Yearly Archives: 2006

2006 Season

A 3 game skid

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Remember those feelings of euphoria that we all experienced 4 days ago? That early momentum gained during a 5 game winning streak has dissipated after the Tigers dropped their third in a row. The Tigers now turn to Justin Verlander to try and avoid a sweep in their first home series of the year. Are you worried? Should you be?

Reasons to worry

It’s easy to think same old Tigers after the last few games. As Lee pointed out yesterday, the 2006 Tigers, much like the 2005 Tigers, have a high batting average, but only an average OBP. The team is still having a hard time drawing walks, and are still pretty good at striking out.

Another 2005 trait was perceived inability to get those easy runs – like when a runner is on third base with less than 2 outs. In each the the last two losses the Tigers put runners on third with one out and neither scored.

Also, Detroit the games the Tigers have lost have been decided by two runs or less. A hallmark of the last couple years was the Tigers difficulty in close games. So far this year it continues to play out that way.

Finally, even though the bullpen has been solid, do people really trust them yet?
Continue reading A 3 game skid →

2006 Season, Injuries, Minors, Pitching

Maroth hurting

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Mike Maroth will miss his scheduled start on Thursday. The elbow tenderness he experienced during spring training has apparently flared up again.

The Tigers aren’t overly concerned, but I am. Maroth’s start on Friday was his first long outing of the year because he was limited in spring training. My guess is that it didn’t feel right the next day, and the pain hasn’t subsided. If there is any good news in this, it is that Maroth appears to be taking the cautious route instead of trying to pitch through it. Continue reading Maroth hurting →

2006 Season, Minors

Tiger Minor League Wrap – April 12th

Toledo 9, Scranton 5
Brian Peterson went 2 for 4 with a double, as did newcomer Tike Redman. Zach Miner started for the Mud Hens and allowed 4 runs in 4 innings.

Altoona 4, Erie 2
Humberto Sanchez wasn’t quite as sharp as his last start, and wasn’t helped by his own defense. He allowed 4 runs, two of which were earned, in 5 innings of work. He also allowed 7 hits and two walks while K’ing 4. Brent Clevlen was 1 for 3 with a walk and Tony Giarratano doubled in 4 trips.

Lakeland 6, Dunedin 4
Gil Meija was 3 for 3 with a walk, Brent Dlugach was 3 for 4 with a stolen base, and Nick McIntyre went 2 for 3 to power the Lakeland attack. Kevin Whelan retired all 3 hitters, including 2 strike outs to pick up his 3rd save. In 3 appearances he’s retired all 9 batters he’s faced, striking out 6.

West Michigan 7, South Bend 5
Wil Rhymes was 3 for 5 to raise his average to .414. At age 23 in low A ball, he’s not really classified as a prospect, but is still having a nice start to the season. Michael Hollimon reached base 4 times to raise his average to .409. With Rhymes and Hollimon at the top of the order it’s no surprise that Cameron Maybin has 7 RBI, 3 of which he picked up on his first professional homer. Lucas French got the start and only allowed two hits in six innings while striking out 4. The bad news is he also walked 4.

2006 Season, Minors

Tiger Minor League Wrap – April 11th

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Toledo 7, Scranton 0
The bats woke up in Toledo. Jack Hannahan and Ryan Ludwick homered while Josh Phelps, Don Kelly, Ryan Raburn, and Max St. Pierre picked up multiple hits. Wil Ledezma had his second strong outing throwing six shut out innings. Ledezma only allowed a walk and 3 hits against 4 strike outs.

Erie 6, Altoona 2
Kurt Airoso hit his second and third homers of the season, and Kody Kirkland mashed his first. Brent Clevlen also picked up multiple hits. Once again there was a solid effort from a starter as Nate Bumstead allowed a single hit and no runs (despite 4 walks) against 8 strike outs in 5 innings of work.

Dunedin 10, Lakeland 2
A rough night all around for the Lakeland Tigers. Dallas Trahern allowed 9 runs, 8 of which were earned, in only 3 innings. Wilkin Ramirez commited his 4th error of the season. Offensively Clete Thomas picked up two more hits to raise his average to .308.

South Bend 4, West Michigan 3
Cameron Maybin’s streak of multi-hit games ended, but he still added a single in 4 at-bats. William Rhymes was 3 for 4 with a double.

2006 Season

Thoughts on the Opener – or how I hate Jim Thome

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I don’t actually hate Thome, it’s more of a respected disdain for all the Tiger pitches he deposits over the fence. Let’s just say I liked him a lot more in the National League. Joe Crede and Thome teamed up to wreck what would have otherwise been a delightful opening day. Alas, it was a repeat of the last game at Comerica from 2005 when the White Sox defeated the Tigers to clinch the AL Central.

My thoughts on Opening Day: Continue reading Thoughts on the Opener – or how I hate Jim Thome →

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Recap – April 10th

Scranton 4, Toledo 2
Jack Hannahan was 2 for 2 with a walk. The rest of the Mud Hens offense was non-existent. Today’s lineup featured only two hitters with batting averages North of .200 (Hooper and Hannahan).

Altoona 9, Erie 1
Eulogio De La Cruz was pounded once again. He gave up six hits, including a home run, while retiring only two batters. His ERA currently stands at 45.00. Brent Clevlen also continues to struggle and his average has dipped to .150 after going 0 for 4. Kelly Hunt homered to account for Erie’s only run.

