Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-22-08

Toledo 1 Scranton 10
Dane Sardhina doubled, and that was half of the hits for the Hens today. Chris Lambert was knocked around for 7 runs in 3.1 innings. Clay Rapada allowed a hit in 1.1 innings while fanning 2.

Erie 6 Harrisburg 3
Ryan Roberson had a pinch hit homer. Kody Kirkland also homered. Wilkin Ramirez was 2 for 3 with a double. Lucas French fanned 5 in 6.2 innings and allowed 3 runs.

Jupiter 4 Lakeland 10
Ryan Strieby homered, tripled, and drove in 5. Gary Sheffield homered and walked. Jeramy Laster and Devin Thomas also went deep. Guillermo Moscos allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, 1 walk, and 5 K’s in 4 innings.

West Michigan 1 South Bend 9
Justin Henry doubled. Jon Kibler allowed 5 runs in 5 innings.

Oneonta 8 Tri-City 7
Joaquin Guzman had 2 doubles. Keith Stein and Brian Pounds each had 2 hits. Mark Brackman was knocked around for 5 runs in 3 innings. Tyler Stohr got the save walking 1 and striking out 2.

GCL Tigers DNP

43 thoughts on “Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-22-08”

  1. Time to bring back Sheff. If he’s healthy, I want all these homeruns he’s hitting to count for something.

  2. The problem with Sheffield, though, is that he’s still hitting below the Mendoza line in A ball. Even though he’s hitting the occasional home run, we could send Larish down there and he would mash the ball too — probably better than Sheffield.

  3. Does Fossum have an option? I’m thinking no. I think he gets DFA’d and clears waivers.

  4. “DFA’d” is similar to “RBIs,” isn’t it? I resolve to improve.

    Fossum gets DFA.

  5. Sheffield’s current line at Lakeland:

    .154/.421/.615

    You don’t often see an OPS over 1.000 with a BA under .200.

    His only two hits in 13 at bats are home runs.

  6. Yes Fossum does have an option. The option to bring him in the game and have him give up 4 runs.

  7. Sheff’s batting average has nothing to do with his health. It’s the “disabled” list that Sheff is on. Batting average isn’t something a doctor can help with or an MRI can find. If he’s healthy and cleared by a doctor, then he’s ready to be with the Tigers.

  8. I’m not going to read too much into 13 AB’s for Sheffield, whether they be in Lakeland or Detroit. I’d say the fact that he’s gone yard twice is somewhat encouraging however. And obviously the OBP is still Sheff-like.

  9. Agreed. If he’s healthy and cleared by a doctor, then he’s ready to be with the Dodgers.

  10. Chris, Fossum has shown flashes of brilliance. The fact that he has IP proves he can get guys out. It’s just a matter of time before he gets more IP. He’s being taken out too soon, that’s the problem. More bullpen mismanagement by Leyland.

  11. I looked up Fossum’s out/IP ratio. 1/.333, right where it should be. Nothing to worry about.

  12. Fossum has an option left, but like Dontrelle he can refuse it.

    Sheffield has a batting average on balls-n-play of .000. He probably won’t sustain that. Much like he won’t sustain an OPS of 1.000 while hitting below .200. I’m not going to draw any conclusions from 13 at-bats regardless of the level.

  13. If I was as diligent as Sean and his Fossum stat perusing, I would have noticed Sheffield had only 13 ABs.

    Sean, your cackling inducement per comment appearance is much higher than the league norm.

  14. I wonder what Leyland will do with the order when Sheff gets back. Leave Guillen in the 3-hole, and push Sheff back to 6 or 7? Or put Sheff back in his spot and Guillen back to 6th? Will be interesting.

  15. Thanks, Brian. I’m lucky to play for a team with good set up men, that’s all.

  16. That’s an interesting and original scenario, Brian. I’m afraid we’re not going to see anything interesting, though. I think Sheffield goes right to #3. If he hits, that’s just fine. If he’s just gonna be The Walkin’ Dude, I like your idea. Your idea makes sense to me even if he is hitting well.

  17. I hope Guillen stays # 3 and we start Sheff off # 6.

    If Sheff is 100%, there is no reason why he shouldn’t be # 3, but I’d just like a few ABs in the sixth hole to determine just how 100% he is.

  18. T

    That brings up the question, do they bring him back up with even the slightest doubt that old Sheff is back?

    And, yes, I had a total blogover yesterday from Saturday night. Slept in my clothes, woke up in a cyberditch with the smell of stale pixels clinging to me. Never again.

  19. I wouldn’t be surprised if they call him up before the game tomorrow (Mud Hens have a game tonight). If not, I think he’ll be back by the Rockies series regardless of performance. If he’s not healthy now, he never will be.

  20. Sean:

    LOL. Been there. It can get ugly (I must admit, though, when I didn’t see you hanging around by mid-afternoon on Sunday, I was starting to worry…)

    On the Sheff thing — it seems to me that’s the only reason he’s not already up? He’s only had 13 AB so far — small sample size — but 2 HR is pretty decent. Maybe one or two more games to get a better idea at what Sheff is showing up — if I were to guess, I say we probably see him back by the Colorodo series, or maybe the final game in SL.

