Monthly Archives: April 2008

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 4: White Sox at Tigers

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PREGAME:: A win, a win, my kingdom for a win. After having no luck with the Royals the Tigers turn their attention to the White Sox. For those worried that the Tigers have already dug themselves an insurmountable hole, fear not. Jamie Samuelson of WDFN and the Freep did some research and found that way back in 1998 the Yankees started 0-3 before going on to be one of the best teams in modern times. Those Yankees did win the 4th game – in extra innings.

The Tigers will be facing Jose Contreras. Now the last time the Tigers faced Contreras it was a happy day. It was the last day of 2007. The Tigers won. Placido Polanco got his 200 hits, Guillen his 100 RBIs, Granderson finished at .300, Magglio won the batting title, and Mike Rabelo hit his first homer.

Nate Robertson takes the mound for Detroit. Coincidentally he was on the mound for that same game and picked up the win with a 6 2/3 inning effort.

Miguel Cabrera is back in the lineup as DH and batting third while Clete Thomas gets another start in center field.

CHW @ DET, Friday, April 4, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: I have to give Jason Grilli some credit, he got people to stop talking about the offense. There are degrees of blame here, but I’ve never seen 3 pitches do so much damage. I can’t fault Leyland for not pulling Grilli before the damage had been done, but leaving him in beyond that was asinine. If it weren’t for bad baserunning by the White Sox Grilli might still be out there.

I understand the vitriol and the desire to let Grilli go. I had the same thoughts not only today, but at times last year as well. But here’s what sucks, there isn’t anyone else. If Francisco Cruceta were available, or if Jordan Tata didn’t have a broken hand then by all means let him go. But this is a team with Aquilino Lopez already on the roster.

What I have a bigger problem with is Leyland’s erratic use of the pen. Using Zach Miner for only one inning is a waste in that situation. The game was tied and there were still 3 innings left in regulation. He’s also burned Bobby Seay for one batter appearances. Never mind the fact that Seay is one of the better relievers at his disposal.

Other observations:

  • Robertson looked stellar at times, but awful at other times. Five runs and five innings wasn’t good enough.
  • Nice defense by the Tigers today with Brandon Inge starting a tough double play and Carlos Guillen making a nice pick on a throw in the baseline from Robertson.
  • The bats are waking up with every Tiger but Edgar Renteria getting a hit. They were also pretty selective with the team picking up 6 walks.
  • Relievers not named Jason Grilli were quite good with Miner, Bautista, and Jones going 3 scoreless innings.
  • I read some of the comments that the Tigers seemed to be rushing their at-bats after the homer. I have to say I disagree. The 9th inning they battled. Carlos Guillen worked a 10 pitch walk. Ordonez hit a line drive to center field. Cabrera walked. And Renteria hit a liner that Jermaine Dye made a diving play on. They didn’t exactly roll over against a tough pitcher.
2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 4-3-08

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At least everyone else in the organization won their opening days. Some great starting pitching efforts including the debut of Rick Porcello.

Durham 2 Toledo 3
Dane Sardinha homered and singled. Mike Hessman had a 2 hit day as well. Jeff Larish struggled in his AAA debut going 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. Virgil Vasquez went 5 2/3 innings allowing only 1 run on 3 hits and a walk while fanning 8.

OPENING DAY POSTPONED – Erie SeaWolves
They’ll make it up with a doubleheader Saturday.

Lakeland 4, Tampa 1
Let the Rick Porcello hype begin. Five innings of one hit ball in his professional debut is a nice beginning. He fanned 3 and walked 2. Freddy Dolsi struck out the side, but also walked two and allowed a run before doing so. Cale Iorg tripled and James Skelton picked up 2 hits. Check in with LFT Blog who was attending the game and taking pictures (they’re just not posted at “press” time)

West Michigan 15 South Bend 2
Found the Tigers missing offense. It’s in Grand Rapids where the Whitecaps scored 10 times in the first inning. The whole offense did good needless to say. Ramon Garcia went six shut out innings allowing only 4 hits while fanning 5. The Surge was on hand and has filed a report.v

2008 Season, Pitching, Research

Pitch f/x: Bonderman 4-3-08

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From time to time this year (as time permits), I’ll delve in to MLB.com’s pitch f/x data to analyze a starters outing. Tonight we look at Jeremy Bonderman’s start against the Kansas City Royals on April 3rd.

