Monthly Archives: June 2008

2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-17-08

Syracuse 4 Toledo 5
Fernando Seguignol walked twice, homered, and doubled. Freddy Guzman had 2 singles and 2 walks and 3 stolen bases. Anastacio Martinez allowed 3 runs in 5 innings of work. Francisco Cruceta allowed a run in 1 inning on 2 hits a walk and a strike out.

Erie 1 Binghamton 10
Deik Scram had the RBI with a single and a walk. Lucas French was knocked around for 6 runs on 7 hits and 5 walks in 4 innings.

Lakeland 5 Sarasota 2
Gary Sheffield walked twice, homered, and grounded out. Cale Iorg and Brennan Boesch added multi hit games. Jonah Nickerson pitched 7 innings of shut out ball allowing just 4 hits and a walk while fanning 6.

Midwest League AS Game
Kyle Peter went 0 for 2. Chris Carlson had a hit and RBI. Alfredo Figaro allowed 3 baserunners but no runs in his inning of work. Jon Kibler allowed a run on 2 hits.

Oneonta 4 Vermont 6
Ben Guez homered and walked. Mark Brackman allowed 6 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 71: Tigers at Giants

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PREGAME: The Tigers will try to embark on a new winning streak with Kenny Rogers taking the mound. Rogers has only allowed 3 earned runs over his last 4 starts. He’s still not striking many out, he only has 34 on the season, but he’s cutting down on the walks which were hurting him early in the season and running up his pitch count.

For the Giants it will be lefty Jonathan Sanchez. Sanchez is another guy fanning a batter an inning, and limiting homers to the tune of 6 in 80.1 innings this year with no one taking him yard since May 16th. In his last start he snapped a string of 5 consecutive quality starts when he was touched for 7 runs in 7 innings.

Your lineup for tonight:

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

Notice that Pudge is starting for the second game in a row. According to Beck it isn’t the end of the alternating catcher plan, but Leyland thinks Inge is still bothered by the oblique.

DET @ SFG, Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:15

POSTGAME: Very nice bounce back win for the boys and combined with a Cleveland loss the Tigers are now tied for 3rd place. Sanchez was some kind of filthy as he fanned 6 in his first time through the lineup. But the Tigers made some adjustments and got to him a little after being no hit for 5 innings.

  • Kenny Rogers brought it again tonight going 7 strong yet again and keeping the team inthe game when there was no margin for error.
  • Marcus Thames is some kind of wonderful. He got down to his last AB with a full count before crushing a ball to centerfield for a 5 game, 8 hit, homer streak.
  • Edgar Renteria gets on base 3 times including his 2000th hit.
  • Ryan Raburn comes through with the big pinch hit homer and Jeff Larish gets a pinch hit RBI as well.
  • More excellent defense today with diving plays from Brent Clevlen and Marcus Thames and some nice picking by Guillen and Renteria as well.
2008 Season, Injuries

Head west young man

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Joel Zumaya’s rehab assignment is finished. He was to throw for the Mud Hens today so he could work in back to back games, but they opted for a bullpen session instead of the noon start. Following the 14 pitch session Zumaya was on his way to the airport to meet the team in San Diego.

Now San Diego is his hometown having grown up in Chula Vista. That means he’ll be home for 3 days with the team not playing the Padres until Friday. Here’s hoping that he avoids any manual labor and calls in professionals if need be.

He won’t be activated of course until the Friday game, which means someone needs to go down. There are 3 bullpen pitchers with options in Freddy Dolsi, Zach Miner, and Casey Fossum (nice sleuthing Eddie) who could be candidates.

Uncategorized

Ramblings on Sheff’s rehab

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With Gary Sheffield beginning his rehab assignment I’ve heard quite a bit from Tigers fans that are actually concerned that Sheffield is coming back. Sheffield and his struggles have been received a considerable portion of the blame for the Tigers struggles. Now that the team is playing better and Sheffield isn’t around, people don’t want to mess with a good thing. That’s well and good, but why wouldn’t you want to upgrade a struggling position?

In June the Tigers DH’s are hitting 192/288/365. Jeff Larish has provided the bulk of that production with a few starts going to Magglio Ordonez and Marcus Thames. Prior to hitting the DL Sheffield was “producing” at a 213/344/331 clip. Awful to be sure, and not in line with his contract (who cares, sunk cost) or his reputation, but fifty points of OBP is pretty significant.

