Magglio Ordonez hits the disabled list with oblique issues. He joins Gary Sheffield and Brandon Inge to become the 3rd Tiger forced out of action by oblique issues. Whether this is a random clustering of bad luck, or an issue with the training regimen remains to be seen. Given that the Javair Gillete has been in charge of strength and conditioning the last several years without this being a recurring problem points me towards bad luck. But it is something worth monitoring and I’m sure it will be addressed.
As for the replacement, it will be Matt Joyce. The Tigers should still have enough pop in their lineup without Magglio, especially if Gary Sheffield can get going and Miguel Cabrera can get his numbers closer to his career line. But this unquestionably weakens the team as they play 7 of the next 13 games against the Twins.
The timing of the injury, aside from the Twins thing, is actually fortuitous. With an off day coming up next week and the All Star Break the following week, Ordonez could get 18 days of rest and only miss 13 games.
Bad luck is right. Over half the regular team has been on the DL now. Ordonez, Inge, Granderson, Zumaya, Rodney, Bonderman, Sheff, Santiago, Willis, Thomas, Rapada, Bautista, Wilson, (and Tata if he counts) .
OK… so the Tigers have won 5 in a row, and I can’t figure out who these guys are!
Freddy Dolsi? Seems to be coming in relief quite a bit lately. Who? He pitched well.
Someone named Sardinha gets his first major league hit – and its a triple that puts the Tigers ahead for the win?
Eddie Bonine (huh? who?) got a start the other day?
Now I’ve just seen that Maggs went on the 15-day DL and was replaced by Matt Joyce – who played earlier for the Tigers this year.
Mike Hollimon seems to be playing somewhat regularly.
I still don’t know who Clete Thomas is…
I did look up Clay Rapada the other day?
Tigers? Who?
OK…. Dane Sardinha – 29 years old – batted .206 for Toledo this year before being called up. Batted .202 last year. Wonder who went down that he got called up. Ick.
Freddy Dolsi – 25 year old who started the season at Lakeland, was 0-1 with a 6.14 ERA. OK, so last year he was 5-3 with a 3.48 for a full season in Lakeland. Maybe some potential; but pitched about 3 games at Erie – the rest is all Lakeland.
Matt Joyce (who hit 5 HRs, but batted .208 in his first stint with the Tigers earlier this year). Let me look him up. Hmmm. Toledo this year, 10 HRs in 39 games, batting .297. Last year, 17 HRs at Erie but only .253. Only 23.
Eddie Bonine? 27 years old; career minor leaguer. Was 9-2 for Toledo, but with a 4.48 ERA. Last year was 14-5 for Erie; 3.90 ERA. Spent several years in the lower minors.
Mike Hollimon? 26 yr old minor leaguer; averaging .274 throughout. .250 for Toledo.
This isn’t exactly making me feel like the Tigers are a top notch team; but somehow they are winning better than ever.
Of course, interleague play is over, and the Twins are up for 2 series in the next couple of weeks.
Dave
(p.s. – can’t figure out where Aquilino Lopez is. He’s not on the roster, and he’s not on the DL. He’s still sitting at 2-1 with a 2.67 ERA. Had a 2.35 ERA in 48 G with Toledo last year; he’s the real deal – anyone know where he is???)
Some of us were wondering when Maggs was going to get a day off. Now we know, and he’ll be getting 15 or more of them. I wonder if an occasional day off earlier on could have helped to avoid this, but I guess there is no way of ever telling that.
Maggs career line vs. MN is .328/.372/.563/.935. It’s hard to imagine Thomas and/or Joyce being able to fill those shoes, and since the Twins have actually scored more runs than the Tigers this year, the extra offense could be missed. Hopefully the starting pitching remains solid.
Dave- That just shows the Tigers have a pretty good deep farm system when we can call people up on the fly and have them contribute.
Aquilino Lopez was sent to Toledo to stretch his arm out and become a starter after Rodney and Zumaya came off of the DL. He’s pitched well in two Triple-A starts, but Eddie Bonine’s successful debut means that he might stay in Toledo.
Miner, Rodney, Dolsi, Zumaya, and Jones don’t leave much room for a right-hander in the bullpen.
