(doesn’t he look injured in the pic above?)

Victor Martinez and his inability to hit left handed (against right handed pitching) has been the most popular Tiger topic as of late. He’s in a massive slump (let’s hope it’s a slump), and looked downright awful in two key late inning game-tying/go-ahead situations over the past two nights. He weakly grounded out to 3rd on Sunday night, despite an overshift where a normal speed runner would have likely made it to first, and then grounded into a 1st and 2nd no out double play last night which was upheld on replay, to the great dismay of Rod Allen. Had he not been “injured” he may have beaten the relay last night. Just moving the runners over last night would have put the Tigers in a great position to win the game.

Through 34 games this year he’s posting an OPS of .578, which ranks him 89 out of 92 qualifiers in the AL.

In 2013, his only season to finish with an OPS below .832 in his past 7 seasons, he had a .562 OPS through the first 34 games of the season. From game 35 on, he resumed his normal V Mart awesomeness, and posted a slashline of .326/.377/.469 for an OPS of .847 the rest of the season. I know he’s been downright awful this year, but let’s not forget this guy’s resume. He finished 2nd in MVP voting last year. He’s well established as a professional hitter. Guys like VMart don’t forget how to hit. It’s a bad slump, but he’ll be out of it soon.

Collins up for VMart. Collins has been a borderline average minor leaguer at every level above A, and he’s about to turn 25, so don’t hold out too much help that he’ll be anything more than a role player. But even if he hits league average for a bit (or even a little below it), it will be an upgrade over what injured VMart has been producing.

Here’s a take on how VMart’s DL stint will affect the lineup.

Baseball-Reference game preview here.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez J.D., RF
5. Cespedes, LF
6. Collins, DH
7. Castellanos, DH
8. Holaday, C
9. Iglesias, SS

This one really snuck up on me…go Tigers.

(I loved that bunt that Kinsler laid down last night. He’s such a ballplayer.)

Baseball-Reference game preview here.

Davis in LF tonight, Cespedes with the night off.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Martinez J.D., RF
6. Davis, LF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. McCann, C
9. Iglesias, SS

Miguel Cabrera went deep last night for the 3rd consecutive game, this one his milestone 400th, although there was a long wait before he could be sure the game would finish and his home run count. It did, earning Cabrera congratulations–and awe–from his teammates and fans alike.

It wouldn’t be for another hour and a half before the first inning finished and much later than that when Cabrera also turned in a defensive gem, making a tough catch on a pop foul, then immediately turning and throwing a strike to third to get the runner tagging up from 2nd.

In addition to Cabrera’s big day, JD Martinez had another solid game (1-for-3 with 2 walks) in the cleanup spot, Kinsler and Cespedes had 3 hits each, and Jose Iglesias came through with what proved to be a game-winning RBI single in the 10th. Pretty good stuff against the team who had the best record in the majors heading into the series.

Let’s hope tonight the Tigers break their bad recent habit of flopping on nationally televised games.

In other news, here’s an update on Shane Greene (courtesy of Mr. Stormin).  Ausmus says the “the level of concern is way down.”

Tonight’s Broom-Wielding Lineup:

1. Anthony Gose, CF
2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. JD Martinez, RF
5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
6. Nick Castellanos, 3B
7. James McCann, C
8. Jose Iglesias, SS
9. Alfredo Simon, P

Anthony Gose is a few plate appearances shy of qualifying for the league leader lists; if he weren’t, he’d be leading the AL in hitting right now at .354, bumping current leader Jose Iglesias down to 2nd.

So are the Tigers (in other words Miguel Cabrera) over their night game funk? It certainly seems like it after last night. On the other hand, other than Gose and Cespedes the bats seemed to be full of NyQuil until the 7th inning, so maybe it was more a St. Louis Blowpen issue than kicking the night-game stupor. At any rate, it’s incredible how often that scenario happens: Cabrera gets a big hit, then the rest of the team suddenly starts hitting.

