Game 2011.23: Mariners at Tigers

Welcome to contest Tuesday.  First one ever, hopefully not the last.  Today’s prize is a Tigers History Newspaper courtesy of Anydate.com.  The contest is simple, please guess tonight’s:

– winning pitcher;
– score;
– home run hitters (if any);
– save (if any);
– and Clown Show Ratio.

The winner will be selected on most correct answers, with weight distributed in accordance with how the categories were laid out above (winning pitcher is most important, Clown Show Ratio is least important.  Really, it’s unimportant.  If you don’t know what CSR is, leave it blank, and I’ll wait for Coleman to fill everyone in).  And please visit our friends over at Anydate.com so that they’ll do this again soon.

King Felix is the reigning AL Cy Young winner and he’s pretty darn good.  Even with an uncharacteristic shellacking in Toronto three starts ago in which he gave up 7 runs in 6 innings, he’s posting a 3.38 ERA for 2011 (that’s 1.88 if you remove the Tor game).  He hasn’t allowed more than 2 ER in any other game this season.  But that’s earned runs.  The swiss cheese behind him is allowing an unearned run per game, and I’m certain that the Tigers will have similar opportunities tonight.  Against King Felix, they’ll have to take advantage when they can.

Phil Coke takes the hill for the Tigers today.  PC got hit pretty hard last time out (6 runs, 6 hits, 4 BB in 3 2/3), but 4 of those runs were unearned.  Which means that his two previous salty starts coupled with his 2 1/3 innings out of the pen have left him with great April numbers.  A 1.27 WHIP and 2.75 ERA will certainly earn him better than a 1-3 record in subsequent months.  Coke’s biggest flaw has been the base on balls, as he’s already walked 10 in 17 1/3 as a starter this year.  Curiously, he walks lefties at twice the rate as righties, but that’s likely just a sampling error at this point in the season.  Mariners lead the majors with 90 walks…so keep an eye on this.

Today’s fun fact – the Tigers are 109-62 at home (.637) since the start of the 2009 season.  Only the Yankees are better at home in the AL since then.

Tonight’s not how I would do it lineup is:

1. AJax – CF
2. Will Rhymes – 2B
3. Magglio Ordonez – DH
4. Miguel Cabrera – 1B
5. Brennan Boesch – RF
6. Ryan Raburn – LF
7. Jhonny Peralta – SS
8. Alex Avila – C
9. Brandon Inge – 3B

(This is how I would do it – Jackson, Rayburn, Boesch, Cabrera, Avila, Ordonez, Peralta, Inge, Rhymes.  But at least now we get a difficult L/R match-up at the bottom of the lineup which will certainly perplex Eric Wedge in the 8th inning.)

Comments

43 responses to “Game 2011.23: Mariners at Tigers”

  1. TORONTO TIGER Avatar
    TORONTO TIGER

    I like the “this is how I would do it” lineup way better than the one from Smoke on the Brain!

  2. Mr. X Avatar
    Mr. X

    – winning pitcher: Coke
    – score: 5-2 Detroit
    – home run hitters : Peralta, Raburn.
    – save (if any): None
    – and Clown Show Ratio: 1.0

  3. CrazyCarl Avatar
    CrazyCarl

    – winning pitcher; Coke
    – score; 2-5 Tigers win
    – home run hitters (if any); Raburn
    – save (if any); Papa Grande
    – and Clown Show Ratio; ??? 42/1.

  4. Coleman Avatar
    Coleman

    -winning pitcher: Valverde
    -score DET 4 SEA 3
    -HR: None
    -save: none
    CSR: 000 (no clowns today)

    I’m actually in the process of writing up a definition of the all-important CSR statistic so stat tuned.

    1. Coleman Avatar
      Coleman

      That should be “stay” tuned…Freudian typo there…

  5. Kevin in Dallas Avatar
    Kevin in Dallas

    – Perry
    – Det 4-3
    – Cabbs
    – Valverde
    – .5 CSR

  6. Kevin in Dallas Avatar
    Kevin in Dallas

    We’ll take entries through the 2nd. If a pitcher gets knocked out or HR gets hit, we’ll deal with it on an ad-hoc basis.

