All posts by Coleman

Game 2015.32: Royals at Tigers

Tonight the Tigers look to bounce back after a lackluster loss in the rubber game of the three-game series against the division-leading Kansas City Royals.

That is if the weather permits–there is a 68% chance of rain predicted for game time. A rainout might not be the worst thing that ever happened: a perplexing and perhaps perplexed Shane Greene will have to keep the Royals under control since the Tigers are facing Chris “Cy” Young tonight.

How bad have the Tigers done against Young? Well the combined career average of tonight’s lineup against Young is .115 (that is not a typo, 7-for-61), with only Andrew Romine with more than 1 hit (2-for-4).

Cabrera is 5-for-16 against Young–in striking out. Not to mention it’s a night game, and Cabrera is for some reason putting up bizarrely bad numbers at night this season:

Miguel Cabrera Day:

76 PA .460 BA 1.381 OPS

Miguel Cabrera Night:

57 PA .167 BA .465 OPS

What’s the opposite of a vampire? We may have one in our midst.

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If you recall (well, even if you don’t, I suppose), I pointed out yesterday that Anthony Gose was the 3rd most valuable player on the team, ranked by WAR, which is incredible since he is only a platoon player. Today I thought to add the WAR of Gose and Davis to see how much our two-headed center fielder is worth, and he’s the most valuable player on the team with a WAR of 1.5 (Cabrera comes in 2nd with 1.4). Not only that, with a WAR of 1.5 our Gose-Davis guy would be 8th most valuable player in the league, although well behind Lorenzo Cain with his ridiculous 2.6 WAR. It’s a bit early in the season to care about stats like that, but still, the Gose-Davis combination has worked brilliantly so far.

* * * * * * * * * *

I’m currently wearing a Tigers t-shirt that was a gift from my mom. Happy Mother’s Day to her, and all the moms out there!

Today’s Win-One-For-Mom Lineup:

  1. Anthony Gose, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  6. JD Martinez, RF
  7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  8. James McCann, C
  9. Andrew Romine, SS

Iglesias due to return on Tuesday.

Game 2015.31: Royals at Tigers

Yesterday’s game was looking like it was going to be a reverse of the series in Kansas City, with the Tigers opening up with a blowout, but it turned into a close game with an unusual and exciting finish. After Gose led off the inning with a double, Ian Kinsler laid down the perfect bunt to advance him to 3rd, but and ill-advised throw to first went astray, and Gose scampered home. Nothing like a walk off bunt!

Some commenter here had voiced concerns that Kinsler had no power this season, but I’ll take a singles-hitting Kinsler, especially behind the speedy two-headed leadoff platoon. Gose and Kinsler were a combined 7-for-8 for the game, which moved Gose up to the 3rd most valuable Tiger by WAR, right behind the aforementioned Kinsler.

The win didn’t come without a price though–David Price stepped on a stray bat going to cover home and injured his hamstring, although Price is optimistic that he will recover in time for his next start.

The injury news is worse for Alex Avila, who sat out yesterday’s game with a forearm bruise, after taking a foul ball off the arm on Thursday. While he was out he had an MRI on a knee that was bothering him: “loose bodies” were found, and he is going to have surgery to remove them. He is on the 15-day DL, but will likely be out 6 weeks.The Tigers have recalled Bryan Holaday from Toledo. We will be getting a very good look at James McCann now.

Today’s It’s Somebody’s-Birthday-In-Dallas Lineup:

  1. Anthony Gose, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  6. JD Martinez, RF
  7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  8. James McCann, C
  9. Andrew Romine, SS

 

Still no Iglesias..

Game 2015.30: Royals at Tigers

Well, here we are, the 2nd big Tigers-Royals series of the season. The last time they played the Royals crushed the Tigers the first two games, then the Tigers valiantly saved a series split behind great pitching by Price and Sanchez. And guess what? The way the rotation lines up the Tigers lead off with Price and Sanchez, so I’m looking for a better start to this series.

