Category Archives: Spring Training

Spring stats of note – pitching

Similar to yesterdays look at interesting offensive stats, now we’ll look at the pitchers. Also like yesterday, I’m not drawing real conclusions or deriving meaning, just making observation.

Beginning at the end

The big 3 at the back end of the Tigers bullpen are off to a good start. Joel Zumaya, Fernando Rodney, and Todd Jones have combined to allow one run (a solo homer allowed by Rodney) in 10 2/3 innings. Most impressive is the 13:2 strikeout to walk ratio.
Continue reading Spring stats of note – pitching

Spring stats of note – offense

Not implying that these stats mean anything, just that they are interesting:

Grandy’s K’s

Curtis Granderson’s efforts to cut down on his strikeouts are paying off. After 20 at-bats he’s only fanned once. But is it coming at a cost? He also only has one extrabase hit and only one walk.

Santiago
Ramon Santiago – credit Roger DeWitt

HR Leader Ramon Santiago

By knocking his second dinger of the spring yesterday, Santiago is now the leader in the clubhouse. Santiago came into camp a little bulked up. Could this be the reason for the power surge? Perhaps. Or maybe it is just the flukiness of baseball. Keep in mind that Santiago has 6 career home runs, and 3 of those came in a 2 game span including one off of Pedro Martinez. Still, if he can sustain some level of production, and Neifi Perez continues to struggle, it will be interesting who Jim Leyland takes North. Will it be the veteran with the big contract or a player who may be more deserving.

And speaking of Perez, he has 5 walks in 20 plate appearances which leads the team. This position battle so far is more interesting than I would have expected.
Continue reading Spring stats of note – offense

One of those link round-up posts

Andrew Miller
credit Roger DeWitt

Miller Time

John Sickels has another prospect smackdown, this time it is Andrew Miller vs. Adam Miller. Sickels gives a very slight edge to Adam Miller.

Maybe a SLIGHT edge on intangibles for Adam Miller, Andrew gets a slight edge on tools, Adam gets a slight edge on current polish and performance, even on projection. I rated Adam at Number Six on my pitching prospect list, and Andrew at Number Seven. It’s really, really close but overall I think Adam is just a HAIR better.

What’s up with Leyland?

Apparently Jim Leyland doesn’t want to talk about Mike Maroth not being on the playoff roster. I can’t blame him because that was a long time ago. But it appears to be a sore subject and I’m not sure why.

“That’s kind of a sore subject with me,” a testy Leyland said when asked if the Maroth issue had been resolved this spring. “I don’t think that in my opinion, he was playoff-pitching fit. I guess that’s the best way to say it. I don’t want to get into it, but I’ve read some comments, I know it was disappointing and everything for him, but, particularly with his situation, he really wasn’t a relief pitcher.”

I don’t remember Mike Maroth ever making any comments in the press that criticized or slighted Leyland at all, so I’m really not sure where this is coming from. Maroth has always struck me as a team player, but anyone in that situation would be disappointed. Heck, while I didn’t think he should have been on the roster, I was disappointed for him.
Continue reading One of those link round-up posts

Spring pitching to care about

So far the Tigers spring season is off to a pretty good start, even considering the last 2 losses. Specifically the pitchers seem to have picked up right where they left off (minus the fielding errors) in 2007. Sure, the 5.37 ERA might not look impressive on the surface, but if you look at who’s been roughed up it hasn’t been the guys the Tigers will be counting on this season.
Continue reading Spring pitching to care about

Spring Training Game Thread: Tigers at Yankees

What with the game on TV and everything today, I thought a game thread would be in order. Those lucky (or perhaps unlucky given the current economic condidtions) enough to be not working this afternoon can catch the game on ESPN at 1:15. I’ll be at work and looking forward to catching the DVR version when I get home.

The Tigers send out the “power arms” of Justin Verlander, Andrew Miller, Joel Zumaya, and Fernando Rodney.

POSTGAME
: There was some stuff to like, and some stuff to not like today. The final outcome doesn’t really fall into either of those categories. The Tigers did draw a number of walks, including 2 with the bases loaded. Granted that was a product of Yankee wildness, but the Tigers did a good job laying off. They also had a number of hard hit balls, but most were foul.

The bad stuff was 3 strikeouts in the first inning with the bases loaded. Considering that was a point of emphasis this spring, it was disappointing to see.

Plus there were a few scares today. Brent Clevlen got beaned by a Yankee pitcher and Carlos Guillen was nearly beaned by Sean Casey.

The relevant pitchers all looked pretty good with the exception of one bad inning from Justin Verlander

Regardless of the outcome it was great to be watching Tiger baseball again.

Spring Training: Phillies at Tigers

For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. – Song of Solomon 2:11-12
Play Ball!

It seemed only appropriate to channel Ernie Harwell with the first radio broadcast of the year today.

I won’t be doing game threads for all of spring training, but I wanted a reason to post the voice of the turtle.

Game time 1:05pm.

This time it counts…a tiny bit

So while yesterday was the exhibition to the exhibition season, this one was against the New York Mets, a bona fide big league club. And the Tigers won. Mack Avenue Tigers has the wrap-up so I won’t duplicate it here. I will just point out good games for Marcus Thames, Curtis Granderson, and Andrew Miller and a pretty rough game for Neifi Perez.

