3.09 ERA, .195 BA against (.570 OPS), a minuscule 0.857 WHIP, 22 strikeouts against 4 walks. The Tigers could use a guy like the in their rotation! And it seems they have him; those are Anibal’s numbers since he has returned from Toledo.
Now it’s time for Zimmermann to get back on track.
Today’s Lineup:
- Ian Kinsler, 2B
- Alex Avila, C
- Justin Upton, LF
- Miguel Cabrera, 1B
- JD Martinez, RF
- Victor Martinez, DH
- Nick Castellanos, 3B
- Mikie Mahtook, CF
- Jose Iglesias, SS
Pitching: Jordan Zimmermann vs Carlos Carrasco
Zimmerman once again razor sharp!!!.. Nice gig for about 20mil…I’m out see u tomorrow!
Nice job by Bell to get out of Zimm’s mess.
That should do it. Nice rally started but J-Up, JD and Victor strike out. Of the 9 recorded K’s at least 3 were in the strike zone. Miggy killed the last rally by GIDP.
I’m sure Francona is watching this game from the hospital and I’m happy to report the Tigers are doing nothing that might make his condition worse.
A good thing to look forward to is that the next two games will not be on FSD and I won’t be subjected to Gibby’s nonsensical comments about moon phases. And with Fulmer against Kluber Sunday,it promises to be a great pitching matchup.
Great Perry Mason episode tonight, I’ll go get ready.
Wow, a Detroit pitcher involved in a DP. That can’t happen more than once a season. Probably a moon thing.
Practically the same number of baserunners (23) as outs (24) for the Indians. That is a rare level of dismal for any pitching staff, even that of the Tigers. Plus, the hitters got to take home an Immaculate Inning, and every starter struck out at least once.
Man, Zimmermann. The Indians must be stealing signs again. Maybe it was Francona, from the hospital.
Loon: You’re absolutely right about the Tiger’s inability to get important hits. I’m not a stats guy but I’ll bet the Mudhens that have been through here this year probably have as many big hits as our “big guns”. Last night Miggy killed an early rally with a GIDP and later J-Up, JD and Victor couldn’t even put the ball in play with a rally going and no outs!
I can not explain Zimmerman. My guess it mental not physical. Maybe they can get him some time with Tony Robbins.
Not too long ago I was comparing Cabrera and Mahtook for big hits in 2017. It wasn’t very flattering to Cabrera, but on the other hand, it was a little misleading, since I was arbitrarily only examining hits that increased win probability by 13% or more. For you non-stats folks out there, those are BIG hits. 13% is not small for a single pitching/batting event.
There are stats (for hitting and pitching) you don’t need to understand deeply to appreciate as good measures of our vague notions of clutch performance, big hits or outs, and game-changing events. WPA and RE24 are among the best. Despite the different ways of calculating it and the skepticism about admittedly questionable inputs into it, WAR is also no liar about player value. For cumulative stats like these, however, you do have to adjust for time played. (It remains astounding that Jim Adduci is still on the Tigers WAR leaderboard. Adjusted for time played, he is hands down the Tigers’ 2017 MVP already.) And also remember that whatever WAR says, being on the field has value in itself. If you’re not playing, you have no value at all in respect to any particular game.
I love WPA (Winning Percentage Added) and RE24 (kind of a derivative of the former that shows how the base/out situation was improved or degraded in terms of winning chances). RE24 is sort of a Game Score as applied to batters, only less arbitrary than pitching Game Score.
The upshot: While it may seem that Miggy has done little but let us down, he is in fact no worse than #4 on the team in terms of value per plate appearance, behind only JD, Avila, and Upton. Mahtook isn’t even close, despite having a similar number (to Cabrera) of possibly memorable big hits in less PA.
Congratulations to the Detroit Tigers for making MLB History by having Casty, Mikie, and Iggy all strike out on 9 consecutive pitches.. Congrats on this amazing accomplishment…. In fact 7 consecutive batters who made outs in the 5th,6th,first out in 7th were strikeouts…… That’s our Tigers!!!
Looking forward to a great outing from JV today. It’s one of his last chances to impress a contender before the end of July. I wonder if JV would even consider giving up part of his salary/contract for just one more chance at a series ring? At his age it MUST be important to him and frankly his chances to make another series appearance as a Tiger seem very dim. I really wish him well.
