Category Archives: 2006 Season

Game 145: Rangers at Tigers

PREGAME: Sorry about the site today. My host is having problems, and it took me 45 minutes just to post this. Vincente Padilla against Kenny Rogers on a soggy night.

Joel Zumaya has a sprained wrist and will miss the next couple and Polanco could be back for Chicago according to reports on 1270.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Great win. The bats still are struggling, but they got just enough. Kenny Rogers continued to deal followed by a strong outing from Fernando Rodney. Craig Monroe made throw after throw that were right online. Pudge did a great job blocking the plate preventing Kinsler from scoring (horrible slide by Kinsler, anything creative or to the side and he’s safe easy). And of course there were those late inning heroics. It was the kind of win we expected early in the season, and the kind of win we’ve been craving for the last month.

Now this certainly seems like a momentum building win, but we’ve seen several of those over the last couple weeks. Unfortunately they were followed by mini-losing streaks each time. But I’m not going to worry about that until tomorrow night. For now I’m just relishing the fact that today is one day when nobody gains on the Tigers. And who knows, maybe this is the start of something. Afterall, a winning streak has to start with 1 doesn’t it?

Tigers Rotation Shuffle

According to Danny Knobler, it looks like Jim Leyland is using the 2 off days this week to realign the rotation for the Chicago series. Kenny Rogers and Justin Verlander will pitch in the Texas series. Instead of going with Wil Ledezma and Nate Robertson the first 2 games of the Orioles series, Jeremy Bonderman will be moved up. Because the Tigers are off on today and Thursday, Bonderman will be on his regular rest.

Presuming that Nate Robertson doesn’t have lingering effects from the line drive to the ribs, he’ll get the nod on Saturday followed by Ledezma on Sunday.

That leaves Kenny Rogers, Justin Verlander, and Bonderman to face the White Sox.

Now earlier in the season, the Tigers went to Minnesota to face a Twins rotation that was stocked specifically to match-up with the Tigers. Leyland kept his rotation intact and left Zach Miner to face Francisco Liriano (which worked out okay). So is Leyland feeling the pressure now with a rapidly shrinking lead?

Game 144: Tigers at Twins

PREGAME: This is kind of a big game. And it’s Jeremy Bonderman against Johan Santana. And it’s not on TV if you live in Detroit.

Game Time 2:10

POSTGAME: After seeing so many frustrating games where either the offense was good and the pitching was bad or the more common situation where the pitching was good but the offense was bad, the Tigers put it all together and combined the bad pitching with the bad offense for a 12-1 thumping.

I was excited early in this game because MLB.TV neglected to blackout my feed. But then I kind of wish they would have.

Bonderman still continues to confuse me, but not opposing hitters. His fastball velocity is still there. His slider is still sharp. He manages to locate both pitches for the most part. He keeps getting strike outs, but it takes him a long time to do it. And the guys he doesn’t strike out seem to put the ball in play with some measure of authority. I’m not sure if it’s the lack of a change-up, or if his pattern has become predictable. But the stuff still seems to be there, but the results aren’t.

As for the offense, the approach was actually decent for the first 4 innings. Even when the Tigers would fall behind, they’d work the count back even or to a full count. Santana was averaging 20 pitches an inning before a 10-pitch-strike-out-the-side-5th inning. But despite the best intentions, the Tigers found themselves in one of those multi-multi-inning funks where they couldn’t get a baserunner near scoring position.

Thank goodness for an off day.

Game 143: Tigers at Twins

PREGAME: I really have no clever set up to this game, so let’s get to it.

Nate Robertson will take the mound for the Tigers and try to fare better against Mauer and Morneau than every Tiger left hander last night did.

The Tigers will be opposed by Boof Bonser who you may know as “the third guy” that the Twins got in the Pierzyinski for Nathan/Liriano deal.

