Kaline’s memories golden Jerry Green looks back on Kaline’s career.

It appears that the Tigers have had enough, and the Toledo shuffle is beginning. First, Brandon Inge is heading to Toledo and being replaced by AJ Hinch. I love Inge’s defense, but .150 at this point in the season is just unacceptable. No time table has been set for his return. Also, Andres Torres is being called up to replace Ernie Young. Young didn’t really get a chance to prove anything. He only had 11 AB in 4 games and hit .182. However, he also walked 4 times for an OBA of .400. The recall of Torres is somewhat perplexing because the reason he’s been in the minors this year is to make sure he keeps getting playing time. The Tigers had said they would rather him play every day at AAA, then sit on the bench in the majors. With his recall, this raises the question…”Where’s he going to play?” My only guess is that when he plays he’ll take over center for Sanchez (who has no arm and allows too many extra bases by playing so deep), and Sanchez will move to one of the corner spots, with D-Young seeing more time at DH. Dmitri has hit much better this year as a DH than a fielder. As a third basemen his OPS is .631, and it’s .790 as an outfielder. In 75 AB’s as DH though, his OPS is 1.137.

And that’s just the position player moves. The pitching rotation is being shaken up for the first time this year on Saturday. Matt Roney will be taking Gary Knotts spot in the rotation. While I’m happy to see Roney get a shot (and hopefully Ledezma will in the near future as well), the selection of Knotts to the bullpen was a little surprising.

The reason the Tigers gave for moving Knotts is that he hasn’t been consistent enough. Well, in fact he hasn’t been consistent. In 5 of his starts he went 7+ innings and allowed two or fewer runs. He also had 7 starts in which he couldn’t make it 5 innings. Bernero on the other hand has been more consistent. He’s had fewer “good” outings (using the same measures as Knotts) with 3, but fewer bad outings as well, with 3. So which is the better situation for a team that scores 3 runs per game? I don’t know. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ledezma take Bernero’s spot after the All-Star break.

Other notes: The Tigers had two extended at-bats last night, that both resulted in runs. In the 6th Shane Halter had an 11 pitch at-bat in which he singled in Higginson with two-outs. Then in the 8th Munson had an 11 pitch at-bat that resulted in a solo homer…Bernero had a hard time keeping the ball down last night, as evidenced by his ground ball to fly ball ration of 1 to 10. Not really a surprise that 3 balls left the park.

West Michigan Whitecaps No complete game this time, just 7 scoreless innings with 3 hits and no walks. He only had two strike outs though.

When the Tigers scored 9 runs against Colorado on Saturday, I started thinking “When was the last time the Tigers scored 10 runs in a game?” I know they haven’t done it this year, so I checked last year. Lo and behold, on July 23, 2002 the Tigers beat Kansas City 10-1. Including Sunday’s 5-4 loss, that is 129 games since their last 10-run output. I then looked back a little farther, and that July 23 game was the only time they reached 10 runs in all 2002. Their previous 10 run outburst was a 12-6 win in Boston on September 23, 2001. In their last 241 games, the Tigers have scored 10 runs exactly once.

Now what does this streak perfect not-10’s mean? Probably nothing. I don’t know of any baseball people who look at 10 run games as a barometer of success (although scoring 10 runs in a game does give you a pretty good chance to win). This is just the product of a baseball fan who is a geek, that has access to information, and that is tired of harping on the fact that the Tigers give away too many outs bunting and caught stealing.

No Hustle, No Play…

Lynn Henning explores how good franchises go bad…

Sorry about my brief hiatus. Between some personal obligations, and the fact I just haven’t had a lot to say about the team, I decided to take a little break. Since I last wrote the Tigers lost 4 in a row, and did it in a variety of ways. Ramon Santiago seemed to have caught the error virus that plagued Eric Munson a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully this was just a temporary thing. One of the bright spots for the Tigers this year has been the defensive play of their young infield (just ask Nate Cornejo) so there is reason to believe that this is just a slump.

Something a little more troubling is that Bobby Higginson appears to have a bad back/leg. If you’ve been watching him bat for the last week or so, it was clear something was wrong. Pretty much every at bat had been a soft ground out to second, and he didn’t look like he was swingining aggressively. If the Tigers lose Higgy for awhile, it won’t be pretty. As bad as their offense has been with him in the lineup, it will only be worse without him. Unfortunately the Tigers don’t have any exciting young outfielders to bring up and take his place like the Indians and Twins.

Again I have to call into question Tram’s penchant for sacrifice bunting. In the ninth inning on Saturday, the Tigers had scored a couple runs to get within 3. They had runners on first and second, and still nobody out. Gene Kingsale then sacrifice bunts to move the two “stay behind” runs into scoring position. Kingsale is pretty quick (once he gets out of the box) and the chances of a double play were pretty slim. For a team that has such a hard time getting hits, I can’t fathom why you would want to give away so many outs.

Prospect Watch: Here’s how Kenny Baugh, Joel Zumaya, and Jon Connolly fared in their last starts (courtesy The Prospect Report)
Baugh:4.2IP, 10 hits, 7 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Zumaya: 6IP, 8 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 9K
Connolly: 9 IP, 6 hits, 0 R, 1 BB, 7K – He’s now 11-0 with a .84 ERA

Getting Linky
Rob Neyer’s all-time Tiger team (from “The Big Book of Baseball Lineups”)
The Grand Rapids Press takes a look at Jon Connolly. The Tigers currently have no plans to promote him.
Danny Knobler’s Inside the Tigers column mentions that NL scouts are interested in Dmitri Young
Davey Lopes likes Alex Sanchez. Sanchez already has nine steals, just think how many more he’d have if he took a walk.

From Baseball Prospectus on ESPN.com

The Tigers went after hard throwers early in the draft as 4 or their first 5 selections, and 6 of the first ten were pitchers. I understand the motivation for drafting the best available player (and this is more true in baseball than the other sports), but the Tiger organization currently has no position player to get excited about. Cody Ross has done well, but he has 4th outfielder written all over him. Moore, Cleven, and Granderson all have shown flashes, but nothing to get that excited about from A ball. On the other hand, the Tigers have intersting pitchers at every level of the minors. In A ball Jon Connolly and Joel Zumaya have been pitching well. At Erie, Larrison, Henkel and Farnsworth all show promise. At AAA Toledo Shane Loux has thrown well. I’m not suggesting that any of these guys are sure fire top of the rotation pitchers, but they still have the potential to contribute. I just don’t see that same potential from the position players.

For a listing of all the Tigers draft picks go here

I know this is old news, but the Tigers came back and won one in the 9th against San Diego. The game started at 10 and wasn’t televised, so I can’t really comment too much on it. I do know that Nate Cornejo threw 15 ground ball outs, including a couple inning end double plays. The result was another strong outing despite a glaring lack of strikeouts. Dmitri Young continues to crush the ball as he hit another home run to center-and he earned Player of the Week honors for his performance last week. Congrats Dmitri and keep up the good work.

Giarratano is a shortstop from Tulane. From MLB’s website:

Here is his player bio from Tulane