It’s good to be a Tiger fan. That’s not a sentence that has been said very often over the last decade, but at the end of a 16-9 start to the season, everything is positive.
While there will be probably be a ton of factoids in tomorrow’s paper, here’s what I was able to dig up: Continue reading April 2006 – a month to remember
PREGAME: After outscoring the Twins 27-1 in the first two games of the series, the Tigers look to complete the sweep. Kenny Rogers will face Kyle Lohse in the final game of the series.
Loshe, like the other Twins starters, has struggled in the early going. Because the Twins bullpen has thrown 249 pitches over the last two games, Lohse will probably be expected to carry the load, regardless of how he pitches.
Some interesting splits on Lohse so far this year:
POSTGAME Can it really get any better than this? A 6-0 shutout finished up the sweep of the Twins. I was at the game with my kids, so many of you probably had a better view than I did, even if you were listening on the radio. While the top of the order struggled, the bottom 3 of Craig Monroe, Marcus Thames, and Vance Wilson combined for 7 of the team’s 9 hits and 5 of the 6 RBI.
My favorite moment of the game was probably Wilson’s bases loaded double. The fact that it came right after Marcus Thames was plunked definitely gave it that “revenge” feel.
I’ll have the series wrap tomorrow.
Louisville 6, Toledo 5
David Espinsoa has worked his way into the leadoff spot. Coming into tonight his OBP was 414. That actually fell a little as he doubled and walked in 5 plate appearances. Josh Phelps homered twice. Colby Lewis allowed 5 runs in six innings. He struck out 6, but allowed 3 homers.
Erie 1, Binghamton 0
Humberto Sanchez threw 7 shut out innings. He allowed 5 hits and struck out 13 to lower his ERA to 1.50. Kody Kirkland picked up the only extra base hit for Erie with a double, but he struck out in his other 3 at-bats.
Lakeland 5, Clearwater 2
Jeff Frazier hit a grand slam home run. Jeff Larish added two singles. Kevin Ardoin picked up the win after 7 2/3 innings. Ardoin allowed 5 hits and two runs while striking out 8 and walking no one. Kevin Whelan pitched a scoreless 9th for his 6th save.
West Michigan 2, Wisconsin 0 (5 innings)
Ramon Garcia went “the distance” with a one hitter. He struck out 6 and walked one. Cameron Maybin got the start at DH and doubled. Cory Middleton and Justin Justice doubled as well.
PREGAME: The Tigers go for two in a row against the Minnesota Twins at 1:05pm. Justin Verlander will try for his first Comerica Park win. He faced the Twins last year and lost at home, and of course was beat around by the White Sox earlier this year. He’ll be opposed by groundball pitcher Carlos Silva. Silva made his mark last year by getting through innings very efficiently. However he posts and 8.33 ERA coming into today.
Craig Monroe went 2 for 5 yesterday, but that’s nothing new against the Twins. Monroe sports a .360 average against the Twins which is tops among active players.
Historically against Silva, Carlos Guillen has hit .450 in 20 at-bats. Brandon Inge and Monroe are also .300+ hitters against Silva. Ivan Rodriguez has only managed a .174 average in 23 at-bats, but I’d expect Vance Wilson to get the start anyways. EDIT: it looks like Pudge afterall…
POSTGAME: Ummm, not a lot I can say about an 18-1 thrashing. Everything worked for the Tigers, nothing worked for the Twins. The box score looks pretty ridiculous for the Tig’s, and Verlander did his job.
One thing I will point out is that Minnesota pitchers have 362 pitches in the first two games of this series. Of those, only 113 have come from starters. The Twins bullpen has been battered as much as the starters have, and is largely unavailable tomorrow.
Also, the Tigers drew 24,000+ today despite the Red Wings and Pistons in the playoffs as well as the NFL draft. This team is forcing people to pay attention.
Toledo 5, Louisville
Ryan Raburn, who has been playing more outfield, was the big stick in this game. He homered, hit a sac fly, added a single, and drew two walks. The pitching staff saw the return of Matt Mantei who appeared destined for retirement after a spring training injury. He retired all 4 batters he faced, 3 of which came via the strikeout. Chris Spurling followed Mantei and pitched a scoreless inning.
Binghamton 4, Erie 1
Nate Bumstead allowed 4 runs, only two of which were earned, in 7 innings. He only allowed 3 singles and two doubles while striking out 5. There were no offensive standouts for Erie as the team only managed 5 singles and no walks.
