2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.027: Tigers at White Sox

18 Comments

PREGAME: From one 2 game series to another, the Tigers land in Chicago to take on the White Sox. The two teams played a rain-induced 2 game series already this season with each team winning a game in convincing fashion.

Armando Galarraga will be on the mound for Detroit. Galarraga has become very slider-happy and he hasn’t exactly been attacking the strike zone as of late. In his last 3 games he has walked 11 hitters while fanning 13. He has always featured a slider heavy repertoire, but this year he is throwing it 44% of the time, that’s more than he throws his fastball.

It will be Mark Buehrle for the Sox. Buehrle has a 4-0 record already. He’s been  consistent this year, going between 6 and 6.2 innings and allowing 1-3 runs in his last 4 starts.

Granderson returns to the leadoff spot, but Clete sticks at #3 in tonight’s lineup:

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

Game Time 8:11

Detroit vs. Chi White Sox – May 6, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

NOGAME: PPD. Same pitchers Thursday night meaning the Tigers miss Jose Contreras

18 thoughts on “Game 2009.027: Tigers at White Sox”

  1. Good for Clete.. Leave him there till he proves he cant.. Its his Job to lose..

  2. Got to leave a hot bat in. Clete still needs that HR to hit for the cycle.

  3. Looking out of my office window there’s rain and lightning over the Loop. I’d be surprised if this one doesn’t get rained out.

  4. Dave beat me to the local weather man comments! I have tickets for this game…color me pissed!

  6. D-Train went 7 and 2/3rd allowing 2 ER. 118 pitches 70 for strikes. Not bad.

    1. Awesome. His last outing was mediocre. He needs a long string of QS’s down there before we can even think about trusting him in the majors again.

  8. Dammit Carlos Silva.
    We now need to win tonight to keep pace.
    It’s the 4th inning, and the KC-SEA game is already decided.

  9. So much for that. The only thing worse than an off-day is a game being postponed.

    2nd Buehrle rainout? lol.

  10. Ugh…this may mean multiple DH’s against the Pale Hose…or a one-game series tomorrow. Neither is a good thing.

  12. What is so hard about scheduling a double-header for today? Everyone’s there, and ready to play baseball.

    Anyhow — did anyone else hear the radio pre-game for this non-game? In Jim Price’s interview with Jim Leyland, they were saying that Bonderman hit 91 a few times and had a solid outing earlier in the day, and Leyland said he struck out a bunch and gave up something like 4 hits… But they didn’t mention where Bonderman was throwing. Anyone have more info? Billfer?

    Price asked what they were looking for before Bonderman came back, whether they wanted to see more velocity come back, and Leyland said it wasn’t just that — a 91 mph fastball could be ok if it had enough “sink”. So it sounds like Bonderman is a step closer, anyway.

  13. I agree with the double header thing. They must be holding out for summertime when they can get more fans in the stands. It always comes down to money.

    One fact that just caught my eye- I went to look and see how Granderson’s 9 HRs stacked up against the rest of the AL and saw that 1st place with 12 HRs is none other than former Tiger Carlos Pena.

  14. There’s a ridiculously long and thorough piece on Zumaya’s mechanics and his future prospects in the subscriber area over at BP, so if you have a subscription, check it out. Here’s the final paragraph, but it really doesn’t do the article justice in terms of content and scope.

    The good news here is that Zumaya appears to have retained most of the arsenal that he possessed when he first appeared in the majors; the bad news is that his 2006 performance was not sustainable. However, Zumaya is still only 24 years old, and a slight alteration in approach could unlock his full potential. A reliever doesn’t need three pitches to be successful—in fact, in 2004 Baseball America said that “His approach, power stuff, and lack of a changeup [emphasis mine] could make him a closer in the long run”—but while his raw stuff may be relief-ace worthy, his usage and placement of it has not been. Look at the list of relievers with double-digit save totals last year; very few sport walk rates rivaling Zumaya’s, and those who do either strike out more batters than Zumaya has at his best (Brad Lidge and B.J. Ryan, in their good years), or make substantial use of a third pitch (Francisco Rodriguez, Francisco Cordero). Of course, Zumaya can give the likes of George Sherrill and Kevin Gregg a run for their money without changing a thing, but Detroit’s beleaguered bullpen, which finished 29th in the league in both WXRL and FRA last season, needs something more than mediocrity. If Zumaya hopes to indulge his dreams of closing, becoming the first Tiger to rack up 20 saves with a FIP under 3.5 since Matt Anderson barely accomplished the feat in 2000, he might be wise to do some tinkering.

    1. I’d probably agree with most of that assessment. For Zumaya to be what he can be, he’s gotta cut down on the walks first and foremost. Secondly, a different approach other than trying to break Gerald Laird’s fingers with every pitch would probably be a good idea. Get ahead in the count with fastballs and buckle their knees with the curve. He’s got a pretty decent breaking ball so I’m of the mind that he should use it more than 16% of the time. 20-25% would give hitters more to think about. A quibble with the BP analysis is re: K’s. They kinda made it sound like 10.48 K/9 (Zumaya’s 2006 rate) was crap.

  16. Pingback: Game 2009.027: Tigers at White Sox Redux

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