The Tigers have been so poor that Josh Lewin can’t bear to announce the game anymore and is leaving. If you’ve ever seen Josh do a national game, you know that he is an excellent announcer. Unfortunately, that was sometimes hidden by all the Gibby butt-kissing he’d do while covering Tiger games.
Parrish fired as third base coach
Yep, that’s why the Tigers were so bad, their third base coach. Combined with firing Madlock the Tigers are now poised to make a run at the division title.
At least with Madlock and Parrish as coaches the one thing the Tigers could say with confidence is, “our coaching staff could kick your coaching staff’s ass!”
Players union files grievance for Cedeno – 10/17/01
The grievance is for Cedeno being benched for the last 19 games of the season. The benching cost him $200,000 in bonuses he would have received for plate appearances and stolen bases. The benching was partially the result of a fight with Garner. However, I think the benching had more to do with the fact that Cedeno had made it clear he wouldn’t resign, and the Tigers chose to use the opportunity to explore new options for leadoff/centerfield instead of showcasing his talents so he could get a bigger contract someplace else. It seems like one of the better moves the Tigers made this season.
Bill Madlock is fired as hitting coach. Considering the dismal offense this season, I guess it is to be expected. However, in his defense the Tigers got more out of Halter and Macias than anybody could have expected. Did Madlock contribute to this? Who knows?
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.
| AB | AVG | OBA | SLG | OPS | |
| With Gonzalez | 416 | .272 | .350 | .505 | .855 |
| Without Gonzalez | 181 | .365 | .439 | .613 | 1.052 |
| Totals | 597 | .300 | .377 | .538 | .915 |
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:
If there’s a worse pitcher in the bigs than C.J. Nitkowski please point him out to us
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?