All posts by billfer

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.067: Brewers at Tigers

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PREGAME: After an extensive 11 game road trip, the Tigers finally return home to Comerica Park. They welcome in the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers are 37-29. They have a propensity to slug the ball and rank 3rd in the NL in slugging percentage. The plurality of that power comes from Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder who are OPSing 991 and 1.024 respectively.

Tonight Armando Galarraga will try to suppress some of the slugging. Unfortunately Galarraga has been especially susceptible to the long ball and he’s allowed the 3rd most in the AL this season with 14.

Braden Looper is on the mound for the Brewers. Looper has had his own homer problems with 13 allowed. The difference is that he’s walk a third fewer hitters.

For more on the Brewers I encourage you to check out Brew Crew Ball.

Milwaukee vs. Detroit – June 19, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Other than Armando Galarraga getting hammered again, and an uncharacteristic butchering of balls by Adam Everett and Brandon Inge, this was a nice game. The bats broke out in a big way and got Tigers fans Arby’s + 1. Don Kelly threw in a nice defensive play and the Tigers got good (but rain-limited) bullpenning from Zach Miner, Joel Zumaya, and Bobby Seay. Getting the first win of the series should take a little bit of pressure off of Alfredo Figaro (who will already be really nervous) in the Fox afternoon tilt.

2009 Season, Managing & Strategy

Tigers extend Jim Leyland

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The Tigers today announced the extension of Jim Leyland’s contract through the 2011 season.

“We are happy to announce a two-year contract extension for Jim Leyland today,” Tigers President, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager David Dombrowski said. “Jim is an outstanding manager and he has done a great job for the Tigers.  We look forward to Jim leading our club for years to come.”

2009 Season, Roster Management

Dusty Ryan coming to Detroit

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UPDATE: The news is now official per tonight’s game notes. Sardinha has not been removed from the 25 man roster. The Tigers had an extra spot when they DL’d Willis and they haven’t formally recalled Figaro yet.

Detroit Tiger Tales has the scoop that Dusty Ryan has been called up to join the Tigers. The guess is that this is in place of Dane Sardinha who has been beyond brutal at the plate. This move is probably at least 2 weeks overdue.

Ryan is hitting 259/374/442 for Toledo. He will strike out a lot and his numbers likely won’t look as good in Detroit, but he should still be a substantial offensive upgrade over 097/091/129.

Sardinha is regarded as a good defender, but Ryan is as well despite a spate of wild pitches at the end of last season. Sardinha only threw out 2 of the 10 runners against him this year.

The move may make it easier to rest Laird periodically. One of the reasons for keeping Ryan in the minors was to get him everyday experience. He’s had half a season of that now and should be starting twice a week going forward. Plus, with the emergence of Alex Avila there is less pressure for Ryan to be “the catcher of the future.” Laird probably needs the rest. He’s only had one season as the full time catcher which coincided with his worst offensive season.

2009 Season, Game Post

slanidraC ta sregiT: 660.9002 tsoP emaG

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PREGAME: Four game losing streaks warrant backwards game threads. The Tigers top 2 in the rotation couldn’t coax out a win, so it is now up to the kid to stop the losing streak.

Rick Porcello was on the mound for the Tigers last start, and hopefully he’ll be on the mound for their next one as well. He does get the benefit of not facing Albert Pujols tonight.

Joel Pineiro has some pressure himself. Opposing pitchers have kept the Tigers under 4 runs for 7 straight games. I’m actually stunned that Pineiro is only 30. He’s having a solid season with only 11 walks and 2 homers allowed in 76.2 innings.

Detroit vs. St. Louis – June 18, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It’s a win. Sigh.

The Tigers finally had a big inning, and they got it early in the game and took some of the pressure off of everyone. Grandy and Polly each had 2 hits and the top of the lineup produced. Inge and Laird had big hits. Thames with a foul-poul thump. Sigh. Runs. Whee!

Porcello was good again. He gave up a number of hits, but got a ton of ground balls as well. He also slithered out what could have been a bad inning after a Gerald Laird error (Laird’s throw wasn’t good, but Inge seemed like he could have reached it).

Bobby Seay was very good. Brandon Lyon was fine. Fernando Rodney was nearly a train wreck as he was throwing the ball all over the place. Fortunately Rick Ankiel decided to swing to end the game with a double play.

2009 Season

The benching of Magglio

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The Tigers announced that the slumping and entirely unproductive Magglio Ordonez will be benched indefinitely. I don’t know that means he’s out of the starting lineup, or in a deep freeze. Ordonez has been a harmless groundball machine of late (though he did manage a sac fly last night). The bigger issue though surrounds his plate appearance option for next season.

