Game 2011.120: Tigers at Orioles

Six consecutive two out hits last night, including Cabrera’s first HR since July 28th, turned the tables on Cy Guthrie and got the boys to a season high 9 games over .500.  Weather permitting (there is a 100% chance of rain in Baltimore today), the Tigers will look to go 10 games over .500.

Kudos to the pitching staff…despite severe troubles at the plate, the Tigers are 8-4 over their last 12, though only scoring 3.5 runs per game.  I did not know that it was this bad.  The Tigers look for their first win in over two weeks by more than a run.

Neat article in today’s Freep about Inge’s time at Toledo.  Though I don’t think the article will help him to hit a big league fastball.

Guillen to the DL.  Not necessarily a bad thing.  He’s not helping any in the lineup.  Rhymes up, Santiago to start today.

As Peralta, Avila and Betemit mash the ball today, just remind yourself, “Austin Jackson and his 85 OPS+ will get one additional potentially crucial AB in the 8th or 9th that these .300 hitters will not get.”

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Andy Dirks, LF
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Ryan Raburn, 3B
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Ramon Santiago, 2B

 

28 thoughts on “Game 2011.120: Tigers at Orioles”

  1. Guillen’s wrist is about as sore as mine. This way they don’t have to release him, can have him do ‘rehab’ in Toledo and activate him on 9/1.

    1. It would be more precise to say: “Guillen’s wrist is still sore” (going on three years now), and “Guillen’s ______ is also still sore.”

  2. Inge OK with the fastball, it’s the outside breaking stuff he can’t hit.
    So long Carlos.
    MaDPlio – another good reason to have Cabrera hit 3rd.
    I’m OK with JaKKson leading off vs lefties, otherwise to the very bottom of the order.
    Peralta not mashing his last ten games: .250, 2 doubles, 0 BI

      1. Not to get on Jeff Jones or anything, but Rick Knapp would never have allowed him to go out there with that.

  3. Our weak hitting, poor defense and fairly lousy starting pitching has been on full display lately.

  4. Didn’t Jo-Jo Reyes just get out of a stint where he went a full season’s worth of starts without a win or something like that?

    1. With all due respect to Mr Reyes, he’s a pretty awful pitcher that the Tigers made look awfully good today. Tiger hitters/coaching must have looked at Reyes’ stats over the past dozen games and thought today would be a cake-walk, and as it turned out, it was… for Mr Reyes.

      silver-lining: it wasn’t against the CSW or CLE and JL may have finally come to the realization that Raburn should never get another start at 3B

    1. Well he’s still a ways away from Dunn on WAR score, even though the rankings placement is close. And for a guy with his skill, talent level, and track record, it’s statistically unlikely for him in the future to perform at dead last WAR which is what we would have to do to catch Dunn. If Ordonez played the entire year and had the same number of PAs, then without knowing the results of that it would be statistically improbable for him to lower his score with additional atbats, and even less likely as you increase the number of opportunities. It’s easy to go 0% if you have 1 attempt, but not if you have a million. In the long run the law of large numbers postulates that to hit an extreme range of standard deviations is less likely than in a smaller sample size.

      Plus WAR isn’t the end-all be-all of determining a hitter’s production worth.

      What happened in the past is no longer relevant, the stat that matters is what Ordonez’s WAR is in the future, starting from today. This same logical perspective also justifies why we need Brandon Inge on this team, and NOT in the minors where he can’t possibly help us!

      1. Also it’s funny how when Inge was proclaimed an All-Star that I was jumping out of my seat wanting to trade him, but fans were moreso against me than ever to trade him at that point. That was when he was his best and I had disliked him the most out of all Detroit fans. Now that he is at his lowest point, I like him the most out of all Detroit fans. I find this to be simultaneously hilarious and sad.

      2. Yeah….we need Inge on this team about as much as we need me on this team. Betemit strikes out a lot too, but at least when he puts the ball in play it is with some authority.

        1. Authority? But his overall production isn’t qualified, so whatever authority he gets, it hasn’t been enough. And we still need somebody to play 3B on days that he doesn’t play, and we have a shortage of quality infielders, so being a quality baseball player is not a requirement to be part of this team right now.

          Plus we need somebody that can play decent defense, and Inge is better than Betemit at that. So your comparison to needing him as much as we need you makes no sense to me.

  5. Question: Can anyone tell me when the last time we swept somebody was? I honestly can’t remember one since we swept Minnesota in May. Pretty unbelievable to go two months without sweeping anybody and still be in forst by 2.5 games.

    1. It only matters how many total games you win or lose. Winning or losing a series is irrelevant, as the games count, not the series titles. If you have a 3 game series and win all 3, then you only get 3 points for that, not a 4th point for also taking the series. To talk about winning the series in every series we have is illogical and irrelevant, there is no special prize for being able to say that you have accomplished that distinction, thus it is also illogical to think that “winning a series” means anything versus “not winning a series”. The individual games you win or lose are already factored and to worry about such a title is nonsensical as it would be double counting something you already assigned a value to during those individual and already played games that are in the past. Thus at no point in the middle of a series does it matter if you “win a series”.

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