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  • Game 128: Yankees at Tigers

    PREGAME: The Tigers take another crack at Roger Clemens who they had no trouble hitting last week, they just had trouble scoring. The Tigers mustered 10 hits in 6 innings, but only 2 runs thanks to 8 strikeouts which all seemed to come with guys on base.

    For the Tigers it will be Andrew Miller making his fast start since going on the DL on August 4th. Despite the great stuff, Miller struggles a little to put guys away and his lack of command can lead to hefty pitch counts. He hasn’t recorded an out after the 5th inning since July 6th.

    I’ll be heading down to this game, and hopefully the result will be similar to when I saw Clemens pitch against the Tigers last year.

    Who’s your Tiger tonight? I’m going out on a limb and going with Brandon Inge.

    Game Time 7:05
    NYY @ DET, Friday, August 24, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    POSTGAME: You know you got your money’s worth when on the way home from a game you start to ponder where it ranks in terms of the greatest games you’ve ever witnessed live. When you’re doing at at 4:00am, you know it’s a special situation.

    First things first, thanks to all of you for the awesome comments throughout the game last night. I was reading them on my Blackberry throughout the night and was amazed so many of us were toughing it out together.

    On to the game, I made several good decisions last night. First, I had an unused ticket and was really debating taking my 6 year old son. I ended up not doing it, because while I love him to death and love going to games with him, this was the first time since Opening Day I had plans to go with my friends and I just didn’t want to be a dad that night. Second, we took a couple cars to the game because one friend had commitments in the morning and we didn’t know how late he’d want to stay. Worked out great with the one friend being able to leave at 8:30 when he recognized any baseball would be way late. So those staying were happy to be stayinig, and no one had to leave prematurely.

    The theme for the night was pretty much, “there’s weird s*** happening tonight” and that held up throughout the game. Witness:

    • Placido Polanco makes an error. That never happens.
    • Pudge battles back from an 0-2 count to take a walk. That never happens.
    • The game started at 11:05.
    • Jason Grilli pitches not only a scoreless inning in Comerica Park, but he does it uneventfully.
    • Pudge took another walk. Intentional and all, but still.
    • I’m drinking coffee at a game in August – normally an activity reserved for those cold nights in April or September

    So there we were at 2:30 in the morning concocting the most improbable ways for the Tigers to pull this off. Like having the Tigers load the bases against Mariano Rivera and then have Inge come through. Well, that one got half way there, and only some bad luck kept it from coming through.

    Still the crowd stayed, and sure it was whittled down after a while. After that 10th inning the numbers really dwindled and I said to the usher, this place looks like 2003 right now. But it sounded much louder. And at that point everyone had formed this big kind of friendship, the kind of friendship that can only come from staying at a ballpark until ridiculous hours of the morning as everyone individually questions their sanity for staying and yet being too afraid to leave and miss something. It was kind of like one of those West Coast Red Wing playoff games that goes into OT, and you think to yourself “I can’t quit now, I’ve made it this far.”

    Fortunately for those who stayed, they got the pay off. After a nice walk by Polanco it looked like a hit and run sign was missed with Sean Casey up and Polanco was picked off. And the Tigers went from a runner on 1 out situation to a 2 out none on situation. As so often is the case, the next batter gets a single after the runner is wiped off the bases.

    I was imploring Leyland to pinch run for Casey, figuring that a gapper would go to waste with Casey on the basepaths. Instead Leyland stuck with Casey who managed to go first to third with relative ease on a blooper. Setting the stage for the Carlos Guillen. When he hit it I didn’t know if it was gone. I just new it was well hit and I didn’t care if it were a homer, I just wanted it to get over Matsui’s head. When it landed on the roof of the bullpen it was euphoria, it was relief, it was “I get to go home now, but I’m not tired anymore,” it was so worth it all.

