It’s a bum deal. You hit your first big league homer and get sent to the minors. Clete Thomas was the outfielder optioned to Toledo to make room for Magglio Ordonez. So Matt Joyce will stick around and try to defend his AL Player of the Week honors.
Monthly Archives: July 2008
links for 2008-07-15
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Lee lays out some scenarios. I don’t see the Tigers releasing him, but I see him getting less playing time in the 2nd half as long as he isn’t producing.
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Kitten power!
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Nice article on Carlos Guillen as team leader.
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Wonderful work by Eddie culling the organization for everyone’s roster status. The Tigers will need to have at least 4 spots on the 40 man available to protect rule 5 eligible players.
All Star Break Discussion #2 – Open Mic
It’s a free for all on All Star day. I won’t post a game thread for tonight’s All Star game so feel free to use this space. Other possible topics for discussion but feel free to deviate:
- What Tiger will have the most significant impact in the second half?
- Joel Zumaya has allowed 24 baserunners in 11.3 innings with 5 wild pitches and Fernando Rodney has allowed 15 baserunners in 9.3 innings yet the two are perceived very differently by fans. Is it because Rodney wears his hat crooked?
- Freddy Dolsi strikes out fewer batters than any Tigers reliever not named Todd Jones and has more walks than strikeouts, but is perceived as future closer material. Discuss.
- Santiago has certainly been a better hitter this year than Edgar Renteria. From today until the end of the season, who will be the better hitter?
Tigers Minor League Wrap 7-14-08 – UPDATED 7-15
Toledo DNP
Altoona 2 Erie 1
Dusty Ryan and Deik Scran each doubled. Eddie Bonine had an unremarkable start allowing 4 hits and 2 walks in 3.2 innings. I’m not sure why it was such a short outing.
UPDATE 1: Bonine left early after being hit by a line drive. He expects to be fine. He hadn’t allowed any runs prior to taking one on the shin.
Lakeland 0 Palm Beach 1
Justin Justice had the Lakeland hit. Guillermo Moscoso allowed 1 run on 5 hits and 4 walks with 6 K’s in 6 innings. Zach Simons fanned 3 in 2 innings.
Peoria 2 West Michigan 10
Magglio Ordonez made a rehab start and singled in 4 at-bats. Ronnie Bourquin had 3 hits. Cory Middleton was a triple short of the cycle. Jordan Newton doubled and homered. Jon Kibler allowed 1 run in 7 innings and fanned 4. Scott Green allowed a run on 2 hits with 1 K in 2 innings.
UPDATE 2: Video from Maggs rehab assignment from mlive.
| Ordonez rehabs with Whitecaps, eyes return to Tigers |
Oneonta 3 Williamsport 4
Brandon Douglas had 2 hits and a walk. Wade Lamont doubled and singled. Trevor Feeny allowed 4 runs on 8 hits in 4 innings. Anthony Shawler pitched 2 scoreless innings.
Oneonta 0 Williamsport 1 (in progess)
Bryan Pounds had a hit. Matt Hoffman has allowed 1 run through 4 innings with 3 K’s.
GCL Tigers 5 GCL Braves 4
Alden Carrithers went 2 for 3 with a walk. Londell Taylor was 0 for 3 but scored 3 times. Jade Todd allowed 4 runs on 6 hits in 3.2 innings.
All Star Break Discussion #1: Pitching Coach
With the All Star break upon us, now’s a good time to deviate a little from the day to day game post-reaction loop. Over the next 3 days there will be a different discussion topic each day. Today we start with building the ideal pitching coach.
Chuck Hernandez caught a lot of heat early in the year. That criticism has quieted somewhat with the staff posting a 3.95 ERA since May 13th. But this discussion is less about the merits of Chuck Hernandez and more along the lines of role playing. You’re the manager/general manager. What are you looking for in a coach?
Some things to consider:
- Do you want someone with a specific philosophy or system that all pitchers would adhere to, or do you want someone who tries to leverage the strengths of the arms he’s given?
- What about pitcher workload? Old school where you see how far a guy can go and pitch counts are for wusses, or someone to coddle the arms and make sure they never ever throw more than 100 pitches or pitch 3 days in a row?
- Do you want someone who is going to emphasize mechanical tweaks and changes all the time, or someone who will let pitchers just throw and work more on their psyche and confidence?
- A pitch to contact philosophy or strike everyone out philosophy?
- Someone who embraces objective data or someone who embraces their own observations?
- When game planning how much emphasis is put on pitching to the pitcher’s strengths versus pitching to the oppositions weaknesses?
Finally, once you’ve selected someone, how do you evaluate whether they are doing a good job? How do you decide how much credit/blame is due to the coach and those he has to work with?
