Monthly Archives: June 2006

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 77: Astros at Tigers

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PREGAME: The story of this game may turn out to be last night’s Houston/White Sox game, which Houston was kind enough to win a a very protracted fashion. With the game going 13 innings, the Astros bullpen is tired physically. With the team probably not getting to their hotel until 4am, chances are they are sleepy too.

Zach Miner continues his quest to become the best rookie in the Tigers rotation. He’ll be opposed by Wandy Rodriguez. I don’t know much about Rodriguez except his first name is Wandy and he weighs 160 pounds. He walks his share (4.26/9IP), and doesn’t strike out a ton (5.71 K/9IP). Oh yeah, and he’s left handed.

The game also marks the return of former Tigers Phil Garner, Brad Ausmus, and Eric Munson. I’d like to see Munson hit a meaningless home run in this series. I always liked Eric, and I thought he got a raw deal from the organization with the various position changes. Then Trammell really relegated him to the bench. Of course if he’d performed better, he might have met a better fate.
Continue reading Game 77: Astros at Tigers →

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 25th

Toledo 14, Syracuse 6
Ryan Raburn, David Espinosa, and Mike Hessman all homered for Toledo as Jordan Tata got lots of run support. Tata allowed 4 runs, 3 earned, in 6 innings. He allowed 2 homers while walking 1 and striking out 2.

Erie – PPD

Lakeland – PPD

West Michigan 7, Burlington 3
Dusty Ryan and Justin Justice homered and Matt Joyce added 2 hits. Cameron Maybin was 0 for 4 with 3 k’s. He’s had several multi-strikeout games this week. Sendy Vasquez allowed 3 runs, all unearned, in 6 2/3 innings. Anthony Claggett and Olando Perdomo pitched the last 2 1/3 without incident.

Oneonta – PPD

GCL Phillies 6, GCL Tigers 2

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 76: Cardinals at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers look to finish off the sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon (1:05pm). The Cardinals have probably felt like they’ve seen enough of the AL Central after dropping 5 straight to the White Sox and Tigers.

Sidney Ponson will start in place of the recentl DL’d Mark Mulder. Ponson has been awful as of late with 19 runs allowed in 15 2/3 innings. Magglio Ordonez might normally get today off, but with 3 hits last night and a .464 lifetime average against Ponson, I’d guess he’s in the lineup.

Meanwhile Jeremy Bonderman has been scary-good with back to back 1 run, 12 K outings.

POSTGAME: One day Curtis Granderson will come up in the 8th or 9th or 10th inning and have a chance to change the game, and he’ll fail. It is hard to believe given his performance this year. It will feel strange and unpleasant, but it will inevitably happen. But until then (and really even after that) it is okay for men and women alike to declare their love for Curtis Granderson.

But the clutch-iest moment of the game probably came in the first inning when after a couple bad luck singles, the Cardinals had runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out and Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds looming. Bonderman fanned Pujols and Rolen and enticed Edmonds to hit a fly ball. The game could have been blown open, and Bonderman slammed the door. After that he cruised to another 1 run, no run support outing.

And while it might be aggravating to see the White Sox match us win-for-win, isn’t it kind of fun and exciting at the same time. I know it’s only June and we haven’t even hit the halfway point, but so far this has been a very entertaining battle.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 24th

Syracuse 7, Toledo 4
Jack Hannahan, Kevin Hooper, and Ryan Raburn all had 2 hit games while Ryan Ludwick homered. Colby Lewis was rocked for 7 runs in 3 innings. Mark Woodyard was solid in 2 innings of relief with 3 K’s and 2 walks.

Bowie 7, Erie 0
This game was called early, and not because of the mercy rule, rain ended the game after 6 innings. Bobby jones game rup 6 runs, 5 earned in 4 innings. He allowed 3 walks and 9 hits while fanning 3.

Lakeland 5, Dunedin 2
Dallas Trahern scattered 6 hits and 2 walks over 6 innings and allowed only two Dunedin players to cross the plate while K’ing 4. Kevin Whelan looked to have his early season mojo working as he struckout the side in the 9th. Clete Thomas tripled and singled and Jeff Larish added a double.

West Michigan 5, Burlington 1 (16 innings)
The Whitecaps played nearly two games in one last night. The game remained notted until the 16th inning when Matthew Joyce hit a 2-out bases loaded single to break the game open. A throwing error cleared the bases. Michael Hollimon doubled, tripled, and reached on a sacrifice bunt. Cameron Maybin was 3 for 7 with 3 strikeouts. Lucas French went the first 7 innings allowing only 4 hits. The bullpen held Burlingotn scoreless for the next 9.

