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Tigers Minor League Wrap 4/24/09

Louisville 4 Toledo 5 (10 inn)
Brent Clevlen was a double short of the cycle. Brent Dlugach went 3 for 5 and is now hitting 362/404/638. Ruddy Lugo allowed 4 runs on 9 hits with 3 K’s in 6 innings. Casey Fien, Clay Rapada, Matt Rusch and Freddy Dolsi held Louisville off the board.

Harrisburg 1 Erie 14
Deik Scram homered twice and walked twice. Ryan Streiby homered, and Max Leon was a double short of the cycle – that’s 4 homers for him this year. Scott Sizemore homered. Even Max St. Pierre went deep. Brooks Brown allowed just 3 hits, and no walks, over 5.2 innings and has himself a 17 inning scoreless streak to start the year.

Lakeland 5 Daytona 1
Audy Ciriaco and Justin Henry each had 2 hits. Thad Weber pitched 7 shut out innings and allowed just 4 hits, no walks and 5 K’s.

West Michigan 8 Fort Wayne 3
Jordan Newton homered and singled and has a 390/444/780 line in 10 games. Billy Nowlin homered and singled as well and has a 394/462/576 line. Brandon Hamilton allowed a solo homer, but only 2 other hits while fanning 5 in 5 innings. He did walk 3, and those were the only 3 walks allowed by Tigers minor league starters.

Bonine out, Zuamaya in

This doesn’t come as a surprise at all because a)we knew that Joel Zumaya was coming back and b)Bonine hasn’t pitched well and he’s the candidate with options. Really, the only question now is how does Zumaya fit into the bullpen? Ryan Perry and Bobby Seay have combined to be the primary set-up men. Does Zumaya bump one (probably Perry the other right hander) or does he just get mixed in?

The other question is does Bonine head down to be a starter or does he continue to work from the pen?

Eddie Bonine demoted to make room for Joel Zumaya | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Game 2009.016: Tigers at Royals

PREGAME: A sleepy Tigers team landed in Kansas City at 5:56 a.m. ET this morning. The Tigers even got to use fly Red Bird One despite the fact Red Wings are in the playoffs.

Hopefully they’ll wake up in time to face Zach Greinke. They’ll try to do something that hasn’t been done against Greinke this year and that is score a run. He’s pitched 20 scoreless innings this year fanning 26 and walking only 5.

The Tigers will send out Rick Porcello who likely caught an earlier ride than the rest of the team. He is coming off his first win and has certainly drawn a tough match-up.

Game Time 8:10

Detroit vs. Kansas City – April 24, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers lost back-to-back games for the first time since the first 2 games of the season. I’m not going to fret too much about this one, just give credit where it is due. Greinke was masterful. That happens. It also highlights how disappointing Thursday night’s game against a struggling pitcher was.

The only other thing of note is that Nate Robertson made an appearance, his first in 2 weeks. Hard to believe he was a little rusty.

Tigers Minor League Wrap 4/23/09

Louisville 7 Toledo 4
Danny Worth (double and triple) and Wilkin Ramirez each had 2 hits. Dusty Ryan walked twice. Lucas French fanned 6 and walked none but allowed 4 runs on 9 hits in 6 innings.

Harrisburg 3 Erie 8
Max Leon was a double short of the cycle with 6 RBI. Brennan Boesch doubled and singled and walked. Alfredo Figaro allowed 2 runs on 2 solo homers, but only one other hit in 6 innings to go with 8 K’s.

Clearwater 7 Lakeland 6
Mike gosse and Kody Kaiser homered. Kyle Peter went 2 for 3 with a walk. Duane Below pitched no hit ball for 5 innings while fanning 7. But Brett Jacobson was lit up for 6 hits and a walk in 1.2 innings of work.

West Michigan 10 Fort Wayne 2
Jordan Lennerton was 3 for 5 with a homer. Brent Wyatt had a triple as one of his 3 hits. Jordan Newton, Ronnie Bourquin, and Chao Ting-Tang each had multihit games. Mauricio Robles fanned 8, walked 3, and allowed just 1 hit in 7 innings.

Game 2009.015: Tigers at Angels

PREGAME: It’s the rubber match! Again, the exclamation point isn’t necessary but it worked in the 3rd game against the Mariners so I figured I’d stick with it. Is anyone else tired? Back to back nights of late games have left me exhausted, but I’m a gamer and the Tigers head somewhat East after the game to reasonable start times.

Edwin Jackson takes the mound for Detroit. He’s been efficient in his first few starts. The Angels have forced Tigers starters to throw a ton of pitches in the first 2 games. What will happen tonight?

