25-30, 3rd place, 6 games behind CWS.
Been a pretty frustrating run as of late, but here are a few noteworthy items.
– Avila to the DL, Bryan Holaday up from AAA (and starting!); Santos down.
– AJax took a few swings in BP today. It’s been three weeks since he last played. And I don’t think that taking a few swings means he’s coming back anytime soon.
– Jose Ortega was also called up from AAA, look for him to come on in a 2 on, 1 out, up by 1 situation in the 7th tonight.
– Jurickson Profar tops the list of a few 2B trade prospects to dream about (Profar would move from SS).
Tonight’s Could This Be Our First Win Of The Season Against Cleveland? Lineup:
1. Berry, CF
2. Santiago, 2B
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, DH
6. Boesch, RF
7. Peralta, SS
8. Kelly, LF
9. Holaday, C
How long before drastic moves are made ….. this ship keeps going in the wrong direction!
I’m sure DD is working on some transactions of one type or another (provided he isn’t too distracted from who should be the 1000th pick in the amateur draft – between a couple of Texas high school pitchers I bet), but in the meantime, when do they start bringing up the guys from Lakeland, since the cupboard is bare at Erie and Toledo (oh wait, Castellanos just went to Erie)? Henry who?
No Matt Young in the lineup tonight – does that mean the experiment is over (the Golden Sombrero in your first game might do that)? Raburn back soon? At least Leyland remembered that the No. 2 slot is for the secondbaseman, so Santiago hitting there tonight.
DD, in an attempt to defuse the uproar over coaching staff responsiblity for the poor player performances all season also expressed his confidence in JL who, “won 95 games for us last year.” Apparently his record would have been a perfect 162-0 if the players hadn’t lost the other 67 games. No chance for any other staff coaching changes (e.g. McCLendon) because they would merely be a “sacrificial lamb” offered up to the great unwashed fan base who just don’t understand that coaches and managers don’t really matter, because after all, the players don’t listen to them unless the team is winning.
They sure get paid a lot for having no impact and Rick Knapp and Chuck Hernandez are wondering why they were the cause of pitching problems? I guess it’s a friends and family thing.
We are going to need a lot of K’s and an excellent game from Mad Max because I don’t think that this lineup can score too many runs ….. but it would be nice for them to prove me wrong ….. a little reverse psychology.
Extremely sad and depressing to watch this clown show game in and game out!
The defense does its thing (E) and then Scherzer does his thing (HR).
The Tigers are fielding a AA lineup, but its the veterans who are, by and large, making the costly mistakes on the mound and in the field.
Boesch = new Inge — Bringe
Its as if Mr Illich is making payments on a 2012 Mercedes, but he’s driving a 1998 Plymouth Neon…
’74 Satellite
Homerun no. 53 for the Tigers. 34 have been with the bases empty. Does sanybody remember the last time one came with a man on?
i think it was Inge…oh wait, he was w/the A’s then 😉
make that 35 out of 54
Another 4 solos and we could take the lead, provided Scherzer doesn’t give up any more bombs.
Last year after the Tiger’s fired pitching coach Rick Knapp, the Tigers went 50-27 for the remainder of the regular season.
Who’s the sacrificial lamb this year?
Let’s wait another 30 games and then we’ll see. We haven’t reached that magical 85-game threshold yet.
On the other hand, as an intereim stop-gap, there is always the bullpen coach. Or prhaps the batboy, who may be exercising some unDUE negative influence in the clubhouse.
I seriosuly do not think it will make a difference. Ok so McClendon or some other coach is fired and the team is hyper focued for a game or two and maye they string together 2 victorires. So what? This team is still what it is. Does firing a coach create plate discipline or end errors? I tend to doubt it. These guys will eventually resurface and play pretty much the way they are playing. To me, this is a talent and confidence issue. We don’t have adequate talent and the guys we do have seem to be losing confidence by the day in their ability to put a few wins together.
i kinda thought the same thing last year when they canned Knapp… and whether or not that was the spark, something kicked in and turned it around.
The only difference to the current staff, is that everybody except Brookens is a member of JL’s good ol boy club, so nobody is likely to get sacked.
But we also picked up Fister and D. Young (who could hit then) during that 50-27 strectch and, while less clear to my memory, I also think that V-Mart was fire at the plate in that stretch. Thus, I think the stronger correlation, is that Fister, D. Young and better play led to wins. I don’t see the correlation between fired coach and more wins. But as time goes on and losses mount, what the heck let’s try something.
Since the manager and coaches don’t make any diffeence, then they may as well can them all and let the players run the show. Seriously, the focus issue starts in ST, which should be the responsibility of the coaching staff; to get the players ready, physically and mentally, for a long and gruelling season. So, I agree, making a “sacrificial lamb” switch at this moment probably won’t make a big diffeence in the long run of the rest of the season, but the fact is, that this crap has been going on for 6+ years now with the current crop of “mentors.” They bombed in ’06 at the end and were lucky enough to make it to the WS where they embarrassed themselves, and last year they walked away with the division title, due in large part (not completely, they played pretty good) to the fact that the rest of the division went into rebuild mode shortly afte the AS-break (if not sooner). They were 45-45 vs non Central opponents last year, hardly an indication of a dominant team on the rise. I also agree with you on the talent question – they are definitely short on that at the moment. The confidence theory I give much less creedence to – if they don’t have the talent, what is to be confident in? and a if they are basically fielding a AA/AAA team, what good is confidence at that level when they are competing with real MLB professionals? In short, I am saying that with the exception of ’06 and ’11 (which I consider to be outliers) the Tigers have pretty much been the Not Ready For Prime Time Players and to consistently place the blame on the “talent” for the poor showing is a misplaced and narrow judgement. The whole organization, from the top down, bears some critical assessment.
