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2008 Season

Chatting up scouts about the Tigers

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Frequent commenter Craig (aka West Coast Tiger) attended the Oakland series and sat near some scouts. Craig engaged them in some conversation and had the following report. This is from the Tuesday game.

I feel like Phil Connors in Groundhog Day. This is the same thing over and over and over again.

I have to begin by, Oakland fans have to be the most lame fans in all of baseball. I used to think it was confined to Pac 10 college football crowds. (I married a UCLA Bruin). The A’s fans have set a new benchmark. Even when they had the bases loaded, they were quiet, distracted and seemingly disinterested.

I hope for all of you that it was less painful watching it at home. Here were my observations. And those of the scouts sitting in front of me.

1. Clete Thomas and Running the bases. He was like a deer in headlights when the ball was hit. He stood there 10 feet off 2nd, when it was clear to everyone that it was going to drop, then he hesitated it seemed at third. He should have scored standing up. That was my take. I made a comment regarding the ability of Gene Lamont to do his job. At that point one scout turned to me and said you got that right, and said. “You know there are reasons teams lose”. He went on to say in his opinion Thomas made two errors and Lamont one. Thomas’ first and most costly was not getting to third on Granderson’s line drive to left. And the second being frozen on Polanco’s single. Lamont’s obvious error was once Thomas hesitated, not holding him at third. He added “and that’s a pinch runner.

2. ON WILLIS. He felt he had pretty effective stuff and thought his best was after the injury time out when he seemed to be really just letting it go. Feels he can still be an effective pitcher who can get inside hitters heads.

3. On CABRERRA. Both scouts had the same opinion. The question around the league has always been his motivation. In their opinion handing him 150mm before he’s had a single RBI for your team has it’s risks. Especially a 25 year old. On the upside he’s one of the most explosive hitters in all of baseball. Who will make Tiger fans happy in the long run.

4. ON THE TEAM AS A WHOLE . Fundamentals are killing them. They feel they are in the bottom three of worst base running teams in baseball. They will continue to to flounder until the bullpen issues are resolved. Most salient comment was “look at their body language”. “This is a great team that is struggling in every aspect of the game right now.” “To many moving pieces” “A different lineup evey day” “ Inge is a 275 BA away from being incredible” “Zumaya and Rodney not being healthy have put a strangle hold on Leyland.

Lastly. I’d like to leave this out because I love his offense. General consensus was Guillen should have had the Ball hit by Ellis in the 11th. They all felt Inge makes that play.

And to all the Renteria haters. He was absolutely robbed on his line drive. Crosby made a great play.

Uncategorized

David Chadd on Ryan Perry

Notes from the conference call with David Chadd:

  • He identified Ryan as a top priority in the Cape Cod league. They liked he carried the high velocity throughout the course of the spring. It’s a player they were targeting all along.
  • He could be used either way (as a starter or reliever).
  • He needs to continue to refine his delivery and work on his secondary pitches. Coming into college as a shortstop he doesn’t have a lot of innings on his arm.
  • A development plan hasn’t been worked out yet. When asked if Perry could move quickly, Chadd cautioned that he had worked to do. It’s conceivable he could move fast, but it depends on how he does.
  • The draft didn’t surprise them, and the board went the way they thought it would.
2008 Season

Tigers Draft Results

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We’ll use this post to track the draft. I’ll be largely unavailable this afternoon/evening, but will try to chime in.

First Round: Ryan Perry RHP Arizona

The Tigers went with collegiate right hander Ryan Perry with their first round selection. Perry has a high 90’s fastball, a change up and a slider. He’s 6′ 4″, 200lbs and 21 years old.

He pitched as a reliever, but we’ll see if the Tigers keep him in the pen or if they make a starter out of him.

Baseball America thinks that if he signs quickly he could be in the Tigers pen later this year.

Baseball Prospectus notes the following about Perry:

Perry is a story, let me tell you. Ryan Perry was, simply, not good enough to earn an invitation to the Cape Cod League last summer. However, when a different Arizona reliever needed to drop out of the league, Arizona coach Andy Lopez pushed for the Orleans Cardinals to take Perry instead. They did, and Perry might not have thrown a fastball less than 95 mph all summer.

Catcher target Jason Castro went early. And relievers Josh Fields and Andrew Cashner went in the 2 picks prior to the Tigers.

