Category Archives: 2006 Season

2006 Season, Roster Management

Tigers acquire Neifi Perez

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In light of Placido Polanco’s injury, the Tigers have traded for Neifi Perez. The player they sent to the Cubs is Lakeland Tiger Chris Robinson.

Neifi Perez is pretty much awful offensively with a career OPS of 677. Yet he is 33 and still in the big leagues, and teams have given him 5000 at-bats which tells you a little something about his glove. He can play 2nd, short, and 3rd base.

Now if they picked up Neifi to replace Ramon Santiago, not only on the roster but in his role as well, then this is a good move. While Perez isn’t good, he is an upgrade over Santiago. If it is an effort to find a new everyday second basemen, I’d just assume have Infante who has shown offensive glimpses and at 24 could improve.

Chris Robinson was the Tigers 3rd round draft choice last year. This year he’s hitting for a decent average (282) but with no power (357 slugging).

UPDATE: Shame on me. I didn’t even think to look into Neifi’s contract status. Turns out he’s signed for $2.5 million next year making this deal absolutely awful. The fact that the Tigers are taking on that contract should have meant giving up nothing.

Not only is it the money that is being committed to next year, but it’s a roster spot as well. In addition to sucking up a spot on the 25 man roster next year, a spot on the 40 man roster will need to be cleared this year.

Maybe it’s the losing streak making me grumpy, but I can’t see anything I like about this trade.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 124: Rangers at Tigers

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PREGAME: Normally when a team needs to stem losing, they look to their pitcher to be the stopper. But I don’t think you could ask for a better effort than what Zach Miner and Nate Robertson turned in the last 2 days. The way the Tigers offense is going, Jeremy Bonderman will need a perfect game.

Hopefully the offense can perk up against John Koronka. Tiger chased him after 5 innings and 4 runs in their first meeting.

Game Time 1:05pm

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap August 19th

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Toledo 20, Columbus 2
Pretty much everybody had a good game offensively with the Mud Hens knocking out 25 hits. Chris Shelton had 4, including a homer and he added a walk. Mike Rabelo added a grand slam. Mike Maroth went 6 innings on 85 pitches. He allowed one hit, which was a homer, no walks and he fanned 3.

Erie 7, Connecticut 0
Kelly Hunt had 3 hits including a homer and Kurt Airoso added 3 hits. Eulogio De La Cruz fanned 7 over 7 scoreless innings.

Lakeland PPD

Lansing 4, West Michigan 0
Mike Hollimon picked up the Caps only extra base hit. Cameron Maybin was 0 for 4. Erik Averill allowed 3 runs on 6 hits over 6 innings.

Oneonta 3, Batavia 2
Ronnie Bourquin had 2 hits. Christian Martinez pitched 6 innings and allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks while fanning 6. Derek Witt pitched 2 scoreless innings before Brett Jensen pitched a scoreless 9th.

GCL Tigers – Cancelled

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – August 18th

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Toledo 5, Richmond 3
Jordan Tata probably had his best Toledo start. He allowed only 3 hits, 2 walks, and 1 run while fanning 3 over 8 innings. Ryan Ludwick had 2 homers as part of a 3 hit night. Chris Shelton was 2 for 4.

Erie 3, Connecticut 2
Victor Mendez, who is on his 4th organizational team this season, homered and singled. Kurt Airoso also homered. Virgil Vasquez pitched a complete game allowing 2 runs while scatterring 9 hits.

Lakeland 4, Fort Myers 2
Jeff Larish had 2 hits and a walk. Dallas Trahern allowed 1 unearned run over 5 innings. Jeremy Johnson pitched 3 innings of relief allowing 1 run.

West Michigan 5, Lansing 4
Cameron Maybin tripled and Justin Justice had 2 hits. Virgil Vasquez started and allowed 2 runs on 4 walks and 7 hits over 5 innings. Orlando Perdomo faced 2 batters in the 9th and didn’t record either while being charged with 2 runs.

Batavia 3, Oneonta 1
Ryan Strieby and Deik Scram had 2 hits. Brendan Wise pitched 7 innings allowing 3 runs.
GCL Tigers 6, GCL Indians 5
Chris Carlson was 3 for 3 with a walk. Gorkys Hernandez picked up another 0 for 5 and might be in a bit of a slump.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 122: Rangers at Tigers

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PREGAME: With their next win, this will become the most successful Tigers season since an 85-77 mark in 1993. The Tigers will try to get that wrapped up tonight as Zach Miner takes on Kevin Millwood.

