2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.092: Mariners at Tigers

122 Comments

PREGAME: As much as I’d love to talk about the Tigers carrying over their offense from last night, that probably isn’t a realistic expectation. Felix Hernandez has been absolutely sick.

The last time Hernandez didn’t last through at least 7 innings was May 30th, when he went 6.2. He’s fanning a batter an inning and almost 4 batters for every guy he walks. Opponents have only taken him deep 8 times all season. RISP opportunities are going to be hard to come by, so the Tigers need to be efficient when they have an opportunity.

Armando Galarraga makes his first post All Star break start. There were a couple somewhat promising starts for Galarraga leading to some hope he had turned things around. But he was hammered for 9 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings by the Indians in his last start.

Your Brandon Inge-less lineup:

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

The decision to bat Thomas clean-up is a little strange, but I’m guessing the thinking is the lefty may provide a little more protection than Thames for Cabrera. The stranger move is batting Anderson anywhere higher than 8th. And did Dusty Ryan evaporate?

Seattle vs. Detroit – July 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers waste another masterful pitching performance and drop a 2-1 game for the 3rd time in 4 games. This time Galarraga allowed 1 freakin groundball single through 7+ innings, and still can’t get a win.

Bobby Seay threw a meatball to Russel Branyan who punished it. Seay had 22 straight appearances without a run allowed, and has given up homers in each of the last 2 games. But you can’t blame it all on Seay.

Josh Anderson has become Neifi Perez. I want to make it clear that I’m not hating on Josh Anderson here and blaming him for the Tigers offensive woes. When I call him Neifi it’s because he’s a player of limited ability that is being vastly misused by Leyland. Anderson is what he is and expecting more isn’t fair of him. Expecting the manager to realize that he is an inferior hitter who has no place in a starting lineup is another matter.

Anderson should not have been batting 6th. He came up in 2 RBI situations and ended the inning. This should not have come as a surprise. He should not have had a bat in his hands in the 9th inning. Horrible. If Anderson is a late inning defensive replacement or a pinch runner I have no problem with him being on the roster. But if you give Leyland a limited NL player, he’ll find a way to play him way too much. Leyland has done a good job in total this season, but his continued use of Anderson is baffling.

  • Miguel Cabrera needs to start getting some of those hits with runners on base. Pat Caputo posted some startlingly abysmal stats about Cabrera and his tendendcy to not drive in runs. It bit them again tonight.
  • The Tigers were very aggressive tonight. Of the first 50 pitches they saw, they swung at 30 of them and only took 4 called strikes.
  • Galarraga was tiring. His command and delivery wasn’t as good as it was earlier in the game. That and there was some kind of forcefield around the plate when Ryan Langerhans and Jack Hannahan were up. It was very nice to see Galarraga’s slider being a swing and miss pitch again.
  • Curtis Granderson has singled the other way 3 times in the last 2 games. Hopefully him using the whole field will get his batting average and extra base hits back up and this is the start of something positive.

122 thoughts on “Game 2009.092: Mariners at Tigers”

    1. Any idea what happened to atdhe.net? That site had the game listed this morning but now doesn’t show any MLB games…

        1. yep. nice.

          I was worried for a while there, thought maybe MLB had cracked down or something.

          1. Errr now I’m just getting the audio from the game. I guess MLB cracked down today and killed the links for the rest of the games.

          2. I’m still getting the video…hmmm…

            I like the local commercials. I have reasons to think fondly of Emerald Downs.

    1. I’m seeing anywhere from 7:45 to 8 but then again I’m in Baltimore and have no idea what it’s doing at the Copa.

  5. According to Jason Beck blog
    UPDATE @ 7:10: The tarp is now off. Game is expected to start around 7:40. The radar suggests they should be fine the rest of the night now that this storm cell has passed north.

  6. Looks like we are gonna play ball. Meanwhile I will be at the Tigers v. Rangers series next week. Does anybody know the suggested rotation for those games?

    1. Not posted yet, but unless the rotation changes it should be Galarraga, French and Verlander going for the Tigers.

  7. Pssst, Uncle Smokey, just because Raburn is playing for Inge doesn’t mean he has to bat in the same spot Inge was batting in…

    Any bets on how many hittable pitches The Country Strong gets with the Fearsome Flash batting behind him? I’m predicting he gets 2 walks and 2 frustration strikeouts…

  8. Playing Anderson over Ordonez kind of tells me they really are benching him to keep the option from vesting…

    1. Playing Anderson over anybody (batting 6th yet) tells me the Extended Manager has his head…. Oh never mind.

  11. OK, that calls for a re-post of these numbers:

    With a runner at 3rd less than 2 out the Tigers are at .283 .333 113 in BA OBP and Runs. We’re better than the fearsome Royals (.272 .322 97) but that’s it.

