Monthly Archives: April 2009

Former Tigers

Mark “the bird” Fidrych is gone

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Sad news from Northboro today as fabled Tigers pitcher Mark the Bird Fidrych was found dead underneath his pick-up truck. Describing Fidrych at this point is a worthwhile exercise because everybody, and I mean everybody, knows about the charismatic Tigers Rookie of the Year from 1976. Being two years old at the time, I have no recollection of the Fidrych phenomenon beyond clips and stories. What I do know is I wish I had been in Tiger Stadium one of the magical nights he was pitching.

Lee Panas, who authors Detroit Tiger Tales, cites Fidrych as a major part of his fandom

I’ve been following the Tigers since 1968 and Mark Fidrych’s 1976 season was the single most thrilling individual season of my lifetime. Whenever I see that game against the Yankees that they show on ESPN or the MLB channel from time to time, I immediately go back 33 years to that night and remember how I felt watching the same game on television. It’s difficult to explain the Mark Fidrych experience to those who were not there to see it.

Lee remembered the 30 year anniversary of Fidrych’s 1976 season by chronicling it on his blog.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.008: White Sox at Tigers

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PREGAME: After brief stops in the other AL divisions, the Tigers get to take their first stab at their Central foes.  Last year the team was 27-45 in division, a mark they are determined to improve on in ‘09. They welcome the White Sox to town for 3 afternoon tilts.

Zach Miner will be the Tigers moundsman (I don’t think that is a word but it sounds like something they’d use in the 1920’s doesn’t it?). Miner was one Ramon Santiago error short of a quality start against Toronto. Which was a little surprising considering it took him 5 Jays hitters to record his first out.

He’ll be opposed by Gavin Floyd who pitched 7 innings of two run ball against the Kansas City Royals. Scouting him with Pitch F/X, the table below shows his pitch selection and what the Royals did with said pitches.

Results/Pitch CH CU FC FF FT SL Total
Ball 4 11 2 14 3 6 40
Called Strike 4 1 6 11
Foul 1 9 2 4 16
In play, no out 1 2 1 4
In play, out(s) 1 1 7 2 1 12
In play, run(s) 1 1 2
Swinging Strike 4 1 6 11
Total 4 20 7 40 8 17 96

Only 11 called strikes is what jumps out at me. If the pitch was near the zone, the Royals were hacking at it. Virtually all of the swings and misses came on the breaking balls from Floyd.

Game Time 1:05

Chicago White Sox vs. Detroit Tigers April 13th, 2009 | MLB Gameday

POSTGAME: That wasn’t nearly as much fun as the winning. I got most of my description from Dan and Jim today, and watched an accelerated version of the game on the DVR. Zach Miner didn’t have it today. I don’t know if the extreme cold played a role in Miner’s struggles, but given the fact that White Sox pitchers walked 9 Tigers it certainly seems that it was a tough day all around for pitchers.

The Tigers got some offense today, and had many chances, but couldn’t come up with enough clutch hits to drive in the numerous baserunners.

  • I hated the idea of Ramon Santiago batting 6th, but he did it all right. He ripped a 3 run homer, and had a couple more hits and was robbed of a triple.
  • Josh Anderson also had a very fine game with anice defensive play and he drove in the Tigers other 3 runs.
  • Curtis Granderson can’t get anything going since leaving Toronto.
  • Eddie Bonine has now allowed homers in each of his 3 appearances
  • Juan Rincon allowed 4 baserunners, but he ate up 3 innings on a tough day, allowed no runs, and fanned 5
2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 4/12/09

Toledo 2 Indianapolis 3 (14 innings)
A whole lotta baseball in this one, and not a lot of offense. Brent Dlugach was 3 for 4 including a homer and a walk. Lucas French went the first 5 innings (3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K). Casey Fien had 3 k’s but blew the save when he allowed a homer in his 2 innings. Fu Te Ni struck out 3 and allowed 2 hits in 3 innings. Clay Rapada took the loss.

Erie – DNP

Lakeland – DNP

West Michigan- DNP

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.007: Rangers at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers look for a series sweep of the Texas Rangers this Easter Sunday. The Rangers mashed Cleveland pitching but haven’t been able to muster much offense against the Tigers starters. Today it will be Edwin Jackson making his second start of the season. His first effort was wasted by the bullpen as he pounded the strike zone (67.4% strikes) en route to a 7.1 inning, 89 pitch start.

Kevin Millwood April 6th Start - pitch fxKevin Millwood pitches for the Rangers. He held Cleveland to 1 run in 7 innings on 5 hits, a walk, and 5 K’s. He went with a fastball heavy repertoire (91MPH 4 seam, 90MPH 2 seam), and didn’t seem to get the ball down that well. Still, the results were impressive. Hopefully if he keeps the ball up against the Tigers, they’ll either layoff it or hammer it.