It’s hard to say enough about what Kyle Lobstein did last night. For a #6 starter for the team, he has been far beyond what anyone could have realistically expected. Most importantly, he has pitched efficiently, logging 7-plus innings for 3 consecutive starts now, and sparing us for the horror of the Blowpen attack. Thumbs up for the Lobster.

Right-handed Victor Martinez is in full Dr. Jekyll mode now, banging out hits while the left-handed Mr. Hyde, well, makes you want to hide. So tonight he will try batting right-handed against the right-handed Ventura. Just kidding! Because, you know, he’s a switch-hitter.

In other news, the JD Martinez bat has been seen displayed on milk cartons in the Detroit area.

Tonight’s Royal Pain Lineup:

  1. Anthony Gose, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, D
  5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  6. JD Martinez, RF
  7. Alex Avila, C James McCann, C
  8. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  9. Andrew Romine, SS

Jose Iglesias is still all groinish. Moustakas is out for KC with family issues; let’s wish him well.

Avila was announced as the catcher in the official lineup, and yet…that guy behind the plate is McCann. Hmm.

I did not know that: Anthony Gose is the 4th most valuable Tiger in terms of WAR, after Miguel Cabrera, Ian Kinsler, and Jose Iglesias. Pretty impressive for a platoon player!

Game 2015.29: Tigers at White Sox

And so the Blowpen, that creature that was almost starting to seem like a myth, rears its ugly head.

In retrospect, you could see this coming by the third inning.

Simon was holding off the White Sox, but very inefficiently, up to 60 pitches before he got the 2nd out of the inning. Clearly this was going to be a game where the bullpen would be a factor. Unfortunately, in Tuesday’s game Shane Greene couldn’t even make it through the 3rd, and the bullpen pitched the majority of the game. This left Al Alburquerque, Tom Gorzelanny, and Joba Chamberlain as the only real options for the Tigers, and with the dangerous right-handers in the Chicago lineup, and the struggles of Alburquerque, it’s hard to argue with the choice to go to Chamberlain.

Why he didn’t pull him when he was getting bombed is a mystery I can’t solve.

Oh yeah, Joba Chamberlain, he’s still on the team, right? When is the last time he pitched, anyway? (He got 2 batters on May 1 against KC). Joba was doing OK up until tonight. But he’d never gone as long as 4 games without an appearance. I know it seems that Ausmus didn’t get him out in time, but it all happened pretty fast. I do think that we may have a case of bullpen mismanagement though: surely, if you have a guy that you are going to trust to take over in a close game, you can’t let him sit for a week.

Last season Chamberlain appeared 68 times, and only 8 of them were with 4 days or more rest, and the majority of them with 0-2 days rest.

Alburquerque, by the way, has been battling sinus problems, which seems like a lame excuse for bad pitching. Then again, do any of you remember how we ended up getting him in the first place? Colorado gave up on him; besides struggling on the mound he had been struggling with headaches. The Tigers grabbed him and he got what was described as “serious dental problems” fixed, and went on to be a great reliever for Detroit.

Despite the disappointing blowpen appearance, we may look back on this game as a turning point, in a good way: Victor hit a home run. Is V-Mart back (at least right-handed)? I won’t miss that Inge-Mart guy.

Today’s Can’t Let These Clowns Sweep Us Lineup:

  1. Rajai Davis, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  6. JD Martinez, RF
  7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  8. Alex Avila, C
  9. Hernan Perez, SS

Iglesias gets another day off. Troubling.

Game 2015.28: Tigers at White Sox

The Tigers wasted a chance to jump on a struggling White Sox team last night, as a leadoff run and a fielder-assisted home run by Alex Avila was all the offense they could muster. Shane Greene struggled again, but the bullpen picked him up with 5 sharp scoreless innings; however, the Tigers never really offered a threat. They say hitting is contagious; apparently slumping is also, and the infectious zone is the middle of the lineup: the 3–6 hitters were a combined 0-for-15.

