Tigers versus New York for the third game of a four game set.

The reception for Damon last night at Yankee stadium was one of the coolest moments of the season.  Do you want him back? (make sure you check out the video in that link if you didn’t see it last night).  He seems to know his place on the team, and I think he’s been a great influence in the clubhouse.  For the right price, I’d love to keep him as our fourth outfielder.

Here’s a little follow-up on the Granderson/Jackson debate from last night.  I also like how one New York paper compared the Bronx Bombers to the “Golden Girls” after last night’s game. Finally, ARod looks to be a game-time decision, please post if you hear something.

JV is my Tiger tonight.  We could really use a dominating (Scherzer-like) performance out of him.

Tigers head to New York for a four game set versus the Yankees.  The way Scherzer has been pitching as of late gives us a great chance for our first 3 game win streak since early July.

Who’s your Tiger tonight?

Galarraga looks to get on track tonight.  He’s lost his last four decisions (spanning 7 starts) and has a 5.31 ERA since June 29th.  He’s also allowed at least one home run in six of those seven starts.

Garcia pitched well two starts ago against the Tigers, allowing only one run in 6 2/3.  But he was hammered last time out by the Twins, giving up 8 hits and six runs in 2 and 1/3.  On the year, he’s giving up more hits and walks than usual, and he’s getting less ground outs than his norm.  Hitters are batting .292 off of him this season and he gives up almost a HR per start.

Despite his record (10-5), Garcia is very beatable.  Tigers with a shot at taking a series on the road today.  A road series win would be their first since May (2 game sweep in Oakland), and only 3rd of the year (@ KC opener).

A few tidbits from today’s game notes:

– Both Damon and Cabrera have three career HRs off of Garcia

– Raburn is hitting .364 over his last nine games

– Tigers lead the league with 31 OF assists…this is likely explained by the departure of Granderson, and then significant playing time for Raburn and Boesch in the OF

– Tigers are 11-8 on Sundays this year

Lets go boys.

I’m wondering if we can create a metric which measures overall bullpen effectiveness.  My argument is that this bullpen (and to some extent the mis-management of it) has been the number one cause of our demise.  Something like quality starts.  Holds doesn’t do it for me, b/c it’s an individual measure.  There may be something already out there…any help here?  If not, any ideas?  Here’s mine.

Simplistically, I looked at the number of times that a reliever lowered or raised his ERA over the past few weeks (“positive” or “negative outings”). Problem is that reliever ERAs don’t just get raised, they get blown up.  Thus, a 1 IP 1 ER effort is significantly more negative than a 1 IP 0 ER effort is positive.  My thinking is that for every X appearances, a reliever should have Y positive outings, and Z negative outings, on average.

I realize that WHIP is probably a better number than ERA, but I’m not sure what we set the WHIP at.  Anyway, I’d be curious to see if something better already exists (likely), or if we can come up with something ourselves.

Quick tidbit – The Tigers lead the majors with 34 triples allowed.  Even though, back to back triples is RARE.  Tigers pitchers this season have allowed 1 triple for every 129 batters faced, or .77%.  So the chances of giving up back to back triples is .006% or roughly 1 in 17,000.  (Though Beckham and Pierre probably have a much higher likelihood than just about any other two batters in a lineup across baseball.)

Tonight’s lineup:

Jackson – CF
Damon – DH
Boesch – RF
Cabrera – 1B
Guillen – 2B
Inge – 3B
Raburn – LF
Avila –  C
Santiago – SS

Baseball is fun.

Tigers in the Windy City for a three game set.  A W tonight would grant us our first 2 game winning streak in 3 weeks.    A winning series would be the first in a month.  Man this has been rough.  But as Ron Washington said, “that’s the way baseball go.”

Alright friends, let’s back the boys.

L E T S   G O   T I G E R S.

JV has been pretty average as of late.  He has been going deep into games (8, 7, 7), but the numbers are not quite what we’ve come to expect.  He is 1-2 with a 4.09 ERA and over his last three starts, with 16 Ks/8 BBs over 22 IPs.  At the All-Star break I was hoping for 20 wins…now 15 seems like a stretch.

Garza followed up his no-hitter against Detroit with two more outstanding efforts.  He gave up 4 ERs against the Yankees in 7 innings, but there had to be some bad luck involved there as he only gave up 5 hits and 1 BB against 9 Ks.  Last Friday night he aced the Blue Jays, hurling 8 innings of shut-out ball and only allowing 4 hits.  Garza’s WHIP over his last three games is .46…nasty.

Tigers are still looking for that elusive 2 game winning streak, gonna need a W tonight to give it another go.

Tonight’s lineup:

Jackson CF
Damon DH
Boesch RF
Cabrera 1B
Guillen 2B
Peralta SS
Inge 3B
Raburn LF
Avila C

Tigers go for their first 2 game win streak since July 21st and 22nd…

(Out for the weekend, sorry I did not get to update the Angels’ pitcher)