2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.018: Tigers at Royals

72 Comments

PREGAME: It’s get-away day as the Tigers play the last game of their 10 day, 9 game road trip. So far they are 4-4 on the trip and 2-2 for the season against the AL Central. It would be nice to push both of those numbers into the winning side.

The Tigers take on Sidney Ponson and I’m hoping for a better game than they put up when leaving LA. Ponson has allowed 30 baserunners in 15.1 innings and he’s walking as many as he’s striking out. The Tigers need to pummel him.

Detroit sends out Armando Galarraga who had to work against the Angels. Current Royals only hav 38 PA’s against Galarraga and there hasn’t ben a lot of success except for Alberto Callaspo who is 3 for 3.

Game Time 2:10

Detroit vs. Kansas City – April 26, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: So much for the pummelling, but a win is a win. I watched the first 6 innings of this after hte fact in super fast forward mode. Ponson was uncharacteristicaly good. Speaking of uncharacterisitically good, Brandon Inge hit his 7th homer. Both Inge-lovers and Inge-haters should be able to agree that the magnitude of his start is exceptional and unexpected.

Armando Galarraga walked 5, but that was about the only blemish and he continues to rack up a strike out an inning.

Fernando Rodney allowed a solo homer but still preserved the lead, as did Seay and Perry. One thing to keep an eye on. Seay is being used a lot. This was his 9th game and some simple math tells you he’s on pace for 81 appearances.

A 5-4 trip and a 3-2 record in division so far is reason to smile though.

72 thoughts on “Game 2009.018: Tigers at Royals”

  1. If I didn’t like Curtis Granderson so much, I would be screaming for Josh Anderson to be the leadoff batter. He’s been a .300 hitter at every level. If he could just work the count like Rickey Henderson or Tony Phillips, he would be an all-star. I also think Granderson’s triples and home runs would be better with runners on base, as long as a slow runner doesn’t stifle his triples down to doubles. Is it even feasible to suggest Granderson 3rd and Magglio 5th?

  2. Granderson 3rd does make a lot of sense, and I’m sure we’ll see him there someday. But I’m not quite convinced that Anderson is ready to leadoff every day yet.

  3. If Anderson could be counted on to get on base at the same clip, it would be a no-brainer for him to lead off. But i’m not convinced he’s going to keep this up, either. If he’s still doing well in a month, it would definitely make sense to move Grandy down to third.

  4. Cabrera’s DHing today. Hope his wrist isn’t an issue for too long.

    1. Granderson, CF
    2. Polanco, 2B
    3. Ordonez, RF
    4. Cabrera, DH
    5. Larish, 1B
    6. Inge, 3B
    7. Anderson, LF
    8. Everett, SS
    9. Sardinha, C

  8. The wind keeps blowing the fountain mist on the centerfield camera lens. It’s happened all series. Quite annoying.

  9. Looks like he’s going to have to battle through this game just like the Angels game. Can he get through 5 innings?

  16. you have to give inge credit. after the negatives he is now turning heads…gotta love a story like that. hope he keeps this up.

  18. I think everyone hopes Inge can keep it up. Now, if he can keep getting webgems and make routine plays as well, then he can talk about Babe Ruth all he wants.
    I agree with Billfer, Anderson should just be left to run wild, at least for now.
    If Granderson is going to strike out or homer, then he needs to move down into the middle of the order quick.

  27. Good job by Adam to move him on. This is when I think we should have let Armando bat, and DH’d for Dane. Good thing Leyland is managing this one.

  29. Heyyy, good job Sardinha. Always nice when we can get something from the backup catcher.

  31. Perfect throw from Sardinha. Everett didn’t even have to move his glove to apply the tag.

  32. Did Treanor even throwout a baserunner? I do know that his arm was supposed to the be the plus of his game.

  35. Zone seems to be a bit inconsistent, but I think it’s hurting the royals more than us…

  37. Willis has to pitch in Toledo before he comes up again. And, then I would only work him into the bullpen for us. Can’t throw him into the rotation, yet.