Game Time 1:05

Texas vs. Detroit – April 12, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It’s a good day to be named Brandon. Inge of course due to his 4th homer (and career number 100) to start the 8th inning comeback and his 2 out RBI single to cap it. Plus he threw in a slick play on a bunt to start the 9th. Part of the reason that the Tigers only needed to come down by 4 is because Brandon Lyon came on and retired 6 straight batters on 17 pitches. It was a very nice bounce back outing, and only his second since he blew Edwin Jackson’s last start.

As for Jackson, he wasn’t as sharp as his last outing, but mostly effective. He pitched out of a big jam in the 5th and in the 6th inning he retired the side on 10 pitches, mostly 95mph+ fastballs to put a nice cap on his day.

Kevin Millwood was frustratingly good. It was a steady diet of 89 mph fastballs and curves that had the Tigers completely fooled.

  • Fernando Rodney picked up the save on 5 pitches (and the previously mentioned nice play by Inge)
  • Placido Polanco seems to have his stroke going after a slow spring
  • A couple of awful at-bats by Magglio Ordonez and Gerald Laird in that 8th inning. Fortunately the rest of the team picked them up.
  • Speaking of which, how about the struggling Carlos Guillen lacing a two strike double down the line?
2009 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 4/11/09

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Toledo 5 Indianapolis 4
Ryan Roberson doubled and walked. Mike Hessman added two walks and Clete Thomas tripled. Ron Chiavacci allowed 2 runs on hits and 3 walks while fanning 3 in 5 innings.

Altoona 1 Erie 2
Scott Sizemore had two hits. Ryan Strieby had two hits and a walk. Brooks Brown pitched 5 shut out innings allowing 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3. Cody Satterwhite allowed a hit and a walk but K’d two for the save.

Tampa 3 Lakeland 5
Joel Zumaya made a rehab appearance and struggled a little allowing 2 runs on a hit and two walks with 1 strikeout in 1 inning. He started the game, so that was a little unusual for him. Brett Jacobson pitched a scoreless inning. Charlie Furbush fanned 6 and walked none in 4 shutout innings. Shawn Roof was 3 for 5. Chris Carlson homered and singled. Audy Ciriaco had 2 hits.

South Bend 0 West Michigan 5
Brandon Douglass went 3 for 4. Billy Nowlin and Luis Palacios doubled and singled. Mauricio Robles allowed just 2 hits and 1 walk while fanning 8 in 5 innings. Matt Hoffman pitched the other 4 innings and allowed 2 the same while K’ing 3.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.006: Rangers at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers look for their first 2 game winning streak of the season in another afternoon tilt against the Rangers.

Justin Verlander is on the mound for the Tigers as they start their second turn through the rotation. Verlander was the only one in the first turn that struggled as he was charged with 8 runs on Opening Day. Those 8 runs were 1 more than the other 4 starters combined to allow.

The Rangers will counter with Matt Harrison who is making his 2009 debut. Harrison posted a 5.49 ERA in 15 games as a 22 year old last year. He doesn’t strike out many (42 K’s in 83.2 innings). Lefties posted a .971 OPS against him last year.

Game Time 1:05

Texas vs. Detroit – April 11, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: How about that pitching? Justin Verlander followed up the performances of his rotation mates with a return to form so to speak. His command was great, but the Rangers couldn’t find his fastball above the belt, nor could they lay off it. The results was 8 K’s in 5 innings of work. The pitch count got a little higher than we’d like, but part of that was due to crappy left side defense in the 5th inning.

Verlander was asked to get 5 outs in that inning, and he didn’t unravel after the errors by Inge and Everett. He got a K of Michael Young after the first. He did allow a walk and then a bloop single to Hamilton that plated two. But he didn’t get rattled.

The bullpen was asked to get 12 outs, and they did it without allowing a baserunner. Nate Robertson pitched two scoreless innings, Bobby Seay got his two guys, and Ryan Perry retired one with a pop out before Fernando Rodney K’d the side in the 9th.

  • Adam Everett had entries in both sides of the leder in this game. He picked up a couple hits, drove in a couple runs, and scored from first on a double to left. He also blew a hit and run and had a costly error.
  • Miguel Cabrera looked dominant for 5 games and lost in the this 6th one.
  • Gerald Laird had a very nice game offensively and defensively. He was 3 for 4 with a hustle double and made a nice play on a foul ball reaching into the dugout.
  • How about the guy in the stands that pulled back the fan reaching for the double that Everett scored on. That guy gets an RBI.
  • Justin Verlander got 17 swings and misses in this game, and only 15 called strikes. That’s a pretty remarkable ratio.
2009 Season, Spring Training

Could Brandon Inge be poised for a breakout?

