It’s not too hard to find someone to blame in this one. Bobby Seay and Zach Miner combined to be awful and give away a 5 run lead before recording 2 outs. The result was a wasted outing by Justin Verlander, and 5 runs which haven’t exactly been easy to come by lately.
– Zach Miner has been designated for assignment. Assuming he clears (I’m sure he will), he’ll be a free agent on Friday. But the Tigers are likely to bring him back. He’s been a great spot starter and will be a good long man starting off in 2011. Good info on the rationale for taking … Continue reading News and Notes: 11.30.2010
A journey through some links that will update us on the Tigers walking wounded, that will put limits on Justin Verlander’s workload, and other odds and ends including bullpen usage and Alex Avila.
Jeremy Bonderman and Dontrelle Willis have secured the final two spots in the Tigers rotation, and Nate Robertson secured a spot with the Marlins. The Tigers today traded Robertson and $9.6 million of his $10 million contract for Marlins left handed prospect Jay Voss. For my thoughts on the trade, well, just look back a … Continue reading Robertson traded
The Curtis Granderson trade hasn’t set well with me from the outset. I’ve taken some time to mull everything over and look at it a number of ways. I think I’ve moved past the emotional component. I’ve taken a look back at the new Tigers and the return is OK. But therein lies the problem. The return was just OK in my view. An OK return isn’t enough to trade a player that didn’t have to be traded. It just doesn’t add up.
Debating Saturday’s starter, some news on a tiebreaker playoff game, and more from MLB’s punishment roulette wheel.
Both teams went into today hoping to sweep and really put the other team in an uncomfortable position. But both teams went into today really hoping not to get swept. In that respect both teams can walk away somewhat satisfied. With both games being so close both teams can also walk away knowing how close they came to sweeping the day.
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.
Three of Robertson’s four starts down the stretch have been effective. Not lights out, but effective. He was hurting for the clunker, but if healthy could Robertson find himself pitching a postseason rotation? That would have been crazy talk most of the season, but it isn’t nearly as crazy now. He came up big when the team needed him to even though he couldn’t pitch very deep into the game.
I’ve heard this game described as an ugly win. I had some of those same thoughts as first, but I quickly pushed those away. First, all wins are beautiful at this point. Second, while the Tigers did have to rely on the Royals ineptitude to pull this out it wasn’t like the Tigers were making a bunch of mistakes. Detroit played a pretty crisp game with two outfield assists, a caught stealing, and some nifty defense by both Adam Everett and Placido Polanco. They also got the hits when they needed them to capitalize on the Royals mistakes. I see nothing ugly about that at all.
You don’t get swept by a bad team without multiple things going wrong. In one way or another the Tigers completely collapsed for 3 games. Maybe it was the 400 people in the stands each night, or a let down after 3 breathtaking games in Tampa. The good news is that the lead in the Central is still safe, but the Tigers did waste a tremendous opportunity this week.
PREGAME: It will be Nate Robertson and Fausto Carmona today as the Tigers try to extend their lead to 5 games. The Twins have an off day so there is no need to scoreboard watch. Carmona has been inconsistent to say the least this season. He got so bad he was bumped al the way … Continue reading Game 2009.133: Indians at Tigers