The Detroit Tiger Weblog

Blog

  • Game 70: Tigers at Giants

    PREGAME: Once upon a time there was a surging team coming off of back to back series sweeps. They went on the road to play a team that many had given up for dead and who had just dropped 5 of 7. That surging team was swept and went on to lose 5 of the next 6.

    Of course “a time” was last Tuesday when the White Sox came roaring in to Comerica Park. The Tigers, sweepers of consecutive series, will try to avoid the same fate when they face the Giants who have lost 5 of their last 6.

    It’s a dandy of a pitching match-up tonight with Tim Lincecum and Justin Verlander squaring off. Lincecum has been the best pitcher in baseball. He’s thrown a quality start every time out, so getting 4 runs would be quite the accomplishment. He has a freakishly small 1.99 ERA and has allowed only 3 homers in 90 innings while fanning 92. It’ll make it kind of hard for Marcus Thames to extend his homer streak to 4 consecutive games for the first time in his career.

    Fortunately, Verlander doesn’t exactly suck and he’s spun quality starts in 5 of his last 6 including a 101 pitch complete game his last time out.

    DET @ SFG, Monday, June 16, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 10:15

    POSTGAME: So much to say about this game and yet it’s so late…

    • The Tigers had really good at-bats against Lincecum and they made him work for the most part. They hit into a couple tough luck double plays, one on a liner and another where a steal attempt led Vizquel right to the ball.
    • Verlander was pretty good, and seemed to pick up steam as the game went on as he racked up the strike outs.
    • Marcus Thames is out of this world right now.
    • Mike Hollimon did a nice job getting to balls, but needs to set his feet and not rush things. He threw away a ball leading to the first run.
    • Pudge is a terrific hitter as a platoon partner.
    • The Tigers got a gift of a run on the sac fly when the home plate ump missed a tag on Pudge.
    • Freddy Solid was sexy in his first inning, not so sexy in the second. He allowed a couple 2 strike hits before giving way to Fernando Rodney.
    • The Rodney move was controversial because it was his first game back. But the Tigers needed a strike out with the tying run on 3rd and 1 out. And with a lefty at-bat the choices were Fossum or Rodney (with Seay probably not available given yesterday). The platoon splits for each are nearly a push. Rodney got ahead with 2 strikes but then allowed his first homer since June 23rd. And then he allowed some more 2 strike hits.
    • The Tigers mounted a rally in the 9th but came up 2 runs short. Nice battle, disappointing result. It’s a shame they couldn’t take advantage of a shaky outing by Lincecum (by his own crazy standards) and a solid outing by Verlander.

  • Rodney activated, Lopez to Toledo

    So that’s one decision. Fernando Rodney is back with the team and Aquilino Lopez was sent to Toledo. But the demotion is with a plan. They are going to try and stretch Lopez out into a starters role. This comes as a little bit of a surprise to me, because I didn’t think that Lopez had an option. I thought he would need to be removed from the 40 man roster, meaning he’d need to go through waivers.

    Lopez has started before, but not since the 2002 season when he made 11 starts for Tacoma in the PCL. He has turned in several solid long relief outings, most notable was a 4 inning, 3 hit effort against the White Sox.

    Color me surprised though that the Tigers would be in a position this season to send out a reliever who is striking out better than 3 batters for every batter he walks.

    UPDATE; Just received confirmation that Lopez had an option left. He’s still on the 40 man and wasn’t exposed to waivers.

  • Game 69: Dodgers at Tigers

    PREGAME: Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there. I had a nice brunch with my Dad this morning and I received a Tigers golf shirt from Mrs. Billfer and the kids. Let’s cap it off with a a lazy day watching the Tigers win.

    It’s more southpaw pitching today with Nate Robertson taking on Clayton Kershaw.

    Kershaw has lots o’ stuff, but hasn’t totally harnessed it this year. He’s walked 13 in 20 innings but also fanned a batter an inning. The result is 4 starts without seeing the 7th inning.

    Robertson turned in a typical Nate start, minus 1 run. He only allowed 3 instead of his usual 4 as he started the sweep of the White Sox. Hopefully he can finish the sweep of the Dodgers.

    Today’s lineup:

    1. Renteria, SS
    2. Polanco, 2B
    3. Guillen, 3B
    4. Ordonez, RF
    5. Cabrera, 1B
    6. Thames, DH
    7. Inge, C
    8. Raburn, LF
    9. Clevlen, CF

    LAD @ DET, Sunday, June 15, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    POSTGAME: The Tigers get to have a happy cross country flight tonight as they head to San Francisco. It has to be more fun than many of the flights they’ve taken after dropping a series or getting shellacked on get-away day. Plus they get to revel in the fact that they are only 1.5 games out of second place and 6 games out of first. This is a nice little reminder that while a double digit deficit may seem insurmountable, the Tigers shaved off 5 games in a week.

