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 7th inning report.
The 8th Inning is over.
Each 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record for the first 8 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
5: 12-6 86 -78 25- 6-297/347/476 6-4-106.1-4.23 6-2-6-3.43
6: 9-9 118-96 25- 8-299/368/483 8-6-105.0-5.49 1-3-2-4.03
7: 7-11 93- 103 26- 8-265/353/455 7-7-104.0-4.67 0-4-4-4.92
8: 8-10 91- 118 27- 8-263/335/475 4-8- 92.2-6.90 4-2-5-4.68
In the 8th inning ended with a three game winning streak, otherwise it would have been really ugly. The pitching has completely fallen apart. They gave up seven or more runs in 50% of the games in the inning. The team is playing out the string and it is clear that most of the team cannot wait until September 28th comes. Looking back at all the expectations that this team had in March, it is hard to believe how bad this team is.
The starting pitching was abysmal. Galarraga was the only pitcher with an ERA under 5.00 (and he barely made it). Miner has come back down to earth after some very good starts and the great mystery of Verlander’s 2008 struggles continue. Kenny Roger’s career looks over and Nate Robertson gave up 5 homeruns in his only start!
Name GS IP W L K ERA WHIP Zach Miner 4 23.1 2 0 10 5.40 1.37 A Galarraga 3 20 0 1 15 4.95 1.45 Chris Lambert 3 11.2 1 1 8 6.17 1.89 Justin Verlander 4 20 1 2 20 6.30 2.10 Kenny Rogers 3 14 0 3 8 11.57 2.14 Nate Robertson 1 3.1 0 1 0 14.73 3.27
In the Bullpen, Kyle Farnsworth was terrific. The 2 Tampa reject (Glover and Fossum) also pitched well. Francis Beltran pitched 2.2 scoreless innings. No one else had a WHIP below 1.64. Do not be fooled by Rodney’s 5 saves, He gave up 7 walks and 10 hits in 8 innings!
Name G IP W L S K ERA WHIP Kyle Farnsworth 0 7.2 1 0 0 10 0.00 1.17 Casey Fossum 0 10.2 1 0 0 5 2.53 0.94 Gary Glover 0 10 1 1 0 5 3.60 0.90 Francis Beltran 0 2.2 0 0 0 2 0.00 0.00 Aquilino Lopez 0 14 0 0 0 11 4.50 1.64 Fernando Rodney 0 8 0 1 5 11 4.50 2.13 Clay Rapada 0 2.1 1 0 0 1 3.86 2.14 Freddy Dolsi 0 2.1 0 0 0 1 7.71 3.00 Nate Robertson 0 5 0 0 0 3 12.60 2.00 Bobby Seay 0 4.2 0 0 0 3 13.50 2.57
The offense scored over 5 runs/game. Cabrera, Ordonez, and Granderson are leading the pace. Can anyone give a good reason why Sheffield is continuing to garner his regular playing time? If he gets to 500 homeruns (he needs 4 more) is he going to retire? If that is the case, bat him leadoff so he can get his milestone and save the Tigers 14m next year. Displaying from best to worst:
Name G AB HR RBI SB BA OBP SLG Miguel Cabrera 18 67 8 20 0 .299 .347 .716 Magglio Ordonez 18 70 4 16 1 .386 .408 .700 Curtis Granderson 18 68 3 9 1 .324 .459 .632 Edgar Renteria 14 48 2 5 2 .292 .327 .521 Mike Hessman 7 17 2 3 0 .235 .350 .647 Marcus Thames 13 40 3 5 0 .250 .279 .500 Placido Polanco 16 71 0 7 1 .282 .301 .338 Carlos Guillen 5 15 0 0 0 .267 .353 .400 Dusty Ryan 2 4 1 2 0 .250 .400 1.000 Dane Sardinha 2 3 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 Ramon Santiago 10 21 0 1 0 .238 .333 .286 Matthew Joyce 16 31 0 2 0 .161 .308 .258 Brandon Inge 17 53 1 7 2 .189 .279 .283 Gary Sheffield 16 61 3 8 0 .180 .254 .361 Ryan Raburn 11 14 0 1 0 .143 .143 .214 Jeffrey Larish 8 25 0 3 1 .160 .192 .160
The Tigers must now go 12-6 in the final inning to have a winning record. DO NOT BET ON IT. As long as they keep trotting out Sheffield, Thames, and 29-year old minor league legend Mike Hessman and do not play any youngsters, there is absolutely no reason to watch the train wreck known as the 2008 Tigers. Watch the Lions, their 50 year run of futility will make you feel better about the Tigers.
