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2006 Season, Game Post

Game 75: Cardinals at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers didn’t appear too intimidated by Chris Carpenter last night, and hopefully they can keep the sticks going as they take on Jeff Suppan. Magglio Ordonez, one of the heroes of last night’s game, is the only current Tiger with a significant number of at-bats against Suppan. Ordonez is 15 for 40 with two dingers lifetime against Suppan.

Kenny Rogers looks for win number 201 in his career, and for Detroit’s 50th. Rogers has been spectacular in June. Over 4 starts he has gone 30 innings and allowed only 6 runs, and only 25 baserunners.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: And a good time was had by all…

Well, maybe not the pitchers as home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski had a very small strike zone. For pitchers like Kenny Rogers and Jeff Suppan who don’t have overpowering stuff, the absence of all borderline strikes can make things rough.

But enough about the ump, how about Curtis Granderson. He reaches base 5 times and comes around to score 3 times including the 9th and 10th innings.

How about Marcus Thames to tie it up. This game felt very reminiscent of the Saturday night Reds game. After the dinger we just knew the Tigers would find a way.

How about Roman Colon, Jamie Walker, Jason Grilli, and Joel Zumaya shutting the door. The latter 3 recorded the last 8 outs on only 23 pitches.

How about Carlos Guillen reaching base in all 5 trips tonight. That’s beneficial when he’s hitting behind Ordonez who picked up 3 hits himself.

How about Vance Wilson going yard for the 2nd time this week.

And of course how about Placido Polanco shooting the gap, and getting official scored out of a triple.

There were a ton of stars tonight and over 42,000 on hand to witness it. A good time was had by all.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 23rd

Syracuse 6, Toledo 4
Humberto Sanchez had a rougher go this outing. He allowed 2 runs in each of the first 2 innings, but then settled down. His final numbers were 6 innings, 9 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk, and 8 strike outs. Kevin Hooper was 2 for 2 with 2 stolen bases.

Reading 4, Erie 2
Brent Clevlen was 2 for 4 and Kelly Hunt and Jackson Melian added homers. Preston Larrison started and went 7 innings allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks and one strike out.

Dunedin 3, Lakeland 2
Clete Thomas and Wilkin Ramirez tripled, but that wa sit for offensive highlights. Ramirez also made his 22nd error of the season. Eddie Bonine allowed all 3 runs (2 earned) in 6 2/3 innings. PJ Finigan went the remainder of the game allowing a hit and a walk.

West Michigan 2, Burlington 0
Michael Hollimon was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles. Justin Justice and Dusty Ryan picked up 2 hits as well. Cameron Maybin saw his average drop below .300 for the first time this year (I think) with an 0 for 4, 2 K night. Burke Badenhop shutout Burlington for 7 innings on only 5 hits.

Oneonta 8, Lowell 5
Santo De Leon was 3 for 4 with a double and Scott Sizemore tripled and singled in 5 at-bats. Casey Fien pitched 3 scoreless innings and secured the win. Randor Bierd was tagged for 2 unearned runs as he allowed 2 hits while fanning 2 in an inning of work. Fourteenth round pick Brett Jensen secured his 2nd save.

GCL Tigers 15, GCL Indians 5
Audy Ciriaco hit a grand slam in the 1st inning to set the tone in this one.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 74: Cardinals at Tigers

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PREGAME: Okay, so this is another one of those pretty cool interleague matchups. This one of course evokes memories of 1968 and the two teams’ epic World Series battle.

Today’s game features a tremendous pitching match-up with ROY candidate Justin Verlander and last year’s Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter.

Game time 7:05 (that’s for you Jeff)

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 22th

Toledo 9, Syracuse 4
Max St Pierre was 3 for 5 and Jack Hannahan was 2 for 5. Nook Logan doubled, singled, and walked twice in 4 plate apperances. Chad Durbin struck out 7 in 7 innings while allowing one run. Chris Spurling allowed an uncharacteristic run in one inning of work on a solo homer.

