Junkballing: Zach Miner, Tiger Stadium, and injured shortstops

Zach Miner starts again

The question of the 5th starter has been answered – for now. Zach Miner will take the spot formerly occupied by Eddie Bonine and before him Dontrelle Willis. Miner had some struggles with control out of the pen this year. But in two “stretch-out” starts for Toledo he has posted a 12:2 strike out to walk ratio in 8.1 innings. I’m in favor of giving Miner a shot, but I think there will be a pretty quick switch if he starts running every count full and walking people.

Is Tiger Stadium saved?

There have been deadline extenstions, and votes to keep some parts, and votes to knock the whole thing down. But now the Daily Fungo points to a news release on Carl Levin’s web site that there is $4 million earmarked for Corktown preservation and redevelopment. Presumably this is the money that the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy is hoping to obtain to save a portion of the stadium.

Injured middle infielders littered throughout the system

When the Tigers traded away their stud centerfield prospects middle infield became the organizational position of strength. Instead it’s become the organizational position of DL stays and ibuprofen. Edgar Renteria is battling a hamstring injury that he reagravated tonight.

Cale Iorg, the Tigers big time bonus pick from last year just hit the DL for Lakeland. His keystone partner Scott Sizemore has missed a big chunk of the season with a broken bone in his hand. Danny Worth, another draft pick from last year who has been a defensive whiz for Erie is now missing time. And high ceiling shortstop Audy Ciriaco just went on the DL for West Michigan.

And while they are health now, both Ramon Santiago and Mike Hollimon missed time this season due to separated shoulders.

It must be something they are putting in the water at second base.

6 thoughts on “Junkballing: Zach Miner, Tiger Stadium, and injured shortstops”

  1. I like the idea actually Miner used to be a decent pitcher until the Tigers messed with him over and over relief -starter -relief starter……give him the chance..I am all for it

  2. This was the easiest move to figure out this year. I’ve made it well know that I’m a fan of it and a fan of Miner in the rotation.

  3. RE: tiger stadium, I’ve read and heard a lot about people feeling like this knocking down of the stadium is gut wrenching and hard to watch. Where were all these people who care so much when they were trying to raise money to save it?

  4. I like giving Miner a try in the rotation. I’ve had this hunch that as a reliever he always did worse entering the game in mid-inning as opposed to starting the inning. So I thought I’d check it out for this year.

    Mid Inning – IP 24.6 / ERA 4.38 / WHIP 1.62 / K9 4.38 / BB9 7.3
    Start Inning – IP 20.0 / ERA 4.05 / WHIP 1.45 / K9 4.5 / BB9 3.15

    His numbers across the board are better when starting an inning, and the BB/9 stat really stands out. Not sure if this is at all predictive of how he might do as a starter, but it seems at least mildly interesting.

    Coming in to the middle of an inning he allowed 10 of 26 inherited runners to score (38%). I don’t really know if there’s any baseline for what’s good or bad in this case, but that doesn’t seem like a good rate to me.

    Last, I calculated this by outing, not by inning. So if he entered in the middle of the 6th and went on to pitch the 7th as well, I counted that entire outing towards the middle of inning numbers.

    Again, I don’t know if this means anything, but I’m optimistic that Zach will do OK as a starter.

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