Category Archives: 2006 Season

Tigers Minor League Wrap – August 15th

Toledo 8, Durham 6
Tiger bench players contributed to this win. Jack Hannahan, Alexis Gomez, Ramon Santiago and Kevin Hooper all chipped in. Chris Shelton took an 0 for 4 and picked up his 3rd error. Chad Durbin pitched 6 2/3 innings and allowed 4 runs, 3 earned while fanning 6.

Erie 0, New Britain 0 (in progress 10th inning) Jair Jurrjens pitched 7 shut out innings. He allowed 7 hits, 2 walks, and he struck out 5.

Lakeland 5, Palm Beach 2
Kyle Sleeth had a solid start going 5 innings and allowing only 4 hits and a single run. Kevin Whelan allowed a run in relief on a solo homer. Jeff Larish hit his 17th homer and walked. Chris Robinson had 2 doubles.

West Michigan 4, Kane County 2 (in progress)
Justin Justice homered and doubled. Cameron Maybin singled in 2 at-bats but appears to have been lifted from the game.

Oneonta- DNP

GCL Braves 2, GCL Tigers 1
Eric Beattie had an excellent start allowing only 2 hits over 6 innings. He fanned 8 against only 2 walks. For a player of his age at the level, he should be dominating, but given his struggles any success is a positive. Chris Carlson doubled and singled.

Polanco out indefinitely

Placido Polanco has a seperated shoulder. In case you didn’t see it, he went back and made a run saving catch in short centerfield. As he tumbled to the ground he tried to brace himself and his left arm/shoulder took the brunt of the impact.

He’ll undergo further tests Wednesday morning.

Of course the Tigers will need another infielder. Ramon Santiago is the least compelling, yet most likely choice due to his position on the major league roster. He is also most suitable equipped to handle both middle infield positions. It will also mark the return of Omar Infante as a regular.

Game 119: Tigers at Red Sox

PREGAME: Tonight offers an awesome pitching match-up with Jeremy Bonderman taking on Curt Schilling. A quick glance at the lineup though reveals something equally interesting. Pudge Rodriguez has been moved to the 6th spot in the lineup and Dmitri Young will be hitting 3rd.

Moving Rodriguez down is certainly warranted. While his offensive output has been fine this year, it hasn’t exactly been prototypical 3-hole level. A similar move last year by Alan Trammell caused massive clubhouse disruption (or least led to it later on).

Game Time 7:05pm

Taketh and Giveth Away

Take a look at the 5 games of the losing streak:
Game 1: Tigers take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Minnesota scores 2 in the top of the 3rd.
Game 2: Tigers tie the game in the bottom of the 6th at 1-1. In the top of the 7th the Twins take the lead 2-1. In the bottom of the 7th the Tigers take the lead 2 with 2 runs. In the top of the 8th they give it right back.
Game 3: Okay, the Tigers never scored in this one.
Game 4: The Tigers score 3 to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the 5th inning. The White Sox score 3 in the bottom of the 5th.
Game 5: The Tigers put up 1 in the first. The White Sox get it right back.

If it seemed like the Tigers were never playing with the lead over the last 5 games, it’s because they weren’t. Sure they went ahead a few times. But, at no point during the last 5 games have the Tigers held a lead until their next at-bats. The Tigers pitching and defense managed to give back the lead the very next half inning each and every time. Even in the 2 instances where the Tigers eliminated a deficit, the lead was immediately returned to the opposition.

I don’t know if momentum plays any sort of role in baseball. What I do know is that the Tigers didn’t get to experience it at all over the last 5 games. It was especially refreshing to see Nate Robertson come out after being spotted 3 first inning runs and keep the Red Sox off the board in the first inning.

Tigers Minor League Wrap – August 14th

Toledo 7, Richmond 5
Mike Maroth made his 2nd rehab start. He threw 74 pitches over 5 innings. He didn’t exactly cruise with 4 runs allowed on 7 hits. He also didn’t have any easy innings with a single run scoring in the 2nd through 5th innings. Chris Shelton was 1 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout. Alexis Gomez homered.