The Tigers beat Millwood back in April on the strength of 2 Chris Shelton triples (prompting Buster Olney to make Paul Molitor comparisons – sigh) and 7 innings of Verlander shut out ball.

Zach Miner will try to match his rookie teammates success against the Rangers. Step 1 would probably be not walking a lot of batters, an affliction that the last 2 Tigers starters battled.

Game Time 7:05

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap — August 17th

Toledo 3, Richmond 2 (12 innings)
Ryan Ludwick had 3 hits to provide the bulk of the offense. Chris Shelton doubled and walked. Colby Lewis pitched 9 innings and allowed only 1 run on 4 hits.

New Britain 12, Erie 4
Jackson Melian homered and doubled. Nate Bumstead was rocked for 8 runs, 7 earned, on 9 hits and 4 walks in 3 2/3 innings.

Palm Beach 7, Lakeland 6
Clete Thomas and Gil Meija each tripled and singled. Eddie Bonine allowed 6 runs in only 3 1/3 innings.

West Michigan 4, Kane County 3
Justin Justice was 3 for 4. Cameron Maybin returned to the lineup and doubled, singled, and walked 3 times. Lucas French allowed 3 runs, 1 earned, over 6 1/3 innings. He walked 4 and struck out none.

Oneonta 8, Batavia 5
Scott Sizemore was 3 for 5 and James Skelton added 2 doubles. Ronnie Bourquin picked up 2 walks and his raised his OBP to 391, although he’s only slugging 345. Chris Cody left the game after 2 hitless innings. Randor Bierd pitched 3 1/3 innings and allowed 2 runs on 5 hits, no walks, and 4 K’s.

GCL Tigers 6, GCL Indians 5
Chris Carlson was 3 for 3 with a walk. Gorkys Hernandez went 0 for 5.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 121: Rangers at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers return home and face the Rangers. If it seems like it’s been a really long time since Detroit played Texas, well it has. You have to go all the way back to the first week of the season when Chris Shelton was smacking a home run a game. After hanging around in the AL West most of the season, the Rangers are now 6.5 games behind the A’s and trying to hold onto playoff hopes.

Tonight the Tigers will send Kenny Rogers out against his old team. After an awful July, Rogers has bounced back somewhat in August with a pair of 7 inning, 4 hit starts but with an 0-1 record to show for it.

He’ll be paired against right hander Edinson Volquez who is making his 3rd start. In his last outing he pitched 7 shut out innings against the Mariners.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Here is the super ultra delayed post game. The family and I went to the game last night, got home late, and I got a slow start this morning. I agree with most of the comments already left so I won’t add too much more.

Is it me or did that game seem like shouldn’t have been that close. The Tigers were hitting balls hard all night, and getting guys on base. It really felt like it should have been a blow out.

Carlos Guillen’s homer was a laser. Craig Monroe continues to smack the ball around. And Tiger pitchers keep walking a frustrating batter an inning.

And on one final note, if there was anything positive to come out of the Polanco injury (which now looks to be a 4-6 week thing), it is more Omar Infante at-bat music.

2006 Season, Roster Management

More Vance Wilson

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The Tigers inked Vance Wilson to a 2 year contract extension keeping him a Tiger until 2008.

As back-up catchers go, Wilson is pretty much everything you could hope for. He can handle the bat well enough but most importantly he is solid defensively. He also has the benefit of familiarity with the young pitchers who the Tigers will be counting on in the near term.

I don’t know terms, but I don’t see any reason not to be happy about this.l

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – August 16th

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Toledo 2, Durham 1
Chris Shelton had 2 doubles…to go along with 3 strikeouts. Kody Kirkland who was making his AAA debut went 2 for 4 with 2 doubles. Cory Hamman allowed 1 run on 6 hits, no walks, and 4 K’s over 8 innings.

Erie 5, New Britain 0
Jon Connolly went all 7 innings and allowed only 2 hits and 3 walks while fanning 6. Jackson Melian was 1 for 2 with a walk.

Erie 6, New Britain 2
PJ Finigan started and pitchced 3 2/3 scoreless innings. Andrew Graham went 3 for 3.

Palm Beach 7, Lakeland 6
Gil Meija, Clete Thomas, Chris Robinson and Garth McKinney all had 2 hits each. Eddie Bonine allowed 10 hits in only 3 1/3 innings for 6 runs.