  40. @Anson

    I bet they let him go one more at AA, but thats just a conjecture on my part.

  41. Poor Aviles. He did everything to hold up on that ball, but it was called a strike anyway. The zone indeed is helping us.

  43. Are the Royals as scared as we used to be with Farnsworth coming in?

    Glad we didnt get him when he signed else where.

  45. At least we got 6 innings from the starter today. Does Leyland sent him out for the 7th?
    Unless we need DTrain in the Rotation, there is no reason to bring him until he is out of Rehab time. It would be nice to get him in one more AA start, then 1 or 2 AAA starts. Why let him sit in the pen until you have too.

  48. I would send out Seay again. I know he pitched last night too, but he only has 11 pitches and there’s two lefties next inning.

  49. I think Perry is effective so far because he’s always throwing that chin music. Verlander should be watching that.

  51. Wow 98 mph and tailing away from the hitter, that looked a lot like a “closer” pitch Ryan Perry just threw…

  52. @ Coleman…….. I was thinking that as well. In a year or two this kid will have a little more seasoning and will be awesome.

  54. And we hereby welcome Jeff Larish to the GIDP Fellowship…
    It may just be the fate of Cabrera to be DP-bait this season…

  56. The White Sox are down by one in the ninth. We could finish the 18 game “first inning” in first place.

  58. The “neon-green rally sunglasses” (?). I’m gonna go way out on a limb here and predict that one never really catches fire…

  59. 10-8 first inning this year, +4 games over last year–four big ones that will make a difference in September.

    Great start Tigs!

  61. Woot we are first in the division all by ourselves today. Perry did look great, and it was nice to see Rodney not fall apart after he gave up that homer.

  62. As impressive as Inge has been–and consistently coming through in the clutch–I haven’t felt that impressed specifically about his HR, and I think I’ve figured out why. The ones that have seemed huge at the time–like tying the game in the 9th in the 2nd Toronto game–turn out to be wasted; and the ones that turn out to be huge–like today’s–you don’t realize are so huge AT THE TIME.

    Interestingly, I hadn’t realized so many of his HR (4) have come leading off an inning. Hmm…Oh nevermind, we already have a leadoff hitter doing that. The majority of them though have come (and this is totallly subjective) when the team was struggling at the plate (vs Halladay, after being shutdown by Millwood, vs Palmer, vs Ponson).

    Anyway, Inge projected HR total: 63
    OK that’s obviously silly. But more seriously I calculated what his HR total would be if from here on he hit HR at his career avg pace while playing 3rd (which at this point seems like a very conservative expectation): 24.

  63. @Coleman, good work on Inge. He’ll probably settle down on the avg. and end up like his 2006 year. We can only hope.
    The problem is if Cabrera is actually hurt, and Guillen continues to slide, Inge may have to move up the order. Has he ever done that?
    Long-term concern: If Maggs can’t hit like an elite OF, and he continues to regress in the OF, so far his UZR/150 is in line with the worst fielding years of his career, do you give the guy enough at-bats to vest his contract for the next several years? I don’t know the particulars but is it about 500 or 550 PA’s for $18Million/year? That contact seems ridiculous unless the guy hits for and OPS well over .900, and good bat / bad glove corner outfielders were not considered extremely high value commodities this off season, unless they were named Manny Ramirez and the LA Dodgers were placing the bid.

  64. Yea I mean he has had some clutch (or later turned out to be clutch) hits. Nobody can argue with me this year that he only hits in blowouts. Whether you like hrs or not, without his shot today they would have lost (along with the pretty good pitching efforts from gal and our pen of course).

  65. I’ve never considered this before, but perhaps in some ways DH is a position, and there are players who do it better than others. What doesn’t seem to work is the Tiger way of “DH=guy who is having most trouble physically playing his position.” In other words, whatever various things are hurting Guillen in LF are probably contributing to his problems at the plate also.