Pitch Mix

This season MLB.com started classifying pitches. This seems pretty convenient, but from what I’ve seen so far the classifications don’t quite match. In the case of Jeremy Bonderman we know he throws both a 2 seam (sinker) and 4 seam fastball, a slider, and an occasional change. The data had Bonderman throwing a splitter, which looks to be a misclassification of his slider. Because of this, I did my own pitch classifications using K-means clustering and some judgment.

The table below shows his pitch mix and average velocity for the 87 pitches tracked by the system today.

	    n     mph
2seam       39   92.0 
4seam       25   92.6   
change       4   83.8  
slider      19   85.6

Continue reading Pitch f/x: Bonderman 4-3-08 →

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 3: Royals at Tigers

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PREGAME: Talking sweep coming into the 3rd game of the series doesn’t really surprise. Talking Tigers avoiding a sweep does.

It’s a pretty good pitching match-up with Jeremy Bonderman taking on Zach Grienke. The Tigers face Grienke 3 times last year, lighting him up twice(.2 innings, 4 runs and 4 innings 6 runs) and being stymied the third and most recent time (4 innings, no runs, no walks, 5 K’s). In 15 at-bats Grienke has limited Magglio Ordonez to 2 singles.

Jeremy Bonderman is trying to capture his early season form from a year ago. He did well against the Royals in 2007 allowing 4 runs and fanning 17 in 20 innings of work.

Did you know that KC leads the all time series 257-243?

Game Time 1:05

KCR @ DET, Thursday, April 3, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Where I try and make the best out of a crappy situation:

  • At least it was Sheffield who tore a ligament in his finger today. If it had been Zumaya the finger would have become detached, kicked into the outfield, and have been carried away by a seagull.
  • Jeremy Bonderman conquered his first inning issues.
  • Brandon Inge is bolstering his trade value by hitting well.
  • Jacque Jones had a strike out free day.
  • The Royals are a first place team. It’s not like the Tigers got swept by a bunch of scrubs.
2008 Season, Fan Experience, Tiger History, Trade Rumors

Junkballing: Just a link dump

No rhyme, reason, or subheadings. Just a quick link dump as I watch Jair Jurrjens carve up the Pirates.

  • Kaline or Clemente: Joe Posnanski tackles who was the better sixties right fielder.
  • Tigers interested in Cordero?: Ian points to a report that the Tigers inquired about Chad Cordero during spring training. I don’t make too much of this because A)I get the impression the Tigers inquired about every reliever. B)Jim Bowden probably wants Rick Porcello in exchange. and C)It sounds like he’s the second coming of Fernando Rodney’s shoulder.
  • Pitching coach or therapist? It’s about the Mets, but Stephen (yeah, the Stephen from the comments) pens a piece looking at the role of a pitching coach. It’s good. And long. But good.
  • Tigers respond to fans. Sam Hoff, who contributes the “Inning” pieces here sent a request to Dave Dombrowski and Dombrowski followed through. The story is at Sam’s blog.
  • Vindicated or Vindictive? Yeah, listen to Jose Canseco. I’m sure it’s all on the up and up.
  • Joel Zumaya still likes Guitar Hero. Mmm, yeah. In one respect I feel for the guy that he can’t play a video game without it becoming a story.

Some hope

Okay, so I had one subheading. Craig Colwell, who comments here as Craig in CA and is organizing the Tigers/Giants outing, recently wrote a piece for his local paper. He said I could publish it here as well. I figured we’d could use a little reminder of how excited we were all of 3 days ago.


Hope Springs Eternal

Craig Colwell

People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.