  21. T

    Whenever he’s back, I really do hope he’s got it together, and not only for the sake of the Tigers and what a boost that would be. I think I’ve strained my oblique beating on the man.

  22. Curtis Granderson has been whacking the ball pretty well lately. Let’s hope he’s got it figured out. When he’s firing on all cylinders this offense is very hard to contain. He’s what they call a catalyst.

  23. Clay Buchholz finally removed the voodoo hex. Not sure why. Maybe it just hit Grandy by mistake, and Buchholz just found out about it. But who was it intended for, then?

  24. Automotive theme, eh, Chris? You ran out of gas pretty fast, though.

  25. Went to the game Saturday night, good time. Assisted HR was nice. I couldn’t believe that Thames wasn’t starting, but man is Leyland a genius. He knew Marcus would come up big. Just like the driving range, don’t want to waste your good swings early on, save them for crunch time. Marcus shouldn’t even take batting practice, we wouldn’t want to waste some good swings when it isn’t crunch time.

    All 3 starters for STL are going to be righties, so why not let Shef get a few more AB’s, at least through the weekend, to see if he can really find his stroke. Let Larish play against STL, please don’t take out Marcus again.
    If Larish still isn’t hitting, and Sheff does start to hit, then you bring him up for the weekend. Otherwise you wait until Sheff really finds his grove before you bring him up.
    The only problem is that Sheff seems to make the calls on his situation. I hope he comes back and he has his power stroke for the summer air.

    Doesn’t it just make it more tempting for Leyland to not play Thames if Sheff is in the lineup? And Sheff has to be in the lineup if he is with the club.

  26. Thames has been worse than Sheff in the dh spot.
    5-24, .208 avg, .296 obp, .375 slg. 1 HR, 4 runs, and 1 rbi.
    and Larish has been even worse than Thames.

    I don’t expect Sheff will ever be 100%, but even if he’s just 70%, he’s still 150% better than anyone else we can put at dh.

  27. “Doesn’t it just make it more tempting for Leyland to not play Thames if Sheff is in the lineup?”

    Neal – Lucky you. Great game to see.

    Maybe Sheffield can bat ahead of Thames. Lots of 2-run (at least) home runs would be a nice reason to have them both in there.

  28. Plus Sheff adds that fear factor to the opposing pitcher. He still swings out of his shoes and hits line drives that make the ball scream. Before he got hurt with the oblique strain, he hit a homerun that probably tore the cover off the ball.

  29. Speaking of Thames and BP – I watched the Tigers take BP in Philly last year (my Dad likes to go to the games early) and Marcus absolutely hammered the crap out of every pitch. I’m talking like an average of 450 feet. Impressive. Although he’s the anti-Alexis Gomez, as he seems to be able to translate it into games.

  30. billfer wrote:

    Sheffield has a batting average on balls-n-play of .000. He probably won’t sustain that. Much like he won’t sustain an OPS of 1.000 while hitting below .200. I’m not going to draw any conclusions from 13 at-bats regardless of the level.

    Hmmm…. BABIP of .000. Seems like there’s no where to go but up!

    🙂

  31. Very astute observation on your part Greg.

    Chief, I didn’t mean that Thames would play at DH, just that with Sheff at DH Leyland might think he needs to have a LH bat out in Left Field.

  32. I don’t put stock into any of Gary Sheffield’s rehab assignment numbers. Whether it’s 13 AB’s or 80. We know he can hit when he’s right. So it’s more of a is-he-swinging-without-pain thing than a how-many-homers-and-rbi’s-does-he-have-in-high-a-ball.

  33. Looks like they’re skipping Bonine’s next start, since Nate will have had two off days since his last start (off days on both sides of a series is WEIRD).

  34. The thing is that it seems the only way to get any idea as to if Shef is right is to look at the production, line-drives, etc., at wherever he is. From past experience we know Shef has no idea of whether he is healthy or not until he goes into a batting coma.

  35. I don’t put stock into any of Gary Sheffield’s rehab assignment numbers. Whether it’s 13 AB’s or 80. We know he can hit when he’s right. So it’s more of a is-he-swinging-without-pain thing than a how-many-homers-and-rbi’s-does-he-have-in-high-a-ball.

    Well, I disagree. We knew he USED TO be able to hit. Guys get washed up eventually whether from injuries, advancing age, or both. I really think Sheffield is done.

  36. Mitch, while I won’t completely disagree (i was as big of an advocate here to put him on the 60-day DL back in late April), he proved last year, when healthy, he can hit. I think he can hit, the question is can he stay healthy.

  37. I’d hardly say Sheff is done.

    Sheff still has the best hitting eye on the team and is one the best baserunners on the team also. The legs are the 1st thing to go for aging and often injured players. When his legs are gone, then he’s done, but until then he should get every chance to play.

  38. According to this article, Shef has left Florida and is returning to the Tigers tomorrow. According to another article Leyland is quoted as saying he “didn’t know how that was going to work out” referring to his coming back to the team. Another article says he still has 2 games to make up. Who knows? We’ll probably find out tomorrow.

    http://www.theledger.com/article/20080623/NEWS/806230438/1344/SPORTS&title=Sheffield_Homers_in_Rehab_Finale_With_Flying_Tigers

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