If there’s a chance that Sheffield can produce anywhere close to his pre-shoulder-injury numbers, don’t you want him back in your lineup? Yes I worry that he comes back and the shoulder still isn’t working and he’s allowed to flounder for an extended period of time. But the at-bats he’ll be taking will be mostly Larish’s. And yes you may give up a couple of Raburn’s and Clevlen’s at-bats and their gloves to a certain extent in the outfield which at this point the gloves would be the bigger loss.

I share the concerns that the Tigers are willing to let Sheffield completely dictate when he’s ready to come back. It’s that tricky trade-off of applauding a guy who tries to play through pain and chastising him when he doesn’t get removed from the lineup.

It’s a problem not unique to the Tigers. The Indians are dealing with the same things with Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez. It caused Rob Neyer to question

Really? The Indians were better as a ballclub with a .216-hitting catcher with zero power? Speaking of which, Hafner’s batting .217/.326/.350 in 46 games. No, he wasn’t much good last season, but his numbers this season are simply beyond the pale. Here’s a question I’d like to see someone answer: How many games does the average team throw away in a season on guys who aren’t healthy enough to play, but do anyway? I’ll bet it’s more than three.

But here’s the rub, especially for stat-heads. When does it go from random fluctuation to performance impacted by injury? Batting average is highly volatile in and of itself and of course it impacts OBP and slugging. So when is that time when you’re no longer riding out a slump and are now throwing away at-bats?

A seemingly healthy Sheffield hit 200/369/306 in April 2007. That turned out to be a slump as he exploded in the subsequent 2.5 months to bring his season numbers more in line with career expectations. Now here you are in 2008 and your player says he is fine and the medical staff says he is fine, but he’s slumping. What’s the correct move for the team?

I think it’s clear that the Tigers waited too long with Sheffield. It became too long when Sheffield himself started admitting that the shoulder wouldn’t always “fire” like it should. When the player is saying that it isn’t working it’s probably time to shelve him. But the decision isn’t always so clear cut.

2008 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap & Rehab Report: 6-16-08

Syracuse 2 Toledo 5
Joel Zumaya pitched 1 inning, allowing 2 hits and an unearned run, but he walked no one and fanned 2. Clete Thomas is playing again and was a triple short of the cycle with 2 stolen bases so the ankle is probably okay. Chris Lambert fanned 6 in 6 innings while only allowing 1 run on 4 hits.

Erie DNP

Lakeland 3 Sarasota 2 (11 innings)
Gary Sheffield hit 3rd and DH’d tonight. He flew out twice and walked before being lifted for a pinch hitter. I’m not sure if he aggravated something or if it was part of the plan. Brennan Boesch had 4 hits and Ryan Strieby had 3. Duane Below allowed 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk in 7 innings while striking out 3. Jay Sborz pitched 3 perfect innings of relief.

Wesst Michigan DNP

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 70: Tigers at Giants

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PREGAME: Once upon a time there was a surging team coming off of back to back series sweeps. They went on the road to play a team that many had given up for dead and who had just dropped 5 of 7. That surging team was swept and went on to lose 5 of the next 6.

Of course “a time” was last Tuesday when the White Sox came roaring in to Comerica Park. The Tigers, sweepers of consecutive series, will try to avoid the same fate when they face the Giants who have lost 5 of their last 6.

It’s a dandy of a pitching match-up tonight with Tim Lincecum and Justin Verlander squaring off. Lincecum has been the best pitcher in baseball. He’s thrown a quality start every time out, so getting 4 runs would be quite the accomplishment. He has a freakishly small 1.99 ERA and has allowed only 3 homers in 90 innings while fanning 92. It’ll make it kind of hard for Marcus Thames to extend his homer streak to 4 consecutive games for the first time in his career.

Fortunately, Verlander doesn’t exactly suck and he’s spun quality starts in 5 of his last 6 including a 101 pitch complete game his last time out.

DET @ SFG, Monday, June 16, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:15

POSTGAME: So much to say about this game and yet it’s so late…

  • The Tigers had really good at-bats against Lincecum and they made him work for the most part. They hit into a couple tough luck double plays, one on a liner and another where a steal attempt led Vizquel right to the ball.
  • Verlander was pretty good, and seemed to pick up steam as the game went on as he racked up the strike outs.
  • Marcus Thames is out of this world right now.
  • Mike Hollimon did a nice job getting to balls, but needs to set his feet and not rush things. He threw away a ball leading to the first run.
  • Pudge is a terrific hitter as a platoon partner.
  • The Tigers got a gift of a run on the sac fly when the home plate ump missed a tag on Pudge.
  • Freddy Solid was sexy in his first inning, not so sexy in the second. He allowed a couple 2 strike hits before giving way to Fernando Rodney.
  • The Rodney move was controversial because it was his first game back. But the Tigers needed a strike out with the tying run on 3rd and 1 out. And with a lefty at-bat the choices were Fossum or Rodney (with Seay probably not available given yesterday). The platoon splits for each are nearly a push. Rodney got ahead with 2 strikes but then allowed his first homer since June 23rd. And then he allowed some more 2 strike hits.
  • The Tigers mounted a rally in the 9th but came up 2 runs short. Nice battle, disappointing result. It’s a shame they couldn’t take advantage of a shaky outing by Lincecum (by his own crazy standards) and a solid outing by Verlander.
2008 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Rodney activated, Lopez to Toledo