~Rogers Hornsby
~

The last week of March, for millions of people young and old, brings forth feelings that are equal to those felt by a child counting down the last few days before Christmas. For me, two words sum up this time of year, Anticipation and Hope. The anticipation of Opening Day, and the hope that maybe this year we’ll win it all.

The baseball season is about to begin. The highs and lows of the previous season have been locked away in a closet since late last fall, otherwise they would combine to eat away at my heart and the hearts of baseball fans everywhere. Oh sure there is the occasional peak at the internet and the sports page, to see what the front office was up to. As fans we try to live normal lives during the winter months. The off-season allows our families time to forget our behavior of the previous season. We do a good job most of the time but there are those moments when you’re at the school play or out to dinner with friends when you quietly wonder why Leyland didn’t pitch Kenny Rogers in St. Louis. There is the moment when you pretend to ooh and ahh at the splendor of the Mountains on a family ski weekend, when you’re really oohing and ahhing over the prospect of Cabrerra, Ordonez, Renteria, Sheffield, Polanco, Guillen and Granderson in the same line up. Just between us, I have watched the last inning of the Tigers winning the American League Pennant in 06’ more than a few times this winter. Don’ tell my family, they’re still a little sore that I moved the Mac into the dining room so we could watch the final innings of the Tigers’ east coast games on mlb.com.

As I’ve gotten older my fanaticism is no longer only about my beloved Tigers, but about the game as a whole. Forget about the steroid scandal and the fact that that the American League uses the DH. For me baseball is about helping out with my daughters’ softball teams, hoping to foster a love of a game that has meant so much to me. It’s about loving a game that was so good to my parents in their final years when traveling and getting out on the town were no longer options. Baseball is there for you everyday from April until October. You become intimate with your home team. Baseball is theatre played out over 162 games mixing drama, comedy, and suspense. It’s getting beyond the intense hatred of the Yankees and the Red Sox and realizing that without these despised rivals the game would be diminished.

Opening day is my own personal holiday, it’s a day of hope, it’s a day of reconnection with my childhood, it’s a day to remember and honor a gift given to me by my parents, the love of baseball. For me, all the season’s past don’t combine to equal the season about to begin. You can bet that I have already blocked out the days the Tigers will be in the Bay area.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 2: Royals at Tigers

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PREGAME: It’s another afternoon tilt for these two teams. For the Tigers it will be Kenny Rogers making his season debut. Last year Rogers battled a blood clot, and later some elbow soreness before finishing the season strong for the Tigers. In 5 September starts he posted a 3.56 ERA, but with an uncharacteristically high 13 walks and 3 homers in 30 innings.

For the Royals it will be Brian Bannister. During the offseason he did a Q & A with MLB Trade Rumors and talked about facing the Tigers (this is just a portion of his response, click through for the full answer):

I think the most important thing when preparing to face a lineup of this caliber is to be realistic and to recognize how they have been playing recently, because confidence level is everything with a good offense. If you look at good lineups, they tend to be extremely streaky, but their cold streaks will be much shorter than their hot streaks over the course of a season. During the hot streaks, teams and opposing pitchers tend to be intimidated by their offensive prowess, and games can be blowouts. In contrast, during the cold streaks they can seem to be a totally different team because they have very high expectations placed on them by the fans and media, and when they’re struggling, it tends to snowball.

Last year Bannister was a much tougher pitcher on the road, posting a .598 OPS against as opposed to .828 at Kauffman Stadium.

Game time 1:05

POSTGAME:
Not exactly the kind of start that we’re looking for here in Detroit. I’ve gotta be honest, I was at work and didn’t see the game. Just listened in to the call, but I didn’t come away happy regardless. Most of the Tigers bloggers have done their wraps and said their pieces and I’ll trust their judgment. At least Rogers had a solid outing. He breezed through the 2nd and 3rd innings before needing some extra pitches and falling behind in the count. Still, he did his job. Zach Miner showed promise, but ultimately surrendered two runs.

