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  • links for 2007-06-29

  • Tigers Minor League Wrap – 6/28/07

    Ottawa 4 Toledo 3
    Ryan Raburn had 3 K’s, but he also hit his 16th homer of the season. Chris Shelton went 1 for 4. Jon Connolly lasted 5 2/3 innings allowing 4 runs on 9 hits, 1 walk, and 1 strike out.

    Erie 10 Bowie 2
    That’s a lot of Erie offense for a game that was called after 6 innings – due to rain, not the mercy rule. Jeff Larish and Jackson Melian homered. Clete Thomas and Mike Hollimion each had 2 hits. Eddie Bonine pitched the complete shortened game allowing 2 unearned runs on just 1 hit and no walks.

    Lakeland – Rained out

    Lansing 2 West Michigan 4
    Scott Sizemore tripled and homered to lead the attack. Jeramy Laster added 2 hits as well. Ramon Garcia only pitched 2 innings before giving way to Casey Fien who threw 5 innings of relief.

    Oneonta 10 Tri-City 3
    Casper Wells homered twice and doubled knocking in 5 runs. Chris Carlson and Kody Kaiser each had 3 hit days as well. Guillermo Moscoso allowed 4 runs on 9 hits over 5 innings with 1 walk and 3 Ks.

    GCL Tigers 8 GCL Braves 1
    Luis Arlet hit his 3rd homer and added a triple. Joaquin Guzman went 3 for 4. Luis Marte allowed 1 run on 6 hits over 7 innings with 1 walk and 6 K’s. Charles Furbush made his pro debut throwing 2 innings of relief allowing just a walk while fanning 3.

  • Game 77: Rangers at Tigers Redux

    PREGAME: Nothing’s really changed, same starting pitchers (Kenny Rogers and Kevin Millwood) and all only it’s 20 degrees cooler, half the humidity, and all the clouds are pretty instead of ominous. Oh yeah, and I’ll be at there today.

    For more info check out BR’s game preview

    Game Time 1:05pm

    POSTGAME: Beautiful day for a ball game today, so a 15 minute delay so the umpires could arrive was hardly an inconvenience. I guess that explains the black town car getting a police escort on the Madison ramp at about 12:30.

    • Kenny Rogers was amazing again. I saw the last run he gave up (the one in relief on the last day of the season), as well as the one today. But I also saw 2 of his playoff starts so I don’t think you can blame me for the scoreless inning streak ending.
    • But a couple other streaks continued, most notable was Carlos Guillen’s 11 game RBI streak. Guillen and Magglio Ordonez also both extended their hitting streaks to 14 games.
    • Remember how a couple days ago I questioned the issue of Ordonez turning on a ball? He certainly turned on one today hitting a long drive with home run distance that landed foul in leftfield.
    • Pudge Rodriguez was certainly stymied today. He racked up a ton of swing and misses, and from my vantage point it didn’t look like he was over swinging. He looked to be trying to shoot the ball to right, but contact seemed to be alluding him.
    • Gary Sheffield’s jumps on both the stolen base and wild pitch were incredible. Stealing third he was probably a third of the way before the ball was released, and he seemed to leave as soon as the ball hit the dirt from third base.
    • The Tigers drew 9 walks today, the second time this season they accomplished the feat.
    • And the bullpen was good too, even Todd Jones.

    Tigers 5 Rangers 2

  • Tigers Minor League Wrap – 6/27/07

    Ottawa 2 Toledo 5
    Ramon Santiago had 3 more hits and is now hitting .271. Kevin Hooper and Timo Perez each had 2hits. Jack hannahan had a single and 2 walks. Ron Chiavacci went 7 innings allowing 2 runs on 7 hits, no walks, and 4 K’s. Zach Miner threw a perfect inning of relief and appears ready to come off the DL.

    Erie 2 Bowie 1
    Mike Hollimon had 2 hits. Clete Thomas singled and had 2 walks. Jair Jurrjens allowed a run in the first, but was otherwise untouchable for 7 1/3 innings with only 5 hits allowed, no walks, and 9 K’s.

    Lakeland 2 Jupiter 9
    Wilkin Ramirez was 2 for 3 with a walk and his 22nd stolen base. Cameron Maybin went 1 for 4. Chris Cody lasted 4 innings allowing 2 runs on 5 hits with 1 walk and 3 K’s.

    Lansing 1 West Michigan 4
    Audy Ciriaco hit his 4th homer. Scott Sizemore singled, doubled, and walked. Jeramy Laster was 2 for 3. Lauren Gagnier went 7 innings allowing 1 run on 5 hits, 1 walk, and 5 K’s.

    Oneonta 6 Vermont 2
    Mark Brackman started and went 4 2/3 innigns allowing no runs on 5 hits and 3 K’s. Justin Henry doubled, singled, and walked. Kody Kaiser was 1 for 2 with 3 walks. Cory MIddleton had 3 hits.

    GCL Tigers 7 GCL Braves 3
    Carlos Ramirez had 2 doubles and 4 RBI. Joaquin Guzman went 2 for 4, as did Brent Clevlen. Eleazar Aponte allowed 2 runs on 6 hits, 2 walks, and 5 K’s over 5 innings.

    Minors News

    Matt has done a great job rounding up all the minor league transactions.

  • Game 77: Rangers at Tigers

    PREGAME: Time to get rid of that case of the uglies that the Tigers have picked up since returning home. Kenny Rogers will try to replicate his debut outing in Atlanta. Meanwhile the Tigers will try to replicate their last effort against Kevin MIllwood.

    Marcus Thames is in for Craig Monroe today and Neifi Perez is playing for Placido Polanco.

    For more see: TEX @ DET, Wednesday, June 27, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 1:05pm

    POSTPONED – Sept 11th make up as a day-night doubleheader

  • Of Mountains and Molehills

    Where I overreact and overthink a couple of topics…

    Maggs the spray hitter?

    Not that I’m complaining about a guy who is leading the all the Majors in hitting, but do you think that Ordonez is focusing on going for the batting title? His last 8 hits have all been singles, and it seems the majority are to right field. He hasn’t hit a homer since June 2nd. In his last 13 games he only has 4 extra base hits. Let me emphasize again I’m not complaining, over those same 13 games he’s batting .438 and has an OBP of .518 which is quite awesome. I just wonder if he’s looking for singles, a la Placido Polanco, instead of looking to turn on the ball. Then again, it could just be he’s taking what the opposition is giving as well.

    Andrew Miller’s Inning Limit

    I heard back from the Tigers, and Andrew Miller doesn’t have an innings limit this year. Jim Leyland said it’s too early in the season to get into a discussion about an innings limit, but they’ll continue to monitor him as they do with all pitchers.

    I know that there is mixed opinion about pitcher’s workload and corresponding injury risk so I won’t even take the discussion that way. I’ll just remind everyone about Justin Verlander fatiguing down the stretch last year. And Verlander had a full year of professional ball as a starter under his belt.

    Interleague thumping

    When I thought about how the Central might shake out this year, I didn’t really know which of the 4 teams would end up on top, but I was sure that the division wouldn’t have 3 90 game winners in it. I also thought that the division winner would be right around 90 wins. I thought this because a)there wouldn’t be as many wins against the Indians this year by divisional foes and b)it would be a tougher run through the NL.

    Well, the White Sox look to be supplanting the Indians as the 2nd team to beat up on so point A may be a wash. However, the Tigers went out and beat up on the NL 14-4 which was just a shade under the 16-2 mark they posted last year. So maybe they can get back to 95 wins.

    Strongest division

    I really think all the talk about the AL Central being the toughest division is highly misplaced. The AL Central boasts only the 3rd and 4th best teams in the league. The White Sox are closer to last than 3rd and the Twins are flirting with .500.

    I’m thinking if you look west, and to the NL, that’s where things are the most interesting. Sure, their division leading Diamondbacks have only outscored their opponents by 1 run so there is some luck involved. But the division has 4 teams that are .500 or better, and their 5th team has only been outscored by 16 runs on the season. If it’s not the strongest, it’s certainly the most complete.

    All Star Voting

    Tigers fans have certainly been stuffing the ballot boxes and it’s been great. Magglio Ordonez finally jumped into the top 3 (but the lead is slim so don’t think the work is done) and Gary Sheffield is at 5. Placido Polanco probably isn’t the most deserving second baseman, which is probably Brian Roberts, but he’s a respectable choice. But come on Tigers fans, Sean Casey 3rd? Craig Monroe 15th? I’m all about supporting the hometown guys, and giving the preference among some tough choices to your guy is fine. But I’m not a big fan of blatant blind voting.

  • Game 76: Rangers at Tigers

    PREGAME: Hopefull it’s a bounce back night, both for the Tigers who played a clunker last night, and Nate Robertson who returns to the rotation after a stint on the DL and a really bad month of May. Nate’s last start was against the Rangers when he allowed 6 runs without retiring a batter. I bet he does better tonight.

    The Tigers will face Willie Eyre who was moved from the bullpen to start in place of the injured Vincente Padilla.

    For more stats see: TEX @ DET, Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 7:05pm

    POSTGAME: I thought I’d go to bed and wake up in a better mood. Didn’t happen. It’s amazing how 2 really poorly played games can wipe out the good will from an 8-1 road trip. The bullpen was awful again, and made worse by fielding gaffes.

