It was nice to see the Tigers fight back yesterday, and I was particularly happy to see Brandon Inge get the go ahead home run. Earlier in the game Inge had 3 solid at-bats with nothing to show for it (I included his weak grounder to second on a hit and run as a “good” at-bat because he had to get the bat on the ball). Franklyn German had another solid outing picking up the save. Bonderman pitched his best game since his turn in Oakland and looked real sharp (7K/1BB). He had to leave after 6 innings and 82 pitches due to a blister-but that might not be such a bad thing anyway. Avery “earned” the win by giving up a 3 run homer to tie the game. In all fairness, those 3 runs were the first he’d allowed this year.

Speaking of which, Avery’s call up has kept Wil Ledezma off the mound. Since Avery’s May 10th call up, Ledezma has only pitched in two games (5/15 and 5/21) and both opportunities were “inning-eaters” when the team was trailing. Based on what Jayson Stark and Peter Gammons have reported, Ledezma has starter-quality stuff. One article compared him to Johan Santana. While I appreciate Avery’s comeback, and that we have him cheap, why not use Ledezma more? I don’t know that he will be a contributor on this team in two years, or even next year. However, he’s much more likely to be a member of this team beyond this season than Avery. What’s frustrating is that you’d like to see Ledezma get work, but because he’s a Rule V guy, he has to stay and wallow in the bullpen.

I guess the bright side to Ledezma’s lack of work is that the starting pitching has been better than expected, and for the most part worked deeper into games than expected. The rotation is still intact, which has to have surprised everyone. Only the A’s, Yankee’s, and Mariner’s can say the same-and that is some good company to be in.

A first glance at Bobby Higginson’s numbers this month to date are pretty reassuring. He’s hitting .345/.444/.476. He’s also scored 16 runs during the month so far. What is troubling is his lack of RBI, for the month he only has 7. Frankly I don’t know if it’s because he’s not hitting well with men on base, or if he just isn’t having opportunities with men on base. I suspect it is a little bit of the former and a whole lot of the latter. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to dig into this deeper right now. However, I do know that the hitters occupying the 1-2 slots, Torres/Kingsale/Santiago/Infante all seem to bunt more than they swing away. I know that Tram has been handcuffed with very little production out of most of the order-which makes finding a good lineup futile. However, with Pena starting to emerge from his slump, Young hitting better, the emergence of the Kevin Witt/Craig Monroe platoon, and Eric Munson’s plate discipline, it may be time to shuffle the lineup. Why not move Munson to the number 2 spot in the order. Sure, his .301 OBA isn’t particularly impressive, but neither is Santiago’s .297 or Infante’s .285. Also, at least Munson is working the count more. He’s averagine 3.92 pitches/plate appearance compared to 3.80 for Infante and 3.22 for Santiago. I know you are giving up some speed, but speed on the bench isn’t particularly useful.

The Tigers 3 game win streak came to an end yesterday on a 12th inning home run by Joe Crede. The walk-off was set up when Eric Munson threw high to first on what would have been the third out. Despite that, the weekend featured some fine defensive plays, and excellent pitching by the Tigers. Mike Maroth won his first game of the year on Friday and Gary Knotts pitched a strong game on the road for the first time this year. It seems like only last week I wrote about how he couldn’t get anybody out away from Comerica.

I just have a couple of comments about Tram’s moves yesterday. I was a little disappointed to see him pinch-hit for Kevin Witt in the 8th inning yesterday against lefty Kelly Wunsch. While Witt has only one AB agsint left handed pitching this year, he was still 2-3 with a home run in game. Furthermore, Wunsch had given up a double, a 4 pitch walk, and a HBP. Clearly he was wild and having trouble finding the plate. By going to the right handed Monroe, it invited the Sox to take Wunsch out of the game. That being said, the Tigers did tie it up, but Monroe didn’t do any of the damage. The big hit was a jam shot from fellow pinch hitter Torres. The second issue is much easier to second guess since it didn’t work out, and that was walking Konerko to get to Crede. Looking at how each has fared against Sparks the move didn’t make a lot of sense. Konerko was 8 for 33 lifetime, and 7 of those hits were singles (one was a home run). Crede, was 3 for 8 with a home run. Furthermore, if you look at their splits by situation “Close and Late” (7th inning or later and the game within a run) Crede still had the better numbers. Konerko is 3 for 22 on the season and Crede was 8 for 22.

Jayson Stark’s Rumblings

Lynn Henning on the the Tigers

Prospect Watch-West Michigan
Jon Connolly of the West Michigan Whitecaps improved to 8-0 on the year by pitching 8 2/3 innings of shut-out ball. He walked one and had 5 strikeouts. The effort dropped his ERA to 0.75. On the year he has 29 K’s and 17 BB’s in 59 IP. Connolly was a 28th round draft choice in the 2001 draft. The soft throwing left hander is 19 years old.

Baugh gets promoted

Young challenges future stars to battle through tough times – 5/20/03

Farm Report – 5/20/03

So what happens when the two worst offensive teams in the American League play each other? How about a 10-9 slugfest featuring 24 hits (12 extra-base) and 6 home runs. This is what is great about baseball, that every game gives you something different. Even the two worst teams in the league can combine for a very entertaining baseball game. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they came up short despite a 3 dinger, 7 RBI game from Carlos Pena. Jamie “CJ” Walker took the loss as Gary Knotts and the bullpen combined to blow an early 6 run lead. Knotts road woes continue. In Comerica he has a 1.66 ERA with no HR’s, 4 BB’s, and opponents are hitting .213 in 3 starts. On the road however he has this line: 4 GS, 7.41 ERA, 4 HR’s, 11 BB’s, .314 opponent BA. Nice to see Kevin Witt kill the ball in his first start.

Young hitters will develop, Avila says

Tim DeWalt at Tigers Central has a pretty fair analysis of the team so far. I particularly agreed with his last paragraph: