All posts by billfer

2009 Season

Ilitch: We’re going to do whatever we’ve got to do

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There has been quite a bit of speculation that the Tigers would have a fire sale this summer, including trading off Miguel Cabrera. But Mike Ilitch seemed to paint a different picture in a conversation with Drew Sharp:

“We’re going to do whatever we’ve got to do,” Ilitch said. “We’re three games in first. What are we going to do? There are a lot of things that we can do. We’re going to try to improve one way or the other.”

Doesn’t sound like a fire sale is imminent or that the Tigers are entirely locked into their current payroll or roster despite the economy and unproductive contracts.

Thrilled by Wings, Mike Ilitch hopes to help pennant push next | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

2009 Season, Awards

Vote Early, Vote Often, Vote Inge

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A vote for Inge is a vote for...
A vote for Inge is a vote for...

The campaigning has been going on since April when teams started to promote their players for the All Star Game. On basic principle I try to wait until at least June before filling out a ballot. So much changes so quick early in the season and hot starts can be misleading. But, with 60 games in and the game only a month a way it is time.

The All Star game doesn’t really matter, and when the fans and players and managers make mistakes in the voting people are sure to either a)complain or b) further announce the game doesn’t mean anything. Others say they don’t want their team’s players going and that they’d rather see them rest. I don’t buy any of it. The game is supposed to be fun and I know I have more fun when my guys are playing.

The trouble with the Tigers this year is that it is hard to find a candidate to throw support behind. Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson are certainly deserving at this point, but fans don’t get to vote for pitchers. Miguel Cabrera started off strong, but his recent fade and the seasons of Mark Texeira, Kevin Youkilis, and Justin Morneau don’t even leave  him in the top 3. Curtis Granderson has been okay but not nearly good enough to warrant a big push. But fans do have one position player who they can throw their support behind without feeling too homerish. The man, the myth, the most polarizing force among Tigers fans, Brandon Inge.

Continue reading Vote Early, Vote Often, Vote Inge →

2009 Season

How much would you give up for offense?

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The Tigers bats have been scuffling to say the least. The Tigers received unexpected offense from a number of places early in the year while Magglio Ordonez, Placido Polanco, Carlos Guillen, and to a lesser extent Curtis Granderson, were struggling or injured. But the thumpers still aren’t producing consistently and you can add Miguel Cabrera to the list of slumping bats. So the pitching which has been a very pleasant surprise has been pitching with little margin for error.

But that pitching has also benefitted from the lineup as it is constructed. The Tigers have one of the top defensive teams in all of baseball and we are looking at a 71 run swing due to defense from last year. A lot of the Tigers who aren’t carrying their bats to the dish are certainly carrying their gloves to the field.

So with an off day, how about a little discussion of how much you trade to improve the offense? How much defense would you sacrifice for offense? What prospects or current members of the team would you be willing to part with acquire a bat (and don’t mention people on the DL or those who are untradeable -like Wilils or Robertson)?

2009 Season, Roster Management

This has to stop now

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Dontrelle Willis came into action today with yet another chance to solidify his spot in the rotation and on the roster. He did neither today and his time on the Tigers roster has to have come to an end. This isn’t brilliant thinking by any means, and it’s late, but it’s time.

Today’s effort included 8 walks in 3.2 innings, 4 of those were to the leadoff hitter in each inning. He also allowed 6 hits and a lot of loud outs. That he was only charged with 6 runs was a matter of luck and not grittiness or some ability to bounce back. Sadly this carnage was a continuation of a pattern rather than a blip.

Whether this is anxiety or mechanics or another injury, Willis is not an effective big league pitcher. The Tigers have been patient, as they needed to be due to the contract. But he can’t be allowed to hurt this team anymore. He needs to be off the roster now. I don’t care if he gets optioned to the minors or outright released but he can’t be allowed to pitch for this team any longer.

I wish Willis the best of luck. He seems to be universally loved by players, media, and fans. The way he has handled his adversity the last 2 years is a testament to the type of individual he is. But if he is on the roster after today’s debacle it is nothing more than a charity case.

