Category Archives: 2009 Season

Game 2009.154: Tigers at White Sox

PREGAME: One thing about the divison race has become increasingly evident. The Twins won’t lose. So the Tigers just need to respond by not losing too. Simple right?

Nate Robertson gets the start. I’m sure after watching Eddie Bonine take a loss last night he’s just chomping at the bit.

Freddy Garcia is still alive and pitching tonight for the White Sox. Not only is he still alive, he has a streak of 6 straight quality starts. Egads!

Detroit vs. Chi White Sox – September 26, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME:

[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

This pretty much tells the story:

290926104_Tigers_WhiteSox_143447828_lbig

This one got off to a scary start. Nate Robertson didn’t have the good stuff tonight. The way some of his breaking balls stayed way out side had me wondering if the groin, g-g-groin, g-g-groin (Cheers reference) injury was flaring up again. He surrendered all 5 runs, and it could have been worse without some nifty defense from Carlos Guillen in left field and a heck of a double play turn by Adam Everett.

The offense will get a lot of attention (and rightfully so) for awaking from a 13 inning scoreless slumber. It turned into a blow out thanks to some hard hit balls, and some weakly hit balls hit to the right spot, and some routinely hit balls that went between infielders.

But could it be that on this night the star is a mop-up man who threw 2.2 innings of scoreless ball to keep the game from getting out of hand and allowing the offense the opportunity to get back into it? Alfredo Figaro’s 1 hit performance tonight was huge, huge I say.

One thing that is, um, mysterious, is why use your primary set-up guy for 2 innings in a blow out? Especially with Seay day-to-day? I don’t get the Brandon Lyon usage.

  • Everybody hit except for Brandon Inge who has 6 K’s in his last 8 plate appearances. Use the game link to see the box score. Lot’s of hits (20) all around.
  • Zach Miner with another strong performance.

Game 2009.153: Tigers at White Sox

PREGAME: The Tigers enter into their final road series of the season. They’ll face a White Sox team who was eliminated from the division crown last night. They’ll face a White Sox team who was just swept by the Twins despite having Mark Buehrle and John Danks go in the series.

The Tigers send out Eddie Bonine. Bonine makes just his 3rd start of the season, but it his second against the White Sox. Back when the White Sox were hot on the Tigers tails Bonine was called on to pitch the backend of a double header and he held the sox Sox to 3 runs in 6 innings.

Jake Peavy makes just his second start since the trade that sent him from the Padres. In his first time out he allowed just 3 hits and 2 walks over 5 innings to the Royals, but 3 runs came around to score.

Detroit vs. Chi White Sox – September 25, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I can’t really add much that won’t show up in a regular game story. Eddie Bonine allows 2 hits and takes a loss because the offense can’t get anything done. Heck the offense could barely put balls in play with 12 K’s. And Inge made an error. And Adam Everett was used as a pinch hitter for the designated hitter.

Tigers Minors News

Just because the regular minor league seasons are over doesn’t mean there isn’t news coming out about the Tigers prospects. The instructional league is in full swing, the Arizona Fall League is starting, and post season awards are being handed out.

Instructional League

Jacob Turner credit-Roger DeWitt
Jacob Turner

The IL games are underway. Mark Anderson of TigsTown is on site and filing daily reports. The first one was free, but the subsequent ones are premium content. Based on the 2 reports so far Audy Ciriaco has been a star.

The IL is also a chance to see many of the Tigers 2009 draftees in Tigers uniform for the first time. Lakeland resident Roger DeWitt has been hanging around the fields and posting his pictures on Flickr. As has been the case the last few years, Roger was the first to get shots of the Tigers first round picks in action and he has Jacob Turner throwing on one of the practice mounds.

Arizona Fall League

The Tigers have had to make some adjustments to their AFL roster due to the arm problems of Cody Satterwhite and the lingering wrist problem of Ryan Strieby. In a surprise move (at least I was surprised), 2nd round pick Andrew Oliver will take Satterwhite’s spot.

What isn’t known is if Oliver is going because he has really impressed so far and the Tigers want to see what he does against advanced competition in preparation for an aggressive assignment next year, or if he is going by default.

Casper Wells will take Strieby’s spot, but that isn’t so much of a surprise.

Player of the Year Honors

Congratulations to Scott Sizemore and Casey Crosby who took home organizational Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year honors. (As predicted by Take 75 North).

Both had outstanding seasons. Crosby was kept on the 75 pitch limit which did hold down his innings but he still managed 117 strike outs in 104.1 innings. I’d imagine he’d start out in Lakeland next year with an 85-90 pitch limit but he could very well end up at Erie before the year is out.

Sizemore just raked the ball all season. He hit in Erie and continued hitting as he spent the 2nd half of the year in Toledo and he may be pushing Placido Polanco out the door.

Is it time for Ni-Lyon?

Bobby Seay, the Tigers primary lefty out of the pen is hurting. Gerald Laird called for trainer Kevin Rand to visit the mound after he saw something amiss in one of Seay’s pitches last night. Seay didn’t immediately leave the game, but he did after allowing a single to Travis Hafner. Now Seay is on his way to the MRI machine.

Seay, part of the Seay-Lyon tandem who have been so efficient at turning leads over from the starter to Fernando Rodney is likely unavailable today and until the results of his MRI are back is status is uncertain.

Fu-Te Ni is the only other southpaw in the pen. Ni has done a very nice job and is one of the more underrated signings from the offseason. It’s likely that Ni would continue to hold his own in an elevated role. He’s only allowed 2 of the 25 runners he’s inherited to score and the opposition is hitting .196 against him. But as is often the case, it’s the cascade effect that is more worrisome.

The Tigers will likely add another lefty to the pen, and as Kurt points out that will most likely be Clay Rapada. Rapada doesn’t seem to have earned the club’s confidence, but he will likely fill in as the early LOOGY.

Game 2009.152: Tigers at Indians

PREGAME: At least the Twins won’t win tonight. Aside from that though, a loss for the Tigers would  be very disappointing. I know there are reasons why you play the games and all that, but this match-up tilts heavily in the Tigers favor.

Justin Verlander has owned the Indians this year allowing 1 run on 9 hits over 3 starts. And he’s fanned 30 Tribe batters.

Meanwhile, Carlos Carrasco is a highly touted prospect who has struggled in his brief big league career. He debuted against the Tigers and they took him deep 3 times for 6 runs in 3 innings. He’s improved slightly in his 2 subsequent starts allowing 5 runs and then 4 and going 1 inning longer in each effort.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – September 24, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME

[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

It wasn’t the slam dunk that I thought this game would be, but it is still a W, still a sweep, and still a 4 game winning streak.

The offense did their part with Carlos Guillen headlining the BOOBs (bottom of the order boys). The boys got on a single, first to third, kind of roll in the 4th inning and they plated 4 runs without an extra base hit.

Guillen has killed the ball in this series and he followed his big night with a 3 for 3 plus a walk effort tonight. His last hit, a double, came right handed making it hard to take him out of the lineup – and a little bit easier to take Granderson out against tough lefties.

Brandon Inge looked more like April Inge than August Inge and he came up with 2 hits, including a double. He also ended the game with a slick diving play – also reminiscent of April Inge.

Verlander had moments of dominance (11 K’s is actually quite a few moments), but he escaped what looked to be a big inning in the 3rd allowing only 2 runs. Verlander does an excellent job of mixing pitches – until he gets in a jam. Then he shakes off every off speed pitch and just wants to throw 98 past everybody. Sometimes it works. This time the Indians laid off the high heat. The pitch sequence once the Indians put runners on 2nd and 3rd went:

Toreagas: 6 fastballs
Brantley: Change-up and then 5 fastballs
Carroll: FB-Change-Curve-FB-FB-FB-FB-Change
Choo: 6 FB
Hafner: 4 FB

I understand the fastball is his best pitch, but what’s the harm in the occasional change-up, curve ball, or slider? Twenty-six out of thirty pitches were fastballs.

  • Fernando Rodney had the two quick outs before everything got dicey. Heck, he was up 0-2 on Choo before the 2 run homer. And he had Hafner at 2 strikes. Sadly he’s probably burned for tomorrow. Happily Brandon Lyon was efficient. Sadly, something appeared up with Bobby Seay.
  • How big was Ramon Santiago’s stolen base in the 8th inning? By getting to second he scored easily on Placido Polanco’s single (also very big, don’t mean to underestimate that) and that proved to be the difference.
  • The defense also came up big once again. Inge’s game-ender was already mentioned, but Polanco also made a nifty pick to start a double play.
  • Also look back at the play that Miguel Cabrera made coming home with the ball in the 8th inning to gun Hafner at the plate instead of taking the sure out. The run looked expendable at the time. As an aside, did anybody notice how surprised Lyon was when Cabrera gunned it home? Lyon was running to cover first and had to hit the deck when Cabrera threw to Laird.

The price of the playoffs

The Detroit Tigers have been lauded in this space, and recently in much more prominent places, about the relationship the organization has with the fans. But something seems to be amiss with regard to playoff ticket pricing. While some of other contenders are offering playoff tickets at only a slight mark-up, and in some cases at a slight discount, the Tigers have joined the Angels as teams who are putting in for premium price hikes (hat tip Baseball Musings).