I don’t mean this to be a Chuck Hernandez bash (or love) fest. But feel free to cite examples of what you like or don’t like about Hernandez or any other pitching coach to help explain your preferences. And if there are any other qualities or traits you’d look for, feel free to include those as well.
links for 2008-07-13
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Craig Monroe as hitting coach and mentor?
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A new way to gauge age versus level in assessing prospects.
Game 94: Twins at Tigers
PREGAME: The Tigers limp into the All Star break physically and spiritually. The Twins have taken 5 straight from the Tigers and a 4 game sweep would certainly suck hard.
The match-up is Justin Verlander and Nick Blackburn. If you want a little something different, the Future’s Game starts at 12:30 and it features Wilkin Ramirez starting in left field. You can also see Gorkys Hernandez starting next to him in centerfield.
MIN @ DET, Sunday, July 13, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
POSTGAME: The Tigers found a way to win against the Twins. They made it a 2 run game instead of a one run game. I’m not sure if the fact that the Tigers were only outscored by 2 runs in this series makes me feel better or worse.
Justin Verlander was awesome today and probably even better than his final line indicated. Which was an impressive 7 inning, 2 run, 8 K, 2 walk day. The fastball was live. The curve ball was nasty. And he held Mauer, Morneau, and the whoever was hitting 8th today in relative check.
Once again the kids supplpied the power with Clete Thomas and Matt Joyce accouting for 3 of the 4 runs. Thomas with his first career homer and Joyce with his 9th. This sets up quite the dilemma as to who gets sent down when Magglio Ordonez returns on Thursday.
And on another note, in terms of the Twins doing “things the right way” and the genius of Ron Gardenhire. I’m sorry. I don’t see it. Yes, there is probably some bitterness at work. But I saw them fail continually with their heralded bunting. Once bunting into a force out at second, due in part to the fact that Carlos Gomez let up. I saw Alexi Casilla bunt into himself while in fair territory. I saw them flounder just as much as the Tigers with RISP. I saw a guy with a sub .300 OBP start all the games as the leadoff hitter. They did enough stuff better than the Tigers to win 3 of 4. But I saw nothing offensively or strategically that screams “the right way.” The pitching is great and will only get better when Francisco Liriano returns (assuming that Livan Hernandez gets dumped). But I still don’t think they are for real.
Dontrelle Talks
Most of the time when you read the beat reporters game stories and quotes, you get pretty much the same thing. But every once in awhile, you’ll get some pretty different takes. Take for example the conversation that Dontrelle Willis had with reporters yesterday.
In the mlb.com article the focus is on Dontrelle’s attitude and the minor league process. Willis says all the right things, accepting responsibility and all that stuff you like to hear:
“Not at all. You definitely don’t think about the money you’re making when you’re walking guys,” Willis said. “I don’t think that was the case at all.”
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Willis said the demotion to Class A hasn’t been tough. He called it “necessary,” and said it has not affected his confidence. The lefty appeared humble, not bitter or angry.
“I’m accountable for everything,” Willis said. “I’m just not throwing the ball how I want to. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to play baseball anymore. I still love the game. It’s just making an adjustment. Sometimes you work hard, but you have bad habits.”
The Tigers have a plan in place to fix those bad habits. Willis has a plan to pitch in Detroit again this season.
“You have to be a man and understand that everybody wants to be a .900 hitter and everybody wants to be undefeated, but that’s not the case,” he said. “You continue to work hard and continue to have fun and, in the end, you’ll be happy with what you’ve done.”
In the Free Press article the emphasis is on Willis drastically changing his wind-up.
Willis acknowledged during a 10-minute session with reporters Saturday that he is currently attempting to change his mechanics through work with the organization’s coaches. He did not provide specifics of what the new delivery looks like.
I can’t imagine that Willis will make huge changes in his mechanics, at least not changes that will be really evident to the layman. The initial coiling might not be as dramatic, and the kick might not be as high, but I still believe it will be the same general concept.
Game 93: Twins at Tigers
PREGAME: Another day game on Fox, another Twins starter the Tigers struggle against. This time it’s Scott Baker.
Nate Robertson is on the mound for Detroit. He went 9 innings of excellent work against the Mariners. But the start prior to that the Twins handed him his worst start of the year and the only one in which he allowed more than 5 runs this season.
MIN @ DET, Saturday, July 12, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 3:55
POSTGAME: Another one run loss to the Twins. I don’t have a lot to say. One point I will make is that I don’t usually get too upset about strikeouts. It’s just another out right? And the Tigers team isn’t particularly prone to fanning (9 AL teams have whiffed more often). But in this series the Tigers have saved their strikeouts when they mattered most.