Erie 6, Reading 5
Jair Jurrgens pitched 7 strong innings allowing only 4 hits and two walks while fanning 4. Two of those strikeouts came in the 7th when he allowed a single and double to set up a 2nd and 3rd no out situation. He fanned the next two and induced a groundball for the 3rd out. Eulogio De La Cruz almost gave the game away with 4 hits and 2 walks in one inning of work. Mike Rabelo and Danilo Sanchez homered in multi-hit games.

Lakeland 2, Dunedin 1
Jeff Larish was 2 for 3 and Wilkin Ramirez doubled in 3 at-bats. Kevin Ardoin went 8 1/3 with 4 K’s and the only run coming on a solo homer. Kevin Whelan picked up the last 2 outs for the save.

West Michigan 8, Burlington 4
Michael Hernandez was 3 for 5 with a double and a homer. Matt Joyce doubled twice. Cameron Maybin was 0 for 4 with a walk and 2 K’s. Erik Averill allowed 4 runs, 1 earned, in 5 innings with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. Josh Rainwater allowed a walk and hit in two innings with 5 of the 6 outs coming via the strikeout.
Oneonta 4, Tri-City 3
Brandon Timm was 1 for 3 with a triple. Ron Bourquin singled and walked in 4 plate appearances.

GCL Yankees 5, GCL Tigers 0

2006 Season, Offense, Pitching, Statistics

Distributing the Runs

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Last year Dave Studemund of the Hardball Times had a couple interesting posts taking a closer look at how many runs a team scores a game. This isn’t looking at average runs a game, but how many runs they score (and conversely allow) in each game. What Studes found is that consistency in scoring 2-6 runs is most important. At the time of the study, the White Sox average runs per game were a half run below average, but they very rarely were held to less than 2 runs. I found the study interesting enough to perform last year for the Tigers, and I’ll repeat it this year.
Continue reading Distributing the Runs →

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 21st

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Toledo – DNP

Erie 9, Reading 3
The Seawolves beat up on Phillies starter Randy Wolf who was on a rehab assignment. Vnicent Blue was 2 for 4 with a walk and Chris Maples was 1 for 3 with 2 walks. Mike Rabelo added a single and double in 5 AB’s. Brent Clevlen was 0 for 5 with 4 K’s. Virgil Vasquez went 6 1/3 innings scattering 5 hits and a walk and allowing only 3 runs. He also struck out 5. Kurt Airoso left the game with an injury.

Lakeland 2, Fort Myers 1Jon Connolly made it through 8 innings allowing only 4 hits and 2 walks before being lifted in the 9th. An unearned run ended up scoring, but that was the extent of the damage. Like the Connolly of old, he did it without missing bats as he fanned only 3. Kevin Whelan and Danny Zell combined to preserve the win in the 9th. Clete Thomas doubled and walked and Jeff Larish added a double in 4 at bats.

West Michigan – DNP. In a roster move Lavon Lewis was released and Loren Fraser was promoted from extended spring training.

Tri-City 11, Oneonta 4
Brennan Boesch had his coming out party with a 3 for 4 night including 2 doubles and a homer. Boesch was the Tigers 3rd Round pick this year from Cal State. Randor Bierd who had success at West Michigan last year, is coming back from injury and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits in 2/3 of an inning.

GCL Braves 7, GCL Tigers 3

Front Office, Uncategorized

News and Links and Such

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Stuff of note from the last couple days:

  • The Daily Fungo did an interview with Lynn Henning. It is available as a podcast.
  • There’s a new Tiger blog called Tigers Thoughts. It is written by a couple of very guys who are very knowledgable about the Tigers system (and occasional commentors here) and their early posts focus on Colby Lewis, Humberto Sanchez, and the lack of position players. Bookmark this site.
  • The Tigers continue to add to their research and development team. They’ve been infusing the scouting ranks over the last 18 months. Earlier they let long time Latin America coordinator Ramon Pena go. Now they have hired Ramon Perez to head the efforts in the Dominican Republic. He’s done similar work for the Astros and Dodgers since 1985.

