All posts by billfer

2008 Season, Managing & Strategy

This new lineup isn’t a temporary thing

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The last 2 games have featured Magglio Ordonez hitting 3rd and Miguel Cabrera hitting clean-up. That’s going to last awhile, like into next season.

I don’t think lineups make a huge difference, but it never felt right having a hitter like Cabrera batting below the clean-up spot. And with Leyland not liking to shuffle guys, it meant having some unusual players hitting 3rd. No disrespect to guys like Marcus Thames or Ryan Raburn, but when you have Ordonez and Cabrera the previously mentioned guys shouldn’t be pushing them down in the order.

As for Leyland’s thought process for the sequencing? It was up to Magglio.

“I told Magglio, ‘You’ve got your choice of where you can hit, third or fourth.’ He took third.”

As I mentioned I’m not a big lineup guy, so this seems like the perfect way to give veterans a say and keep them happy and comfortable.

2008 Season, Injuries, Minors

Junkballing: Booing, Injuries, Waivers and Minors

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A hodgepodge of all the stuff that went down this week that just didn’t fit anywhere else:

Much ado about a boo

A lot of disgruntled fans did a lot of booing this week. Gary Sheffield received his share when culmination about frustration with his production collided with Sheff being Sheff. That was noisy, but not too surprising. Sheffield responded somewhat, and was still a little misguided.

“Compare me to me,” Sheffield said. “If you’re looking for .300, 30 [home runs] and 100 [RBIs], then I look pretty awful right now. I ain’t the only .220 hitter in this game. I ain’t the last one to hit .220, but it’s never a big deal when a lot of guys that play everyday, hit in the same spot everyday, and hit .220 and nobody says a thing.”

But Gary, you’re getting paid to be you and that’s the problem. You’re not being paid to be a .220 hitter.

But there was more booing. Joel Zumaya bore the brunt of it when he and Bobby Seay blew a 3 run lead. Zumaya, who said it felt like his shoulder exploded, wasn’t a fan saying

“I think it’s pretty lame,” Zumaya said. “I give it everything I’ve got.”

Bobby Seay didn’t appreciate it either.

I’m not a fan of booing. I understand it, but it’s not something I do. That said I don’t know that the booing was directed specifically at Zumaya and specifically at the outing. But it was general frustration with the bullpen crapping the bed again.

Oww, my aching…

The medical staff has been busy, but it seems like everything has been reactive. Todd Jones hits the DL after getting destroyed repeatedly. Joel Zumaya hits the DL after blowing up. It’s reminiscent of Jeremy Bonderman’s situation last year. I understand players wanting to play through things, but how many times once the team suffer for a player trying to gut it out.

But then you’ve got the other side where in that previously linked Sheffield article he said he was hurting, his trainer said he’s doing too much, but the organization said he was fine.

“I’m just going to give it to you straight,” he said. “When the organization tells you that you’re fine, I can’t say I’m not fine. I have to be on the same page as the organization. That’s just the way it goes.

“I talked to my trainer, and he said, basically, what I’m doing is unrealistic. That’s what he said. I said, ‘Why won’t anyone say that on my behalf? Why do I always have to come up here and defend me?’ And he just said, ‘Be realistic with yourself.’ That’s all I needed to hear. After that, I felt good about walking on the field. I have no extra incentives to play hurt.

I don’t understand it.

Jeremy Bonderman will be rejoining the team this weekend, but to rehab and likely not play.

And speaking of injuries, Marcus Thames is expected back in a day or two, as is Carlos Guillen who is dealing with a pinched nerve in his back. And Freddy Dolsi was optioned out to Toledo to make room for Todd Jones who is back. Though his role hasn’t been decided. Dolsi will likely be back when rosters expand.

Waivering

Gary Sheffield cleared waivers. Shocking. The bigger news is that the Tigers put in a claim on Raul Ibanez. Corner outfield/DH doesn’t appear to be a need for the Tigers so I can’t figure out the intent unless they hoped to get him for free, and then take the draft picks when he walks. Luckily they didn’t work out a trade that would have had the Tigers sending the Mariners anything of value.