Kane County 6, West Michigan 3
Michael Hernandez was 2 for 4 with a homer. Cameorn Maybin didn’t play after being hit on the hand by a pitch the night before. Burke Badenhop surrendered 4 runs on 8 its in 5 1/3 innings.

NY Penn All Star Game
Scott Sizemore was 0 for 3 but Ronnie Bourquin picked up a hit and an RBI. Derek Witt and Brett Jensen each pitched a scoreless inning.

GCL Yankees 5, GCL Tigers 1 (10 innings) Hayden Parrot went 3 for 4. Gorkys Hernandez was 0 for 5.

2006 Season

News, and more news

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Some rapid fire linking before I call it a night:

  • Cameron Maybin has been tearing it up on the field, but he ran into a little bit of trouble. Apparently he was in an accident on July 13th in which he blew a .04 which is well below the legal limit. But he’s 19 which is well below the legal age. This doesn’t seem like a big deal. No one was hurt. He called the police himself. And the only other living thing involved was the deer he swerved to avoid.
  • Of course most of you have seen the link to the Bill Simmons article where he breaks down the AL contenders. In case you haven’t, he has Detroit ranked behind the Yankees.
  • The early prognosis for Placido Polanco is a 2nd-3rd degree seperation and he’ll see the team physicians tomorrow. Will Carroll notes the short term objective is to control swelling.

    The key will be controlling the swelling inside the joint and making sure that it has stabilized. Remember, a separation implies that the shoulder is now in its proper placement, in contrast to a dislocation.

  • And a little more Will Carroll from a couple days ago. While others were worried about Verlander tipping his pitches or his veloctiy, Carroll picked up a flaw in his mechanics.

    Justin Verlander might have been tipping his pitches, but he was definitely “pitching uphill.” I mentioned that I watched his start on Friday with Rany Jazayerli. I pointed out how Verlander was dropping his back shoulder and actually raising his front arm, as he is in this picture. Looking through tape and images, it’s clear that Verlander often throws this way. While not ideal, he’s certainly getting good results. Verlander’s mechanics do not hold up well when he’s fatigued; he gets looser with his arms and spins at the end of his release, losing his balance in the midst of his delivery. The Tigers are well aware of these flaws and his fatigue. The question now is whether he can be effective enough while being used the proper amount in the midst of a pennant chase.

    I wonder if it is this same issue that contributed to his inability to throw strikes tonight?

  • Via Aaron Gleeman I found a site with a bunch of useless yet interesting baseball info. For example, did you know that Lou Whitaker is the Tigers all time leader in walk-off hits?
  • Lynn Henning from the News wrote about defensive efficiency ratio today. This is excellent that something else besides fielding percentage is being mentioned in the mainstream media. Even better is that Chris Shelton and Leon Durhan seem to be figuring it out in Toledo.
  • I think we’re all familiar with the Magic Number concept which is the number of wins for the first place team, and losses for the 2nd place team that will guarantee victory. To calculate simply add the first place teams wins and the 2nd place team’s losses and subtract the sum from 163. However, there’s a more accurate way. Because remaining schedules vary, there are certain scenarios that may lead to the 1st place team locking things up earlier than the magic number would indicate – especially in terms of securing a playoff spot. Some smart folks at Berkley actually test every remaining scenario to determine the true magic number. Going into tonight the Tigers clinch number for a playoff spot was 31.
  • Late addition as I forgot one piece I’d been meaning to link to. Stephen Rodrick wrote a nice piece detailing the excruciating period in Tiger fandom since Darrell Evans was picked off third in the 1987 ALCS. Again, this was linked to on several other blogs (Ian and M.A.T. to name a couple) but I’ll include it here as well.
2006 Season, Game Post

Game 120: Tigers at Red Sox

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PREGAME: The Tigers will be taking on left hander David Wells tonight, and have stacked the lineup with right handers. Sean Casey will be the only lefty stick starting. Brent Clevlen will man centerfield and Pudge Rodriguez will handle leadoff duties. Craig Monroe and Marcus Thames will look to set the table in front of Magglio Ordonez.

The Rodriguez selection is interesting as leadoff, but he has had considerable success aginst Wells in the past. In 57 at bats he has hit .333 with 4 homers.

Justin Verlander will take the mound for Detroit. He’ll look to regain the command that was lacking in his Chicago start and pick up his 15th win.

Game Time 7:05pm