    Where Ramon Pena was pretty much responsible for all of Latin America, the Tigers now have specific people assigned to DR and Venezuela along with a director of International scouting.

  • Humberto Sanchez and Cameron Maybin will be participating in the Future’s Game on All Star Sunday. This will be a great chance for Tiger fans to see two of the top (and really probably the top two) prospects in the Tigers system.
2006 Season, Game Post

Game 73: Tigers at Brewers

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PREGAME The Tigers look for a sweep of the Brewers, and the road trip. Nate Robertson, who has been good, will take on Chris Capuano, who is also good. Sorry that’s all I have right now. Off to a meeting.

POSTGAME: Eh, what are you gonna do? It’s hard to get too upset about a loss after 6 straight wins. The Tigers had an unusual lineup to say the least and went up against a pretty good pitcher.

I just feel bad for Nate Robertson who did his part. The first two runs he allowed were the result of errors. He knocked in a run on his own. And his bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.

Oh well. Let’s come home and bring on the Cardinals.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – June 20th

Rochester 7, Toledo 1
It was another average outing for Jordan Tata. He allowed 4 runs in 6 innings on 7 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5. Mark Woodyard allowed 3 runs in 2 innings of relief work. The Hens offense only mustered 4 hits.

Erie 4, Reading 3
Kurt Airoso was 2 for 4 and Mike Rabelo was 2 for 3. Nate Bumstead allowed 3 runs in 6 innings. He walked 3 and struck out 2.

Fort Myers 11, Lakeland 3
Jeff Frazier was 2 for 4 with his 7th homer. Chris Robinson has been swining the bat well and his 2 for 3 raised his average to .271. Jeremy Johnson was hit hard allowing 7 runs and two homers in 3 1/3 innings. Control was also a problem with 4 walks against 2 strikeouts.

MWL All Star Game: The game featured only 2 appearances by Whitecaps. Michael Hollimon was 0 for 1 and Orlando Perdomo retired the 2 batters he faced.

Oneonta 7, Tri-city 6
The new draft picks are here! Scott Sizemore was 2 for 4 and Ronnie Bourquin was 1 for 4.

2006 Season

Get your Tiger Tickets – Now!

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Tiger tickets are going fast, and there won’t be much of a chance to see them at Comerica in the near future.

The Tigers have a 6 game homestand coming up in which they should draw close to 200,000. They’ve already sold 100k for the St. Louis series, and with Clemens likely to pitch for Houston one of those game stands a good chance of selling out. So if you don’t have tickets for this homestand, you might want to get down to the box office in the next day or so.

And if you miss the Tigers this homestand, you’re out of luck for a while. The Tigers head on the road for a 9 game road trip which is then followed by the All Star Break. So the Tigers won’t be home again until July 13th. They will then play their only 10 home games in March. In fact, after the upcoming homestand only 10 of their next 29 games are at home.

Now it may be rough for the Tigers, and fans, and ticket sales, but it could prove helpful come September when the Tigers play 17 of their final 28 at home. In fact 25 of their last 42 will be played in Detroit. If the Tigers are in a pennant race the team and ticket sales should definitely benefit.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 72: Tigers at Brewers

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PREGAME: The Zach Miner show comes to Milwaukee. Miner has proven to be a pretty capable replacement for Mike Maroth against some tough offenses. Things won’t get easier tonight, or even going forward, as the film library on Zach becomes more robust.

He’ll be facing Rick Helling who makes his first start of the season after coming back from elbow problems.

Craig Monroe will take Marcus Thames’s spot in the lineup as he makes his first start since Wednesday.

POSTGAME: Well at least that Zach Miner film library isn’t getting a lot of footage of guys having success against him. Awesome outing by Miner, and of course it was a slight disappointment he couldn’t get the shut out as well.

The Tigers went long ball crazy again and Jeremy Bonderman can’t help but wonder why an offense that hits 12 homers in 3 games can’t get give him a little run support.

And while the White Sox won again, the other team that is matching the Tigers blow for blow is the Twins. While the Indians may be wilting, the Twins are doing their best to make things interesting. I don’t think things will be as easy the next time they meet up.