As has been well documented at this point, Ordonez has an option that vest if either of these criteria are met:

  • 135 starts or 540 PA’s in 2009
  • 270 starts or 1080 PA’s in 2008-9

In 2008 Ordonez amassed 144 starts and 623 plate appearances leaving him 126 starts and 457 plate appearances away from an $18 million option. So far this year he has started 57 of the team’s 65 games and he is at 243 plate appearances meaning he is 69 starts or 214 plate appearances away.

Ordonez has been playing less of late and batting lower in the lineup. Over the team’s last 27 games Ordonez has 22 starts and 92 PA’s or 3.4 PA’s per team game. At that rate going forward Ordonez would pick up 330 more PA’s this season. Avoiding the option would mean limiting his playing time by another third.

There are 97 games left in the season. We’ve discussed why his release is unlikely but there is a small chance the Tigers could limit his plate appearances enough that the option doesn’t vest. Of course, if Ordonez continues to struggle and it means more at-bats for Josh Anderson types that is likely bad news as well.

Uncategorized

Willis to DL, Figaro to rotation

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The Tigers have once again placed Dontrelle Willis on the DL due to anxiety disorder. Alfredo Figaro will be called up from Erie to start on Saturday.

I’ll have more on this in an hour or so. It’s been a little more than an hour now.

Alfredo Figaro - cr. Roger DeWitt
Alfredo Figaro - cr. Roger DeWitt

Alfredo Figaro got a little bit of a late start as a prospect. He dominated West Michigan last year, but at age 23 that wasn’t particularly exciting. He spent the later part of last year with Lakeland and was pushed to Erie this season where he has a 59/17 K/BB ratio in 68 innnings. In his last 2 starts he pitched 14.1 innings with 18 K’s. He’s also Fernando Rodney’s cousin.

As for the Willis DL stint, this will raise eyebrows. There were doubts with the initial anxiety disorder diagnosis for Willis and this will surely cause more questioning. Willis himself even said he was fine. The questions will continue because the Tigers were faced with a tough roster decision with Willis were it not for the DL stint. With it being more than 5 years since his debut he has the right to refuse a minor league assignment and he would need to pass through waivers.

I’m curious about the timing or the announcement, like why did the move not occur until today if he was hitting the DL? Couldn’t this move have been made earlier in the week and the Tigers could have had an extra player until Figaro’s start on Saturday? Then again I don’t know what is involved in diagnosing anxiety disorder and it may have been a several day process.

I still wish Willis the best, but at what point does the saga end? The team has supported him, the fans supported him, he’s been given many chances. It looks like he’ll get one more.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/17/09

Erie 11 Portland 5
Deik Scram went 2 for 4 with a homer and a walk. Ryan Strieby doubled twice and walked. Casper Wells had 2 hits, and 3 K’s. Luis Marte fanned 7 and allwed 3 runs in 6 innings. Jay Sborz struck out the side in his inning of work, and allowed 2 hits.

Lakeland 3 Charlotte 7
Michael Bertram homered and walked. Charlie Furbush only last 4 innings as he allowed 4 runs on 7 hits and a walk.

Fort Wayne 12 West Michigan 2
Brandon Douglas went 3 for 4. Maurico Robles was rocked for 6 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks in 3.1 innings. Brayan Villarreal fanned 4 and allowed 1 run in 3.2 innings.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.065: Tigers at Cardinals

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PREGAME: I figure we’re one bad game away before I have to post this backwards again. Hopefully the team will fare a little better. Did you know that through 64 games the 2008 team outscored the 2009 team 09 version has only outscored the 08 version by 7 runs?

Edwin Jackson is the man tonight and hopefully he can work deep into the game with Verlander leaving early yesterday and Porcello on the mound tomorrow.

Todd Wellemeyer hasn’t had a quality start since May 22nd. That doesn’t mean a lot given the Tigers recent struggles against struggling pitchers. Who knows, maybe tonight’s new look lineup will be the one to get it done:

  1. Granderson
  2. Polanco
  3. Cabrera
  4. Thames
  5. Ordonez
  6. Inge
  7. Laird
  8. Everett
  9. Jackson

Detroit vs. St. Louis – June 17, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Another day, another loss. I guess the difference is this wasn’t an awful game. Edwin Jackson was fine, 3 runs in 6 innings wiht 7 K’s, just not great. He hurt his cause with an error on a pickoff throw and Magglio Ordonez butchered what might have been caught and at the least should have been a double.