It’s no secret that the Detroit economy is hurting. The Tigers received some flack for making modest price hikes to select seats going into the 2009 season (a move I defended). Attendance ended up down significantly, but the price hikes likely had little to do with it. The team was coming off record attendance numbers and a last place finish in 2008. The Tigers still will draw 2.5 million thanks in part to a first place team, and a bevy of discounts on mid range tickets (upper deck box and outfield box seats were on sale for weekday games most of the season).

Continue reading The price of the playoffs

Game 2009.151: Tigers at Indians

PREGAME: It was early August. Rick Porcello took the mound for the Tigers on a night when the Tigers pen was depleted. Porcello had struggled in his 2 starts since returning from his midseason sabbatical. But something happened that first night of August.

Rick Porcello took the mound and [dramatization] said to the Indians, “this is my game, you guys are going down.” And the Indians were all like, “oh no it isn’t.” And Porcello was all like, “oh yes it is.” And the Indians were all like, “oh no it isn’t.” And Porcello was all like, “oh yes it is.” The Indians got tired of arguing and just started putting the first or second pitch weakly into play and Porcello pitched 8 strong innings before Fernando Rodney blew his first save of the season.

Justin Masterson pitched in relief that night and allowed 2 hits and a walk while fanning 4 in 3 innings. He looked really good. Since that night he’s been in the rotation and he’s made 8 starts. He’s allowed 72 baserunners in 41.1 innings in those starts and he’s fanned 32. But he hasn’t been hit for a lot of power with only 9 extra base hits allowed over those 8 starts. Did you know he was born in Jamaica?

Detroit vs. Cleveland – September 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME

[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

The Tigers haven’t had a lot of easy wins this year. It’s made for some nice drama, but even the games where the Tigers have gotten a big lead early they have found ways to make things interesting. But tonight they got the pitching, and they got the add on runs that kept this one nice and boring.

Porcello wasn’t particularly effective, and in the 4th inning the chances of him getting the requisite 5 innings for the win didn’t look great. But a quick 5th meant he got the win in under 100 pitches. It also meant that the bullpen got some “tune-up” work.

But the really story was the offense. Everybody got their licks in but the biggest bomber was Carlos Guillen who went deep from both sides of the plate and added a double.

  • Clete Thomas had been struggling but he got a spot start in lieu of Magglio Ordonez. I wasn’t a fan of seeing him in the 3 hole but he came up with 3 hits and smoked another ball to left, and made a great running catch. It was a heck of a game.
  • Jeremy Bonderman walked 2. Not so happy to see that.
  • I didn’t understand Ryan Perry pitching 2 innings in this game. I know he likely won’t be needed tomorrow, but why not just throw him 1 inning and give that extra inning to Figaro or Dolsi?

The SI-ification of Detroit

The city of Detroit and the Tigers in particular are about to receive some big time attention from Sports Illustrated as the featured story in the September 28th edition of the magazine. Get your jinx reversing gear prepared.

The coverage stems from  Assignment Detroit. Pretty much the entire Time publishing empire (SI, CNN, Time, Fortune…) took residence in Detroit to cover the city that has been hit as hard as any with the economic downturn.

The Tiger related coverage includes:

For owner Mike Ilitch, it has been a pretty good week PR wise. In addition to the Jenkins article where Ilitch is praised for his approach to Tigers ownership:

He is a businessman by trade, but he is consumed with two causes that don’t always lend themselves to profit. “Turning around our city,” he says, “and winning the World Series.” Ilitch, who is 80, wants to see those goals realized in his lifetime, which helps explain how the Tigers have managed to keep payroll high, ticket prices relatively low and the community-relations budget constant in a period of plummeting revenue. As one major league executive puts it, “Their owner doesn’t operate from a profit-and-loss standpoint. He treats the team more like a public trust.”

..he was also featured in the Free Press where various players describe their interactions and respect for him.

Game 2009.150: Tigers at Indians

PREGAME: The last time the Tigers went into Cleveland it looked like a sure sweep for the good guys. The Indians had just traded Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez and they were done. The Tigers were starting Edwin Jackson in the first game and there was reason for much confidence after the Tigers scored early. Turns out they lost 2 of 3 and needed extras to win that 3rd game. So while the match-ups look good I’m not taking anything for granted.

Jackson has been struggling but the Tigers thing it may be attributable to the fact he was tipping his slider. Jason Beck looked at Gameday data and noted that opposing hitters have been attacking his fastball. I really do believe these things happen quite frequently, but I’m always suspect when team’s make this kind of announcement prior to a game and view these things as attempts at either gamesmanship or changing a pitcher’s psyche.

