Monthly Archives: June 2007

2007 Season, Injuries

Rodney DL’d again

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Well, that’s one way to make room for Nate Robertson. Fernando Rodney is headed to the DL with shoulder tendinitis.

Rodney was on the DL a month ago with what was described as right biceps tendinitis. He came back in two weeks, and he has pitched eight times since then with mixed results. His velocity has remained inconsistent, and when Rodney reported this week that he was feeling some stiffness in his right forearm in addition to the tightness in his shoulder, the Tigers sent him for an MRI. The MRI showed no serious problems, but the doctors diagnosed tendinitis and recommended that Rodney go 10 days without throwing.

I imagine so combination of Bobby Seay, Chad Durbin, and Tim Byrdak will assume 8th inning duties with a chance of Eulogio De La Cruz.

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/25/07

Indianapolis 1 Toledo 9
Ramon Santiago had a 3 hit game. Mike Hessman was 2 for 2 with 3 walks. Chris Shelton and Jack Hannahan each had 2 hit, 1 walk games. Yorman Bazardo started and pitched 7 shutout innings allowing only 4 hits and a walk against 3 K’s.

Trenton 4 Erie 5
Jeff Larish has been struggling, but he did knock his 13th homer as part of a 2 for 4 day. Andrew Kown allowed 1 run on 6 hits and 3 walks over 6 innings. Roman Colon allowed a homer and 3 runs in 2 innings.

Brevard County 3 Lakeland 8
Michael Hernandez hoemred and drove in 4 runs. Cameron Maybin tripled and singled. Justin Justice added hits and a walk. Lucas French allowed 10 hits in 6 innings, but only 3 of those came around to score and only 1 was earned. Ricky Steik pitched 3 scoreless innings for the save.

Lansing 4 West Michigan 5
Deik Scram, Jeramy Laster, James Skelton, and Audy Ciriaco all had 2 hit games. Laster and Brennan Boesch homered. Jonah Nickerson allowed 2 runs on 6 hits, 2 walks and 7 K’s in 6 innings.

Oneonta 3 Vermont 5
Kody Kaiser was 3 for 4 with including a double and a walk. Ronnie Bourquin added 3 hits. Paul Nardozzi allowed 2 runs on 4 hits in 4 innings with no walks and 3 K’s.

GCL Indinas 4 GCL Tigers 2
Brandon Harrigan picked up 2 of only 3 hits on the night for the Tigers.

2007 Season, Game Post

Game 75: Rangers at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers return home for the next couple weeks after getting through a 9 game DH-less stint with an 8-1 record.

The Tigers have struggled in the game after Sunday night games, what with getting in late and quite frankly probably being sleepy. But this time they are coming home, and it was a shorter flight, and they didn’t change time zones. So it might not be so bad.

They’ll face Kameron Loe who they saw a couple weeks ago, and knocked out with 9 runs in 2 2/3 innings. In his next start he threw 8 shutout innings against the Pirates and turned in a quality start in his last turn against the Cubs.

Jeremy Bonderman looks to extend his unbeaten streak. He’s had the benefit of some good offense his last few times out. Bonderman hasn’t recorded an out beyond the 6th inning since his first start back from the DL on May 24th.

The real question though is what Tiger will start padding his resume for player of the week honors. There’s pressure to keep it going with Carlos Guillen being the 3rd Tiger in as many weeks to pick up the award.

For more see: TEX @ DET, Monday, June 25, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: All good things must come to an end, and the winning streak is toast. I’ll give credit to the Rangers, they got in later than the Tigers this morning, and put a thumping on them. The team just looked out of sync all game. There were only a handful of hard hit balls for the Tigers. And early threats were squandered.

Jeremy Bonderman wasn’t sharp. His final numbers look okay, but he was all over with his control, especially on a routine throw to first. Eulogio De La Cruz had even more trouble and turned it into a blow out.

Jim Leyland was overmanaging early on. He had Sean Casey steal with a full count to Monroe. He sac bunted Brandon Inge in the second inning, playing for small ball with a big ball offense.

Alas, the streak is over. But at least Granderson got a triple…

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/24/07

Indianapolis 6 Toledo 7
It was a walk off win for the Mud Hens with Jack Hannahan singling home 2 runs with 2 outs and the bases loaded. Mike Hessman hit his 22nd homer and Ryan Raburn added 2 doubles. Virgil Vasquez was knocked around for 6 runs on 8 hits, 2 walks, and only 1 strikeout in 6 2/3 innings.

Trenton 3 Erie 5
Mike Hollimon was 2 for 4 with a homer. Clete Thomas and Matt Joyce also had 2 hit games. Matt Righter started and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks in 4 innings. Kevin Ardoin pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.

Brevard County 9 Lakeland 3
Wilkin Ramirez homered and walked. Joel Roa added 2 hits, and that was about it for the offense. Kyle Sleeth allowed 4 runs, 3 earned, in 4 innings.

