All posts by billfer

2009 Season

Treading water

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Once again the Tigers turn in a decidedly uninspiring performance away from Comerica Park. Once again the offense doesn’t do nearly enough. Once again the White Sox drop a couple games so nothing really changes in division. Once again the Tigers are treading water. They aren’t making progress but they aren’t drowning either. However, until they start making progress either towards shore or someone comes by to rescue them, fans are left wondering how long the team can stay afloat.

Friday night the Tigers manage to score just enough to squeak by the A’s and set-up what could have been a rewarding weekend. That managing involved to solo homers from Ryan Raburn and an RBI single from Clete Thomas. Hardly a juggernaut.

Saturday was one of the worst offensive efforts of the year and the type of performance that one could use to point to Lloyd McClendon’s struggles this year as a hitting coach. Trevor Cahill’s numbers are thoroughly unimpressive and yet the Tigers made things easy after plating a run in the first. Through the first 3 innings the Tigers took 4 called strikes. I don’t mind an aggressive approach, but there is a difference between aggression and impatience. In the first 4 innings the Tigers swung at 9 pitches out of the strike zone. Either it was a flawed game plan or flawed execution. This wasn’t a “tip your cap” game, it was a failure.

Sunday the Tigers couldn’t muster much, but the 4 runs was an offensive explosion and actually reassuring that the Tigers fought to get it to a 1 run game before an uncharacteristic bullpen implosion turned the Tigers best offensive outing of the series into a blow out the wrong way. And the Tigers lost another series.

A series that was the very definition of winnable. But sloppy play and bad luck and questionable decision making combined to put the Tigers in a 1-2 hole as they head into a much tougher series. Outfield errors, baserunning blunders, strange pitching decisions, running to stay out of the double play only to have line drives hit instead of ground balls, it was damn near a disaster.

Other thoughts on the state of the team:

  • The Alex Avila statue may have to wait a little bit. He posted 0’fers in his last 2 games. Certainly excusable, but for those clamoring for him to play everyday a reminder he isn’t an All Star yet. And really, with the Angels and their eagerness on the basepaths coming up I wouldn’t mind seeing Laird getting 2 of the 3 starts this series
  • Aubrey Huff has looked like the second coming of Sean Casey with his “ground ball to second” tendencies so far. I guess that means he’ll come up huge in the World Series right?
  • The addition of Huff and the key hits from Raburn and Thomas have kept the bullpen at only 6 pitchers meaning that Jim Leyland has an extra bat on the bench and better L-R balance. The good news is he’s shown a willingness to mix and match late in the game.
  • Ryan Perry looked awesome on Saturday night turning in a “wow” type performance. The type of performance you want to see from your top draft pick. Sunday…not so much.
  • The Ordonez vesting countdown is at 67 plate appearances.
2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.123: Tigers at A’s

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PREGAME: The Tigers have a chance at a road series win. If they succeed, it would be their first since they took 3 of 5 from the White Sox in early June.

The Tigers will send out Rick Porcello who has been quite solid as of late. Over his last 4 starts the opposition is OPSing just .486 against him.

The A’s send out Brett Tomko who is making just his 2nd start of the season. His first time out he shut out the Yankees for 5 innings on 5 hits, no walks, and no strikeouts. The Tigers don’t have a lot of history against Tomko, but Adam Everett has taken him deep so make of that what you please.

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – No Hitter edition

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Toledo 16 Columbus 2
Don Kelly went 4 for 4 with 2 walks and needed a triple to complete the cycle. Scott Sizemore had 3 hits and a walk. Jeff Frazier, Wilkin Ramirez, and Mike Hessman all homered. Dusty Ryan doubled twice. Eddie Bonine allowed a run on a solo homer in 7 innings with 1 walk and 3 K’s.

Akron 0 Erie 16
Thad Weber pitched a complete game no hitter. He didn’t walk a batter and he fanned 10. He did hit a batter and another batter reached on error so it wasn’t a perfect game. Deik Scram went 4 for 6 with 2 doubles and a homer. Jeff Kunkel also doubled twiced and homered.

