Figaro to join team Wednesday

Figaro has been formally recalled and Ryan Raburn has been optioned to Toledo where he’ll stay for at least the requisite ten days unless a DL stint is required. It could be longer however if Carlos Guillen is ready to return. Presumably Figaro is here short term just to get through the doubleheader with Thomas unavailable and the team probably preferring to give Bonine the day off as well.

With the double header scheduled for Wednesday, it appears that Alfredo Figaro will be joining the team in Detroit. Dontrelle Willis was reportedly still sick today, and the team is probably concerned about getting thin if Rick Porcello and Jeremy Bonderman struggle to put up innings.

It’s unclear at this point if Figaro has been activated or if he will just be in Detroit and available should the need present itself in game 2.

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5.11.2010

Toledo 4 Durham 4

Jeff Frazier doubled and drove in 3. Max Leon added 2 doubles. Armando Galarraga allowed 3 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings with 6 strikeouts. Jay Sborz got the 4 out save capping it with a strike out on a breaking ball.

Erie – PPD

Charlotte 0 Lakeland 3
Luke Putkonen pitched the first 6 innings of the shutout allowing 3 runs, 3 walks, and fanning 3. Brent Wyatt and Rawley Bishop each had 2 hits.

West Michigan – PPD

Tigers hang on against Yankees

The Tigers went to the reliever well once again, and again the bullpen delivered. Brad Thomas survived, Eddie Bonine bridged the gap, and the back end bent but didn’t break. In the end the Tigers got a much needed (and unexpected) win against a premiere team  after what was a pretty lousy five game road trip.

Thomas wasn’t exactly sharp. He barely threw more strikes than balls and pitched with runners on in each of his 3 innings. He didn’t strike out a batter. But he made it through 3 innings with minimal damage and for a spot start he certainly did what he needed to. Eddie Bonine got the ball to Joel Zumaya which this year has been a good feeling.

Zumaya pitched out of Bonine’s jam in the 6th, and had a very efficient 7th inning. With only 18 pitches thrown Leyland tried to get another inning out of him.  I can’t argue with the decision. On a night where you were burning the the bullpen, getting one more inning and saving another pitcher or two would have been huge. It didn’t work out.

Zumaya ended up being charged with 2 runs after a couple walks and infield hits. Fortunately Phil Coke and Ryan Perry finished the inning and the now 1 run lead was preserved thanks to a terrific play by Magglio Ordonez off the bat of Derek Jeter. (Watch the replay and watch Perry, he never went to back up anything thinking Maggs had it all the way)

Then it was Papa Grande’s turn and he fanned the side in the 9th with a devastating split finger pitch. I was sitting near the left field foul pole, and even there I could see the pitches absolutely dive for the dirt.

Brennan Boesch drove in 3 of the Tigers runs. I don’t know why any team throws him a first pitch fastball for a strike at this point as once again his triple came on the first pitch, right down the middle.  Johnny Damon had the fun of taking his former team deep.

  • The Ernie Harwell ceremony was terrific. Understated and respectful, much like Ernie.
  • Valverde must have thrown 70-80 pitches in the bullpen. He got up and threw in the 6th inning, not hard, just getting loose. Then he threw the bulk of the 8th inning. And then in between the 8th and the 9th.
  • Adam Everett nearly had a great game. He almost made a great play in the 8th, laying out for a line drive that hit off his glove. He added a single and a nicely executed sacrifice bunt (that was the time to sac bunt) leading to a run.

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5.10.2010

Toledo 6 Durham 2
Phil Dumatrait fanned 3, walked 1, and allowed just 2 runs on 4 hits in 5.2 innings. robbie Weinhardt, Daniel Schlereth and Jay Sborz took care of the rest. Clete Thomas has seen how much fun Brennan Boesch is having and he ripped his 4th homer in the last 7 days. Of course he only has 2 other hits over that time span so his average is still below .200. Ben Guez went 4 for 4 with 2 doubles.

Akron 1 Erie 4
Wilkin Ramirez doubled and tripled. Audy Ciriaco picked up 2 hits. Jon Kibler went 7.2 innings and allowed a run on 4 hits and 3 walks with 2 K’s.

