All posts by billfer

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/23/09

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Durham 10 Toledo 11 (13 inn)
Jeff Larish went 5 for 6 with 2 doubles and a walk. Clete Thomas had a 4 for 5 night with 2 walks. Eddie Bonine started and allowed 4 runs on 6 hits in 4 innings. Clay Rapada game up a run on a walk and 3 hits in .2 innings (both outs were K’s). Casey Fien fanned 4 and allowed just 1 hit in 2 innings. Fu Te Ni pitched 3 innings and allowed a homer (getting the blown save) and struck out 2. Ryan Perry pitched the last 2 innings allowing no hits, 1 walk and he fanned 1 (17 of 26 pitches for strikes).

Altoona 2 Erie 6
Cale Iorg went 2 for 4 and doubled. Deik Scram tripled and walked. Thad Weber made his AA debut and allowed 2 runs on 8 hits, 1 walk and 4 K’s in 6 innings. Zach Simons struck out 4 and allowed only a walk in 2 innings.

Daytona 1 Lakeland 2
Audy Ciriaco and Josh Workman doubled. Matt Hoffman gave up 1 run on 3 hits and no walks in 4 innings. Robbie Weinhardt through 4 innings (odd for a back end bullpen guy, are they stretching him out?) and allowed no runs on 3 hits and 3 K’s.

East AS 6 West AS 3
Ronnie Bourquin homerd and drove in 3 Brandon Doublas doubled. Jared GAyhart pitched a scoreless inning, but Tyler Stohr allowed a run on a hit and a walk.

Oneonta 1 Lowell 2
Jamie Johnson doubled and walked and stole a base. Nate Newman pitched 3 innings of 1 hit ball and recorded 5 K’s.

GCL Tigers 9 GCL Braves 8
Adolfo Reina singled, homered, and walked. Ramon Lebron had a rough day and allowed 5 walks and 6 hits leading to 6 runs in 4 ininngs.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.070: Cubs at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Cubs come to town, and so does Alan Trammell who says he is Always a Tiger (hey, that sounds like a good marketing campaign). So if you’re heading out to the game tonight (like I am), make sure you have yourself situated by 7:05. The Tigers do announce the base coaches and a standing ovation at a moment that is typically trivial at best, or ignored altogether, would be pretty special. Now on to the game.

Edwin Jackson takes the mound for Detroit. Jackson was recently the subject of a Pitch Count Warrior column at Baseball Digest Daily (h/t Neyer). Jackson hasn’t won in his last 2 decisions, though he hasn’t pitched poorly either with 5 runs allowed in his last 11 innings.

The Tigers will face Carlos Zambrano. Zambrano has 4 straight quality starts under his belt, but he’s also been prone to walks as of late with 17 in his last 32.2 innings.

I’m really hoping the Tigers win tonight, and so is Magglio Ordonez. He was benched and the Tigers won 4 games in a row. I heard callers on sports radio say that the reason for the 4 game winning streak was Ordonez’s absence. So with him back in the lineup, a loss could be difficult for many fans to swallow.

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

Chi Cubs vs. Detroit – June 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It’s rare that I go to 2 Tigers games in a row. It’s why I’m so satisfied with the 2 games that I got to witness. A pitcher’s duel culminating in a walk-off for the good guys?! Are you kidding me?

Edwin Jackson and Carlos Zambrano pitched very similar games. Both were solid. Both got themselves into and out of jams repeatedly with minimual damage. The Tigers had 3 at-bats with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs early on and failed to convert. The Cubs only plated 1 run in a bases loaded no out situation in the first and only scored 1 run in a 2nd-3rd no out situation later on. It was high drama (and high frustration).

Brandon Inge once again comes through with a go ahead homer in the 7th inning and things are looking great. Joel Zumaya comes in and his first pitch is 100. Two quick outs and a pitch that displayed as 104 mph on the stadium gun (and 103mph in pitch f/x) and people were giddy. Then he threw an 85 mph fastball that was launched for a homer. Now there is much complaining about Zumaya throwing the change-up when he was throwing heat past guys. It ended up being a bad pitch, not because of the decision but because of the location. How often do we see Zumaya get hit and then we complain that “he can’t jus throw fastballs by everybody.” He got beat because he didn’t execute his 3rd best pitch. It wasn’t a horrible decision, and fortunately we don’t need to dwell on it.

