Monthly Archives: July 2009

2009 Season, Managing & Strategy, Offense

Maggs and Clete to platoon

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The latest technique to milk productivity from Magglio Ordonez is to platoon him and only give him starts against left handers. Clete Thomas will form the other side of the platoon which means he’ll get the bulk of the starts, especially with the team facing more right handers.

For his career, Ordonez has hit lefties about 12% better than righties (in terms of OPS). That differential is more pronounced this year with an 825 OPS against southpaws versus 611 against right handers. So if there is any advantage Leyland can give to Ordonez, it is probably a lefty only diet.

But where this gets really interesting of course is the impact on the vesting option. As of tonight, Ordonez is 166 plate appearances shy of his vesting option. Through the first 84 games the Tigers have faced 27 lefty starters. At the same rate the Tigers would face 25 more lefty starters this season, and with about 4 PA’s per start Ordonez would come up 60-70 plate appearances short of the vesting option. That is significant enough to not be conspicuous or grievance-able, especially if Thomas or a bat to be named later hits well enough against righties.

As for Ordonez’s take on the situation, it certainly is professional:

“When I produce, I play,” he said.

Uncategorized

Game 2009.084: Royals at Tigers

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PREGAME: With Zach Greinke taking on Luke French the pitching match-up would certainly seem to tilt in the Royals favor. But you know, nothing is a given – especially with this Tigers team lately.

I apologize for the abbreviated game post tonight, but you can make up for it by voting Inge. He just took the lead and there are less than 24 hours to go. And vote Shane Victorino while you’re at it. If you vote Inge 100 times you get entered into a drawing where you get free tickets and a free dinner and a free trip to the pitchers mound before the game.

Kansas City vs. Detroit – July 8, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: There was a crispness in this game that had been lacking for quite some time. The Tigers got some timely (and well placed) hits off a Cy Young front runner. They got a great start from a rookie pitcher getting his first win. And most impressively they got 2.1 perfect innings from the pen.

The pen has been shaky of late, but tonight they were dominant. Fu-Te Ni induced a double play grounder and picked up a strike out. Brandon Lyon pitched a perfect 8th on 11 pitches and Fernando Rodney with a perfect 9th on 14 pitches. All told the pen record 8 outs on 33 pitches, and 5 of them were strike-outs.

Nice win all around.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 7/7/09

Louisville 1 Toledo 2
Ryan Roberson homered, doubled and drove in both runs. Wilkin Ramirez doubled. Clete Thomas walked twice. Nate Bump fanned 4 and allowed just 1 run on 4 hits in 7 innings. Ryan Perry got the 2 inning save with 4 K’s and no walks.

Erie 19 Altoona 2
Alex Avila was a triple short of the cycle. Cale Iorg homered and singled. Ryan Strieby homered, singled, and walked. Danny Worth went 3 for 3 with 2 walks. Jonah Nickerson allowed 11 hits in 6.1 innings but only 2 runs scored. Cody Satterwhite fanned 2 in his inning.

Lakeland – Suspended in the 4th

Dayton 4 West Michigan 5
Billy Nowlin went 2 for 4. Brent Wyatt tripled. Mark Sorensen allowed 4 runs (1 earned) in 7 innings on 8 hits, 2 walks, and 3 K’s.

Oneonta – Suspended

GCL Yankees 0 GCL Tigers 1
Jordan Cruz doubled twice. Zach Samuels and Marcos Nunez pitched 3 shut out innings each.

GCL Yankees 3 GCL Tigers 0
Bruce Rondon allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, 3 walks, and 5 K’s in 4 innings.

2009 Season, Roster Management

Clete Thomas recalled

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Clete's Cougars are happy Thomas is back
Clete's Cougars are happy Thomas is back

Per Jason Beck on Twitter Clete Thomas has been recalled and Don Kelly has been designated for assignment. The recall of Thomas is something that I’ve actually been expecting for awhile. He fixed his swing in relatively short order and in his last 28 days he’s hitting 357/432/476. He is still striking out quite a bit (24 K’s in his last 84 AB’s), but he’s hitting the ball well with a 20% line drive rate. The Cougars rejoice.