Oneonta 5, Lowell 2
Scott Sizemore, Brennan Boesch, and Ron Bourqin all picked up 2 hits in the heart of the O-Tigers order. University of Michigan catcher Jeff Kunkel added 2 hits as well. Zachary Piccola walked 3 in 4 innings, but only allowed one hit.

GCL Tigers – No game

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 75: Cardinals at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers didn’t appear too intimidated by Chris Carpenter last night, and hopefully they can keep the sticks going as they take on Jeff Suppan. Magglio Ordonez, one of the heroes of last night’s game, is the only current Tiger with a significant number of at-bats against Suppan. Ordonez is 15 for 40 with two dingers lifetime against Suppan.

Kenny Rogers looks for win number 201 in his career, and for Detroit’s 50th. Rogers has been spectacular in June. Over 4 starts he has gone 30 innings and allowed only 6 runs, and only 25 baserunners.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: And a good time was had by all…

Well, maybe not the pitchers as home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski had a very small strike zone. For pitchers like Kenny Rogers and Jeff Suppan who don’t have overpowering stuff, the absence of all borderline strikes can make things rough.

But enough about the ump, how about Curtis Granderson. He reaches base 5 times and comes around to score 3 times including the 9th and 10th innings.

How about Marcus Thames to tie it up. This game felt very reminiscent of the Saturday night Reds game. After the dinger we just knew the Tigers would find a way.

How about Roman Colon, Jamie Walker, Jason Grilli, and Joel Zumaya shutting the door. The latter 3 recorded the last 8 outs on only 23 pitches.

How about Carlos Guillen reaching base in all 5 trips tonight. That’s beneficial when he’s hitting behind Ordonez who picked up 3 hits himself.

How about Vance Wilson going yard for the 2nd time this week.

And of course how about Placido Polanco shooting the gap, and getting official scored out of a triple.

There were a ton of stars tonight and over 42,000 on hand to witness it. A good time was had by all.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 23rd

Syracuse 6, Toledo 4
Humberto Sanchez had a rougher go this outing. He allowed 2 runs in each of the first 2 innings, but then settled down. His final numbers were 6 innings, 9 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk, and 8 strike outs. Kevin Hooper was 2 for 2 with 2 stolen bases.

Reading 4, Erie 2
Brent Clevlen was 2 for 4 and Kelly Hunt and Jackson Melian added homers. Preston Larrison started and went 7 innings allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks and one strike out.

Dunedin 3, Lakeland 2
Clete Thomas and Wilkin Ramirez tripled, but that wa sit for offensive highlights. Ramirez also made his 22nd error of the season. Eddie Bonine allowed all 3 runs (2 earned) in 6 2/3 innings. PJ Finigan went the remainder of the game allowing a hit and a walk.

West Michigan 2, Burlington 0
Michael Hollimon was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles. Justin Justice and Dusty Ryan picked up 2 hits as well. Cameron Maybin saw his average drop below .300 for the first time this year (I think) with an 0 for 4, 2 K night. Burke Badenhop shutout Burlington for 7 innings on only 5 hits.

Oneonta 8, Lowell 5
Santo De Leon was 3 for 4 with a double and Scott Sizemore tripled and singled in 5 at-bats. Casey Fien pitched 3 scoreless innings and secured the win. Randor Bierd was tagged for 2 unearned runs as he allowed 2 hits while fanning 2 in an inning of work. Fourteenth round pick Brett Jensen secured his 2nd save.

GCL Tigers 15, GCL Indians 5
Audy Ciriaco hit a grand slam in the 1st inning to set the tone in this one.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 74: Cardinals at Tigers

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PREGAME: Okay, so this is another one of those pretty cool interleague matchups. This one of course evokes memories of 1968 and the two teams’ epic World Series battle.

Today’s game features a tremendous pitching match-up with ROY candidate Justin Verlander and last year’s Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter.

Game time 7:05 (that’s for you Jeff)

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 22th

Toledo 9, Syracuse 4
Max St Pierre was 3 for 5 and Jack Hannahan was 2 for 5. Nook Logan doubled, singled, and walked twice in 4 plate apperances. Chad Durbin struck out 7 in 7 innings while allowing one run. Chris Spurling allowed an uncharacteristic run in one inning of work on a solo homer.

Erie 6, Reading 5
Jair Jurrgens pitched 7 strong innings allowing only 4 hits and two walks while fanning 4. Two of those strikeouts came in the 7th when he allowed a single and double to set up a 2nd and 3rd no out situation. He fanned the next two and induced a groundball for the 3rd out. Eulogio De La Cruz almost gave the game away with 4 hits and 2 walks in one inning of work. Mike Rabelo and Danilo Sanchez homered in multi-hit games.

