2011 Season, Game Post

Game 2011.79: Blue Jays at Tigers

31 Comments

Today is the misfit 1-game make-up series with the Blue Jays, at the misfit game time of 6:05.  At least the Tigers don’t have to travel for the one-day trip like the Blue Jays do.

We’ll make this short today, as befits a one-game series.  Max Scherzer takes the mound for Detroit. Scherzer leads the team in run support, so maybe we can have some more offensive fun like yesterday.  The Jays counter with rookie Zach Stewart (0-1, 5.91).  (Warning! we have had problems with Rookie Guy in the past).

Today’s Player of the Pre-Game:  Andy Dirks

We haven’t seen the Dirks much lately; let’s see how he does in the leadoff spot.  At least he is less likely to K.

Today’s Would it have killed you to try Ramon at 2nd Lineup:

  1. Andy Dirks CF
  2. Don Kelly 3B
  3. Brennan Boesch LF
  4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
  5. Victor Martinez DH
  6. Magglio Ordonez RF
  7. Jhonny Peralta SS
  8. Alex Avila C
  9. Ryan Raburn 2B

 

31 thoughts on “Game 2011.79: Blue Jays at Tigers”

  1. Let’s hope Andy Dirks doesn’t catch whatever JaKKKKson has and turns into Andy DirKKKKs. By the way, speaking of the popularity of Golden Sombreros, Adam Dunn fanned 4 more times yesterday as well, so things could be worse, in the event that the Tigers had snatched him out from under the Sox noses in the offseason. Imagine the excitement of having the top two, and 3 out of the top 7 in K leaders, in the regular lineup. To be fair to Dunn, although he is hitting only .173 (w/100 Ks), he is only slightly behind Jackson in OBP, .308 to .311. Rayburn is…… well, I won’t go there.

    Kelly at 3B – good. Dropping MaDPlio in the order is also good, but I would opt for 7th or 8th. The best hitting catcher in baseball should not be batting 8th.

    Leyland is loyally sticking to MR2B, probably because although Rayburn is “pressing”, he is DUE.

    Mr. X says the staff is back after Not-So-Bad Penny’s start yesterday. I guess we’ll see. It would be nice to get Mad Max instead of Bad Max for a change.

    1. The 2B conundrum

      Santiago has a .209 AVG and .551 OPS
      Rhymes had a .221 AVG and .556 OPS
      Sizemore had a .222 AVG and .567 OPS
      Raburn has a .199 AVG and .568 OPS

    2. Ordonez has been heating up lately. He has a .308 AVG and 1.053 OPS in his last 4 games.

      1. I bet all the Tigers have hit at least .308 over some 4-game span this season. Well, maybe not Rayburn.

        1. Well, based on the stats above, Raburn clearly gets the job.

          I’d love to pursue Kinsler or Reyes (and mhove JP to 2hB), but I’m guessing the plan is to hold tight until Guillen gets better

          1. Yeah…we’re going to be in trouble if we are going to rely on Raburn until Guillen returns…

          2. Based on he closeness of the OPS, if you factor in defense, perhaps Raburn doesn’t get the job. The position is clearly a black hole as far as offense is concerned, and perhaps the best that can be done (barring a deal) is a rotation, with liberal use of pinch hitters and double switches, etc.

          3. I’d love to get Kinsler. He’s easy one of the top 5 2b over the past 5 years. I can’t imagine that Texas would be willing to trade him though. Texas is not in rebuilding mode, and won’t be sellers anytime soon. It would definitely cost us an equal amount of MLB talent (meaning they won’t take minor league prospects) to get him. So in order to get him, we’d be creating a hole somewhere else. The only 2b better than him, Cano, Pedroia, and Utley are absolutely untouchable. Those are franchise guys. They’ll won’t be traded as long as NY, Boston, and Philly are playing to win now.

            Reyes is a long shot, but he actually played some 2B for the Mets in 2004. It would probably cost us the farm to get him though. If we really want him, we should just wait until the season is over and get him as a Free Agent. I don’t think he’s worth even half of $150 Million that he’ll be asking for. So I’d pass on him.

            1. I can tell you that people are very disenfranchised with Kinsler around here right now. But Jon Daniels is pretty shrewd and the Rangers’ farm system is stacked, so I don’t really see much of an opportunity.

  2. And to think how many times Jackson would be striking out if he had blue eyes…

  3. Wow, Yunel. That was a strike no matter how you slice it. Not sure how he complains about that one.

  7. Anybody watching the game tonight? How does Scherzer look? He’s got the Ks obviously and his ball to strike ratio is good, but is that due to Toronto’s free-swinging style or is he reasonably sharp?

    1. Of course he was due. The question now is will he relax and stop pressing. We anxiously await his next trip to the plate.

    2. OK, true, but there’s more to baseball than baserunning, fielding, and hitting.

  13. Jose Bautista is a very good baseball player who just made a very bad baseball play.

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