Lakeland 2 Tampa 7
Josh Workman and Justin Henry each doubled twice. Andrew Hess allowed 7 runs on 13 hits in 5.2 innings

West Michigan 5 Dayton 7
Ben Guez homered and singled. Mike Gosse doubled and homered. Anthony Shawler was touched up for 7 runs and was lifted with 2 outs in the 3rd inning. Jade Todd pitched 2 perfect innings of relief.

Oneonta 2 Lowell 5
Rawley Bishop and John Murrian each doubled. Jose Siso walked 4 and allowed 5 hits in 3.2 innings leading to 2 runs.

GCL Yankees 3 GCL Tigers 4
James Robbins tripled and is 6 for 14 with a 1.000 slugging percentage in his first 3 games. Zach Samuels allowed 2 runs on 5 hits, 5 walks, and 2 K’s in 5.1 innings. Austin Wood made his debut and allowed a run on 2 hits with a strike out.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.122: Tigers at A’s

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PREGAME: The Tigers won a road game. Is it getting too greedy to want them to win 2 in a row? Tonight it will be Armando Galarraga taking on Trevor Cahill.

Cahill has some pretty brutal peripherals with 25 homers allowed in 139 innings, only 70 strikeouts, and 57 walks. He somehow has an ERA under 5. But the Tigers have made lesser pitchers look greater.

Galarraga has 2 starts against the A’s. The last one was pretty good and gave us reason to think that Galarraga was starting to bounce back as he limited Oakland to 1 run on 2 hits (but with 6 walks) in 6.1 innings. The one before that he didn’t make it out of the first inning…coincidentally that one was against Trevor Cahill

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/21/09

Toledo 4 Columbus 1
Mike Hessman doubled and homered. Nate Bump allowed only an unearned run in 7.2 innings on 4 hits, no walks and 3 K’s. Casey Fien finished it off with a walk and 2 K’s. in 1.1 innings.

Akron 4 Erie 1
Cale Iorg went 2 for 4. Michael Bertram homered. Jonah Nickerson allowed 3 runs on 5 hits, 5 walks, 4 K’s and 2 homers in 6.1 innings.

Lakeland – PPD

West Michigan 3 Dayton 5
Jordan Lennerton homered and singled. Billy Nowlin and Brent Wyatt each had 2 hits. Brayan Villarreal fanned 7 and walked none, but did allow 5 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings.

Williamsport 2 Oneonta 3
Michael Rockett and Rawley Bishop each had 2 hits. Clemente Mendoza K’d 8 and walked 1 in 6.1 innings.

GCL Tigers 4 GCL Braves 0
James Robbins has had a nice debut and in 2 games he’s 5 for 10 with 2 homers. Ramon Lebron pitched 8 shut out innings allowing just 5 hits and 2 walks to go along with 10 strike outs.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.121: Tigers at A’s

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PREGAME: The Tigers start their last left coast swing and they do it in Oakland where the Tigers haven’t been particularly impressive, save for 2 games in October, 2006.

Edwin Jackson slogged through a victory against the Royals last Saturday. He wasn’t especially crisp, but he got plenty of run support for a change. Really, out of Jackson’s last 4 starts only the one against Baltimore would you really call strong.

Gio Gonzalez is on the mound for the A’s. The lefty took the loss when the two team’s hooked up in July. His game log shows someone who a)rarely pitches through the 7th inning and b)seems to be really good or really bad. He strikes out a batter an inning, but he walks one every other inning and has allowed 8 homers in 56 innings. In 67 PAs lefties are OPS over 1.100 against him, bolstered by a freaky .459 BABIP

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 21, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

Links

links for 2009-08-21

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2009 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League and Rehab Wrap 8/20/09

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Toledo 10 Columbus 1
Nate Robertson went 5 innings and allowed 1 run on 5 hits with no walks and 4 K’s. Jeremy Bonderman didn’t allow a hit in 2 innings and he fanned 2 and walked none. Dusty Ryan went 3 for 5 with a homer. Don Kelly also had 3 hits and a homer. Wil Rhymes went 3 for 6.

Erie 2 Trenton 0
Brennan Boesch went 1 for 2 with 2 walks. Jared Gayhart fanned 6 and walked 1 in 5 innings of 1 hit ball. Cody Satterwhite fanned 3 and allowed 1 hit in his 3 innings.