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The often offensively challenged Brandon Inge started out the season homering in 3 straight games. While he has dropped off the 162 homer season pace he was on, there is some statistical evidence to suggest that Inge may be on his way to an improved offensive year.

John Dewan of ACTA Sports (the same group that publishes The Fielding Bible) has been looking at spring training performances and how they translate to the regular season. They have found that a very good spring may be an indication of things to come.

For the most part, we agree with the common perception that they don’t have value. A bad spring training means nothing. An average spring training tells us nothing. Nevertheless, we did find that when a player has an exceptional spring, it does suggest a better than a 60% chance they will take their game up a notch.

An exceptional spring is defined as posting a slugging percentage .200 better than career norms. There are 46 such players on this year’s list including one Brandon Inge who rode 5 grapefruit league homers to a .593 slugging percentage which is .202 better than his .392 mark. The surge has been attributed to a new stance and hand position at the plate.

Now as Dewan notes historically there is a 60% shot of improved performance, so it isn’t a guarantee. However those are still some noteworthy odds.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 4/10/2009

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Toledo 4 Indianpolis 2
Scott Drucker allowed 1 run on no walks, a strike out and 3 hits in 5 innings. Casey Fien allowed a homer in 2 innings. Brent Clevlen was 2 for 5. Wil Rhymes and Mike Hessman each walked twice (Hessman also struck out 3 times).

Altoona 0 Erie 2
Max Leon tripled in both runs in a 1 for 3 effort. Cale Iorg added a double. Alfredo Figaro pitched 5.2 scoreless innings allowing 5 hits and a walk while fanning 4. Brett Jensen picked up his second save fanning 1 in 1 inning of work.

Lakeland 1 Tampa 2
Kyle Peter had a hit and a walk as the leadoff hitter and added 2 stolen bases. Thad Weber allowed 2 runs, both unearned, in 5 innings.

South Bend 4 West Michigan 6
Billy Nowlin was 2 for 3 with a walk and drove in 3 runs. Gustavo Nunez added 2 hits. Luke Putkonen fanned 4 and walked none but allowed 3 unearned runs in 3.2 innings. Victor Larez fanned 6 in 3 innings and Brayan Villarreal struck out 3 in 1.1 innings.

2009 Season, Game Post

Fish Fries and Flyovers – Opening Day: Rangers at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Home Opener is finally upon us. All of the regular traditions will be in place. People will find their regular watering holes or tailgate spots. Therer will be a ceremonial first pitch. Four F-15s will buzz the park once the DSO completes the National Anthem. The traditional Opening Day fish fry will take place at various Big League Grills in the stadium. You know, the regular stuff.

The weather looks like it will cooperate and stay dry and not too cold.

As for the game, it will be Armando Galarraga for the Tigers earning the Home Opener nod after his impressive debut year in 2008. He’ll take on Kris Benson and the undefeated Texas Rangers. Benson hasn’t pitched since 2006, so who knows what will happen.

Have a great day everyone. I’ll be down at Casey’s early so stop by and say hi.

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: Well that was some kind of fun. It was a glorious day weather-wise, and the boys represented the English D well with a thorough thumping of the Rangers.

It’s been a full day, and a long week with 3 games in two cities for me, so we’ll keep this short.

  • Armando Galarraga stepped up big today. I’m expecting regression from him due to his BABIP being at unsustainable levels. But, he could always pitch his peripherals “into” his ERA. That’s something we saw as the year wore on last year, and with 8 K’s and 1 walk today that certainly is getting off on the right foot.
  • Miguel Cabrera hits the ball hard. Sometimes it has sufficient lift to carry the fence. Sometimes it lacks the lift and instead dents the fence. But for 5 straight games now he is hitting bullets.
  • Ryan Perry struggled with control today. It was about the only downside on the field.
  • Brandon Inge made an awesome play going back on a pop-fly. The funny thing is my buddy Russ had mentioned the pitch before that Carlos Guillen looked to be playing too deep. Inge took care of that though.
  • I haven’t experienced Opening Days other places, but I truly believe that it just has to mean more in Detroit than most places. It may not be the best, and other cities like St. Louis and Cincinnati truly appreciate it also. But it completely changes the city for one wonderful day every April.
2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.004: Tigers at Blue Jays

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PREGAME: It was really nice that the Tigers got a win last night so that Rick Porcello doesn’t have the added pressure of stopping a losing streak. What’s that you say, Rick Porcello? Yeah, the kid is making his debut. And he’s doing it against Ricky Romero, another first rounder making his debut. I’m pretty geeked to be heading to this game. The post game will be significantly delayed as I travel home following the game.