Which brings us to Victor Martinez, the leader of the slump-pack. Actually “slump” is a bad word for where Victor is at right now, he’s just not able to drive the ball, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. I know the poor guy is trying his best out there, but hey, I’m trying my best to write a good post today and still this is all you get.

I mentioned a week or so ago that Victor Martinez was the worst #4 hitter in the league, and it’s gotten worse, to the point where he is now pushing for League’s Least Valuable Player:  going by WAR, Victor is more valuable than all of *2* players in the entire American League, Rene Rivera on the Rays, and Matt Joyce on LA (Matt Joyce? How’d that happen?). I know it’s early to be looking at WAR, but I’d be shocked if Victor’s is any better at the end of the month.

So what to do? One solution would be to at least get him out of the 4th spot. Replacing him is harder now that JD is in a huge slump, but I’d go with Cespedes. It doesn’t matter though; moving a guy like Victor to the bottom of the order is never going to happen, too many Respect issues involved. Which leaves giving him an extended rest, and replacing him at DH (I’d go with Rajai or even Romine, and make it a speed lineup). Victor doesn’t want the rest though, and in fact says he needs the at bats. And those that know these things say 15 days off isn’t going to help his knee much anyway. So we are where we are.

The Tigers went through this with Victor in 2013 also, when he was coming back from a previous injury. He stood out a bit less then, batting 5th between Prince Fielder and a hot Jhonny Peralta, but as of June 30, 2013, he was hitting .232 with a .627 OPS, which beats this season’s .203 /.531, but still isn’t acceptable DH work. The second half of the season he hit .361 with a .940 OPS, including a ridiculous .390 in July. So I guess the plan is to just suck it up and hope history repeats itself.

In other news, Green means go!!! Thus tweets Justin Verlander, who has begun throwing again, and it sounds like he can’t wait to get back to it. And speaking of getting back to it, earning a promotion to Toledo is none other than Ryan Perry, who last appeared in a MLB game in 2012.

Today’s Can Victor Stay Above the Inge Line? Lineup:

  1. Rajai Davis, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  6. JD Martinez, RF
  7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  8. James McCann C
  9. Jose Iglesias, SS

Jose has loosened up groin-wise, and returns, as the struggling JD Martinez slides down a spot in the lineup. McCann takes over for the hot bat of Alex Avila with a lefty on the mound.

Game 2015.27: Tigers at White Sox

The Tigers looked like they were heading for a losing series in Kansas City, until a complete game gem by David Price and 5 innings or perfect game to start Sunday’s game by Anibal Sanchez led them back to what turned out to be a satisfying series split.

Hopefully the day off didn’t cool any momentum the Tigers had, and if momentum in baseball is really your next game’s starter, let’s hope Shane Greene pitches more like his first few starts than like his last two. The weather in Chicago is foggy and drizzly, and we know how the Tigers have done in sketchy weather this season. On the other hand, the White Sox have had a rough week and are riding a 5-game losing streak, which began with an empty-stadium loss and Baltimore, followed by a 4-game sweep by the Twins.

Tonight’s lineup will be missing Jose Iglesias, who joins Rajai Davis in the tight groin club and is day-to-day. Iglesias’ .345 bat will be replaced by The Lettuce, who is merely hitting .545 with an OPS of 1.188. Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t get much better than that from your #9 hitters.

Tonight’s Tightly-Groined Tigers lineup:

  1. Anthony Gose, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. JD Martinez, RF
  6. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  8. Alex Avila, C
  9. Andrew Romine, SS

Game 2015.22: Tigers at Twins

It wasn’t cold last night, and the Tigers didn’t hit into a bunch of double plays or leave a dozen men on base. The latest winning streak came to an end because last night Cy Pelfrey baffled the Tigers to the tune of only 3 hits and 6 total base runners. Was this the first “tip your cap” game of the season? Although with no Jim Leyland around there was nobody to literally say “you have to tip your cap to him,” although Victor Martinez came close with “you have to give him credit and move on.” OK, we’ll go with that.