Lakeland 3 Tampa 4
Max Leon went 3 for 5 with 2 doubles. Charlie Furbush allowed 3 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks with 5 K’s in 3 innings.

West Michigan 4 Dayton 5
Ben Guez went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles. Billy Nowlin had 3 hits including a homer. Luke Putkonen fanned 5 and walked none in 7.2 inning and all he surrendered was 1 unearned run on 2 hits. Tyler Stohr has been good this year, but didn’t have it last night as he allowed 4 runs in the 9th inning.

Williamsport 5 Oneonta 8
Camelo Jaime homered as part of a 3 for 4 day. Jaime Johnson singled twice and tripled. John Murian went 2 for 4 with a double and a walk. Nate Newman allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk in 2 innings.

GCL Braves 7 GCL Tigers 8
Alexander Nunez went 4 for 6 with a triple. James Robbins went 3 for 6 with a homer. Nolan Moody went the last 4 innings and allowed no runs on 2 hits, 1 walk and 5 K’s.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 120: Mariners at Tigers

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PREGAME: Some lefty-on-lefty action today with Jarrod Washburn taking on his old team and the hyphenated one Ryan-Rowland-Smith (yeah, it’s an extra hyphen but I don’t have time for a proper pregame so instead you get lame punctuation jokes – sorry).

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 20, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers were wheels up for Oakland just before 7 p.m., but thanks to a Clete Thomas line drive to right they’ve been flying since Miguel Cabrera rounded home plate to head to first base and congratulate Thomas. A late rally from 4 runs down surely lifted the spirits of the team and the hopes of a fan base as the Tigers put a dramatic capper on a 4-2 homestand.

For a change today, it was the offense bailing out the starting pitching. Washburn has been extremely homer prone since coming to Detroit (his homer/flyball rate was unsustainably low with Seattle but c’mon with the ultra rapid regression) and with 4 more today it meant 3 bad outings out of 4.

Of course the Tigers did some thumping of their own and solo shots by Raburn and Inge cut a 4 run lead down to 2…but Washburn promptly gave those back. One of them on a near Pepsi-Porch shot by Russell Branyan. Coincidentally, I believe it was Branyan who hit one off the facing of the Porch back in his Cleveland days.

And then the rains came…but not before the Tigers loaded the bases in the 6th and chased Rowland-Smith. And then Jim Leyland started to really manage. He pinch hit Huff for Laird (who hit the ball too softly to second for an inning ending double play). And then Avila hit for Everett and came up with the big knock to close the gap to 6-5.

Fortunately Zach Miner (aka “the much maligned Zach Miner”) and Bobby Seay were perfect for 3 innings the giving the Tigers 3 more cracks at plating the tying run. They would have tied the score in the 8th were it not for some spectacular defense from Gutierrez and Wilson to rob Avila and Polanco on consecutive would-be run scoring plays.  But then there was the 9th.

A walk, a pop-out, some cursing, a double, a IBB, a sac fly with a collision, and a big knock and we had ourselves some walk-off fun.

  • Inge made a couple of nice plays going into the stands. It was against Seattle 2 years ago where he literally laid out going into the stands. I’m sure they are tired of seeing that.
  • The Tigers made a few loud outs today as well and were it not for some sterling defense maybe this one isn’t close. Cabera and Avila were both victimized by Gutierrez
  • Unlike most of Granderson’s days off, he actually got the whole day off…and he’ll get tomorrow off as well
  • Ryan Raburn (there is no y in Raburn) slotted nicely into the 3 spot with a homer and 2 singles.
  • With 2 walk-offs recently, I think it is time for some Clete’s Cougars:
Clete's Cougars like them some walk off
Clete's Cougars like them some walk off
2009 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/18/09

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Toledo 7 Columbus 6
Scott Sizemore doubled twice and homered. Dane Sardhina homered and singled. Brent Dlugach had 2 hits. Dontrelle Willis started and allowed 1 run on 1 hit and a walk with a K before leaving in the second inning with a knee injury. Brooks Brown came in and threw 4.2 innings allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, a walk, and a strike out.

