All posts by billfer

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 24th

Toledo 1, Buffalo 0 (10 innings)
Jordan Tata made his second solid start in a row, allowing 6 hits and one walk in six innings. He fanned 4. Chris Spurling added two innings of scoreless relief and dropped his era to 0.93. Mark Woodyard got the win after two more scoreless innings.

Erie 5, Harrisburg 4
Kody Kirkland doubled and hit his 11th homer. Chris Maples and Kelly Hunt also added homers (Hunt doubled and singled also). Virgil Vasquez had a hard time limiting baserunners with 11 hits and 2 walks in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out 5 and allowed 4 runs.
Lakeland 11, Vero Beach 2
Jeff Frazier had two hits and a walk, and Jeff Larish added two hits also. Brent Dlugach doubled and walked twice. Dallas Trahern pitched 7 shutout innings allowing only 3 hits and a walk while K’ing 5.

West Michigan – DNP

2006 Season

Believe it or not

20 Comments

Look at what’s happened to me,
I can’t believe it myself.
Suddenly I’m up on top of the world,
Should have been somebody else.

Believe it or not I’m waking on air
I never thought I could feel so free
Flying away on a wing and a prayer
Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it’s just me.

Looks like the light of a new day,
Hit me from out of the blue.
Breaking me out of the spell I was in,
Making all of my wishes come true.

Yes I am using short lived obscure early 80’s TV theme music tonight. (Greatest American Hero for all you young’uns)

With the Tigers winning, there are some remarkable phenomena taking place. Continue reading Believe it or not →

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 46: Tigers at Royals

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PREGAME: The Tigers look to continue their 4 game winning streak in Kansas City. Jeremy Bonderman looks to rebound from a performance that was, well, awful. After only throwing 66 pitches, he should be fresh. Bonderman has been significantly better on the road this year. This will be his 6th road start, and he’s only allowed 11 runs.

Jimmy Gobble will make an emergency start for the Royals. The Tigers don’t have a lot of experience against Gobble, but outside of a 5 for 6 effort for Polanco the results haven’t been impressive.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 23rd

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Buffalo 5, Toledo 0
The Mud Hens managed 8 hits and 4 walks, yet weren’t able to score. Ryan Ludwick had a double and a single. Don Kelly added two hits. Colby Lewis allowed two homers amongst 8 hits for 5 runs. He fanned 8 and walked none in 7 2/3 innings.

Erie 14, Harrisburg 0
Humberto Sanchez had a stellar outing. He got all but the last out, allowing only 4 hits and a walk while fanning 9. Mike Rabelo had 3 hits, including 2 doubles. Kody Kirkland added a grand slam. Despite all the offense, Brent Clevlen continued to struggle going 0 for 4 with 3 K’s.

Lakeland 6, Vero Beach 5
Wilkin Ramirez hit his 5th homer. Jeff Larish added a double and Jeff Frazier picked up two hits. Jeremy Johnson came on in relief of Lance Davis and picked up a 4 inning save allowing only two hits.

West Michigan 3, South Bend 0
Ramon Garcia continues to be one of the most impressive pitchers in the Tigers system. He threw a complete game one hit shut out today and his ERA stands at 1.05. Michael Hollimon doubled and singled to lead the West Michigan offense.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 45: Tigers at Royals

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PREGAME: It will be Kenny Rogers taking on Runelvys Hernandez. Rogers will look to repeat his Kaufman Stadium Opening Day performance. Rogers will also try to prolong the scoreless streak. It stretches back to the Griffey slam in the 7th inning on Saturday.

POSTGAME Nice jinx on that scoreless streak huh? That said, it was a very nice come from behind win. More clutch hitting for everyone, with Curtis Granderson once again delivering the big blow. Rogers clearly struggled – 4 homers – to the Royals? But the bullpen completely shut the door.

As for the Royals, that game looked painfully familiar. Your offense actually hits the ball pretty well, and has a weeks worth of homers in 7 innings. Your starter is pitching a very solid game and you find yourself with a lead. Your defense has made several nice plays and not thrown the ball around. And yet you just kind of had the feeling that it wouldn’t last. That those last 9 outs wouldn’t come quick enough. Once again, all I can say is I sympathize with the plight of Royals fans.

2006 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Young to DL, Hannahan up

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Dmitri Young has been place on the disabled list. Whether or not it was his quad or his other issues limiting him, he needs time to get himself right.

Jack Hannahan will get his first major league taste in Young’s place. Hannahan is 26, bats left handed, and spent the bulk of his minor league career as a solid defensive third basemen. This year he’s been playing several infield positions. He’s had a solid year at the plate hitting 282/390/412.

2006 Season, Offense

De-emphasizing OBP

24 Comments

In the Detroit News Tiger notebook, Tom Gage points out that the Royals had a better OBP than the Tigers in May. I disagree with Gage’s take on the situation. Instead of opining that this is a glaring indication that despite the Tigers success there are still opportunities for improvement, Gage uses this information to downplay the relevancy of the statisitic.