    1. Kevin in Dallas Avatar
      Kevin in Dallas

      I’m appointing TSE as the official arbitrator should a contest dispute arise.

  7. Marzland Avatar
    Marzland

    Winning pitcher. Coke
    Score 7-3 Detroit
    HR Cabby
    Save none
    CSR none

  8. Mr. X Avatar
    Mr. X

    Clown Show for Brendan Ryan

  9. Coleman Avatar
    Coleman

    Uh-oh…SS has big floppy shoes…I’m regretting my CSR=000 prediction…

  10. Coleman Avatar
    Coleman

    OK, Seattle has gone full Clown Show

  11. Mr. X Avatar
    Mr. X

    Clown Show for Rhymes

  12. Mr. X Avatar
    Mr. X

    Miguel Olivo batting 4th. That has clown show written all over it.

    1. Mr. X Avatar
      Mr. X

      Raburn with the clown show assist. Thank you.

      1. scotsw Avatar
        scotsw

        That one counts toward the curly fries, and CrazyCarl is on track to win the day.

        1. Mr. X Avatar
          Mr. X

          Can’t believe that counts as a homerun. That should be a 4 base error on Rayburn.

    2. Coleman Avatar
      Coleman

      Wedgie has the last laugh on that one

  13. Coleman Avatar
    Coleman

    I’m with K.I.D. on moving Boesch to the 3rd spot, even more so after the R3L3O-fail by Mendozlio.

  14. Kevin in Dallas Avatar
    Kevin in Dallas

    CSR of 42:1 is the early lead…

  15. scotsw Avatar
    scotsw

    How we got 1 run:

    Send 5 batters to the plate, and scratch one run out of no outs, runners on 2nd and 3rd.

    How they got 1:

    Hit it at Rayburn (sic.)

  16. Coleman Avatar
    Coleman

    Frightening thought: Rayburn is Smokey’s go-to guy for late inning defensive replacement

  17. Mr. X Avatar
    Mr. X

    Raburn has the clown show play of the year.

    1. Coleman Avatar
      Coleman

      Rabozo

    2. scotsw Avatar
      scotsw

      That’s for MLB, not just the Tigers

  18. Coleman Avatar
    Coleman

    KJax, K-Burn, and Knge: the Klan

  19. Mr. X Avatar
    Mr. X

    Inge baby Inge!

  20. JOE Z Avatar
    JOE Z

    INGE

  21. Kevin in Dallas Avatar
    Kevin in Dallas

    I like the way AJax is swinging the bat.

  22. Coleman Avatar
    Coleman

    RBInge!

    Did anybody else have comments not show up?

    1. Mr. X Avatar
      Mr. X

      Yeah, I think there was a clown show meltdown.

      1. Mr. X Avatar
        Mr. X

        some aftershocks now

  23. Brenden Avatar
    Brenden

    Phil Coke is getting lit up tonight, not good…

  24. Brenden Avatar
    Brenden

    And then we bring in this joker to not throw strikes, and some bonehead decides to have an error. This is a classic meltdown game, isn’t it?

  25. JOE Z Avatar
    JOE Z

    welp

  26. Brenden Avatar
    Brenden

    Man…the first three in our lineup are absolutely brutal…

  27. Coleman Avatar
    Coleman

    Ideally when V-Mart comes back Boesch moves up to 3rd, V-Mart bats 5th, and Mendozlio bats…10th

    1. Brenden Avatar
      Brenden

      What about Rhymes?

      1. Coleman Avatar
        Coleman

        Smokey will use V-Mart A’s DH only when he first comes back, which means Omir will stay a bit, which means Raburn is the starting 2B and Rhymes is a hen in the mud. (If it were up to me, I’d find an excuse to send Mendozlio to the 15-day).

  28. Coleman Avatar
    Coleman

    Rheality Show

  29. Kevin in Dallas Avatar
    Kevin in Dallas

    We may have to re-run this contest tomorrow…

    1. Coleman Avatar
      Coleman

      Maybe we could have a category for guessing total Ks for Jackson-Raburn-Inge

    2. Mr. X Avatar
      Mr. X

      good chance we get rained out tomorrow