Monthly Archives: September 2008

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 143: Tigers at Twins

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PREGAME: The Tigers look to end their Metrodome misery by taking the series. They’ll send out Chris Lambert. Lambert allowed half as many runs and lasted almost twice as long in his second start. If he can continue on this improvement trajectory the Tigers hould be in good shape.

The Twins will feature Glen Perkins. Perkins has uninspiring peripherals, but he’s held the Tigers to 5 runs in 20.2 innings this year with 13 K’s and 5 walks.

Also worth pointing out, the 250,000th Major League homer will be hit some time today.

DET @ MIN, Sunday, September 7, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

2008 Season, Injuries, Pitching, Players

Rotational Flux

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The Tigers are going to be mixing and matching down the stretch it appears. Kenny Rogers will miss his next start. This is due to hip pain that is believed to be rendering him completely ineffective. (Yes, the old guy has a bad hip. The jokes seem to easy to make, but too easy to ignore also.)

In his place will likely be Nate Robertson. I think it’s a safe assumption that this has more to do with needing a starter than Robertson pushing his way back.

Also, it looks like Dontrelle Willis may get a start. Willis and Freddy Garcia will pitch against each other in another simulated game on Tuesday, and the decision will probably be made at that point.

If Willis is healthy and the mechanical tweaks are in place, then by all means start him. I know it would be nice to wait until everything is perfect, but Willis needs to be in game situations, and at this point it won’t cost the Tigers anything. But the key is if he’s healthy.

Between the knee and more recently the forearm, you have to question if Willis has been healthy at any point this year. Sending an injured pitcher out there to see what you’ve got doesn’t help anyone.

2008 Season, Pitching

Verlander and Leyland do lots of talking, and Hernandez chimes in

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As the Tigers season has slid out of control, Jim Leyland has taken to reading and the newspapers and responding to what his players say in the newspapers. The latest was with Justin Verlander. Verlander mentioned a tight strike zone as a reason for his Labor Day labors.

Leyland didn’t like the excuse making. The two had a chat and everyone is happy now, but Verlander still isn’t pitching well. So his pitching coach comes out and makes an excuse for Verlander. Verlander was trying too hard in many of those starts. Whatever.

Chuck Hernandez screwed up Justin Verlander from the start this year. His intentions were fine, trying to make Verlander a more efficient pitcher and keep him strong for later in the season. Unfortunately Herandez took something that wasn’t broken and broke it. Verlander altered his mechanics, with poor results. He switched back, and had some success as he regained velocity and bite. But now he’s back to struggling again and back to working on his mechanics.

When Verlander was drafted there were concerns about control and mechanics, but the Tigers got those straightened out quickly and turned him into a stud pitcher. Now he’s still trying to regain what he once had in his first 3 years in pro baseball.

Hernandez has been under considerable scrutiny over the last year and a half. Not being privy to the coach/player interactions it is hard to know how much is the coach’s fault and how much is the player failing to execute. The pitching staff has just done too poorly though at this point for Hernandez to retain his job, and the management of Verlander may be the most damning evidence.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 142: Tigers at Twins

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PREGAME: Woo hoo. Saturday afternoon baseball on Fox. There was a time when this match-up would have been about the Tigers. Not so much anymore.

Justin Verlander takes the mound for the Tigers. He’s coming off the shortest outing of his career, which actually bodes well for him pitching decent today since he was well below 110 pitches last time out. Plus, he’s fared okay against the Twins this year, going 7 innings in each of the 3 starts against.

But Scott Baker has done prett good against the Tigers as well.

DET @ MIN, Saturday, September 6, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 3:55

POSTGAME: I don’t know if it makes anyone feel better, but the Tigers aren’t alone in their bullpen woes. The Twins bullpen has been killing them for the last week or so and the Tigers took advantage. Oddly enough, the Tigers bullpen did a nice job. Clay Rapada cleaned up Verlander’s mess, Farnsworth had an uneventful inning, and then Fernando Rodney made things interesting.

On Rodney’s outing, he did manage to throw 17 of his 23 pitches for strikes. He did walk Punto, but that was actually a pretty nice at-bat. He allowed a hit on an 0-2 slider, which might be why he doesn’t throw it that often. But blowing away Joe Mauer was damn impressive. That just doesn’t happen. And then the Tigers got some good fortune when Justin Morneau roped a ball, but right at Polanco.