Game Time 7:10

POSTGAME: It’s the same old story. The Tigers open up a series on fire, and then muddle through some frustrating losses. Invariably one of those frustrating losses will belong to Nate Robertson who was excellent. Of course you probably know that the runs came as the result of an Omar Infante error. What I still don’t understand is how Michael Cuddyer was able to run 270 feet in the time it took Ordonez to get the ball and throw home.

The Tigers had opportunities early, which was a pleasant change, but weren’t able to cash in. And then the offense was completely shut down for the 2nd half of the game.

And as for the umpiring, that blown call at 2nd base where Infante flipped to Guillen, Guillen caught the ball, took a step and touched 2nd base, and then went to transfer the ball to his throwing hand, was as bad a call as you will see.

Game 142: Tigers at Twins

PREGAME: I’ve got a good feeling about tonight. After all, there are 2 Tiger blogger birthdays today and the club just couldn’t let us down now could they. Those birthday bloggers are myself and Samara.

Wil Ledezma is charged with making today a Happy Birthday. He’s been outstanding since his move to the rotation. Leyland didn’t let him throw more than 71 pitches in either start, in part due to a stretching out phase, and in part because he was going on 3 days rest. (Speaking of Ledezma, Kurt did some interesting work extending research done by Nate Silver and found that under Silver’s methodology Ledezma may be the current rotation candidate that would most benefit from a move to the pen)

He’ll be opposed by Matt Garza. Garza has made 5 starts, 2 of them good (against Baltimore and KC), 1 of them okay (against Cleveland), and 2 of them bad (against Toronto and New York). I think it is pretty clear that the quality of competition had a considerable influence in those games.

Carlos Guillen returns to the lineup at short (cross your fingers that he doesn’t blow it out) and Infante retains 2nd base duties.

In other news, Don Kelly cleared waivers and was outrighted to Erie while Chris Spurling was claimed by the Brewers. I’ve updated the Roster and Organizational Tree pages to represent the newly configured 40 man roster.

Game Time 8:10

POSTGAME: Sorry ’bout the much delayed postgame report. The game was, umm, frustrating? Who would have thought that on a night when the Tigers drew 3 walks in first 3 innings and Sean Casey pickedup an infield hit, and Magglio had good at-bat after good at-bat, and Carlos Guillen was back in the lineup along with Omar and Thames, that the Tigers would lose. Then again who would have thought that a nobody on, 2 out situation would turn into 7 runs either.

It was just one of those nights. The Tigers made some mistakes defensively and pitching, and the Twins took advantage of them – especially Mauer and Morneau.

I do think that Jim Leyland has become way too platoon happy. He insisted on lefties facing Morneau and Mauer, but if you look at their splits, they are good hitters no matter who they are facing. And Alexis Gomez over Chris Shelton in the 9th?

Wil Ledezma wasn’t sharp. He was both wild outside the zone and couldn’t find the edges of a very large and erratic strike zone, and even the strikes he through he wasn’t locating them well.

And then there was just the bad luck. Thursday night every ground ball with a runner on was a double play, last night it was a hit.

Tiger Blogger Night Links

I had a great time with my fellow bloggers on Tuesday night despite the soggy losing-ness at Comerica Park. I’ll point you to Ian, Brian, and Samara who have done an excellent job wrapping up the night. But if you want one phrase to summarize the conversation it would have to be “What would Neifi do?” And I encourage you to check out the photography of the supremely talented Sam who managed to make rain look beautiful.

On to some links:

  • Game 141: Tigers at Twins

    PREGAME: Tonight the NFL kicks off it’s season, and for the first time in recent memory I could care less. The Tigers enter this series knowing that they could A)Effectively knock the Twins out of the divisional race B)Find themselves in a tie for 1st place or C)tread water for 4 more games. Looking at the pitching matchups, A would seem like a possibility, but given the way the Tigers have hit against everyone lately I’d be satisfied with C.

    Scott Baker will be taking the hill sporting an ERA 3 runs higher than his Detroit counterpart Justin Verlander. But in his last start (and his only start since August 1st) Baker limited the Yankees to 1 runs on 2 hits over 5 innings.