As for Don Kelly, the Tigers got way more from him than they probably expected when they signed him to a minor league deal this winter. His 250/308/354 line kind of masked some of his earlier work where he turned in some nice ab’s. I don’t know if Kelly had options left (I assumed he did but could be wrong) which makes the DFA versus the optioned out decision a little curious.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.083: Royals at Tigers

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PREGAME: And once again the Tigers find themselves a mini 3 game skid. Hopefully it will remain mini and not force me to invoke backwards game post.

Justin Verlander has traditionally feasted on the Royals and he hasn’t allowed a run in his last 2 starts while pitching into the 7th both times. Of course if the offense gets stymied again a shutout might not be enough.

Bruce Chen will be designated as the stymie-er tonight. The lefty is making just his 3rd start since the 2006 season.

Here is tonight’s lineup, and while you’re watching this lineup in action, click the big honkin’ button there on the right and vote for Inge. He’s just behind Ian Kinsler and definitely in the mix. Your vote could make a difference. A vote for Inge is a vote for America, and awkwardness. And at least you’ll feel like you were productive tonight.

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Cabrera, 1B
  4. Thames, DH
  5. Raburn, LF
  6. Inge, 3B
  7. Ordonez, RF
  8. Laird, C
  9. Everett, SS

Kansas City vs. Detroit – July 7, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Nothing is coming easy right now. The Tigers worked the count, they hit the long ball, and yet the game was a nail biter the whole way.

Justin Verlander fanned 11 and walked none (the first Tigers pitcher with double digit K’s and no walks since Jeff Robinson who did it twice in 1988), yet it took him 114 pitches to get through 6.

The Tigers take an early lead in the first, give it back in the second. They take get some space in the 5th and a hanging curve gets hit out and Brandon Inge makes a throwing error.

They get an insurance run in the 6th, and then Bobby Seay and Joel Zumaya walk the first hitters they face. Fernando Rodney would have loaded the bases before getting an out were it not for a generous strike 3 call to David DeJesus.

The boys prevailed in the end, but none of it was easy or clean. Incidentally, it was the Tigers first win by more than 2 wins since they beat Milwaukee 9-5 on June 20th.

2009 Season, Pitching

Spelling Porcello

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Because you can’t spell Porcello without 2 O’s, 2 L’s, an R, a C, an E, and a capital P…The Tigers are taking advantage of an offday in the schedule and the All Star to skip Rick Porcello’s turn in the rotation. Porcello is done until after the All Star Break and while the rotation hasn’t been set (with a 4 day break the Tigers could start anyone the first game back) it is conceivable that Porcello doesn’t pitch until the 24th for a double header. I doubt they would wait that long, but it is possible from a scheduling standpoint.

Jim Leyland was clear that this had nothing to do with Porcello’s recent struggles and it was part of the plan. I do believe him in this regard, but the fact that Porcello isn’t exactly on a roll made the decision that much easier.

I think Leyland has a done a wonderful job managing Porcello’s workload. I believe the plan going into the season was to have him throw about 175 innings. At the half way point he is at 87 inning putting him on pace for 174. And in game pitch count totals have been kept well under control.

The rest of the rotation is:

  • Tue: Verlander
  • Wed: French
  • Thr: off
  • Fri: Jackson
  • Sat: Galarraga
  • Sun: Verlander

Verlander on Sunday presents an interesting situation with his All Star status, but it shouldn’t be a problem for him to pitch 1 inning the following Tuesday and with 13 pitchers on staff there should be no reason for any pitcher to pitch more than 1 inning.

Porcello to miss turn in rotation

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 7/6/09

Toledo – DNP

Erie 12 Binghamton 4
Deik Scram went 4 for 5 with a walk and was a double short of the cycle. Cale Iorg homered and singled (and struck out 3 times). Ryan Strieby went 2 for 3 with 2 walks. Jon Kibler fanned 6 and walkd 2 in 7 innings giving up 3 runs on 4 hits.