Minor interest

The Tigers have had some good news in their farm system this year from some unexpected sources. And it’s getting some press. Wilkin Ramirez is a high ceiling guy that has had his progression and production limited by injuries. But he’s putting it all together this year earning this assessment from a scout:

“He has power, on-base skills, and don’t forget that he’s a 60 [on the 20-to-80 scouting scale] runner as well. His defense is adequate, but I think he’s the kind of guy who is an everyday corner outfielder on a first-division team—he could be pretty special.”

Also in the same article are some kind words for James Skelton, though scouts still can’t decide if his slight frame is an issue.

Another catcher making noise is Dusty Ryan. Tigs Town recently profiled him.

With the Tigers concerns at the catching position heading into 2009, Ryan will have a wonderful opportunity to enter Spring Training with a chance to impress and earn a big league job.

Finally, Ryan Strieby has been destroying the Florida State League.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 121: Blue Jays at Tigers

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PREGAME: A 4 game sweep would really suck. Let’s not do that okay? Armando Galarraga and Jesse Litsch.

TOR @ DET, Thursday, August 14, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAMEArmando Galarraga is the man. I was the stupid blogger who didn’t believe his early season success could be sustained, but he’s gotten even better. And as it stands he’s got a legit shot at rookie of the year with his main competition (Joba Chamberlain and Evan Longoria) injured. He went far deeper in pitch count territory (121) than he ever has. I don’t know if it was a good decision to leave him out there, because he typically loses it really fast and it was a tight game, but it worked out. And it’s certainly worth looking at his next start to see if there is any residual effect.

Whipping boy powers activate
Whipping boy powers activate

As for the offense, it was dead. Again. But they broke through in a big way in the 8th. Miguel Cabrera got the big tying hit with 2 outs, but it was the Whipping Boy Power that drove in 4 of the runs. Renteria doubled for the 4th straight game and made a diving knock down with the infield pulled in to help Galarraga strand a runner at third in the top of the 8th.

Good Fernando Rodney showed up for a 1-2-3 non-scary inning.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 120: Blue Jays at Tigers

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PREGAME: It’s Kenny Rogers turn tonight. Turn to what I’m not sure. Is it give up too many runs to a struggling offensive team? Is it pitch brilliantly only to be undermined by an inept bullpen? Or maybe it’s something I haven’t even heard of.

He takes on lefty David Purcey and his 7.40 ERA. Purcey tends to walk a lot of people, with 16 so far in 24.1 innings. He’s also allowed 6 homers in that span.

Carlos Guillen is out with a pinched nerve so the bench is pretty lean with Ryan Raburn manning third base.

TOR @ DET, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: Sigh. A walk. A bad call on a sac bunt. A bad hop on a double play ball. A bad pitch resulting in a grand slam homer. And the Tigers inability to square a pitch against a guy with a 7+ ERA. Tigers hitters routinely got ahead of the count, finding themselves in 3-1 and 2-0 counts, but didn’t hit the ball hard at all off of Purcey.

Some late noise made it close. That is all.

2008 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Joel Zumaya to the DL

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Not surprisingly, Joel Zumaya has been placed on the disabled list. His shoulder is the culprit but the diagnosis on the press release was limited to “sore.”

Francis Beltran gets called up to take his spot. Why not Casey Fien or Francisco Cruceta, or someone else? This is probably a 2 day call up until Todd Jones can be activated on Friday. Beltran is fairly expendable whereas Fien would require burning an option and Cruceta could be lost through waivers when he would be sent down.

2008 Season, Pitching

Managing Verlander’s Workload

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After Justin Verlander’s 130 pitch outing, I flailed wildly in frustration at the stupidity of the situation. I didn’t care for the move from an in game management decision, and I hated the thought of increasing the risk of injury to the prized arm in the organization. The feedback was mixed. Some agreed with me. Others thought I was crazy. Pitchers used to throw a lot more. Justin Verlander was still throwing hard. He’s been throwing a lot of pitches this year so he’s conditioned for it. He hasn’t been injured the in the past. He’s the ace. Some of these arguments don’t hold a lot of water, but others are harder to refute. But what if we table the injury concern for a moment and instead look at performance?
Continue reading Managing Verlander’s Workload →

Roster Management

Sheffield on waivers isn’t news

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Gary Sheffield was placed on waivers today. This is a non-event. The only reason this is currently noteworthy is that it didn’t happen earlier. The only way it becomes noteworthy is if a team puts in a claim.

