Yearly Archives: 2014

2014 Season, Game Post

Game 2014.99: Tigers at Angels

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56-42, 1st place, 6.5 games up.

The Tigers fly into Anaheim to take on the white hot LAAoA. If you haven’t been paying attention, the Angels are twenty games over .500, and have moved up to the #2 spot in the AL power rankings. Since starting the season 13-13, the Angels are 47 and 27, and are 13-5 this month. The Angels are 35-18 (.660) at home. The Tigers are the AL’s best road team at 30-13 (.638), but are 2-10 in their last 12 vs. the Angels.

Baseball Reference game preview.

Game 1 tonight, 10:05 PM ET – Max Scherzer v. Garrett Richards

Game 2 tomorrow, 10:05 PM ET – Drew Smyly v. Tyler Skaggs (L)

Game 3 Saturday, 9:05 PM ET – Justin Verlander v. Matt Shoemaker

Game 4 Sunday, 3:35 PM ET – Rick Porcello v. Hector Santiago (L)

J.D. Martinez has shaken the minor injury for the back to the AL lineup:

1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. Victor Martinez, DH
5. J.D. Martinez, LF
6. Torii Hunter, RF
7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Eugenio Suarez, SS

2014 Season, Trades

Tigers trade for Soria

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According to multiple outlets – Corey Knebel and Jake Thompson are headed home to Texas in exchange for Rangers’ closer, Joakim Soria.

Knebel has been underwhelming at the big league level, though he is striking out 11.4/9 in the show. The young kid from Texas (Georgetown HS – about 140 miles south of me, and fellow University of Texas alumni) did, however, put up some sick minor league numbers, posting a .855 WHIP and 11.8 K/9 over 2 years and 64 IPs.

Jake Thompson was a 2012 2nd round pick out of Rockwall-Heath HS, only about 20 miles from me. Thompson has been a starter in the minors (stats here), and is the real meat of this trade. He’s been ranked as high as second in the latest Baseball America list, and third in the BP prospect list, and BP projects him as a low 3 starter.


Jamey Newberg, who independently covers the Rangers like a hawk, wrote tonight that Knebel and Thompson are the Tigers’ #2 and #4 prospects, and the he thinks those two are more promising than the four that the Angels gave up for Huston Street.

I can’t imagine that Soria takes over the 9th right now, though Thompson is a high price to pay for a 7th inning guy. Knebel was on the big league roster, so no corresponding move is needed. I’m guessing that Soria is insurance for Nathan, and we’ll either see Nathan on the DL soon, or Soria in the 9th inning role in the near future. I just don’t think that Nathan has it anymore. I understand SL’s bad sample argument (a handful of games are muddying an otherwise average year), but 39 year old pitchers don’t lose it and then find it again. Joe Nathan, feel free to prove me wrong.

Update: DD said that Nathan is still the closer in the Soria presser.

Game Post

Game 2014.98: Tigers at Diamondbacks

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For those of you who could stay up long enough, you probably wish you hadn’t, although pretty much the whole game took place in the 8th inning.

In the top of the 8th, the Tigers blew not one but two opportunities with a runner at 3rd and less than two outs. The first was when Kinsler was caught in the dreaded Run On Contact play. I wish I had numbers for how often that fails; it seems to be a lot, not just with Detroit, but with other teams as well. It doesn’t help that the Tigers hit the ball so hard–the Martinez grounder got to first so fast Kinsler had only made it about a third of the way home. Kinsler valiantly got in an extended rundown, but Cabrera was having none of trying to get to 3rd.

Fortunately, Torii Hunter came through–again!–and put the Tigers back ahead, and gave them another opportunity with runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Unfortunately, Avila had to face a lefty, and I don’t think any of us were surprised at the weak strike out that followed. I’m sure Holaday wouldn’t have done any better, said no Tiger fan.

Then came The Decision: pinch-hit for Porcello, or send him back out for the 8th. Normally that is an automatic PH situation, but Porcello was only at 77 pitches, and had just breezed easily through the 7th. In addition, Joba Chamberlain (and maybe Nathan) were unavailable in the bullpen. Ausmus rolled the dice, and lost: Davis had a pinch-hit called 3rd strike, and Larry, Curly and Moe blew the lead in the 8th.

Well, today is another day and another game, which is one of the great things about baseball.

