Monthly Archives: August 2009

2009 Season, Injuries, Pitching, Statistics

Infirmary report and other thoughts

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Aside from Joel Zumaya’s season ending surgery, the news is actually pretty good on the injury front. So much so that the only wound licking to take place should be residual pain of a 2-4 road trip.

  • Carlos Guillen, already swinging a productive stick from the left side, could be playing in left field by the end of the week. Now Guillen in left isn’t necessarily good news from a defensive perspective but it also means he isn’t locked into the DH role. Beck’s Blog: Guillen close to playing in field
  • Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson had good reports the day following their simulated game and head out on rehab assignment. Both will be in Toledo starting Tuesday (so the Mud Hens should eat well) with the goal to stretch Robertson out as a starter while Bonderman will be pitching out of the pen. I wouldn’t expect Robertson back before September 1st when the rosters expand. Tigers Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson to pitch in Toledo on Tuesday | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
  • After Saturday’s effort I’m in no hurry to bump Porcello from the rotation, but the addition of either pitcher, or someone else after September 1st could help to curtail Porcello’s workload down the stretch. With a bigger roster to work with Leyland could do some split starts with Porcello if need be.
  • Brandon Inge’s balky knees have bothered him less of late due to a change in his treatment regimen, and the fact he’s been working with a specialist on a way to put the pain out of his mind.
  • Gerald Laird has been the Tigers best baserunner. Who knew? Tiger Tales: A Detroit Tigers Blog: Gerald Laird Leads Tigers in Base Running
  • Speaking of Gerald Laird, i was wondering if he might have any soft of advantage working with Jarrod Washburn since they spent several years in the AL West together. Turns out Laird only has 16 plate appearances against him. And in case you were wondering, Luke Scott is only 1 for 3 off of Washburn lifetime. 
  • Finally, a look at Rick Porcello’s awesome outing through the lens of pitch f/x. Fire Jim Leyland: Rick Porcello’s Start Through PITCHf/x
2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/2/09

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Buffalo 1 Toledo 6
Don Kelly was a triple short of the cycle. Mike Hessman homered. Scott Sizemore had 2 hits. Chris Lambert was one out short of a complete game with 9 K’s against 1 walk.

Reading 1 Erie 3
Cale Iorg homered and tripled. Michael Bertram also tripled. Pat Stanley allowed 4 walks and 6 hits in 7 innings, but only 1 run crossed the plate.

Lakeland 11 St. Lucie 12
Justin Henry went 5 for 6. Christopher White singled, doubled, and walked twice. Mark Sorensen made his Lakeland debut and was rocked for 10 hits and 6 runs in 3.1 innings.

Cedar Rapids 4 West Michigan 10
Ben Guez went 5 for 5 and needed a triple for the cycle. Adam Wilk made his West Michigan debut and pitched 6 innings of 2 hit, shut out ball with 7 K’s.

Tri-City 7 Oneonta 6
John Murrian, Alexis Espinoza, and Chris Sedon all had 2 hits. Jeff Gerbe fanned 6 in 4 innings and allowed 3 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks.

GCL Tigers DNP

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.103: Tigers at Indians

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PREGAME: Maybe the third time will be a charm. Armando Galarraga and the Tigers take on Carl Pavano for the 3rd time this year. Galarraga pitched kind of okay in both of the previous outings, and the bullpen would allow an add on run or two. But the Tigers couldn’t do much of anything against Pavano and a bullpen come back ended up a run or two short.

Time to flip the script today.

Pavano has thrown his 2 best games against the Tigers but he has allowed 4 homers in each of his last 2 starts. Hopefully the home run ball is still working because a win today means a rare .500 road trip.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – August 2, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Pathetic. I’m not sure what was worse, Galarraga or the 8 guys behind him. Carl Pavano has a 6.16 ERA against teams that aren’t the Tigers and a 1.93 ERA against Detroit. That is all.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/1/09

Buffalo 10 Toledo 11
Scott Sizemore homered twice and Brent Clevlen, Jeff Larish, and Max St. Pierre all went deep as well. Brooks Brown only lasst 3.1 innigns before being touched up for 5 runs on 6 hits and a walk.

Reading 7 Erie 6
Brennan Boesch homered twice and now has 23 on the year. Casper Wells homered and walked twice. Deik Scram had 2 doubles. Jon Kibler allowed 6 runs on 10 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings with 6 K’s.

Lakeland 1 St. Lucie 5
Adrian Cassanova had 2 of the 4 hits for the Flying Tigers. Lauren Gagnier fanned 4 but allowed 5 runs on 8 hits and a walk in 5 innings.