Lakeland 12 Clearwater 0
Michael Bertram was a triple shy of the cycle. Chris Carlson homered. Audy Ciriaco went 3 for 4 with a triple. Charlie Furbush pitched 6 shut out innings allowing just 4 hits and a walk while fanning 5. Lester Oliveros pitched the last 3 innings and fanned 4.

Dayton 4 West Michigan 2
Ben Guez went 2 for 4 with a double. Brayan Villarreal pitched 6 innings allowing 1 run on 4 hits with 2 walks and 5 K’s. Anthony Shawler pitched 2 scoreless innings. Tyler Stohr gave up 3 runs in 1 inning blowing his 2nd save of the year.

Aberdeen 4 Oneonta 5
Michael Rockett tripled and Alex Espinoza doubled. Jeff Gerbe allowed 3 runs in 1.2 innings. Kevan Hess pitched 3.2 innings and allowed 1 run on 4 hits. Mike LaLuna fanned 3 in 3 scoreless innings.

GCL Tigers 4 GCL Braves 5
Hernan Perez went 2 for 4. The shortstop who turned 18 in March is hitting 324/359/514 in his first 9 games. Jose Siso pitched 4 innings and allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks. Richard Zumaya took the loss surrendering a run on 3 hits in the 10th inning.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.082: Royals at Tigers

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PREGAME: Finally, the Tigers get some home cooking as Rod Allen would say. I downplayed the significance of the weekend series against the Twins, but I may go ahead and up-play this 6 game homestand heading into the break. Things are always tough in the Metrodome, those losses are going to happen. They don’t become a big deal if the Tigers take care of business in the games they are supposed to win. With 6 at home against the bottom two teams in the division, the Tigers need to get these games.

Tonight it will be Gil Meche and Armando Galarraga. Galarraga wasn’t hit hard at all his last time out which is very encouraging. He also walked 6 A’s hitters which is very discouraging. It was also the first time since April 26th he didn’t allow a homer. The lineup and park factor certainly didn’t hurt, but hey, it’s something. Coincidentally that April 26th start was against the Royals.

Meche has been all over the map this year. The Tigers knocked him out in the 3rd inning back in May. He came back from that outing and posted a 0.93 ERA in his next 4 starts including 16 scoreless innings against Cleveland and Arizona. But in his last 3 starts he’s walked more than he’s struck out and has allowed 5 homers in his last 14.1 innings.

Kansas City vs. Detroit – July 6, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: There are games during the season where a team has no chance, and there are other games where you steal one you have no business of winning. Tonight the Tigers gave one away. Gil Meche wasn’t that good. He had little control and walked 5. But the Tigers couldn’t knock him out of the game early. A hit early on and the complexion of the whole series could have changed. But that big hit never came. It came close, with Adam Everett ripping a pitch down the line foul with the bases loaded, but it was just a strike.

Armando Galarraga deserved better. He had his slider working, he fanned 7, he only walked 1, and aside from one hanger that got punished, he was great.

But all that asideI can boil so much of this game down to 1 pitch. I’m probably making too big a deal out of one pitch, but it set the tone for the late innings. After Miguel Olivo looked idiotic on two breaking balls Gerald Laird called for the fastball up. Olivo didn’t chase but that wasn’t a bad call. The next pitch he called for was a fastball outside. The fastball call was questionable, but the location was sound. The trouble is Zumaya through it on the inner half instead of the outer half and it was fisted for a single. Not a hard hit ball, but a ball that shouldn’t have been hit at all. Zumaya has the ability to strike guys out and he missed horribly with his location.

He had chances to get out of it, but an awful sequence to DeJesus where Zumaya lost the strike zone but two on. I actually have much less of a problem with the Bloomquist triple than the awful pitch to Olivo.