Erie – DNP

Palm Beach 4, Lakeland 2
Jeremy Johnson allowed 1 hit and 1 walk against 3 K’s in 3 innings. Paul Hammond making his 3rd appearance with Lakeland allowed 3 runs, 2 earned in 2 innings. Chris Robinson had 2 hits while Jeff Frazier and Jeff Larish each were 1 for 3.

West Michigan, Kane County (in progress)

Oneonta 5, Auburn 2
Santo De Leon was 3 dor 4 with a homer. Matt O’Brien allowed 2 runs, 1 earned in 5 2/3 innings fanning 5 and walking none. Casey Fien pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings before Brett Jensen finished the game fanning 2 of the 3 batters he faced.

GCL Tigers 6, GCL Phillies 0
The Phillies were shutout despite getting 10 hits. Alfredo Figaro allowed 8 hits, walked none, and struckout 4 in 7 innings. Gorkys Hernandez was 3 for 5 Audy Ciriaco picked up 2 hits.

Game 118: Tigers at Red Sox

PREGAME: In case you hadn’t heard, this is a really big game because the Tigers have a 5 game losing streak. Actually I can’t be that sarcastic because I kind of believe. At least I believe it to the extent that the longer the losing streak, the more important it becomes to stop it and 5 games is plenty long.

Nate Robertson will take on Josh Beckett. Robertson was on the short end of the stick against the Twins in his last start. He’s actually pitched pretty well in his last 2 starts allowing 6 runs over 13 1/3 innings but he only received 3 runs of offense.

Beckett has been good at home this year, but he’s been pretty hittable since the All Star break with a 266/320/420 line against.

Both Placido Polanco (back) and Pudge Rodriguez (0 for Chicago) will get the night off. Last year Omar Infante had a good game at Fenway peppering a couple doubles high off the Monster and Josh Beckett should provide a decent match-up for him.


POSTGAME
: Well that was certainly more better ;)The Tigers exercised considerable patience at the plate and finagled 6 walks against Red Sox pitching. They also managed to hit the ball with some regularity. The pitching was solid, and it seemed like Robertson’s final line should have been more impressive.

And let me first say that Curtis Granderson is my Tiger. But despite the triple he is all out of sorts at the plate. Six times in the last 2 days he’s swung at the first pitch. That just isn’t part of his game, and he ended up fanning 3 more times.

Tigers Minor League Wrap – August 13th

Richmond 6, Toledo 1
This was a 1-0 pitchers duel until the 6th inning. Jordan Tata started and allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, on 4 hits, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts. Josh Phelps had 3 hits and provided the lone run with his 22nd homer. Chris Shelton was 0 for 4.

Connecticut 5, Erie 1
Eulogio De La Cruz who seems to have found a home in the rotation allowed 4 runs, 3 earned, in 6 innings. don Kelly had 2 hits for Erie.

Lakeland – DNP

West Michigan 3, Quad Cities 1
Cameron Maybin was 2 for 4 with a homer and 2 strikeouts. Mike Hollimon added 2 hits and a stolen base. Sendy Vasquez allowed 3 hits and 1 walk over 8 innings limiting Quad Cities to 1 unearned run in the 9th inning. Orlando Perdomo came in an retired the side for his 28th save.

Auburn, 3, Oneonta 2 (10 innings)
Chad Piccola started and allowed 2 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks over 5 2/3 innings. Lauren Gagnier pitched 4 innings of relief, fanned 4 and walked 2. Gagnier only allowed one hit. Unfortunately it was a homer in the top of the 10th.

GCL Tigers – DNP

Game 117: Tigers at White Sox

PREGAME: The Tigers have lost 4 in a row. Their offense has been held to 8 runs over that span. Their defense has been bad. It’s time for it to change.

Freddy Garcia against Zach Miner.

The Tigers have only been swept once this year. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.

Game Time 2:05.

