The Tigers buzz in the media centers on Valverde. John Lowe over at the Freep wonders if Vaverde is out of sync with irregular work and Jason Beck weighs in on his blog (thanks Vince in MN for posting this morning). There are also trade rumors (more like wishful thinking) swirling around with at least a few Tiger mentions. Please post something if it breaks, I’ll do the same.
This afternoon’s game is the Fox National game, which usually means that the people who really want to see it get blacked out, but best I can tell, it’s showing in Detroit and in Dallas.
Matsuzaka goes for the Red Sox. He’s 7-3 on the season with a 4.09 ERA and a respectable 1.34 WHIP. He’s been pretty good as of late with three straight quality starts, but the key is to get to him early. He walks over 4.5 batters per 9 and gives up a lot of fly balls (31.3% GB rate), though his HR rate for the year is roughly half of his career rate. That said, I’m not sure when was the last time that he faced Jhonny Peralta.
Scherzer has been tremendous as of late, with a 2.48 ERA for the month and better than a strikeout per inning. Scherzer has a tendency to run up his pitch counts, though he has thrown into the 7th in 5 of his past 9 outings. He might want to be careful v. Big Papi, who is 2-2 with 2 Peralta’s in his career versus Scherzer.
We’ll get the lineup posted as soon as it is avail.
John Buck do anything for you? http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/features/rumors
For the right price, I’d love to have him. But I don’t want to overpay for a career year.
Next year’s crop of decent FA catchers is extrmely thin – some (like me, Mr. Glass-Is-Half-Empty) would say non-existent. The Tigers have zero in the upper levels of the farm system. Buck may be the best available. In a market where catchers are in great demand, “overpay” may be a relative term. What is the right price to fill a black hole?
Miggy, wow. Cleared the seats over the Monster.
The pitching matchups the next two games give us reasonable chances provided
a) we can manage to score more than a couple of runs and
b) somebody locks Leyland in the clubhouse can after about the 5th inning.
B.O.O.B.s
That was Beltre’s 16th error this year. Maybe his range factor makes up for it though 😉
How about “Muggsy” as a nickname for Peralta. Then when Ordonez comes back we can have a “Maggsy”, a “MIggsy” and “Muggsy” hitting 3-4-5 in the lineup.
Just got home from work. What’s the score?
Read comments. Missed a monster Miggy HR? C’mon Scherzer.
I hate the Fox National games! Ugh.
Productive out woulda helped there Laird.
Like a sac. bunt since he can’t hit, but Santiago came through at least.
Or not.
Tigers traded Wilkin Ramirez to the Braces for the proverbial PNL.
So a roster spot is open. Buck? You’re starting to convince me Vince.
Though I’d like to think that Avila can at least be a .718 OPS guy (Buck’s career mark).
I am keeping my fingers crossed for Avila as well, but he is still a question mark. Laird on the other hand, is definitely not a question mark. He has to go, so we are still in need of another catcher and doing it on the cheap (Dane Sardhina type) ain’t gonna cut it. If we were like the Twins and had them lined up 5 deep….. but we don’t and are pretty desperate I think.
What a pitch to K Papi there. Beautiful call, even better execution.
attaboy Max.
R3L2O fail – oh wait, wrong team!
Boesch needs a break. Hopefully Damon can go tomorrow.
His last extra base hit was July 10. His last HR was June 27.
If you consider July 11 to be the start of the slump, he is 7 for 59 (.119) not counting today. I think that deserves a few days sit.
Boy, Max is tough. I think he is my new Tiger. Looks like we really got the best of that trade last year with him and A Jax
Steve
Looked to me that without the shadows Boesch could have made a play on that ball.
Did Perry get some new ink?
Kevin, Ramirez was designated for assignment to make room for Peralta.
Bah….Bullpen meltdown in progress…Right the ship Commadore!!!
Well done Commadore!
Way to stick with it Perry. Every one like that just makes him better (I hope).
Looks like we may have need for a closer today. Any volunteers?
Where’s Jose Mesa when you need him?
Kudos to Perry. job well done.
Why did they intentionally walk the go-ahead run?
I’m wondering the same thing… Man, nothing is coming easily to this team. To be fair, they are creating a lot of agony for themselves on their own.
This team has just completely collapsed at the logical seams. This is tremendously disappointing on how bad we are in so many elements of the game.
Grrr throw strikes
Ugh….Tell me again why Youkilis was walked?
Leyland:
WORST
MANAGER
EVER
I’m really starting to question Leyland…Walking Youkilis in that situation and leaving Valverde out last night for 60 pitches just doesn’t make any sense what so ever…
runners on 2nd and 3rd, 1 out. We needed a force play. DP ends the game.
We were up by 2 runs, so didn’t need a force play. Down by one, maybe.
Cardinal rule of baseball: Never put the tying run on base, Never.
I mean go-ahead run. You can’t give the other team an extra runner there.
Well, he asked why Youk was walked. If that is a cardinal rule, then nobody would ever do it. But it seems that Joe Maddon done it a few times against us when he walked Cabrera to load the bases…. Sometimes the strategy works.
When things are miserable, they get more miserable.
What just happened??? My Yahoo shows the score is tied 4-4, but says the game is over and that Coke is the losing pitcher????
Yeah, Coke blew up. Everything he threw was getting crushed. At least Youkilis didn’t get a chance to hit a walk-off Homerun. That would of hurt.
Instead, Ortiz gets to hit a walk-off double, which didn’t hurt?
I don’t hate Big Papi. I wish Youk would get hit by a bus though.
Mr. X, your logic gives me an ice cream headache
Find me a scenario where Boston doesn’t at least tie the game? Playing for a tie doesn’t make any sense to me either, especially with our depleted bullpen. You play to win.
So disappointed:(
Ground Hog Day again. Fire Leyland. Hire Bill Murray.
There’s not a whole lot you can do when you have a sadist for a manager.
What? He played the best odds and it didn’t work. Ortiz doesn’t hit lefties well this year.
At this point, nothing is going well for this team. We had our best available pitcher for the 9th and he to found a way to disappoint. This has been brutal. Now, I can’t wait for the season to end in order to end this losing.
I’m not just speaking about yesterday’s game. The first game with Valverde pitching was insane. I’ve watched Jim put guys into impossible situations. The man is a sadist, imo. Letting Brenna be humiliated over and over again. Please, the man needs to be gone.
I feel bad for Miguel.