PREGAME: Time to change things up a little because nothing else is working. I’m changing my underwear everyday now, looking for that magic pair that brings the Tigers some offense and a win.
Edwin Jackson is coming off his best start of the season, but as Justin Verlander will tell you, even shut out ball isn’t enough given the Tigers offense.
Kelvim Escobar makes his first start of the year which means he’s looking for his first win of the year meaning the Tigers are in trouble.
It’s another ill-conceived lineup tonight:
- Anderson
- Polanco
- Thomas
- Ordonez
- Granderson
- Inge
- Larish
- Laird
- Santiago
Seriously, this lineup looks a lot better when the guys Leyland has batting 1-2 are batting 8-9.
LA Angels vs. Detroit – June 6, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday
POSTGAME: Now that’s an exclamation point. To finish off a complete game by humping up 98 and 99mph heat in the 9th inning and striking out the 2-3-4 hitters (who happen to be Bobby Abreus – Vlad Guerrero – Torri Hunter) almost makes you forget how good Edwin Jackson was throughout the first 8 innings. That he was able to finish the game with 109 pitches is a testament to his efficiency and the fact he only walked 1 batter.
The offense continued to struggle in run scoring situations. At least there were run scoring situations tonight though. They made Escobar work and he needed 92 pitches to get through 5 innings. It didn’t really help getting into the bullpen as it turns out, but 10 pitch innings are really unsatisfying.
As for the title of this post, should I keep it this way until they lose of was this a one time way to break the losing momentum?
I’ve about had it with Clete batting 3rd. The guy shouldn’t even be in the majors, let alone batting that high in the lineup. A .247 hitter, batting third. Great.
This lineup without Miggy is screaming for DD to make a trade for some bat. Jeremy Hermedia, Hawpe, or something.
nobody believes in polanco or ordonez anymore?
i’m heading out now, i hope this backwards font gets them a W 😉
Why isn’t Sardinha playing tonight?
Vincent, I have suffered in Outpost MN since ’66. And you?
I have lived in MN all my life (I’m 58) and have been a Tigers fan since before there was a team here. I grew up in Mpls, but live about 25 miles north of TC now.
I am 67. A Tiger fan since 1949, when I reached the age of reason. (or perhaps it was before). Watched THE BIRD pitch at the Met, etc. Good luck to us and the Tigers in 09.
I kind of miss the old Met. Compared to the Hump, which was built for the Vikings, it was really a baseball field. I hate the dome and have only seen one game (my arm got twisted last year) in the last ten years or so. When I want to watch baseball live I go see the Saints play outdoors on grass.
The thing about the Tiger offense is that while it seems too easy to completely shut them down, if you let them get back to back guys on base they can end up burying you–they seem very prone to momentum…
For all the talk about Inge’s new batting stance, i don’t think it’s hurting him that he just doesn’t chase pitches out of the strike zone right now…
Angels don’t take a lot of pitches do they.
I hope Thames is ready to play, we need some bats that can move some people around. Not that its all on him but Maggs, Poly and Thames when going is what we need. Guys on and then guys in.
It’s uncanny how many times I have just thought, well at least we’re probably not going to hit into a GIDP here, and then we either get a strike-out/caught-stealing DP, or a line-drive/tag-out DP, or a fly ball/thrown-out-at-home DP, or…
Same ole Story………………….. Men on base. Men left on base. We need to get them in
Using the lineup analysis tool at Baseball Musings, and the ZiPS(ROS) (Rest Of Season) estimations from Fangraphs, here is what comes out:
Runs per game for above lineup: 4.655.
The Best Lineup is only slightly better: Runs per game: 4.734.
1. Magglio Ordonez
2. Jeff Larish
3. Ramon Santiago
4. Curtis Granderson
5.Palcido Palanco
6.Brandon Inge
7. Gerald Laird
8. Clete Thomas
9. Josh Anderson
The second best lineup put Clete 3rd, with Josh 8th, and Ramon 9th.