Offensively it was all about Granderson, Ordonez, and Cabrera again. In case anyone hadn’t noticed, Granderson is now 7th in the AL in OPS and this season is probably better than last season, at least from an offensive standpoint.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 141: Tigers at Twins

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PREGAME: Hey, it’s a trip to the Metrodome. Whoopee. It’s also a travel day with the team not getting until today because of the RNC sucking up all the hotel rooms.

The good news is that the Tigers send Armando Galarraga to the hill. The bad news is the Twins seem to be his nemesis. Not in a Justin Verlander fears the Indians way, but Galarraga is 0 for 4 in QS against the Twinks (although he was just an out short of one the last time.

The other bad news is that Francisco Liriano is pitching for the Twins. And he’s kinda really good. In his last 4 starts he’s allowed 5 runs total with 19 K’s and 6 walks and only one homer allowed.

DET @ MIN, Friday, September 5, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 8:10

POSTGAME: Galarraga looked eerily like bad Jeremy Bonderman last night. You know the Bondo, where his 2 seam fastball tails way into the right hand batters box. But where the catcher and the pitcher don’t seem to make the adjustment, so the catcher still sets up on the outside corner only to see the ball end up 3 feet off the plate? And so he goes to his slider more, but it’s the only pitch that’s really working, and then he inevitably hangs one? Yeah, thought we saw that script before.

Marcus Thames gets the position player gold star. He dove twice (once successfully), and hammered two homers. I know the Tigers have tipped their cap to the opposing starter way to often this season. But Ervin Santana and Francisco Liriano back to back is pretty daunting. Still, the Tigers seemed to look extra helpless last night.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 140: Angels at Tigers

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PREGAME: An afternoon delight today as the Angels leave town. It will be Kenny Rogers and Ervin Santana doing battle today. The last time Rogers faced the Angels he shut them out for 7 innings and held them to 5 hits. The last time Santana faced the Tigers he held them to 2 runs on 3 hits in 9 innings. Santana’s numbers are pretty filthy of late, with 4 straight quality starts and a 33:4 K:BB ratio over the last 28.1 innings.

Sheffield’s shoulder is barking so Magglio will DH. Mike Hessman returns to third base. One other note from Beck’s pregame blog: Dusty Ryan hit the Charlie Gehringer statue during batting practice. That’s a long freakin’ ways from home plate.

LAA @ DET, Thursday, September 4, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 139: Angels at Tigers

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PREGAME: Theoretically Jon Garland will pitch for the Angels and Zach Miner will pitch for the Tigers. But a storm was kicking up as I was leaving Detroit tonight (and this is a real storm, not the metaphorical cloud that has been hanging over Kwame Kilpatrick). Not sure if they’ll get this one in. If they do play, Mike Hessman starts at third base.

LAA @ DET, Wednesday, September 3, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Hey, we got a good one.

As an aside, I want to apologize for the lack of attention to the site. I was out of town this weekend, and went to the game Tuesday, and it’s back to school time, and some more excuses like that. I’m not bailing on the season or anything.

Some bulletized thougts on the game:

  • The top of the order appears to be clicking again. Granderson hasn’t really stopped since the end of June, but Polanco, Ordonez, and Cabrera have had some ups and downs. Never prolonged mind you, but enough to hamper the offense nonetheless.
  • We’re stuck rooting for things like 3rd place (half game out) and .500 (5 games under), but there are some individual accomplishments to cheer on. One that hasn’t gotten attention is that Granderson could get to a .400 OBP. He’s cracked the top 10 in the AL.
  • And did you see Granderson score from first on a double that didn’t even reach the wall? Aweseom.
  • Speaking of hop in the step, the team has looked faster the last 2 nights. Polanco, Ordonez, and Renteria all seem to have more giddy-up than they’ve had this year. Don’t know where it’s coming from, or where it was until now.
  • Mike Hessman had himself a game, with every other ball hit to him and he vacuumed them all. Oh yeah, and a monster homer too.
  • Zach Miner wasn’t awful, but not as good as he’s been either. As for the bullpen, they got the job done-ish. Rodney was shaky for the second game in a row.
  • Chris Guccione did not have a good game behind the plate. I’m not saying it hurt one team more than the other, but that strike zone was an absolute joke.
  • And speaking of not good games, how many catchable balls is Inge going to have go off his glove. The passed balls, 8 of them now, are simply ridiculous.
2008 Season, Game Post

