The Detroit Tiger Weblog

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  • links for 2008-06-12

  • All the injury updates

    An update on four of the fallen Tigers and their progress:

    Joel Zumaya

    Jim Leyland said that if everything goes right Joel Zumaya could join the team on the next west coast swing when they get to San Diego, which is Zumaya’s hometown.

    Of course I don’t know if tonight’s rehab outing is an indication of everything going right. In his first innning he allowed a walk, a single, and a line out but he also fannned a batter and hit 100 mph on the stadium gun. In his second inning of work he made a throwing error on a grounder and then allowed a double and a walk before being lifted.

    Fernando Rodney

    Rodney was back in Detroit working with Chuck Hernandez. He has another rehab outing on Friday and could be ready to join the team on the flight to San Francisco.

    Jeremy Bonderman

    Bonderman will be evaluated by Dr. Greg Pearl who did the Kenny Rogers surgery last year. At that point he’ll find out whether or not he needs a rib removed. Rogers is confident that Bonderman will be better off after having the procedure.

    Gary Sheffield

    Sheffield is ready to begin doing baseball stuff again. Let’s hope his shoulder has healed.

  • Game 65: White Sox at Tigers

    PREGAME: The Tigers take on Javier Vazquez tonight. You may remember Vazquez from an earlier Tiger debacle this year in which he fanned 9 and walked none in 7 shut out innings. It resulted in the first eruption from Mt Leyland in 2008. The Tigers don’t have his number. In Vazquez’s last 4 outings against Detroit he’s lasted at least 7 innings and not given up more than 3 runs.

    Justin Verlander on the other hand has struggled against the White Sox this year. He’s allowed 15 runs in 2 starts with 7 walks and 7 K’s.

    Verlander very rarely gets run support this year, and the Tigers track record against Vazquez would indicate a continuation of the trend.

    CHW @ DET, Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 7:05

    POSTGAME    : Pitchers pitching. Hitters hitting. Fielders fielding. I could get use to this.

    • Verlander only fanned 3, but he walked none and picked up an inordinate amount of pop-outs. The result was an easy breezy complete game. The first for the Tigers in 364 days.
    • Miguel Cabrera may have had a game changing walk. He worked a 14 pitch walk leading off the second inning. That inning turned into a Marcus Thames three run jimmy-jack. I’m too lazy to look it up, but I think the 14 pitches were probably more than any inning the last time they faced Vazquez.
    • Again, everybody contributed on offense – for the most part. Jeff Larish continues to struggle and chased a lot of high fastballs.
    • Brent Clevlen made another nice play tonight. And Carlos Guillen has been picking it lately as well.
    • The Tigers themselves were a little jumpy tonight going 8 straight batters at one point swinging at the first pitch. But it works when you get hits and homers.

  • Game 64: White Sox at Tigers

    PREGAME: The division leading White Sox come to town. It will be Jose Contreras and Nate Roberson tonight.

    Contreras isn’t the same crappy pitcher the Tigers have beaten up on lately. He’s only allowed 10 walks in his last 7 starts. In his last six starts he’s averaged 7 innings a start and has a 1.50 ERA.

    Robertson is Robertson. So the first team to five runs wins.

    CHW @ DET, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 7:05

    POSTGAME: Hey, the Tigers beat the White Sox and have taken 3 of their last 4 against division opponents. Yeah they are still 10 games back but it beats being 12 games back, at least by a little.

    • Robertson held the White sox to 3 runs, one of which plated after he left the game. And he pickedup 19 of the 27 outs meaning a tired bullepn got a reprieve.
    • Speaking of the bullpen, for the second appearance in a row, The New Sexy came in with the bases loaded and one out. This time one run crossed the plate on a ground ball and a pop up. We call that minimizing the damage.
    • The next inning wasn’t so sexy for Freddy Solid. He gave up a shot to center, and a single, and he had a weird balk resulting in a run. Further damage was limited by a money throw from Brent Clevlen to gun down a run at the plate.
    • Miguel Cabrera didn’t hit the ball particularly hard, but he had 3 hits including a big 2 out hit that pushed the Tigers ahead.
    • Everybody managed hit(s) today save for Edgar Renteria who did hit a ball hard, but into the glove of Joe Crede
    • Interesting defensive replacements tonight. Not surprisingly Brandon Inge came in to play 3rd for Carlos Guillen. But with a twist with Guillen moving to first base. That’s first I can remember that happening in quite awhile.