Erie 6 Trenton 7 (10 innings)
Max St. Pierre doubled and homered. Danny Worth and Mike Bertram each had 2 hits. Ramon Garcia allowed 10 hits and 6 runs in 3 innings with no walks or strikeouts. Robbie Weinhardt and Brendan Wise each pitched 3 scoreless innings of relief.

Erie 1 Trenton 2
Mike Bertram had a double. Jon Kibler walked 5 and allowed 5 hits leading to 2 runs in 5.1 innings.

Clearwater 7 Lakeland 10
Devin Thomas went 2 for 3 with a homer and a walk. Christopher White homered and doubled. Mark Sorensen continues to struggle at Lakeland, this time he was tagged for 5 runs on 12 hits in 4.1 innings.

West Michigan DNP

Williamsport 0 Oneonta 2
Jamie Johnson doubled and walked. Luis Angel Sanz got the complete game shutout with 9 K’s, 3 walks, and 4 hits.

GCL Tigers 6 GCL Phillies 3
Alexander Nunez tripled and homered. Jordan Cruz had 2 hits. Rayni Guichardo allowed 3 runs on 4 hits, 2 walks, and 2 K’s in 6 innings.

Minor Links

  • Baseball America published their A ball best tools list. Casey Crosby rates as the best pitching prospect in the Midwest League by sporting the best fastball. Audy Ciriaco and Gustavo Nunez rated as the best infield arms in their respective leagues.
  • Take 75 North speculates on Daniel Fields (who threw out the first pitch Wednesday night at Comerica Park) starting assignment next year.
2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.119: Mariners at Tigers

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PREGAME: Justin Verlander has been a little up and down lately. He sandwiched 2 monster starts against Sox of different colors around 3 outings where he allowed at least 4 runs. The last time he faced the Mariners he had no hit stuff, except for the 5th inning where he had multi-hit stuff.

Ian Snell is still adjusting to the Pacific Northwest. He has made 3 starts since the M’s acquired him. The first one was pretty good (6 innings, 2 runs, 3 hits). The next 2 were pretty awful and he was chased in the 2nd inning in one of them. Snell lost to the Tigers earlier this year. He only allowed 2 runs in 7 innings, but the Tigers tagged him for 10 hits and 2 walks (they had some RISP issues)

The 80 plate appearance countdown to $18 million lineup is:

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Guillen, LF
  4. Cabrera, 1B
  5. Huff, DH
  6. Ordonez, RF
  7. Inge, 3B
  8. Laird, C
  9. Everett, SS

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 19, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Tigers didn’t hit good enough. Verlander was good except for a rough-ish inning. Tigers lost. Maggs didn’t make an out in 4 PA’s. Tigers waste a favorable pitching match-up. That is all.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/18/09

Columbus 7 Toledo 8
Scott Drucker was rocked for 7 runs in 3 innings but Matt Rusch, Zach Simons, and Casey Fien followed with 6 innings of shut out ball. Mike Hessman hit his 19th homer and doubled. Scott Sizemore went 2 for 4 with a double and a walk. Brent Dlugach was a homer short of the cycle and added a walk.

Erie – Suspended

Lakeland 1 Clearwater 4
Audy Ciriaco and Jordan Newton each had 2 hits. Lauren Gagnier surrendered 4 runs on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 6 K’s in 7 innings.

South Bend 2 West Michigan 9
Casey Crosby allowed 3 hits, 3 walks, and no runs over 5 innings to go with 3 K’s. Brent Wyatt doubled twice and walked. Jordan Lennerton homered. Luis Salas and Billyi Nowlin each had 2 hits.

NYPL All Star Game
Michael Rockett went 0 for 1. John Murrian went 0 for 3. Kenny Faulk pitched a scoreless inning.

GCL Tigers 7 GCL Phillies 4
Francisco Martinez went 3 for 5. Elvin Soto doubled and tripled. Brett Anderson homered. Chao Ting Tang picked up 2 hits. Alexander Nunez homered and singled. Giovany Soto pitched 5 shut out innings allowing 4 hits, 1 walk, and 3 K’s.