I’m disappointed, but not at all worried. And just responding to some of the things said in the comments (and I don’t mean this as an attack on anyone, so don’t take it personally if I happen to disagree):

  • I’m surprised to see so many of you think tomorrow’s game is a lost cause. Yes, Zach Grienke is good but the Tigers did knock him out in the first inning in a game at Comerica last year. And yes, Jeremy Bonderman finished the year horribly in 2007, but he’s been known to be pretty good to. Let it play out before waving the white flag.
  • Yes, the offense is better with Curtis Granderson in it, but I don’t think that was the problem today. Nobody hit (except Renteria). I don’t think Granderson makes that much of a difference in a game where Polanco, Ordonez, Sheffield, Guillen, Cabrera… couldn’t even muster solid contact. Give some credit to Brian Bannister.
  • In terms of the Tigers patience, the Tigers made Bannister throw 3.86 pitches per batter. That’s actually a hair above average. Bannister appeared so efficient because he didn’t allow baserunners, and he got two double plays. Granted, tell me if I’m wrong, but it seemed that Bannister was mostly throwing strikes. There’s only so much taking you can do in that situation. Also, Jim and Dan mentioned a couple occasions where Tigers hitters missed on very hittable pitches.
  • Jacque Jones has had 2 bad games. I’m not expecting huge things from Jones, but I do expect he won’t go all season without getting the ball out of the infield. I think it’s a little early for a whipping boy, but I am anxious for the Tigers to face a southpaw.
2008 Season, Minors, Pitching

Junkballing: Payroll, Minors, and more

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Good thing there’s no game today, because there is a lot to link to!

Tigers have second highest payroll

The Tigers official Opening Day payroll is $138.7 million which places Detroit in 2nd place – far behind the Yankees. My unofficial total of $134 million, which didn’t include some of the players making near the league minimum, isn’t too far off. Certainly within $2-3 million.

The Mets are not even a half mil behind the Tigers at $138.3 and the Red Sox are next at $133.4.

So yeah, there’s some pressure on the Tigers to win.

Minor League Rosters

The bevy of Tigers blogs covering the minors have been working on putting the rosters together. The Surge has the Whitecaps roster. Among the 2008 ‘Caps I’m most interested in are shortstop Audy Ciriaco and reliever Noah Krol.

LFT Blog has the Lakeland roster which I find quite interesting. The rotation features Rick Porcello along with Jonah Nickerson, Duane Below, and Luis Marte. The up the middle players feature top catching prospect James Skelton and the double play combo will be Scott Sizemore and Cale Iorg. Take 75 North points out that the team at the end of the season might not resemble this roster at all with a number of players who could be moved up if they produce.

The Seawolves roster features Wilkin Ramirez who was having a standout spring before injuring his shoulder. If his performance catches up with his tools he could become a top 10 prospect in the system (he already has been).

The Toledo roster is most interesting in the outfield. It’s Brent Clevlen’s make or break year, and we’ll see if Matt Joyce can build on his late season success at Toledo. Clete Thomas will likely join the team when Curtis Granderson returns to Detroit.

But overall, the system has been depleted. Baseball America’s organizational rankings place the Tigers 27th.

UPDATE: Right after hitting publish I see that Tigerblog announced that Tigers 2007 draft pick Andrew Hess will be blogging for Tigers Minors.

Interviews

Ian is determined to make a name for himself in Kansas City and interviews his second KC writer in a week. This time it is uber columnist and blogger Joe Posnanski.

Empty the Bench takes a turn interviewing Curtis Granderson.

Other stuff

I thought about labeling this last section garbage time, but didn’t want to offend anyone.

  • Tigers and Tim Byrdak are talking. The team is looking to sign him to a minor league deal. He’d join the recently acquired Aaron Fultz as lefties in the Mud Hens bullpen.
  • Wikio Rankings – DTW is 71!. This very site ranks 71st amongst sports blogs. It’s hard to believe how many quality, well regarded, sports blogs are out there. Being on the list is an honor.
  • Bad Bullpens. From the Copa notes that everyone is having pen problems.