Monthly Archives: March 2006

2006 Season, Managing & Strategy, Pitching

Keep an eye on: Chuck Hernandez & the Pitching Staff

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Over the last few weeks of spring training, I’ll be writing about the storylines that I think will be most interesting, or at least most vital to the team’s success. The first subject will be pitching coach Chuck Hernandez and how he sets the tone with Tiger pitchers and throughout the organization.

One of the least reported on changes this past offseason has been pitching coach Chuck Hernandez. Given the youth and potential of the pitching staff the topic seems especially relevant.

In the case of Kenny Rogers, I’m not all that concerned. At age 41 he’s probably his own pitching coach anyways.

It does become much more interesting though with the other 3 veteran starters – Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, and Mike Maroth. For those 3, especially Bonderman, the bulk of their professional instruction has come through Bob Cluck.
Continue reading Keep an eye on: Chuck Hernandez & the Pitching Staff →

2006 Season, Uncategorized

Tigers and Fox Sports announce broadcast schedule

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The Tigers and Fox Sports Net finally announced the broadcast schedule for the 2006 season. FSN will broadcast 112 games this year, or two more than last year. There is no word yet on whether or not the Tigers will also broadcast games on an over-the-air channel.

For Tiger fans who have been anxiously awaiting the start of the season, they better get used to tuning in their radios. Only 5 of the first 12 games are scheduled to be telecast on FSN. The season opener will be broadcast, as will the Thursday night game against the Rangers. However, the Friday and Saturday games will not be broadcast. After back-to-back airings on Sunday(Apr 9th) and the home opener(Apr 10th), fans are out of luck until the following Sunday (Apr 16th).

The complete schedule can be found here. (Right-click and Save As)

Injuries, Minors, Roster Management, Spring Training

Dog Days of Spring Training

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After the initial excitement of pitchers and catchers reporting, and the surge of enthusiasm after the first few spring training games, baseball settles into 3 weeks of games that become somewhat tedious while fans anxiously await the beginning of real games. The World Baseball Classic has helped break up the monotony, as has some interesting developments in the Tigers camp.

After Gammons blogged about the possibility of Carlos Pena being cut in a financial move, Danny Knobler followed up a day later saying that Pena and Nook Logan just weren’t manager Jim Leyland’s type of players. What remains to be seen is what becomes of players who aren’t Leyland’s type. Does the manager have the final say or does Dave Dombrowski hold the trump card? I’d say when it comes to which members of the 40 man roster head north with the big club (the Nook Logan scenario), Leyland might have more say, but when it comes time to decide who is on the payroll (Pena) Dombrowski’s vote probably carries more weight.
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Former Tigers, Tiger History

Cooperstown is in Detroit

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Five Hall of Famers: Sandberg, Jenkins, Sparky, Kaline, KellA traveling collection of Cooperstown artifacts titled Baseball As America has come to The Henry Ford. At a special preview today, media were able to view the Hall of Fame exhibit, as well as some Hall of Famers. Former Tigers Al Kaline, George Kell, and Sparky Anderson were joined by Fergie Jenkins and Ryne Sandberg to kick-off the special exhibit.

Detroit is the 10th stop for the exhibit which began touring in New York in 2002. The Baseball as America display features over 500 artifacts from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The Detroit stop was to be the final stop on the tour, but Jane Forbes Clark (chairman of the board of the hall) said that there may be 4 additional cities that will receive the exhibit.

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Injuries, Pitching, Spring Training

Tiger Spring Training Round-Up

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Bullpen Retiring the Side

First there was Craig Dingman’s artery injury that will probably force him to retire. And then there was Troy Percival’s failed attempt to come back that has resulted in his retirement. Then yesterday the oft-injured Matt Mantei strained his oblique. Mantei had been impressing everyone this spring and was a likely candidate to make the team. Now it looks like Mantei is a likely candidate to retire as well.
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Uncategorized

A baseball pledge

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If you haven’t already heard, David Pinto of Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive. So far 137 people have contributed to David’s cause. If you’re not familiar with Pinto, or Baseball Musings I definitely encourage you to check out the site. David is a former lead researcher for Baseball Tonight, and for the last few years has become one of the most prolific baseball bloggers. Last year, he made blogging his full time job so this pledge drive is more than an opportunity to make a few bucks – it a way to feed his family.

I strongly encourage you to visit his site and make a donation. If you’re not a regular reader of his site, but you’re a reader of DTW, then you have benefited from much of David’s work. The probablistic model of range and day by day database are both products of Baseball Musings. Both are valuable tools that I’ve leaned on heavily in the past, and he makes them available for free. This is despite the fact that the data behind the tools comes at a cost. Just last week we were able to see the optimal Tiger lineup through a script that Pinto wrote and made available to the masses.

