Because I’m swamped at work right now, and my normal Tiger blogging time was consumed by attending the last two games, I’m going to keep this short. I’ll get a runner on base with a few brief comments, and then I’ll bunt to keep your interest moving along with a few links of note.
-Nate Robertson looked more impressive on Wednesday night. The walks were down significantly for him. The stadium radar gun had him in the low 90’s – even at 94. I’m not sure if Chicago’s gun was slow or Detroit’s was fast, but I don’t believe a swing that big in velocity between two starts.
-With regard to one run losses, I’ve done a little more work along those lines to follow up my earlier post. Hopefully I can get that done early next week. Until then let me pose this question: Would Alan Trammell be getting less heat if his team was losing by more than one run? Everybody is quick to jump on the manager for one-run losses, but isn’t it better than they’re playing competitive than getting blown out? I realize that winning is preferrable to both, but I just wonder if the Tigers were losing big if Tram would be getting the same criticism for losing close. Of all the criticisms leveled against Trammell this season, the only one I think holds water is that he’s resting guys way too much.
-Despite having one of the largest scoreboards in the majors, it is amazing how little information is presented. I’ll have more on this later also.
-Jim Hawkins had an interesting piece about Bobby Higginson.
“I didn’t know what to expect when the season started,” Higginson admitted. “Obviously, I knew I wasn’t going to start.
“Then Magglio went down. I got a start (April 7 against Kansas City) and got a couple hits. The next night, I went 0-for-5 against Cleveland. And basically I got the plug pulled after that.”
Higginson’s unhappiness is such an old and tired story. First he wants a no trade clause, then he wants to be traded, then he wants to stay, now he wishes he was playing someplace else. I tried to find some value in Higginson this offseason, and I hoped he’d take to the spot-player role better. However, he needs to be released, and released as soon as Craig Monroe’s groin is healed.
-John Sickels spent 3 nights watching Burlington play West Michigan and has some reports and pictures. Here are photos of Brent Duglach and Jeff Frazier. Here are pictures of Andrew Kown and some commentary. Here is a post about Randor Bierd.
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-Tigerblog has added a new writer and he debuts with an excellent article about how the last ten years have taken a toll on the Tigers place in history.
-Finally, here are some links to newly discovered Detroit sports blogs: Terry Foster, MgoBlog, and Greg Eno.
regarding one-run losses…
sure, they’re happening, but it is far better to see those than last year’s 8-2 losses. at least they’re more interesting to watch. living in nyc, i don’t get to see many games (but i’ve got my tickets for two weeks from now when they play the yanks), but it seems this year they’re playing gutsier (i.e. guillen getting thrown out at home the other day). it looks like they believe, if you can imagine that. the article at tigerblog is right – time to stop being apologists.
I agree about Tram taking heat. It’s rather encouraging the Tigers have been in 11 one-run games through 27. Of course, I would prefer better results, but you’ve got to walk before you can run.
And is it Tram’s fault the Farnsworth-Urbina-Percival bullpen hasn’t lived up to expectations? I loved this pen coming into the season, and you have to believe these guys are too good to be this bad for long (I hear Cubs fans laughing). Even when the Tigers went on their 5-game win streak those guys needed to be bailed out in three of them.
I got a kick out of Lynn Henning’s column about Tram needing to go to the pen sooner. I can’t fault Tram for being reluctant.
Thanks for the plug, Bill! Appreciate it! Keep up the good work!
I went to the mud hens game tonight. Grilli was impressive, but his stuff just isn’t that great… he pitched 7 scoreless innings in a 3-0 win.
More impressive was chris shelton… who i am convinced will be starting at first base for the tigers by july if carlos pena isn’t batting .300 with 20 homers by then. His defense is suspect (noted on should have been double play that wasn’t because he can’t stretch for a ball), but his swing is incredible right now. He anticipated every pitch that was thrown at him and showed patience at the plate… even when he was fooled by a changeup (the only time i saw him fooled during the night) he still smacked it very sharply into right center field.
Most impressive.
Granderson was good, especially his reactions in the field, but his swing is a bit off at the moment… at least to my eyes. He still is without a home run as well.
Is the scoreboard really that large if one excludes the areas used as advertising billboards? The CoPa is a beautiful stadium but they squeeze advertising everywhere so that it really does infringe on the baseball experience.
Why is this team under .500?
Comerica is beautiful…until you sit down and realize that you could play a game of football in between the stands and the foul line. And the upper-deck isn’t even an option for me. I wouldn’t pay 4 bucks to sit anywhere up there.
I haven’t been there since the bullpen moved to left. Are the new bleachers nice? How many seats did they add? How much are tickets there?
The advertising is ridiculous in that place, but I feel that way about the whole country at this point–If I can deal with being constantly bombarded with stupid advertising messages on the street, I can deal with it at the ballpark.
One thing about Comerica that blows my mind is how the price for a bottle of water decreases as you move towards the outfield seats. It’s like the place has it’s own, class based economy in place.