Monthly Archives: July 2008

2008 Season, Injuries

Does Willis have a torn ACL?

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Dontrelle Willis was brought up from Lakeland to have his knee examined yet again. Willis has of course been “not right” all year long. He struggled with his control in the spring and it never got better before or after he slipped on the mound in Chicago culminating in a demotion to Class A Lakeland. Is it possible that Willis did more than hyperextend the knee and perhaps damaged the ACL?

Eddie Bajek of Detroit Tigers Thoughts believes this to be the case and he provides a pretty interesting theory. I’ve known Eddie online for several years and the guy isn’t a dummy. At the same time he’s a mechanical engineer and not an orthopod, nor does he have access to any test results. But the chronology and events around this, as well as some photographic evidence from Dontrelle’s Lakeland appearance don’t add up.

Willis experienced pain during his rehab assignment. He hopped around in each of his appearances and even solicited a visit from trainer Kevin Rand during his Oakland start. And yet the knee was deemed fine. If the knee is the source of his control problems in some respects it is reassuring that said problems could be correctable. But if the above is true that is pretty damning of the staff that it got this far.

2008 Season, AL Central

About that Verlander-Sabathia match-up

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For those of you looking forward to Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia locking horns (as if they were deer, what a dumb expression that is) on Tuesday night, you might have to settle for Justin Verlander and Jeff Weaver. That’s almost the same thing right? Sabathia has been traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for a passel of prospects including Matt Laporta. He’ll join the team and be successful in the next year or two and the Indians will lock him up through his arbitration years and then they’ll trade him in 2013 at the trade deadline for more prospects.

The Indians continue to transform the club with this coming after the Tribe DFA’d Joe Borowski. The AL Central continues to transform as well with Sabathia joining Johan Santana as southpaw Cy Young winners headed to the senior circuit.

2008 Season, Injuries

Tigers getting pieces back

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It appears that Brandon Inge is close to returning and he’ll join Toledo on Monday for a rehab assignment.

Also, Rod and Mario mentioned during today’s broadcast that Ramon Santiago could be back for the Cleveland series. Going into tonight’s game (and he’s 0 for 2 as I write this), Santiago is 2 for 21 with 2 walks and 6 K’s with the Mud Hens. So he hasn’t found that stroke he had going with the Tigers earlier this season.

Of course Santiago’s return likely means that Michael Hollimon gets sent down. Hollimon has played well since some jitters in his first start in San Francisco.

2008 Season, Pitching

An old dog teaching himself a new trick

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Kenny Rogers was pitching a mighty fine game on Friday when he decided he needed a little something different. So he “invented” a cutter during the game.

“It keeps guys a little honest,” said Rogers, who ran into trouble in the eighth, allowing a walk, a hit-batsman, and a two-run double to Jose Lopez . “I just didn’t use it in the eighth. “But it’s a pitch I can throw inside to righties. It makes the plate that much wider.”

I find this pretty remarkable on a couple fronts. First that he tries out a new pitch in a game and is able to command it and be successful with it. Second, and more surprising, is that he hasn’t tried it out in the past. For a guy that hasn’t been relying on “stuff” for quite some time and has been looking for every edge he can get (insert pine tar joke here) I can’t believe he wouldn’t already have it in the arsenal if he could command it.

2008 Season

Guillen lone Tigers All Star

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Remember in the preseason when the Tigers starting lineup seemed to be made up entirely of All Star candidates? Yeah, things didn’t quite work out and Carlos Guillen will be the lone player sporting the English D.

Jim Leyland suggested 5 players to manager Terry Francona. We know the list didn’t include Magglio Ordonez, so I’d guess the names were Guillen, Polanco, Pudge, Jones, and Galarraga. Maybe you can replace one of those guys with Thames.

But Guillen was the one that was chosen and he had to choose between taking his 2 boys to New York or staying home for the birth of his 3rd child.

Looking at the selections it’s hard to say that any Tigers were snubbed. The one eyebrow raiser was Jason Varitek as back-up catcher with his 219/301/360 batting line. Pudge Rodriguez would have been a better selection, but AJ Pierzynski, Dioner Navarro, and Gerald Laird would have been even better.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 88: Tigers at Mariners

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PREGAME:: Nate Robertson and Ryan Rowland-Smith. Rowland-Smith has 2 last names. That’s enough motivation to want and beat him right there.

