Pitching

Drew Sharp had a blurb in today’s Free Press in which he argued that “making a one-year commitment to Todd Jones for 2008 is still a better financial and competitive investment than giving Mariano Rivera three years at nearly $40 million.”
It isn’t that assertion that bothers me. One could make an argument [...]

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WPA Leaders

Rank
Name
WPA

1
J.J. Putz
6.17

2
R. Betancourt
5.38

3
Takashi Saito
4.27

4
Heath Bell
4.12

5
Joakim Soria
3.85

6
J. Papelbon
3.72

7
Joe Nathan
3.63

8
F. Rodriguez
2.95

9
Hideki Okajima
2.93

10
Pat Neshek
2.83

11
Carlos Marmol
2.8

12
Brandon Lyon
2.8

13
J. Isringhausen
2.75

14
Manuel Corpas
2.71

15
Tony Pena
2.56

39
Todd Jones
1.57

WPA or win probability added tracks a teams chances of winning over the course of a game and the measure for an individual player is the difference in win probability when a player enters the game compared [...]

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Dave Dombrowski held court today in what was deemed an informal availability session and broached a number of topics.  Jason Beck was first to the web with the bullet points.  Definitely click through to Beck’s reporting, but I’ll weigh in on the bullets as well.
Pudge Rodriguez
No decision yet on Pudge and Dombrowski indicated the team [...]

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The Tigers have set their rotation and Jason Beck has it:

This Fri-Sun at Minnesota: Robertson, Bazardo and Jurrjens
Next Mon-Wed at Cleveland: Rogers, Verlander and Robertson
Next Fri-Sun vs. KC: Jurrjens, Rogers, Verlander
Sept. 24-26 vs. Minnesota: Robertson, TBA, Jurrjens
Sept. 28-30 at Chicago: Rogers, Verlander, Robertson
Notable is that Jair Jurrjens stays in the rotation after feeling fine after [...]

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After Jeremy Bonderman’s last start we heard mixed reports of “pain”, “fine”, and “barking.” Now his elbow is toast and he looks to be done for the season:
He admitted afterward that he is feeling a “sharp pain” on the outside of his elbow, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland said Bonderman would “probably” be [...]

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Make of this what you will, but Jeremy Bonderman’s elbow is sore.
Bondo Says:
“I’m fine,” Bonderman said with some conviction, after he was told that some teammates suspected he is not. “Yes, I’m fine.”
Pudge Says:
“He said his elbow was bothering him a little,” catcher Pudge Rodriguez said. “He’s a tough guy. He doesn’t want to come [...]

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Well it looks like the Tigers have filled one hole in their rotation, for now until someone else gets hurt. Kenny Rogers is back and will start against the White Sox on Wednesday. Chad Durbin will be Thursday’s starter, and with a pen full of reinforcements from Toledo his role as reliever shouldn’t [...]

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Virgil Vasquez will start on Friday night meaning that a spot on the 25 man roster needed to be created. That spot was formerly held by Andrew Miller. And this doesn’t sound like roster maneuvering. Danny Knobler reports that Miller will start working with Chuck Hernandez to prepare for 2008.
Miller [...]

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The Tigers will reach down to Erie for their Wednesday night starter. They’ve tabbed Jair Jurrjens to take on the Indians. Jurrjens has been on quite the roll allowing just 2 earned runs in his last 3 starts. He’s fanned 24 over that 23 inning span.
The safe roster move would have been [...]

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On Sunday, June 24th Andrew Miller took center stage on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and promptly pitched 6 shut out innings. Miller only allowed 4 hits and 2 walks and was never really threatened. Was this a dominant performance by a young stud pitcher, or just another day at the office for the [...]

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Rod and Mario kept talking about Jim Leyland mentioning that changes were a-comin’ with the pitching staff. I’m sure that much of that has to do with injuries - or recovery from injuries - but a fraction has to do with performance.
We know that Kenny Rogers is back on Friday night. [...]

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