ZiPS(ROS) thinks: OBA SLG
Anderson .310 .340
Palanco .342 .399
Thomas .311 .364
Ordonez .372 .468
Granderson .353 .500
Inge .326 .433
Larish .332 .432
Laird .317 .388
Santiago .321 .364
Well for what it’s worth those tools seem to agree with where Granderson has been moved by Leyland…
Willie Horton in the booth, Timeless kind of guy.
If the Tigers give up another run, they will get swept. Tomorrow John Lackey… My bet is that they will not score another run this weekend.
I’ll take that bet.
I understand the need to sacrifice offense for defense after last year, but you are winning NOTHING in the AL with Larish, Laird, Santiago/Everett as your bottom third. Believe me, I laud their defensive skills, but this is not the 1971 National League.
In all fairness, Larish is in for Cabrera. That isn’t by design. But even then, you can win when the bottom of the order is weak.
Now I will say you won’t win when the top of the order contains both Anderson and Thomas and a very weak hitting Polanco.
We’ll still win nearly every game if we keep getting pitching performances like we have the last two nights from our starters.
Pathetic.
i have re-run Neal’s batting order statistics above and found a small error; the ideal line-up is very similar to the above, except with Larish batting 10th…
Does Leyland want to speed the game up? Why would you run with Larish batting? He’s a K machine.
Aw c’mon, Leyland probably isn’t even sure why he called it…actually maybe he wanted to get Jackson back on the mound before he cooled down, I’d be with him on that…
Ha, and Abreu is complaining to the umpire, after he already got by with what should have been strike 3 2 pitches before. Sit down, Ed-Jack owns you guys…
Great Game!!! Jackson was spectacular.
Wow. Edwin Jackson is a beast.
He certainly took the mound in the 9th like a closer; blew about a dozen pitches by them, and game over! Maybe he could be our closer on his off days…
The Horse! Shoulda bet Ed-Jack in the Belmont…
Poor Justin, if only he too could have the luxury of 2 whole runs to work with…
Galarraga too. The Tigers have scored 5 whole runs for him in his last 7 starts while he was out on the mound. Talk about no win situations.
Bigtime. Verlander and Jackson atop the rotation are really, really outstanding. I love having a very good prospect of back to back dominant, deep starts.
It was actually a fairly well-played game (except for some iffy hit-and-run DPs), which makes a 2-1 an enjoyable thing. If you prefer a lot of scoring though, there’s always the Wings…
This is interesting.
Despite all the complaints, hitting wise we are still about league average in runs scored, batting average, OBP, and in Slugging. Even with our weak line-up we are scoring a ton more runs than the Royals or White Sox.
Average runs scored can be misleading, since your results will be quite different with, say, 3 games of 5 runs vs 2 games with 1 and 1 game with 13. Generally if you score 2 or less you are going to lose; if you score 6 or more you are going to win.
In the 6 or more category, the 3 teams are about even:
DET 17 (14-3) KC 16 (15-2) CHW 18 (16-2).
But in the 2 or less category the Tigers have a clear advantage:
DET 14 (2-12) KC 22 (4-18) CHW 21 (2-19).
So not only are you correct to bring up that we are averaging more runs, but also we are doing for better in the key category of fewer games held to 2 runs or fewer. (A lot of them are recent and fresh in the memory though…) Note: I compared to KC and CHW since I was responding to your comment; also MIN seems trickier because of differences in pre-Mauer and post-Mauer scoring.
Did I hear Leyland right just now? Larish to Toledo?
Edit: Yes, yes I did. It seemed like the obvious choice.
Good two one drubbing! Lets get the series win boys!
And Bill w/e floats your boat. I’d say it is a one time slump buster, but if you like it, its your blog. It might be better to save it for when we really need it 😉 (ie the playoffs)
Lets do it Alfred!
I agree . Cast my vote for “one time slump buster.”
Went to the game without wearing my lucky Cabrera shirt in protest until they won a game. They won. The shirt (and hopefully the man) will be back for my next game.
Um, now you can’t wear it again until they lose.
Was fun watching Jackson tonight. Although the updates of the Wings game were more thrilling than our offense, again.
I think we need it again Billfer.
Edwin Jackson: Much better than a good pitcher. He is a losing streak ender. An ace. The 2nd best pitcher in the AL… case closed!!!