All posts by billfer

2008 Season, Pitching

All Star Break Discussion #1: Pitching Coach

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With the All Star break upon us, now’s a good time to deviate a little from the day to day game post-reaction loop. Over the next 3 days there will be a different discussion topic each day. Today we start with building the ideal pitching coach.

Chuck Hernandez caught a lot of heat early in the year. That criticism has quieted somewhat with the staff posting a 3.95 ERA since May 13th. But this discussion is less about the merits of Chuck Hernandez and more along the lines of role playing. You’re the manager/general manager. What are you looking for in a coach?

Some things to consider:

  1. Do you want someone with a specific philosophy or system that all pitchers would adhere to, or do you want someone who tries to leverage the strengths of the arms he’s given?
  2. What about pitcher workload? Old school where you see how far a guy can go and pitch counts are for wusses, or someone to coddle the arms and make sure they never ever throw more than 100 pitches or pitch 3 days in a row?
  3. Do you want someone who is going to emphasize mechanical tweaks and changes all the time, or someone who will let pitchers just throw and work more on their psyche and confidence?
  4. A pitch to contact philosophy or strike everyone out philosophy?
  5. Someone who embraces objective data or someone who embraces their own observations?
  6. When game planning how much emphasis is put on pitching to the pitcher’s strengths versus pitching to the oppositions weaknesses?

Finally, once you’ve selected someone, how do you evaluate whether they are doing a good job? How do you decide how much credit/blame is due to the coach and those he has to work with?

I don’t mean this to be a Chuck Hernandez bash (or love) fest. But feel free to cite examples of what you like or don’t like about Hernandez or any other pitching coach to help explain your preferences. And if there are any other qualities or traits you’d look for, feel free to include those as well.

Uncategorized

Game 94: Twins at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers limp into the All Star break physically and spiritually. The Twins have taken 5 straight from the Tigers and a 4 game sweep would certainly suck hard.

The match-up is Justin Verlander and Nick Blackburn. If you want a little something different, the Future’s Game starts at 12:30 and it features Wilkin Ramirez starting in left field. You can also see Gorkys Hernandez starting next to him in centerfield.

MIN @ DET, Sunday, July 13, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: The Tigers found a way to win against the Twins. They made it a 2 run game instead of a one run game. I’m not sure if the fact that the Tigers were only outscored by 2 runs in this series makes me feel better or worse.

Justin Verlander was awesome today and probably even better than his final line indicated. Which was an impressive 7 inning, 2 run, 8 K, 2 walk day. The fastball was live. The curve ball was nasty. And he held Mauer, Morneau, and the whoever was hitting 8th today in relative check.

Once again the kids supplpied the power with Clete Thomas and Matt Joyce accouting for 3 of the 4 runs. Thomas with his first career homer and Joyce with his 9th. This sets up quite the dilemma as to who gets sent down when Magglio Ordonez returns on Thursday.

And on another note, in terms of the Twins doing “things the right way” and the genius of Ron Gardenhire. I’m sorry. I don’t see it. Yes, there is probably some bitterness at work. But I saw them fail continually with their heralded bunting. Once bunting into a force out at second, due in part to the fact that Carlos Gomez let up. I saw Alexi Casilla bunt into himself while in fair territory. I saw them flounder just as much as the Tigers with RISP. I saw a guy with a sub .300 OBP start all the games as the leadoff hitter. They did enough stuff better than the Tigers to win 3 of 4. But I saw nothing offensively or strategically that screams “the right way.” The pitching is great and will only get better when Francisco Liriano returns (assuming that Livan Hernandez gets dumped). But I still don’t think they are for real.

2008 Season, Pitching

Dontrelle Talks

Most of the time when you read the beat reporters game stories and quotes, you get pretty much the same thing. But every once in awhile, you’ll get some pretty different takes. Take for example the conversation that Dontrelle Willis had with reporters yesterday.

In the mlb.com article the focus is on Dontrelle’s attitude and the minor league process. Willis says all the right things, accepting responsibility and all that stuff you like to hear:

“Not at all. You definitely don’t think about the money you’re making when you’re walking guys,” Willis said. “I don’t think that was the case at all.”