POSTGAME
: Yes, losing streaks are no fun. Losing to your intra-divisional mates is all the more painful. Losing badly is…Okay you get the point. Before I talk about today’s game specifically, I will say for the first time I’m troubled with the Tigers performance against the White Sox. I don’t necessarily buy the “they’re in their head” speak, but the Tigers have made a habit of coming up short against the Sox. For awhile I thought it was close games not going the Tigers way. This weekend they were manhandled.

I know there is much concern in that a 10 game lead was halved so quickly. But to be fair you have to remember that the Tigers lead ballooned to 10 games rather quickly as well. Where for much of the season the White Sox and Tigers were in lockstep, for the last 2 weeks the teams have been moving in opposite directions.

Am I concerned? A little. But the Tigers just dropped 5 in a row, and they still have a 5.5 game lead. That is more a testament to the fact that the Tigers haven’t really hit the rough patches that their other counterparts have – until now.

As for today’s game, I’m not doing the sour grapes thing because the Tigers were flat out beat. They swung early and often in the count and chased balls out of the strike zone while Zach Miner couldn’t get a corner (more on this in a minute). Craig Monroe and Brandon Inge both made outs on ball 4 (I at least give them a little credit for getting to ball 3. Even Curtis Granderson swung at the first pitch in 3 of his plate appearances.

All that said, Tim Timmons was awful behind the plate. Miner was wild, but he was also getting squeezed. And that I believe is what led to Rodriguez’s frustration for being called out on a pitch that was close (for the record I actually thought that pitch was a strike). And as I’ve mentioned before, I hate it when umpires keep going after players. Timmons did it with Polanco (horrible call) and Rodriguez. Both were upset with called 3rd strikes and showed their displeasure while walking to the bench. In both instances with the player walking away Timmons takes off the mask and continues the argument. Timmons – you made the call, the player disagreed with it yet went back the bench, why continue the argument?

On a final note, it was a great day by Guillen who saved a run in the early going with a spectacular defensive play and came up with 2 2-out RBI.

Tigers Minor League Wrap – August 12th

Norfolk 5, Toledo 4
Josh Phelps homered and Ryan Ludwick added 2 hits. Chris Shelton was 1 for 4 with a walk and 3 K’s. Colby Lewis allowed 4 runs in 5 1/3 innings.

Connecticut 7, Erie 3
Don Kelly had 2 hits for Erie. Virgil Vasquez allowed 4 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings. Preston Larrison surrendered 3 runs on 5 hits in 2 innings or relief.

Tampa 6, Lakeland 4
Six different players picked up singles for the L Tigers. Kevin Ardoin allowed 11 hits and 6 runs in 5 innings.

Tampa 6, Lakeland 1
The Tigers only mustered 4 singles in this half of the double header. Eleazar Aponte, called over from the GCL team, allowed only 3 hits and 1 unearned run in 4 innings. Kevin Whelan gave up a run on 2 hits in 1 2/3 innings.

Quad cities 5, West Michigan 2
Justin Justice had 3 of the team’s 4 hits including a homer. Cameron Maybin was 0 for 3 with a walk. Lucas French allowed 5 runs on 4 walks, 4 strikeouts, and 9 hits in 6 innings.

Auburn 5, Oneonta 4
James Skelton, Ryan Strieby, and Ronnie Bourquin each had 2 hits, including a homer for Strieby. Christian Martinez allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, in 5 1/3 innings while walking none and fanning 7.

GCL Indians 11, GCL Tigers 8
Gorkys Hernandez left the game after 2 at-bats and I’m not sure why. Hopefully it isn’t injury related. Luis Arlet homered and doubled. Santo Franco started and lasted 2 2/3 innings surrendering 3 runs.

Game 116: Tigers at White Sox

PREGAME: It’s a battle of struggling left handed all star starters today with Mark Buerhle taking on Kenny Rogers.

Since the All Star Break Buerhle has an 8.68 ERA with only 13 strikeouts to go along with 8 walks and 8 homers. Buster Olney talked to a scout (Insider) who had this to say about Buerhle’s struggles

“His pure stuff is the same to me — velocity is the same, 84-90 mph. But he’s getting the ball up in the strike zone, and he’s paying for it. It’s got to be a mechanical thing. And to me, he needs to throw more changeups to right-handed hitters, too.” The scout disagrees with the view that Buehrle’s fastball is down from last year.