UPDATE: No moves have been announced and with an offday tomorrow they have some time to make a decision. In the meantime Jason Beck has blogged Dontrelle’s reaction to the start. I encourage everyone to check it out.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.063: Tigers at Pirates

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PREGAME: It appears that the Tigers Saturday/Sunday invincibility only applies to intra-league games as they have been stymied in their first 3 match-ups with the senior circuit.

Dontrelle Willis gets the ball for the Tigers and fans will get to see what is better, his hitting or his pitching. Despite his struggles in his last start, Willis’s stature in the rotation seems somewhat more secure with the news that Bonderman will be out for a couple more months.

Russ Ohlendorf is your typical back of the rotation starter. One of these days the Tigers will need to thump an opposing pitcher. Maybe this is the day. Five of the eleven homers that Ohlendorf has allowed this year have come on the first pitch. This could play into the Tigers approach.

Oh yeah, and they’ll be wearing 1909 throwback uni’s. Always a good time.

Detroit vs. Pittsburgh – June 14, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: When the lineup was posted this game felt like a lost cause. When the Tigers sacrifice bunted in the first inning to play for one run and the plan backfired it was demoralizing. When Dontrelle Willis walked in 2 runs in the first inning it was the beginning of a disaster.

Nothing about this game felt good except for the fact that Don Kelly had a nice game. Willis was bad. Really bad. Miguel Cabrera and Curtis Granderson combined to not get the ball out of the infield. And Josh Anderson batted third. This was a couple days after Leyland was quoting he thought Anderson wasn’t cut out to be a leadoff hitter. Yeah, batting 3rd should fix it.

I think this is pretty good timing for an offday.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minore League Wrap 6/13/09

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Rochester 2 Toledo 4
Wilkin Ramirez and Clete Thomas both had doubles and singles. Ryan Roberson was 3 for 4 with a homer. Ruddy Lugo fanned 8 in 7 innings with 2 runs allowed on 6 hits and a walk. Fu Te Ni pitched a scoreless inning, as did Casey Fien despite the latter allowing 2 hits and a walk.

New Hampshire 2 Erie 5
Deik Scram and Cale Iorg went 2 for 3 with homers. Jon Kibler allowed 2 runs in 6 innings on 7 hits, 1 walks, and 2 K’s. Zach Simons fanned 5 with just one hit allowed in 3 innings.

Sarasota 1 Lakeland 7
Audy Ciriaco and Adrian Cassanova each had 2 hits including homers. Lauren Gagnier struck out 9 in 7 innings with 1 run allowed on 5 hits and 2 walks.

South Bend 4 West Michigan 6
Brent Wyatt homered and drove in 3. Brandon Hamilton fought his was through 4 innings with 3 walks and 7 hits allowing 4 runs in 4 innings. Jared Gayhart fanned 2 in a scoreless inning.

Some DSL and VSL coverage

Not included in the wrap on a regular basis due to player obscurity and time limitations here are some stats of note from the Dominican and Venezuelan teams.

DSL

Juaner Aguasvivas – 1B, 19 years old – 310/383/548 in 11 games
Emmanuel Del Orbe – RHP, 19 years old – 10/1 K/BB, 0.67 WHIP in 2 games and 9 innings

VSL

Gilbert Gomez – 1B, 19 years old – 237/370/605 line in 15 games.
Luis Sanz – C, 18 years old – 313/422/418 with 12 walks and 5 K’s in 20 games
Yorfrank Lopez – RHP, 18 years old – 17/5 K/BB, 0.92 WHIP in 20.2 innings
Josue Carreno – RHP, 17 years old – 18/3 K/BB, 1.18 WHIP in 18.2 innings

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.062: Tigers at Pirates

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PREGAME: So it’s just the Tigers now. No more Red Wings or Pistons or Lions. Just a singular focus on the Tigers.