Dunedin 6, Lakeland 3
Brent Dlugach homered and Wilkin Ramirez picked up two hits for Lakeland. Josh Rainwater was the Tigers starter and scattered 6 hits and 2 runs over 5 innings of work.

West Michigan 7, South Bend 0 Cameron Maybin continues to hit well as he picked up a couple hits, including a double, and added a stolen base. William Rhymes, Cory Middleton, Mark Haske, and Jeremy Laster all had multi-hit games as well. Virgil Vazquez allowed one hit in four innings, and Andrew Kown followed with 4 innings only allowing two hits while striking out 4.

2006 Season

Home Opener Thread

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I’m off to the home opener. This will be the 10th consecutive opener for my friends and I. We stick to the same script pretty much every year. We meet up at a coney island for breakfast, before heading down to Tiger Stadium (yep, you read that right Tiger Stadium). We used to work our way up and down Michigan Ave, but since the team moved to Comerica, we typically just hit Casey’s and Nemo’s. If you find yourself near Tiger Stadium before the game, wander into Casey’s. Chances are I’ll be marinating there for several hours before the game.

Feel free to post any thoughts about the game. Also, if you’d like to share about your Opening Day experiences, I’d love to hear it. Are you going today? How many have you been to? Do you do anything special before/during/after the game?

2006 Season, Minors

Tiger Minor League Roundup – April 9th

Charlotte 7, Toledo 1
Colby Lewis had a solid start going 4 innings and only allowing 2 hits against 5 strikeouts. Other than that the game was quite unremarkable from a Mud Hen perspective. Don Kelly who had an impressive spring training at the plate has struggled thus far and is hitting .083.

Erie 4, Harrisburg 0
Tony Giarratano, Brent Clevlen, and Vincent Blue all picked up two hits for Erie. Preston Larrison was perfect for 5 innings and 5 strikeouts.

Lakeland 3, Tampa 2
Clete Thomas homered and added a single. Jeff Frazier was 3 for 5 with 2 double and is hitting .375. Wilken Ramirez added two hits and a stolen base. Kevin Whelan retired all 3 hitters for his second save.

Fort Wayne 11, West Michigan 3
Cameron Maybin went 2 for 4 and is now hitting .462. Erik Averill struggled with his control walking 3 and allowing 5 runs in 4 innings.

2006 Season, AL Central

Tigers come home 5-1

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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.
2006 Season

Tigers: High 5, and 0

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I was at a function tonight that kept me from listening to the game. When I hopped in the car, I tuned in just in time to hear Dan Dickerosn and Jim Price signing off from a 5th straight Tiger victory. It wasn’t until I got home and had a chance to peruse the box score that I became downright giddy.

This was probably the best test of the season for the Tigers. After facing bottom tier pitchers in their first 4 games, Detroit went up against the Rangers ace Kevin Millwood. On the other side the Tigers were throwing a rookie against a powerful offensive team in a definite hitters environment. They also had a lineup featuring Brandon Inge hitting 3rd, and Vance Wilson in for Pudge Rodriguez. A 7-0 win easily eclipses my expectations for the game.
Continue reading Tigers: High 5, and 0 →

Minors

Tigers Minor League Roundup – April 8th

Charlotte 1, Toledo 0 – 10 Innings
Not really anything to highlight offensively. Jason Beck notes that Nook Logan has been placed on the DL with a fracture of his pinky.

Harrisburg 3, Erie 1
Brent Clevlen got the lone RBI and picked up his first hit of the season, going 1 for 4. Virgil Vazquez was strong starting for the Seawolves pitching 6 innings and allowing a single run on 3 hits while striking out 4.

Tampa 8, Lakeland 7
Jeff Larish was 1 for 3 with two walks. Wilkin Ramirez was 2 for 5 including a home run and a double. Clete Thomas and Jeff Frazier also doubled for Lakeland. Kevin Ardoin allowed 4 runs on 7 hits (2 home runs) and only struck out 1 hitter in 5 1/3 innings.

West Michigan 4, Fort Wayne 1
Cameron Maybin doubled twice in 5 at-bats. Michael Hollimon also picked up two hits, as did William Rhymes, Justin Justice and Pedro Cotto. Ramon Garcia struck out 6 and walked none in 5 innings allowing only one run and 3 hits.

2006 Season, Players, Statistics

Tigers stumble, but win

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Okay, the title is somewhat facetious. I know they didn’t actually stumble. They did find themselves trailing for the first time this season. It was an uncomfortable half inning.

Also, Mike Maroth allowed a walk. The “incident” occured with one out in the 5th inning. It broke a string of 22 1/3 innings by Tigers starters without a free pass.

So the Tigers sit at 4-0 with two games to remain in the series. I think everybody would have been satisfied with a 4-2 roadtrip. The Tigers have at least assured themselves of that record. The next two games will be a test with Justin Verlander going today, and Sunday appears to be veteran rest day with Vance Wilson and Ramon Santiago set to get the starts over Pudge Rodriguez and Placido Polanco. On a side note, we’ve seen Santiago as a defensive replacement several times, and yet no Omar Infante at all.

Chris Shelton continued to do what Chris Shelton Ted Williams did. Maybe Gary Gillette needs to rethink his list of the top 10 young sluggers to make room for Big Red. Shelton’s major league leading 5th home run may just further validate Buc’s Dugouts assumption that the Pirates leaving Shelton unprotected was the worst move of the last 5 years in baseball.
Continue reading Tigers stumble, but win →