    • Robertson was a strike throwing machine and the Dodgers were off balance all day. His efficiency before the rain kept him available to earn a quality start despite throwing a couple innings worth of pitches under the stands while waiting.
    • The Tigers couldn’t connect off of Kershaw, but they were also waiting him out and he amassed 63 pitches in 4 innings rendering him unavailable after the delay.
    • That ended up being a good thing because the Tigers found Chan Ho Park’s pitches to be much more crushable. Some excellent at-bats battling back from 0-2 counts led to walks and hits. And then Marcus the Magnificent went yard again. And so did Brandon.
    • All of Thames homers in the homestand were absolute blasts. No cheapies at all. Even the one down the line against Cleveland was high up on the foul pole.
    • Denny Bautista pitched 2 nice innings. Bobby Seay and Todd Jones not so much. Jones complete lack of control (the multiple 59 footers in particular) were very disturbing.

  • Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-14-08

    Syracuse 1 Toledo 4
    Erick Almonte homered and doubled. Wilkin Ramirez went 0 for 4 with 4 K’s and is batting .100 since moving to Toledo. Lauren Gagnier allowed just 1 run on 3 hits, 2 walks and 3 K’s in 6 innings. Joel Zumaya, Francisco Cruceta, and Blaine Neal all pitched scoreless, hitless innings.

    New Hampshire 5 Erie 9
    Ben Fritz allowed 5 runs in 5 innings on 8 hits, 3 walks and 4 K’s. Dusty Ryan was 3 for 5 with a homer. Ryan Roberson doubled twice. Joe Tucker added a solo homer.

    West 9 East 3
    It was All Star day in the FSL. Rick Porcello started the game and allowed a run on 2 hits. Matt O’Brien allowed 2 runs on 2 hits. Jeff Kunkel was 0 for 2 with 2 K’s. Ryan Strieby had a single and an RBI. Cale Iorg homered.

    Fort Wayne 3 West Michigan 6
    Jon Kibler struck out 6 in 7 innings and limited Fort Wayne to 2 runs on 4 hits. Jordan Newton went 3 for 4. Chris Carlson, Kyle Peter and Audy Ciriaco each had 2 hits.

  • Another good outing for Zumaya

    Joel Zumaya pitched a scoreless inning fanning 1 batter. He threw 11 pitches, 8 of which were strikes. He’s set to do back to back outings on Monday and Tuesday and if all goes well he’ll be back for the Padres series.

    On another note, Francisco Cruceta also pitched a scoreless inning striking outtwo. Nine of his fourteen pitches went for strikes.

  • Game 68: Dodgers at Tigers

    PREGAME: Yet another Fox Saturday game, and yet another afternoon spent with Eric Karros. The Tigers managed to win last Saturday on national-ish TV (only 12% of the nation gets this one), so hopefully that “bright spotlights” thing is in the past.

    Did you know the Tigers have played .500 ball for the last 60 games? I’m just sayin’

    Today it will be Brad Penny and the major league debut of Eddie Bonine. Penny’s fastball has been getting hit with regularity this year. And according to Rod Allen the Tigers are a fastball hitting team so that could bode well.

    One guy who hopes for the good boding is Mr. Bonine. Bonine is a control pitcher with only 24 walks all of last year and 14 so far this year. It sounds like he is quite the prankster. He also may be the first minor league Rule 5 pick the Tigers have had make the big league roster.

    LAD @ DET, Saturday, June 14, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 3:55

    POSTGAME: The Tigers have assured themselves of a at least a 7-3 homestand which is definitely something to be happy about. If they manage to win tomorrow and pick up back to back sweeps it would have to be deemed a stunning success. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the Tigers did play a game today.

    • Eddie Bonine got hit around, but not hit hard for the most part. Russell Martin had a blast to center and Andre Eithier tagged his homer, but outside of another single or two the hits were bleeders and bloops. And he didn’t walk anybody which is fun for everyone. Definitely worth another look.
    • The defense wasn’t quite as good as it’s been. Pudge airmailed a throw to second and Cabrera and Bonine both botched routine grounders. But everything seemed to be a step away. I’m not saying guys were slow or out of position, I think it was just the way things went down. Maggs and Marcus both layed out for balls and came up empty and Renteria couldn’t quite convert an up the middle ball leading to a run.
    • The offense was pretty darn good. Marcus Thames has hit 3 homers on this homestand that have put the team ahead or tied the score. Miguel Cabrera is finding his groove. Even slumping players like Granderson and Pudge and Larish managed multiple hits.
    • The one guy that didn’t hit was Carlos Guillen. You can’t help but wonder if it is the effects of his injury Friday night.
    • Three times in this series the Tigers have had a runner hung up between 3rd and home and only once have the Dodgers executed. That’s some good luck for the Tigers.
    • The White Sox just lost. That’s good. And the Indians just went down 5 runs to the Padres in the top of the 10th. That’s good too. So the Tigers at least gained some ground today.

