With so much to say, I don’t know where to begin. So we’ll start with the bright spots, because we can get those out of the way quickly
-In case you hadn’t noticed, Eric Munson has become a respectable 3rd basemen. While his fielding still has room for improvement-he’s last in the AL in zone rating, and next to last in fielding percentage and range factor-he has raised his OPS to .767 which is 7th best among AL third baggers. Additionally, leads all rookies in BB/PA (.097) and is second in isolated power (.192).
-Warren Morris continues to hit well, and with power. His numbers are .348/.348/.587 with three home runs. True, it is only 46 at-bats, and his career numbers of .268/.339/.384 indicate he probably will take some walks eventually, and he won’t continue to hit for this much power. Regardless, even if he reverts to his career numbers, it will be the most production we’ll have had at second since Damion Easley’s good season.
-And while we’re in the middle of the diamond let’s talk about who’s going to play short. Shane Halter brings more power to the position (but about the same batting average). And now it looks like Santiago is auditioning for the job as well. In the end, either Infante or Santiago is heading to the minors when Pena comes back later this week. I know if I’m Nate Cornejo, the combination of Morris and Halter in the middle scares the bejesus out of me. (Side Note: Wasn’t it only last year that the Tigers gave up offense to improve defense- a la Chris Truby?).
-Speaking of poor range, you know you’re in trouble when Dmitri Young is coming over from left to make plays on balls hit to center field. Alex Sanchez simply cannot get to enough balls. Part of the problem is he’s playing two steps in front of the warning track. How long are they going to tolerate this? It’s not like his base stealing is a threat when he has an on base average of .280.
-Gary Knotts didn’t have a very impressive outing in relief on Saturday, as he kept throwing balls into the seats. Today he finds himself bound for Toledo. Fernando Rodney, who had 16 saves for the Mud Hens will take his place.

I do have to give the Tigers credit for one thing though this year. They went into the season knowing they were trying to evaluate talent. And to their credit they gave everyone a fair shot before shaking things up. They waited over a third of the way through the season. The position players have had a number of games to get acclimated, and the pitchers all got 12-14 starts.

Also, I like the fact that Tram kept Roney’s first outing short. While I didn’t understand why you would want him to start at Coors field where the bullpen already stood a good chance of being heavily utilized, I appreciate the fact he was looking out for his arm.

To look at Bonderman’s line from last night, it isn’t terribly exciting. 6.1IP, 3 ER, 7 hits, 8K, 0 BB. However, for the first six innings he was pretty dominating. He had great command and was doing a good job locating all of his pitches. His fastball even hit 97 a couple of times on the radar gun. Also, he was efficient, only using 72 pitches prior to the seventh inning. Then after retiring the first batter in the seventh, Bradley worked an 8 pitch at-bat into a single and stole second. That’s when it fell apart for Jeremy. Broussard doubled in Bradley. Two more singles and Jeremy was done for the night. He had a third run charged to him when Spurling allowed a sac fly. That being said, this was probably Jeremy’s best outing since his battle against Zito in Oakland. While the Tigers didn’t get the win, and Bonderman got the benefit of Tony Randazzo’s wide strike zone, it was still nice to see a strong performance from the kid.

A couple other bright spots from this loss included another home run by Eric Munson, as part of a 3 hit day. Munson has raised his average to .242 and now has 9 home runs on the year. The downside is that 7 of those home runs have been solo. Also, Bobby Higginson hit 4 balls hard, and had two hits to show for it.

Dmitri Young had a couple of opportunities to pick up RBI’s and instead struck out and hit a comebacker.

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.