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The folks at MVN take a look at potential offseason moves for the Tigers.
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Ilitch speaks, but doesn't tip his hand about the direction he'll go with payroll. He just wants to fix stuff.
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Someone not high on Porcello due to his low strike out rate. Yeah, but the ground balls and the age relative to the league are still very encouraging.
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Henning and Gage look into the crystal ball with different results.
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At the bottom there is a note that Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Guillen, and Magglio Ordonez will be skipping the World Baseball Classic. I view this as good news.
Yearly Archives: 2008
Game 160: Rays at Tigers
PREGAME: The Rays were most likely up until the wee hours last night celebrating their AL East championship. I say congrats to those mohawked players. But working in the Tigers favor is that they are probably hung over and don’t give a damn.
Dontrelle Willis takes the bump for Detroit and Matt Garza does the same for the Rays.
Watch and see if Gary Sheffield gets 500 homers and Ramon Santiago gets number 11.
Game Time 7:05
Daily Linking – 23:07
Links of note, or stuff I find interesting, or stuff I think you might find interesting
- MVN Outsider | MVN – daily sports talk » Blog Archive » Being the GM: 2009 Detroit Tigers – The folks at MVN take a look at potential offseason moves for the Tigers.
- Ilitch assesses Tigers’ season | tigers.com: News – Ilitch speaks, but doesn't tip his hand about the direction he'll go with payroll. He just wants to fix stuff.
- Porcello and Detroit’s Future | FanGraphs Baseball – Someone not high on Porcello due to his low strike out rate. Yeah, but the ground balls and the age relative to the league are still very encouraging.
- OK, now what? Tigers have multitude of issues going into 2009 | The Detroit News | detnews.com – Henning and Gage look into the crystal ball with different results.
- Cabrera, Guillen, Ordonez out of WBC | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press – At the bottom there is a note that Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Guillen, and Magglio Ordonez will be skipping the World Baseball Classic. I view this as good news.
Game 159: Rays at Tigers
PREGAME: NOT ON OUR FIELD! Maybe that’s the rallying cry as the Tigers try to prevent the Rays from clinching the AL East – at least as much as the Tigers can have a say in the matter.
Tonight it is Justin Verlander and Andy Sonnanstine. Sonnanstine shutdown the Tigers for 6 innings limiting them to 2 runs while fanning 6 back in early August.
Verlander tries to salvage something of this season in his last start.
Don’t forget to tune in to the Tigers Live pregame show, tonight with 100% fresh squeezed Todd Jones.
TBR @ DET, Friday, September 26, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 7:05
Todd Jones Notes
Todd Jones made his official retirement announcement today. While the news broke yesterday, it was obscured by the long overdue Matt Millen firing. Today, we have some notes and links of interest:
Jason Beck covered the presser today, and it sounds like Jones got emotional, as he’s prone to doing. For all the complaints around the Tigers about effort, heart, pride, loyalty, etc. they were elements that could never be questioned with Jonesy. If you so desire, you can check out the presser for yourself.
The Tigers will honor Jones with a pregame ceremony on Saturday. The ceremony will take place at 6:50, so if you’re heading down try and get in a few minutes early and cheer Todd on. I’m a little bummed because I’m going to 2 of the 3 games this weekend and I’m missing that one.
Jones is going to be a big part of FSN’s telecast on Friday night. Jones will be on the Tigers Live Pregame show, and the whole show will be a Jones retrospective. It will take place in the Big Cat Court. He’ll also spend an extended stint in the booth with Rod and Mario.
On a slightly humorous note, the American Mustache Institute takes a look at the 2 Detroit mustache’s that stepped aside yesterday.
Hey, a walk up music compilation
I get quite a few emails due to running this here blog. The one I get most consistently is “what is x player’s at-bat music.” I don’t know usually. I recognize it, but I’m bad with song names and artists. Fortunately ESPN the Mag has compiled as much walk-up music as they could find. Enjoy.
Game 158: Rays at Tigers
PREGAME: The Tigers kick off a 4 game series against the Rays with an afternoon tilt. Scott Kazmir goes against Armando Galarraga and a patchwork lineup. The Tigers have lost 11 of 12 and 5 in a row at home. Here’s hoping that the best thing about today’s game isn’t the weather.