Analysis: Take it with a grain of salt because I’m not particularly informed. But with Casey Kelly and Shooter Hunt still on the board I would have preferred going a different direction. Perry got rocked as a starter this year and if they spent the pick on a reliever I’m disappointed.

Second Round: Cody Satterwhite RHP Mississippi

Satterwhite sounds a lot like Perry. He’a a 6’4″ college junior with electric stuff, but who has gotten hit a little more than he should. He pitches in the low to mid 90’s and has a good but inconsistent slider along with an inconsistent delivery.

Third Round: Scott Green RHP Kentucky

An even bigger right hander at 6′ 7″ but this seems to be a full potential pick. He hasn’t put together a solid track record at the collegiate level. His fastball is high 80’s to low 90’s with a meh slider and below average change. Oh, and he’s had TJ surgery already. I don’t really get this pick.

Fourth Round: Brett Jacobson RHP Vanderbilt

Hey, it’s a big tall (6-6) right handed college pitcher. A high 80’s fast ball with deception and a big curve and decent change.

Fifth Round: Alexander Avila C Alabama-Tuscaloosa

Yes, that is the son of Al Avila. BA says he’s being drafted more for his bat which has good power potential.

Sixth Round: Tyler Stohr RHP North Florida

Yeah, another collegiate right hander who struggled in the rotation and had some success in the pen.

2008 Season, Injuries, Minors

Middle infield depth takes a hit

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Ramon Santiago dislocated his shoulder on a diving play today and appears headed to the disabled list. I have to believe that Mike Hollimon would have his contract purchased to be the new utility infielder. At the same time, Lakeland second baseman Scott Sizemore is hitting the DL after injuring his wrist swinging.

The Santiago news is disappointing – and this is from someone who was stumping for Hollimon to make the team over Santiago this winter. Santiago had been playing better than I would have ever expected hitting 353/476/618 in limited playing time going into today. This afternoon he added another walk and one of the Tigers 3 hits. I know small sample sizes and all, but he’d looked very good.

Hollimon stuck in big league camp this spring until he had a sublaxation of his shoulder. He got a late start to his season. He’s not hitting for a lot of average with a 253/325/552 line, but he does have 12 homers and is a switch hitter.

Links

links for 2008-06-04

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2008 Season, Offense, Pitching

Getting stingy?

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The Tigers are in a stretch of games where runs are likely to be at a premium. Between the A’s, the Indians, and the White Sox, they are facing 3 of the stingiest teams in terms of allowing runs. At the same time they aren’t exactly powerful offenses either so the Tigers figure to be playing in a number of low scoring games.

The table below shows runs per game scored and allowed as well as the ranks for the Tigers next 3 opponents.

For a freakishly inconsistent offense like the Tigers, it’s hard to say what type of production they can muster. They’ve made mediocre pitchers look awesome. But looking at the offenses they’ll be facing, if they can manage to avoid the 0-1 run syndrome they can still be in position to win a number of these games.

Hopefully those manageable offenses help a pitching staff that has really been turning things around as well. The Tigers are still 12th in the league in runs allowed per game at 5.04 for the season. But in their last 19 games they have allowed a much more respectable 4.1 runs per game.

2008 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League & Rehab Wrap – 6-3-08

Toledo 7 Louisville 2
A lot going on with the Hens today. Brent Clevlen homered twice and picked up an IBB. Fernando Rodney made a rehab appearance and pitched 2 innings allowing a hit and two walks and fanning 1. Denny Bautista also pitched a perfect inning, and that’s pitching on back to back days. I’d expect him back this week. And the Toledo starter was Lauren Gagnier who was brought over from West Michigan to take Casey Fossum’s spot tonight. He allowed 2 runs in 4 innings on 4 hits, 5 walks, and 5 K’s.

Erie 1 Portland 8
Max Leon doubled, one of only 3 hits for the Seawolves. Jon Connolly allowed 6 runs in 4 innings on 9 hits, 3 walks, and 1 strikeout.

Sarasota 10 Lakeland 8 (10 innings)
Joel Zumaya pitched 2 scoreless innings with 1 hit, 1 walk, and 1 strikeout. Brennan Boesch was 4 for 6 with a triple. Cale Iorg was 1 for 3 with 3 walks. James Skelton doubled twice, walked twice, and singled.

