Jayson Stark on the Tiger’s futility

I thought it was going to change Friday night, I really did. The Tig’s had played a great game through 9 innings. They had a second consecutive solid start from Nate Cornejo, Higgy hit his first home run of the season, and Franklyn “Fear Factor” German looked untouchable k’ing 5 out of the 6 batters he faced. Then the 10th inning came, and the Royals started it out with a groundball single (Trammell pinch hit for Infante in the top of the 10th, and Halter was playing short at the time. If Infante is still in the game, this is a routine out). Then a couple of bunts-including a fabulous back-up play by Santiago- and the Royals have the bases loaded with nobody out. Anderson then throws a force out, a pop out, and a strike out and the Tigers get out of the inning. Fox Sports showed the dugout, and you could see something was different. I haven’t seen that much life in the team this year. I truly believed the Tigers were going to win this game. Then Anderson hung an 0-2 curveball to start the 11th and it was all gone.

A blowout loss on Saturday followed as Gary Knotts had no control, and made his first bad start of the year.

Then on Sunday, Mike Maroth pitches another great game. He got a little bit of support, 3 runs this time, and the Tigers still manage to lose. This time baserunning and fielding were the culprits.

So where does that leave us? The record says 1-16. My question is does the record matter? We knew this was going to be a bad year, and people were generally expecting a 100 losses. Now none of us expected 1 win in 17 games. Because the record is so bad does it start to mean something? I’m trying to look at how the team is playing, and at least there are some good signs there. What troubled me most about Sunday’s loss is that they looked like the Tigers of old-bad baserunning and defense. In short, a team that just doesn’t know how to win. Which raises another dichotomy, part of what we were looking for Trammell and Gibson to bring to this team was sound fundamental baseball. Baseball where you don’t see the mental lapses. The flip-side is that we have a very young team and that we should expect some mistakes.

So I guess my big questions are: 1. At what point does the won-loss record start to become an issue (for many it probably already has) and 2. How do you evaluate how this team is doing?

Notes On Friday the Tigers made their first roster move designating Hiram Bocachica for assignment and calling up Craig Monroe. Monroe has been a solid minor league hitter for several years. Last year he had 5 stints with the Tigers, but never got to play (only 25 AB’s). This weekend Trammell gave him a shot and he started all 3 games in left going 1 for 12 with an RBI single. Mr. Monroe also had several extended discussions with Kirk Gibson after having a tough time defensively. Even given his defensive short comings, I’d like to see Tram stick with him for a little while to see if we can get some more pop in the line-up.

Also, does anyone have any nickname ideas for Franklyn German? The guy definitely needs a nickname.

Sorry about the long hiatus. Unfortunately at the same time I that I ran out of time to do this, my partner in misery Russ lost his internet access. Therefore, sparse updating for awhile. Anywho, there hasn’t been a lot of fun stuff to write about. First there is the anemic offense, which has already been beat to death. This was further highlighted by last night’s move of Bobby Higginson to center. Mind you, I’m not knocking the move, but the move was made so that we could get the power tandem of Shane Halter and Craig Paquette both in the lineup (with Halter DH’ing!). Fortunately, Carlos Pena has looked a little better at the plate recently. Also, Eric Munson continues to have good swings and Ramon Santiago has pieced together an 8 game hitting streak. Unfortunately Dean Palmer looks completely lost. It appears that he’s not seeing the ball well, and Dmitri Young looks equally confused. Also, Bobby’s OBA is up over .350 thanks in large part to his plate discipline.

The starting pitching has been adequate. Mike Maroth has been solid, and Gary Knotts has been a nice surprise. Bonderman needs to find his control and get a solid outing to regain everyone’s confidence (especially his own). The bullpen has clearly struggled. Jamie Walker, the left-handed home run specialist, is looking more and more like CJ Nitkowski. German and Anderson both look rusty and out of sync-they need more opportunities. Sparks has been solid in various relief capacities this year.

At least the defense has been solid. The young infield looks very promising. Munson has been impressive over at 3rd and Santiago and Infante both can cover a lot of ground. Halter is adequate on the balls he can get to, but he unfortunately has no range. Higgy is always solid, but the CF has been erratic, and you can’t help but hold your breath when you see Dmitri Young on the run.

Lynn Henning and other have wrote about how the Tigers bats will get better, and I believe they will. I just hope that when the bats come alive, the arms don’t go away.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. My wife and I gave birth to a baby girl on Wednesday, so I’ve been kind of preoccupied. Hopefully Russ can pick up some of the slack for the next week or so.

Opening Day-Detroit Style
When I woke up and saw snow on the ground, all I could do was laugh. Welcome to Opening Day in Michigan! As it turned out, the game wasn’t that cold and the warm sun helped out a lot. Even though the Tigers lost, there are still quite a few positives to take from the game. First, Mike Maroth pitched a heck of a game and held the Twins in check with the exception of a home run in between the new and old fences in left field. He consistently was getting ahead of the hitters, and walked none. Throughout 7 innings he only had 3 balls hit hard off him.
Also, the team looked very crisp defensively. Infante and Santiago were a lot of fun to watch in the middle of the diamond, and Munson made several nice plays. This was exemplified when the Twins had runners at the corners and nobody out. The grounder was hit to Munson who threw it home where Inge applied the tag. Inge then snapped off a throw to second trying to nab the Twins runner straying too far from the the base. While the didn’t turn the double play, it was refreshing to see the execution. Last year I would have imagined Inge’s throw going into centerfield because nobody was ready to catch it.
Offensively, the Tigers only drew one walk, and didn’t really hit the ball well. Granted, Radke was typically getting the first pitch over for a strike and staying ahead in the count. Also, he is a pretty darn good pitcher, and he is expected to pitch well. Still, there were way too many pop-ups yesterday.
All in all, a decent showing. It was nice not to have sarcastic cheering or any “Let’s go Red Wings” chants throughout the game. Plus, the bulk of the crowd stayed the whole game. And if you thought it was too cold, it could have been worse. In Baltimore there was a 15 minute snow delay, and the game went 13 innings.

John Sickels All -Rookie Team

Rob Neyer on the Royals and Tigers making history

Kenny Baugh returns to the mound
He’ll throw 45 pitches in a minor league game today and could join the rotation at Erie

With a couple days til opening day I guess it is time to make futile predictions of how the Tigers will do. My guess is 63 wins. I used a complex formula to arrive at this. Basically, my inputs were the overall lack of proven talent on the roster, and the fact my heart wouldn’t let me predict a 100 loss season. I think Minnesota will run away with the division and they could push 100 wins. I just don’t think the White Sox will be that good, and Cleveland is still a year or two away. I’m also picking the Twins to win the AL and then lose to Houston in the World Series.

Given that the looking at the Tigers prospects of winning is depressing, here are some of the things that I would like to see to consider this a “successful” season:
-Dean Palmer is healthy enough to play 130 games
-Bonderman finishes with an ERA around 4.50 or less, and his pitch counts are tightly monitored
-Matt Anderson makes the most of his few save opportunities, and becomes a valuable enough commodity to garner 2 good prospects (and German shows enough that Anderson becomes expendable)
-The corner infielders (Munson and Pena) each chip in 25+ homers
-Brandon Inge becomes a .250 hitter

Tom Verducci predicts Eric Munson will be AL Breakout Player

Tigers announce starting rotation Nate Cornejo and Gary Knotts join Maroth, Bonderman and Bernero. Also, Mat Wallbeck won the back-up catcher position over Bill Haselman

Baseball America on Chris Spurling