The Tigers have given up, and so have I. I can’t bring myself to watch them anymore. As a result, the blog is going on hiatus. If there are big personnel moves, I may update with commentary. Hopefully we’ll be back next spring training with a better outlook, and a new team.

Catalanotto poised to enter AL batting race
Once again, a discarded Tiger does good. Catalanotto is hitting .341 and is only 10 AB’s shy of qualifying for the hitting title. Once he qualifies he’ll only trail Ichiro and Roberto Alomar.

Russ, while I agree with your main point about Higgy not being a MVP caliber player, I think you’ve over estimated the Juan Gonzalez protection effect. At your suggestion, I took a look at the statistics from last year and I found Bobby was much more productive when Juan was not in the lineup.

Now does this data tell us that Bobby is a better hitter without Juan? Hardly. Plus it does nothing to explain Higgy’s dropoff this year. I just mostly felt the need to not give Juan credit for anything positive that happened in Detroit.

Mariners 16, Tigers 1 Someone apparently tipped off the Mariners on how to tell Lima Time

Redman to get first start
Mark Redman has been activated from the DL and is slated to start on Thursday. CJ Nitkowski was outrighted to Toledo.

Way back in April, ESPN’s Power Alley had the Tigers ranked 27th. The little comment they included for the Tigers was:

At the time I thought that was a little harsh. Unfortunately CJ has lived down to this expectation. It is pretty sad when on a team as bad as the Tigers, one player stands out as the worst. Before getting shelled again today, CJ had allowed 78 (not counting 7 intentional walks) baserunners in 45 1/3 innings pitched. How does this guy stay with the team? Because the other left handed bullpen options are Heath Murray and Matt Perisho. It speaks volumes about the lack of direction this team has when you build a park like Comerica, and don’t have the foresight to have some left handed pitching.

Sweeney suspended for 10 games, Fick for eight
I guess causing a melee and throwing your helmet at someone with their back turned is only worth 2 games. Oh yeah, and Weaver got fined also for being attacked. And it took them a whole week to come up with this?

Cj Nitkowksi has decided to stop updating his site. Not a big deal, but I do like the section on his Teammates because he lists nicknames also. Let’s hear it for Juan “Cool Ass” Encarnacion.

The Tigers ended their 6 game losing streak by beating Texas 7-3 last night. The Tigers really did do some things right last night

• Another strong performance by Adam Pettyjohn, who is still looking for his first win.
• Some great at-bats took place in the 8th inning. Fick showed considerable patience fouling off several pitches before driving a double over Gabe Kapler’s head in center. Clark also did a fine job of 2-strike hitting by shortening his swing and lining a single to the opposite field.
• Damion Easley broke a 5 game hitless streak with a solo home run

Whenever I think about how bad the Tigers are this season, at least they aren’t Texas. The Rangers are 0-7 this year against the Tigers.

So who is Luis Pineda?
While everybody was focusing on the lack of offense, nobody noticed that the Tigers optioned Kevin Tolar back to Toledo and brought up Luis Pineda. According to baseballprospectus.com, he is a character and a fellow countryman of Jose Lima. The good news is he’s only 23. The bad news is that he has already been released by two teams.

At least Garner changed up the lineup yesterday. Macias led off, followed by Fick, Higginson, and Clark. I know this isn’t much, and they still lost yesterday, but I’m just looking for anything positive. Oh yeah, and Nate Cornejo was called up. Cornejo is 16-3 this year as he split time between Double A Erie and Triple A Toledo. It is expected that Chris Holt will be removed from the rotation. To make room for Cornejo, Heath Murray was sent to Toledo.

Hall of Fame announces sweeping changes
All major leaguers who played ten or more years are now elligible.