    I know the above thoughts are incoherent, but I’m working on a couple hours of sleep right now. For the bullets:
    (more…)

  • links for 2007-08-24

  • Fire and rain

    With apologies to James Taylor…

    Just yesterday evening, found out the playoffs were gone
    Sheff, that collision put an end to you
    I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
    I posted it online just to share with you

    I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
    I’ve seen big innings that I thought would never end
    I’ve seen Kenny Rogers arm fail to mend
    But I always thought that I’d see the Tigers win again

    Won’t you look down upon them Leyland
    You’ve got to help them make a stand
    You’ve just got to make them put the ball in play
    Guillen’s knees are aching and Bondo’s been bad
    They just won’t make it any other way

    I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
    I’ve seen big innings that I thought would never end
    I’ve seen Kenny Rogers arm fail to mend
    But I always thought that I’d see the Tigers win again

    Been walking my mind to an easy time my back turned towards the sun
    Lord knows when Zumaya throws it’ll turn your head around
    Well, there was hours of time around the trade deadline to talk about things
    to come
    Playoff dreams and 2nd place teams in pieces on the ground

    I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
    I’ve seen big innings that I thought would never end
    I’ve seen Kenny Rogers arm fail to mend
    But I always thought that I’d see the Tigers win again

    (more…)

  • The 7th Inning

    Ed Note: Reader Sam Hoff has been breaking the season down into 18 game “innings” and calculating the results. Here is the report for the 7th inning, which ended with Justin Verlander’s loss. Mike R has joined in the effort and is tracking a multitude of stats.

    The 7th Inning is over.

    Each 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record so far in each Inning:

                                            Starters:         Bullpen:
    W-L   RS-RA   HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG    W-L-IP-   ERA       W-L-S-ERA
1: 10-8   86 -79  17-9 -235/313/380    5-2-110.2-3.66      5-6-8-4.68 
2: 13-5   112-97  23-10-308/377/518    9-3-102.1-4.84      4-2-8-5.03
3: 7-11   110-96  26-7 -310/364/517    7-7-110.2-3.99      0-4-3-7.80
4: 13-5   136-75  20-5 -324/390/508   13-4-103.0-4.37      0-1-2-3.47
5: 11-7   91 -79  23-20-272/357/443   10-5-112.0-3.46      1-2-7-3.33 
6: 7-11   84 -113 17-8 -276/325/415    3-8- 99.2-6.59      4-3-6-4.31
7: 7-11   83 -110 20-10-266/315/436   4-10-101.0-6.50      3-1-4-5.12

    The 7th inning was almost identical to the 6th. The Tigers will start the 8th inning by trying to get within ½ game of Cleveland and win a series for the 1st time in 5 weeks. The only reason the Tigers have hope is because Cleveland is also playing poorly (11-16 in their last 27).

    The offense is still being lead by Mags 8-22-352/403/718 and Polanco who was 2-4-317/396/512 in only 11 games thanks to the flu. Guillen, Rayburn, and Thames were passable with a combined 6-23-279/304/491 in 165 abs. Maybin, Infante, and Santiago produced 1-4-400/455/633 in only 30abs (Infante was 7 for his last 14 when he was sent down?). The catching duo refuses to walk and were a combined 1-4-264/274/389. Casey 1-7-255/293/345, Granderson 0-3-203/311/297, Sheff 1-4-196/268/294, and Inge 0-8-208/232/302 represent 44% of the lineup that are not doing anything.

    The starters continue to get bombed. Jurrgens was 1-1-3.29 providing a big boost out of AA ball. Durbin 0-3-7.71, Bonderman 0-3-6.23, Verlander 2-1-6.75, and Robertson 1-1-5.59 all were inept. Tata got Bombed his only start.

    In back end of the bullpen appears to be hitting on all cylinders as Jones, Rodney, and Zumaya were 1-0-4-1.35 in 13.1 innings. Seay and Bazardo combined for 0-0-2.00 in 9.0 innings. The rest of the bullpen was 2-1-0-6.32 giving up 51 hits and 21 walks in only 35.2 innings.

    This most recent inning was almost identical to the 6th inning performance. The team has now had 3 losing innings amongst the 7. In 2006, the team only had 1 losing inning. If this team is to make the postseason, both of the next 2 innings must be winning efforts.

