The Tigers limp into the All-Star break with one last chance to take one from the Indians. The Tigers have Michael Fulmer on the mound, but even if he’s at his best, the Tigers will still need to manage a run or two.
Today’s Lineup:
- Kinsler, 2B
- Avila, C
- Upton, LF
- Cabrera, 1B
- JD Martinez, RF
- V Martinez, RF
- Castellanos, 3B
- Presley, CF
- Iglesias, SS
Kluber.. Can hardly wait… 3-0 Indians…. 10 Ks…. 3 hits Pussycat… Then break…. BRAD will announce.. He’s not worried because this team is gonna hit…. And furthermore, we are a second half team!!!…
Here’s to you, Michael Fulmer-o. A stagnant offense turns its eyes to you. Woo woo woo.
How many times this year has Fullmer left the dugout 1-0 in his favor…maybe April..but not many times lately it seems!.
Why do three announcers think they need to talk ..non stop during entire game. Gibby is bad enough, these three guys never shut up!..All 3 think they need to comment every pitch or maybe they think they will be replaced!
These guys may be paid by the word. At least they are not talking about moon phases, dogs or being positive when your down by 9 runs in the 9th.
Kinsler .242…23 RBI….zero help…..VMart..5 RBI in 6 WEEKS…zero help….McCann…zero help…..the list goes on and on……….
At least we got Kluber out of the game, didn’t hurt his ERA much though. Now if Fulmer can put up another 6 zeros, we have a shot.
Mudhen comes through again, Iggy big game. Fulmer complete game?
Elvis is in the house… Multiple RBI….
Fulmer went south in a hurry. Glad they lifted him before he can get the loss.
What a job by Greene! Fulmer went out to thank him.
Greene…. Wow!.. That’s more like it!
Some more serious pitching! FROM THE PEN!
Let the real game… Begin!
To quote Jud: WOW! Great job by both Greene and especially JWillie. 5 out save, Fulmer’s buying! Another piece of good news: We don’t have to share the basement with the White Sox during the break.
Fullmer.. And the Pen!!!!.. Might be best game of the year..Pitching and solid D… Iggy and Presley on O…..
If you didn’t watch Kinsler.. Miggy.. JUp.. Victor.. Casty all bat. All together stranded 15..business as usual.
It’s no surprise that not hitting a home run will hurt your chances of winning, but I was struck by the MLB.com mention of how the Detroit Tigers have fared in games where they did not hit a home run, and decided to look around the AL Central:
Cleveland 11-16
Minnesota 9-17
Chicago 10-23
Kansas City 8-21
Detroit 2-24
Striking is an understatement, no? Consider this when contemplating a trade of J.D. Martinez. Power-wise, his is the only Tiger bat there is to be afraid of, consistently. Upton isn’t even in the same league. Yes, I know that he is in the same league, technically speaking.
Fire sale? Not in that position relative to the market. Salary dump? Maybe after the season, not now. Prospect haul? This isn’t 2015, when the Tigers had Price, Cespedes, and Soria.
The Tigers could drive a hard bargain for JD and Justin Wilson, and that’s about it. The rest of the season looks pretty bleak if they do. I suppose they could also sell high on Alex Avila. Might as well.
Detroit should eat $5MM and trade Anibal Sanchez at the earliest opportune moment.
Rest V-Mart (especially) and Cabrera more often.
Whatever it takes to unload Zimmermann and Victor after the season, do it.
Buy out of Kinsler and look to the future.
Move Castellanos to DH-1B or trade him for pitching.
Tigers record by starting catcher:
2-2 Hicks
21-23 McCann
15-24 Avila
Tigers record by starting CF:
7-6 Presley
9-8 Jones
10-9 Collins
8-13 Mahtook
4-13 Romine
Strange how Jones just disappeared, considering how high the Tigers were on his potential. I would guess there is something going on that we don’t know about. If I had to speculate, perhaps getting hit in the face has affected him at the plate. It happens.
I tend to agree. He was, no doubt, our best glove in CF. It is suspicious that they haven’t even brought him up for a game or two.
Jones is doing OK at Toledo, not exactly tearing it up, but then when did he? He has no solid minor league track record at all. I don’t know about the glove since I haven’t seen him playing CF, but the hitting for Detroit 2017 was absolutely brutal.
Doesn’t Jones have a PED suspension in his past? Maybe knowing that Daniel Stumpf does has confused me.
The Tigers were cursed in a number of ways by getting involved with Joakim Soria (such a nemesis when he was with the Royals), and Jones may be one of them. His rise to appointed darling of the AFL seemed rather sudden. Hype, man. The Tigers have rushed their share of players to the bigs, and Verlander is the only unqualified success story I can think of.
The Toledo stats by themselves don’t indicate that Jones is especially affected at the plate by the incident.
By the way, I hear that Anthony Goes has kinda wrecked his elbow. Not sure how serious.
My comment about him being the best outfielder was stolen by me from Al Kaline. That’s good enough for me. Brutal is a good way to describe his at bats with the Tigers.
Did Kaline credit you?
By way, it was “drug of abuse” for Jones, maybe Stumpf, too. I see “suspension” and somehow imagine/remember “PED.” Drug of abuse. No idea what that means. Doesn’t seem that important on the face of it, but missing the time undoubtedly is.
In retrospect, it is also odd that they passed on Gose in favor of Jones so readily. Gose was pretty good in CF, wasn’t he? Maybe they didn’t like his attitude.
I just want to clear up a point you made about the comments I made about Jacoby Jones being our best outfielder. Perhaps I did not express myself properly. It was Al Kaline (not me) that made the statement that Jacoby Jones was our best outfielder. I only quoted him. He made the statement on an FSD broadcast during (I believe) a March or early April televised game. Unfortunately, Jones couldn’t hit a lick when he was inserted at CF. As far as Gose, his .206 batting average this year and so-so fielding may have contributed to his demotion. In any case, lest we forget, the whole CF mess was created by Big Al when he gave away Maybin for nothing.
I found a bunch of ticket discount codes Stubhub:
I think Stubhub has gotten stingier with them since the recession. They blocked PromoCodeLand (which used to have them):
and most my google searches came up empty