst set of peripherals in his career. Let’s go batter by batter through the first inning to see what went wrong:

Bonderman against Damon:
Bonderman against Damon
Things started out well for Bonderman. He got a first pitch strike on a fastball in the lower outside quadrant. Damon fouled off two borderline pitches on the outside corner before fanning on a slider that bounced up.
Continue reading Bonderman stays away

Game 39: Yankees at Tigers

PREGAME: The Tigers will try and close out the season series against the Yankees with a win. It will be two left handers on the mound today which should favor Detroit.

The Tigers offense is built to beat up lefties, and they took care of Andy Pettite last time they hooked up in Detroit.

For Detroit, somehow Nate Robertson will give up 4 runs. He’s allowed 4 runs in 5 of his last 6 starts. It’s just a matter of how long he lasts.

Then again, it’s raining north of Detroit right now, so who knows if they get it in.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom, my grandma (who we buy the sports package for as a Christmas gift each year so she can watch her Tigers), and my wife. Also Happy Mother’s Day to cib, and Kathy, and Anne, and all the other mom’s.

NYY @ DET, Sunday, May 11, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:05

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5-10-08

Charlotte 3 Toledo 5
Mike Hessman and Clete Thomas homered. Brent Clevlen had 3 hits pushing his line to 313/376/563. Casey Fossum got the win allowing 1 run in 6 innings on 3 hits. Blaine Neal allowed 2 homers in one inning of relief.

Toledo 1 Charlotte 4
Mike Hessman homered and had one of only 3 hits. Virgil Vasquez went 5 innings and allowed 4 runs on 9 hits with 1 walk and 3 K’s.

Harrisburg 9 Erie 0
Wil Rhymes went 2 for 4. Ben Fritz allowed 8 runs on 9 hits in 6 innings. He walked none and fanned 6.

Vero Beach 2 Lakeland 6
James Skelton went 3 for 4 with his first homer of the year. Scott Sizemore and Ryan Strieby each had 2 hits. Rick Porcello allowed 2 unearned runs in 5 innings on 3 hits. He walked only one, but also struck out only one.

Lansing 2 West Michigan 4

Kyle Peter and Justin Henry each had 2 hits. Manny Miguelez fanned 8 over 7 innings while allowing just 1 run on 4 hits.

Roster Moves

The Tigers made a number of roster moves including Brandon Hamilton joining the Whitecaps from EST. A promotion for a VSL product. And Luis Marte earning his way to Erie. Detroit Tigers Thoughts and Take 75 North break it all down.

Game 38: Yankees at Tigers

PREGAME: Hey, it’s Fox Saturday Baseball again, and it’s the main game with Ken Rosenthal in town and everything. (I saw Rosenthal at the game last night and that is a tiny dude. So small it seemed like John Keating could dribble him).

The Tigers will send out Jeremy Bonderman who still is looking for that first “wow” game of the season. His last time out against the Red Sox he was hurt by a pair of two run homers. The time before he had his typical first inning struggles but then went onto pitch 7.2 innings in his longest start of the year.

Bonderman, like most righties has had a rougher time with left handed batters. While he’s still walking them quite a bit this year (19% of the time actually), it’s the right handers who have hit for more power (449 slugging for righties, 380 for lefties).

The Yankees send out Darrell Rasner. Rasner is making just his second start of the year. He held Seattle to 2 runs in 6 innings in his 2008 debut walking none and fanning 4.

And following Ian’s lead, a shout out to my blogging buddies for the Wings and Pistons on this a Detroit triple header day. Behind the Jersey, Need 4 Sheed, Detroit Bad Boys.

NYY @ DET, Saturday, May 10, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 3:40

The Second Inning – 2008

The following was compiled by DTW reader and commenter Sam Hoff. He breaks down the season into 18 game innings and reports how the team does.

The 2nd Inning is over.

Each 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record for the first 2 innings in 2008:

                                        Starters:         Bullpen:
    W-L   RS –RA     HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG    W-L-IP-   ERA     W-L-S-ERA
1:  6-12  74 -112    15-10-262/345/404    3-9- 96.2-5.96    3-3-3-5.28 
2:  9-9   98 -87     21- 6-261/350/426    5-8-105.2-5.11    4-1-2-3.61

The first 2 innings have been ugly. The team has endured a 7 game and a 5 game losing streak. The offense, whose initial starting lineup has an average lifetime BA of .297 is hitting 35 points below that collectively. The starters, 60% of who are left from the 2006 World Series team which lead the major leagues in ERA has collective ERA well over 5 with the best performance coming from an 8-year minor leaguer.

The good news is that the team is only 3.5 games out of first and if they play near their career norms should be able to easily make that up. In 2006, the Tigers last 3 innings were 9-9, 5-13, and 9-9 and that team went to the World Series. In 2007, the Tigers had 2 successive 7-11 innings (innings 6 and 7). In 2003, you couldn’t piece 2 innings together where the Tigers had as many as 15 wins!

The bullpen had a very good 2nd inning lead by Bobby Seay (5 scoreless innings), the departed Jason Grilli (4 scoreless) and Clay Rapada (1.59 era in 5.2 innings). The only member of the bullpen with an era over 5.00 was Denny Bautista (8.44era in 5.2 innings).

The starters were consistent as each of them had exactly 1 win. Galarraga (1-1-3.18) and Bonderman (1-1-3.93) were respectable. Rogers (1-0-6.19), Robertson (1-3-6.38), and Verlander (1-3-5.84) all really struggled. Verlander is a big concern as he has never looked this bad in his career and rumors are circulating that his shoulder is hurting.

The highest OPS in the 2nd inning belonged to Ramon Santiago (1-8-312/421/750) in 16 At Bats! Marcus Thames (1-4-412/444/588), Polanco (2-8-383/422/583), Granderson (5-10-254/362/593) and Ordonez (4-17-324/397/544) have all been hot. The guys who struggled in the 2nd inning were Inge (1-4-154/292/231), Guillen (0-8-246/333/281), and the departed Jacque Jones (1-2-146/265/317).

It is NOT time to hit the panic button. The Yankees started 21-29 last year and made the playoffs. The team definitely needs to start playing better baseball and the biggest disappointment, the starting pitching, needs to get better. Here’s hoping it does, otherwise when the Wings and Pistons are over, all we will have to look forward to are the Lions???