    Mike R also compiled a comprehensive spreadsheet detailing the inning with a plethora of stats including BABIP, FIP, and many more for each player.

  • Comings and goings: C-Mo a Cub, Miner a Hen

    The Tigers shipped Craig Monroe and some cash to the Chicago Cubs for a player to be named later. Later being before October 15th, and the player likely to be a pitcher on the 40 man roster according to Jason Beck.

    With less than a million left on Monroe’s deal, I’m a little surprised that the Tigers had to send cash when what they are getting back is probably someone they don’t look to retain. My guess, is that the Tigers worked with Monroe and other clubs to find a team that Monroe wanted to go to and then made a deal work. It’s nothing the organization had to do, but it is a nice gesture to a player who was a big part of this team over the last few years. It’s the kind of thing that could pay dividends down the road. I also wonder if Trammell was an influence in the deal.

    Also, as expected Zach Miner was optioned to Toledo to make room for Andrew Miller. From a roster management standpoint the move makes sense because Miner already is in an option year and can be recalled on September 1st. So you don’t lose anybody. From a performance standpoint, maybe it would have been wise to lose somebody though. I did notice that Jason Grilli wasn’t used in this series at home. I wonder if Leyland is looking to protect him, or if it was just the situations (Wednesday would have been the only game it would have made sense to use him – if you know what I mean).

    Beck’s Blog: Craig Monroe to the Cubs
    Miner optioned to Toledo – MLive.com: Detroit Tigers

  • links for 2007-08-23

  • Game 127: Indians at Tigers

    PREGAME: Tigers pitching is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. Today it is Nate Robertson and Jake Westbrook.

    Game time 1:05pm
    CLE @ DET, Thursday, August 23, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    POSTGAME    : Get away day hasn’t been friendly to the Tigers this year. I don’t have the inclination to go back and look up the record, but it seems that I listen to a heartbreaking loss on the radio at work, and have to think of something to say later that night. Again, I didn’t see this one, just going by the radio broadcast and your commentary, here are my thoughts:

    • Nate Robertson was one of those really yummy caramel flavored chocolates today (uh, that doesn’t sound quite right). He out pitched Westbrook, but didn’t get the win, and that just seems to be Nate’s luck as of late. When he’s awesome, he still can’t get a win. Still he did everything in his power to get the team a W, and he at least provides a little hope going forward.
    • And Westbrook was also very good, but Nate out pitched him. One could make the case that on Tuesday Carmona out pitched Jurrjens so this might be justice, but that ain’t a lot of consolation. And Carmona still allowed 2 homers (or at least one and a half).
    • Sean Casey batting third is a mystery. I like Guillen behind Maggs, so I’m not necessarily on the Guillen to the 3rd spot camp. But do something different. Drop Grandy to 3rd, or put Marcus third. Or even keep Granderson and Polanco where they are, and slide everybody up a spot. Give me some kind of threat before the best hitter.
    • As for the managerial decisions, I can’t say one way or the other on pulling Nate when he did. It sounded like there were several harder hit balls in the last couple innings. Not seeing the game I’m just going off of Dan and Jim’s account. While I’m a proponent of using pitch counts as a tool (a tool, not an absolute) in deciding when to stop an outing, I don’t think a favorable pitch count should be a justification for keeping a pitcher in the game.
    • On Zumaya, I wasn’t surprised he came back out. I was surprised he stayed out as long as he did. Thirty pitches is a ton for a guy just getting back, and with him maxing out at 95mph it doesn’t sound like this was free and easy throwing – not to mention all the guys on base.
    • As for the pinch running and pinch hitting, I wasn’t bothered by Pudge pinch running for Rabelo. Yes, Maybin is faster but in the even they didn’t score you’d need Pudge at that point anyways. And Pudge is fast. Characterizing him as a 35 year old catcher is factually correct, but not accurate reflection of his running ability.
    • The pinch hitting move that had to be made though was someone, preferably Raburn, for Ramon Santiago. You then move Guillen to short, Thames to first, and Raburn in left. Santiago just can’t hit in that situation. He’s not on the team for his bat, if that was the case Infante would be in Detroit and not Toledo. He’s here for his glove and expecting offense isn’t fair.
    • Granderson or Maybin facing the left hander? Again I could go either way. It sounded like Granderson had some of the better swings on the day, but his numbers against lefties are abysmal this year. But I’d also wager that is a little bit of bad luck. His K rate against lefties is pretty much the same as last year, but his batting average on balls in play is 206 this year versus 298 last year. Regardless, he still stood a 30% chance of fanning.
    • Regardless, Leyland appeared to fall asleep at the wheel in the 9th inning and the top of the 10th. last year he was credited for magically “pushing all the right buttons” when in fact he made bad decisions routinely and got away with it.
    • At least the team still had that 9, or in this case 10 inning mantra going. Each of the last 2 nights they haven’t gone down quietly even after falling behind. Though that’s little consolation.
    • The fact of the matter is that it never should have gotten to these dire points in the first place. The Tigers had ample opportunity to score just that one run, and much like the Clemens and Wang games over the weekend they just couldn’t do it. But unlike those games they were putting the ball in play with only 4 K’s.
    • It appears that Inge made some adjustments at the plate as he went 2 games without a strike out, and for a guy who was whiffing every other at-bat that may be progress. He also drew a walk in a key situation off a pitcher who just doesn’t walk guys. Of course that gets lost when he makes as big of a baserunning mistake as he made in getting doubled off 2nd base.