For 2/3 of the game, it was looking like a Cespedes home run and a Gose triple were going to have to be enough to win the game, and maybe would. Greene was cruising along and doing so well that he felt all tingly. Oh, actually, that was an ulnar nerve, which is why he left at only 70-some odd pitches. File under: never good news without some bad news.

I was thinking in the 5th inning or so, when it looked like the Cespedes blast might be the big hit of the game, that this is how teams run up a lot of wins in a season. Cespedes was the only guy in the starting lineup yesterday without a hit, and one of only two without multiple hits, and here he is with the big blast today.

When guys in a lineup take turns getting hot it seems to result in a lot more wins than when you have one or two guys with MVP seasons and a bunch of slugs. I don’t think we’re going to get anything like consistency from Cespedes. But if he is hot while the others are cold, that will work. No matter, I’ll take the 23 runs in two days.

Miggy’s home run, by the way was #399, which is statistically significant for two important reasons: his next home run puts him past Mr. Tiger himself, Al Kaline, and the Venezuelan home run king, Andres Galarraga, who Cabrera grew up idolizing. (The link was an interesting read; the reverence for Galarraga from Cabrera and Sanchez makes you realize how much he meant to Venezuelans).

Random impression: McCann’s got some wheels. His first double was a real hustle double; his second was a single that he stretched into a double, in a way a 220 pound catcher shouldn’t be able to do.

Other, less random impression: it’s National League baseball, so you might not have noticed the Hernan Perez at bat, because it looked like the standard pitcher at bat. There is a reason Hernan is still on the team–he was highly regarded, and is out of options, which means they can’t just send him back to Toledo without risking him being claimed. I suspect we’ll see a lot more of Perez in coming weeks, and if he continues to look as lost at the plate, that sometime after that we’ll not see any of him at all.

Let’s end on a good impression: last 4 games for JD Martinez:

• 1-for-4, RBI
• 2-for-2
• 2-for-4
• 2-for-5, RBI

That adds up to 7-for-15 (.467), the last two games of which had the added pressure of hitting in the cleanup spot. And this after an 0-for-weeks slump. JD may actually end up being an even better hitter for this slump experience.

Today’s OK, NOW Go Back to That Day/Night Thing Lineup:

1. Rajai Davis, CF
2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. JD Martinez, RF
5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
6. Nick Castellanos, 3B
7. James McCann, C
8. Jose Iglesias, SS
9. David Price, P

The Tigers tried something a little different yesterday (no, I don’t mean scoring run, although that too) and it worked: going with both Davis and Gose in the outfield, resting Victor Martinez and letting JD bat 4th, and giving Holaday his first start all worked like a charm, and the Tigers pulled out the series win.

Gose and Davis combined for 7-for-10 with a double and triple, Holaday went 3-for-5 with his 2nd career home run, and even JD Martinez knocked in a run from the cleanup spot with a 2-for-4 game. Of course none of them could match Miguel Cabrera with his two home runs and 5 RBI, but it was nice to see the very different lineup work so well.

The Tigers finished the series with 17 runs, which works out to an average of 5.7 runs per game, which is excellent. It isn’t recommended, however, to accomplish that average with games of 2, 2, and 13.

The difference between yesterday’s game and the first two was like night and day. The difference might not have been the revamped lineup though–it might have been, well, night and day.

The Tiger is becoming a fully diurnal creature this season, pouncing in the daytime and snoozing at night.

Day Tiger:   14 – 4  (.778)  Night Tiger: 7 – 10 (.412)

Most of this can be traced to the Big Man, Miguel Cabrera, who is actually a giant during the day and a little guy at night.  I ran his numbers earlier; they’ve split even farther apart.

• 2015 Night:  70 PA .158 BA .472 OPS
• 2015 Day:    81 PA .471 BA 1.455 OPS

Last season, and over his career, he was actually better at night than day:

• 2014 Night: 437 PA .343 BA .983 OPS
• 2014 Day:   248 PA .260 BA .741 OPS

• Career Night: 5266 PA .328 BA .979 OPS
• Career Day:  2696 PA .304 BA .925 OPS

So there you have it: last season his success split significantly toward the night from his career average; this season it has split even more significantly toward the day.

