Comments on: Game 2009.078: Tigers at A’s

By: Keith (Mr. X)

Keith (Mr. X) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:53:39 +0000

People have been saying that we’re losing ground for about 2 months now. Time to stop worrying and time to start enjoying the season. Hard to believe that most people here have nothing good to say.

By: Coleman

Coleman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:00:40 +0000

I’m OK with today’s game now; I just decided to think of it as Brandon Inge Appreciation Day…you know, think It’s A Wonderful Life, with a shorter, strangely-chin-haired Jimmy Stewart with his socks pulled up high, and this is what the Tiger offense would have been this season if Inge has quit baseball in frustration last year…then he’s really glad he kept at it and after the game ends they were probably all singing songs in the dugout…and then Inge picks up his little daughter, and pulls an oblique muscle–
OK, stop it, right now, that’s not how it goes, now put down the keyboard, we’re going to have to bring you to your special room now…

By: Coleman

Coleman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:51:32 +0000

Unless we replace him with Anderson…

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:30:07 +0000

I really dislike (I won’t say hate) the argument that because we are first in our division, everything is ok.

The Central division SUCKS. And we’re losing ground fast. Besides, there have been no indications that the hitting will improve.

Unless, like you said, we bench Maggs on Friday. That should definitely help.

By: Mith

Mith — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:23:34 +0000

I wouldn’t say he dogged it any more than usual. I just liked to see guys hustle. You just hit your 50 millionth GIDP of the year, at least bust it down the line and try to beat it out.

By: mcb

mcb — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:12:31 +0000

I saw today Guillen could be back after the ASB. That would be great- anything to jumpstart the offense. Magglio is just an instant out (or 2) and you will continue to see Tiger aces loose close games when they feel like they have to be perfect due to no run support. It forces mistake pitches. Justin threw 2 bad pitches. A team should be able to recover from that. Ok my rant is done. I won’t be able to watch the games this weekend; maybe that’s a good thing!

By: Kevin in Dallas

Kevin in Dallas — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:10:37 +0000

Hey guys, we are hitting worse than we have in 3 years, and we are up 3 games in the AL Central, almost at the AS break. Pitching is evening out, and it’s still pretty darn good. If this team can be just average hitting wise, we’re gonna be okay.

I don’t see Maggs starting on Fri.

By: Mark in Chicago

Mark in Chicago — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:07:30 +0000

Agreed, that’s one of the coolest parts of that site. Take a look at Verlander’s $ value. Even last year he was worth $14.8 million, and he’s been underpaid every year by about, oh, $15 million. For his career, he’s “earned” $60 million and the Tigers have paid him $3.1

By: Coleman

Coleman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:02:56 +0000

It’s interesting when they do their dollar value thing…remember when last year there was so much griping about the waste of salary money on Inge? This year apparently it looks like he is underpaid by, oh, 10, 12 million…

By: Mark in Chicago

Mark in Chicago — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:59:44 +0000

I didn’t say cancel the season. I said they are atrocious offensively right now, and guys that have produced in the past right now are not. Age is probably part of it: Maggs, Guillen, Polanco are all well into their 30s, typically the time when players begin to decline. My comment was simply pointing out how dramatic the dropoff has been. Feel free to argue those points if you must, although I suspect you won’t have much to back up your side.

By: Mark in Chicago

Mark in Chicago — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:55:56 +0000

I’m not real excited about the sac bunts, but the .264/.319/.360 line is better than I anticipated, especially after the nightmare he put up the last two years. His numbers this year are basically at career norms of .247/.299/.356, so I think he can probably keep it up. Also, his fielding numbers appear to be better than last year, although his range factor is slipping a bit. All in, he’s worth about 0.8 wins above replacement, which is not great, but it’s miles better than the 0.4 WAR abortion Renteria put up last year.

Also, fangraphs is an awesome site…

By: Coleman

Coleman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:51:25 +0000

Of course maybe the fact that the Tigers are tied for 2nd-to-last in the league with only 17 Sac Flies is related to their woes at trying to get a run out of guy-on-3rd-less-than-2…that and their GIDP-ness (12 of them actually)…

Or to put it more dramatically, Sardinha is tied for the Tiger lead in Sac Flies, with 2…

By: jb61973

jb61973 — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:51:19 +0000

They must be getting old. They’ve been horrible this year. Cancel the season.

My God, what a bunch of babies the fans of this team are.

By: Vince in MN

Vince in MN — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:48:09 +0000

Fantasy baseball is over and the reality of playing games against AL teams begins to manifest itself. Don’t be surprised is they get swept in MN. With the exception of Inge at 3B, the Twins are arguably as good and probably better offensively at every position right now.

By: Coleman

Coleman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:43:17 +0000

And Everett leads the American League in sac bunts, and he is 3rd best on the Tigers at getting the runner on 3rd less than 2 out home.