    So far this season the DET DH performance has been sub-Sheffield:

    1 HR 6 RBI .239/.288/.313 (4 BB 17K)

    (We’re fighting it out with BOS for worst DH performance in baseball. BOS: 0 HR 9 RBI .217/.278/.319. I’ll give DET the nod for worst for the 3 – 1 lead over BOS DH in GIDP. No forget that, I’ll say BOS is worst, due to DAILY stories about how bad this is for BOS on ESPN etc).

  66. @David: Actually I COULD argue that Inge is “padding his stats” in blowouts…it’s just that I’d be wrong.

    Actually I took a look at the 6 games I consider to be blowouts (W/L margin of more than 4 runs). Inge’s combined stats in those games:

    20AB 6H 1HR 2RBI

    Which means his HR/RBI totals are actually heavily weighted toward NON-blowout games. In fact if you look at the 2 RBI you find Apr19 (DET W8-2) 2B–score at the time: 1-1, and Apr23 (DET W10-5) HR–score at the time DET 1-SEA 0

    I think you got my point though, which wasn’t that Inge’s HRs weren’t clutch or important, just that I didn’t experience them that way. I cheered when I saw the HR today; I didn’t yell YES! WE WIN! even though it would have been retrospectively appropriate.

    In other words, strange as this sounds, I think he is hitting BETTER than it seems like he is.

  67. Yea I mean it’s weird, like living in opposite land. Ordonez is slumping bad with no pop and Inge is leading the way.

    Yea that was the game that Verlander had a heart attack (or something similar) in the fifth.

    I just wonder how long he’ll keep this up, or if his new stance has really changed him as a hitter. Just looking at his history (which may not be AS applicable with this new stance) his best month far and away is June where his OPS is higher than .800.

    If he keeps this up could he be dare I say it an ALL-STAR (and possibly be a starter)? If that happened, I would be watching the game probably in Hawaii (not sure when in July we will leave). I think the smile/grin on my face would be as big as when Ordonez hit that Hr against the A’s.

    It would be a triumphant sort of vindication very similar to all the hating/laughing I had received while claiming to be a Tigers fan my entire life growing up through the 90s and 00s, while they (to put it nicely) stunk. And while Inge has shown flashes not only of superb glove work, but also of hitting.

    Ty Cobb said something similar to – the most teachable skill in baseball by far is hitting. And it looks like Inge might have finally learned somewhat how to hit and maximize his potential, which is in the end all we really can ask for.

  68. Well it’s always useful to have a bit of skepticism, and be careful about projections and small sample sizes and all that. And you can’t teach an old dog new tricks (it’s always good to remember the ancient wisdom of the Dog Trainers). On the other hand, there is the ancient wisdom of: past performance is not a guarantee of future results (although, really, does anybody really need THAT disclaimer anymore?).

    Feedback is a powerful thing though. You listen, you practice, you try something new, it works, you get much love in response, you think yeah! that’s what I want, you repeat process. OR–the mind is a tricky thing–you think yeah! I’m fricken’ Babe Ruth…

    I’ll stop there, it’s too horrible to contemplate…

  69. Yea, last thing I want to see is him pulling a Shelton.

    He has used all fields and I very much hope that continues

  70. Nice series win, good thing Inge, Anderson, and Laird, and Grandy (somewhat) are carrying the team…..for some reason the Latin connection has struggled to a 8 for 81 the past four days. I’m less worried that they are Latin and more worried that they hit 2-3-4-5……

    oh! and I missed Farnsworthless we could have added to those home run totals

  71. Jud: I’m more worried that they hit 2-3-4-5 AND Uncle Smokey is very sensitive about that veteran pride thing and maybe might move one back to 6, but just temporarily, you know, but a #3 hitter should bat 3rd cause he’s a #3 hitter, etc

    So I don’t think we’re going to say many batting order experiments.

  72. hell at the moment the bottom of our order is carrying out team, add in Grandy moreso lately, actually polanco hasn’t done too bad either considering he is on pace for 114 rbis + cabby until lately

    really the two bums have been maggs and guillen and the former i expect to fully pull out of it, and the latter i really hope does well and finds a way to get healthy…b/c if he is healthy he is one of the best overall offensive players we have

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