DET @ SEA, Sunday, July 6, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 4:10

POSTGAME: Well, I’m back from my weekend escape. It was nice to stay offline, even though I did see most of the baseball this weekend. And today there was a lot of baseball to see with a 15 inning event.

Nate Robertson was awesome today. Some jumpy Seattle hitters put the ball in play early and Robertson went 9 innings only allowing 4 hits, 2 of which were infield singles. He “pitched to contact” with great results and the only 2 walks allowed were intentional.

The bullpen was also impressive with Joel Zumaya, Freddy Dolsi, and Aquilino Lopez preceding Todd Jones. The group through 5 scoreless innings.

As for the Tigers offense. Eh. Marcus Thames and Edgar Renteria struggled mightily. And Pudge Rodriguez put together 4 hits, but none were of the rocket variety. Two bloops, a grounder through the middle and a groundball that hit first base and changed direction.

The offense did one thing right and they were quite selective. They drew 9 walks throughout the day and ran up pitch counts. Rowland-Smith was done after 5 innings and 87 pitches. His replacement lasted only an inning throwing 38 pitches. Corcoran got through 2 innings on 21 pitches, but Batista and Green followed with 20 pitch innings before giving way to Jimenez who pitched 4 easy shutout innings.

Basically the Tigers won this one on attrition when the Mariners turned to Jamie Burke, the back-up catcher who featured an arsenal of 84mph fastballs around the plate. Cabrera torched one for a double. But the Tigers didn’t rock him. A wild pitch and a sac fly were the all the damage they could muster against what was essentially a BP pitcher.

The Tigers needed to notch one for the left hand column, which they did. And while a loss would have been pretty crippling, the win doesn’t feel that great either. But the red-eye flight home will be a little more pleasant.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 87: Tigers at Mariners

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PREGAME: Armando Galarraga, nominee for June Rookie of the Month honors (you can vote and stuff), takes on R.A. Dickey.

Dickey has spent time in the pen and rotation this year with this being his 6th start of 14 appearances. Righties have a 851 OPS against him but lefties are only tagging him at a 593. As a starter he’s being lit up at a .839 rate.

Galarraga is coming off a very rough start with little defensive support (3 errors, coulda been more). This will be his first outing against Seattle.

DET @ SEA, Saturday, July 5th, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:10 – the last one of these for the season

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 86: Tigers at Mariners

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PREGAME: Happy 4th of July everyone. I’m going to unplug for a day or. It’s been about a year and a half since I went a day without checking email and working on the blog. With traffic usually quiet around here on holidays I thought that this would be a nice time.

As for today’s game it will be Kenny Rogers and Erik Bedard. It was just a matter of time until the Tigers got Bedard. He’s been good this year, but not like in he has been in the past. He’s only striking out 7.8/9 innings which is a far cry from the 221 K’s in 182 innings he posted last year. But he’s only allowed 4 runs over his last 4 starts and only 1 homer in his last 7.

Rogers hasn’t fared well against the Mariners. He’s faced them once a year while with Detroit and he’s allowed 14 runs in his 17.1 innings with 8 walks, 3 homers, and 3 K’s.

DET @ SEA, Friday, July 4, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 4:10

2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 7-3-08

Toledo 4 Columbus 10
Mike Hessman hit homer number 27 and added a walk. Jeff Larish doubled twice. Ramon Santiago was 1 for 4 with an error. Anastacio Martinez allowed 3 unearned runs in 4 innings. Francis Beltran was pummeled for 6 runs while only recording 1 out.

Erie 2 Akron 0
Josh Rainwater allowed 3 hits, 3 walks, and he fanned 9 in 8 shut out innings. Kody Kirkland had a hit and 2 walks.

Lakeland 3 Clearwater 4
Ryan Strieby hit his 12th homer. Cale Iorg doubled and walked. Rick Porcellow allowed 3 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks with only 1 strike out. He did pick up 11 ground ball outs.

West Michigan 4 Fort Wayne 3 (12 innings)
Audy Ciriaco homered and singled. Cory Middleton added a homer as well. Thad Webber allowed 1 run in 5 innings on 3 hits, a walk, and 6 K’s.

West Michigan 1 Fort Wayne 0
Joe Tucker had 2 hits and a walk. Jon Kibler pitched 6 scoreless innings and Wilton Garcia finished off the shutout.