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So that’s one decision. Fernando Rodney is back with the team and Aquilino Lopez was sent to Toledo. But the demotion is with a plan. They are going to try and stretch Lopez out into a starters role. This comes as a little bit of a surprise to me, because I didn’t think that Lopez had an option. I thought he would need to be removed from the 40 man roster, meaning he’d need to go through waivers.

Lopez has started before, but not since the 2002 season when he made 11 starts for Tacoma in the PCL. He has turned in several solid long relief outings, most notable was a 4 inning, 3 hit effort against the White Sox.

Color me surprised though that the Tigers would be in a position this season to send out a reliever who is striking out better than 3 batters for every batter he walks.

UPDATE; Just received confirmation that Lopez had an option left. He’s still on the 40 man and wasn’t exposed to waivers.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 69: Dodgers at Tigers

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PREGAME: Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there. I had a nice brunch with my Dad this morning and I received a Tigers golf shirt from Mrs. Billfer and the kids. Let’s cap it off with a a lazy day watching the Tigers win.

It’s more southpaw pitching today with Nate Robertson taking on Clayton Kershaw.

Kershaw has lots o’ stuff, but hasn’t totally harnessed it this year. He’s walked 13 in 20 innings but also fanned a batter an inning. The result is 4 starts without seeing the 7th inning.

Robertson turned in a typical Nate start, minus 1 run. He only allowed 3 instead of his usual 4 as he started the sweep of the White Sox. Hopefully he can finish the sweep of the Dodgers.

Today’s lineup:

  1. Renteria, SS
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Guillen, 3B
  4. Ordonez, RF
  5. Cabrera, 1B
  6. Thames, DH
  7. Inge, C
  8. Raburn, LF
  9. Clevlen, CF

LAD @ DET, Sunday, June 15, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: The Tigers get to have a happy cross country flight tonight as they head to San Francisco. It has to be more fun than many of the flights they’ve taken after dropping a series or getting shellacked on get-away day. Plus they get to revel in the fact that they are only 1.5 games out of second place and 6 games out of first. This is a nice little reminder that while a double digit deficit may seem insurmountable, the Tigers shaved off 5 games in a week.

  • Robertson was a strike throwing machine and the Dodgers were off balance all day. His efficiency before the rain kept him available to earn a quality start despite throwing a couple innings worth of pitches under the stands while waiting.
  • The Tigers couldn’t connect off of Kershaw, but they were also waiting him out and he amassed 63 pitches in 4 innings rendering him unavailable after the delay.
  • That ended up being a good thing because the Tigers found Chan Ho Park’s pitches to be much more crushable. Some excellent at-bats battling back from 0-2 counts led to walks and hits. And then Marcus the Magnificent went yard again. And so did Brandon.
  • All of Thames homers in the homestand were absolute blasts. No cheapies at all. Even the one down the line against Cleveland was high up on the foul pole.
  • Denny Bautista pitched 2 nice innings. Bobby Seay and Todd Jones not so much. Jones complete lack of control (the multiple 59 footers in particular) were very disturbing.
2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-14-08

Syracuse 1 Toledo 4
Erick Almonte homered and doubled. Wilkin Ramirez went 0 for 4 with 4 K’s and is batting .100 since moving to Toledo. Lauren Gagnier allowed just 1 run on 3 hits, 2 walks and 3 K’s in 6 innings. Joel Zumaya, Francisco Cruceta, and Blaine Neal all pitched scoreless, hitless innings.

New Hampshire 5 Erie 9
Ben Fritz allowed 5 runs in 5 innings on 8 hits, 3 walks and 4 K’s. Dusty Ryan was 3 for 5 with a homer. Ryan Roberson doubled twice. Joe Tucker added a solo homer.

West 9 East 3
It was All Star day in the FSL. Rick Porcello started the game and allowed a run on 2 hits. Matt O’Brien allowed 2 runs on 2 hits. Jeff Kunkel was 0 for 2 with 2 K’s. Ryan Strieby had a single and an RBI. Cale Iorg homered.