Lakeland 4, Sarasota 3 (11 innings)
Lakeland received strong pitching from pretty much everyone – except Kevin Whelan. Christhian Martinez pitched 5 scoreless innings and was followed by PJ Finigan who added 3 of his own. Kevin Whelan allowed two runs to score in the 11th inning on two hits, a run scoring wild pitch, and a walk. He managed to pick up the win though when Lakeland rallied to win behind an error, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, a fielders choice, and a single. Jeff Frazier homered and walked. Clete Thomas struckout 3 times in the midst of an 0 for 4. Jeff Larish dropped his average to .250 with an 0 for 5. Even with Larish’s rough night he is posting an OBP just shy of .400 due to 13 walks.
West Michigan 5, Kane County 2
Michael Hollimon hit his second homer and added two walks. Wil Rhymes also walked twice to compliment two singles. Lucas French allowed two runs in 6 innings (1 BB, 2 K). Andrew Kown raised his scoreless inning streak to 16 with two more innings tonight, and 3 strikeouts. He’s now fanned 16 batters while not allowing a walk. Orlando Perdomo picked up his 8th save by pitching a scoreless ninth.
PREGAME: The Twins come to town and have been struggling. Nate Robertson will be taking on Brad Radke. Radke is sporting an uncharacteristic 7.50 ERA. As has been the case several times this year, I hope that a struggling pitcher doesn’t find his groove against the Tigers (see Paul Byrd).
Carlos Guillen, Pudge Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, and Craig Monroe have all had success in the past against Radke. Going the other way, Twins hitters haven’t had a lot of experience against Robertson. Lew Ford has 7 hits in 21 at-bats and Torii Hunter is hitting .222 against Nate. Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer are still looking for their first hits.
In any case, the Tigers and Twins will be seeing a lot of each other. Nine of Detroit’s next 19 games are agaisnt the Twins.
POSTGAME: The Tigers blank the Twins 9-0 behind Nate Robertson.
There are two things I’d like to point out:
1. While it hasn’t happened on this site, either from me or in the comments, Robertson has received a good deal of grief. There have been calls for him to head to the bullpen to make room for Jordan Tata/Jason Grilli/Joel Zumaya/etc. Robertson has had one bad outing this year, and two spectacular ones. Now he won’t continue to be as dominant as he was the last two outings, but I’d hope he has at least earned the benefit of the doubt.
2. I guess I needn’t have worried about Brad Radke correcting himself. It just seems that too many times in the last several/dozen years we’ve seen struggling pitcher against struggling offense, and which ever role the Tigers are assuming, their counterpart seems to self-correct. I have to say it was nice to be on the good side.
A. Well I guess I had a third thing, but it really wasn’t that important. With Pudge catching the whole game, it appears that Vance Wilson will once again be catching Justin Verlander. I know last year it was by design. This year I don’t know if it has been a concious effort to have Wilson catching Verlander, or if it’s just working out that way.
Toledo 3, Indianapolis 0
Zach Miner, last week’s International League Pitcher of the Week, is trying to win the award back-to-back. He shutout the Indians for 8 innings and only 2 hits. He struck out 8 and lowered his ERA to 1.33. With Roman Colon still laid up, it is nice to see the organization getting some value from the Kyle Farnsworth trade. David Espinsoa doubled, singled and walked while Brian Peterson walked twice and tripled. The struggling Josh Phelps hit his second homer.
Erie – DNP
Sarasota 2, Lakeland 0
Reds prospect Homer Bailey allowed no hits in six innings while striking out 9. Lakeland’s only hit Gil Mejia single in the 9th. Dallas Trahern pitched 7 innings of shutout ball himself.
West Michigan 8, Kane County 4
Dusty Ryan had two hits and two singles. Cameron Maybin and Michael Hollimon each added a hit and two walks. Burke Badenhop allowed ten hits in 7 innings but only 3 runs scored.
The Tigers only managed to take one of three from the Angels. Actually, they only managed to score in one of three games as the Angels handed Detroit their first two shutouts of the season. Once again Detroit got very solid pitching, but the bats that were showing signs of slumpiness in Seattle went completely silent in Anaheim. The result is that a mere 14 runs were scored in the series, which is one less than in the previous series. Detroit has now scored 15 runs in their last 6 games.
| Tigers | Angels | |
| Wins | 1 | 2 |
| Offense | ||
| Runs | 5 | 9 |
| BA | .185 | .191 |
| OBP | .265 | .255 |
| SLG | .261 | .315 |
| HR | 1 | 2 |
| SB/CS | 0/1 | 2/0 |
| Pitching | ||
| BB/9 | 2.8 | 3 |
| K/9 | 4.2 | 9.3 |
| ERA | 2.77 | 1.67 |
The Big Show on 1270 WXYT is currently in the midst of their second annual Big Show for the Big Cure Bowlathon. In case you’re not familiar, Art Regner and Doug Karsch will be on the air for 28 hours straight (except during tonight’s Red Wings game) from Lucky Strike Lanes in Novi. They are raising money to support the Vattikuti Urology Institute at Henry Ford Health System. The money raised will be used for prostate cancer research.