Any theories? There are some guys who are just better at one than the other; it’s not to hard to theorize that that is because of how they see the ball in different conditions, since hitting is so much about vision. But someone who has been better at night throughout his career flip-flopping like that is very unusual.

It is most like just a random variation that will even itself out over the season. And remember, a lot of these early night games have been quite cold, and maybe that is a factor. Something to keep an eye on as the season unfolds.

Tonight’s A Little Greene With the Bat Lineup:

1. Anthony Gose, CF
2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. JD Martinez, RF
5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
6. Nick Castellanos, 3B
7. James McCann, C
8. Jose Iglesias, SS
9. Shane Greene, P

Another lackluster offensive performance coupled with a brilliant bullpen performance (which means that Lobstein got drilled) led to a 6-2 loss last night. The Tigers are now 13-14 since starting 7-0.

jud made the comment last night that the Tigers have now scored 2 runs or less in 9 out of their last 15 games. That is alarming. And he posted some scary low night game batting averages.

But honestly, I’m just not that worried right now. This is just baseball. It’s such a long season that you can find alarming trends in isolation which, over the course of the season, will be balanced out by  unsustainably good ones. They’ll go on another 5-0 or 8-1 run later this summer where they put up 6+ per night.

I was listening to an interview with Ned Yost yesterday on MLB radio. The host went on and on about how the AL is really just a two horse race – Det and KC. He’s probably right. This doesn’t mean that some other teams can’t get hot, or emerge, but based on talent and recent history, Detroit is one of the best, if not the best, in the AL. And we’re basically at .500 over the course of a month…

We just need to understand that the AL is extremely competitive (aka weak) and the Tigers are one of the best of a mediocre bunch. They seemingly have the talent to be better, and with some decent managing, perhaps they can be. But they’ll be in it until the end, with a lot of frustrating runs in-between, and we’ll have to hope that they can get hot at the right time. Baseball is a long season.

But it would be nice to take a series at home from the Twins…

I’m hitting the open road today – headed to Big Bend with some guys. Someone please post the lineups when available.

A few quick updates:

– Avila doesn’t need surgery, but no timetable for a return, yet.

– Verlander felt good after throwing 25 pitches yesterday, no news yet today, which is presumably good.

Ricky Nolasco v. Lobstein tonight.

1. Gose, CF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez V, DH
5. Martinez J.D., RF
6. Cespedes, LF
7. Castellanos, 2B
8. McCann, C
9. Iglesias, SS

Ausmus’ questionable managing decisions on Sunday night, when all the Baseball world was watching on ESPN, made him the target of a lot of stories on yesterday’s off day. Never where you want to be if you’re the manager.

Typically, the Detroit media didn’t really criticize Ausmus, but rather simply brought the issue to light. I only regularly read two sets of sportswriters, the ones in Dallas and the ones in Detroit, and I am constantly amazed at how reluctant the Detroit writers are to write anything negative about the Tigers. Dallas writers (and media pundits in general) have no problem taking management and ownership to task (in fact, Dale Hansen was fired by the Cowboys because of it a long time ago). I don’t listen to much Detroit sports radio, so hopefully there’s a little more objectivity there. But why isn’t anyone calling out Ausmus? Tony Paul started to – well at least his story title did, but if you read the story, he goes on to hedge, but he does end it by questioning Ausmus. He’ll probably get some evil looks around the clubhouse for even drafting such a title (“hey, did you read the rest of the story, it’s the players fault!!”)

Cabrera is the smartest baserunner on the team. Yes, he’s light years slower than Davis, and at some point in time the move will work. But I don’t see a reason why you would ever remove THE BEST HITTER IN BASEBALL. There is no way that Francona, or Maddon, (or Gardenhire…) make that move.

What really fires me up about this Davis for Cabrera insertion is this quote: “It didn’t work out this time. But to me, it’s a move you have to make at that point,” Ausmus said.

This “you have to make…” is the part of Ausmus that brings back frightening memories of Leyland, and scares the heck out of me. For the same reason that Ausmus left in Joba last week after giving up a 3 run bomb (and then three more hits), Ausmus has certain moves in his mind – if A then B, and he doesn’t waver from those. I seem to remember a game last year (end of the year) where the exact same scenario happened and we managed to squeeze out a win on a dribbler up the middle by Perez or an equally unaccomplished and unreliable hitter.

How about leaving your BEST PLAYER IN THE GAME. How’s that for strategy?

And we haven’t even discussed the Kinsler bunt attempts. A perennial All-Star, with Hernan Perez behind him. Goodness.

(un)Fortunately, we have 130 games left in this young 2015 season, so lots of room for Ausmus to redeem himself…right?

Baseball Reference game preview here.

Lineups coming later.

Tonight the Tigers look to bounce back after a lackluster loss in the rubber game of the three-game series against the division-leading Kansas City Royals.

That is if the weather permits–there is a 68% chance of rain predicted for game time. A rainout might not be the worst thing that ever happened: a perplexing and perhaps perplexed Shane Greene will have to keep the Royals under control since the Tigers are facing Chris “Cy” Young tonight.

How bad have the Tigers done against Young? Well the combined career average of tonight’s lineup against Young is .115 (that is not a typo, 7-for-61), with only Andrew Romine with more than 1 hit (2-for-4).

Cabrera is 5-for-16 against Young–in striking out. Not to mention it’s a night game, and Cabrera is for some reason putting up bizarrely bad numbers at night this season:

Miguel Cabrera Day:

76 PA .460 BA 1.381 OPS

Miguel Cabrera Night:

57 PA .167 BA .465 OPS

What’s the opposite of a vampire? We may have one in our midst.

* * * * * * * * * *

If you recall (well, even if you don’t, I suppose), I pointed out yesterday that Anthony Gose was the 3rd most valuable player on the team, ranked by WAR, which is incredible since he is only a platoon player. Today I thought to add the WAR of Gose and Davis to see how much our two-headed center fielder is worth, and he’s the most valuable player on the team with a WAR of 1.5 (Cabrera comes in 2nd with 1.4). Not only that, with a WAR of 1.5 our Gose-Davis guy would be 8th most valuable player in the league, although well behind Lorenzo Cain with his ridiculous 2.6 WAR. It’s a bit early in the season to care about stats like that, but still, the Gose-Davis combination has worked brilliantly so far.

* * * * * * * * * *

I’m currently wearing a Tigers t-shirt that was a gift from my mom. Happy Mother’s Day to her, and all the moms out there!

Today’s Win-One-For-Mom Lineup:

1. Anthony Gose, CF
2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. Victor Martinez, DH
5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
6. JD Martinez, RF
7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
8. James McCann, C
9. Andrew Romine, SS

Iglesias due to return on Tuesday.

Yesterday’s game was looking like it was going to be a reverse of the series in Kansas City, with the Tigers opening up with a blowout, but it turned into a close game with an unusual and exciting finish. After Gose led off the inning with a double, Ian Kinsler laid down the perfect bunt to advance him to 3rd, but and ill-advised throw to first went astray, and Gose scampered home. Nothing like a walk off bunt!

Some commenter here had voiced concerns that Kinsler had no power this season, but I’ll take a singles-hitting Kinsler, especially behind the speedy two-headed leadoff platoon. Gose and Kinsler were a combined 7-for-8 for the game, which moved Gose up to the 3rd most valuable Tiger by WAR, right behind the aforementioned Kinsler.

The win didn’t come without a price though–David Price stepped on a stray bat going to cover home and injured his hamstring, although Price is optimistic that he will recover in time for his next start.

The injury news is worse for Alex Avila, who sat out yesterday’s game with a forearm bruise, after taking a foul ball off the arm on Thursday. While he was out he had an MRI on a knee that was bothering him: “loose bodies” were found, and he is going to have surgery to remove them. He is on the 15-day DL, but will likely be out 6 weeks.The Tigers have recalled Bryan Holaday from Toledo. We will be getting a very good look at James McCann now.