Yes, you can get buy with a sub average OBP if you slug the bejesus out of the ball and allow a run a game less than every other team in the league. As long as you keep up those other paces, a weak OBP probably won’t be a problem. But really, do we expect to keep up those stats at the rate they are going now?

Jim Leyland also downplays OBP’s significance

“I’m not saying on-base percentage isn’t important,” manager Jim Leyland said. “It’s definitely important. But my question about a guy when I hear he has a great on-base percentage is whether he scores runs.

“If a guy walks, but can’t steal a base, can’t score on a double, can’t score on a sacrifice fly and can’t go on contact with a man on third and the infield in, that’s not good. So there’s a lot more that goes into it than merely getting on base a lot.”

So a good OBP is useless unless you’re fast?

Lost in that is the fact that with a higher on base percentage, you are making fewer outs – which is a good thing. The fewer outs you make, the more men you send to the plate, the more scoring chances you have, the more the pitcher has to work…

I have to say I’m a little discouraged to read comments like these.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 22nd

Toledo – DNP

Erie 6, Harrisburg 2
Kurt Airoso hit a homer and walked twice. Brent Clevlen was 0-3, but with 2 walks. Tony Giarratano added a triple, a single, and his 12th stolen base. Nate Bumstead went the distance for Erie. He fanned 6, walked 3, and allowed 2 runs on 3 hits.
Palm Beach 4, Lakeland 3
Kevin Whelan, who started the season so fast, couldn’t find the plae. He walked 4 while retiring one and 3 runners scored. It wasted a spectacular effort by Jair Jurrgens. Jurrgens went 7 innings and fanned 10 while walking none. Jeff Larish provided the offense with a double and 2 singles.
South Bend 4, West Michigan 0
The Whitecaps only managed 4 hits. They did receive a strong a 4 hit effort from Lucas French. French lasted 8 innings, walking 3 and striking out 2 to allow 2 earned runs.

2006 Season

Series Wrap: Reds at Tigers

The Tigers first interleague series of the year certainly wasn’t lacking in drama. After a rough outing by Jeremy Bonderman on Friday, the Tigers pieced together a couple of late inning rallies to secure back-to-back one run victories. What’s more is that they did it in front of 100,000+ enthusiastic fans.

Reds Tigers
Wins 1 2
Offense
Runs 15 12
BA .218 .279
OBP .319 .324
SLG .446 .413
HR 4 3
SB/CS 1/0 1/2
Pitching
BB/9 2.0 4.2
K/9 7.1 7.1
ERA 3.71 4.82

Continue reading Series Wrap: Reds at Tigers →

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 44: Tigers at Royals

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PREGAME The Tigers head out on the road again for a 4 game set against the Royals. The game isn’t on TV which means Justin Verlander is pitching for Detroit. It is his first appearance against the Royals. Jeremy Affeldt takes the ball for the beleagured Royals.

They have lost 9 in a row, and found themselves visitors in their own stadium when St. Louis came to town. Royals fans – at least those that remain – are imploring owner David Glass to do something, or anything for that matter. It’s only been a couple years since the Tigers were in the same position, and I think all Tiger fans can empathize.

While a sweep is certainly possible, it probably isn’t likely. For one thing, it’s tough to beat a team 4 times in a row (and 8 on the season). For another, its hard for a team to drop 13 in a row.

POSTGAME: Justin Verlander throws a complete game, 5 hit shut out. Nobody has scored on Verlander since May 10th. I believe that only 7 balls reached the outfield the entire game. I know that Jon Papelbon is the early favorite for ROY, but Verlander has to be a very close second right now.

The oddity of the game had to be contact expert Placido Polanco recording 3 strike outs. What made it stranger is that the rest of the strike out prone team only managed one.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 21st

Columbus 6, Toledo 1
With only four singles for the Hens, there aren’t really any offensive highlights. Chad Durbin went 7 innings, fanning 6 and walking none. However he allowed two homers and 6 runs.

Erie 3, Reading 1 11 innings
Chris Maples and Mike Rabelo both homered for Erie. Brent Clevlen struck out 4 times in 5 ABs. Brian Jones threw 6 scoreless innings to drop his ERA to 1.69.

Lakeland 2, Palm Beach 1 (10 innings)
Jef Larish hit a homer in the 9th inning to tie the game. It was his 6th of the year. Kevin Ardoin went 7 innings without an earned run. He allowed 6 hits and no walks while K’ing 6. Kevin Whelan got the save while allowing a walk and fanning one.

South Bend 4, West Michigan 1
Burke Badenhop had rough outing. He allowed 10 hits and 3 walks while only lasting 5 2/3 innings. Josh Rainwater came on in relief and allowed 3 runs and 7 hits in 3 1/3 innings. Pedro Cotto picked up two more hits and is now hitting .333. Dusty Ryan hit his second homer this week.