…

Willis said the demotion to Class A hasn’t been tough. He called it “necessary,” and said it has not affected his confidence. The lefty appeared humble, not bitter or angry.

“I’m accountable for everything,” Willis said. “I’m just not throwing the ball how I want to. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to play baseball anymore. I still love the game. It’s just making an adjustment. Sometimes you work hard, but you have bad habits.”

The Tigers have a plan in place to fix those bad habits. Willis has a plan to pitch in Detroit again this season.

“You have to be a man and understand that everybody wants to be a .900 hitter and everybody wants to be undefeated, but that’s not the case,” he said. “You continue to work hard and continue to have fun and, in the end, you’ll be happy with what you’ve done.”

In the Free Press article the emphasis is on Willis drastically changing his wind-up.

Willis acknowledged during a 10-minute session with reporters Saturday that he is currently attempting to change his mechanics through work with the organization’s coaches. He did not provide specifics of what the new delivery looks like.

I can’t imagine that Willis will make huge changes in his mechanics, at least not changes that will be really evident to the layman. The initial coiling might not be as dramatic, and the kick might not be as high, but I still believe it will be the same general concept.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 93: Twins at Tigers

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PREGAME: Another day game on Fox, another Twins starter the Tigers struggle against. This time it’s Scott Baker.

Nate Robertson is on the mound for Detroit. He went 9 innings of excellent work against the Mariners. But the start prior to that the Twins handed him his worst start of the year and the only one in which he allowed more than 5 runs this season.

MIN @ DET, Saturday, July 12, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 3:55

POSTGAME: Another one run loss to the Twins. I don’t have a lot to say. One point I will make is that I don’t usually get too upset about strikeouts. It’s just another out right? And the Tigers team isn’t particularly prone to fanning (9 AL teams have whiffed more often). But in this series the Tigers have saved their strikeouts when they mattered most.

Thursday we Jeff Larish and Pudge Rodriguez K in the 9th inning with the winning run 90 feet away.

Friday it was Thames and Rodriguez each striking out with men on second.

Today it was Granderson fanning with a runner on second and 1 out in the third. Miguel Cabrera struck out with 2 men on and nobody out in the 8th. And then in the 9th Sheffield, Larish (who’s last 3 at-bats have come against Nathan. How much fun is that?), and Granderson all fanned.

Their clutch striking out the last 3 games, all one run losses, has been demoralizing to say the least.

2008 Season

The 5th Inning – 2008

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Last year Sam Hoff started breaking down the season into 18 games segments, each representing 1/9th of the season, or an “inning.” Here is the 5th inning report. Sam sent this to me Thursday morning, but I haven’t had a chance to post until now.

The 5th Inning is over.

Each 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record for the first 5 innings in 2008:

                                                            Starters:         Bullpen:
    W-L   RS –RA     HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG    W-L-IP-   ERA     W-L-S-ERA
1:  6-12  74 -112    15-10-262/345/404    3-9- 96.2-5.96    3-3-3-5.28 
2:  9-9   98 -87     21- 6-261/350/426    5-8-105.2-5.11    4-1-2-3.61
3:  8-10  89 -75     19- 2-275/326/442    8-5-109.2-4.19    0-5-4-3.83
4:  11-7  85 -74     19- 8-268/350/416    8-4-113.0-3.27    3-3-5-5.17
4:  12-6  86 -78     25- 6-297/347/476    6-4-106.1-4.23    6-2-6-3.43

The 5th inning found the Tigers put up their best record since the 4th inning of 2007 (13-5). The Tigers won a lot of close games having a 6-1 record in one run games and a 3-1 record in two run games. Not surprisingly, the bullpen put up their best numbers of the year. Despite the performance in the inning, the Tigers lost ground to red hot the White Sox (now 7 games back).

Justin Verlander is back to his old self (3-0-3.00era and 26Ks in 24 innings). Nate Robertson (1-1-4.26), Armando Galarraga (0-0-4.32) and the demoted Eddie Bodine (1-1-4.22) were all serviceable. Kenny Rogers (1-2-5.68era) may be a concern as elbow and age issues make you feel a cliff is coming sometime in the near future.