    League avg is .331 .379 130 to put that in context.

    Not that those extra 17 runs we would have had for being merely average would have been useful or anything…

    If that’s not bad enough, Detroit is dead last in number of runner on 3rd less than 2 out situations. So we don’t get the runners there, and when we do, we are almost worst at getting them home.

    And since he seems to be headed from Comeback Player of the Year to Comeback Whipping Boy of the Year (no cartoon though, with Sheff gone), I’ll point out again Inge’s runner on 3rd less than 2 out stats:

    .517 .650 .929 1.579 15RBI in 20PA 1K 1GIDP

    And small sample size or not, think about what this says about Detroit’s overall numbers, which include the above.

    In fact I forgot to mention the worst part of Detroit’s stats–the number of times they strike out with runner on 3rd less than 2 out, which is sort of the one thing you most DON’T want to do: 28 in 179 PA, or about 1 in 6 times. Some guys should be a bit ashamed here. I mean for the love of Rob Deer, INGE has only managed 4% of the team strikeouts, how hard can it be?

    ***

    Detroit has now struck out 30 times in 182 PA. Cabrera has been the worst.

    1. The league BA for runner on third and less than 2 outs is .331? Why the hell is it so high?

      1. Because a high percentage of the outs made are sac flies, and don’t count as ABs. What the low Tiger BA really shows is their lack of sac flies (they rank 13th of 14 teams, again ahead of only the Royals).

    1. It should have never been up to Anderson.

      No excuse for back-to-back strikeouts with a runner on 3rd and no out.

      Cabrera hasn’t exactly been the opposite of “the opposite of clutch” this season.

    2. Anderson?? How about Cabrera, who IS PAID to drive in runs by the bushel, striking out? Not only striking out, but looking horrible doing it by making the stikezone the approximate size of the Grand Canyon by swinging at every pitch regardless of location. As it turns out, the game was lost in the first inning. You get just one run there and we’re still playing.

  13. In case my previous comment sounds overly harsh, try this stat:
    Sac Flies, 2009:

    Cabrera: 0

    Laird (Laird!) leads the team with a mere 3. Sardinha has 2. Cabrera has 0.

    1. Thats nuts … right? How do you account for that? Is it a flukey thing, just overall bad approaches or both? Not just Miguels zero(wow!) sac flies but the overall badness of the team in those situations?

      1. I would say fluke if I was looking at one or two hitters. When you look at the team numbers though it looks like more of a problem. I would blame McClendon, except that he has worked a lot with Inge, and Inge is the only one coming through–and not striking out–with the runner on 3rd.

        Then again it may just be something some guys are better at than others.

        Try this one out–CAREER stats, runner on 3rd less than 2 out:

        Player A: .399 .398 .589 .987 – 1 K / 6.4 PA 1 RBI / 1.4 PA
        Player B: .373 .406 .535 .941 – 1 K / 6.4 PA 1 RBI / 1.6 PA

        How many people do you think would guess correctly that Inge is Player A and Cabrera is Player B?

  14. Cabrera fails to come through AGAIN. Way to pick him up Clete. Miguel has looked foolish up there twice against Felix now.

  15. I think we’ve figured out the Mariners, we just have to break our bat every time we make contact to get a hit. I guess their weakness is flying shards of wood.

    Maybe they’re vampires?

  16. So Thames singles on a pop fly to King Felix? Anyone care to explain how that is possible?

    1. It was a broken bat fly that fell just on the grass between the second baseman and felix. Felix fell over trying to field it so no throw.

  17. hey…at least Anderson might lead the team in something tonight — runner’s left on base!

    2. That is an interesting stat, especially considering the fact that your post was number 34.

  20. With the pitcher struggling I wouldn’t have Rayburn trying to steal there.

  21. Man, Battlestar looks great tonight… Although, the Mariners have a tendency to do that to pitchers, much like we do.

    1. Hope they don’t wait too long to pull him: his pitch count is up and he’s lost velocity on the fastball. Even though he has the 1-hitter going it would be a shame to leave him in too long.

  23. No matter how this works out, I think it is the right call to put in Seay here.

  24. Ichiro hits lefties better than righties, but pulling AG seems like the right call.

  29. Well…that’s that. Ol’ Smoky outthunk himself again. Seattle hadn’t come close to scoring off Battlestar yet tonight. Sometiomes you gotta let a guy work through things. God forbid he walked the leadoff guy. Big deal. Battlestar had handled everyone but Langerhans (the leadoff man that inning) all night long. SEA probably breathed a sigh of relief when Leyland lifted him.

    1. If battlestar had given up the lead, it would have been Jimmy’s fault too, amirite?

      1. No. Let Galarraga work through it. He had earned it. If one more guy gets on then OK…..pull him. My point is that Battlestar had dominated these guys. Very few hard hit balls and when your pitcher is cruising like that you shouldn’t pull him because of a leadoff walk. I had my fingers crossed that Galarraga would throw a meat ball down the middle to Langehans and challenge him because I knew Ol’ Smoky was just itching to overmanage this one. He just needed an excuse and Battlestar gave him one with the walk.

    2. It was the right decision by Leyland. It didn’t work out, but Armando was over 110 pitches. You had lefties coming up. It was a no-brainer to bring in Seay. Just because a decision blows up doesn’t make it the wrong decision knowing what everyone knew going in.

      Monday morning quarterbacking is fine for people who like to unjustifiably pat themselves on the back. I prefer people who stick their necks out BEFORE something goes wrong.

      1. Turns it it was the wrong decison as validated by Branyan’s HR. Hard to argue with that fact. It couldn’t have gone any worse in retrospect if Battlestar was allowed to continue.

  32. ENOUGH. We CANNOT lose three games in a week 2-1.

    I’m SICK of this.

    If we don’t come back to win, I’m going to pull my hair out. SO MUCH WASTED PITCHING.

  35. I agree…it’s a bit irritating to lose a 2-hitter…

    That wasn’t much of a pitch to Branyan though. Maybe Seay never got the memo, the one that reminds you that Branyan leads the league in HRs.

    Now the runner at 3rd less than 2 out fails really bite. Maybe the Inge-ured One will save us. Who needs knees?

    1. I think the number of times Leyland has pinch hit a RH for a LH against a RHP you could count on one hand. Without using thumbs. Or the pinky finger.

  38. The fact that Inge is in the game at all shows Leyland feels there is a real urgency here. (By the way he made a nice tag in the last inning to get the 2nd out, and that might have saved us a run. Good on-target throw by Santiago also).

    Either that, or a hyper Inge was bugging the crap out of him in the dugout…

  39. All hope is not lost, don’t forget the immortal David Aardsma is Seattle’s closer, assuming it stays 2-1.

  40. This team ABSOLUTELY needs to get another decent bat. Let’s stop fooling around. I’m not convinced Guillen is going to be the solution either. Some think that adding one hitter, because of the many holes in the lineup (mostly players underachieving) won’t help, but I think some added punch would actually mkae the rest of the lineup better too. Provided Josh Anderson is nowhere within 1000 miles of the team.

    1. Vince, I couldn’t agree more. That is why it is a shame that Zumaya got hurt. He was one of the few commodities that we had that could’ve fetched a decent bat in a trade. It was a bad break as we could’ve fleeced someone if JZ could’ve just stayed healthy until after the trade deadline.

  41. So I want to make sure I understand this correctly. The Tigers had two hits on the board before the Ms recorded a single out in the game, first and third NO OUTS, fail to bring in the run — Hernadez had 60 pitches through 3 innings (yet we somehow can’t knock him out of the game) Galaraga counters by pitching a 1 hitter into the eighth, the bullpen gives up exactly 1 more hit, and we still lose this game?

    Nah. We don’t need any offensive help.

    I bet we could win, though, if we could just get those damn slackers in the rotation to produce a few no-nos.

    1. He strikes out a lot of guys and doesn’t give up home runs. Seems custom-made to close against Detroit.

  45. Insane really to be able to construct an offense this bad in the American League. Truly amazing, actually very hard to do.

  47. Anybody want to tell me why Anderson wasn’t pinch hit for? And what is up with Bobby giving up the long ball the last couple games?

  53. Ouch…that’s about as bad as it gets, especially on the heels of the Yankee sweep.

    The Tigers need a bat, but who is even out there? Adam Dunn? Freddy Sanchez? Matt Holliday?

    Let’s go Rays.

      1. And they won’t be getting him either, just saw it on the wire….Crap….this offense sucks…

  54. 17 BS, worst in the league. Ouch. Gotta win this series tomorrow. Seattle stole one.

  55. Worst loss of the year. You can’t waste a starting performance like that one.

    Though I would note that people who think it’s all about manufacturing runs should take note — this game, like many 2-1 games, was decided by the long ball.

    1. Take note of this: The only run the Tigers scored was manufactured by Polanco’s stolen base. If he doesn’t steal that base, Clete’s single is meaningless and the Tigers get shut out. Also, a simple SAC fly in the first inning from either our big bopper (Cabrera) or Clete also manufactures a run. Manufacturing runs is extra important when you hit the way our guys hit with men in scoring position. The Tigers rely on the HR too much as it is already, we don’t need them swinging for the fences anymore than they already do.

      1. Actually Polanco probably would have scored on THames’ hit. ANd you forgot to mention when Raburn got on to lead off a subsequent inning and got thrown out stealing (it may have been a hit and run) thus killing any hope for a potential rally.

        1. I had no problem with Raburn trying to steal in that situation. First of all, it might well have been a blown call — it looked like he beat the tag. Second, the Mariners are very prone to defensive miscues, leading the AL in errors — I see every reason to put pressure on them to make a play.

    2. It was eventually decided by the long ball–BECAUSE Detroit couldn’t manufacture a run. A simple sac fly, with TWO chances, and at worst the long ball ties the game.

      1. Which confirms my point yet again. So if the Tigers did exactly the perfect thing and manufactured that one other run in the 1st, they were still one swing of the bat away from extra innings.

        Earl Weaver was right. Your offense succeeds first and foremost by getting guys on base and by driving them in with extra base hits. Other runs count equally as much, but it’s the crooked numbers that matter most. I still love the mythology about the ’05 White Sox (or even the ’06 Tigers) — those were teams that won with pitching, defense, and home runs. Just because Ozzie didn’t play the power game as a player doesn’t mean he doesn’t manage that way.

        1. Jeffrey, my man, you’re one of the sanest Tiger fans there is.

          Manufacturing runs (bunting, hit-n-runs) are silly. That’s not to say don’t drive in runs when you can, but power is the only thing guaranteed.

          Three true outcomes: strikeouts, walks, home runs. Those are the only things that can be predicted with any regularity and are the only things players actively have control over. You HAVE to walk (get on base) to score. Thus a reason Placido Polanco (and formerly Pudge) are vastly overrated. Sure they hit .300, but they only get on base at a .330 clip. That’s AWFUL. You can’t score on singles and bunts. You need players to walk and score on extra base hits. That’s why On-Base Percentage and Slugging (or conveniently, OPS) are such important stats. They’re what teams should be based on (with an added emphasis on defense). The tigers have some pretty good OPS guys (Granderson, Thames, Cabrera, Inge) but with a poorly assembled lineup, they’re used completely incorrectly.

  56. Magglio can’t catch up to a fastball. I still can’t figure out why he was thrown a hittable curve.
    It’s scary to think that Adam Everet was ph option possiblity on an AL club.

  57. A golden opportunity down the drain. And why was Anderson hitting there – any insights? Shouldn’t you pinch-hit with a power hitter there given Anderson’s inability to hit the ball past 120 ft? Originally I thought bringing in Seay in the top of the 8th was an example of good managing, but perhaps it was just an accident.

  58. Tough loss. To be honest, I didn’t expect much offense when I saw the pre-game line up.

    But on the bright side, good to see Gallaraga toss 7 innings of one-hit baseball.

  59. 1st and 3rd with no out in the 1st. With the supposed Big Bat of the team up. And not just anyone at 3rd, it’s GRANDERSON, which means a medium-deep fly ball = a run, I don’t care if you have 3 Ichiros in the outfield. And what do we get? A whiff. And Clete is so impressed he duplicates the feat.

    And then Seay wings a high slider over the middle of the plate to the guy in the memo. You know, this one:

    “Memo: in the Seattle series watch out for the long ball power of Branyan, and I guess maybe Gutierrez (oh, nevermind he’s hurt), and…did I say Branyan yet? And…well, there’s that Branyan guy.”