As long as JV and Zimmermann stay healthy, there is hope. Perhaps we should shift our focus from the $$$ to the fact that the rotation has room for a majority of younger pitchers and will continue to. If Norris or Boyd don’t work out, the good news is that Detroit is probably done trying to fill those spots with expensive veterans. Win Now is dead, and good riddance.
Also, JV thinks he can pitch until he is 44, and it wouldn’t surprise me. I think he’ll be in another WS one way or another.
Once we are convinced we will not make a run, I’d love to see youngsters to see how they react in the “show”.
Personally, I don’t care if a player is making minimum wage or millions. I’m just interested in the result so I can enjoy Tiger baseball. If I were Chris Ilitch however I would really be pissed.
Basically we are watching a good team play a
bad team…Signed Capt. Obvious…
Our cheerleaders in the booth are getting very
tedious… C-Mo is getting a little too honest
about effort and prep… Not good for job
security… Gibby I swear has to be on something.
Baseball 101… down 2-0 …runners on 2nd and 3rd …one out..
Brantley up… count goes to 3-2…Hello…Hello…pitch around him
and make him chase… and set up a force play at all bases and
maybe a double play opportunity… I would bet there were 1,000’s of
arm chair managers throwing crap at the T.V. or just changing the channel after that episode…
It was also a well executed bullpen effort to keep us at #30 out of #30 as the worst in baseball… Embarrassing…
Sir, you are indeed Cpt. Obvious. Too bad no one on the club is.
Congrats Victor on 2000 hits…Googled top switch hitters in history…
Mickey Mantle was #1 which was not surprising… Interestingly, he hit
.330 right handed and only .280 left handed… for a .298 ave. Pete Rose was only #4 on the list…
#2 Chipper Jones
#3 Eddie Murray
#5 Frankie Frisch (1920’s)
VMart’s lifetime .299 is better than the MICK.. He has to be close to the top ten of all-time… I hope he retires with his health issues and his body breaking down… He has been a great hitter…and professional.
+1 Victor has had a great career, I would think this is his last contract.
Great article on Asmus by Mitch Albom in the Free Press.
Dated July 5th…
https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/
Nice article and much kindness for Brad in the Albom piece. For another view read the article named “Road to Nowhere” in the link above.
The Albom piece was more balanced and realistic, more of an inside baseball perspective. Totally Tigers was on the smarter and more articulate side of reactionary fandom. I’m a reactionary fan myself, with incorrect and even dumb theories about lots of things. I’m not inside baseball myself by any means. Just an observer under the influence of many other mere observers. But the blame the manager thing is a cliche I avoid. And I can’t agree with the Totally Tigers view that Ausmus needed to “hone his craft” somewhere before becoming a big league manager.
Fans wanted Leyland fired, they want Ausmus fired, and they will want the next guy fired. It never ends. There’s a need for and a certain utility about blaming or celebrating one guy or one play or one decision. But it’s never that simple. Games are 9 innings, seasons are 162 games, and the players play them and win or lose them. Managers are not the chess masters they are made out to be.
Pretty good teams that play pretty well can be losing teams. Under adverse circumstances, I think I’d rather have a level-headed manager who wasn’t grasping at straws for solutions.
This team will be all right if they can keep the eight-game losing streaks to a minimum.
Frankly, playing .500 ball might keep them in contention in our crap division. The problem is they can’t perform at that mediocre level. Even at home they are barely above .500.
Yeah, that was tongue in cheek. Detroit would have to get red-hot to make everything “all right” again. Even so, .500 ball from here on out sounds merciful. No significant losing streaks and few if any more games like this 11-2 thorough stomping would satisfy me. Keep it interesting, keep it a bit hopeful. Just keep still and no one gets hurt. Ha ha.
Matthew Boyd has done very well at Toledo in six starts and had a 3-hit complete game yesterday.
Wouldn’t mind seeing Edward Mujica get a shot at late-inning work. Send Bell down, bring Mujica up, and if it works out have Alex Wilson take a hike and bring back Bell (or whoever else).
Rough stretch for A. Wilson, last 13 appearances:
Tigers are 4-9 in those games, Wilson 0-1
Tigers are 1-7 in those games where Wilson allows runs to score (including inherited runners)
6 of 8 inherited runners have scored
Opponents batting .396 (1.109 OPS), 8.96 ERA, 2.23 WHIP
Seems like Rondon should be… well, actually he has been. He’s picked up the slack with nothing but clean 8th innings since his return, and the Tigers were 5-1 in those games. Wilson has faced more of the better offensive teams, however. And has also come into the game with danger afoot much more often than Rondon has.