Game Time 12:37

Detroit vs. Toronto – April 9, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The kid did all right. He is a ground ball machine as advertised and he can certainly field his position. His infield defense wasn’t particularly sparkling though and with a little mor ehlpe he’s spending more time pitching out ofo the windup rather than the stretch. He did get hurt by homers a couple time swhen he left the ball up, but all in in it seemed like he wasn’t overmatched. Most impressive was after allowing a homer, he fanned the next two hitters.

Other stuff:

  • Juan Rincon has been really bad in two appearances
  • I had a great view of that Alex Rios/Marcus Thames triple. I was in that section in the corner. The one with the Tigers jersey. I thought about posting to the blog but thought that might be tacky while he was injured.
  • Carlos Guillen picked up a couple of hits as he starts to look a little more comfortable.
  • Not a lot of fans at the Rogers Centre for the two games I went to. It made things comfortable at least as we could spread out, and the kids got a ton of autographs without the crush of people. So at least that’s good.
2009 Season, Managing & Strategy

The one about the bullpen last night

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Gut wrenching losses are good fodder for second guessing (and page views). My thoughts and perspective on what happened last night (some of these may sound like a defense of decisions made or not made, that’s not necessarily the intent).

1. Why take out Edwin Jackson, he was pitching awesome? Edwin Jackson had been pitching awesome, until he lost his control. For those that hate pitch counts as a reason to pull a pitcher, you should love this decision. Clearly the 89 pitches weren’t the issue. It was the fact that after peppering the strike zone all night he started falling behind hitters.

2. Why only one batter for Bobby Seay? Leyland was playing platoon advantages. Look at the righties coming up after Snider. There wasn’t a lefty in sight. Seay did his job.

3. Why not Ryan Perry then? The popular belief is that this was too much of a pressure situation for a debut. I don’t believe it, and I don’t think Leyland does either. When Zumaya debuted it was in a hold situation. He’s not afraid of that at all. And really, if Perry comes in a blows it then how many question why he was brought into a pressure situation to debut? A ton. Most questioned when Rodney and Zumaya were brought into pressure situations when first returning last year, and they’d faced those situations before. No. The real reason was because at the moment Leyland views Lyon as his second best reliever behind Fernando Rodney.

4. Why use your second best reliever in such a high leverage situation? This is the better question, and one that stat heads have been hammering on managers for for years. But if it’s not the 9th you can’t use your closer for some reason.

5. Why leave Lyon out there in the 9th? I’ve got nothing. This was stupid. Even if you let him start the inning, when he continues to struggle why not go get him. Ridiculous.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.003: Tigers at Blue Jays

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PREGAME: Losses suck, and I’m sure the Tigers won’t go 0-162, but let’s just get that first win out of the way okay fellas? Otherwise it become a “thing.” And the hand wringing becomes hard to tolerate. Somebody has to be blamed for everything bad that happens. It doesn’t make for a happy fan base (or a happy blogger).

Tonight it is Zach Miner who will try to follow up Edwin Jackson’s fine effort. He’ll be opposed by Jess Litsch who put together a heck of a season last year with only 39 walks in 176 innings en route to a 3.67 ERA. The Tigers only have 27 plate appearances against Litsch, and only 4 hits and 2 walks to show for it.

Game Time 7:07 (this one is on FS Detroit Plus for those of you getting the Detroit feed)

Detroit vs. Toronto – April 8, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: That’s a more better. For all the talk of small ball and bunts and hit and runs and advancing the runner…they advanced a lot farther when the ball sails out of the park. The Tigers plated all 5 runs via the long ball tonight which is fine by me.

Zach Miner had a VERY rocky first inning. But he escaped allowing only one run, and came up one out short of a quality start. It isn’t a stat that means a tremendous amount, but for the pitcher’s sake I’d like to see them get it.

And the bullpen. Perfect. They were asked to record 10 outs and Bobby Seay, Ryan Perry, and Fernando Rodney did not allow a baserunner. So it can happen.

  • Miguel Cabrera has hammered the ball in Toronto. He looked great in BP Tuesday night and that carried over the last two games.  But he still trails teammate Brandon Inge in the homer column.
  • Speaking of Inge. Huh. I’ll have more on Inge in an upcoming post, but these homers he’s hitting are crushed. And it’s not because he’s pull happy. Would really like to see it continue
  • Ryan Perry was solid in his debut. He went to a full count a couple times, but didn’t allow a baserunner.
  • Fernando Rodney. Seven pitches, seven strikes. Yes, the last one was hit as far as it possibly could be while staying in the park, but I’m not going to complain.
  • Sure to be overshadowed by the other relievers, Bobby Seay had the best night of the 3. He recorded 4 outs, 2 via the K, with only 12 pitches. Awesome.
  • Ramon Santiago had a rough night with 2 K’s and the E6 that cost Miner the QS. He did have a single though.