Monthly Archives: April 2016

Game Post

Game 2016.1: Tigers at Marlins

45 Comments

Happy Opening Day Everybody!

Miguel Cabrera carefully selects the bat the will bring to the plate, while across Marlins Park Dee Gordon does the same, in the much-anticipated, historic Opening Day meeting between league batting champions, for the first time in Major League Baseball history.

Thanks to ESPN for that one, I never would have guessed it on my own. Not that Opening Day should need any extra hooks to pull you in, but I must admit it’s a bit odd to start the season out with an interleague game, and on Tuesday at that. So much for every team starting the season in first place: the Tigers are already in third. Never mind though, the 2016 Tiger season is here. Play ball!

Of course, being an interleague game in a National League park, there is no designated hitter, so the Tigers will start the season with a not-everyday lineup. Originally, Brad Ausmus had planned to go with Cabrera at 3rd base and Victor Martinez at first, but a tweaked Martinez hamstring changed his mind on that.

After losing the honors to David Price last season, Justin Verlander will take the mound again in his 8th Opening Day start, as he edges into Jack Morris territory (Jack Morris has the franchise record with 11 Opening Day starts). If I weren’t afraid of heights I’d go out on a limb here, but I’ll settle for throwing out a hunch that this season Verlander will show that he’s not quite done yet. New manager Don Mattingly gives Wei-Yin Chen the honors for the Marlins, and will start off with a challenge—Ian Kinsler has a career 1.045 OPS against Chen.

Tonight’s 2016 Opening Day lineup:

  1. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  2. Justin Upton, LF
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. JD Martinez, RF
  5. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  6. James McCann, C
  7. Jose Iglesias, SS
  8. Anthony Gose, CF
  9. Justin Verlander, P

I’m mildly surprised to see Kinsler in the leadoff spot in the lineup, I would have predicted Gose. Is Ausmus taking advantage of the Kinsler-Chen history?

2015 Season, Game Post, Roster Management

Your 2016 Detroit Tigers

8 Comments

Here is a look of the team the Tigers will be sending out on Opening Day tomorrow:

Detroit Tigers 2016 Opening Day Roster

Pitchers:

Starters:

  • Justin Verlander (R)
  • Jordan Zimmerman (R)
  • Anibal Sanchez (R)
  • Mike Pelfrey (R)
  • Shane Greene (R)

Relief Pitchers:

  • Buck Farmer (R)
  • Logan Kensing (R)
  • Mark Lowe (R)
  • Drew Verhagen (R)
  • Francisco Rodriguez (R)
  • Kyle Ryan (L)
  • Justin Wilson (L)

In the starting rotation, Zimmerman and Sanchez replace Price and Simon from last year’s Opening Day roster, but it’s the relief corp where the greatest turnover has happened; in fact the entire bullpen has turned over. It’s hard to imagine this group not being able to improve on what Alburquerque, Chamberlain, Gorzelanny, Krol, Nathan, Nesbitt, Rondon and Soria provided last season, but then again things didn’t look as bad at the start of last season as they turned out to be, so keep the seat belts fastened and trays in an upright position. The starting rotation looks solid, or maybe solid-ish, and should at least be able to burn a lot of innings. Sanchez’ health is suspect, as usual, but the Tigers have Daniel Norris parked on the DL as another starter.

Other pitchers on the 15-Day DL: Jeff Ferrell, Blaine Hardy, Angel Nesbitt, and Alex Wilson.

Position Players:

Starters:

  • C James McCann
  • 1B Miguel Cabrera
  • 2B Ian Kinsler
  • 3B Nick Castellanos
  • SS Jose Iglesias
  • LF Justin Upton
  • CF Anthony Gose
  • RF JD Martinez
  • DH Victor Martinez

Bench

  • C Jarrod Saltalamacchia
  • INF/OF Andrew Romine
  • INF/OF Mike Aviles
  • OF Tyler Collins

There has been less turnover on the position player side, with the most noticeable difference from last season being Justin Upton in left field instead of Cespedes. McCann should be a big upgrade from Avila offensively, with a solid backup in Saltalamacchia, who can also spell Cabrera at first. The CF position looks very week, with only Anthony Gose—who thinks analytic stats are a scam—and some non-CF-type backups. Goes had a good spring training at the plate, but then again he started well last season also. Cameron Maybin is on the DL for a bit, and will probably bump Collins then. As usual the key to the lineup will be the health of Victor Martinez.

One other big change between the 2015 and 2016 Tigers is the man putting the roster together. It will be interesting to see how Avila handles in-season roster changes. His acquisitions of Upton and Zimmerman were very Dombrowski-esque.