Aaron Laffey takes the ball for the Indians. Laffey’s numbers aren’t particularly inspiring and the Tigers have gotten to him for 9 runs over the 2 starts he’s made against them this year.

Now for some bonus good news. Tim Bryant at Fox Sports Detroit passed a long a note that the series will be broadcast in HD. Indians games typically have been in standard def because the Indians don’t use a regional Fox Sports network and the HD broadcast capability isn’t usually available. Because this was a very late addition it is unknown if Dish Network will have the HD feed as we go to press.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – September 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME:

[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

So on a night with a microscopically small strike zone who would figure Fernando Rodney of all people to record a 3 out save with only 10 pitches? Yeah, I’m not raising my hand either.

Rodney’s effort capped a very satisfying win. I’m still skeptical about the Tigers fixing Jackson’s pitch tipping, but he didn’t allow a run thanks to 3 double plays. He only had 6 first pitch strikes and there were a number of hard hit balls. But if anyone had some good luck coming his way it was Jackson.

The Tigers also had a number of hard hit balls, the first 4 hitters had nice swings, but…they were also at people. Miguel Cabrera hit the ball hard 4 times, and had 1 hit and a double play to show for it. And with Ordonez on base 4 times, there were numerous unfortunate RBI circumstances.

But if there was a star of the game it had to be Ryan Raburn. He gunned down a runner in the first. He hit the homer that was the difference in the game for much of the tilt, and he singled and walked. Little Jimmy Jackson had himself a game.

The Tigers took care of business tonight. One more time.

Programming Note

If you’re on the West side of the state I’ll be on 96.1 FM in Grand Rapids this afternoon. I’ll be joining Sean Baligian & Ryan Terpstra to talk Tigers baseball and the pennant race at about 5 p.m. this afternoon. If you’d like to listen over the nets the stream can be found at http://espn961.com.

UPDATE. The audio can be found here if you’re interested. Yes I broke out the pythagorean theorem (and mispronounced it).

Ernie Harwell and the moment

When it was announced that Ernie Harwell would be a trip to Comerica Park to address the fans my first instinct was that I should look into tickets. I hemmed and hawed and after reading a wonderful article by Tom Gage I decided that I simply had to be in the stadium that Wednesday night. I don’t know that I’ve ever described myself as melancholy before, but that was an apt description that day. During lunch I found a single ticket in the second row on StubHub and I pulled the trigger. I’d be in the park for Ernie’s Thank You/Farewell.

The night was somber in so many ways. It was a celebration of the greatest generation and World War II veterans. A celebration, but hardly a party. A time to honor those that were there and remember those that weren’t.

Plus there is something about late season games. The park just feels different. There is a little chill in the air, the park darkens more quickly than at the height of summer, and the end of summer as dictated by baseball’s 162 game season is palpable. The anticipation and build up that fans feel starting in February is coming to a close and the thought of a long cold winter looms. The setting was appropriate for the greatest Tiger of them all to once again step-up to the microphone.

Continue reading Ernie Harwell and the moment

Game 2009.149: Tigers at Twins

PREGAME: Look, I’m as nervous as the next guy about this game. The Tigers are not playing good right now. But let’s look at the worst case scenario here. If the Tigers lose they still have a 1 game lead and they never have to go to the Metrodome again. Ever. A better case scenario is they win, and never have to go to the Metrodome again. Ever. Either way there is a silver lining.

Nate Robertson returns to the rotation due to the knee induced suckitude of Jarrod Washburn. The first time he returned was due to the elbow induced suckitude of Armando Galarraga. Robertson was solid for 2 starts and then incurred pelvic induced suckitude of his own. But a bullpen session on Thursday was encouraging enough to put him back in the rotation.

Scott Baker goes for the Twins. The Tigers have actually gotten to Baker twice this year getting him for 6 runs in August and 5 runs in May. Baker is much better at home where he’s limited opposing batters to a .637 OPS. He also has a crazy reverse platoon splits where he has allowed 21 of his 25 homers to right handed batters despite facing each side in the same amount of PA’s.

Your, “c’mon Marcus” lineup is

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

Detroit vs. Minnesota – September 20, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME:
[audio:http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/onemoretime1.mp3]

For those of you who don’t frequent Comerica Park, or don’t pay attention what happens when the Tigers win, their victory music is One More Time by Daft Punk. Hopefully we can say one more time a few more times before the end of the season and I’ll continue to post it after wins until the copyright police come after me (and to try and stave that off, you can find One More Time on the album Discovery. You can also download it legally here).

Continue reading Game 2009.149: Tigers at Twins