    Bright side: Laird said Galarraga pitches better when he’s angry. He should be pissed off for a while after tonight.

  61. Well…..to put a cherry on the this lovely night Tampa Bay has just coughed up a 3-0 lead in Chicago and now trail 4-3 heading to the top of the eighth. This night just keeps getting better……….

  62. Coleman, since you’ve trotted out Inge’s awesome 20 plate appearance with runners in scoring position stat, I must hit my Johnny One note response. This is from a slightly more representative sample.

    Brandon Inge’s career batting avg: .239
    Brandon Inge’s post 4/30 2009 batting average: .239

    Thank you and goodnight!

    1. It appears you didn’t notice or ignored my follow-up post, with Inge’s CAREER numbers, as in every year he played, all added up together. Although I haven’t gone to the trouble of subtracting the April stats from every year, I’ll leave that to you.

      So, again, CAREER, runner on 3rd less than 2 out, based on 212 PA, .399 .398 .589 .987 – 1 K / 6.4 PA 1 RBI / 1.4 PA

      His numbers are better than Cabrera’s CAREER numbers, based on 288 PA:
      373 .406 .535 .941 – 1 K / 6.4 PA 1 RBI / 1.6 PA

      Inge is a better bet with a runner on 3rd less than 2 out this season, this season after april, and career, than Cabrera.

      If 200+ PA is still too small a sample size, you pretty much have to throw out situational stats period.

      Yes you are correct, Inge is a career .239 hitter. Cabrera is a career .311 hitter.

      And with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 out, Inge is more likely to get the run home than Cabrera.

      You’re welcome and good night.

  63. Watched the game on TV tonight until the 8th inning and then I couldnt stand it any more. You could see the loss coming. Another loss by one run. The Tigers going hitless for most of the game and wasting the one other chance they had to score. This is getting really predictable and even more disheartening.

  64. I actually enjoyed most of the game.

    Galarraga was sensational, but so was King Felix. I thought we had the game won and was feeling pretty good when Galarraga got the hook, but I guess it’s never over until the last out of the game.

    I really like how Seattle plays hard and how they keep coming back. King Felix, Ken Griffey Jr., and Ichiro give Seattle fans alot to get excited about. Griffey isn’t much with the bat these days, but his contributions to baseball and his sportsmanship is something that I’ll miss when he retires.

    If the Tigers don’t win it all this year, there is nothing else I’d like more than to see Junior finally get that World Series ring. I hope the Mariners win West and that we face them in the play-offs. There would be some more very good low scoring games between us.

  65. As for Josh Anderson, I think the Tigers must be trying to showcase him. Too bad he isn’t showcasing himself though.

      1. Wilkin Ramirez would be a greater asset to the Big Club than Josh Anderson. Discuss. This is like the whole Dusty/Dane issue — the difference between the quality of their bats is so stark, you have to make the move.

  66. There is no question Cabrera has some poor numbers with RISP but that Caputo article is a waste of friggin time. I mean after all he still has an OPS. over .900 and eventually that will translate into RBI’s. I mean unless people really beleive in ‘clutch’. Nevertheless, according to Baseball Prospectus, he only knocks in 14% of men on base compared to top guys around 20-22% so its been a dissapointing first half to say the least but he is the last guy I’m worried about.

    1. Agreed, I’m not too worried about Cabrera, but it isn’t exactly out of line for fans * to say he should be doing better with runners on.

      *EDIT: Insert “or sports columnists like Caputo” after “fans”

  67. Tigers should be trying to showcase Miguel Cabrera, while we are at it. The guy is a proven choke artists and has yet to go through a stretch where he carries this team. It is almost inexplicable that he has been hitting 3rd or cleanup most of the season and yet has a paltry 52 RBIs. And he has 19 HRs and has been batting over 320 all season. Obviously, those hits and those HRs are coming without ducks on the pond. A guy with his stats and noted hitting ability should have some kind of presence in this lineup, but Cabrera vanishes into mediocrity, often when we need him to produce.

    Tigers should trade him in the off season, while he still has his reputation as a frontline offensive threat. I am sticking with my prediction that he will be out of baseball in a few short years.

    1. To be honest, this is one of the silliest things I have ever read.

      Miguel Cabrera is without a doubt one of the best hitters in the game of baseball. His RBI problems stem mainly from the terrible lineup that Jim Leyland assembles. Guys don’t get on base in front of him. Polanco never walks and Granderson should be hitting 2 or 5.