West Michigan 4 Dayton 0
Scott Sizemore was 3 for 3 with 2 doubles and a walk. Matt O’Brien pitched 7 shut out innings on 5 hits, 1 walk, and 3 K’s. Casey Fien pitched 2 hitless innings for his 4th save.

Tri-City 6 Oneonta 3
Ronnie Bourquin and Casper Wells each had 2 hits. Alfredo Figaro allowed 6 runs on 7 hits in 5 1/3 innings.

GCL Tigers – DNP

2007 Season, Game Post

Game 74: Tigers at Braves

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PREGAME: The Tigers and Braves take center stage on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. This hasn’t worked too well this year, and with tonight’s tilt coming at the end of a 9 game road trip it wouldn’t surprise me to see the team struggle.

For the Tigers it will be Andrew Miller who looks to hold down an offense that has mustered 1 run in the last 4 games. Hopefully that number stays meager for at least one more night.

The Tigers will be opposed by Chuck James. James has decent peripherals, but a propensit for allowing the long ball with 14 in 81 innings.

Omar Infante will start in center and leadoff against the lefthander. Interesting to note that despite plans to get Craig Monroe into the lineup in NL parks by having him man centerfield on occasion, that never came to fruition.

For more see: DET @ ATL, Sunday, June 24, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 8:05

2007 Season

The 4th inning

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Billfer note: Commenter Sam has been breaking the season down into 18 game chunks – because 18 games is 1/9th of the season. So each chunk is an inning of the season you see? He’s been leaving these in the comments, and really it deserves more. So without further ado: The 4th inning by Sam.

The 4th Inning is over.

Each 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record so far in each Inning:

Inn	W-L	RS-RA	HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG	ST-W-L-IP-ERA	RE-W-L-S-ERA
1	10-8	86-79	17-9-235/313/380	5-2-110.2-3.66	5-6-8-4.68
2	13-5	112-97	23-10-308/377/518	9-3-102.1-4.84	4-2-8-5.03
3	7-11	110-96	26-7-310/364/517	7-7-110.2-3.99	0-4-3-7.80
4	13-5	136-75	20-5-324/390/508	13-4-103-4.37	0-1-2-3.47

I have added stats to each inning. ST is the starters, RE is relievers. I will talk more about the pitching later.

The offense averaged 7.6 runs/game. They hit double digits 5 times (15,15,12,11,10). Magglio hit 1-18-.476/.558/.635 (7 doubles). Sheff was 5-19-.385/.474/.708. Guillen was a quiet 5-15-.319/.373/.702. INGE was 3-18-.364/.446/.600 as he should thank God he broke his toe which kept him from over striding. Heck even Neifi was over .200 (.217/.280/.261). The only issue is the Monroe/Thames twins who were a combined 2-13-.230/.256/.356. Their AB’s were limited by a lot of games in NL parks.

I was surprised as anyone by the relievers having a better ERA than the starters. It is kind of funny how the pen had 0 wins (only 1 loss) and 2 saves. In the First inning the pen had 11 out of 18 decisions and 8 saves. The last reliever to get a win was Jose Mesa on May 5 against KC (43 games ago). Another interesting note is that after playing extra innings in 7 of their first 20 games, the Tigers haven’t played one since.

The starter’s ERA was negatively effected by Nate’s performance in Texas on June 5 (6er with no outs). Take away that performance and the starters had a 3.84 era. Verlander led the starters (3-0-1.23). Bonderman was 4-0 but had a 5.70 era. Durbin was 2-2-4.30. Maroth was 2-0 with a 4.24 era but had 32 runners in 17 innings (with 0 Hrs). Andrew Miller split his 2 starts with a 5.56 era.

Out of the pen the Tigers got perfect performances from unlikely sources as Seay, Miner, DLC, and Lopez combined for 12 scoreless innings. Grilli had a 2.08 era in 13 innings. The only relievers over 5 were Ledezma (5.14 in 7 innings) and Rodney (8.10 in 6.1 innings allowing 14 runners!!)

As you can see a 13-5 inning is an impressive performance. The run differential is staggering. The next inning will feature a 13 game homestand with tougher competition (but the Tigers have been better on the road). 10-12 wins in the 5th inning would make me happy.

Links

links for 2007-06-24

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2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/23/07

Indianapolis 3 Toledo 4
Ramon Santiago has been hitting well lately and added a 4 for 4 night. Chris Shelton hit his 6th homer. Corey Hamman started and allowed 1 run on 4 hits, 1 walk, and 4 K’s.

Trenton 2 Erie 7
Clete Thomas was 3 for 4 with a homer and a walk plus 3 stolen bases. Jackson Melian had 2 homers and a walk. Eddie Bonine allowed just an unearned run on 3 hits and no walks over 7 innings. Zach Miner made his second rehab appearance and allowed a run on 2 hits and a walk in 1 inning. Randor Bierd added a scoreless inning.