Fort Wayne 3 West Michigan 6
Jon Kibler struck out 6 in 7 innings and limited Fort Wayne to 2 runs on 4 hits. Jordan Newton went 3 for 4. Chris Carlson, Kyle Peter and Audy Ciriaco each had 2 hits.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 68: Dodgers at Tigers

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PREGAME: Yet another Fox Saturday game, and yet another afternoon spent with Eric Karros. The Tigers managed to win last Saturday on national-ish TV (only 12% of the nation gets this one), so hopefully that “bright spotlights” thing is in the past.

Did you know the Tigers have played .500 ball for the last 60 games? I’m just sayin’

Today it will be Brad Penny and the major league debut of Eddie Bonine. Penny’s fastball has been getting hit with regularity this year. And according to Rod Allen the Tigers are a fastball hitting team so that could bode well.

One guy who hopes for the good boding is Mr. Bonine. Bonine is a control pitcher with only 24 walks all of last year and 14 so far this year. It sounds like he is quite the prankster. He also may be the first minor league Rule 5 pick the Tigers have had make the big league roster.

LAD @ DET, Saturday, June 14, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 3:55

POSTGAME: The Tigers have assured themselves of a at least a 7-3 homestand which is definitely something to be happy about. If they manage to win tomorrow and pick up back to back sweeps it would have to be deemed a stunning success. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the Tigers did play a game today.

  • Eddie Bonine got hit around, but not hit hard for the most part. Russell Martin had a blast to center and Andre Eithier tagged his homer, but outside of another single or two the hits were bleeders and bloops. And he didn’t walk anybody which is fun for everyone. Definitely worth another look.
  • The defense wasn’t quite as good as it’s been. Pudge airmailed a throw to second and Cabrera and Bonine both botched routine grounders. But everything seemed to be a step away. I’m not saying guys were slow or out of position, I think it was just the way things went down. Maggs and Marcus both layed out for balls and came up empty and Renteria couldn’t quite convert an up the middle ball leading to a run.
  • The offense was pretty darn good. Marcus Thames has hit 3 homers on this homestand that have put the team ahead or tied the score. Miguel Cabrera is finding his groove. Even slumping players like Granderson and Pudge and Larish managed multiple hits.
  • The one guy that didn’t hit was Carlos Guillen. You can’t help but wonder if it is the effects of his injury Friday night.
  • Three times in this series the Tigers have had a runner hung up between 3rd and home and only once have the Dodgers executed. That’s some good luck for the Tigers.
  • The White Sox just lost. That’s good. And the Indians just went down 5 runs to the Padres in the top of the 10th. That’s good too. So the Tigers at least gained some ground today.
2008 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Junkballing: No shortage of news

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I’ve got to give this Tigers team credit for one thing. There’s no shortage of news. Last week I tried to put together a timeline of all the announcements and news coming out of Jim Leyland’s office. I couldn’t get it legible at less than 1200 pixels wide. And that was before all the news from the last week.

Vance Wilson

Wilson received awful news in that he needs to do Tommy John times 2. His contract with the Tigers is up this year and with a 12 month recovery period, he is done as a Tigers player and may be facing retirement. He’s well respected in the Tigers organization and it wouldn’t surprise me to see Wilson back in another capacity in a few years. Best wishes to Vance.

Roster moves: Rapada

Clay Rapada was optioned to Toledo to make room for Eddie Bonine. This isn’t a merit based demotion but a matter of the guy with options getting sent down. It’s something we may see again next week when Rodney and Zumaya return. Dolsi could be one of the guys out based on contract status. Fossum, Seay, Bautista, and Lopez are all out of options.

Granderson’s struggles

Detroit Tiger Tales takes a look at Curtis Granderson’s struggles. He finds among other things that Granderson is taking a lot of pitches, both out of and in the strike zone and it’s possible he’s being to passive. That’s something I could buy, and his timing seems to be off as well with a lot of ball popped up to the left side. I trace it back to the Tim Wakefield game. Look at his gamelogs and see what happens from May 6th onwards. It’s a 554 OPS with only 4 walks. Right now his OBP is the same as Pudge’s.

Zumaya-Rodney updates

I think I spied Joel Zumaya in the Tigers dugout last night. But he is experiencing some soreness in his side. If everything goes as planned he’ll pitch tonight, and then back to back on Monday and Tuesday with a possible return to the team for the San Diego series.

As for Rodney, he had a terrific outing for the Mud Hens last night and will be back Monday provided he feels alright today.

Spit balls