We don’t need to dwell on it thanks to Don Kelly, Ryan Raburn, and a nice decision by Leyland. Don Kelly who was a full count machine tonight and who saw 26 pitches and drew walks in front of both 2 run homers. And Raburn for making Leyland look smart for forgoing the platoon match-up and going with the superior hitter. And Leyland for what I just said. I’m thankful that Leyland has come around to the idea that Josh Anderson isn’t really a big league hitter and that the situation called for someone who had a shot at thumping the ball.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/22/09

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Toledo 9 Rochester 4
Brent Clevlen went 3 for 4 and Jeff Frazier and Clete Thomas each had 2 hits. Brooks Brown allowed 4 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks with 3 K’s.

Erie – DNP

Daytona 10 Lakeland 2
Mauricio Robles was promoted to Lakeland and had a rough debut. He was knocked around for 5 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks with only 2 K’s. Christoper White went 3 for 4 and Chris Carlson and Audy Ciriaco each had 2 hits.

Daytona 5 Lakeland 4
Jordan Newton was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles. Audy Ciriaco went 3 for 3. Chris Carlson homered. Trevor Feeney allowed 2 runs in 3 innings. Brett Jacobson fanned 4 in 3 innings. Scott Green allowed 2 runs on 4 hit in 1 inning when he blew the save.

Lakeland – DNP

West Michigan – DNP

Oneonta 4 Lowell 1 (12 inn)
Chris Sedon (10th rd) and Jimmy Gulliver each had 2 hits. Luis Angel Sanz started and last 4.2 innings (3 H, 1 R, 4 W, 2 K). Kevan Hess (14th Rd) pitched 2 scoreless innings with 3 K’s. Kenny Faulk (16th Rd) fanned 3 in 1.1 innings. Nick Cassavechia pitched 3 scoreless innings for the win.

2009 Season, Roster Management

Freddy Dolsi recalled

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The Tigers announced that Freddy Dolsi will take Ryan Perry’s place on the roster. Dolsi of course spent significant time with the club last year and had some memorable moments.

  • He allowed a homer to Manny Ramirez to straight away centerfield on his first pitch
  • He threw a pitch over everyone on an intentional ball
  • He failed to call timeout after receiving the ball allowing Torii Hunter to steal second
  • He didn’t cover first on an infield grounder leading to an walk-off infield single
  • He fanned Jhonny Perralta and Ben Francisco to preserve a win against the Indians, at a point in the season when wins against the Indians meant something. This inspired silliness from your local blogger.

This year has been kind of ok for Dolsi. He’s limiting the walks a little better with 11 allowed in 31 innings, but he’s only fanned 19 this year, but he’s kept the ball in the yard with only 1 homer allowed. In his last 6 outings he’s gone 10.2 innings and he’s allowed just 1 run on 8 hits, 1 walk, and 4 K’s.

I don’t know that he’s the most deserving player at this point, but with 40 man roster considerations and familiarity and all this decision is probably fine.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/21/09

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Toledo 6 Rochester 4
Clete Thomas doubled, singled, and walked. Brent Dlugach and Jeff Larish both doubled. Ruddy Lugo walked 4 and allowed 7 hits in 5 innings but only 3 runs scored.

Toledo 3 Rochester 1 (11 inn)
Scott Sizemore was a double short of the cycle. Clete Thomas doubled twice. Mike Hessman and Jeff Larish each had 2 hits. Wilkin Ramirez doubled but he fanned 4 times. Luke French had a tremendous game with 10 K’s and no walks in 8 innings and only 4 hits allowed. Casey Fien fanned 1 in a perfect inning and Fu Te Ni pitched 2 scoreless innings.

Erie 9 New Hampshire 4 (10 innings)
Danny Worth doubled twice and walked. Mike Hollimon doubled and tripled. Jonah Nickerson allowed 4 runs on 9 hits in 6.1 innings.

Lakeland DNP

West Michigan 6 Dayton 7
Gustavo Nunez had 2 hits. Brayan Pounds tripled and walked. Jordan Lennerton homered. Luke Putkonen allowed 5 runs on 3 walks and 6 hits with 6 K’s.