Just when you think things can’t get any worse …..
CLE has 3 hits and 5 runs…how very un-Tiger-like of them
JL was quoted that this team is like a fighter that’s been punched and is wobbly in the knees, he wanted to see how they fought back… so far… a TKO
Is there a Red Wing game on tonight.
Reds-Pirates game is pretty good.
Or not.
The blog is more entertaining than the game.
Brennan Boesch is rapidly approaching a Raburnesque level of uselessness…er, I mean Brendan Bosh.
I think you actually mean Botch.
This is ridiculous — just ugly in every way.
Don’t worry, V-Mart will limp back with August Raburn and like Batman and Robin will save the day.
Congrats to Bryan Holaday! And what’s with all the MLB variants of Holiday anyway?
Ok Prince, time to do what you were bought to do.
So Below, who you could easily argue has been the most valuable pitcher out of the bullpen, comes out after 2/3 of an inning, in a game crying for out-getting pitchers (nothing against Marte). Are we in a rush to get to the 7th inning guy or what?
Below threw 3 pitches for crimminy sakes.
The Indians do not have a single hitter in their line up batting over .300 and yet they are clubbing the ball
Good to see that Bringe’s swing issue was fixed.
You mean Brendan Bosh?
Without Dirks, the 2-hole is just so unlucky. No matter which sub-.200 hitter Leyland bats there, they just can’t catch a break.
Valverde comes in 3 runs down and retires the side 1-2-3. Maybe they should groom him for the mop-up role with the idea that he could have some trade value at the deadline.
I’m getting really disgusted with this team. I used to think, like many of you: “we’ll be ok, and still win the division.” I’m not so sure anymore. There’s no improvement to the hitting, and the fielding is awful too. Is there anything this team does well? Don’t forget Leyland doesn’t have a friggin’ clue: ” we prepare ’em before every game” type thing…so what’s gonna change? Just plain bad………. 🙁
Not all bad.
Well, the good thing is that despite the mostly AA-quality lineup, they somehow managed to score six runs. Plus, they got two more solo homers, so it looks like the solo-power is comng back. And 5/7th of the bullpen got some much needed work in a losing efffort where they trailed from the very first inning and were never closer than a two-run deficit. Although you could argue that our No. 2 starter didn’t pitch real well again, the bullpen did great. They kept us close, what more could you ask! Like JL says, they may not have the results to show for it, but we can’t complain about the effort. Remember, this is only one game, tomorow is the first game of the rest of the season and we’ll be OK 🙂
Mr. X has returned!
I can’t tell if his name is the ironic part, or his message is.
Offensively they had one good inning, and some solo shots…why they can only focus for one big inning (in the games where they actually get moe than 3 runs) is a mystery. But, you can’t have your RF drop easy flyballs in the major leagues…Max didn’t pitch well, but, those bad plays in the field…happen at least 3 out of 5 games…plays that would be considered inexcusible on a high school team…Boesch didn’t use two hands and he didn’t look the ball in his glove…He can’t hit and he can’t field, now that Raburn is gone..does Leyland have a quota in his lineup for a guy who can’t hit or field. They are just not a very good team and those that cry about injuries..That is why, when you are healthy, you can’t give away as many games as they did early in the season and then say “It’s early” and Jim saying things like “we need to get rolling by the end of May (on may 8th or something) and saying “when we get fister back it will get us in rythym.” No, you need to win games that you should win because there will be times when the schedule gets tougher, injuries, etc. They are 7-14 in their last 21 at Comerica…That is bad, maybe, just maybe a lot of these guys are not as good as we would like to think. Boesch, Avila,Porcello, Scherzer, Raburn, Peralta…IDK, but, 2006 and 2008 had a lot of career years by guys and other than those two years..not much from this franchise. They have time to prove me wrong, but, I am starting to believe those two seasons, were perfect storms of guys having good years as opposed to franchises that play good baseball year after year, despite injuries, down years, etc.
The good news is that Minnesota beat KC, so the Tigers maintain their tenuous grip on 3rd place (1/2 game ahead of KC). The bad news is that Minnesota beat KC and are only three games behind the Tigers now.
NA NA NA, NA NA NA, HEY HEY GOODBYE!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me???? The Detroit Mud Hens is right. This team is pathetic. Smokes drags around his same old “good ole boys” wherever he manages, trying to instill a 1990 game into a 2012 reality. This year is earily reminscint on 2008 when everyone thought this team was a cinch to win the WS only to start off 0-8 and finish in last place. SMOKES — PLEASE RETIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!