All posts by billfer

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – Jully 4th

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Toledo 10, Louisville 7
David Espinosa and Ryan Raburn both contributed a homer, a double, and a walk. Ryan Ludwick chipped in 2 homers and a triple. The newly promoted Chris Mazples added 3 hits and a walk. Colby Lewis started and allowed 5 runs in 5 innings. Mark Woodyard went 1 1/3 and allowed 2 runs before handing the ball to Lance Davis. Davis is on his 2nd tour with the Hens this season and has also pitched for Lakeland and Erie. Today he picked up the blown save and win.

Akron 2, Erie 1 (10 innings)
The Wolves only mustered 4 singles all day, so there aren’t any offensive stars. Don Kelly was sent to Erie after posting a 228/304/312 line in Toledo. Virgil Vasquez went 8 strong innings allowing only 1 run on 8 hits, no walks, and 5 K’s.

Clearwater 8, Lakeland 5
Clete Thomas was 2 for 4 and is now hitting .258. Andrew Kown allowed 10 hits and 4 walks, but they resulted in only 5 runs (4 earned).

West Michigan 5, Lansing 3
Cameron Maybin was 3 for 4 including his 3rd homer of the season. Lucas French allowed 3 runs on 9 hits, no walks, and 4 K’s. Orlando Perdomo pitched a scoreless 9th striking out one.

Vermont 5, Oneonta 3
Jeff Kunkel getting the start at DH doubled in 4 at-bats while catcher Jordan Newton was 1 for 2 with 3 walks. Jeff Gerbe allowed 5 runs in 5 innings. Casey Fien threw 3 scoreless innings allowing 3 hits.

GCL Tigers-DNP

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 84: Tigers at Athletics

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PREGAME One year ago today, a hot shot pitching prospect made his major league debut – and didn’t pitch well. Today, that same pitching prospect is a rookie of the year candidate and has a very real shot at making the All Star game. (speaking of which, what have you done to get Justin Verlander to the All Star game today?)

Justin Verlander will make his second start against the A’s this season. His first effort was solid, but resulted in a loss due to 2 Carlos Guillen errors and 2 Nick Swisher homers.

Verlander will be opposed by Dan Haren who the Tigers missed back in April.

Happy 4th of July to everyone, especially those men and women who work to protect our freedoms and independence.

Game Time 5:05pm

POSTGAME: To quote Jim Price, “Oh those base on balls.” They came back to haunt Fernando Rodney as arche-nemesis Jay Payton did in the Tigers again. To both Payton and Rodney’s credit, the hit that won it came on a pretty good pitch on the outer edge of the plate. The Tigers didn’t lose because of Rodney though. Okay, he helped, but the offense that could barely muster a scoring threat was as much to blame.

Of the Tigers 6 hits, 4 came from back-up players. The only starters to look comfortable at the plate were Carlos Guillen and Chris Shelton. Each gathered a hit, but also contributed in other at-bats as well. Carlos Guillen drew a walk, and Shelton hit a ball well enough to plate a run early in the game. The trouble was it was a one-hop smash right at Bobby Crosby.

The Tigers have another afternoon tilt tomorrow as they look to avoid the sweep.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – July 3rd

Toledo 4, Indianapolis 3
Don Kelly was 2 for 4 with a double and Josh Phelps homered. Humberto Sanchez started and went 7 innings. He allowed 2 runs on 6 hits with 1 walk and 4 strike outs. He made it through the 7 innings on 85 pitches, 59 for strikes. Bobby Seay pitched a scoreless inning and Chris Spurling picked up the save despite allowing 2 hits, a walk, and a run in one inning of work. In other news Jordan Tata was named International League player of the week.

Reading 9, Erie 6
Nook Logan and Tony Giarratanto each picked up 2 hits. Logan added 2 stolen bases as well. Brent Clevlen was 1 for 3 with a walk. Nate Bumstead was knocked around for 5 runs (2 earned) on 5 hits and 3 walks. He only lasted 4 2/3 innings. Ian Ostlund also struggled and allowed 4 runs in 2 2/3 innings.