Thursday we Jeff Larish and Pudge Rodriguez K in the 9th inning with the winning run 90 feet away.
Friday it was Thames and Rodriguez each striking out with men on second.
Today it was Granderson fanning with a runner on second and 1 out in the third. Miguel Cabrera struck out with 2 men on and nobody out in the 8th. And then in the 9th Sheffield, Larish (who’s last 3 at-bats have come against Nathan. How much fun is that?), and Granderson all fanned.
Their clutch striking out the last 3 games, all one run losses, has been demoralizing to say the least.
The 5th Inning – 2008
Last year Sam Hoff started breaking down the season into 18 games segments, each representing 1/9th of the season, or an “inning.” Here is the 5th inning report. Sam sent this to me Thursday morning, but I haven’t had a chance to post until now.
The 5th Inning is over.
Each 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record for the first 5 innings in 2008:
Starters: Bullpen:
W-L RS –RA HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG W-L-IP- ERA W-L-S-ERA
1: 6-12 74 -112 15-10-262/345/404 3-9- 96.2-5.96 3-3-3-5.28
2: 9-9 98 -87 21- 6-261/350/426 5-8-105.2-5.11 4-1-2-3.61
3: 8-10 89 -75 19- 2-275/326/442 8-5-109.2-4.19 0-5-4-3.83
4: 11-7 85 -74 19- 8-268/350/416 8-4-113.0-3.27 3-3-5-5.17
4: 12-6 86 -78 25- 6-297/347/476 6-4-106.1-4.23 6-2-6-3.43
The 5th inning found the Tigers put up their best record since the 4th inning of 2007 (13-5). The Tigers won a lot of close games having a 6-1 record in one run games and a 3-1 record in two run games. Not surprisingly, the bullpen put up their best numbers of the year. Despite the performance in the inning, the Tigers lost ground to red hot the White Sox (now 7 games back).
Justin Verlander is back to his old self (3-0-3.00era and 26Ks in 24 innings). Nate Robertson (1-1-4.26), Armando Galarraga (0-0-4.32) and the demoted Eddie Bodine (1-1-4.22) were all serviceable. Kenny Rogers (1-2-5.68era) may be a concern as elbow and age issues make you feel a cliff is coming sometime in the near future.
In the Bullpen, Jones continues to gets saves (4 total) and allow stupidly high totals (15 runners in 8.1). Bobby Seay (6 innings) and Aquino Lopez (3 innings) were unscored upon. Zumaya (1.93era – 19 runners in 9.1) and the demoted Miner (1.23era – 13 runners in 7.1) were both lucky. Rodney (5.14era – 8 runners in 7.0) had a 5.14era and a big loss. Dolsi (4.50era) and Fossum (4.22era) were serviceable in long relief.
The Hitters were a bit perplexing in the fact that they hit a lot of homeruns, batted 296, and were patient at the plate could not manage more than 86 runs. On a positive note, they were only shut out once and did not skew the numbers with a big blowout (the most they scored in a single game was 9).
The offense are being lead by the Mudhens. Holliman, Joyce, Raburn, Larrish, and Thomas were a combined 4-13-306/390/556. Granderson is scorching 1-6-438/487/616. Cabrera had six of the 25 homers hit by Tigers while only striking out 9 times.
Go Tigers!
The plans for Ryan Perry
The Tigers officially announced the signing of first round draft pick Ryan Perry yesterday. In the conference call there was discussion about what Perry’s next steps are as well as his role.
Earlier reports indicated that Perry would likely be a September call-up. However, David Chadd indicated that wasn’t really a consideration at this point. Of course the Tigers have been known to change their minds in these types of situations – or at least let the performance of the players change their minds. I’d still say it’s up to Perry in large part.
Chadd also speculated that Perry, who is already in Lakeland, would likely be starting out with the Gulf Coast League Tigers as opposed to the A ball Lakeland Flying Tigers. But that decision didn’t sound set in stone either and there would be discussions with Jon Matlack (minor league pitching instructor) and Glenn Ezell (player development).
The audio from the conference call is here if you’re so inclined.
[audio:http://detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/perry_conf_call.mp3]
Game 92: Tigers at Twins
PREGAME: Those of you who believe in momentum may have had your beliefs shaken after yesterday’s gut-wrencher. Armando Galarraga faces the one team that he seems to struggle the most with, the Twins. He’s managed to last 6 innings in each of his starts, but his 10:8 K:BB ratio in 18 innings isn’t all that inspiring.
Glenn Perkins takes the mound for the Twins. Perkins has stymied the Tigers twice already this season and has given up no more than 3 runs in any of his last 6 starts.
And I’m going to this game so there will most definitely be a rain delay.
MIN @ DET, Friday, July 11, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 7:05