Charlotte 2 Lakeland 1
Charlie Furbush fanned 13 of the 26 hitters he faced in an incredible 6.1 inning performance. The bats couldn’t get him a win though as they managed just 1 run. Alden Carrithers walked twice, singled, and doubled.

West Michigan 5 Lansing 6
Jacob Turner went again for the Whitecaps and allowed 4 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks in 4 innings to go along with 3 K’s. Kevin Faulk fanned 4 in 2 innings of relief work. Jamie Johnson tripled, singled, and walked. Wade Gaynor had 2 hits including his second homer. Alexis Espinoza had been hitting well of late, but took and 0’fer and fanned 3 times.

Game 2010.032: Yankees at Tigers

For the second time in the last couple weeks Dontrelle Willis will miss his scheduled start due to flu like symptoms. Understudy Brad Thomas will once again fill in. Here’s hoping that he can give the Tigers 50-60 pitches and that those pitches span at least 3 innings.

Sergio Mitre goes for the Yankees. This is Mitre’s first start of the season, so at least Thomas has the edge in games started.

For those heading down to the game tonight, the team will be honoring Ernie Harwell. At 6:15 the Fox Sports Ernie Harwell special will air on the scoreboard. There will also be a flag raised with Harwell’s initials and long time broadcast partner Paul Carey will throw out the first pitch which will be delivered by Ray Lane. Finally, Jose Feliciano will sing the National Anthem.

On paper this doesn’t look like it will be a good game for Tigers fans. I think we all should approach it like Ernie would. The first time I interviewed Dan Dickerson I asked him about what it was like broadcasting for a really bad team, and he harkened back to advice Ernie gave him:

It really goes back to some advice Ernie gave me early in my career, when in 2001 the Tigers started 9-23, and that was supposed to be a pretty good team with the Juan Gonzalez trade and the deals they made. I said “How do you do this?” This was my team, they are 9-23 and I was down. He said “Remember, every game stands on its own.” That advice was very simple but it really stuck. You might see something you’ve never seen before, you might see a great individual performance, you might see a great game between two bad teams. And it’s true, it sounds so simple and I think all fans realize that, and that’s why you have fans at games. For some reason, just to hear him say that, it really stuck with me and I found it’s true.

Let’s just see what this game has in store for us tonight.

New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers – May 10, 2010

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5.9.2010

Toledo 1 Norfolk 4
Jeff Larish homered and singled. Casper Wells added 2 hits and Clete Thomas drew 2 walks. Ryan Ketchner allowed 3 runs in 6 innings with 1 walk and 4 K’s.

Erie 10 Altoona 7
Andy Oliver had a strong start, allowing 3 runs in 7.1 innings on 5 hits, 1 walk, and 3 strikeouts. Max St. Pierre tripled and homered. Michael Bertram and Josh Burrus each added homers. Wilkin Ramirez doubled, singled, and drove in 4.

Lakeland DNP

Bowling Green 10 West Michigan 7
Wade Gaynor doubled twice as part of a 3 for 5 day. Jordan Lennerton went 3 for 3 with 2 walks. Jamie Johnson singled and doubled. Alexis Espinoza added a triple. Trevor Feeney was knocked around for 13 hits in just 4 innings

Game 2010.031: Tigers at Indians

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. The Tigers will try and help you celebrate with a rain-truncated sweep of the Indians. That responsibility will fall in large part on the arm of Max Scherzer.

Scherzer is probably just happy to not be facing the Twins. In his 4 starts not against the Twins he has allowed 11 runs. In two turns against Minnesota he has surrendered 16 runs. He’s never face the Indians.

Mitch Talbot goes for the Indians. He sports a 2.88 ERA and I have no idea how. In 34.1 innings he has 15 walks and only 12 strikeouts and he’s given up 5 homers. And aside from 1 start against the White Sox where he induced 19 ground balls, he isn’t keeping the ball on the ground either. Lefties are only OPS’ing him at a .593 pace due in large part to a .163 BABIP.

Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians – May 9, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5.8.2010

Toledo 10 Norfolk 3
Alfredo Figaro held Norfolk to 1 run in 6 innings on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 6 K’s. Clete Thomas had a huge game with a triple and 2 homers. Danny Worth added a homer and a single. Brent Dlugach and Jeff Frazier also had 2 hits.

Erie 7 Altoona 9
Andy Dirks had 2 doubles and a single. Michael Bertram added a homer and 2 singles. Cale Iorg doubled and singled. Thad Weber hung in for 6.2 innings but he allowed 9 runs on 13 hits.

Lakeland 5 Dunedin 4
Rawley Bishop doubled twice. Alden Carrithers, Bryan Pounds, Daniel Fields, and Billy Nowlin all had 2 hits apiece. Adam Wilk found his strike out pitch with 9 K’s and no walks in 5.2 innings as he scattered 9 hits and allowed 3 runs.

Bowling Green 2 West Michigan 4
West Michigan managed only 4 singles, but they plated 4 runs with the help of 3 hits. Ramon Lebron pitched 5 innings of shut out ball with 7 K’s, 4 walks, and 4 hits allowed.

It was a breezy day

On a day when mother nature was serving up gusts in excess of 50mph, Tigers pitchers had Indians hitters adding some wind of their own. Of the 27 outs recorded by Detroit, 15 were via the strike out.

Justin Verlander had one of those in-between type days. He was perfect for the first 10 outs. Then he got a little erratic. Then he couldn’t put away hitters quickly. It ended up being a quality start and he ended up with 9 strike outs in 6 innings. A good outing to be sure, but it didn’t seem to be quite as good as it should have been.

He handed the ball off to Joel Zumaya who bordered between hitable and unhitable. He had 5 K’s in 2 innings, but also allowed 3 straight hits in the 8th leading to a run. Again, not complaining here.

The big potato picked up the 1-2-3 save and added the last strike out.

Offensively the Tigers managed to claw out a number of two out runs. Scott Sizemore and Miguel Cabrera had bases loaded knocks to drive in 5 of the Tigers 6 runs.

  • Mike “corn flakes” Reilly (a named bestowed by Ernie Harwell due to Reilly’s Battle Creeek hometown) had a HUGE zone at the beginning of the game. The outside corner was spacious to say the least, but he pulled that in about the 4th innings. Pitches that were strikes earlier ceased to be so, and that’s when Verlander started walking some folks.
  • The Tigers added 11 strikeouts of their own. Two by Johnny Damon who didn’t put a ball in play in 5 plate appearances, he walked 3 times.

Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians – May 8, 2010 – MLB.com Wrap

Game 2010.030: Tigers at Indians Redux

We’ll try this again, although the conditions don’t look much better than last night. Dan Dickerson reports that there are 60mph win gusts in Cleveland. Regardless of the direction of the wind, it will certainly making catching the ball a challenge.

That wind would certainly seem to favor Justin Masterson who gets 56.8% of balls hit on the ground as opposed to the other Justin, Justin Verlander who only has a 38.2% ground ball rate.

Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians – May 8, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5.5.2010

Toledo – DNP

Binghamton 2 Erie 4
Jon Kibler lasted only 4 innings, allowing 2 runs on 2 solo homers to go along with 2 walks and 4 K’s. Zach Simons pitched 3 innings allowing just one baserunner with 5 strikeouts. Brendan Wise got the 2 inning save. Michael Bertram doubled and singled. Cesar Nicolas homered. Cale Iorg picked up 2 hits and is hitting 324/395/471 in his last 10 games.

Dayton 4 Lakeland 3
Brent Wyatt had 3 singles. Kody Kaiser tripled. Rawley Bishop hit his 4th home run. Luke Putkonen allowed 3 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings with 5 K’s.

West Michigan 6 Great Lakes 8
Jacob Turner made his return from the disabled list. He left with 2 outs and 2 on in the 4th inning. Both those runners would score and his final line read 3.2 innings, 3 hits, 1 walk, 3 K’s, 1 HR, 4 R, 2 ER. He evidently battled command as he became fatigued in the 3rd inning with 31 of his 64 pitches going for strikes. Michael Rockett homered and doubled. Jamie Johnson and Mike Gosse each had 2 hits. Jordan Lennerton drew 3 walks.