  • A Fernando Rodney change-up got hammered. Not good, but oh well.
  • Ryan Raburn and Marcus Thames were the offense. Each had a solo homer, and Raburn later had the double that drove in Anderson who was pinch running for Thames.
  • I can’t kill Raburn for getting thrown out going to third. The Royals did a nice job with the relay and made the play. In retrospect it didn’t work out, but I can’t kill him for the decision.
2009 Season

Midseason Musings

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The Tigers are officially halfway through the season. they’ve managed to lead the division for the majority of the first half. They’ve seen some good pitching, some awful pitching and some much improved defense (which is helping the pitching). They’ve seen the offense roll, and then cough and sputter against pitchers that shouldn’t induce coughing and sputtering. Through it all they have a 2 game lead in the division (and 2 games in hand). Far from a commanding lead, but they also have a schedule that could prove favorable in the second half as well. Some various thoughts on what the team has done so far:

  • Playing the ‘”on pace for” game the Tigers have 3 hitters with a decent shot at 30 homers.  The Tigers have only had 2 30 homer seasons this decade and the last time 3 Tigers hit 30 in a season was 1992.
  • The Tigers have 47 of their final 81 games at home and only 1 more trip to the West Coast. They do still have to go to Fenway and Yankee Stadium and they’ve yet to play Tampa Bay yet. They do have 1 9 game roadie left going to Minnesota, Chicago, and Cleveland in late September.
  • The Tigers are on pace to improve on their walks but only slightly. The 2008 total was 644 and the 2009 projection is 612.  But intentional walks are way down (on pace for 40, 63 issued last year) as are HBP (on pace for 30, 68 last year) and wild pitches (on pace for 46, 65 last year).
  • One of the speculated reasons for the walks last year was that pitchers knew how bad the defense was and they nibbled. That can’t be an excuse this year with the Tigers having one of the best defensive teams in baseball. They are above average at every infield position and are typically in the top 5 at the position. Last year Detroit was 39 runs below average for the season, so far this year they are 26.7 wins above average.

[blank] of the Year

  • Catch of the Year: Curtis Granderson robbing Grady Sizemore of a walk-off homer and preserving a complete game shut out for Justin Verlander.
  • Surprise of the Year: I have this as a 5 way tie between Edwin Jackson’s dominance, Brandon Inge’s offensive season, Fernando Rodney being 17 of 17 on save chances, Magglio Ordonez being so awful, and Don Kelly starting a game as a clean-up hitter. Ramon Santiago’s power surge gets honorable mention.
  • Start of the Year: There are some good candidates, but I’m going to go with Edwin Jackson’s complete game effort against the Angels. Verlander has a couple of games that were better pitched, but Jackson’s came at a time when the team was scuffling a little (4 game losing streak) and he tossed a complete game fanning the heart of the Angels order to preserve a 2-1 win.
  • Comeback of the Year: When the Tigers covered up an awful Armando Galarraga start by coming back from an early 6 run deficit.
  • Worst  Walk of the Year: Joel Zumaya walking in the tying run in Houston. Just brutal.
  • Best Walk of the Year: The intentional walks to Mauer and Morneau setting up the bases loaded K of Michael Cuddyer on Friday night.
  • Best time to ignore typical platoon rules: Pinch hitting right hander Ryan Raburn for left hander Josh Anderson against right hander Ryan Dempster Kevin Gregg setting up the Best walk-off pinch hit homer of the year.
  • Best comeback story: Dontrelle Willis’ 7 innings of shut out ball against a hot hitting Rangers team.
  • Worst comeback story: Pretty much every start Willis made after that.
  • Team MVP of the year: At the risk of being labeled and Inge Fan-Boy or Inge-lover, I’m going with Inge. His offensive and defensive contributions have brought more value to the team than any other player. The Tigers were prepared to sacrifice offense for defense at many positions including third base. They didn’t plan on sacrificing it in left field and right field and DH and second base (due to Polanco’s early season struggles). And it’s not just the overall contributions, or the contributions in context of expectations and the rest of the lineup. Inge’s hits have been dramatic. The homer in Houston to grab a victory, the homer in Toronto to tie the score after Brandon Lyon surrendered the lead late. Other 2 run homers that proved to be the difference in the game (against the Brewers and against the Rockies). Inge has been a legitimate force and the Tigers would be in a world of hurt without his contributions this season.
2009 Season

