I’ve mentioned in my last several posts how the Tigers’ pitchers are walking way too many hitters as of late. Once again they paid the price last night. Since it’s being covered extensively in the papers, I’ll just throw out this one arcane stat:
The last time Tiger pitchers allowed 31 or more walks in a five game stretch was at the end of the 1999 season. September 18th through the 22nd they allowed 10, 8, 7, 5, and 4 walks. Unfortunately I didn’t have last seasons logs easily searchable, so I’m hoping it didn’t happen last year. (Information once again from Retrosheet)
Aside from the walks, three other things stood out watching the game last night:
1. On the grand slam, Mike Maroth shook Pudge off on the pitch. Now it doesn’t seem to happen too often that Pudge gets shaken off. However, when it does happen, the ball tends to find the seats. I don’t have any proof of this, I’m just working from observation here. It could be that pitchers shake off Rodriguez all the time, and I have some sort of weird sense to only notice the times before a home run. It just seems that every time I see the pitcher look in and shake his head, I think to myself “Something bad’s going to happen,” or if I’m feeling more musically inclined I think “Eli’s coming.”
2. If you read regularly, you know that I’m generally a supporter of Craig Monroe and I expect him to be pretty good this year. Now granted, Monroe has picked up 19 RBI this season, but his approach after Carlos Guillen’s triple was disappointing. There’s one out, and at the time an important runner on third. Monroe didn’t seem to adjust his swing and it looked like he was swinging for the fences. It resulted in a pop up. Fortunately Thames picked him up with a two out single.
3. Pudge and Marcus Thames both homered on pitches high in the strike zone. I don’t have a lot to say about this except that those are typically the pitches, the high hard ones, that guys can’t hit and can’t lay off. For two players that have been struggling up until last night, it was nice to see them find the seats.
And that’s it for today. I’m off to tonight’s game, and I’ll be attending tomorrow’s as well. I haven’t been to a game for a while, so I should be able to handle the day game after a night game.
Walking our way right back to the cellar.
Not addressing the starting end of pitching staff is starting to look real problematic. On the positive side, Bonderman looks like a quality big-leaguer. Course, he’s the only one who does of the group that currently fills our rotation.
Clearly we don’t have the time to wait the 3-4 years it would take for the next wave (Sleeth, Zumaya, Verlander, whoever) to mature, if they ever do. In 3-4 years Pudge, Dmitri and Magglio will be done, or should be done. Guillen will be slowing down, at best.
We need to add pitching soon.
What’s out there?
What’s weird about the pitchers shaking Pudge off is that it looks like he gets the pitch calls from the dugout (which baffles me, by the way). So who’s really being shaken off, Pudge or Tram (or Cluck)? Either way, it’s not working…
//Bonderman looks like a quality big-leaguer. Course, he’s the only one who does of the group that currently fills our rotation. //
I still think Maroth can be a middle to bottom of the rotation kind of guy. But you just can’t give teams like the Sox as many freebies as the Tigers have this week and expect to get away with it.
Strange as it may seem, players like Dmitri, Pudge, and Maggs are essentially stop-gaps until the farm can produce its own hitters.