    Todd Jones and Mike Rabelo had a conference between every single pitch, and still couldn’t get the signs right which is the excuse for the 0-2 fastball to Sammy Sosa. Jones wasn’t supposed to throw the pitch in that spot, but he’d have to throw a pitch at some point. No word on what happened on the Marlon Byrd triple or the Ramon Vasquez single.

  • Rodney DL’d again

    Well, that’s one way to make room for Nate Robertson. Fernando Rodney is headed to the DL with shoulder tendinitis.

    Rodney was on the DL a month ago with what was described as right biceps tendinitis. He came back in two weeks, and he has pitched eight times since then with mixed results. His velocity has remained inconsistent, and when Rodney reported this week that he was feeling some stiffness in his right forearm in addition to the tightness in his shoulder, the Tigers sent him for an MRI. The MRI showed no serious problems, but the doctors diagnosed tendinitis and recommended that Rodney go 10 days without throwing.

    I imagine so combination of Bobby Seay, Chad Durbin, and Tim Byrdak will assume 8th inning duties with a chance of Eulogio De La Cruz.

  • links for 2007-06-26

  • Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/25/07

    Indianapolis 1 Toledo 9
    Ramon Santiago had a 3 hit game. Mike Hessman was 2 for 2 with 3 walks. Chris Shelton and Jack Hannahan each had 2 hit, 1 walk games. Yorman Bazardo started and pitched 7 shutout innings allowing only 4 hits and a walk against 3 K’s.

    Trenton 4 Erie 5
    Jeff Larish has been struggling, but he did knock his 13th homer as part of a 2 for 4 day. Andrew Kown allowed 1 run on 6 hits and 3 walks over 6 innings. Roman Colon allowed a homer and 3 runs in 2 innings.

    Brevard County 3 Lakeland 8
    Michael Hernandez hoemred and drove in 4 runs. Cameron Maybin tripled and singled. Justin Justice added hits and a walk. Lucas French allowed 10 hits in 6 innings, but only 3 of those came around to score and only 1 was earned. Ricky Steik pitched 3 scoreless innings for the save.

    Lansing 4 West Michigan 5
    Deik Scram, Jeramy Laster, James Skelton, and Audy Ciriaco all had 2 hit games. Laster and Brennan Boesch homered. Jonah Nickerson allowed 2 runs on 6 hits, 2 walks and 7 K’s in 6 innings.

    Oneonta 3 Vermont 5
    Kody Kaiser was 3 for 4 with including a double and a walk. Ronnie Bourquin added 3 hits. Paul Nardozzi allowed 2 runs on 4 hits in 4 innings with no walks and 3 K’s.

    GCL Indinas 4 GCL Tigers 2
    Brandon Harrigan picked up 2 of only 3 hits on the night for the Tigers.

  • Game 75: Rangers at Tigers

    PREGAME: The Tigers return home for the next couple weeks after getting through a 9 game DH-less stint with an 8-1 record.

    The Tigers have struggled in the game after Sunday night games, what with getting in late and quite frankly probably being sleepy. But this time they are coming home, and it was a shorter flight, and they didn’t change time zones. So it might not be so bad.

    They’ll face Kameron Loe who they saw a couple weeks ago, and knocked out with 9 runs in 2 2/3 innings. In his next start he threw 8 shutout innings against the Pirates and turned in a quality start in his last turn against the Cubs.

    Jeremy Bonderman looks to extend his unbeaten streak. He’s had the benefit of some good offense his last few times out. Bonderman hasn’t recorded an out beyond the 6th inning since his first start back from the DL on May 24th.

    The real question though is what Tiger will start padding his resume for player of the week honors. There’s pressure to keep it going with Carlos Guillen being the 3rd Tiger in as many weeks to pick up the award.

    For more see: TEX @ DET, Monday, June 25, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

    Game Time 7:05

    POSTGAME    : All good things must come to an end, and the winning streak is toast. I’ll give credit to the Rangers, they got in later than the Tigers this morning, and put a thumping on them. The team just looked out of sync all game. There were only a handful of hard hit balls for the Tigers. And early threats were squandered.

    Jeremy Bonderman wasn’t sharp. His final numbers look okay, but he was all over with his control, especially on a routine throw to first. Eulogio De La Cruz had even more trouble and turned it into a blow out.

    Jim Leyland was overmanaging early on. He had Sean Casey steal with a full count to Monroe. He sac bunted Brandon Inge in the second inning, playing for small ball with a big ball offense.

    Alas, the streak is over. But at least Granderson got a triple…

  • links for 2007-06-25