Speaking of Victor Martinez, there is a hole in the Tigers lineup which is like the elephant in the room. The Tigers are close to having the weakest cleanup hitter in baseball; in the American League only Minnesota is worse. The prime 4th spot in the lineup has given the Tigers this so far: .247 BA .654 OPS (which includes a paltry .301 slugging percentage) and more double plays grounded into (4) than extra base hits (2). The Tigers have been lucky so far to get surprisingly good production from their 9th and leadoff hitters, and that won’t last, which will only make the hole look bigger, and lead to more games like the game last week in Cleveland where Miguel Cabrera only got one swing in the entire game.

Things that will never happen: moving Yoenis Cespedes up to the cleanup spot until Victor gets his legs back would put a bat behind Cabrera that would actually scare pitchers now and then.

Today’s Bag O’ Lettuce Lineup:

  1. Rajai Davis, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. JD Martinez, RF
  6. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  8. James McCann C
  9. Andrew Romine, SS

Rajai is back today to try out his rested groin, James McCann replaces The Walkman, and Andrew Romine gets his first start since April 11, when he had a hit, 3 walks, and 2 stolen bases.

Game 2015.21: Tigers at Twins

By now most of you will have heard the bad news that Kirk Gibson has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which explains his absence from the broadcasting booth. Jason Beck has a collection of reactions to the news.  As Brad Ausmus says, “I can’t see Kirk Gibson folding up shop and crawling into a corner over this.” Best wishes to one of the most memorable Tigers from the Sparky era.

Well, the Tigers tried an experiment last night with the lineup, and it worked:  Jose Iglesias went nuts in the 2nd spot, with three hits including a home run (!) and a triple. People are already starting to talk about how his success isn’t sustainable (which of course it isn’t), just as his average his rookie season was a fluke, based on an abnormal number of infield hits. At a certain point though, if a guy is consistently “lucky”…well, maybe the “luck” will last a while.

At any rate, with a right-hander on the mound, the experiment is over and Iglesias takes his seat at the back of the Bottom-of-the-Order Boys section of the lineup.

Tonight’s Win-One-For-The-Gibby Lineup:

  1. Anthony Gose, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. JD Martinez, RF
  6. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  7. Alex Avila, C
  8. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  9. Jose Iglesias, SS

Game 2015.20: Tigers at Twins

The Tigers are back to winning, taking the Indians series with a 2-game winning streak, and now they get the Twins, who they dominated by a combined score of 22-1 to start the season. It would be nice to get some momentum to take on the road to Kansas City on Friday.

The victory Sunday came with a cost, however, as Rajai Davis had to leave the game with a groin strain and is day-to-day. Davis says he doesn’t “think it’s serious at all,” but you may recall Davis struggled down the stretch at the end of last season with a bad groin.

David Price laid an egg his last start, on a night on which he said he couldn’t feel his fingers. It’s should be in the high 60s in Minneapolis tonight.

Today’s Price-Is-Right Lineup:

  1. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  2. Jose Iglesias, SS
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. JD Martinez, RF
  6. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  7. Alex Avila, C
  8. Hernan Perez, 3B
  9. Anthony Gose, CF

This is the most different lineup of the season so far. With Davis out, Gose plays center, but against the lefty Milone is slotted 9th, which gives Kinsler his first leadoff spot of the year. Also Iglesias moves up to 2nd, which, considering how often he puts the ball in play, should be a good spot for him. The slumping LOB machine Nick Castellanos gets a day off. The two missed pop flies in the same at bat could not have helped his cause.

Game 2015.16: Yankees at Tigers

Well, there is one good thing about last night’s game. But what it is I couldn’t tell you. I guess if you were at the game, the beer stayed cold, we’ll go with that.

The Tigers turn to Anibal Sanchez to stop their first losing streak of the season, and hope to see the old Anibal, or at least not the one from the past two games. Over his last start Sanchez has only managed a combined 9.2 innings pitched, and given up 14 earned runs, including 5 long balls (he only gave up 4 HRs all of 2014).