  • Tigers option Dontrelle Willis to Lakeland

    The Tigers optioned the struggling Dontrelle Willis to Lakeland. This is something that had to happen after what happened on Monday night. Willis had the right to refuse an assignment to the minors. I give him credit for swallowing some pride and doing what ultimately is best for himself and the team.

    I’d guess he’s going to Lakeland rather than Toledo more due to instruction than the actual level.

    Aquilino Lopez is set to return from bereavement leave and will likely assume Willis’s spot on the roster.

    UPDATE: The Freep is reporting that Eddie Bonine is likely to take Willis’s spot in the rotation.

  • D-saster

    Dontrelle Willis’s latest start resulted in more walks than outs. Charged with 8 runs he lasted only 1.1 innings and was done in by 5 walks and 2 homers. All the damage was self inflicted and thus ended the 2 game winning streak.

    The Tigers hands are tied with Willis unless he agrees to go on a minor league assignment (and I’m not even sure of the roster legalities of that). He’s shown flashes of control amidst a consistent struggle with the strike zone since donning the English D.

    Willis stood up in front of reporters and accepted responsibility and said all the right things. He gets credit for that. But it doesn’t help the team.

    Does he stay in the rotation? It’s muddy at best right now. When Jim Leyland was questioned about Willis in the post game he simply spoke of Dontrelle’s struggles tonight and refused to answer any inquiries after issuing a terse statement. There was no talk of Willis and his status in the rotation. In other words, Leyland doesn’t seem to know any better than we do right now about D-Train’s immediate future.

    Willis is too important to flounder at the big league level. If a minor league assignment is a possibility it’s probably best for all parties involved. As for back-filling? I’d guess Fossum joins the rotation and Lopez returns from bereavement leave.

  • Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-9-08

    Toledo DNP

    Erie DNP

    Brevard County 4 Lakeland 1
    Brennan Boesch had a hit and a walk. Luis Salas was 1 for 2. Matt O’Brien allowed 4 runs in 7 innings despite surrendering 11 hits. Guillermo Moscoso fanned the side in one inning of work.

    Lansing 3 West Michigan 4
    Kyle Peter, Justin Henry, Chris Carlson, and Jordan Newton all had 2 hits. Andrew Hess started and lasted 4 innings allowing 3 runs on a walk, 2 hits, and 4 k’s.

  • Inge to catch more, Pudge to catch less

    In today’s edition of what’s up Jimmy’s sleeve, we find an alternating catcher. The announcement came down today that Pudge isn’t the regular catcher any more. He and Brandon Inge will rotate behind the plate.

    Neither are really hitting worth a lick and at this point Inge is probably the better defensive catcher anyways. Plus with Inge under contract next year and Rodriguez not, it’s clear they are testing the waters despite Leyland’s claims to the contrary. The announcement also comes on the heels of a Vance Wilson sighting in the the clubhouse. Is Vance almost ready to go, will he be ready by the trade deadline, and does Pudge get dealt?

    But of course this comes about a week after skip announced that Inge would play more third base and Carlos Guillen would play more left field. So there’s always the chance that this experiment could last 12 hours.

    You can hear Tom Gage discussing this and other Tigers items on the WDFN.com Podcast page.
    [audio:http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/DETROIT-MI/WDFN-AM/TOM%20GAGE%206-9.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=DETROIT-MI&NG_FORMAT=sports&SITE_ID=1128&STATION_ID=WDFN-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Sports_Radio_1130_WDFN&PCAST_CAT=sports&PCAST_TITLE=WDFN_-_The_Stoney_and_Wojo_Show]

  • Game 63: Indians at Tigers

    PREGAME: Detroit goes for a 3 game winning streak and a series win. Both are the types of things normally reserved for the Mariners. To do it Dontrelle Willis will have to out duel Cliff Lee.

    Lee was awesome for the bulk of the season, but he’s been meh in his 4 starts since a 117 pitch complete game shut out on May 12th. Eight of his 12 walks on the season have come in those 4 starts. Here’s hoping he doesn’t get righted tonight.

    While Lee pursues his 10th win of the season, Willis pursues his 11th inning of the season. I guess you could call Willis effectively wild this year if you’re so inclined. What with the 16 walks in 10 innings and all, but he has only allowed 4 hits. Or you could call him effectively lucky – save for that bendy knee thing that landed him on the DL.

    This one is on ESPN so you out of staters without Extra Innings will be able to tune in.

    CLE @ DET, Monday, June 9, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 7:05

  • Is Freddy Dolsi the new sexy?

    Editors note: This post has nothing resembling well reasoned analysis. This is simply the author’s enthusiastic response to two recent plate appearances. The views and opinions expressed below do not represent those of the more logically based billfer that normally resides in this corner of the internet. He’ll be back tomorrow.
    Freddy Dolsi by Samara Pearlstein

    Did you see what Freddy Dolsi did today? Dude comes in with the sacks loaded, the go ahead run standing at the plate, and only one out in the 8th inning. Dolsi, anagram-ically nicknamed Freddy Solid by frequent DTW commenter Chris in Dallas, fell behind Jhonny Perralta 2-0. He battled back into a full count. And then came the heat. A 97 mph fastball right down the middle. It’s the type of pitch that Rod Allen labels “here it is, hit it” but there would be no hitting it today sir.

    With two outs, now some of the pressure is off. But Dolsi is amped up. Three more fastballs down the middle to Ben Francisco and Dolsi had himself back-to-back K’s. This one was a called strike where Pudge comes rocketing up out of his crouch before the ump even calls strike 3. It was beauteous.

    As I type this Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney are throwing another rehab outing. Soon, someone will have to go down and I think Dolsi isn’t eager to go anywhere.

    Yes, the Indians hitters helped him out by not really having good at-bats, but Dolsi gets some of that credit doesn’t he?

    And yes, coming into today he’d allowed 12 hits and 7 walks in 12 innings. And there was that time he didn’t call time out and Toriii Hunter stole second. And there was the time he air mailed an intentional walk ball for a wild pitch. And there was the time he didn’t cover first base resulting in a walk-off infield single (hey, it’s starting to sound like that billfer guy snuck back in here). Some of those things might undermine his sexiness as well as the Freddy Solid monicker. But today he was sublime so for now I will bask in the warm glow of his 9 fastball, 2 K outing.

  • Game 62: Indians at Tigers

    PREGAME:: The Tigers are going for something rare, back to back wins. They did it once on the 9 game road trip and, well that’s it. Today it is replacement starters, turned regular starters, Jeremy Sowers and Armando Galarraga.

    The Tigers have a 1 game winning streak on Sundays this year.

    Renteria remains in the leadoff role, but Granderson returns to the lineup in the 9 spot. Clevlen starts in right field with Raburn sitting today and Ordonez DH’ing.

    Also, the club has activated Clay Rapada who will assume Bonderman’s place on the 25 man roster.

    CLE @ DET, Sunday, June 8, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    GameTime 1:05

    POSTGAME: Wow. That was a pretty complete effort. Some early offense. Some add on runs. Some two-out hitting. A nice starting pitching effort. Good bullpen-ing, save for those 3 batters that Zach Miner put on base (which just made getting out of the inning all the more exciting).

    Placido Polanco snapped a mini-slump with a couple hits. Miguel Cabrera built on his big RBI last night by knocking in the first run of the game today and adding a double. Man it would be nice if he really got going. And Granderson even homered off a left hander.

    Galarraga threw strikes, and did so consistently up until he fell 1 out shy of a quality start after a couple walks. Casey Fossum shaved over 100 points off his ERA and Todd Jones had a 1-2-3 9th inning.

    I’m not going to make too big of a deal when a win moved you to “only” 10 games below .500. But a win is a win.

  • Game 61: Indians at Tigers

    PREGAME: The Tigers are on Fox again today, and that’s gone so well this season. At least the Tigers get to face a lefty starter so there is some hope. Although that hasn’t helped the last two times they faced southpaw starters.

    It’s Aaron Laffey and Kenny Rogers doing battle today. And because of the generosity of DTW reader Mark, I’m going with my family. Thanks Mark!

    CLE @ DET, Saturday, June 7, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 3:55

    POSTGAME: Winning kicks losing’s ass. I don’t know if it was the Stanley Cup being on the field before the game, or they were rallying around Bonderman, or if it was just time for them to finally win, but a late inning come from behind win is always nice.

    I was at the game, and as I mentioned earlier thanks Mark, and perched above third base. Unfortunately, you guys are stuck with some pictures today (after the jump)
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