Game 138: Angels at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Angels come to town and will send Joe Saunders to the hill. Saunders posts a 3.67 ERA and doesn’t strike out many people. He’s been bludgeoned in a Nate Robertson-esque fashion his last 2 times out, allowing 12 runs in 6.2 innings. The Tigers got to him for 5 runs in 5 innings back in May.

The Tigers send out Chris Lambert who will be making his second start. Lambert had 2 great innings, and one awful one in his debut against Cleveland. It also meant he didn’t make it out of the 3rd inning. Considering Justin Verlander’s 2nd inning exit yesterday, something a little longer would be helpful.

I’m heading down for this one. My personal losing streak was snapped last Friday, so I don’t know what to expect tonight.

LAA @ DET, Tuesday, September 2, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

Links

Daily Linking – 9/2/2008

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Links of note, or stuff I find interesting, or stuff I think you might find interesting

2008 Season, Roster Management

The Call-Ups

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It’s September 1st, so it’s the annual rite of infusing of rosters with up and comers and AAA fill-ins. The Tigers announced their round of call-ups. They include: Dusty Ryan, Mike Hessman, Dontrelle Willis, Chris Lambert, Clay Rapada, and Freddy Dolsi.

Dolsi had some nice moments this season, is already on the 40 man roster, and could be a piece of the bullpen puzzle next year. He gets more evaluation time and can pitch some innings as the starters continue to falter. Ditto for Rapada.

Lambert is also a slam dunk, seeing as the Tigers will need to keep him on the 40 man roster if they are inclined to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Plus they need a 5th starter and they get a closer look at him.

Dusty Ryan has a legit shot at being the back-up next year, and like Lambert will be on the 40 man roster anyways. He’ll probably get a start or two before heading to the AFL.

Hessman hit a lot of homers and struck out a lot (139 times in 396 ABs). But he also plays a solid third base and the Tigers don’t have their regular third baseman. Chances are Hessman will be removed from the 40 at the end of the season.

As for Willis, who knows what will happen. He’ll pitch a simulated game tomorrow. But given his forearm issues, I don’t know if he’ll contribute anything.

As for the guys left out, Mike Hollimon, Brent Clevlen, Casey Fien, and Francisco Cruceta would seem to have been candidates. Hollimon struggled mightily once being sent back to AAA seeing his average drop to the low .200s. Fien and Cruceta were probably victims of roster machinations. Fien wouldn’t need to be added to protect him from the Rule 5, so it makes sense to defer his possible promotion to next spring. Clevlen is probably the biggest surprise. He will be out of options next year, and while he slumped late (.645 OPS in August) it wasn’t to the extent that Hollimon suffered.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 137: Yankees at Tigers

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PREGAME: It’s Labor Day baseball, courtesy of some rain. The Tigers and Yankees will make up Detroit’s lone rain out of the season this afternoon. It also marks the return of Pudge Rodriguez to Detroit. It’s his first Comerica Park appearance since the trade, here’s hoping he gets a nice ovation.

The Tigers will face Sidney Ponson, one of the pitchers who will throw to Rodriguez (Pettite and Mussina prefer a Molina). The Tigers last faced Ponson in 2007 and lit him up good. He’s not much better now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot given this season.

The Tigers send out Justin Verlander, who isn’t facing the Indians so things might go okay.

NYY @ DET, Monday, September 1, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: Justin Verlander continues to flounder in a big way, with what was probably the worst start of his career. Nothing was working, not even hitting the ball at people with the Tigers making a couple errors, and another play that should have been an error in the first 2 innings.

Bobby Seay, not familiar with pitching in the 2nd inning, was just as bad.

Still, the Tigers were down 11-2 and managed to bring the tying run to the plate in the 5th inning so at least the offense didn’t just roll over. Of course facing Sidney Ponson probably helped in that regard.

At least Pudge Rodriguez got a nice ovation. Nice to see.