If Sanchez struggles again this time out, the well-worked bullpen will be severely tested. The Tigers brought up a fresh arm today to help out: Ian Krol, who would be unavailable today anyway, was sent to Toledo and swapped out for right-hander Alex Wilson, who came to Detroit from Boston in the Rick Porcello trade. Wilson has yet to give up a run this season in Toledo, and is 3 for 3 in saves.

And speaking of saves, today the Tigers announced the sad news that Joe Nathan will be having season-ending Tommy John surgery. I wasn’t in any particular hurry to see Joe take the closer role back from Soria, but nonetheless this is a tough break for Nathan, and it’s hard to not see this as the end of his very good career.

Today’s Chilled-Out Lineup:

  1. Anthony Gose, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. JD Martinez, RF
  6. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  7. Alex Avila, C
  8. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  9. Hernan Perez, SS

Castellanos takes a step back in the order, and Iglesias gets a day off.

Game 2015.15: Yankees at Tigers

As good as Monday’s game was, the Tigers dribbled through Tuesday’s game like an egregiously under-inflated basketball.  It’s not that the game wasn’t close; The Lobster, despite a shaky start, got through 6 innings with only one run, and the Tigers went into the 7th down only 1-0. In fact Detroit had the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the 9th. But somehow this game felt different, perhaps because of the 4 double plays: seemingly every time a baserunner got on, the next guy took him off, so the game just had one of those this-isn’t-our-day feels. Maybe it was the cold, rainy weather.

Tonight should be less rainy, but even colder (it should be below 40 before the game ends), in other words even more of the same from last night. Of course we get David Price on the mound, but the starting pitching hasn’t been much of a problem this season (ahem, Anibal); lately, somehow, the problem has been scoring runs–in the last 7 games, the Tigers have scored more than 3 runs only once, which has been masked by their 5-2 record over that period.

Tonight is the polymer game of the 4-game series. Expect a lot of ground balls today, it being Earth Day and all.

Tonight’s Same As Last Night Lineup:

  1. Anthony Gose, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. JD Martinez, RF
  6. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  8. Alex Avila, C
  9. Jose Iglesias, SS

Pitchers: David Price vs. Adam Warren

Nick Castellanos, who began the season at the plate in pretty aggravating fashion, has quietly begun to put up some good at bats. He is 1-for-2 against Warren, with a triple. I’m looking for the Bottom of the Order Boys to pick up the offense tonight.

In other news, Joe Nathan had to leave his rehab assignment early with a possible elbow injury, which drew a collective shrug from Tiger fans nationwide.

 

 

Game 2015.14: Yankees at Tigers

Well I hope you all got to watch last night’s game, which more than lived up to its Monday Night Baseball billing, and all in a brisk 2:20.

With great pitching and great defense on both sides, the game came down to a couple of plays, although Tom Gage found 10 pivotal points in the game.

Alfredo Simon again had a good start, but C.C. Sabathia might have been even better, picking at the boundaries of a generous strike zone, and backed by stellar outfield play and highlight catches by Gardner and Ellsbury, though they were outdone by the great play by Jose Iglesias, which even had Omar Vizquel shaking his head in wonder.

For me the pivotal point in the game wasn’t until the 8th inning. The Tigers had just taken a 2-1 lead, and the Yankees looked like they were going to take cover that run in the top of the 8th, when Didi Gregorius singled with Stephen Drew on 2nd. Rajai Davis, however, was playing an unusually shallow center, and Headley was held at 3rd, even though Davis turned out to bobble the ball. This left runners on 1st and 3rd, and ex-Yankee Joba Chamberlain promptly got a double play ball from Ellsbury, and that was that.

Well, one good win deserves another. Tonight Kyle Lobstein will don the eyeglasses as he takes on righty Nathan Eovaldi (in fact the Tigers won’t face another lefty all week).

Tonight’s Undefeated at Night Lineup:

  1. Anthony Gose, CF
  2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. Victor Martinez, DH
  5. JD Martinez, RF
  6. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
  7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  8. Alex Avila, C
  9. Jose Iglesias, SS