2011 Season

Sizemore up, Rhymes down.

14 Comments

Scott Sizemore was called up late last night, and Will Rhymes crawled out from under the bus, hopped on it, cued Semisonic’s “Closing Time” (or Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” or perhaps both on a loop) on his iPod, and diminuendo’d his way down to Toledo.

The move is significant in two ways, because not only will Sizemore be a mainstay in the lineup, but also Maggs will likely get squeezed out as the Raburn/Rhymes platoon is no more.

Sizemore had been tearing up AAA pitching, hitting .408, slugging .605, and posting a 1.100 OPS.  He had 10 XBH, and in his last 10 games, he was even better – batting .429 with a 1.208 OPS.  AAA doesn’t necessarily translate to AL, but Sizemore could be a real boost to the lineup.

Rhymes apparently doesn’t understand the fluidity of major league rosters (nor can he afford an iPhone), tweeting this last night:

@willrhymes: 294 career at bats. BA .282. OBP .342 slg .367. 24 walks, 28 strikeouts. I can sleep at night.
He sounds as if his playing days are over.  And I’m not sure that I’d remind everyone of my career .705 OPS if I didn’t have to.
I’m glad someone can sleep at night.

14 thoughts on “Sizemore up, Rhymes down.”

  1. Rhymes’ tweet does seem a little passive-aggressive, but at the same time who knows what kind of abuse he was getting from fans. In a way I think it was just bad luck that somebody in AAA at the same position was doing so well, made it very easy to point to 2B and say we need a switch. Not saying he should have been a regular, just saying a lack of other clear alternatives for our other struggling players made him the easiest fall-boy.

  2. I think you mean Semisonic, not Green Day. Can you tell how much I’d rather talk about anything but the Tigers right now? *Sob*

  3. The hitting coaching in Toledo seems to be better, so maybe he’ll be back.

    But if not, I definitely would have mentioned the 1 home run in my career stats. When you retire from a career like this, I think it makes a big difference whether you had no home runs vs. 1 or more home runs.

  4. I followed Rhymes’ twitter feed because every day it seemed like it could be the last day he plays in the major leagues ever. Maybe he’ll come back, but maybe this was it for him.

  5. Rhymes presence has been relatively positive.

    Sizemore should’ve been moved to third a year ago and would still better serve at that positon. His stone hands are not an asset at 2nd.
    It’s the #1, #3 & #9 spots that are killing the lineup.

    1. Our 9th hitter actually isn’t that bad–we’re 8th of 14 teams there. There isn’t much correlation between 9-hitter success and winning anyway, not like with the 1 and 3 hitters. We’re lucky we’ve won as many games as we have–we’re dead last in the league in both places. And Sizemore isn’t going to fix that problem, is he?

    2. I agree with the relatively positive. He had a weak bat but was very good at 2nd (Sizemore has Clown Show potential), and had other qualities in short-supply on the Tigers: speed on the bases, was hard to strike out, found a way to get on base (Avila, Boesch, and Cabrera are the only Tigers with a higher OBP) and worked the pitch count (I guess that will be Avila’s job now).

      1. Rhymes did fine up here, and I hope he sticks it out, because he has a nice glove and could end up back here sooner than anyone thinks (what happens if Sizemore pulls a hammy?). I also think he’s got some hunger that should have rubbed off on more of the team. But we were never counting on him to do any more than he did: Slick fielding, get on base, don’t get out. Mission accomplished, Will! He was never the problem. But you can’t keep a guy hitting .400 down on the farm for long.

  6. 40 strike outs for a lead off batter.either he needs his vision checked or back to the minors.

    1. His .260 OBP is why he shouldn’t be leading off. Strikeouts only part of the problem. There are options between leadoff and minors, like maybe drop him in the order.

      Just curious, who do you think plays CF while Jackson is working on his swing in AAA?

  7. can dirks play CF? well? The trouble with moving Jackson to ninth is you can’t move Inge to 10th. The box score yesterday was odd: no hits, lots a hits, no hits, lots a hits, no hits, no hits, no hits, lots a hits, no hits. And – oh yeah – zero walks.

  8. WOW 29 games it took them to get him out of here, I hope I never see Rhymes in a baseball uniform again. 1 single atbat this year is more than I ever would have let him get. Next up, Don Kelly.

Comments are closed.