In the Bullpen, Jones continues to gets saves (4 total) and allow stupidly high totals (15 runners in 8.1). Bobby Seay (6 innings) and Aquino Lopez (3 innings) were unscored upon. Zumaya (1.93era – 19 runners in 9.1) and the demoted Miner (1.23era – 13 runners in 7.1) were both lucky. Rodney (5.14era – 8 runners in 7.0) had a 5.14era and a big loss. Dolsi (4.50era) and Fossum (4.22era) were serviceable in long relief.

The Hitters were a bit perplexing in the fact that they hit a lot of homeruns, batted 296, and were patient at the plate could not manage more than 86 runs. On a positive note, they were only shut out once and did not skew the numbers with a big blowout (the most they scored in a single game was 9).

The offense are being lead by the Mudhens. Holliman, Joyce, Raburn, Larrish, and Thomas were a combined 4-13-306/390/556. Granderson is scorching 1-6-438/487/616. Cabrera had six of the 25 homers hit by Tigers while only striking out 9 times.

Go Tigers!

2008 Season, Minors, Uncategorized

The plans for Ryan Perry

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The Tigers officially announced the signing of first round draft pick Ryan Perry yesterday. In the conference call there was discussion about what Perry’s next steps are as well as his role.

Earlier reports indicated that Perry would likely be a September call-up. However, David Chadd indicated that wasn’t really a consideration at this point. Of course the Tigers have been known to change their minds in these types of situations – or at least let the performance of the players change their minds. I’d still say it’s up to Perry in large part.

Chadd also speculated that Perry, who is already in Lakeland, would likely be starting out with the Gulf Coast League Tigers as opposed to the A ball Lakeland Flying Tigers. But that decision didn’t sound set in stone either and there would be discussions with Jon Matlack (minor league pitching instructor) and Glenn Ezell (player development).

The audio from the conference call is here if you’re so inclined.
[audio:http://detroittigersweblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/perry_conf_call.mp3]

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 92: Tigers at Twins

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PREGAME: Those of you who believe in momentum may have had your beliefs shaken after yesterday’s gut-wrencher. Armando Galarraga faces the one team that he seems to struggle the most with, the Twins. He’s managed to last 6 innings in each of his starts, but his 10:8 K:BB ratio in 18 innings isn’t all that inspiring.

Glenn Perkins takes the mound for the Twins. Perkins has stymied the Tigers twice already this season and has given up no more than 3 runs in any of his last 6 starts.

And I’m going to this game so there will most definitely be a rain delay.

MIN @ DET, Friday, July 11, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 7:05

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 91: Twins at Tigers

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PREGAME: If you’re a believer in momentum you have to like this series for the Tigers. The Tigers make a 6 run come back for a walk-off win and the Twins were swept by the Red Sox with an 18-5 loss to finish the series. As for my views on momentum, I’m in agreement with Jim Leyland that mo is the next day’s starter.

In Detroit’s case that would be Kenny Rogers. In Rogers last start against the Twins he struck out 6 in 6 innings, but that game is remembered as the one where the Tigers scored 6 in the first and still lost.

On the Twins side it will be Kevin Slowey. Slowey has 60 K’s against only 11 walks. Like most Twins pitchers he’s a strike throwing machine. In fact, he’s gone to a 3 ball count in only 39 of 311 plate appearances this year. Lefties hit him considerably better so I’d anticipate the all left handed outfield this afternoon.

Given Slowey’s 1.04 WHIP the hope here is that Rogers keeps them in the game long enough to get into a bruised and battered Twins bullpen.

MIN @ DET, Thursday, July 10, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:05 (I have no idea why this is a day game)

POSTGAME: Some prognosticator I am. Keep it close against the starter and then beat up on the bullpen. Yeah. Not so much. This game blows for so many reasons. It’s the polar opposite of last night. One game starts out awful and ends up glorious. This one starts great and ends as a huge punch to the gut.

The story of this game comes down to a wicked combination of Not Good and Not Good Enough.

The offense managed 6 runs off a Twins starter which is a feat for them this year. But it proved not to be good enough. They managed to load the bases against Joe Nathan, but it wasn’t good enough.

Matt Joyce homered and doubled which was good. But he made a costly error and failed to lay down a bunt making his day not good enough.

