Game 2013.105: Nationals at Tigers
Detroit Tigers: 59-45, 1st Place (2.5 ahead of Cleveland).
It is Tuesday night, the trade deadline draws nigh, and the Tigers have one of those oh-so-2013 two-game Interleague series with Washington, who is out for revenge for that 1970 trade that sent Denny McClain to Washington for Joe Coleman, Eddie Brinkman, and Aurelio Rodriguez.
I predict Denard Span will do something annoying (Span career BA: Overall-.282 vs. Detroit-.344).
As Kevin posted yesterday, the Tigers obtained Jose Veras from the Astros to shore up their bullpen. Following the Jim Leyland rule of dealing with new players, expect him to appear in the 7th or 8th tonight.
With a day and change left before the trading deadline, will that be the only move the Tigers make? There has been a lot of speculation that the Tigers will looks for some Shortstop Plan B in case, just in case, Jhonny Peralta gets waylaid. There seems to be very little noise, rumor-wise, in that direction. I assume Dave Dombrowski is fully apprised of any shoes that may be dropping, and take this to mean that Peralta, for this season at least, will be around. We shall see.
Mr. D, actually, decided the best place for him to be on Monday was in Toledo, where he took in a Mud Hens game, in which he just happened to be able to watch Jeremy Bonderman pitch two perfect innings. Hmm. The Tigers are rumored to still be after one more relief pitcher. Is Bonderman that one more?
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When the Tigers nabbed Veras, the question became, who goes to Toledo, Putkonen or Evan Reed? Putty drew the short straw, and was optioned to Toledo today.
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Stat of the Day: July OPS:
- Don Kelly: .873
- Hernan Perez: .658
- Prince Fielder: .643
Just saying.
Today’s Player of the Pre-game: Victor Martinez. VMart has become, well, VMart. He is batting .385 for July, with a 1.011 OPS. Martinez was just killing the team the first half of the season, and how long to wait on him before pulling the plug was a legitimate topic. Leyland was patient, for the win.
Today’s Torii is Well-Rested Lineup:
- Jackson, CF
- Hunter, RF
- Cabrera, 3B
- Fielder, 1B
- Martinez, DH
- Peralta, SS
- Dirks, LF
- Avila, C
- Santiago, 2B
Fan Fail.
Brooks Cabrera.
In 1970 The Washington Senators were the Pre-Texas Rangers.
The Senators were a strange franchise. They were around forever (since 1901–they were one of the Original 8 AL teams), then in 1961 became the Twins, and a new franchise started in Washington, which was…the Senators. So the 1961 Washington Senators were not the same team as the 1960 Washington Senators. Then in 1972 they became the Texas Rangers.
And of course the Washington Nationals used to be the Montreal Expos, which makes their name slightly ironic, no?
Are you kidding me?! Alex Avila?
Guess AA has gotten going.
Veras in for the 8th…who could have predicted that?
1 pitch, 1 out. Greatest trade of all time.
7 pitch out? Is this going to be a trend? I hope not.
1-2-3 inning! Found our 7th inning guy.
I guess Bonderman will be our 6th inning guy, for days when Verlander is pitching.
As long as he isn’t our 1st inning guy.
Somebody would have to come off the 40-man roster for Bondo to come up too. Worth is probably on the bubble.
Small sample size.
8th!
Nice to hear Avila get a nice round of applause when he came to the plate. Been a while.
**Trade Rumor Alert**
3-Way deal, Avisail Garcia to Chicago, Jake Peavy to Red Sox, and Jose Iglesias to Tigers (to replace Peralta, one presumes).
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/07/red-sox-white-sox-agree-to-jake-peavy-trade.html
Now also being reported that Brayan Villarreal will be heading to the Red Sox also as part of the trade.
This seems like a high price. Garcia seems to have a lot of upside.
The Red Sox have made an announcement. It’s official. Tigers give up Garcia (Chicago) and Villarreal (Boston) and get Jose Iglesias.
Short term Garcia wasn’t useful, and we had a sudden need (I presume) at shortstop, so this deal solves that problem nicely. Garcia is young and has a lot of promise; this may be a deal that looks worse as time goes by.
how about AA..4 game hitting streak…way to go…I am speechless!
This also quells any doubts about Jhonny’s next 50 games.
I wonder if Cabrera will be mad at Peralta for forcing the Tigers to ship his little buddy away.
Jose the SS…has big time range and he is only 23….Garcia can play but this is , as it usually is with DD, a very good trade
But can he hit over the long run? His career before this year seems to indicate that the answer is no. Low BA and absolutely no power.
think of how thin the available SS pool is at the deadline. andyou can bet Peralta is gone….so those of you who don’t like this trade pencil in Ramons .165 for the next 50 games….even with Peralta having a career year.he still has no range… this kid has a ton of it….and if its true Peralta was cheating..then goodbye Jhonny!!!