TBR @ DET, Thursday, September 25, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 1:05
Dombrowski says Leyland will be back
Dave Dombrowski told Lynn Henning and the Detroit News that Jim Leyland will be managing the Tigers next year. Seeing as this wasn’t a sound bite, it’s tough to get a flavor for how ringing the endorsement was given this is the quote that Henning had:
“Yes, oh yeah,” Dombrowski said when asked if Leyland would absolutely return in 2009. “He’s under contract next year.”
No mention of his aptitude or qualifications, simply a statement that Leyland is under contract. Curious?
As for my take, I agree with Leyland in that he stunk this year. I’ve never been a fan of his in game management, but watching the 2006 team made me question my previously held belief that managers couldn’t really make that much of a difference. Maybe a capable leader could motivate professionals making millions of dollars to play better.
But then there was this year. A year when the team came out flat. When the team was making fundamental baserunning, fielding, and pitching mistakes. That’s all on Leyland’s watch. The good of 2006 and the bad of 2008.
Then there is the matter of the August-September swoons. I wasn’t worried the first 2 years, because a sample of two hardly marks a trend. But this year’s limp to the finish line is enough to make me concerned.
In short, I don’t know if I want him back.
Game 157: Royals at Tigers
PREGAME: It’s been a while since the Tigers scored. Tonight they face a pitcher with a 5.96 ERA in Brian Bannister. But said pitcher hasn’t allowed more than 4 runs to the Tigers in his career. The most recent time he did it he also went 8 innings.
The Tigers send out a pitcher with a 6.15 ERA in the shape of Nate Robertson. Nate was good in his last start against a neutered Oakland lineup. Hopefully he can replicate his success against the Royals.
KCR @ DET, Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 7:05
Todd Jones retires
It’s really not all that surprising, but Todd Jones has announced his retirement. This was likely to be Jones last season regardless, but the injury and resulting ineffectiveness likely sealed the deal.
Jones is the Tigers all time saves leader and his 319 career saves places him 14th in the history of the game.
I’m hoping that he joins the team this weekend and that he can be honored in some way. He deserves to go out to cheers instead of the cavalcade of boos he was serenaded with his last time on the mound.
Congrats on a great career Jonesy.
Breaking Bad
Welcome to oblivion. Welcome to last place. I don’t care about the payroll and dollars per win or any of that. I care that my team, my emotional and time and financial investment, the way I choose to “enjoy” my summer, is going out with a whimper. A team in last place in a division that is hardly daunting. And it seemed to happen so effortlessly.
At this point in the season, the losses don’t kill me anymore. At least in the individual game sense. The bullpen melt downs which once left me furious just leave me shaking my head. But the way last night’s 5-0 game went down had me seething in my seat. I couched it in that the Tigers had some hard hit balls with runners on that managed to find gloves instead of gaps, but in the end it was another shutout. And everyone seems okay with that, with Jim Leyland tipping his cap to the other pitcher.
The same Jim Leyland who earlier said that he stunk this year, and that “”The days of the babysitting and the milking along, that’s over with.” While that same pitcher who just shut down the Tigers on 4 hits was highly critical of his performance, saying he couldn’t locate at all. It’s pretty much the opposite of what we’ve heard from Tigers starters – even when they get lit up – that they “had great stuff” or were “a couple pitches away from getting out of it.”
Sometime around the 7th inning we moved down to the second row behind home plate. I could see in the dugout and was wondering what was going through the players’ minds. As for my mind? With the Tigers 6 outs away from another shutout, I wanted to stand up and say: “Last place. You guys are 6 outs away from being a last place team. Are you prepared to accept that? You’re too good for this. You have too much pride to let it happen. You’re too good to go out without a fight. You’re breaking your fans’ hearts. The three millionth fan of the year showed up tonight, and that reward is this listless shutout? Please, give me something.” Essentially I was pleading for anything.
I’m but one fan, but if any Tiger happens to read this, you’ve crushed me. You’ve broken my spirit and my heart. I’m mad, sad, frustrated, angry, fed-up, and every other negative feeling. But mostly I’m broken down.
Improved draft status or not, last place is too much to bear. I did that for too many years. I can’t go back.
Last place, with a whimper. Could there be any other way?
*Analysis with numbers and some objectivity will begin to flow in the coming days. This post is the “fan” portion of fanalyst.
Game 156: Royals at Tigers
PREGAME: It will be Zach Grienke and Freddy Garcia. The two pitchers combined to allow 1 run in 12 innings their last times out. I’m going to this one, and my track record isn’t good, so I don’t have high hopes.
KCR @ DET, Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com