Jeff Larish had 3 hits which is good. But he failed to drive in the winning run, or even put a bat on the ball meaning it wasn’t good enough.

Todd Jones was not good. Not even in the vicinity of good.

Freddy Dolsi went 2.1 innings, but he gave up the winning run to an unstoppable Justin Morneau. Not good enough.

Fernando Rodney got 3 weak ground outs. But it was after a moonshot double to that freakin Justin Morneau. Not good enough.

Marcus Thames went 3 for 4 before being yanked. He was actually good.

Granderson and Polanco each drove in a run, but combined to go 2 for 12. Not good enough.

Miguel Cabrera launched a shot to right field with runners on first and third, but it was caught at the wall. Not good enough.

Losses happen. It’s one of 162, but it certainly feels like more. The Tigers struggle to score runs against the Twins starters, and yet they managed 6. And they combined it with a volatile, yet in the end effective starting performance. This game was theirs. It was one for the win column. But they let it get away.

2008 Season, Game Post

Tigers Minor League Wrap 7-9-08

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Scranton 1 Toledo 2
Timo Perez homered again and Mike Hessman tripled and singled. Brandon Inge was 0 for 4 with 2 K’s. Virgil Vasquez went 7.1 innings fanning 5 and walking none in allowing 1 run. Francisco Cruceta went 1.2 innings with 2 K’s and no baserunners.

Erie 6 Reading 1
Wil Rhymes and Wilkin Ramirez each had two hits. Dusty Ryan who will participate in the EL All Star Home Run Derby went deep for the 14th time and walked twice. Juan Cedeno pitched 4.2 shut out innings.

Lakeland 5 Brevard County 1
Cale Iorg went 3 for 5. Brennan Boesch had 2 hits and 3 RBI. Guillermo Moscoso allowed 1 unearned run in 5 innings while fanning 9 and walking 2.

Clinton 3 West Michigan 5
Ronnie Bourquin doubled and walked. Jon Kibler was strong with 7 K’s, 2 walks, 4 hits, and only 1 run in 8 innings.

Oneonta 5 Staten Island 4
Ben Guez and Brandon Douglas each went 2 for 4 with an RBI. Matt Hoffman went 4 shut out innings on 3 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 3 hits.

GCL Indians 5 GCL Tigers 1
Brett Anderson was 2 for 3. Darlin Duran allowed 4 hits in just 3.1 innings. Cory Satterwhite allowed 2 hits, but also fanned 2 in 1 inning of work.

GCL Tigers 11 GCL Indians 9
Josh Workman was 4 for 5 with a triple and a walk. Alexis Espinoza singled, doubled, and walked. Brayan Villareal allowed 4 runs in 4 innings. Richard Zumaya struggled allowing 4 hits and a walk and 2 runs crossed the plate in .2 innings.

Players

Inventorying Miguel Cabrera’s locker

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In the wake of Miguel Cabrera’s 2 homer performance on Tuesday, we learned a little bit about what Cabrera keeps in his locker and it seems to be an eclectic mix.

  • He has 3 unopened candy bars. (yeah, yeah, weight jokes, yeah) We don’t know the brands, and I think this is pretty important information.
  • Voodoo dolls. This was reported by Curtis Granderson. Not sure if the voodoo dolls are of particular people, or if maybe they are generic and wear certain uniforms on certain days. But I do feel somewhat comforted that Cabrera is channeling his inner Pedro Cerrano.
  • And spotted tonight in his postgame interview, there was a bobblehead that I believe to be Curtis Granderson. It’s unclear if this is in fact one of the voodoo dolls.
2008 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Tigers make roster moves

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Following the game tonight Eddie Bonine was optioned to Erie and Dane Sardhina was optioned to Toledo designated for assignment. Taking their places are Jeff Larish and Brandon Inge.

Inge of course is returning from the disabled list.

In the case of Bonine, he struggled his last 2 outings and his command was particularly good. With the All Star break coming up the Tigers won’t need a 5th starter for over a week so they are giving themselves an extra bat.

As for who will fill that 5th starter role, I’d guess it will be Zach Miner after the break. He was great in a 4 inning start for Toledo and will get at least one more start to further stretch his arm out prior to being needed.