Lakeland 2, Dunedin 1
Jeff Larish was 2 for 3 and Wilkin Ramirez doubled in 3 at-bats. Kevin Ardoin went 8 1/3 with 4 K’s and the only run coming on a solo homer. Kevin Whelan picked up the last 2 outs for the save.

West Michigan 8, Burlington 4
Michael Hernandez was 3 for 5 with a double and a homer. Matt Joyce doubled twice. Cameron Maybin was 0 for 4 with a walk and 2 K’s. Erik Averill allowed 4 runs, 1 earned, in 5 innings with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. Josh Rainwater allowed a walk and hit in two innings with 5 of the 6 outs coming via the strikeout.
Oneonta 4, Tri-City 3
Brandon Timm was 1 for 3 with a triple. Ron Bourquin singled and walked in 4 plate appearances.

GCL Yankees 5, GCL Tigers 0

2006 Season, Offense, Pitching, Statistics

Distributing the Runs

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Last year Dave Studemund of the Hardball Times had a couple interesting posts taking a closer look at how many runs a team scores a game. This isn’t looking at average runs a game, but how many runs they score (and conversely allow) in each game. What Studes found is that consistency in scoring 2-6 runs is most important. At the time of the study, the White Sox average runs per game were a half run below average, but they very rarely were held to less than 2 runs. I found the study interesting enough to perform last year for the Tigers, and I’ll repeat it this year.
Continue reading Distributing the Runs →

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 21st

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Toledo – DNP

Erie 9, Reading 3
The Seawolves beat up on Phillies starter Randy Wolf who was on a rehab assignment. Vnicent Blue was 2 for 4 with a walk and Chris Maples was 1 for 3 with 2 walks. Mike Rabelo added a single and double in 5 AB’s. Brent Clevlen was 0 for 5 with 4 K’s. Virgil Vasquez went 6 1/3 innings scattering 5 hits and a walk and allowing only 3 runs. He also struck out 5. Kurt Airoso left the game with an injury.

Lakeland 2, Fort Myers 1Jon Connolly made it through 8 innings allowing only 4 hits and 2 walks before being lifted in the 9th. An unearned run ended up scoring, but that was the extent of the damage. Like the Connolly of old, he did it without missing bats as he fanned only 3. Kevin Whelan and Danny Zell combined to preserve the win in the 9th. Clete Thomas doubled and walked and Jeff Larish added a double in 4 at bats.

West Michigan – DNP. In a roster move Lavon Lewis was released and Loren Fraser was promoted from extended spring training.

Tri-City 11, Oneonta 4
Brennan Boesch had his coming out party with a 3 for 4 night including 2 doubles and a homer. Boesch was the Tigers 3rd Round pick this year from Cal State. Randor Bierd who had success at West Michigan last year, is coming back from injury and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits in 2/3 of an inning.

GCL Braves 7, GCL Tigers 3

Front Office, Uncategorized

News and Links and Such

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Stuff of note from the last couple days:

  • The Daily Fungo did an interview with Lynn Henning. It is available as a podcast.
  • There’s a new Tiger blog called Tigers Thoughts. It is written by a couple of very guys who are very knowledgable about the Tigers system (and occasional commentors here) and their early posts focus on Colby Lewis, Humberto Sanchez, and the lack of position players. Bookmark this site.
  • The Tigers continue to add to their research and development team. They’ve been infusing the scouting ranks over the last 18 months. Earlier they let long time Latin America coordinator Ramon Pena go. Now they have hired Ramon Perez to head the efforts in the Dominican Republic. He’s done similar work for the Astros and Dodgers since 1985.

    Where Ramon Pena was pretty much responsible for all of Latin America, the Tigers now have specific people assigned to DR and Venezuela along with a director of International scouting.

  • Humberto Sanchez and Cameron Maybin will be participating in the Future’s Game on All Star Sunday. This will be a great chance for Tiger fans to see two of the top (and really probably the top two) prospects in the Tigers system.
2006 Season, Game Post

Game 73: Tigers at Brewers

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PREGAME The Tigers look for a sweep of the Brewers, and the road trip. Nate Robertson, who has been good, will take on Chris Capuano, who is also good. Sorry that’s all I have right now. Off to a meeting.

POSTGAME: Eh, what are you gonna do? It’s hard to get too upset about a loss after 6 straight wins. The Tigers had an unusual lineup to say the least and went up against a pretty good pitcher.

I just feel bad for Nate Robertson who did his part. The first two runs he allowed were the result of errors. He knocked in a run on his own. And his bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.

Oh well. Let’s come home and bring on the Cardinals.