Today’s Did Not See That Coming Lineup:

  1. Jackson, CF
  2. Davis, LF
  3. Kinsler, 2B
  4. Cabrera, 3B
  5. V Martinez, 1B
  6. Kelly, RF
  7. Avila, C
  8. Romine, SS
  9. Sanchez, P

Following the ol’ Rest ‘Em While They’re Hot strategy, Ausmus sits Torii Hunter for The Donkey, who at least has a positive history against Cahill (4-for-7, HR). He tries something new with The House by the Side of the Road in the 2nd spot, bumping Cabrera-Martinez back to 4-5.

 

Game Post

Game 2014.97: Tigers at Diamondbacks

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For those of you who couldn’t stay up quite that long, and who don’t read newspapers or internets or such, the Tigers started their trip out west with a 4-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, as Austin Jackson and Torii Hunter continue their torrid July. Torii just turned 39 and is doing it in style; leading the team in BA (.365), OPS (1.077), HR (5) and RBI (19) for the month of July. Austin Jackson has been thriving in the leadoff spot, hitting .357 so far this month.

Miguel Cabrera, who hasn’t seemed quite right lately (6th best team OPS since July 1), added a 420 ft. RBI single, and was thrown out at 2nd on a play he really thought was a home run: he admired it a few moments, and then after being thrown out on an ill-advised attempt to hustle to 2nd, was still giving the home run signal. On the replay the ball didn’t seem to come close, but the Tigers asked for a review anyway, and I’m sure it couldn’t possibly have been to make Miguel look better. Regardless, he absolutely crushed the ball to dead center, which warms the Tiger-fan portion of the heart.

Verlander pitched a good, almost better than good game, despite being tormented by Rajai Davis insisting on getting on base in front of him in the 9th spot. Verlander says it’s because he saw some old pictures of himself 10 minutes before he warmed up, and noticed a difference. I know the feeling. In Verlander’s case, it was a difference in his arm action. He knew what to do: “I went out and tried to throw the way that I used to throw,” which I guess inspired Joe Nathan to try to close like he used to close.

Tonight Rick Porcello gets his first start since the All-Star break, following up on a sharp 1-run, 7-inning outing against Kansas City. His counterpart, rookie Chase Anderson, has lost 4 in a row (with a 5.03 ERA) after a strong start.

In other news, Detroit rookie pitcher and possible trade bait Drew VerHagen has been placed on the AAA disabled list with a lower back strain.

Today’s Let’s Not Have the 8 Hitter Getting On Base So Much Lineup:

  1. Jackson, CF
  2. Kinsler 2B
  3. Cabrera, 3B
  4. V Martinez, 1B
  5. JD Martinez, LF
  6. Hunter, RF
  7. Holaday, C
  8. Suarez, SS
  9. Porcello, P

Miggy at the hot corner again. Porcello is due; after starting his career 2-for-5, he has gone into a 2-for-14 slump at the plate.

Game Post

Game 2014.96: Tigers 4, Diamondbacks 3

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Gear up Night Owls, the Tigers are off on a 7-day Western jaunt, starting with three in Arizona tonight.

Scheduled times/starting pitchers for the road trip:

Detroit at Arizona:

Mon Jul 21 9:40  Verlander vs Nuno (L)

Tue  Jul 22 9:40  Porcello vs Anderson

Wed Jul 23 3:40  Sanchez vs Cahill

Detroit at LA Angels

Thu Jul 24 10:05  Scherzer vs Richards

Fri  Jul 25  10:05  Smyly vs Skaggs (L)

Sat Jul 26  9:05   Verlander vs Shoemaker

Sun Jul 27 3:35   Porcello vs Santiago (L)

The Tigers have never fared well on the West Coast, but of course Arizona is not the coast, so hopefully this trip gets off to a good start. The Tigers do still have the best road record in the American League, which Scherzer and Cabrera should have thought about more before contributing to the AL All-Star game victory.

The big topic for the first leg of this road trip of course, will be the who-plays-where involved with the lack of a DH, and Ausmus opts to go with Cabrera at 3rd for the opener. A little more surprising is Holaday at catcher; yes, they are facing a lefty, but that usually doesn’t make so much of a difference. Even more surprising is Suarez being bumped up to the 6th spot. Hmm.

Bullpen help? The Nats just released Ryan Perry (kidding, I hope).

Hopefully at some point in this series we will see the Diamondbacks’ backup up catcher, because you can’t beat a name like Tuffy Gosewisch.

