2012 Season, Game Post

Game 2012.27: White Sox at Tigers

35 Comments

Though last night’s loss was pinned on Valverde, the offense has to take some of the blame. The offense went 2-8 with RISP and had only 2 doubles to go along with 7 singles. Other than Cabrera and Jackson, no one else has caught fire, and most of the guys are in minor slumps (Raburn is just Rayburn). I have every confidence that the team will hit. Not sure when, but we’ll be okay.

Now, let’s talk about Papa Grande. Valverde started the Sox off with 8 straight fastballs, and by the 6th one, the Sox were ahead. Valverde’s WHIP on the year is now an alarming 1.80, and he has almost as many walks (7) as Ks (8). A 6.35 K/9 is terrifying, considering his career average is over 10 per 9. A decline in K rate is usually the signal of the end for a closer. This is a small sample size, but note that Valverde has only 2 3 up 3 down innings in 12 appearances this year. We all know that Smokey isn’t reading and he’s ignoring this info as it’s being told to him internally, but I’m sure that DD is following along.

Dylan Axelrod slides into the rotation for the Sox after Chris Sale was sold to the farm. Axelrod has only three big league starts to his name, but one of them was an impressive 6 inning 6 hit 2 ER effort last September 14th against the Tigers. He doesn’t throw hard but he throws a lot of off-speed stuff which leads to swings and misses.

The Unpredictable Mr. Porcello takes the mound today for the Tigers who hope to stop their home series losing streak at 2.

In other news – Steve proposed a DTW get together over the 4th. I live in the Big D and not the D, so I would not be able to attend, but I think it’s a fine idea and I will be sure to bring it up as we get closer to the holiday. Also, if you missed it the first time around, Ed Randall, a Yankees Media guy, put some of his Tigers interviews onto DVD and offered us a discount. I’ve seen several of the interviews and they are really a great watch. More info here.

Today’s Series Clinching Lineup (as I would like to see it – I’ll post the real one when it’s up):

1. Jackson, CF
2. Dirks, LF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Avila, C
6. Peralta, SS
7. Boesch, RF
8. Young, DH
9. Santiago, 2B

Updated lineup

1. Jackson, CF
2. Dirks, LF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, DH
6. Avila, C
7. Peralta, SS
8. Boesch, RF
9. Rayburn, 2B

35 thoughts on “Game 2012.27: White Sox at Tigers”

    1. He’s due!

      Actually, at this point from an offensive production standpoint it doesn’t make much difference who JL runs out there to play 2B – none of the potential candidates can hit. So, you have the choice of taking a chance that Rayburn will turn into Raburn at the plate, or you go for better defense with Santiago. With our horrrible D (pessimism on Raburn’s hitting aside), I would be inclided to go with Santiago. I’m pretty sure Leyland doesn’t think this way though, so therefore……ta da……we get Rayburn.

      I see Dirks is hitting 2nd today, so that is a plus. Young still hitting 5th though – ugh. Hopefully Porcello is on today can go deep into the game. And we’ll need at least a three run lead before going to the closer. Good luck boys.

      1. By the way Kevin, your lineup looks like a pretty good try to me.You neglected the important R-L-R-L-R-L-R-L-R rule though, which means it has no chance of ever being adopted by Old Smokey.

  2. My brothers (who live in DFW) and I have already been talking about making it to D on the Fourth. Keep us aware of details on the DTW get-together.

  4. Ah, the old WP/PB trick. The Tigers have that one down pat this year.

    1. The hitting has been so frustrating, because when they work a good at-bat and don’t swing at garbage, they have good swings and hit the ball hard. some of the guys, swing and miss a bit too much. But, it isn’t rocket science. If you are being fair, the Tigers have about 3 GOOD at-bats each time through the order. Sometimes, they get lucky or unlucky (meaning they occsionally get hits on bad at-bats or get outs on good at-bats) Cabrera has had two awful at-bats in this game, he just keeps swinging at garbage…meanwhile, Dirks has had two excellent at-bats, as has Fielder. If they just have a bit more focus and realize that most of these pitchers want to get them out…OUT of the strikezone, they will start hitting the ball. Right now, Dirks and AJaxx are the only hitters on the team, that are exceeding expectations. AJaxx has been on base all season long, that should lead to offense.

