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PREGAME: Remember when the Tigers took 2 of 3 in the Metrodome and came home and spanked the A’s to open the series with Sheff’s 2 homers? Things felt pretty good - in the we’re not making the playoffs but it’s nice to see some decent games strung together sense. That was over a week ago and the team hasn’t won since.
Zach Miner and Kevin Millwood tonight.
DET @ TEX, Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Game Preview - Baseball-Reference.com
POSTGAME: Yep. Your 2008 Detroit Tigers. At least Zach Miner was good.
And Angel Hernandez is an awful, awful umpire.
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember billfer..that was like last week.. yet seems like a million years ago..haha Go Tigers! <hoping that seems sincere
At least the offense is off to a good start.
It ended in a groundout, but that was a very good AB by Ryan
Dusty Ryan catches Byrd trying to steal. It doesn’t look like Polanco tagged him in time, but there you go.
What’s the feeling about trading Maggs in the off season? Seems like the drop-off he’s had in doubles and walks this year may portend decline phase. He only has 53 XBH on the year; in his non-injury-influenced years, he has always been good for at least 70 (I don’t know how much the oblique is still bothering him). There are enough teams looking for a RF-DH that there should be a good market. Whaddaya think? What kind of package would you be okay with?
You know, I always wondered how guys end up with exactly 3,000 hits, or 400 HRs. Now that we are in the middle of it, it seems clear as day. 3 more and then we send him to the glue factory.
Another question: With the top FA SS next year being an injured Furcal and an aging Orlando Cabrera, is it worth the risk to try a sign-and-trade with Edgar? The downside, of course, being that he may be the starting SS again next year if he can’t be traded.
Awww Kevin from Austin remember when you had that lucky ‘69 world series jersey? I never gave up on ya..wondered where ya went
Tigers have taken a 4-2 lead. Farnsworth time? We can only hope.
Re: Maggs and his power: His isolated power this year is almost .190, I think that’s a better measure of his power than a raw total of extra base hits (especially given the DL time). His career ISO is .209.
The .190 is down from last year of course, but all his numbers are down from last year. He was over .200 in ISO during his 25-29 peak, but .190 is in range with his 30+ numbers, other than last year.
His walk rate this year is also near career norms, last year was unusual, partly because he was hitting the crap out of the ball so people pitched around him more.
That doesn’t mean the Tigers shouldn’t look at trading him; just that his decline as it were has been fairly minor, not significant.
Casey Fossum enters the game. I’m not sure he can do the job the way Farnsworth can
Same story as before. The Pen blows it.
well stephen, if you’re reading this. you were banging the drum last summer about the pen and you were right. it wasn’t the only problem this year by far but it is still the priority for next. somehow i think some of the starters may have a bounce back year next year…some of them are due to get back to their mean…but the pen is a total mess.likely we’ll still have the sheff mess to watch but i really hope the tigers give joyce, larish and thomas a real good look next year…i like the work they do. perhaps even some of the young pichers we drafted this year will be ready for the pen…i would like to see blaine neal and casey fien for sure…maybe zoom gets healthy. we may still have a chance to be a contender next year…but lots of things have to go right for us.
We should just put a paper bag over the head of whoever we throw out there. Rodney couldn’t get one freaking out.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say again,”GET RID OF RODNEY!!!”
Same old, same old; pen blows it, Leyland is an idiot.
Okay this is now ridiculous…do we officially have the worst bullpen of all time?
can Rodney possibly do any worse? I can’t remember a more horrid pitching staff in my life….and I’ve been following the Tigers for 45 years. This is absolutely disgusting.
Who will be the first to go: Millen or Rodney?
It feels like the worst, Cameron. I don’t know if it actually is, though.
this just in a nurse bent over to give Zumaya a pain pill it fell out of the cup and it injured his other shoulder…..he is’t expected to recover in time for the 2009 seaso
hey Jimbo way to manage that 9th…you certainly know how NOT to pull those strings
Oh, my. Not good. The result, I mean. Heck of a start from Miner.
This game had win all over it. It feels like the Tigers lost but one half-inning out of 18. I just can’t believe Fernando Rodney is doing this. It’s all wrong. Not in the script I was sent.
This is just incredible. What is there to say anymore?
Rodney now has 30 career saves and 25 BLOWN saves. I’m no sabermetrician, but I’m fairly certain a 6:5 success ratio has to literally be one of the worst all-time for a pitcher with more than 50 career save opportunities.
I wish I’d been wrong about the bullpen, but not to get legit help last August was one thing, not to get legit help going into ‘08 was Randy Smith-like.
Leyland lost it again tonight. He’s not going to be back next year. There’s no way. Dombrowski won’t give him an extension, Leyland will pout, and then they’re come to some sort of settlement. He’s lost the team and he’s not a young guy, he’s not gonna stick around long enough to get them back.
Stephen…DD did everything possible on paper. He addressed every need the team had in the off-season. Obviously, you can’t plan for every situation and injuries killed the staff this year, both in the form of “new” injuries (Bondo, Nate, Jones, Gambler) and the failure of Zoom and Rodney to recover their ‘06 form.
I agree that Leyland has lost this team, but I think he’ll be back and will probably sign a one year extension. Hernandez, on the other hand, needs to be shown the door.