      It’s been proven time and time again that there’s no such thing as “clutch.” Stretch a number of at-bats with RISP over a long enough period of time and you’ll find players’ numbers are almost identical to those at-bats that people don’t consider as important. Every at-bat counts and no hitter in the world hits differently in specific situations.

      As for trading Cabrera? The most foolish thing I’ve ever heard. His wRAA is 23.5. His wOBA is .404 (.60! points above average). His Runs Created based on wOBA is 67.9, nearly double the MLB average. He’s one of the best hitters in baseball hands down, and it’s not his fault there aren’t runners on when he’s hitting bombs. The problem starts with Leyland, as mentioned in the article. He has NOT done a good job this year, even though the author seems to believe he has. Anderson should not be playing, Inge should be hitting 5, with Granderson at LEAST in the 2-hole (maybe 3, with Cabs 4 and Thames 5, moving Inge to 2, Maggs to 6, Polanco to 7, Laird to 8, Everett 9, and then leadoff Clete Thomas). It would be much better than the lineup running out there now. At least he figured out Thames should be playing everyday. But his inability to put out a statistically-based lineup is costing this team valuable runs AND wins. If he doesn’t fix it, then the Tigers won’t be playing come October.

      You know your fans are spoiled (or misinformed) when they’re blaming one of the only bright spots on this team for “not having enough of that clutchiness.” Jesus, who are we? Yankee Fans?

      1. Actually, on the clutch point, has it been proven it doesn’t exist or has nobody managed to prove that it does exist? There is a difference.

        As for Cabrera specifically, the guy is a tremendous hitter and I think these things will even out over time. But it doesn’t change the fact that so far this year he isn’t driving in enough runs. The 14% should be higher for a guy with his overall numbers and likely it will go up. Whether it is a matter of it being his fault, or unclutch, or random variation but the numbers are what the numbers are at this point.

        1. How do you prove “clutch” does or doesn’t exist? There are hundreds and hundreds of players in the league. Surely they’re ultimately people, not stats, and some handle pressure situations much better than others. Surely mental approach counts for something, no? Look at the difference between the trends in Fernando Rodney’s stats (Excellent when it counts) and Cabrera’s (Excellent when it doesn’t). I’m certainly not saying Cabrera sucks, or trade him, or whatever… But when you negotiate an A-Rod-sized pay package, you have an obligation to hit when it matters, at least near a league-average rate. Zero sac flies? 1-for his last-27 with RISP on the road?

          Something’s wrong with Miggy’s approach when there are runners on.

    2. Tigers should be trying to showcase Miguel Cabrera, while we are at it. The guy is a proven choke artists and has yet to go through a stretch where he carries this team. It is almost inexplicable that he has been hitting 3rd or cleanup most of the season and yet has a paltry 52 RBIs. And he has 19 HRs and has been batting over 320 all season. Obviously, those hits and those HRs are coming without ducks on the pond. A guy with his stats and noted hitting ability should have some kind of presence in this lineup, but Cabrera vanishes into mediocrity, often when we need him to produce.

      Tigers should trade him in the off season, while he still has his reputation as a frontline offensive threat. I am sticking with my prediction that he will be out of baseball in a few short years.

      Wow. Just wow. A proven choke artist? Really? Proven by who and proven how? Don’t make ridiculous claims unless you can back them up. Statements like this do nothing to advance the dialogue on the site. Opinions are fine, but at least base them in some sort of reality and be prepared to back them up with numbers.

      1. “Opinions are fine, but at least base them in some sort of reality”

        You’d be better off asking Chris to name his 5 favorite Tigers and explain why he likes them.

  68. I like this from Coleman….

    Bright side: Laird said Galarraga pitches better when he’s angry. He should be pissed off for a while after tonight.

    Go Galarraga Go – no hitter next time, pal – then just maybe you’ll get the win!

  69. If any one of our pitchers has a no-hitter this year, I’ll bet we still lose.

    A walk-off four-base error.

  70. Re: bilfer postgame – Baseball Prospectus agrees with you (and me) on Anderson. They evaluate him as “a fifth outfielder and no more.” In addition, his recent adventures in the outfield and on the bases suggest he’s bone from the neck up. It shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a better alternative as lefty hitting outfielder.

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