  6. This team is just awful at situational hitting… Double Plays galore…

  7. Just awful at-bats by Fielder and Avila lead to no runs…AGAIN! The lack of speed means that Jim needs to think outside the box and start the runners occasionally, any ball on that 2-2 count would have been a bouncer in the dirt, which mean Dyoung would have had a good shot at being safe anyways and Avila swings at everything anyhow…Avila w/ 9 RBI is terrible. Thee fact that he even gave the umpire a chance to say he swung at the 1st pitch, which was an obvious ball, indicates their struggles. Avila has no business batting 6th. Peralta is a much, much better hitter. The Tigers either need more runs or a complete game by Porcello. At the end of the day, though, Fielder needs to move Miggy to 3rd, because even w/ a basehit, he can’t score.

  10. Avila is now has been up 5 times w/ R3L2O and has failed each time. The best on the team is AJaxx, who is 5 for 7. Nobody else is an ofer w/ at least 4 attempts. Boesch and Raburn are close w/ Boesch being 1 for 5 and Raburn 1 for 4 (This does not mean they got a hit or anything, this just means they scored the run w/ that many attempts) Miggy is 4 for 6 and Prince is 2 for 2. Ironically, the team is OK at moving a guy from 2nd w/ 0 outs. They are just above average as a team 58%…Avila, though, is also worst on the team in that stat…He is 0 for 3 in that situation. Raburn for example is 4 for 4..so, we get the guy to 3rd, we just can’t score him, we are now below 40% w/ R3L2O…The league average is 51% They need to do better, because their bullpen is Not good.

  11. Porcello always struggles in the 7th…I may pull him, right here.

  12. Why take out Dotel? For Coke???? The White Sox are happy about this move.

  13. Very Lucky…Coke threw two very hittable pitches, luckily he didn’t get the barrel on that ball.

  14. It is amazing how slow Cabrera is…How does he not get to 3rd on a slowly hit ball to RF.

    1. He’s slow, and I don’t want him running any faster – too much chance for him to pull something or injure himself sliding into the bag. He’s a monster in every other offensive facet of the game, probably the best in the bigs. I’ll take it.

  15. Avila, are you kidding me? Watch 2 strikes (1st pitch tough call) and swing at a pitch way out of the strike zone. 0 for 6 w/ R3L2O

  17. Why would Smokey replace BB with KBurn in right field …. it can’t be for defensive purposes!

    1. bringing in Raburn for ‘defensive purposes’ borders on insanity

  22. Valverde channeling his ‘inner Todd Jones’ this year…

    Tigers on the road for most of May – next six games out west against poor hitting teams (SEA & OAK), so it ‘should be’ a confidence building week for the pitching staff… and May should be a month to pile up some W’s

    1. 19 of the next 25 this month are on the road. Either finishing the month 13-12 or 14-11 works for me. The schedule is not that easy. No road game is easy, plus we have dates with Chicago, Cleveland and the Red Sox – who are bound to start winning more regularly sooner or later.

  23. HI Guys…………….. Haven’t seen Coleman in these parts in a while. Hope all is well. Long week with the Tigers on the coast. Couple innings only per game for me.

    Love beating the SOX. With any kind of game we should be able to head out there and having a great May. Here is a run down of who we have and Fister is coming back.

    Seattle – 3
    A’s – 4
    Sox – 2
    Twins 2
    Pirates 3
    Indians 3
    Twins 3 (Memorial Day Weekend)
    Redsox 4

    Total of 24 games left in May. Pretty soft Schedule. We should go 18 -6 minimum. Hopefully a good roadie will wake these guys up and start drilling some runs out.

    Steve

    1. You’ll be getting a bunch of Coleman the next series, as will everyone else. And they will all blame you!

  26. Kevin

    In regards to posting that lineup. his name is Raburn – not Rayburn.

    1. I guess you didn’t see the thread from two games ago regarding this (or any of the earlier ones), but on DTW he’s Raburn when he hits, Rayburn when he doesn’t. It’s been a whole lotta Rayburn this year.

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