2017 Season, Game Post

Game 2017.15: Tigers at Rays

26 Comments

We have the Most Interesting Ninth Innings in the World.

There can be 500 more double play balls hit and none of them will result in the freak ending that we had yesterday. Of course, it would have been nicer to not be in a position where we needed a double play to save the game in the 9th. Fans should get a free Tums whenever Frankie comes in; now there would be a good promotion.

Iglesias out after taking a knee to the jaw, Upton due to return Friday, JD probably next week.

Today’s Who Would Have Predicted This Lineup:

  1. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  2. Tyler Collins, RF
  3. Miguel Cabrera, DH
  4. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  5. Alex Avila, 1B
  6. James McCann, C
  7. Andrew Romine, LF
  8. Jacoby Jones, CF
  9. Dixon Machado, SS

Pitching: Daniel Norris vs Erasmo Ramirez

26 thoughts on “Game 2017.15: Tigers at Rays”

  3. This clown show in the field is going to mean that Norris is pitch-counted out by the 5th or 6th.

  4. JWilson prolly won’t be available today because heaven forbid he pitched yesterday. If he isn’t available today means he could have pitched 2 innings yesterday… But that was NEVER under consideration.. Was it Brad?!?!

  5. Collins has Casty kind of range.. Which ain’t saying much… How about at least running hard to try and get that!!

  7. Brad save time on days where you wanna play this lineup and just forfeit..
    This line up is a bad joke!

    Tigers have a Lifetime batting average against Rameriz of.351 as a team…..#notanymore!!!

  9. This weekend is why I don’t go to games out here in California any more.. Spend $3-400 on a three game series to be totally embarrassed on D… Pitching.. Hitting… Managing…. This is exactly Tigers on the West Coast. Plus my favorite…pathetic effort. Maybe they think all that water is the Pacific Ocean.. Hmmmm!

  10. I’m not throwing in the towel and do realize there are 147 games left to play, but it could be that ‘reality’ is already catching up w/this team… with fair to middling starting pitching, poor relief pitching and an average offense w/a couple of aging “stars” – and the rollercoaster ride of a season will continue w/the highs and lows and (depending on what they do at the trade deadline…i.e & if/who they “sell”) – this is probably a .500 team… plus or minus 7-10 wins – which is the type of team I thought they’d be before they got off to a pretty good start…so I guess this TAM series was the reminder I needed…to get back to reality.

    …and don’t get me started on the mgr & coaching staff

    1. Ditto. The problem also seems to be that I don’t see much you can sell if it keeps up. If Victor doesn’t pick it up, we’re stuck with him. If he does, we still won’t be able to trade him, too old and slow. It also looks like K-Rod may be finished, so that’s another hole in the pen. I love the pitching change, Soupold for Hardy. That should do it. I can see it now, we’ll sell Jimenez! I also see 500 – 3/6. I can see Iggy, JD gone in July and possibly one of the starters. It may be easier to get cheaper than better. When you decide to throw in the towel, make it a white one.

      1. Great points Tony…though i tend to think barring any key injuries, DET will remain close enough to contention up until the trade deadline so that DET won’t be sellers at the trade deadline.

        It is worth noting that Fulmer, Boyd, Norris & Jones were all added at the trade deadline (by DD) for players DET would not have re-signed as FA’s

        1. Jones looked lost in the Tampa series, in the field and at the plate. But you can see the upside, like you could with Castellanos when he first came up. And any team would love to have Fulmer, Norris, and Boyd. And Castellanos. And even McCann. So the future isn’t as bleak as some make it out to be.

  11. You know Tony, Norman and Jud are all speaking truth today….one other thing… is there a more crappy place to play ball in MLB than that Tampa place?

    1. Maybe, but our pitchers have let the ball fly out everywhere, even Comerica. Also, we handled them pretty well last year beating them 4 times in Tampa.

    2. AMEN to that Jim, and it shows by TAM’s attendance too (today 13K, yesterday 12K)…and a similar lack of fan support was also there in previous years even when TAM was playing for the AL East crown

      now retired Houston Astrodome was also a lousy place to watch a game, also TOR… Minute Maid is OK, but can’t beat baseball “outside”

    1. Terrific article, Norman. I don’t like getting bogged down in all the stats but it confirms something I’ve intuitively believed. How many times does the set-up man face the heart o the order 3-6 and then he turns the ball over to the closer who faces the weakest part of the lineup. In our own world, we often see our reliever come in and pitch a perfect inning but is not allowed to start the next inning because he’s not the set-up man or the closer. This has already happened a few times this year with bad results, just read Jud’s comments. It takes some guts and thinking out of the box to do this and Brad certainly does not do a lot of that. I think Francona is a master on pen management. The idea or mind set is that you have to take the win opportunity when it’s presented. Saving relief pitcher for tomorrow only make sense if you can predict the future. You can not predict if your pitcher will be needed the next day nor if anyone (especially Tiger pitchers) will be as good tomorrow as they are today. You will not always win, but you will have tried to, and if you do win it can not be taken away.

      1. i agree Tony, to me the ‘save’ is the most overrated stat in baseball and has led to the misallocation of a ton of pitching talent and team dollars …but agents and a the select number of pitchers (the “closers”) have profited immensely from the stat and the concept (myth).

        I can’t say as I blame “the closers” of this world…after all who wouldn’t want to paid $10M – $15M per yr to come in, bases empty and pitch one inning max per night (about 40-55 innings total per year)…and if your team has a 1-3 run lead, all you need to do is not let the opposition tie or go ahead, and MLB will honor you with “a save”?…and you get the glory of “saving” the game for your team

      2. I remember seeing a stat a while back that the number of runs scored in the first inning correlates with wins more than the number of runs scored in the last inning. So I tried to argue, only half-jokingly, that if you have a guy on your staff that pitches one shut-down inning 3 out of every 4 games, it makes more sense to use him in the FIRST inning, nail down the first inning shutout, then turn the ball over to the starter. That way you can plan in advance when he pitches, and don’t have to wait around to see how many runs you are ahead or behind before warming the guy up.

        I realize there are many reasons no one would ever do that, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense. Jim Leyland did do a split start several years back, in which he planned before the game to have 2-3 pitchers split the game. I can’t remember who, I think one of them was Dontrelle Willis.

  15. Watching Collins play right field was as painful an experience one could be punished for. Then to watch him fly out, barely getting the bat around 4 times and jog to about first base was too much. Watching Jones in this series bat was as painful as it gets. Watching Victor bat is pain………… Hey wait this is a painful. 500 team.. Right where they belong…. Plus the absolute worst part. Brad has no ability to get them to play hard.. The team is Brads personality!!… Does he even have a personality…
    You guys are all right. I forgot what we have here. Mabin was at least a catalyst.. He’s gone….
    This is a slow.. Old.. Zero emotion .500 team. With a $199,000,000 payroll.

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