Rogers numbers are eerily similar with an 8.34 ERA, 14 K’s, 13 walks, and 6 homers allowed.

On another note, did you notice that the Tigers were using signs like when a runner is on second, but they did it the whole game? I noticed it in the first inning. Rod Allen picked up on it a couple innings later, but didn’t have any idea why. I’m guessing it’s because Jim Leyland trusts what his buddy Tony Larussa experienced back in June to be true.

Game Time 1:25pm

POSTGAME: So the Tigers have their first 4 game losing streak of the second half. Let the hand wringing begin. Actually, if you want to get upset about today’s loss, I can’t blame you. The Tigers seemed to crumble defensively despite an excellent outing by Kenny Rogers. The offense again looked stagnant with 7 of the first 10 batters striking out (to their credit they didn’t strike out after that until MacDougal came in so some adjustments were made).

The pressure is on tomorrow to avoid the sweep and keep the lead from shrinking to 5.5 games. That’s right, all the way down to 5.5 games. The Tigers are still in good shape despite their recent slide. That said, 7.5 would look a lot nicer.

The Tigers Organizational Family Tree

About a week or so ago, I received an email about a San Diego Padres Family Tree that he created. He was inspired by Will Young who had compiled one for the Twins. Thinking this idea was cool, I decided to try and do one for the Tigers which you can find here.

The tree aims to identify how each member of the 40 man roster came to be with the Tigers, be it through free agency, the draft, Rule 5, or trades. In the case of trades, it traces back to find out how the players involved in the trade were acquired. In some instances this was pretty easy, like when the Tigers traded for Carlos Guillen they gave up 2 players (Juan Gonzalez and Ramon Santiago) who were signed as free agents out of Latin America. In other cases, like when the Tigers acquired Nate Robertson it can be traced back to Brad Ausmus and CJ Nitkowski.
Continue reading The Tigers Organizational Family Tree

Tigers Minor League Wrap – August 11th

Norfolk 5, Toledo 1
The Mud Hens only managed 3 singles. Chris Shelton was 0 for 3 with a walk. Corey Hamman allowed 4 runs on 7 hits in 6 innings.

Connecticut 5, Erie 4
Don Kelly picked up 3 hits and Vince Blue added 2. Nate Bumstead allowed 9 hits and 5 runs, 2 earned, over 6 2/3 innings.

Lakeland 9, Tampa 4
Jeff Larish was 2 for 3 with 2 walks. Nic McIntrye had 4 hits and was a double short of the cycle. Chris Robinson added 3 hits. Eddie Bonine allowed 3 runs in 5 innings.

West Michigan 5, Quad Cities 1
Cameron Maybin was 3 for 4 and Mike Hollimon added a triple. Burke Badenhop allowed 1 run in pitching the 7 inning complete game.

Quad Cities 7, West Michigan 6 (10 inn)
Anthony Claggett pitched 4 innings out of the bullpen and allowed 2 runs, 1 earned while walking 3 and fanning 5. Matt Joyce had 2 hits and Mike Hollimon hit his 14t homer. Orlando Perdomo allowed 3 runs in the bottom of the 10th to negate the 2 runs the Caps scored in the top of the frame.

Oneonta 3, Hudson Valley 2
James Skelton had 2 hits and Scott Sizemore tripled. Brendan Wise pitched 8 innings and scatterd 6 hits and no walks to allow 2 runs, 1 earned. Brett Jensen allowed a hit and fanned 2 for the save. The O-Tigers also found out they had 6 member named to the NY-Penn All Star team: Scott Sizemore, Brennan Boesch, Ronnie Bourquin, Matt O’Brien, Derek Witt, and Brett Jensen.

GCL Tigers 7, GCL Yankees 6
Gorkys Hernandez was named GCL player of the month for July (and June) and celebrated with a homer and a triple. Luis Arlet also homered among 4 hits.