    Verlander is coming off a start in which he threw 126 pitches in just 7 innings. I’ll be watching Verlander’s velocity as well as seeing how quick Jim Leyland is with the hook.

    Game Time 8:10

    POSTGAME: There wasn’t much not to like about this game with the exception of Verlander throwing 15-20 more pitches than were necessary. But along the way he really staked a claim for the Rookie of the Year award with an excellent performance in a high profile game.

    The Tigers had a balanced attack from the offense, and rendered two pitchers unavailable for the next couple nights.

    As Pete pointed out in the comments, we’ve been here before with an impressive series opener only to struggle in the subsequent games. Even winning 1 in the next 3 and the Tigers have improved their chances of taking the division. But let’s not think like that yet.

    Dmitri Young Released

    The Tigers unconditionally released Dmitri Young.

    I have no idea what happened at this time. The press release just came across.

    UPDATE: In the News Dombrowski said the move was strictly performance related. I don’t buy it. Something else went down. There are lots of guys slumping, and the Tigers DFA’d Spurling earlier in the day to free up a roster spot for Maroth. This had something to do with what transpired in today’s game, or during the rain delay.

    Game 140: Mariners at Tigers

    PREGAME: The Tiger offense is still in a funk, and to top it off they face Tiger killer Gil Meche. In his first 2 starts against the Tigers this year, he has allowed 3 runs over 13 innings while fanning 15.

    Meanwhile, Kenny Rogers has been the Tigers hottest starter, but if the bats don’t get going soon they’ll need near perfection from Rogers.

    Game Time 1:05

    Maroth back, Spurling DFA’d

    Mike Maroth was activated from the 60 Day disabled list today. To make room the Tigers designated for assigment the contract of Chris Spurling.

    This move is curious on several fronts. First, unless there is a roster rule I’m not familiar with, the Tigers could have moved Tony Giarratano to the 60 Day DL freeing up the spot on the 40 man roster. (And to the best of my knowledge making another player eligible for the post season roster).

    Second, Chris Spurling is actually decent. He had more success than he probably should have last year given his strikeout rate, but he proved to be effective. And in his time in Toledo he posted a 2.05 ERA spanning 66 innings and 49 appearances with only 10 walks allowed.

    Even if Spurling wasn’t going to be part of the Tigers long term or short term plans, it seems he could have returned some value in offseason trades.

    This isn’t a huge disappointment to me, but it’s just odd in that the Tigers had another option to free up that spot.

    Game 139: Mariners at Tigers (and Bloggers)

    PREGAME: The long awaited bloggers night is here. If you’re heading down to the game, plenty of tickets are still available. Of course you could sit anywhere, but the cool (aka geeky) kids will be sitting in section 212 row 1.

    We’ll be watching the struggling Jeremy Bonderman take on Jake Woods. Hopefully a bunch of bloggers will inspire Bondo onto victory, and help Omar continue to stake a claim to the second base job – even after Neifi is healthy.

    And Brent Clevlen has been recalled

    Game Time 7:05
    Happy Hour 5:15 @ Nemo’s

    Erie Coaching Staff Canned

    Manager Duffy Dyer, pitching coach Mike Caldwell, and hitting coach Pete Incaviglia were all fired following yesterday’s game (which ended the season).

    Erie had an awful season, and they really had no offense to speak of. Clevlen had come off a good season the year before, and a great spring training, and yet struggled in AA before having success in a very small sample in Detroit.

    On the pitching side, it was surprising to see Caldwell let go. Humberto Sanchez took the next step forward in his development under Caldwell this year. Eulogio De La Cruz also finally started to put things together this year after being touted as a prospect for the last several years. Last year Joel Zumaya, who had shown glimpses in prior seasons, became a dominant force under Caldwell. Going farther back Wil Ledezma had an excellent season under Caldwell in 2004.

    I honestly don’t know how much Caldwell contributed to those players successes, or if they were just talented enough to do it no matter who the pitching coach was. But he certainly didn’t seem to hurt any of those guys development.