Today’s It’s Somebody’s-Birthday-In-Dallas Lineup:

1. Anthony Gose, CF
2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. Victor Martinez, DH
5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
6. JD Martinez, RF
7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
8. James McCann, C
9. Andrew Romine, SS

Still no Iglesias..

Well, here we are, the 2nd big Tigers-Royals series of the season. The last time they played the Royals crushed the Tigers the first two games, then the Tigers valiantly saved a series split behind great pitching by Price and Sanchez. And guess what? The way the rotation lines up the Tigers lead off with Price and Sanchez, so I’m looking for a better start to this series.

It’s hard to say enough about what Kyle Lobstein did last night. For a #6 starter for the team, he has been far beyond what anyone could have realistically expected. Most importantly, he has pitched efficiently, logging 7-plus innings for 3 consecutive starts now, and sparing us for the horror of the Blowpen attack. Thumbs up for the Lobster.

Right-handed Victor Martinez is in full Dr. Jekyll mode now, banging out hits while the left-handed Mr. Hyde, well, makes you want to hide. So tonight he will try batting right-handed against the right-handed Ventura. Just kidding! Because, you know, he’s a switch-hitter.

In other news, the JD Martinez bat has been seen displayed on milk cartons in the Detroit area.

Tonight’s Royal Pain Lineup:

1. Anthony Gose, CF
2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. Victor Martinez, D
5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
6. JD Martinez, RF
7. Alex Avila, C James McCann, C
8. Nick Castellanos, 3B
9. Andrew Romine, SS

Jose Iglesias is still all groinish. Moustakas is out for KC with family issues; let’s wish him well.

Avila was announced as the catcher in the official lineup, and yet…that guy behind the plate is McCann. Hmm.

I did not know that: Anthony Gose is the 4th most valuable Tiger in terms of WAR, after Miguel Cabrera, Ian Kinsler, and Jose Iglesias. Pretty impressive for a platoon player!

And so the Blowpen, that creature that was almost starting to seem like a myth, rears its ugly head.

In retrospect, you could see this coming by the third inning.

Simon was holding off the White Sox, but very inefficiently, up to 60 pitches before he got the 2nd out of the inning. Clearly this was going to be a game where the bullpen would be a factor. Unfortunately, in Tuesday’s game Shane Greene couldn’t even make it through the 3rd, and the bullpen pitched the majority of the game. This left Al Alburquerque, Tom Gorzelanny, and Joba Chamberlain as the only real options for the Tigers, and with the dangerous right-handers in the Chicago lineup, and the struggles of Alburquerque, it’s hard to argue with the choice to go to Chamberlain.

Why he didn’t pull him when he was getting bombed is a mystery I can’t solve.

Oh yeah, Joba Chamberlain, he’s still on the team, right? When is the last time he pitched, anyway? (He got 2 batters on May 1 against KC). Joba was doing OK up until tonight. But he’d never gone as long as 4 games without an appearance. I know it seems that Ausmus didn’t get him out in time, but it all happened pretty fast. I do think that we may have a case of bullpen mismanagement though: surely, if you have a guy that you are going to trust to take over in a close game, you can’t let him sit for a week.

Last season Chamberlain appeared 68 times, and only 8 of them were with 4 days or more rest, and the majority of them with 0-2 days rest.

Alburquerque, by the way, has been battling sinus problems, which seems like a lame excuse for bad pitching. Then again, do any of you remember how we ended up getting him in the first place? Colorado gave up on him; besides struggling on the mound he had been struggling with headaches. The Tigers grabbed him and he got what was described as “serious dental problems” fixed, and went on to be a great reliever for Detroit.

Despite the disappointing blowpen appearance, we may look back on this game as a turning point, in a good way: Victor hit a home run. Is V-Mart back (at least right-handed)? I won’t miss that Inge-Mart guy.

Today’s Can’t Let These Clowns Sweep Us Lineup:

1. Rajai Davis, CF
2. Ian Kinsler, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
4. Victor Martinez, DH
5. Yoenis Cespedes, LF
6. JD Martinez, RF
7. Nick Castellanos, 3B
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Hernan Perez, SS

Iglesias gets another day off. Troubling.