West Michigan 5 Dayton 2 (6 innings – rain)
Audy Ciriaco had 2 doubles and 3 RBI. Andrew Hess was the fill in starter with Gagnier bumping up to AAA. He allowed 2 runs on 2 walks, 2 K’s, and 3 hits in 4 innings.

2008 Season

An Interesting Game Experience in Oakland

Editors Note: Craig, a regular commenter here at DTW, filed this report from his experience at last night’s game.

The attendance could not have been the announced 11,000. I arrived at 6:30 and the place was empty. Maybe 4000 by the first pitch. I was shocked that when the A’s were threatening in the middle of the game, A’s fans were for the most part quiet. It is a strange sports town.

Kenny looked confident on the mound. Tiger hitters were in some good counts but Harden had good stuff as well.

My seats courtesy of a friend were row 20 directly behind home plate. The entire row in front of me was scouts from other teams. The Dodgers scout was in front of us. It was very interesting, stop watches, pitch charts, fielding charts etc. The Mets scout actually had his own radar gun which was off 7 mph from the stadium gun.

A NL scout had some interesting comments. 1. Larish has a ton of talent but he is a bit overmatched up here. In his opinion it is a very bad idea to use him in the DH role. To much pressure. Playing a position would help take his mind off hitting. 2. Cruceta is the real deal despite his numbers lately. He thinks with his odd spring, he should have had another month in Toledo or wherever to get mentally tough.

There was a young lady next to us in the stands who said she flew out for the games because she is “friends” with some of the Tigers. She said he ex husband was Magglio’s wife’s trainer and she has become good friends with them and had gotten to know the other guys. She said she was in the Ordonez box when Mags hit his big homerun in the playoffs. She said you can see her in the footage next to Mags wife. She’ll be in the seat again tonight. I got the impression she was out here for someone in particular.

I think they should do well tonight unless D train derails.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 58: Tigers at Athletics

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PREGAME: Tonight’s starters are Dontrelle Willis, Dana Eveland, and Armando Galarraga. That’s right, it’s split start night in Oakland.

Dontrelle Willis returns to his hometown and the starting rotation. Willis has made 2 starts, but only recorded outs in one of them. The other saw his knee do a strange bendy thing that resulted in a DL stint. The key for for Willis is not to walk the whole ballpark.

Armando Galarraga will be the Tigers other starter coming in around the 5th inning or so. He’s coming off a near shut out complete game performance against the Angels that was spoiled by a Maicier Izturis 9th inning homer.

Eveland takes the ball for the A’s. The lefty has a 3.66 ERA on the year and a normal 6.4 K/9 rate and a normal 3.5 BB/9 rate. What he does well is keep the ball in the park. He’s only allowed 3 homers in 66.1 innings this year. Only 1 of those has come in Oakland where he boasts a 2.73 home ERA.

Everyday left fielder Marcus Thames who hasn’t played the last few games will be DH. Inge is available as a defensive replacement late, but Leyland doesn’t want to risk losing his back-up catcher early in the game aggravating his oblique.

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

DET @ OAK, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: I confess. I went to bed. After the 10th inning, with my alarm clock looming 3.5 hours later I just couldn’t do it anymore. I wasn’t surprised to wake up and see they lost. I was surprised to see it on an infield single from Jack Cust.

The Tigers left too many runs out there. The Clete Thomas play where he got a horrible read on the ball. The Pudge Rodriguez play where he couldn’t handle the short hop from Thomas allowing the tying run to score. Leaving runners at third with less than 2 outs. It all adds up to a loss.

Willis looked very good in the first 2 innings being in and around the strike zone. But then he struggled again the next innings and was all over the place yet somehow escaped unscathed. So there was some reason to be encouraged, but he didn’t exactly finish strong (although wiggling out of the jam should give him a lift).

Galarraga walked a couple in his first inning and then ultimately allowed the 3 run homer before settling in.

Curtis Granderson made a phenomenal play and with the help of a Emil Brown brain cramp kept the game tied in the 8th.

I don’t have any other thoughts. They are playing better-ish, but still not really crisp. Each of the last 2 nights, and really every game of this road trip save for the Felix Hernandez start, they had multiple chances to win a game but once again they come up short.

I’m just happy to be done with late night west coast games for awhile.