Back in June I suggested a possible finish of 77-85 for these guys. A finish of 7-9 will get them there. I see no reason to expect a better result in the last “inning”, and they could do worse. The 4th & 5th innings they were 23-13, but that was when they went 13-5 vs. NL, so 10-8 vs AL. In other words, in the 8 “innings” that mattered, they were over .500 once (by 2 games). They were bad at the beginnng, bad in the middle and they’re going to bad at the end.
With the exception of a few outstanding individual efforts (Granderson, Cabrera, Galarraga) not much went right for this team. I don’t buy the bad luck argument. This team had major failures in all aspects of the game (game prep, conditioning, focus, front office managemant, on field management, etc.). They ALL need to take a good hard look at what happened this year and then make the requisite changes to turn things around. I think some tough choices will have to be made. The question is, will they?
Vince, you said it all.
Quick correction: Mike Hessman is 30 and will turn 31 in the offseason.
My wild guess for September was 19-7, leading to an 85-77 finish. I should probably abandon that hope. But I still think the Tigers can get back to .500, for what that’s worth.
“I think some tough choices will have to be made. The question is, will they?”
The more I look into it, the more it seems like they are hamstrung (get it? – HAMstrung) by contractual and payroll issues. Quite a sticky wicket. They probably can’t even afford to be in the market for pitchers like Sabathia and Fuentes. And does it make sense to try to buy your way out of a problem you bought yourself into?
Any thoughts on what the Tigers do for 2009 if there is no blockbuster trade or big free agent signing, no Ordonez-for-whatever payroll dump?
First get rid of Leyland and then make those “tweaks” that he so aptly suggested and we’ll do just fine.
I imagine we’ll see pretty much the same team in 2009 as we’ve seen in 2008. The whole idea with all of the blockbuster moves last winter was to give them a 2 year window to win it all, more or less. The first year of that window sucked, but there’s enough talent on this team to believe that they will be markedly better in 2009. Dontrelle Willis, Nate Robertson and Justin Verlander all need to figure out what the eff went wrong this year. Jeremy Bondo and Joel Zumala should be healthy. Maybe Freddy Garcia will return and pretend it’s 2005. Lots of ifs and all, but I think there’s room for optimism.
Here’s one possible version of the low-budget (so to speak) 2009 Detroit Tigers:
DH Guillen
2B Polanco
CF Granderson
1B Cabrera
RF Ordonez
LF Joyce/Thames (platoon)
3B Hessman/Inge (platoon)
C Inge/Ryan (platoon)
SS Santiago
Bench (besides Thames & Ryan):
2B-SS Hollimon
OF Clevlen (Thomas when he’s ready)
SP Verlander, Galarraga, Bonderman, Garcia, Lambert, Willis, Robertson (at least one guy will fall by the wayside in the spring, and they should go slow with Bonderman anyway – he might not be ready to begin 2009)
RP Rodney, Zumaya, Seay, Rapada, Dolsi, Cruceta, Glover (at least one guy will fall by the wayside in the spring)
Sheffield just has to go. I can’t get my mind around wasting a roster spot on an injury-prone guy who can’t even play the field, try as I might. Will someone take him and pick up his contract if the Tigers give them Miner and Raburn as well? That’s my latest desperate scheme.
I can’t get my mind around wasting a roster spot on an injury-prone guy who can’t even play the field, try as I might.
Well, Sean, at least this is an American League team so playing in the field isn’t a requirement for 1 roster spot.