Brevard County 5 Lakeland 13
A whole lot of offense in this one with Max Leon, Mike Hernandez, and Ryan Roberson all with 3 hit games. Wilkin Ramirez homered, singled, and walked and is now hitting 275/308/439. Cameron Maybin doulbed and walked twice. Angel Castro allowed 10 hits and 3 walks for 5 runs in 6 innings.

West Michigan 4 Dayton 3
Gorkys Hernandez and Lou Ott each had 3 hits. James Skelton continued his hot hitting with 2 hits. Ramon Garcia allowed 2 runs on 5 hits, a walk, and 6 K’s. Ed Clelland pitched 3 hitless innings of relief for the win.

Oneonta 3 Tri-City 2
Mike Sullivan and Chris Carlson each doubles, singled, and walked. Kody Kaiser was finally held hitless with an 0 for 5 4 K night. Guillermo Moscoso fanned 5 while allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings. Noah Krol went 1 1/3 with a K for his second save.

GCL Tigers 3 GCL Indians 4
I think Brent Clevlen should be ready to rejoin Toledo soon.. He doubled and homered. Roger Tomas and Kyle Peter each had 2 hits.

2007 Season, Game Post

Game 73: Tigers at Braves

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PREGAME: And all of a sudden the Tigers have a 5 game win streak. What may be most remarkable, and some kind of record, is that in each of those games, the Tigers have had an inning in which they’ve batted around (or Tiger’d around as my 6 year old son calls it). Five straight games sending 9 men to the plate in an inning.

Today is a Fox “National” game in which only a quarter of the country gets it. That quarter will get to see Justin Verlander in his 2nd game removed from his no hitter.

The Tigers will be opposed by Kyle Davies. Davies has a 5.65 ERA. He’s allowed 10 homers in 71 2/3 innings and he walks a batter every other inning.

For more relevant stats: DET @ ATL, Saturday, June 23, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game time 3:55

POSTGAME: After spending the last month bludgeoning teams into submission, the Tigers tore a page out of the 2006 playbook. A solo homer backed a great starting effort while the bullpen made a narrow margin stand up.

It was the first game the Tigers have won this year when they’ve scored fewer than 3 runs. They won 10 such games last year, and 6 at this point in the season. Then again, the Tigers offense has only failed to muster 2 or fewer runs 11 times this year. Last year it happened 38 times, and 17 at this point in the season.

Justin Verlander has turned himself into the strikeout pitcher that we all thought he could be with 29K’s in his last 22 innings. Like the no-hitter, he had command of 3 pitches, and against a struggling offense he had an easy time of it.

Tim Byrdak surrendered a leadoff double, but retired the next batter and Fernando Rodney retired the next two batters without drama. Todd Jones pitched well in the 9th keeping the ball on the edges of the strike zone and the only blemish was a 2 out full count walk to Andruw Jones. That’s 4 routine nights from the pen in a row, and the results is a 6 game winning streak.

Tigers 2 Braves 1

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 6/22/07

Indianapolis 5 Toledo 6 11 innings
Jack Hannahan pounded 2 homers and Timo Perez went 3 for 5. Jon Connolly was bumped up to Toledo and allowed 2 runs in 5 innings on 3 hits, 2 walks, and 5 K’s.

Trenton 9 Erie 6
Jackson Melian hit a 3 run homer and walked. Andres Torres added a triple and a walk. Jair Jurrjens was knocked around for 8 hits and 6 runs in 4 innings. He walked 3 and fanned 3. Roman Colon, assigned to Erie following his suspension, pitched 2 innings allowing 2 hits and a walk.

Lakeland Tampa suspended
They only got 2 innings in before suspending this one. Chris Cody made his Hi A debut and allwed 2 runs on 3 hits. He was opposed by “starter” Kevin Whelan who the Tigers sent to the Yankees in the Sheffield trade.

West Michigan 4 Dayton 3
Ryan Strieby hit his 7th homer. Jeramy Laster, Scott Sizemore, and Audy Ciriaco all had multi-hit games. Jeff Gerbe allowed 6 hits and 2 walks while fanning 4 over 7 innings.

Tri-City 1 Oneonta 3
Kody Kaiser added 2 more doubles. Chris Carlson and Cory Middleton had the only other hits. Mark Brackman pitched 4 innings of shutout ball allowing only 3 hits. Jose Fragoso followed that with 1 run on 2 hits and 5 K’s over 4 innings.

GCL Tigers 10 GCL Yankees 0
This one was called after 5 due to rain. Brent Clevlen finally got going with a 3 for 3 effort. Carlos Ramirez and Roger Tomas were a triple short of the cycle and Hayden Parrott was 2 for 2. Twenty year old Luis Marte allowed just 2 hits over 5 innings while fanning 6.

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