Just because Sheffield is on waivers does not mean he is going anywhere. These are revocable waivers and it is a procedural thing that needs to be done for the team to be able to trade Sheffield. Many players are put on waivers, and Sheffield is likely one of many Tigers.

Sheffield is in the lineup tonight because he is still on the team, and will most likely be when the waiver period expires on Thursday afternoon.

2008 Season, Injuries, Minors

Dontrelle movin’ on up

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Dontrelle Willis has completed the Lakeland portion of his program and will start for Toledo on Friday night. Willis worked deep into his last 2 games and only allowed 2 walks.

Dombrowski said the move was made because Tigers minor league pitching coordinator Jon Matlack, minor league performance enhancement instructor Brian Peterson and Lakeland pitching coach Joe Coleman agreed he was ready.

I thought it’s interesting that the Tigers have a performance enhancement instructor, or in other words a roving head coach. I like it.

Willis will take Eddie Bonine’s spot in the rotation as Bonine is experiencing dreaded shoulder problems.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 119: Blue Jays at Tigers

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PREGAME: It’s A.J. Burnett against Zach Miner.

Miner has had a quality start in 3 of his first 4 efforts since returning to the rotation. Burnett has great peripherals. He fans a batter per inning and 2.3 for every batter he walks. His home run rate of .8 per 9 innings is solid also. Somehow he has a 4.62 ERA though.

The lineup is the same as last night’s.

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

TOR @ DET, Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

Whipping boy powers activate
Whipping boy powers activate
POSTGAME: Sigh. Well, the Whipping Boys (Sheffield, Renteria, Inge) power was activated in the 6th inning. Sheffield hit his 2nd homer and the other 2 hit back to back 2 out doubles. That should have been enough to beat the Blue Jays until Bobby Seay and Joel Zumaya combined to give it back.

Whether it is injury, or needing more recovery time, or simply needing more time to work on things, Joel Zumaya has to be sent down. There needs to be a spot made for Todd Jones on Friday, and it has to be Zumaya that is sent down. He now has 23 walks in 23.1 innings. Francisco Cruceta and Zach Miner were demoted for far less. If the fastball isn’t what it was, finding his change up and commanding his curve ball need to be next on the to do list and he shouldn’t be doing it with the big league club.

Zach Miner was very good again. That kind of got lost in everything else.

2008 Season, Free Agents

Freddy Garcia a Tiger

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Jon Heyman is reporting that Freddy Garcia has agreed to a contract with the Tigers. Garcia has been injured for the last year with shoulder problems. He had surgery to correct a torn labrum and recently auditioned for teams. I have no idea what they’ll get out of Garcia, and I can’t really offer commentary on the deal until I see the parameters.

I do know that Garcia and Carlos Guillen were party buddies back in Seattle. But that was quite awhile ago.

Garcia to sign with Tigers – MLB – SI.com

UPDATE: It’s a minor league deal. I like it. No risk, no outlay.

Garcia’s deal is a minor-league contract that runs only through the end of 2008. It will become a major league contract if he’s promoted to the parent club. Garcia will report first to Class-A Lakeland. As long as he’s on the major league roster by August 31, he will be eligible for the postseason.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 118: Blue Jays at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Blue Jays come to town. Shaun Marcum is on the mound for Toronto. He struggled in his first 3 starts off the DL allowing 17 runs in 14.2 innings and 5 homers in those 3 games. But in his last start he got well holding Oakland to 1 run in 7 innings with 7 K’s and only 2 walks. Whether that means he’s back to the low 3’s ERA pitcher he was earlier in the year, or it was a product of facing the A’s remains to be seen.

For the Tigers it will be Justin Verlander. Verlander made progress in his last start before his line was blown up in his 8th inning of work. Oh yeah, and he threw 130 pitches.