The Angels send out rookie Matt Palmer who was recently called up to bolster the decimated pitching staff. He walked 13 in 12.2 innings for the Giants last year. The Angels hope he can do a little better tonight and perhaps give the bullpen a break.

Your Tigers lineup is:

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

Game Time 10:05

Detroit vs. LA Angels – April 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

Tigers Minor League & Zumaya Wrap – 4/22/09

Indianapolis 10 Toledo 2
Joel Zumaya did his back-to-back outing and allowed 1 hit with 2 K’s in his inning of work. Ron Chiavacci was shelled for 11 hits and 6 runs in 3.1 innings. Casey Fien struggled allowed 3 hits and 2 walks while recording 1 out. Brent Dlugach homered twice and Danny Worth went 3 for 4.

Erie 3 Bowie 4
Alex Avila went 2 for 3 with a double. Max Leon homered. Cale Iorg was 0 for 3 with 2 K’s. Zach Simons allowed 1 run on 3 hits in 3 innings of work.

Erie Game 2 – PPD

Clearwater 1 Lakeland 7
Audy Ciriaco doubled and homered. Chris Carlson also homered. Kody Kaiser added 2 hits. Andrew Hess pitched 5 shut out innings surrendering 6 hits but with no walks and 4 K’s. Robbie Weinhardt struck out the side to close it out.

West Michigan 5 Fort Wayne 7
There only 6 singles for the White Caps, but they somehow turned that into 5 runs. Luke Putkonen allowed 3 runs on 4 walks, 4 hits, and 4 K’s in 3.1 innings.

Game 2009.014: Tigers at Angels

PREGAME: Tonight it will be lefty Joe Saunders taking on Justin Verlander. Verlander is coming off a remarkable start in Seattle where he was pretty much untouchable except for an awful 5th inning. Still, his velocity, command, and breaking ball were encouraging.

Saunders has only fanned 7 batters in 20.2 innings with 6 walks and 2 HBPs but he’s posting a nice 2.18 ERA because he’s only allowed 13 hits so far.

The Tigers will send out:

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

Game Time 10:05

Detroit vs. LA Angels – April 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: This probably deserves a more thorough analysis, but I have to be at my day job in 5 hours. So this is what you get:

  • Verlander not so good. The Angels worked him like they did Galarraga the night before. Of course they had help in the form of Ryan Raburn who totally botched two plays (and minorly botched a third). Some of those runs should have been unearned but a disappointing Verlander outing regardless.
  • Rincon allowed a run, and on that run he didn’t do too bad. It was a chop infield single and a double on a nice pitch. But then a wild pitch and 2 walks later I had lost all sympathy.
  • The top of the order really got it going with the top 5 being on base 14 times
  • Angels have the most generous scorer ever. It’s kind of a joke really
  • Adam Everett had 3 “hits” and played some nice defense.
  • The big rally in the 7th was bizarre. Hits went exactly where they needed to go, including another en-Inge-matic hit where he dribbles it somewhere and it results in runs.
  • Rodney didn’t really struggle, but the 9th was way too interesting. An infield hit, a double play, a couple bloop singles, a well hit double a wild pitch and then it was over. Good night.

Thames injury deemed major

From the “What’s a guy gotta do to keep a starting job” department, Marcus Thames has been sidelined with a fairly “major” injury. That rib problem that landed him on the DL yesterday is a grade three intercostal muscle and cartilage strain with bleeding involve.

For the first time in his career, it looked like Thames would get the majority of at-bats at a position when the Tigers released Gary Sheffield and named Thames the primary DH. Now he’s going to be on strict rest for at least 2 to 4 weeks before he can even begin to think about rehabbing.

Josh Anderson and Jeff Larish stand to be the primary beneficiaries of this news (and Ryan Raburn who took his place on the roster). To make this even more knife twisting coincidental, Thames would have been starting tonight against Joe Saunders who he took deep twice in a game last year in LA. Poor guy.

Tigers’ DH Marcus Thames out with “major injury” to rib cage area – Detroit Tigers Baseball: News, Blogs, Photos, Audio, Schedule & Stats – MLive.com

Tigers Minor Leauge and Rehab Wrap – 4/21/09

Indianapolis 13 Toledo 10
Joel Zumaya is probably one outing away from rejoining the team. He pitched a scoreless inning fanning 2. Scott Drucker was shelled for 7 runs allowing 9 baserunners in 4.1 innings. Fu Te Ni didn’t fare better with 4 runs on 5 hits and a walk in 2.2 innings. Mike Hessman hit a grand slam and Dusty Ryan hit a 3 run homer. Brent Dlugach had 3 hits and Clete Thomas and Ryan Robertson added 2 apiece.