Maggs didn’t look right the last 2 or 3 games prior to Saturday. You can’t help bu wonder if a day here or there would have prevented the injury.
Or maybe he was just babysitting for the Inge’s
Magglio we wish you a speedy recovery.
I think it is good thing that we won’t have alot of guys going to the All Star Game. Rest up.
maggs is the biggest twinkie killer, but the young kids will step up to the challenge.
I predict that batting 4th will get Cabrera going. Wasn’t he the clean up hitter in Miami? I know where you hit doesn’t matter, but I think it may have been 1 more thing in his head. He is going to go on a tear, and JL will have to decide where to bat Maggs when he comes back.
Just a wild @ss prediction, but I hope its right!
I like it Dave, that’s a good call. I can definitely see Miggy get going, he’s had some good ABs the last few days, it’s only a matter of time before he really turns it on.
I think this is horrible. I hope I am wrong, but we may find out in the next couple weeks how important Mags is to this team, and it could be ugly.
We finally get .500 and this happens.
Most of the time these things are caused by inadequate training/stretching. Probably a combo of not strengthening his ab muscles evenly(pretty common even among ‘pros’) and not stretching all muscles to increase the range of motion waaaaay beyond anything you’ll ever need(also pretty common, oddly enough).
Freddy Solid was the man over the weekend. And Sardines (intentional misspelling) unexpectedly came through. They’ll have to have guys like that step up in Maggs absence.
They need to drink more beer to take the pressure off the obliques.
ron: Maybe Zumaya can give them lessons on that…
God. Rob Parker is on 1st and 10.
THEY’RE ABOUT TO TO TALK TO THE TIGERS. I’ll quote stuff.
Talk to, or about?
God I hate Parker.
Oh. About. And, yeah, Parker admits he’s a Mets fan and really doesn’t like the Tigers at all. His picks for the postseason:
White Sox, Red Sox.
Skip Bayless says we’re going to win the AL Central.
The very mention of Skip Bayless’ name makes me vomit with rage. I hate that friggin’ idiot. And he’s most always wrong. Thanks for the endorsement, Skip.
First a scrub, and now a dirtbag?
http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2008/06/tigers_ordonez_ill_be_back_whe.html
I hope that puss-wad gets some more playing time.
I like Skip, he’s usually wrong but at least interesting.
And I’m so confused about this dirt-bag thing. Either Leyland is weirder than I thought, or this is some inside joke.
Knowing the Twins fans, they’ll take the ‘dirtbag’ thing and run with it like they did with ‘pirhanas’ a couple years ago…
:Dirtbags” is a backhanded compliment for players who play hard…don’t mind getting dirt all over them…scrappy types.. use all of their abilities to play..check their ego’s at the clubhouse doors .The Long Beach University baseball team are called the “Dirtbags”…
I don’t think this Ordonez injury will hurt us any worse than when Sheff went on the DL. Mags has been in a slump through most of June and really hasn’t mashed the ball much during this 17-4 run. He’s had a .268 avg and a .747 OPS in June. Whoever we play in RF instead of Mags could probably match that and provide better defense also.
judpma: So I guess ‘dirtbag’ is a synonym for ‘Eckstein’ then? Or maybe ‘Erstad’ or ‘Rowand’….
Chris.. I think Eckstein would make the ALL DIRTBAG ALL TIME team
Renteria is not a dirtbag. He’s a very clean baseball player.
Yes. Renteria is definately not a dirtbag. Does he even need to wash his uniform after a game or two?
These are the kind of things I wonder.
Hey – Renteria had a big hit over a decade ago. Isn’t that enough for you people? Geez.
Chris in Dallas, those invectives are usually reserved for lawyers and exes. Did you have a bully in the neigborhood named Skip or maybe a teacher, Miss Bayless, who gave you a B grade preventing you from achieving a perfect 4.0 average?
He may be washing his uniform in that new TideXXXXPOWERPOWDER detergent that guarantees that no dirt will stick to your clothes.
A possible endorsement! If his agent steals this idea from you ron, you should demand compensation.
Although, I’m not sure the targeted soap-opera audience would really know who Edgar Renteria is.
maybe a good nickmame for him is “Mr Clean”