It had to end sometime. The Tigers dropped their first game of the season, and their solo hold on first place. Detroit is now tied with Cleveland at 5-1, but I don’t really think anyone is complaining. The roadtrip saw far more positives than negatives.
Kenny Rogers was hit around, and balls seemed to be just out of reach of Tiger defenders instead of being tailor-made double plays that we’d seen in the first 5 games. The defense also committed their first charged error when Carlos Guillen couldn’t cleanly pick a grounder in the hole. Ramon Santiago, filling in for Placido Polanco also appeared to neglect to cover second base for a force out.
And Chris Shelton didn’t continue to do what Chris Shelton does. He was 0 for 4 with 3 strike-outs. His last 5 at-bats have been K-K-K-pop out-K. I guess a .700 batting average is a little too much to expect Big Red to sustain.
So out of all the positives that we witnessed on the road trip, what was the biggest for you? Was it Chris Shelton mashing? The Tigers offense clicking and cranking? An entire trip through the rotation where the starters picked up the wins? The debuts of Joel Zumaya and/or Jordan Tata, or Justin Verlander’s dominant performance?
Other stuff
- John Sickels: Why I like Curtis Granderson
Granderson was an outfielder at the University of Illinois-Chicago. I saw him play college ball and was impressed. He had a smooth swing, good command of the strike zone, and to me at least he looked like he had good tools, decent speed that helped him on the outfield and on the bases. The only tool that didn’t look at least average to me was his throwing arm.
Granderson hit .483 with nine homers and 17 steals for Illinois-Chicago in ’02, ranking second to Rickie Weeks in the NCAA Division I batting hunt. So we had a guy with an excellent performance track record and good physical tools. I picked him in the second round of my Twins Shadow Draft. In real life, he went to the Tigers in the third round.
He lasted until the third round because scouts didn’t like his tools. The word was that his speed and athleticism were mediocre, and that he wouldn’t hit for much power with wood. But that’s not what I saw in him. I saw a player with solid tools, a good measure of refinement, and a fine track record. He also had a good work ethic and was intelligent. - Don’t Count Fields out: A nice profile on former Tiger hitting coach Bruce Fields.
There’s a slight chance that I may have an extra ticket for tomorrow. Anyone interested? throwaway80@hotmail.com
Figured I’d add my two cents to my favorite Tigers blog…
How about the game management…that is the change I liked the most in the first 6 games. Pitchers weren’t left in too long or yanked too soon. My only complaint is the lineup, but it’s still early.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t big on the Jim Leyland hiring, as I wondered if he could manage a team like the Tigers…but I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far.
Also…I live in Toledo and listen to the Mud Hens games everyday on the radio. Haven’t had a chance to go downtown yet, as I am one month away from getting my masters degree….anyway, the real problem so far down here seems to be the hitting. Last nights game was played in near freezing conditions, and the weather has been real cold so far. This may be why the hitting looks bad, but the pitching looks great.
Keep up the good work on the blog, and hopefully this won’t be another season where we are bored with the Tigers by June 1st.
Without a doubt the most encouraging thing for me was the pitching. Particularly that of Velrander, Zumaya, and Tata. I can’t believe how ice-cold those cats are. You think that at least one of them would come out over-throwing or something, but they all just went cooly about their business and got a lot o hitters out.