Cedar Rapids 2 West Michigan 3
Billy Nowlin homered. Gustavo Nunez and Bryan Pounds doubled. Brandon Hamilton allowed 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk with 3 K’s in 5 innings.

Oneonta 5 Tri-City 2
Keith Hernandez doubled and singled. Luis Palacios homered and singled. Luis Angel Sanz allowed 1 run on 4 hits and 3 walks in 7 innings.

Oneonta 8 Tri-city 1
Michael Rockett went 4 for 4. Rawley Bishop had 3 hits. Eric Roof homered and singled. Mike LaLuna pitched 5 innings of shutout ball allowing 2 hits and 4 walks with 4 K’s.

GCL Tigers (box not available)

Game Post

Game 2009.102: Tigers at Indians

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PREGAME: Not that there isn’t any pressure on Rick Porcello today, but Edwin Jackson’s struggles and some extra innings have thinned out the bullpen a little. Fortunately Jim Leyland made sure that only Brandon Lyon would be unavailable today with everybody else working relatively short outings.

And things haven’t been easy for Porcello lately. Maybe he was rusty after a multi-week layoff in his first post All Star start. Maybe he was a little amped up on national TV in his second start. Or maybe he’s just struggling.

The Tigers bats will try to knock around Jeremy Sowers. Sowers shutout the Mariners for 7 innings his last time out, but that has been the extent of good news with Sowers this year. He hasn’t started against the Tigers this year but he held them to 1 run over 6 innings last September.

Detroit vs. Cleveland – August 1, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I recently started a diet and these extra inning games are keeping me up to late and it’s making me hungry, but the postgame celery tastes much sweeter after a win.

Rick Porcello was outstanding and I’d call this his best outing of the season. He got some swings and misses, and he got lots and lots of swings and ground balls. He kept the ball down, he controlled the sink on his 2 seamer and his breaking ball was excellent. The fact he was able to eat 8 innings on only 91 pitches on a night when the bullpen was taxed was huge. And that brings us to the 9th inning.

I completely understand the sentiment to keep Porcello on the mound for the 9th. He was cruising and didn’t appear to be tiring and was still a hair under his pitch count limit. Porcello hasn’t gone over 100 pitches this year as Leyland tries to protect his arm for beyond this season. If he was going to let Porcello exceed that limit, today certainly would have been a worthy cause. But I fully support going to Rodney in that situation.

Porcello hasn’t been stretched out yet and Rodney has been very good in save situations. I’d rather have a fresh guy than someone who was pretty much at the limit his arm has been conditioned for. Rodney blew his first save and Porcello doesn’t get the win, but it doesn’t mean Porcello’s performance was wasted at all.

As for the offense, the good news is that they kept generating scoring chances and eventually they cashed in. And in watching the at-bats tonight, I thought many of them were decent approaches. They worked the count (after the first time through the order). They fouled off pitches. They drew walks. Inge hit a fly ball to the wall. Raburn and Polanco hit liners to second. Those were simply bad breaks.

The bullpenning was pretty good and Ryan Perry looks so much better after his stay in the minors. Throw in some Bobby Seay magic and Zach Miner not blowing it and it’s another much needed win.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 7/31/09

Toledo 8 Louisville 6
Jeff Frazier homered and doubleed. Wilkin Ramirez doublded wice. Nate Bump went 5 innings and allowed 4 runs on 6 hits, 2 walks, and 4 K’s.

Reading 6 Erie 4
Cale Iorg doubled and singled. Danny Worth went 2 for 5 with a triple. Ramon Garcia allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and a walk with 2 K’s in 5.1 innings. Robbie Weinhardt allowed 3 hits and a walk, but 4 K’s in 2.1 innings kept anyone from scoring. Brett Jensen took the loss giving up 2 homers and 3 runs in 2.1 innings.

Lakeland 5 St. Lucie 3
Joe Tucker doubled and singled. Devin Thomas homered and walked. Ryan Ketchner went the first 4 innings and allowed 2 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks. Matt Hoffman went the next 4 and allowed an unearned run, but only 1 hit. Brett Jacboson got the save with 2 K’s.

Cedar Rapids 5 West Michigan 3
Brent Wyatt, Alden Carrithers, and Avasail Garcia each had 2 hits. Casey Crosby fanned 6 and walked none in 4.1 innings. He was hung with 4 unearned runs.

Oneonta PPD

GCL Tigers 2 GCL Yankees 1
Eddie Rush doubled, singled, and walked. Giovany Soto fanned 3 and walked 2 and allowed just 1 unearned run on 2 hits in 6 innings.