    I’ll have more stuff tomorrow, but I’m pretty bummed tonight. That’s just too good of a pitching performance in too important of a game to waste.

  • Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/22/07

    Indianpolis 4 Toledo 8
    Brent Clevlen and Mike Hessman both homered and singled. Omar Infante was 2 for 4 with a walk. Jordan Tata had an excellent start allowing 1 run on 5 hits, 2 walks, and 8 K’s in 7 innings. Macay McBride was knocked around for 5 hits and 3 runs in 1 inning of work.

    Akron 4 Erie 7
    Clete Thomas was 2 for 5 with a homer. Jeff Larish had 2 hits and a walk. Jon Connolly started and allowed 2 runs on 7 hits a walk and no strike outs in 5 1/3 innings.

    Sarasota 2 Lakeland 0
    Justin Justice tripled and had 2 walks. Lucas French went 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs while fanning 6.

    West Michigan 2 Great Lakes 9
    Jordan Newton was 3 for 4. Brandon Timm had 2 hits. Jonah Nickerson was knocked around for 6 runs on 8 hits in 4 innings.

    Oneonta 2 Brooklyn 4
    Crhis Carlson was a triple short of the cycle. Sean Finefrock allowed 4 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings.

    GCL Tigers 3 GCL Indians 2
    Carlos Ramirez had a 4 hit day. Christopher White added 2 hits. Manny Miguelez allowed 1 unearned run on 5 hits in 7 innings. Richard Zumaya allowed an unearned run in an inning of work while fanning 2.

  • Game 126: Indians at Tigers

    PREGAME: Okay, let’s just take this game so that the series is in hand. Enough rubber games. Let’s just win the series. Deal?!

    Tonight it will be Paul Byrd and Justin Verlander doing battle. Verlander should be over the flu, which should help. He gutted out 5 1/3 innings against the Yankees but only fanned 2 and threw 119 pitches.

    Paul Byrd can be hittable with a .302 batting average against, but he usually does a good job of preventing those runs from scoring. He’s been all over the place in his last 3 starts which include a complete game 4 hit shutout, a 7 run 2 inning affair against the Yankees, and a 6 inning/8 hit/1 run game against the Devil Rays.

    Game Time 7:05pm

    CLE @ DET, Wednesday, August 22, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    POSTGAME: Take the walk Pudge! I’m not blaming the loss on Rodriguez, but twice he swung at ball 4 to end the game when a walk would have brought the winning run in the form of Marcus Thames to the plate.