Tiger Striped All Stars

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The Tigers are sending 3 representatives to the All Star game, and maybe one more. Justin Verlander, Edwin Jackson, and Curtis Granderson were all named to the AL All Star Game. Brandon Inge still has a chance ( a slim one) to get on the team if the fans vote him in.

Verlander and his MLB leading strikeout total was pretty much a lock for the squad and was likely voted in by the players. Jackson has had an exceptional first half, but a startling lack of run support has held him to 6 wins despite a sterling ERA. Still, the players thought enough of him to include him on the squad.

Granderson was a bit of a surprise. He’s had better seasons, but Lee points out that he is on pace for a 30-30 season and an argument could be made that he is the second best centerfielder in the AL. Granderson was also a player selection.

That brings us to Brandon Inge. I’ve stumped for Inge already and Jim Leyland opined that Inge should be backing up Evan Longoria. Instead that duty went to Michael Young who is on par with Inge offensively, but atrocious defensively. Defense doesn’t typically get you into the ASG though. But Inge does have a chance if he can beat out:

  • Chone Figgins (which he should)
  • Ian Kinsler (who has a beef that he should be starting at 2nd)
  • Carlos Pena (AL homer leader)
  • Adam Lind

So let’s see if we can get 4 Tigers to the All Star Game and Vote Inge. What works against him though is that he was the 2nd best third baseman, but it’s not as cut and dry that he’s the best of these 5.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 7/5/09

Columbus 8 Toledo 1
Wilkin Ramirez went 3 for 3 with a homer and a walk. Clete Thomas doubled and singled. Chris Lambert allowed 1 runs on 7 hits in 6 innings with 1 walk and 2 K’s. Josh Rainwater was knocked around for 3 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks in 1.2 innings.

Erie 3 Binghamton 1
Danny Worth, Alex Avila, Ryan Strieby, Brennan Boesch, and Santo De Leon all had 2 hits. Pat Stanley fanned 8 in 7 innnings allowing just 1 run on 5 hits in 7 innings.

Lakeland 6 Clearwater 10
Justin Henry and Deivn thomas each had 2 hits, including a homer for Thomas. Mike Bertram, Chris Carlson, and Audy Ciriaco all homered. Trevor Feeney pitched the first 2 innings and allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, no walks, and 3 K’s. Chad Linder got hammered for 7 hits and 6 runs in 1 inning.

dayton 11 West Michigan 20
Bryan Pounds went 3 for 5 with a triple, a walk, and 6 RBI. Ben Guez doubled 3 times and drove in 5. Mike Gosse had 3 singles and drove in 4. Brandon Hamilton allowed 5 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks in 2 innings.

Aberdeen 4 Oneonta 6
Michael Rockett picked up 3 hits and is hitting 404/429/532 in his first 47 at-bats. Luis Palacios doubled, singled, and walked. Clemente Mendoza allowed just 1 hit and 1 run in 6 innings with no walks and 4 K’s.

GCL Tigers DNP

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.081: Tigers at Twins

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PREGAME: Rick Porcello gets the ball for the Tigers. Porcello has struggled in his last 3 starts allowing 32 baserunners in 15.2 innings and not making it out of the 5th inning in any of those starts. The last time (and only time) he face the Twins this year he threw 7 shutout innings.

Nick Blackburn goes for the Twins. Blackburn is a master of efficiency going 7 innings or more in 10 of his 16 starts this year and only topping the 100  pitch mark in 6 of his 16 starts. But when the Tigers faced him in May, they chased him in the 4th inning, one of only 2 times he didn’t make it to through the 6th inning this year. 

Detroit vs. Minnesota – July 5, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday