Louisville 5 Toledo 0
Curtis Granderson doubled and singled, and like the night before in Grand Rapids that was it for the highlights. Virgil Vasquez allowed 5 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks with only 1 K in 5.1 innings. Cassey Fossum went 2.2 innings allowing one hit while fanning 3.
Jason Beck was in Toledo and said that there is still some concern about Granderson having to make a throw which he hasn’t yet on his assignment. Also, Francisco Cruceta is likely to join the Hens this week and Mike Hollimon isn’t too far away. Plus our friend Roger DeWitt found Jordan Tata throwing off a mound in Lakeland meaning his return should be close as well.
Erie 2 Alttona 3
Freddy Guzman tripled and singled. Deik Scram doubled and walked. Dan Christensen allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and 2 k’s with one strike out over 6.2 innings. Casey Fien took the loss allowing a homer and 2 other hits in 1.1 innings of work.
Lakeland 0 Tampa 3
Rick Porcello went 6 innings allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, a walk, and 4 strike outs. Lakeland only managed 3 hits. LFT Blog notes an interesting subplot and wonders whether Porcello was asked to throw at a hitter as retaliation for the hitter breaking up a no hitter with a bunt the night before.
Burlington 7 West Michigan 8
Ronnie Bourquin homered and singled. Roger Tomas and Adrian Cassanova each had 3 hits and a walk. Lauren Gagnier allowed 6 runs in 5.1 innings with 3 walks and 5 K’s. Rudy Darrow went 2 innings of relief fanning 3 and allowing 1 hit.
links for 2008-04-19
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A look at Glennn Ezell and the minor league development team which included a head doctor.
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I’d guess that Cruceta would need about 4 days on a minor league assignment if everything goes right. And Beltran and Bazardo both cleared waivers and were assigned to Toledo.
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A look at high ceiling guys Audy Ciriaco and Wilkin Ramirez. I’d put Alexis Espinoza in this group but he’s hard to evaluate at this point with no state-side track record yet.
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This won’t be the only time I post about this, but I wanted to get something up this week. Here’s a great opportunity for Detroit sports fans. It’s an integration symposium and a bus tour of baseball points of interest in Detroit.
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Some link love for Pistons blogs with the NBA playoffs here. Natalie does a tremendous job at Need 4 Sheed.
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And more Pistons blog link l ove for Matt Watson and DBB.
Game 18: Tigers at Blue Jays
PREGAME: It’s an afternoon tilt today as the Tigers behind Jeremy Bonderman take on Dustin McGowan and the Blue Jays.
McGowan is off to a pretty good start this season. He sports a 3.71 ERA and has fanned 16 in 17 innings of work. But he hasn’t made it past the 6th inning because his pitch count has become elevated. The Blue Jays had to go to their pen early last night so making McGowan work could have benefits for the rest of the series.
Bonderman is coming off a pretty solid outing. He went 6 1/3 and probably could have gone farther were it not for 3 errors by his defense. He also fanned 5 which was a nice sign after he K’d only 3 in his other 2 starts.
DET @ TOR, Saturday, April 19, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 1:07
POSTGAME: In a lot of ways, a loss like today’s is much more irksome than the shellacking they took in Cleveland. In the Indians game they were just flat out beat. In today’s game, there were several opportunities to swing the game in the Tigers favor yet they couldn’t take advantage.
Bonderman was awful, but he kept the damage to a minimum. Six walks though keeps him in line with the rest of the staff. Bonderman said he couldn’t find his slider, but I think that was only part of the problem. In the inning where he walked in a run, he was getting ahead of hitters. But he kept throwing the slider to the same spot. The hitters knew the slider was coming, and they knew where it was coming so it was easy to lay off. It’s a pattern we’ve seen from Bonderman in the past.
And once again he was the victim of an unearned run and this one decided the game.
Still, the offense had their chances. Twice there were 2nd and 3rd no out situations and twice they only came away with one run. I’m not one to harp on the LOB stat too much, because I tend to think it works itself out over the course of a season. But their inability to cash in cost them in a very winnable game.
Tigers Minor League Wrap 4-18-08
Toledo 8 Lehigh Valley 3
Matt Joyce stroked his 5th homer and added a triple and a walk. Jeff Larish and Jackson Melian each had 2 hits. Eddie Bonine allowed 2 runs over 8 innings with no walks and 4 K’s.
Erie 13 Altoona 4
Ryan Roberson homered twice, walked, and knocked in 4 runs. Dusty Ryan had 2 doubles and a single. Danny Worth singled and walked twice. Andrew Kown allowed 11 hits, including 3 homers, but somehow only 4 runs crossed the plate in 7 innings of work.
Tampa 1 Lakeland 4
Jeramy Laster homered and doubled. Michale Bertram added two hits. Luis Marte was awesome allowing just 2 hits in 8 innnings of shut out ball. He fanned 7 and walked 4.
Burlington 3 West Michigan 0
Some kid by the name of Curtis Granderson had half the hits including a triple. Manny Miguelez fanned 7 over 6 innings and allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk.
Game 17: Tigers at Blue Jays
PREGAME: You know that both Kenny Rogers and Toronto starter David Purcey have received the exact same run support so far this season? The difference is tonight will be Purcey’s first start and it will be Kenny’s 4th. That’s right, the Tigers have been shut out in all 3 of his starts. Of course Rogers hasn’t pitched so great either. He had a quality start his first time out but hasn’t made it out of the 5th inning in the two starts since.
On the other side Purcey will be making his first start. The 2004 1st round pick of the Jays has a 21:6 strike out to walk ratio in two AAA starts this year.
DET @ TOR, Friday, April 18, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 7:05
POSTGAME: So the Tigers exercised considerable patience early in this game picking up 5 walks in the first two innings but they couldn’t hit Purcey. If Purcey can get a handle on where the ball is going he could be trouble because the Tigers couldn’t hit him.
Although Jim Leyland did help him out by giving away an out when he called for a sac bunt in the 2nd inning following back to back walks. I’ll never understand letting a struggling pitcher off the hook with a sac bunt. It’s one thing if a guy is dealing and you get a double and want to scratch across a run. But that clearly wasn’t the case tonight.
Kenny Rogers turned in a solid outing going 6 2/3 inning and allowing 4 runs so it wasn’t quite a quality start. The 4 walks are still troublesome, as is the one strike out. But he was effective allowing only 3 hits.
The Tigers offense continues to swing it, at least off the bullpen. Seven of their 10 hits went for doubles and the did a nice job stringing them together.
For the second time this week Edgar Renteria belted a first pitch homer that would provide a nice cushion.
And is there anyone having as much fun out there as Miguel Cabrera? He just seems to love the game and it’s fun to watch. So is seeing him knock a couple doubles on his birthday and steal a base.
Finally, a nice job by Aquilino Lopez, Denny Bautista, and Todd Jones. Jones had some kind of mechanical flaw where he couldn’t get the ball down and walked two straight. A short chat with Chuck Hernandez and the game was over 5 pitches later.
Programming note
I’ll be making another appearance on It is what it is with Sean Baligian. You can listen in on WDFN 1130 or wdfn.com starting at 10:35 a.m. on Friday morning.
UPDATE: It will be 11:05 instead.
UPDATE 2: The segment is on the WDFN podcast page if you’re interested.
[audio:http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/DETROIT-MI/WDFN-AM/ferris.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_-_Sean_Baligian]Tigers Minor League Wrap 4-17-08
Toledo 4 Lehigh Valley 1
Caonabo Cosme went 3 for 3 with a homer. Jeff Larish singled, doubled, and had 2 walks. Chris Lambert pitched 7 innings of 4 hit ball with only 1 run crossing the plate. He struck out one and walked three. Blaine Neal allowed 2 hits, but also struck out the side for his 5th save. He now has 12 K’s in 7 innings of work.
Erie 1 Altoona 6
Jeff Frazier homered, doubled and walked. For the season he has a 320/414/580 line with only 3 K’s in 50 at-bats. Lucas French allowed 5 runs, 3 earned, on 5 hits and 3 walks in 5.1 innings.
Lakeland – DNP
West Michigan – DNP
Game 16: Tigers at Indians
PREGAME: The Tigers will try to keep rolling along as they send Justin Verlander out to do battle with Fausto Carmona.
Verlander is coming off his best start of the season, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at his final line. He had allowed just 1 run through the first 7 innings against the White Sox on Saturady before things fell apart for him in the 8th. Verlander has struggled against the Indians historically. Last year he allowed 7 runs in 3 of his 5 starts against them, including a 4 homer effort in September.
Carmona’s stats just don’t add up for the Tribe this year. He has 17 walks and only 8 strikeouts in 16 innings so far. Eight of those walks came in his last start against the A’s. Yet his ERA is 2.20. Part of the reason is he’s only allowed 1 extra base hit. Another part of the explanation is his power sinker induces double play balls and opponents have hit into 7 in his 3 games.
DET @ CLE, Thursday, April 17, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 7:05
POSTGAME: I really have very little to say about this one. I missed the first couple innings while coaching my son’s team. Saw the blow-up in the middle innings, and that’s about it. Verlander seemed to be hitting 94 mph a little more and it came at the expense of his control. I wonder if it was a situation like Todd Jones in spring training where he was over throwing because of all the velocity concerns. Or perhaps he just didn’t have it again.
And the offense generated some chances but couldn’t capitalize. These games are a lot less worrisome after a 3 game win streak.
links for 2008-04-17
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Taking a look at ba/obp/slg against the Tigers arms
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Jose Lima’s baseball career might finally be over
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Yeah, the kids is that good. Ready to contribute now at the big league level.
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Cruceta will throw Thursday and Friday and then likely be assigned to a minor league team
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Because it’s fun
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Building a rivalry
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Just because Studes “10 things” column is consistently one of the best pieces of internet baseball writing out there.
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The good news is Rodney doesn’t need surgery. The bad news is it still isn’t known what is causing the pain.
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Tuesday marked the anniversary of Wilcox’s one hitter. Damn Jerry Harriston
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T75 North has a run down of the cascading roster moves for the affiliates.
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The Tigers rank 17th for 2008.
Tigers Minor League Wrap 4-16-08
Toledo 6 Lehigh Valley 4
Timo Perez and Mike Hessman each hit long balls. Brent Clevlen added 2 hits. Jeremy Johnson lasted 5 innings giving up 4 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks. Blaine Neal got his 4th save fanning 2 and allowing a hit in one inning of work.
Bowie 10 Erie 11
Wilkin Ramirez, Deik Scram, Dusty Ryan, Max St. Pierre, and Danny Worth all had multi-hit games. Scram hit his 2nd homer of the season. Ben Fritz was knocked around for 8 runs in just 4.2 innings.
Sarasota 2 Lakeland 6
Cale Iorg continues to rip the ball picking up his 3rd homer, a double, and a walk. James Skelton singled and walked twice. Michael Bertram had 2 hits and a walk. Matt O’Brien gets the win allowing 2 runs on 8 h its, no walks, and 2 K’s in 6 innings.
West Michigan 1 Peoria 2 (11 innings)
Jordan Newton and Joe Tucker each had 2 hits. Casper Wells drew 3 walks. Phil Nardozi started and allowed 1 run in 3 innings on 2 hits and a walk.
Carlos Guillen appreciation time
There has been great consternation about the Tigers offense over these first few weeks, and rightly so. With things starting to take off, I wanted to step back and recognize the start that Guillen has put together.
How many times have we heard during the complaints about the offense that Clete Thomas and Brandon Inge were the only Tigers hitting? And then we’d laugh at how pathetic it was. Yet all the while Guillen was producing. And not just doing okay, he was terrific.
Going into Wednesday night’s game Guillen had a .372 batting average – 5th in the AL. He had a .698 slugging percentage which was second in the AL. And he was the owner of a .481 OBP which was good enough for 3rd. He ranked second in OPS to only AJ Pierzynski. And he did the bulk of the damage with one leg. He’s managed to hit 5 doubles without being able to run. When there was frustration with the team rushing at-bats it was Guillen who was seeing over 4 pitches per plate appearance.
Yet those accomplishments went largely unnoticed. Maybe it was because he didn’t have gaudy RBI totals, or maybe it was the rather normal home run total. Or maybe he just hadn’t been clutch enough, despite hitting that game tying homer on Opening Day. Yet one of the 2 or 3 best offensive performers in the league was largely unnoticed even by his own fan base.
With the offense starting to roll and Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez finding their groove they will deservedly get the bulk of the attention. But when no one else was producing Guillen was carrying the load.
2008 American League Expanded Leaderboards – Baseball-Reference.com
Game 15: Tigers at Indians
PREGAME: The Tigers will look to build on a two game win streak, and relinquish control of first dibs on the waiver wire, as they head into Cleveland. The two teams that are supposed to be at the top of the division are on the bottom looking up.
The Tigers send out rookie Armando Galarraga. Galarraga made one start last year for Texas and he allowed 5 runs on 4 walks and 4 hits in 4.2 innings. But in his two starts at Toledo he was quite impressive with 11 K’s and only 1 walk. Here’s hoping he attacks the strike zone with the big club as well.
While the Tigers send out a replacement starter, the Indians send out C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia hasn’t made it through the 6 inning in his 3 starts this year and he currently sports a 11.57 ERA. I hope he doesn’t find his groove tonight. He has managed to go at least 7 innings in 4 of his last 5 starts against the Tigers.
DET @ CLE, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Programming Note: For those of you with satellite TV service there is some relevant info about where to find the game tonight:
DIRECTV: Ch. 672 (instead of the normal 669)
Dish Network: Game will not be shown due to lack of an available channel. Dish Network returns for Friday’s Tigers-Toronto game (Ch. 452)
Sorry to those of you who have Dish Network. It looks like it will be a night of Dan & Jim and MLB.com
Game Time 7:05
POSTGAME: We’ve seen this before. Pitchers who can’t throw strikes. Hitters rushing through at-bats. A lack of concentration leading to runs on defense. But it’s sooooo much more enjoyable when it’s the others guys doing that stuff.