Oneonta PPD

2009 Season, Roster Management

Perry optioned to Toledo

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On the heels of a game where he only retired 1 for the 4 batters he faced while protecting a 5 run lead, Ryan Perry has been optioned to Toledo. Unlike his last optional assignment where he was squeezed by roster maneuvering, this one seems to imply the Tigers have some things they’d like him to work on.

Perry has faced 27 batters his last 4 games and 13 of them have reached base, and 2 of the 11 hits were long balls. What is somewhat surprising is that the 2 walks he issued yesterday were the only 2 he’s allowed in this rough patch and 65% of his pitches have been for strikes. But he is getting hit.

For those  wondering about why Perry and not Robertson, I’d guess it is because the club thinks Perry can improve by going to Toledo whereas Robertson is what he is at this point. Sadly he’s been worse than Perry over a comparable stretch with 50% of the batters Robertson has faced over his last 7 having reached base. I can’t imagine that Nate has much more leash left.

The Tigers didn’t announce a corresponding roster move and likely won’t formally announce a move until Tuesday.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.069: Brewers at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers look to keep their offense rolling and they look for Justin Verlander to bounce back as they go for the sweep of the Brewers.

Verlander broke his streak of sheer dominance with a rough 5 run, 4 inning outing against the Cardinals. For the first time since April the whole game seemed to be a struggle for him. Verlander has only faced the Brewers once in his career, and I think we all remember how that turned out.

Yovanni Gallardo takes the mound for the Brewers. Like Verlander, he strikes out a batter an inning. Like the Verlander we sometimes see, he also has a tendency to throw 100 pitches in 5 innings. Walks have been a recent issue for him with 14 walks in his last 3 games. The Tigers have yet to walk in this series, so that should be an interesting facet to watch today.

Jim Leyland is sticking to the same lineup, almost. Polanco gets the day off after being plunked in the thigh yesterday, but otherwise it is the same:

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Santiago, 2B
  3. Cabrera, 1B
  4. Thames, DH
  5. Kelly, LF
  6. Inge, 3B
  7. Anderson, RF
  8. Laird, C
  9. Everett, SS

Milwaukee vs. Detroit – June 21, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

Mike Cameron steals 2nd base ahead of the throw to Adam Everett
Mike Cameron steals 2nd base ahead of the throw to Adam Everett

POSTGAME: I forgot in my hasty pregame to wish all the Dads out there a Happy Father’s Day. My haste was fueled because I was heading to the game with my family. I could swear that on Father’s Day Dads used to be able to run the bases. It seems like they don’t do that anymore. Oh well, at least it was an awesome game.

The Verlander/Gallardo match-up was everything you could hope for. Gallardo was very much on top of his game, and while he had 3 walks he was all up in the strike zone and was very efficient and the Tigers weren’t centering the ball. Through 4 2/3 innings the Tigers had managed 2 balls out of the infield, but then they broke through.

The Tigers had back to back singles in the 5th. And then in the 6th the Tigers made the adjustments to start hammering the ball. A sharp single by Cabrera was followed by a towering, majestic blast from Marcus Thames that found the wind blowing the ball to the deepest part of the park and resulted in an out. But then another sharp single set up Brandon Inge for a no doubter home run. That was the Tigers offense.

Justin Verlander gets Ryan Braun chasing high heat
Justin Verlander gets Ryan Braun chasing high heat

Verlander’s rough outing against the Cardinals was mostly a hiccup. He didn’t have a 1-2-3 innig until the 5th, and threw 74 pitches through 4 innings, but he also wasn’t being hit hard except for a McGehee homer. He was also inducing more grounders than normal and there were no outfield outs in the first 4 innings.

Fortunately he rebounded  and made it through 7 2/3 innings thanks to an 11 pitch 5th and a 6 pitch 6th inning.

Bobby Seay K’d Prince Fielder on 3 pitches and Fernando Rodney had a drama free 9th inning to complete the sweep, extend a 4 game winning streak, and extend the division lead to 4 games.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor Leauge Wrap 6/20/09

Toledo – PPD

Erie 2 New Hampshire 8
Brennan Boesch, Ryan Strieby, Alex Avila each had 2 hits. Josh Rainwater allowed 1 run on 5 hits, 1 walk, and 3 K’s in 3.2 innings. Zach Simons didn’t record an out and allowed 3 runs to score.

