Sorry about the long hiatus. Unfortunately at the same time I that I ran out of time to do this, my partner in misery Russ lost his internet access. Therefore, sparse updating for awhile. Anywho, there hasn’t been a lot of fun stuff to write about. First there is the anemic offense, which has already been beat to death. This was further highlighted by last night’s move of Bobby Higginson to center. Mind you, I’m not knocking the move, but the move was made so that we could get the power tandem of Shane Halter and Craig Paquette both in the lineup (with Halter DH’ing!). Fortunately, Carlos Pena has looked a little better at the plate recently. Also, Eric Munson continues to have good swings and Ramon Santiago has pieced together an 8 game hitting streak. Unfortunately Dean Palmer looks completely lost. It appears that he’s not seeing the ball well, and Dmitri Young looks equally confused. Also, Bobby’s OBA is up over .350 thanks in large part to his plate discipline.
The starting pitching has been adequate. Mike Maroth has been solid, and Gary Knotts has been a nice surprise. Bonderman needs to find his control and get a solid outing to regain everyone’s confidence (especially his own). The bullpen has clearly struggled. Jamie Walker, the left-handed home run specialist, is looking more and more like CJ Nitkowski. German and Anderson both look rusty and out of sync-they need more opportunities. Sparks has been solid in various relief capacities this year.
At least the defense has been solid. The young infield looks very promising. Munson has been impressive over at 3rd and Santiago and Infante both can cover a lot of ground. Halter is adequate on the balls he can get to, but he unfortunately has no range. Higgy is always solid, but the CF has been erratic, and you can’t help but hold your breath when you see Dmitri Young on the run.
Lynn Henning and other have wrote about how the Tigers bats will get better, and I believe they will. I just hope that when the bats come alive, the arms don’t go away.