Curtis Granderson and Miguel Cabrera hit, but again that was it. The Tigers had some good at-bats early on, forcing Wellemeyer to throw a boat  load of pitches in the 1st and in the 3rd, but the big inning continues to elude them instead settling for solo homers and other 1 run innings.

And then there was Joel Zumaya who had another tough outing. He didn’t get hammered and he mixed in a number of curves. But he also couldn’t find the strike zone and he walked in the Tigers 13th run of the season. Nine of those have come in the month of June (the Tigers had 20 in 2008).

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/16/09

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Toledo 3 Scranton/WB 7
Brent Clevlen went 3 for 4 with a homer. Brooks Brown (with him pitching tonight he won’t make Dontrelle’s next start for Detroit) allowed 5 runs on 3 walks and 7 hits in 4.1 innings. Freddy Dolsi pitched 3 innings (are they stretching him out for Miner’s role?) and allowed 2 hits and fanned 2.

Erie 0 Portland 5
Erie only managed 3 hits. Casper Wells had one of them. Jonah Nickerson allowed 4 runs in 7 innings on 9 hits, 0 walks, 2 homers, and 3 K’s.

Lakeland 0 Charlotte 1
Chris Carlson and Santo De Leon each had 2 hits. Thad Weber deserved better after giving up just 1 run on 5 hits, no walks, and 6 K’s in 7 innnings.

Fort Wayne 3 West Michigan 7
Gustavo Nunez and Brandon Douglas each had 3 hits. Nunez also had 3 stolen bases pushing his season total to 33. Jordan Lennerton homered. Luke Putkonen lasted 5 innings and surrendered just 1 run on 4 K’s, 3 walks, and 6 hits.

Scott Sizemore

Tigers 2nd base prospect was promoted to Toledo on Sunday. Take 75 North provided some depth and background to the move and shows that it was definitely warranted and Sizemore has positioned himself as the top 2nd base prospect in the system. Beyond that, I read this as a fairly significant promotion as it relates to the big league club. This will give the Tigers 6 weeks to see what Sizemore can do at AAA prior to the trade deadline. Making a decision on 6 weeks of data is shaky, but Sizemore does have a decent track record beyond that. Sizemore’s and Polanco’s performance over the next 6 weeks, and possibly the season, will likely dictate whether or not Polanco is offered a contact for 2010.

2009 Season, Roster Management

Willis out…of rotation

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Dontrelle Willis will not take his next turn in the rotation. And that was the extent of the news from Jim Leyland’s pregame presser. I understand not naming a starter at this point as the Tigers probably consider options such as Zach Miner, Eddie Bonine, Luke French, and Alfredo Figaro (who coincidentally is on the same schedule as Willis). All are already on the 40 man roster so that doesn’t present a problem and any of them kind do as well as Willis.

But what I don’t understand is why Willis is still on the 25 man roster? Are they keeping him around for pinch hitting duties while in St. Louis? He hasn’t been moved to the bullpen. He’s just there and I don’t understand why. Option him out, release him, DL him, it doesn’t matter.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.064: Tigers at Cardinals

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PREGAME: So, is this game going to be first team to 4 runs wins? The Cardinals have scored more than 3 runs only 4 times in their last 15 games. The Tigers have scored more than 3 runs only 4 times in their last 15 games, and are riding a streak of 5 straight games without topping that mark.

Further complicating things is the pitching match-up which features Justin Verlander and Adam Wainwright. Verlander has been outstanding of late and is coming off a complete game, 1 run effort.

Wainwright has been solid with  7.5 K/9 and 2.1 K/BB ratios. Lefties knock  him around to the tune of an .822 OPS while righties struggle at a .602 clip.

Unfortunately the Tigers lineup only has 3 lefty hitters in it tonight (not that I’m stumping for Josh Anderson):

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

Detroit vs. St. Louis – June 16, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: That was just a pathetic display. Awful, and coming on the heels of the last 2 games, this is a very ugly 3 game stretch.

  • Verlander couldn’t get the swings and misses on the fastball and didn’t have good control of the curve. And he got beat-up. He made a fielding error. He balked. He wasn’t good. But he’s been awesome of late so he gets a pass.
  • Cabrera swung the bat well. A homer, a walk, and a sharp single is definitely a positive.
  • The Tigers had awful at-bats with runners on. In the first Polanco struck out with a runner on third and nobody out. Then Ordonez couldn’t get it past the pitcher. Polanco also fouled out on the first pitch with runners on first and second later int he game. Curtis Granderson tried to pull an outside fastball on a 3-1 count. Too many bad at-bats.
  • And the defense was poor also.