I know that money may be tight for many of you (belive me I know), but if you enjoy some of the analysis that you see here I’d hope that you would consider stopping by and making a donation. A dollar or two out of everyone’s pocket is a pretty small price to pay for the research and data that David provides. I’d love to see Tiger fans, and readers of DTW step up and help keep Baseball Musings going.

Minors, Spring Training

Brent Clevlen likes Lakeland

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Brent Clevlen
Photo Credit: Roger DeWitt

Brent Clevlen, last year’s Florida State League MVP with Lakeland, has picked up right where he left off last season. He got the start in centerfield today, and homered off of Cliff Lee and doubled off of CC Sabathia. This comes one day after he hit a homer and drew a walk against the Braves.

Clevlen hit 302/387/484 last year as a 21 year old in high A ball. While he figured prominently on various team prospect lists, it didn’t land him on the Baseball America top 100. (Although he just missed as John Manuel revealed in a chat). The main reason being is that 2005 was his second go around in the FSL. After solid seasons in Rookie Ball and with the Whitecaps, Clevlen struggled in 2004.

Playing as a 20 year old in the FSL he hit a meager 224/300/350 and struck out once every 3.3 at-bats. After hitting 12 homers in 2003 at West Michigan, he only managed 6 in Lakeland. It appeared that the Tigers might have another failed draft pick on their hands. Instead of progressing to AA Erie, Clevlen was sent back to Lakeland in 2005.

Clevlen was selected in the 2nd round in 2002 out of high school. After his successful season last year, BA made him the #4 prospect in the organization and as they project him to break into the big leagues they had this to say:

If Clevlen makes consistent contact like he did last season, the next league he’ll repeat is the American.

While Clevlen isn’t a threat to make the team this year, his success so far this Spring Training is encouraging. His progress as he moves to AA will be one of the story lines I’ll be watching most closely in 2006.

prospects, detroit tigers, lakeland tigers

Injuries, Pitching

Maroth’s Elbow

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From Danny Knobler’s blog:

The Tigers say it’s nothing serious, but Mike Maroth has a tender left elbow and isn’t going to start tomorrow against the Tribe.

“We’re just being precautionary,” Jim Leyland said.

Cautious or not, a sore elbow this early in the year scares me, especially from a pitcher that has been very durable his first 3 years. I know I was worried about the Tigers playing in the World Baseball Classic getting injured, but this is the 3rd situation to develop already (Monroe and Young are the others) – and the WBC hasn’t even started.
Detroit Tigers

Injuries

Young injured

Dmitri Young pulled up lame running to first today. He had to leave the game, and early reports are a strained quadriceps.

Dmitri Young’s injury is being called a strained left quadriceps for now until head athletic trainer Kevin Rand, who was in Winter Haven with the other split squad when the injury occurred in Lakeland, can examine it.

I guess the good news is that it isn’t a joint injury. If it does turn out to be something where Young will miss time, Marcus Thames probably stands to gain the most as he would probably become the 5th outfielder.

2006 Season, Minors

Sickels Top 20 Detroit Tiger Prospects

John Sickels has compiled his listing of the Top 20 Detroit Tiger Prospects for 2006. Last year’s list was also headlined by Justin Verlander, but there aren’t that many similarities beyond that. Curtis Granderson, who was number 2 is no longer eligible. Many of the other players have either improved their stock or been pushed off by last year’s draft class. The average grade for last year’s top 20 was a C+, and Sickels offered this commentary:

Oh, boy, what a dismal system.

This year’s list comes in between a B-/C+.

I think Joel Zumaya at a B+ is probably a tad low, and Chris Robinson as a C+ maybe a bit high. Otherwise I pretty much agree with his rankings. Cameron Maybin received a B grade, but with some professional success should see his grade improve. If Jeff Larish, Kevin Whelan, and Clete Thomas continue to build on their impressive debuts they seem poised to move into the B range.
detroit tigers, baseball, prospects

Injuries, Managing & Strategy, Pitching, Players, Spring Training, Tiger History

Tiger Roundup

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The Tigers moved to 2-0 during grapefruit league action after outslugging Cincinnati 17-10. Danny Knobler reports that Justin Verlander was shaky at first, but managed to pitch his way out of it. And he did it without a visit from Jim Leyland or pitching coach Chuck Hernandez.

Leyland isn’t against mound visits, but he’s also big on individual responsibility. He wants players to think for themselves, and he wants to see how they react in tough situations.

“Get out of your own jam sometime,” he said this morning, before Verlander even took the mound. “Figure out how to do it.”

Former Tiger pitching coach Bob Cluck has found a job. He’ll be a minior league pitching consultant for the San Diego Padres.
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