Lakeland 6, Sarasota 0
Nick McIntyre and Chris Robinson both turned in 3 for 3, one walk performances. Gil Meija homered and walked twice. Jeff Larish added his 14th homer of the year. Eddie Bonine made his first start and pitched 4 scoreless, 2 hit innings. PJ Finigan followed with 2 scoreless to pick up the win.

Sarasota 1, Lakeland 0
Kevin Ardoin pitched 6 innings and allowed only 4 hits, but one of them was a solo homer. He walked none and struck out none. The L-Tigers only managed 3 hits of their own.

West Michigan 10, Lansing 8
Michael Hollimon homered twice and is now hitting 277/391/449. Wil Rhymes added a homer, a double, and a single in 6 at-bats. Cameron Maybin was 2 for 3 with 2 walks. Burke Badenhop was hit hard for 6 runs, 5 earned, on 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Oneonta 8, Vermont 7
Scott Sizemore continues to rake and he added 2 more hits. In 13 games he’s hitting 375/397/536. Former University of Michigan catcher Jeff Kunkel picked up 3 hits. Chris Cody started and went 6 innings. He allowed one run on 6 hits, no walks, and 4 strike outs. Randor Bierd continues to struggle and was touched for 3 runs in 1 2/3 innings.

GCL Indians 1, GCL Tigers 0
Gorkys Hernandez doubled and singled in 4 at-bats. The 18 year old Hernandez is hitting 417/431/583 with 12 stolen bases and 1 caught stealing in 12 games. Christian Martinez went 6 innings and fanned 5 while walking none and limiting the hits to 4.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 83: Tigers at Athletics

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PREGAME Interleague play is done. The DH is back, and no more pulling an effective pitcher after 5 innings for a pinch hitter. The Tigers return to Oakland for the second time this season. The first was pretty memorable in that it came on the heels of Jim Leyland ripping into his team after a lackluster effort against Cleveland. The series wrap-up also came was accomplished in dramatic come from behind fashion.

The middle game of that series featured an 11-4 drubbing. The starter in that game was Joe Blanton who the Tigers will face tonight. Placido Polanco went off for 4 hits and Carlos Guillen added 3.

The Tigers will send out Nate Robertson and his AL 5th best ERA.

POSTGAME: Not a bad effort, just a bad result. The Tigers got hits, but just not all strung together. Nate pitched okay, but for some reason couldn’t get the ball over to Jason Kendall. Also, he never got that strike on the inside corner to right handers that Joe Blanton struck Magglio Ordonez out on.

Two key situations where the Tigers failed came to mind. The first was in the first inning when with runners on 1st and 3rd, Ordonez hit a broken bat double play ball, thus circumventing a possible big inning. The second was one inning later, when with runners again at the corner, Brandon Inge swings at a 3-0 pitch and pops it up. I’m not opposed to swining 3-0, but make it count.

2006 Season

Holiday Weekend Catch-up

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I enjoyed a couple of days on Lake Huron, away from an internet connection and Fox Sports Detroit. You probably noticed there were no minor league wraps, and the game posts were pretty vanilla with no post game analysis. Fortunately there is a great group of commentors here and the community kept the site interesting (this is normally the case). So thanks for picking me up this weekend. With that, my thoughts on the Pirates series and the All Star selections

The Pirates Series

Focus? Fatigue? Luck? In any case the Tigers probably played their worst series since the 4 games against the Yankees. Fortunately, I guess, I didn’t see Sunday’s game. But from all accounts the late innings were a continutation of the previous night. So the Tigers managed 2 one-run victories and were on the losing end of a blow-out to the worst team in the National League. Definitely not good times.

But…The Tigers still took the series. The Tigers still have the best record in baseball. We’re complaining about the way they are winning games. It is a wonderful luxury. Plus they got fine outings from Jeremy Bonderman and Zach Miner. Plus Chris Shelton is showing signs of life as he went 5 for 10 with 2 walks and two homers. Plus in these 2 one-run victories, they had built up big leads and were trying to hold off the other team. I like that way better than having to come from behind.