Because of research and video blogs and interviews, I’m a full week behind on links and such so I’ll try to catch-up.

Scott Sizemore
Scott Sizemore – credit Roger Dewitt

Pictures

When the big club is away, the kids will play. Roger DeWitt caught some of the action so if you want to see the possible Tigers of the distant future, you can see Dallas Trahern, Jeff Larish, and Audy Ciriaco (who I’m hoping has a big year) sporting Tigers road garb.
Continue reading This time it counts…a tiny bit

It’s a boxscore!

I know it was an only an exhibition before exhibition season, but it still resulted in a game, with 9 innings, and live pitching – and a boxscore. That’s right, fresh stats are fresh stats, even if they are irrelevant.

But let’s work our way through it anyways.

What’s not to like about Granderson leading off with a home run? Or how about Marcus Thames playing first base and knocking 3 doubles. Cameron Maybin with 2 hits of his own. Ryan Raburn going yard. A shut out by the pitching staff is always nice. And an error free day by a number of defensive subs. Neifi even had a big hit. The only downside is that the Tigers didn’t pick up a walk – I kid of course.

Now I’m not making too much out of this. I’m actually not making anything out of this. A two touchdown win doesn’t mean anymore than the 1 run win last year. I’m just taking enjoyment from the fact that we are one step closer to the beginning of the season.

DTW-TV: A position battle worth watching

You guys were too kind last week, so I’m doing this video thing again. In episode 2 of Detroit Tigers Weblog TV I highlight what I think will be the most interesting position battle in Lakeland this year.

Watch: Detroit Tigers Weblog TV – Episode 2 (9 Mb, 4:14)

Subscribing

As always you can subscribe to all Detroit Tigers Weblog posts in your favorite feedreader using:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/thedetroittigerweblog

But if you want a feed with just the video for subscription in a podcatcher like iTunes, you can grab just DTW-TV with:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/detroittigersweblog-tv

References

Chris Shelton’s Defense
2005 Spring Training Stats
2006 Spring Training Stats
Marcus Thames & Chris Shelton

Baby it’s cold outside – Tigers 2007 Spring Training round-up

Long lasting ice sculpture - Comerica Park
This is what a month old ice sculpture looks like

I was getting jealous of all the reporters and photographers down there in Lakeland taking in baseball and sun and palm trees. So I did the best I could and went to Comerica Park today to take pictures of ice sculptures…Leftover from Tigerfest…Which was a month ago. So stop complaining Wojo if it’s unseasonably cool in Lakeland. (Seriously, I took these pictures today.)

On to the link-a-thon

Carlos Guillen

An extension for Guillen is the only item remaining on the Tigers checklist. It is also a popular topic of discussion. This is a bigger topic than I’m going to tackle in a round-up post. Kurt has it covered anyways. I will say that I don’t think Guillen will sign here with the intention of playing first base. Just because he filled in there last year, doesn’t mean that is his likely destination – at least not for the next 3-4 years.

Random Stuff

Spring Training 2007 Day 2 wrap-up


photo from Det News

I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing this every day, but for the time being there is enough interesting stuff coming out…

Men looking at other men

Nothing like spring training to encourage men to comment on other men’s physiques. In the case of Todd Jones he dropped a few pounds. In the case of Curtis Granderson, he’s been getting reviews that he has bulked up.

Danny Knobler talked to him about it, and apparently he’s only 3lbs heavier than last season. I’d say this is quite believable. When I’ve seen pictures of Granderson in street clothes, or seen him up close, he looks much bigger than he does standing in the batters box. I don’t know if it’s the stance or if he wears his uniform extra baggy. Plus there is something about the angle of that picture.

Kyle Sleeth
credit Roger DeWitt

Kyle Sleeth

The topic du jour today was Kyle Sleeth and his attempt to regain his prospect status. Sleeth of course was the Tigers first round pick in 2003 and in 2005 underwent Tommy John surgery. He struggled last year as he came back from injury, but has been a regular at the Tigertown compound. The good news is that Jim Leyland seemed encouraged by Sleeth’s progress.

All Lakeland

If you’re heading down to Lakeland, check out Lakeland Local. You’ll get everything you need to know about the city.

Quotable

Leyland on Andrew Miller:

“I don’t think he’s buying a lot of foamy Gillette.”

Spring Training 2007 Day 1 wrap-up

PFP

The first day of spring training every year brings pitchers fielding practice. Today was no different, except for the fact that there were 50 media assembled to see if the Tigers pitchers could throw the ball to third base. Now let’s move on.


credit: Roger DeWitt

They wear many hats

That section headline reminds me of a clue that Chuck Woolery would have given on Scrabble back in the day. In this case though it refers to the new hats the Tigers are sporting. Either New Era or the Tigers have added goofy white detailing the the Tigers BP hats. Not really a big fan and I can’t imagine fans clamoring to buy them. I’ll keep an eye on Uniwatch for more information.

Three out of 10 GMs prefer Yankees

MLB.com polled the 30 general managers to get their preseason picks for World Series champs. The Yankees and Red Sox dominated getting 17 of the 30 votes, but 2 GMs picked the Tigers.

“With the pitching staff they have and adding Sheffield makes the Tigers an easy favorite for me,” one manager said.

Added another: “As long as that pitching holds up, they’re the team to beat.”

Continue reading Spring Training 2007 Day 1 wrap-up