    So much for momentum.

    • Verlander has hammered. Even in the first when he escaped allowing one run, the outs were even hammered. This trend continued until it caught up with him in the 4th. He was sitting at 91/92mph very rarely hitting 94. The velocity and overall hit-able-ness are very troubling.
    • The bullpen didn’t fare much better. Zach Miner turned it into a blowout allowing a 3 run homer.
    • Chad Durbin actually pitched pretty good. He came into a 2nd and 3rd 1 out situation and got a pop up and a ground ball. Unfortunately the grounder went through the box scoring a run, and a muff by Granderson made it 2 runs.
    • At least those that thought the team hadn’t been showing life can’t really complain. They knocked the ball around and repeatedly chipped away at sizable leads.
    • Another strong Venezuelan 1-2 punch between Ordonez and Guillen who both homered and added another hit apiece. And both put together good at-bats in late inning situations (Maggs in the 7th and Guillen in the 9th) but without anything to show for them.
    • Cameron Maybin misplayed the first ball hit to him (leading to the first run). He did look more comfortable after that though. Let’s hope this is a real quick learning curve.
    • He did have 2 doubles, and his last at-bat was pretty impressive. He took several close pitches and then went with a pitch on the outer edge. He also showed off an unusual running style with his right arm actually waving

    Indians 11 Tigers 8

  • Sheff ain’t cooking

    Gary Sheffield’s shoulder is going to force him out of the rest of the homestand and there really isn’t a timetable for his return. Short term this is probably a good thing, not that he’s hurt of course, but that he’s out of the lineup. Since coming back from a week long break at the beginning of the month, Sheffield is hitting just 196/268/294. He’s clearly not healthy, and while there is a lot of talk about how his bat is feared, the scouting reports are probably already out that he’s not fearsome right now. He only has 5 walks in his last 13 games, which is a decent mark by a lot of players standards, it is a shadow of what Sheffield was doing.

    Best case is that he rests up for a week or two and is healthy enough to still help this season (and hopefully in the playoffs). For tonight Sean Casey will bat 3rd. If Curtis Granderson were swinging the bat a little better right now, it would be the ideal time to shift him to the 3 spot and go with some combination of Placido Polanco and Ryan Raburn 1-2 in the lineup.

    Beck’s Blog: Sheff’s shutting it down

  • links for 2007-08-22

  • Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/21/01

    Indianapolis 0 Toledo 4
    Good night for top young pitchers in the organization as Virgil Vasquez threw a complete game 2 hit shutout. He walked 1 and fanned 7. I’m a little concerned though as he threw 123 pitches. Chris Shelton hit a grand slam homer to plate all 4 runs.

    Akron 5 Erie 6
    Mike Hernandez, Jeff Larish, Wilkin Ramirez, and Matt Joyce all hd 2 hit games while Mike Hollimon and Kody Kirkland went deep. Eddie Bonine pitched all 7 innings allowing 5 runs on 8 hits with 2 walks and 1 strikeout.

    Akron 3 Erie 1
    The only offense came from Steve Torrealba who homered and walked. Cory Hamman started and went 2 2/3 innings and allowed only 3 hits, but with 3 walks leading to 2 runs.

    Lakeland 1 Sarasota 7
    Kyle Sleeth was knocked around for 5 runs in the first inning but stuck around through the 5th allowing 10 hits. He did fan 6 and walked only 1. The Flying Tigers had 3 hits so there’s not much to report offensively.

    West Michigan 6 Great Lakes 1
    Brennan Boesch had 2 hits and a walk. Jase Skelton and Jordan Newton each had 2 hits as well. It was another great outing for Charlie Furbush who allowed 5 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run while fanning 7 in 7 innings.

    Vermont 7 Oneonta 3
    Chris Carlson doubled and singled for the only multi hit game, and only extra base hit. Jose Fragoso allowed 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks in 2 innings.

    Minor League Baseball: Scoreboard: Scoreboard