Auburn 8 Oneonta 5
Mike Gosse went 3 for 4. Luke Putkonen was knocked around for 5 runs on 7 hits in 3.2 innings.

GCL Yankees 6 GCL Tigers 2
Joshua Workman homered. Jordan Lennerton went 2 for 4. And Brent Dlugach played and went 1 for 2 with a double.

2008 Season

Is it Thames Time?

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Things are going pretty well for Marcus Thames. Throughout his career he’s been a role player. A guy who has been called on to fill in and hit homers. Now, on the wrong side of 30, finally in his first year of salary arbitration, he’s being acknowledged as an everyday player. He’s given back by going on quite the home run tear that has gotten him some national attention.

Via Jason Beck’s blog Thames is a finalist for the June Pepsi Clutch Award thanks in large part to his homer barrage. Vote often for Marcus. Eight of his 10 homers in June either tied the score or gave the Tigers the lead.

Along those same lines, could Thames be a candidate to represent the Tigers in the All Star Game? With Magglio Ordonez on the shelf, Placido Polanco is probably the next best option. But Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury Ian Kinsler probably have second base covered. Thames is still a long shot, and it probably doesn’t speak well of a team with a $130 million payroll. But what a great story for a great guy if it were to happen. Plus Thames could definitely bring something to the Home Run Derby.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 85: Tigers at Mariners

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PREGAME: Losing streaks aren’t any fun. So let’s keep this one to just two games okay? The Tigers face Carlos Silva which has been good for Detroit this year with the 4.2 innings in his 2 starts and 14 runs.

The Tigers send out Justin Verlander who has been a)striking out more people as of late, b)walking quite a few, and c)racking up big pitch counts. Verlander threw 118 and 115 pitches in his last 2 starts and didn’t make it through the 6th in either. In fact Verlander has broken the 110 pitch mark in 5 of his last 7 starts.

Miguel Cabrera is back in the lineup, but Marcus Thames sits in favor of one of Matt Joyce or Clete Thomas. I’m not a fan of Joyce hitting between Cabrera and Sheffield and I’m not a fan of Thames sitting. But the Tigers actually have more lefties than righties in the lineup tonight.

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

DET @ SEA, Thursday, July 3, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:10

POSTGAME: This one didn’t start out so pretty. Carlos Silva got outs. Justin Verlander needed 25 pitches in the first inning. But things worked themselves out as the night wore on.

The Tigers started hitting line drives off of Carlos Silva and strung enough of them together to score in 4 consecutive innings starting in the 3rd. Justin Verlander continued to struggle with his command, but somehow made it through 6 innings and he kept the Mariners off the board.

  • Some dumb blogger complained about Matt Joyce and his position in the lineup. Of course Joyce gets player of the game honors with 2 doubles and 2 singles.
  • Mike Hollimon gets his first homer and first on field post-game interview and there’s no shaving cream treatment? Disappointing. This team has no chemistry (I’m kidding).
  • I’m a little worried about Justin Verlander’s workload this year. He’s averaging the most pitches per game in the bigs. I don’t feel he’s been abused, but there is talk of moving Verlander up with the off day next week. An extra day of rest might not hurt. This is 3 consecutive games where he hasn’t had real good command. I don’t know if there is a fatigue issue, but it is something to consider.
  • Todd Jones=not good tonight. What was supposed to be an inning of work turned into 24 pitches of hell.
  • Joel Zumaya=good tonight. A couple of hits, but both were weak. Thirteen pitches and nine for strikes. Can’t complain about that.
  • Very nice defense by Clete Thomas. A couple nice catches and an outfield assist.
2008 Season, Roster Management

Miner leaguer

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Zach Miner paid the price for a 4 walk effort on Tuesday night with an assignment to Toledo. Aquilino Lopez who was being stretched out as a starter has been recalled to provide a strike thrower in the pen.

Both moves are warranted, but my first thought when hearing of this was Denny Bautista. The Tigers thought they were better off ditching Bautista than optioning Miner or other optionable pitchers.

Bautista isn’t going to make or break this team so I don’t want to make too much of it. And his qualifications as a strike thrower were dubious at best. I just don’t understand what changed that dramatically that Miner couldn’t be sent down 2 weeks ago.