So it was an ugly series, but complaining about taking 2 of 3 is still a pretty good deal.

The All Stars

I was stunned to see Pudge Rodriguez slide past Jason Varitek as the starter. I know that Joe Mauer is by far the best catcher this year, but with the Twins being a non-entity until the last month, Mauer didn’t have a lot of time to build cachet.

Also, I’m not surprised to see that Kenny Rogers made the team and I’m happy for him. All 4 of the Tiger starters were worthy and Jeremy Bonderman’s June was every bit as good as Liriano’s. That’s why I’m happy to see that Justin Verlander still has a shot. While I’d like to see him get rest, I’d much rather see him make the team. I’m with Eddie and I encourage you to rock the Verlander vote.

And for those that thought Magglio Ordonez deserved to go, one could certainly make a case for him. But I don’t think his slighting is near the magnitude of Travis Hafner’s. Furthermore, Danny Knobler reports that Maggs is the first alternate in the event an AL outfielder is unable to perform his All Star duties.

One minor league tidbit

Jon Connolly was promoted to Erie and made his first start yesterday. His first 5 innings were scoreless and he was touched for one run in the 6th. He started the 7th, but didn’t record an out and was charged with 5 more runs.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 82: Tigers at Pirates

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PREGAME: Ah, the rubber game. Zach Miner takes the hill for Detroit and he’ll be opposed by Ian Snell. Snell has struck out 7.15 batters per nine innings this year, but he’s only fanned 9 in his last 3 starts (16 2/3 innings).

And in the irony/coincidence department, Chris Shelton is of course facing the team that left him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft. The Pirates let him go because his defense wasn’t good enough for the NL. Shelton has made 3 of his 4 errors this season in the last 2 games. One can’t help but wonder if he’s pressing, or if it’s just one of those things.

Game Time 1:05pm.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 81: Tigers at Pirates

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PREGAME: The Tigers look to make it 8 in a row and they have a favorable pitching match-up. Jeremy Bonderman who loved June, will take on Tom Gorzelanny. There isn’t much to know about about Gorzelanny. He’s making only his 2nd start and 3rd appearance.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: That was a stinker. Lot’s of guys left on base, lot’s of opportunities with men in scoring position, 3 consecutive errors leading to a 7 run 7th inning…

If you’re looking for positives there were a couple. Jeremy Bonderman looked good again. Also, the bullpen came in and did their job. They kept inducing ground balls, they just weren’t being converted to outs. Also, while the team was awful with men in scoring position, I guess the good news is that they had at one point, 10 at-bats with RISP in the first 5 innings.

An ugly loss certainly isn’t a way to cap the end of the first half of the season. However, I think I’ll choose to focus on the 55-26 record instead.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 30th

Toledo 7, Indianapolis 0
Jordan Tata was spectacular tonight. He threw 7 scoreless innings, fanning 11 and walking none. He did throw 119 pitches, 80 for strikes. Dustin Mohr was 2 for 4 and Maxim St. PIerre homered and walked. Ryan Ludwick also hit his 13th homer. Daivd Espinosa was 0 for 2 but walked 3 times and stole 2 bases.

Erie 5, Reading 3
Nook Logan was 3 for 5 with 2 stolen bases. Bobby Jones walked 3, struck out 3, allowed 3 runs on 6 hits in 6 innings.

Clearwater 2, Lakeland 1
Jeff Larish and Jeff Frazier each walked and singled in 4 plate appearances. Dallas Trahern pitched a complete game and allowed 2 runs on 5 hits with one walk and one strikeout.

West MIchigan 4, Wisconsin 1
Michael Hernandez homered and doubled. Michael Hollimon and Cameron Maybin both singled, walked and stole a base. Sendy Vasquez pitched 6 innings allowing the lone run while fanning 5 and walking 1.

Lowell 4, Oneonta 2
Scott Sizemore continues to rake as he picks up a single, and his first homer. Zach Piccola was touched for 4 runs in 3 2/3 innings.