Erie – suspended in the 3rd inning

Willis pitches against Clearwater - cr Roger DeWitt
Willis pitches against Clearwater - cr Roger DeWitt

Clearwater 4 Lakeland 0
Dontrelle Willis went 7 innings, which by itself should tell you something. He allowed 4 runs on 8 hits with 2 K’s and no walks. He was perfect through the first 3 innings and recorded 16 ground ball outs. Michael Bertram went 2 for 2 with 2 walks.

West Michigan 5 Fort Wayne 2
Brandon Douglas was a homer short of the cycle. Jordan Newton added 2 hits. Casey Crosby pitched a no hitter for 3 innings, but he walked 6 in that time, but he also fanned 5.

About that Cabrera “rumor”

I‘m stunned by how much attention this has gotten, but there has been speculation on ESPN that the Tigers will have to look to trade Miguel Cabrera. It started with speculation mentioned by someone on ESPN (I’ve heard it attributed to Gammons/Olney/Kurkjian but I don’t know who actually said it) that if the Tigers are out of contention economic forces would make it necessary to trade Cabrera. Boston was the destination that had been mentioned. Somehow this speculation turned into a rumor. Well, now Dombrowski has come out and said what most in Detroit had been thinking, that the rumors are absurd.

First of all, the Tigers are contending at the moment. And all the experts agree that the Central is going to be a tight division. So even knowing very little there is a good chance that every team in the Central will be contending.

Second, Cabrera isn’t just another superstar. He’s a cornerstone type player who is on a Hall of Fame career trajectory and just entering his prime years. Mike Ilitch and the Tigers can afford to pay him or they wouldn’t have inked him to the contract in the first place.

Third, and I may be reading something into this that isn’t really there, but just because Boston or New York want a player doesn’t mean they will get them.
 
Beck’s Blog: Dombrowski: Cabrera rumors “absurd”

Game 2009.113: Tigers at Angels

PREGAME:  There’s a lot going on tonight for Detroit sports fans. You’ve got the Red Wings against Columbus. The Detroit Pistons against the Cavs. Dontrelle Willis is starting for Lakeland. Joel Zumaya is pitching for Toledo. And oh yeah, the Tigers play after all of them in Orange County.

Prior to the season this series looked to be the toughest part of this 3 city trip. But bad fortune has been following the Angels around. John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Kelvim Escobar, and Vladimir Guerrero are on the DL. On top of all that there was the tragic loss of Nick Adenhart. The result is a struggling team that has lost most of its rotation (and is looking all over for help) and a lineup that lost its biggest threat. I’m not saying this will be an easy series, but the Angels have faced several seasons worth of adversity.

On the mound tonight will be Jered Weaver and Armando Galarraga. Both pitchers are off to solid starts. According to his pitch f/x data Weaver throws a 5 pitch repertoire that he mixes fairly well. In 2 games he has 10 Ks and 4 BB’s and allowed 2 homers. Galarraga has pitched so well I’m a little nervous to comment on it for fear of jinxing it.

Feel free to comment on any of the above games in this space (and please do, I’ll be in a meeting for a lot of it).

Game Time 10:05

Detroit vs. LA Angels – April 21, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Well that wasn’t the least bit satisfying. Armando Galarraga wasn’t good, but somehow managed to limit the damage to 3 runs while lasting 5 innings. Despite not having his good stuff he gave his team a chance to win. Curtis Granderson hit well, Carlos Guillen hit well, but not enough hits could get bunched together.

Especially frustrating was the 9th inning that saw a leadoff single wasted when pinch hitter Adam Everett couldn’t get a bunt down and Josh Anderson was picked off. I was pretty upset that Thames wasn’t hitting in that situation, but Ian pointed out that Marcus Thames just hit the DL (that’s a Jason Beck tweet).

Too tired to say more, but this was disappointing to say the least.

Oh, and I’m not blaming the loss on this so this isn’t a sour grapes thing, but that was some horrendous home plate umpiring by Timmons. Astoundingly awful. The whole game, both teams.

Tigers good at catching the ball

In 2008 Detroit’s pitching was awful, but it had some help in allowing runs to score. After being a stellar defensive team in 2006 and a pretty good one in 2007, the ‘08 Tigers were awful. The team ranked 26th in UZR (-39 runs) and 24th in defensive efficiency. An emphasis on run prevention was the theme this offseason. And it seems to be working in the early going.

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