North 6 South 4
It was the FSL All Star game. Andrew Hess pitched for the North team and managed 2 scoreless innings allowing just a hit. Thad Weber also had a scoreless winning and was credited with the win.

West Michigan 8 Dayton 7
Gustavo Nunez went 3 for 5. Billy Nowlin and Bretn Wyatt both homered. Ronnie Bourquin went 2 for 4 with a walk. Mark Sorensen allowed 4 runs on 9 hits (including 2 homers), 1 walk, and 4 K’s in 5 innings.

Oneonta – PPD

2009 Season, Managing & Strategy

The Ordonez Kerfuffle

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The Magglio Ordonez benching/non-benching is the story that just keeps on giving. At this point I think everybody except Barack Obama has had their say. Let’s put it all together and see what we can come up with:

Thursday

Jim Leyland announces that Ordonez wouldn’t be starting that night in St. Louis and that he would be out of the starting lineup indefinitely. Headline writers use the term “benched” liberally as it seems that Ordonez is being placed on the bench.

Continue reading The Ordonez Kerfuffle →

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.068: Brewers at Tigers

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PREGAME: It’s a hot and muggy and breezy afternoon, the kind of weather where the balls tend to fly. That could be good boding for the Tigers because Milwaukee starter Dave Bush has had homer issues, with 17 allowed so far this season. He’s been taken deep in 12 of his 14 starts and multiple homers 4 times this year.

The Tigers will lean on the big league debut of 24 year old Alfredo Figaro. Figaro posted a 7.8 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and 1.1 HR/9 in 68 innings for AA Erie.

Milwaukee vs. Detroit – June 20, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: First things first, let’s talk about the kid making his debut. I was impressed with Figaro. The stuff definitely seemed to live up to the billing with more fastball velocity than I expected and a pretty nasty breaking ball when he could control it. That said, he did get knocked around quite a bit and the Brewers stranded 2 runners in each of the first 3 innings. But with 7 K’s Figaro was able to pitch around some jams. He finished with 96 pitches, many of them thrown in tough situations. All in all a promising debut.

And then there is the offense. Miguel Cabrera is swinging like he did in April where everything off the bat seems possible of injuring someone. Marcus Thames is locked in. Heck, everyone was locked in today except for Curtis Granderson and Brandon Inge. even then Grandy hit a couple balls well and Inge had a sacrifice fly.

  • Miggy has been playing some superb defense at first base, not just making the plays fielding the ball but making heads up plays when he has it in his glove.
  • Speaking of heads up, how about Alfredo Figaro being in the right spot backing up a throw to 3rd. Yes, he should be there but in a big league debut I can see it easy for him to be distracted.
  • The Tigers didn’t take a walk today, and yet they scored 9 runs. The last time the Tigers scored that many runs without a walk was…Friday night when they plated 10. What’s odd is that since 1954 the Tigers have scored at least 9 runs with no walks only 7 times.
  • Ryan Perry was not good with the walks.
  • Brandon Lyon walked in one of Perry’s runs
  • Nate Robertson added a walk after 2 quick outs
  • Fernando Rodney had a 1-2-3 inning
Links

links for 2009-06-20

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/19/09

Toledo 1 Rochester 2
Scott Sizemore and Jeff Larish each went 2 for 4. Chris Lambert allowed ust 2 runs in 6 innings on 3 hits with 3 K’s. Casey Fien fanned 3 in his 2 perfect innings.

Erie 4 New Hampshire 2
Deik Scram homered. Jon Kibler fanned 4 in 6.2 innings with 2 walks and 6 hits and 2 runs allwoed. Jay Sborz struck out 3 in 1.1 innings.

Lakeland – DNP

West Michigan 6 Dayton 0
Mike Gosse went 3 for 4. Gustavo Nunez and Joe Bowen each had 2 hit games. Billy Nowlin walked twice and homered. Casey Crosby allowed just 2 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings of shut out ball with 5 K’s.

Tri-City 0 Oneonta 2
Wade Gaynor (3rd rd pick) doubled. Michael Rockett (13th rd pick) went 2 for 3. Jeff Gerbe pitched 6 shut out innings with 4 hits, 2 walks and 3 K’s. Mike LaLuna had a 3 inning save with 6 K’s.