GCL Phillies 3, GCL Tigers 2

2006 Season, Pitching, Players

Jeremy’s June

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Everybody has been waiting for Jeremy Bonderman’s “arrival” for the last few years. Early in the season Bonderman vacillated between really good, and well, not very good. For a spell in late April and early May he was arguably the worst pitcher in the Tigers rotation. But with the arrival of the month of June, he hasn’t only been the best pitcher on the league’s best staff, he was amongst the best in baseball.

Continue reading Jeremy’s June →

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 80: Tigers at Pirates

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PREGAME: If the Tigers win tonight, they will match the pace of the 1984 Tigers. It would also give them their first 20 win month since 1979. The matchup certainly looks favorable with Kenny Rogers taking of Kip Wells.

Wells is making just his 3rd start of the season after coming back from surgery to repair an artery in his shoulder. He was knocked around for 5 hits as he stuggled to find the plate (5 walks, no strikeouts) in his last outing which lasted only 3 1/3 innings.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME You know things are going well when your team wins, and you are ready to criticize them. The offense was active early, which was fortunate because Kenny Rogers was getting hit hard. The early 7-2 lead was chipped away throughout the game. Meanwhile, the Tigers offense went to sleep. They were swinging early and often in the later innings, and never really threatened after the 5th inning. And then there were a couple of errors by Shelton.

But there were also a lot of little things to like:

  • Roman Colon was very good in relief. He faced 6 hitters, and allowed only a single while fanning 2
  • I haven’t been a big fan of the Alexis Gomez-as-a-defensive-replacement-for-Thames strategy, but I’m pretty sure Thames wouldn’t have reached that ball in the 9th
  • Curtis Granderson has been very clutch with the bat this season, tonight he was clutch with the glove.
  • Todd Jones had another nice outing. It was more interesting than you’d hope for, but it wasn’t his doing. He should also receive credit for helping to induce that bunt pop-out.
2006 Season

Dmitri, Gum, and a bunch of other links

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  • Dmitri Young talked with Rob Parker abouth is battle with alcoholism and his journey back. Young is facing a battle on 2 fronts. He has to overcome his off the field issues, and show that he deserves a spot on the team and in the starting lineup. It’s interesting that the Phillies and Brett Myers have received a lot of flack for their handling of Myers’s spousal abuse situation. Yet the Tigers and Young haven’t felt the same wrath. Maybe it’s because Young’s incident didn’t happen in front of a throng of people, or maybe it’s because Young has been MIA since the incident. In any case, the Tigers need to speak about their stance on the issue. I know there are legal ramifications for Young, but the organization can’t appear to condone the alleged behavior.
  • On a lighter note, Nate Robertson has started a Gum Time blog. At first I thought the gum thing was funny. It was a bunch of guys making millions of dollars acting like little leaguers – which is cool. I think at this point it’s a little silly, but who am I to mess with what works.
  • All 4 of the Tigers starters (I’m not counting Maroth/Miner) have allowed exactly 94 hits. This is insignificant but mildly interesting at the same time.
  • The Hardball Times has a nice piece on the Tigers success thus far. This looks to be part of a series so keep checking back.
  • The Baseball Crank took a look at how proficient teams are at not losing their baserunners by looking at GIDP, CS, SB, SH. Three teams that have been doing very well this year, the Mets, White Sox, and Reds, are at the top of the list. The Tigers however are in the bottom 3rd, which just shows there more than one way to skin a cat. In the Tigers case it comes back to pitching, defense and power.
  • Keith Law at ESPN Insider ranks the top 10 rookie pitchers. The top 4 are Francisco Liriano, Jon Papelbon, and then Zumaya and Verlander. I was a little surprised to see Zumaya ranked ahead, but I agree with Law when he says

    But unless there’s a compelling physical reason to make his move to the bullpen permanent, the Tigers should let Zumaya start and move him only if he pitches his way out of the rotation.

  • The Tigers have asked about Cliff Floyd, but the Mets aren’t sending him anywhere.