Today’s No-DH Lineup:

  1. Jackson, CF
  2. Kinsler 2B
  3. Cabrera, 3B
  4. Martinez, 1B
  5. Hunter, RF
  6. Suarez, SS
  7. Holaday, C
  8. Davis, LF
  9. Verlander, P

Austin Jackson has never really seemed a fit in the leadoff spot, which was never more apparent than in last postseason, where he couldn’t even put a ball in play until he was finally bumped down to the 2nd half of the order. So I didn’t expect much when Ausmus tried moving Austin back into the leadoff spot, especially after he earned a sombrero on July 4. But since taking over the leadoff spot, he is hitting .354 with a .928 OPS.

That should help Verlander in the 9th spot, having Jackson to protect him in the lineup.

2014 Season, Game Post

Game 2014.95: Tigers 5, Indians 1

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Baseball Reference Game Preview

Josh Tomlin vs. Drew Smyly for the Sunday day game.

Exactly two months ago, The Bad Times began with three losses in a row to the Indians. Astonishing losses, really. Just like the last three.

Offenses sputter. It happens. Big name, big money closers fail. This also happens. One situation is more dire than the other. What to do with Joe Nathan has become the question of the day.

 

2014 Season, Site News

DTW Site Update (July 13 edition)

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So far we’ve raised nearly $500. Thank you everyone for your donations. That gets us about 1/2 towards paying off the site work. So if you haven’t yet donated, we’d love your support.

To make this easy, I’ve generated four payment links.

Click here to donate $10.

Click here to donate $25.

Click here to donate $50.

Click here to donate $100.

If you want to donate less or more, you can pull my Paypal address from the links above.

As a reminder, none of us get paid to maintain the site. My understanding is that Billfer makes enough from advertising to cover hosting and buy a beer every few months. I will disclose that three times in four years I’ve been sent Tigers related items, two of which we’ve in turn given out through the site. One time I kept a t-shirt and wore it. We then went on a 4-13 streak. The t-shirt was last seen in the Trinity River with a cinder block tied to it.

Thank you everyone for your contribution, participation, and feedback. The strength of this site lies in the intelligence and sophistication of the readers and their comments.

2014 Season, Postgame

Game 2014.90 Postgame: Tigers 5, Royals 1

Solid win all the way around. The game followed suit for a lot of Det/KC games this year until the Tigers’ outburst in the 9th.  That’s 6-0 in KC this season, as the Royals are this year’s 2013 Indians.

Baseball-Reference postgame here.

Three stars:

1) Rick Porcello – he was dealing again. Only 6 hits in 7 IPs, but he did walk 3. Two of the baserunners were erased on double plays.

2) JD Martinez – leading off the 9th with a cushion run was huge. Have we lost since VMart sat?

3) Joe Nathan – they should all be that easy.

I’m going to update everyone on the web site in the morning.

2014 Season, Game Post

Game 2014.90: Tigers at Royals

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52-37, 1st place, 6.5 games up.

Jayson Stark posted his first half award winners today over on ESPN (you need Insider) and I thought there were several interesting items from a Tigers perspective.

1) VMart and Ian Kinsler were both mentioned in the AL MVP after-Trout-thoughts. Kinsler having a good year, but the more I thought about it, he’s having a great year. He’s projecting to a .792 OPS, 104 runs, 41 2B and 19 SB on top of solid defense. He legitimately is a top 10 MVP candidate.

2) Chris Davis is a candidate for AL Least Valuable Player. Success is a cruel mistress.

3) The pitching in the AL has been dynamite this year. Scherzer isn’t even a top 5 consideration, behind the likes of Tanaka, Sale, Price, Kazmir…Scott Kazmir? Mistresses can reappear, I guess.

4) Sergio Romo is a candidate for Cy Yuk. Just the thought of him during the ’12 WS makes me want to crawl into the fetal position.

5) The AL is loaded with “rookies” this year as Abreu will likely run away with the ROY award, despite stiff competition from Masashiro Tanaka and George Springer. But get one level past them and I think that Suarez and Castellanos would both merit consideration. After Iglesias went down and we raided the basement of other teams for SS, I feared a revolving door at the position all season. But Suarez become a dependable everyday player. What more could we ask for.

*******

Tonight’s game won’t be easy as Porcello takes on James Shields. Game preview here.

1. Jackson, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Hunter, RF
6. Casetellanos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Romine, SS
9. Davis, LF