Hey Amanda - I’m still around. Had to take the bar exam, by the time I resurfaced we had gone back in time by about 4 years. I’ve put the jersey up for safekeeping, next to my Rodney Peete jersey and Vinnie Johnson microwave.
Just wanted to pop in and say that I’ve been very busy lately but have still boxscore watched any games I couldn’t see in their entirety and that I saw tonight’s game from the 7th inning on.
I agreed with Leyland that it should’ve been 1 out, no one on for Rodney and that he was hosed on the non-strikeout call from Angel Hernandez — who, by the way, I don’t get how he’s employed. Him, Laz Diaz and Chris Guccioni (spelling?) are absolutely atrocious at their crafts and Angel Hernandez is so combative that he makes himself too much apart of the game with his combative nature.
Anyways, the fact that he wasn’t called out on the check swing doesn’t matter to me, it’s the fact that Pitch 6 of that at-bat was CLEARLY A STRIKE BY ANY DEFINITION OF THE STRIKE ZONE.
That said, Rodney still was terrible the rest of the inning.
“Okay this is now ridiculous…do we officially have the worst bullpen of all time?”
Not according to Twins fans.
What do you guys think the chances that Sheff retires when he gets to 500 HR? :crosses fingers:
Same team, same injuries, different manager and we’re in the middle of things right now. Old and crusty is way overrated; though he is the only guy I’ve seen fold his arms and give signals with his elbows. On the way to being old and crusty, you do come up with some neat tricks.
Also, I looked it up and I got Laz Diaz confused with C.B. Bucknor who was the one twice voted worst ump by the players. So sub in “CB Bucknor” where I put “Laz Diaz.”
i miss todd jones
@ryan
We discussed Maggs a couple days ago.
http://www.detroittigersweblog.....next-year/
Agree with stephen. I hope Leland won’t be back, but I don’t attribute his losing the team because he’s old. He’s been the same way throughout his career.
@stephen
No, it’s not a good ratio. And this isn’t a defense of Rodney (25 is too many) but a clarification of the blown save stat.
Using the save/blown save ratio for relievers who aren’t exclusively closers is misleading. As a set-up guy you can get a blown save because you could meet the qualifications of it being a save situation, but practically speaking you don’t have the opportunity for the save because you’re going to get taken out after your inning of work and not get the save. To illustrate, Rafael Betancourt has 16 saves and 20 blown saves. Scot Shields has 18 save and 26 blown saves.
I’m not suggesting that Rodney is better than either - he’s not. Just that the ratio is misleading for non-closers - which Rodney has been for a significant chunk.
Mike R.
At first I didn’t get that the orange text in your 12:35 AM post was a link. I thought it was just emphasis. Awesome. Thanks for giving me a look at the pitches in that at-bat. I’ve known GameDay to show some unlikely (as in inaccurate) pitch locations, but the comparison with those other pitches called strikes says it all.
I’d almost be willing to lay money that when I go to the sportsline.com Game Chart, that pitch will be shown as being out of the strike zone.
“other pitches called strikes”
Oh, I see there was only one called strike. Clearly, though, according to GameDay, pitches #1 (the called strike) and #6 were practically in the same location. The sportsline.com chart is quite different overall, as expected. Pitches #1 and #6 are widely separated there, with #6 shown as being at the low edge of the strike zone and catching the very corner of the plate at best.
FSN Telecast with Ben Grieve and Josh Lewellen showed the replay and Josh said, “Well, it looks like it was a strike after all”. They have the pitch track on and it had all of the ball in the strike zone.
Of course, Rodney stinks, but the first out of the inning changes most innings, except of course, if you are a Tiger and a reliever.
Quick correction Andy - it’s Tom Grieve (and Josh Lewin). The only reason why I do this is because Tom Grieve is Mr. Ranger and really is one of the good guys. Ben was his overhyped son who won RoY and then fell off the face of the planet.
“What do you guys think the chances that Sheff retires when he gets to 500 HR?”
Roughly zero, Walt.
Granderson in the last 7 games: 1 HR, 1 single, 2 walks, 10 K in 34 PA. .063/.118/.156/.274. 1 RBI, 2 R. Hasn’t reached base in 4 of 7 starts. Pretty drastic mini-slump.
Kevin: The Rangers broadcast guys are among the best crews in the league, if you ask me.
Loon: Yeah, Granderson has been having a rough time of it lately. Generally when he has a slump like this, he seems to make up for it with an equally impressive hot streak. Hopefully there’s enough games left for that to happen. I’d like to see him hit .300 again.
Hey, Chris - have you been at the last 2 games against the Rangers? I had forgotten that you mentioned you were going to be going a while back - or did I imagine that? Maybe I’m only remembering what you said about seeing Sheffield on a HR tear there in Texas last June.
Regarding Granderson and .300, yeah, that would be nice. It’s funny, but the difference between a .299 and .300 BA must be the most significant yet overrated 1/1000th in all of sports.
Chris in Dallas - I’m with you. I feel that they don’t try to hard (a la Rod Allen) and they don’t interfere with the game. Lewin is a professional, and Grieve is that nice next door neighbor who will sit down and talk to you about anything and never let on that he knows 10X more than you do about the game.
Now Knoxie…he’s my favorite local personality of them all. Remind me to tell you some stories about him if we ever run into each other at a Tiger’s playoff party in 2012.