It is a wonderful cause, and there are a number of ways to contribute. Of course cash contributions are always welcome. In addition there are auctions running throughout the 28 hours. Finally, you can actually go bowl. For $12.70 you receive a T-shirt and an hour of bowling.
I bring up this last part because I’ll be heading out early tomorrow morning to bowl. I’ll be there at 5:00am tomorrow morning. I did it last year also, and while the hour is ridiculous, it was a lot of fun. It’s not everyday you get to bowl before the sun comes up, and do it for charity at the same time. I hope to see you there!
Louisville 3, Toledo 0
Toledo only mustered 3 hits and no walks to the offensive summary is basically: almost everyone had an 0fer. Wil Ledezma started for Toledo and pitched 6 innings allowing 3 runs. The runs came on two home runs. Along the way 18 of the 12 outs against Ledezma were strikeouts. Ledezma’s ERA now stands a 2.43 and in 29 2/3 innings he has 38 K’s and 6 walks.
Bowie 3, Erie 2 (11 innings)
Brent Clevlen reached base twice, one walk and one single. Vincent Blue added two hits. But that was it for offensive highlights. Eulogio De La Cruz continues to have a rough season, and if the Tigers needed 40 man roster room, he and Mark Woodyard would probably be in danger. De La Cruz pitched 2/3 of an inning and allowed two hits and two walks, and the winning run.
Sarasota 20, Lakeland 2
That’s not a misprint. No Lakeland pitcher had success. Josh Rainwater was the starter and gave up the first 7 runs. Jeff Larish and Victor Mendez both had a double and a walk. Nick McIntyre homered for the first time this season.
Kane County, West Michigan
Michael Hollimon and Cameron Maybin each struck out 3 times. Matt Joyce drew two walks and Ryan Roberson had two hits. Sendy Vasquez pitched 6 innings allowing one run with 4 K’s. Rick Steik blew the save allowing 3 runs despite recording all 3 outs via the K.
A Tiger season wouldn’t be a Tiger season without doubt about Jeremy Bonderman. In 2003 when he struggled out of the gate, there was much speculation that he was brought to the majors to quickly (which he may have been). He then shutdown Oakland. In 2004 after a particularly rough spell, there was talk of demoting Bonderman from the rotation or even sending him to Toledo. He then went out and struckout 14 White Sox. In 2005 he faltered down the stretch, was hit by a line drive, and people wondered if he was injured…and he was.
So when Bonderman dropped his second and third games, and struggled in the first inning of his fourth, there was a right to be concerned that the previous year’s injury was still around. Or perhaps we think to highly of Jeremy and he’ll never be the stud we thought he could be. Or he was rushed and never had a chance to develop that third pitch.
Even after bouncing back against the Angels, Bonderman’s ERA stands at 5.04 which is worst among the Tiger starters. But with a closer look at the stats, one could argue that he has pitched the best, or at least question why he hasn’t had better results. Continue reading Breaking down Bonderman
It’s been awhile since I shared some link love…
I still think he’s going to finish with 35-40 homers, because he really is a guy with fantastic hitting ability. And he’s strong, so some significant number of those balls he hits will carry the fence.
But there was also this snippet:
Matt, Boston: What pitcher do you think has the best pure stuff in the game right now?
SportsNation Rob Neyer: Hard to say. But Verlander was regularly hitting 97-98 on the gun in Seattle the other day. He’s gotta be on the short list.
One scout was surprised at Whelan’s arsenal when he recently saw him pitch for High-A Lakeland. “I thought he’d throw harder; he’s low 90s, but he’s interesting because he basically does it with three fastballs,” said the scout. “He throws the straight fastball, a splitter with good fade, and a big forkball that just goes straight down and can be unhittable.” However, the scout was concerned with Whelan’s mechanics. “He short-arms everything. He was a catcher, and it looks like it when he pitches. I put him down as a potential closer, but it could depends on if his arm holds up.”