Tonight the Tigers will face Zach Duke. Duke walks very few hitters, so he finds himself pitching deep into games on a regular basis having gone at least 7 innings in 8 of his 12 starts. What makes it particularly impressive is that he doesn’t need many pitches to do it and he’s only topped the 100 pitch mark 6 times. With the Tigers proclivity for swinging early and often Duke could probably go 10 innings. Opposing hitters are only OPSing 476 against Duke when putting the first pitch in play.

The Tigers will turn to Armando Galarraga to drive in runs from the 9-hole this evening. Galarraga has made a quality start his last 3 outings, but he hasn’t earned a win since April.

Detroit vs. Pittsburgh – June 13, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I saw very little of this game, and none of the game that mattered. I was at a dance recital and followed along on mobile gameday so my thoughts on this game are formed based on a barage of “line drive to left” and “line drive to center” and “line drive to right” and…well you get the idea. So not seeing any of the plays in question may hamper my ability to comment accurately about the game. But I’ll try and you tell me if I’m wrong.

  • Armando Galarraga was awful and was throwing batting practice. That the game was over in 2.5 hours and Pittsburgh had 16 hits I’d guess that at least Galarraga wasn’t nibbling and he gave up runs efficiently.
  • Nate Robertson came in and changed the complexion of the game…twice. He took over with runners on first and second and nobody out and retired the side stranding the runners thus keeping the game within reach. Huge inning for Nate. But then he gave up a grand slam in the next inning destroying the Tigers chances. Huge inning for Nate.
  • Marcus Thames and Ryan Raburn provided a boost with “in play run(s)” which was nice
  • The Tigers swung early and often because as I’d watch the pitch-by-pitch with 15 second auto refresh there were outs being made and there wasn’t even time to display the pitch or the “in play out(s)”
  • Did I miss anything?
  • Despite Galarraga going out in the 3rd, the bullpen is still in really good shape for Dontrelle’s start tomorrow. With Porcello going 7 innings, the pen was well rested coming into the game. And with an off day Monday and nobody throwing too many pitches today, everybody should be available if an “all hands on deck” situation arises.
2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/12/09

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Rochester 1 Toledo 2
Clete Thomas went 1 for 3 with a double. Jeff Larish walked and was hit by a pitch. Dusty Ryan doubled. Chris Lambert pitched 7.2 innings of shutout ball with 5 K’s and 1 walk. Freddy Dolsi allowed a run on 2 hits, but got the save.

New Hampshire 5 Erie 0
Scott Sizemore triple, singled, and walked and was most of the offense. Luke Stanley allowed 5 runs on 5 hits (2 homers) and 2 walks in 5 innings. Cody Satterwhite walked 2 in 2 innings but also had 3 K’s.

Sarasota 1 Lakeland 9
Jordan Newton doubled and homered. Michael Bertram and Jeramy Laster also went deep. Charlie Furbush allowed 1 run in 5 innings on 6 hits, 1 walk, and 2 K’s. Scott Green fanned 2 in his inning of work.

South Bend 1 West Michigan 3
Brent Wyatt tripled and drove in a run. Anthony Shawler pitched 6 shut out innings with just 2 K’s but no walks. Tyler Stohr got his 11th save and now posts a 1.80 ERA.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.061: Tigers at Pirates

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PREGAME: I can’t help but wonder if there are more Tigers fans in the stands tonight that Pirates fans. I think Tigers fans would be well represented with many planning to make the relatively short drive to see their team in a gorgeous ballpark. But with Game 7 tonight, I’d guess many Pittsburgh fans would be blowing off the Pirates for the Penguins, and will it just be Tigers fans who made the journey left in the stands?

Whoever decides to go will see Rick Porcello take on Ian Snell. Porcello is looking to regain his May-ish form after 2 outings that weren’t great.

Snell hasn’t had a very good season. He’s walking a batter every other inning and not striking out very many and the result is an ERA over 5. He has been much better at home where he’s only allowed 1 of his 7 homers.

Detroit vs. Pittsburgh – June 12, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Rick Porcello is the answer to what ails ya. Porcello had an incrdible individual effort both on the mound and in the batters box. Porcello went 7 innings and threw 99 pitches (a career high) and held Pittsburgh to 1 run, which was in part gifted due to a blown call at 2nd base.