TOR @ DET, Monday, August 11, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: The weather was perfect. Outside of that, I’ll go bulleted list style:

  • I have no idea if Verlander’s previous outing impacted the current one- at least in terms of performance. He was lifted around the 80 pitch mark and so that was probably a factor in not letting him pitch through it.
  • Control didn’t seem to be a problem, with his first ball not coming until pitch number 15. I was at the game, and haven’t gone through the pitch f/x data so this is pure speculation, but I’d say he was just chucking the ball over the plate to try and get quick outs. I base this mostly on the knowledge of the length of his previous outing, and the number of scorched balls coming with 2 strikes.
  • I’ve seen a decent number of homers to straight away centerfield at Comerica. They’ve all been well hit of course, but given the sheer vastness of the outfield, you never really know if they’re gone. Cabrera’s was a no doubter off the bat.
  • The Sheffield situation wasn’t pretty. He was awful again today, and the boos just rained down in a grilli-esque fashion. I’d say it was probably even louder than Jason received.
  • Jason Beck transcribed Leyland’s quotes in response to the Sheffield article. I agree completely with the skipper on this.
  • I don’t get too worked up about guys not sprinting all the way down the line on every ball. A comebacker to the pitcher and you’re out before you get half way down the line. But Sheffield hit a groundball down the third base line. It wasn’t hit hard and it was fielded behind the bag. Chances are he would be out, but it wasn’t a given. Sheffield ran half speed. It should have been a close play but he was out by 3 steps. That is inexcusable from anyone, but especially the leader he fancies himself.
  • The game seemed very blah, due in large part to Verlander getting rocked and the offense not clicking. But outside of Sheffield guys were playing hard. Renteria laid out and made a nice stop on a ball up the middle. Maggs made a nice diving play, as did Miguel Cabrera.
2008 Season, Players

Sheffield talks about stuff

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Gary Sheffield still isn’t happy with his DH role. In a Boston Globe article Sheffield was his typically candid self.

“I can be in the outfield and play every day. I don’t want to DH. I don’t feel like a baseball player when I DH. I don’t know how to be the leader that I am from the bench. I can’t be a vocal leader. I can’t talk to guys from the bench because I don’t feel right about it.

“I’m in a role now where I don’t know what to do, really. The guys are out there busting their butt for nine innings, they come in and they hit and they grind. I just sit down and hit. That’s all I do, so I can’t be in a leadership role from that position.”

Sheffield has drawn a lot of ire this year for his lack of production. But he has been uncharacteristically quiet – by his standards anyways.

We all remember the left field experiment earlier in the year that didn’t go well when Sheffield couldn’t actually throw the ball. Supposedly he is healthier now, and the production has been increasing. Since the All Star break he’s hitting 247/333/493 (not including today’s suck-fest).

And I can’t be upset with a guy who wants to play more, and do more, and contribute more. But he’s not the same hitter he once was. He goes on to talk about how tough pitchers are pitching him:

“I don’t get pitched the same like everybody else. I get pitched very carefully. Now that I’m a lot better physically, I can handle tough pitching. I can be the player that I know I am.”

…

“They work it down and away or up and in, and it’s always on the edges,” Sheffield said. “That’s how I’m getting pitched, but I can handle that.”

But he isn’t handling it. For the season he’s striking out in 22% of his at-bats. That is well beyond his career 12.5% average. And it isn’t just a product of his injury early on. Even since the All Star break when he’s been moderately productive, he’s still fanning at a 20% rate. As for pitcher’s pitching him tough, they can’t be pitching him any tougher than they had in past.

I’m not going to say that Sheffield sucks. Hi skills are fading, but if he can maintain his post All Star pace I have no problem with an average OBP and a solid slugging percentage. He came back too quickly, and he should have gone on the DL.

But in terms of being a vocal leader? Maybe it’s best not to lament not playing for a different team:

“The Yankees knew I wanted to go to Boston,” Sheffield said. “They picked up my option so I wouldn’t wind up there. I would have loved it because I love that atmosphere. It means something.

“At this stage of my career, I want to feel that again. That’s what I play for. That’s what gets me revved up.”

Yes the Tigers are a long shot for the playoffs at this point. But there still is a shot. And baseball is a big deal here in Detroit. The Tigers will shatter their attendance record and night in and night out in Detroit Sheffield is playing in front of sell out crowds. And the boos that Sheffield received from the home crowd today are indicative of the fact that the fans are “revved up.” I know the atmosphere in Detroit doesn’t rival Fenway, but it’s not like he’s playing in front of a bunch of empty seats.

I’m sure clarifying remarks will be coming out in the next day or so, and Sheffield will talk about how happy he is in Detroit. But this doesn’t play well, especially from a guy who’s lack of production this season has been a part of the problem.