  • Junkballing: No shortage of news

    I’ve got to give this Tigers team credit for one thing. There’s no shortage of news. Last week I tried to put together a timeline of all the announcements and news coming out of Jim Leyland’s office. I couldn’t get it legible at less than 1200 pixels wide. And that was before all the news from the last week.

    Vance Wilson

    Wilson received awful news in that he needs to do Tommy John times 2. His contract with the Tigers is up this year and with a 12 month recovery period, he is done as a Tigers player and may be facing retirement. He’s well respected in the Tigers organization and it wouldn’t surprise me to see Wilson back in another capacity in a few years. Best wishes to Vance.

    Roster moves: Rapada

    Clay Rapada was optioned to Toledo to make room for Eddie Bonine. This isn’t a merit based demotion but a matter of the guy with options getting sent down. It’s something we may see again next week when Rodney and Zumaya return. Dolsi could be one of the guys out based on contract status. Fossum, Seay, Bautista, and Lopez are all out of options.

    Granderson’s struggles

    Detroit Tiger Tales takes a look at Curtis Granderson’s struggles. He finds among other things that Granderson is taking a lot of pitches, both out of and in the strike zone and it’s possible he’s being to passive. That’s something I could buy, and his timing seems to be off as well with a lot of ball popped up to the left side. I trace it back to the Tim Wakefield game. Look at his gamelogs and see what happens from May 6th onwards. It’s a 554 OPS with only 4 walks. Right now his OBP is the same as Pudge’s.

    Zumaya-Rodney updates

    I think I spied Joel Zumaya in the Tigers dugout last night. But he is experiencing some soreness in his side. If everything goes as planned he’ll pitch tonight, and then back to back on Monday and Tuesday with a possible return to the team for the San Diego series.

    As for Rodney, he had a terrific outing for the Mud Hens last night and will be back Monday provided he feels alright today.

    Spit balls

  • Game 67: Dodgers at Tigers

    PREGAME: So the Tigers are playing good. We’ve seen this a couple times before where they swept a team, only to slide backwards. What’s different this time is that the Tigers aren’t playing the Twins immediately following said sweep.

    The Tigers welcome in the Dodgers and Derek Lowe tonight. The Tigers as a group have pretty limited experience against Lowe, but it hasn’t been good. Lowe has only allowed 6 runs in the 29 innings spanning his last 4 starts. He’s struck out 17 and walked 7 over that time with only 2 homers allowed.

    Taking the mound for Detroit is Armando Galarraga. Galarraga defeated the Indians his last time out.

    It looks like we’ll have some weather tonight so hopefully they can get this one in amidst the storms.
    LAD @ DET, Friday, June 13, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    POSTGAME: Hey all, it’s a 4 game winning streak. Your 2008 Detroit Tigers first shut out of the year came via Armando Galarraga and Freddy Dolsi. Just like Dave Dombrowski drew it up I’m sure.

    • Galarraga was awesome. Yes, I was the dumb blogger that said he’s the guy that had to come out of the rotation. Just ignore me. The guy has to be in the mix for AL Rookie of the Year.
    • And how ’bout that defense behind him? Marcus Thames makes a sweet play at the fence. And Carlos Guillen was pickin’ it at third base all night.
    • After the Tigers had hit several balls hard, but right at Juan Pierre I mentioned to my buddy Russ that they just need to get one over everyone’s head. Thames obliged with a missile in to the visitors bullpen.
    • Mike Hollimon is still looking for his first hit, but he got that first RBI out of the way with a sac fly.
    • On that weird first inning play with Carlos Guillen, it was actually pretty heads up running. The Dodgers just went unconventional. If Maggs beats out that chopper, and it was going to be close, Guillen would have been safe at home. He got a great jump running. But who expects the opposition to come home with 2 outs.
    • As for the emptying of benches and who the Tigers will drill tomorrow? I don’t see it happening. Not with a rookie on the mound making his debut. Maggs offered up his own payback with a 2 run homer.
    • And I couldn’t let the postgame go by without mentioning Sexy Freddy Solid pitched 2 perfect innings earning a save.

    Happy times at the ballpark tonight. If Detroit can get 1 of the next 2 I think you have to call it a successful homestand.

  • Tigers sign 24 draft picks

    The Tigers made quick work out of locking up a number of their draft picks. Included are 6 of their top 10 picks. Also, quite a few of the later round (30th round+) were inked.

    4 Brett Jacobson RHP 6-6 205 R/R 21 Vanderbilt University (TN)

    5 Alex Avila C 5-11 210 L/R 21 University of Alabama

    6 Tyler Stohr RHP 6-2 210 L/R 21 University of North Florida

    7 Jade Todd LHP 6-2 190 R/L 18 Shades Valley HS (AL)

    8 Andy Dirks CF 6-0 195 L/L 22 Wichita State University (KS)

    9 Anthony Shawler RHP 6-3 192 R/R 21 Old Dominion University (VA)

    14 Tyler Conn LHP 6-1 180 L/L 22 University of Southern Mississippi

    16 Thad Weber RHP 6-2 205 R/R 23 University of Nebraska

    17 Robert Waite RHP 6-3 210 R/R 21 University of California-Riverside

    19 Ben Guez CF 5-11 180 R/R 21 College of William & Mary (VA)

    21 Adam Frost SS 5-11 165 R/R 21 St. Norbert College (WI)

    23 Mike Gosse 2B 5-7 165 L/R 22 University of Oklahoma

    24 Carmelo Jaime 2B 5-9 170 S/R 22 Miami Dade Community College

    25 Billy Nowlin C 6-1 210 R/R 21 Golden West College (CA)

    26 Brent Wyatt SS 5-10 185 S/R 23 Lewis & Clark State College (WA)

    28 David Stokes RHP 6-8 245 R/R 21 Liberty University (VA)

    29 Keith Stein CF 5-10 185 L/R 22 Sam Houston State University (TX)

    30 Tyler Weber C 6-3 220 R/R 22 Wichita State University (KS)

    31 Trevor Feeney RHP 6-1 185 R/R 21 Northern Illinois University

    32 Mark Sorensen RHP 6-3 205 R/R 22 Michigan State University

    34 Bryan Pounds 3B 6-0 195 R/R 22 University of Houston (TX)

    35 Dan DeLucia LHP 6-4 220 L/L 23 Ohio State University

    36 Steven Gilman RHP 6-1 194 R/R 22 Yale University (CT)

    37 Nick Cassavechia RHP 6-0 185 R/R 22 Baylor University (TX)

  • DTW Live Chat

    It’s been a few weeks since the last time we did this, but I’ll host a live chat today at 1:00pm (eastern time). I’d anticipate it will last 30 minutes or so and I’ll try to get through as many questions as I can. Hope to see you at 1.

  • Looking ahead…or getting ahead of myself

    Secure in the knowledge that the Tigers had won the series I decided to play some things out in my head. I indulged myself and thought about “what if” the Tigers managed to sweep the White Sox. What would come next.

    Of course the Tigers start their interleague tour with 3 games against the Dodgers. And then 3 against the Giants, and then the Padres. Then series against the Cardinals and Rockies. And then the Twins and Mariners. And a couple against the Indians and 4 more against the Twins.

    Why do I bring this up? Between now and the All Star break the Tigers have only 3 games on the schedule against teams that are above .500 and that would be against St. Louis. The Twins and Dodgers are in the vicinity of .500 and the Indians could get there by July. But even with 2 more left coast swings it isn’t a daunting schedule ahead.

    Granted, those other teams are probably looking at the Tigers and thinking the same thing, but the Tigers certainly have a golden opportunity to bolster their record. A lot of it will come down to the cobbled together back end of the rotation to keep the team in the game. And maybe I’m a little too giddy after an unexpected sweep and an impressive 5 out 6 stretch. And I’ve been falsely optimistic following sweeps in the past (Yankees). But yes Tigers fans, there is a reason for hope over the next 28 games.

  • Game 66: White Sox at Tigers

    PREGAME: The Tigers have assured themselves of a series win. That’s good. But it’s not good enough. Can we hope for the s word? A sweep? We’ve seen flashes of good play before, let’s hope that they can keep it going for an afternoon tilt.

    It’ll be crafty lefthander day at the ballpark. All kids under the age of 14 get to take home a tantalizing breaking ball on the outside black. Kenny Rogers and Mark Buehrle do battle today.

    CHW @ DET, Wednesday, June 12, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 1:05

    POSTGAME: So bummed I missed this one. I was at a conference learning about business intelligence and analytics. Interesting conference but it pales in comparison to a 1 run pitchers duel where the good guys won on a walk off from one of the maligned new stars of the team.

    Kudos to Kenny who joins Verlander in slipping that ERA under the 5.00 mark. Not stellar by any means (the season, not the game), but rapidly improving. Polanco, Guillen, and Ordonez are all over .300 now. Things are starting to look like normal.

    The Tigers did what they had to do in this series. Yet they are still 8 games in the red (both under .500 and in the standings). Still when it comes to the sweep you can put it on the boooaaarrrddd YES!