But that was only half the story for Porcello. He also had 2 singles and drove in the first 2 runs. Who needs designated hitters?

Other stuff:

  • Fernando Rodney was much better this time out. He threw 12 pitches, and 11 of them were strikes.
  • Zach Miner as the primary set-up guy? He’s turned in a few nice relief appearances in a row now.
  • The offense was far from stagnant tonight with 11 hits and 4 walks. That only 3 came around to score was odd and annoying and frustrating, especially with 4 of the hits being for extra bases.
  • Placido Polanco with an excellent game with 2 doubles, 2 singles and a sacrifice bunt.
2009 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Ryan Perry rejoining the team?

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UPDATE Again: Now it’s official. Bondo to the DL for continued rehabilitation.

UPDATE: While there still hasn’t been an official announcement from the team, it does appear that Jeremy Bonderman is hitting the DL. I’ll update with more as I know it.

The Free Press is reporting that Ryan Perry is not with Mud Hens and is believed to be on his way to Pittsburgh to rejoin the team. Perry was optioned down to make room for Jeremy Bonderman. Perry has to stay on assignment for 10 days unless he is recalled to take someone’s place due to injury. So if he’s coming back it means someone is going on the DL and it is likely Bonderman.

If Bonderman does hit the DL it will be interesting to see how the Tigers handle his rehab. Once he starts pitching for a minor league club he is limited to 30 days. Will they start him right away hoping he gets the velocity back in a month or do they wait a while?

2009 Season, Roster Management

Clete’s Out, the Cougars Cry

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Following today’s game Clete Thomas was optioned to Toledo and Don Kelly was called up in his place. Beck quotes Leyland on Thomas and the decision:

“Thomas has to work on shortening his swing,” manager Jim Leyland said. “This is not a punishment. This is a player that we love.”

Kelly is versatile. He is a veteran of the Tigers system who has typically posted good batting averages and he’ll take some walks. He’s been raking for Toledo this year (341/409/478) while playing predominantly in centerfielder though he has a history as an infielder.

This move still surprises me greatly. Yes, Thomas has been struggling and swinging through a lot of pitches. But up until this afternoon Leyland thought enough of him to bat him 3rd and he is a very good defender. But his 237/315/412 line is dramatically better than Josh Anderson’s 252/289/330 line. Really, if anybody should be going out it should be Anderson who is absolutely anemic at the plate and despite his speed he managed to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. But he’s your leadoff hitter…sorry…back to the topic at hand.

I agree with Kurt that this move is mostly about versatility with 6 games coming up in NL parks and Leyland is itchin’ for some double switchin’ and Kelly will be his left handed Raburn. Or maybe they are just looking for some rookie spark. Still, I think the wrong guy got sent out.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.060: Tigers at White Sox

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PREGAME: The Tigers have already won the series, but they really have a chance to put an exclamation point on it today. With Edwin Jackson on the mound, Tigers fans expect a dominating pitching performance because we’ve been so spoiled this year.

Gavin Floyd is on a roll of his own though. In his last 4 starts he has a 2.12 ERA with 31 strikeouts and 8 walks in 29.2 innings. He’s only allowed 1 homer in that span as well. So despite the 5.35 ERA on the season, this isn’t a struggling pitcher. But the Tigers haven’t done much against struggling pitchers anyways.

Detroit vs. Chi White Sox – June 11, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: At least it was interesting and the loss was much easier to take with the series already in hand, but the Tigers had to watch the White Sox win a walk-off. That it got to a bottom of the 9th was probably the biggest surprise though.

Gavin Floyd absolutely dominated the Tigers. Ramon Santiago homered, but that was really the only damage against him. Meanwhile, Jackson gave the Tigers a chance to win, but his control wasn’t on and he couldn’t get the call on breaking balls low in the zone and he was done after 5 innings.

Thankfully Curtis Granderson took Bobby Jenks deep to tie the game in the 9th. Listening to Hawk’s call was fun in that it sounded like he was punched in the gut. Listening to him when Podsednik bounced one between first and second to win was miserable.