Category Archives: 2006 Season

Game 105: Tigers at Devil Rays

PREGAME Kenny Rogers against Casey Fossum. Game Time 7:15

POSTGAME: Well if this is what happens when I skimp on the pregame portion, I’ll write War and Peace each game.

This one was simply ugly. Rogers was hurt by two, two run homers. Ledezma pitched okay in relief, but 2 more runs crossed the plate.

My real issues are with Dmitri Young and the offense.

Young was an embarrassment tonight. He flat out dropped 3 throws and looked horrible at the plate for the bulk of the night.

And the offense with 10 strikeouts against Casey Fossum!

I have nothing nice to say tonight. This game looked way too much like the 8th inning last night. I take it back, Brent Clevlen picked up his 2nd assist on an awesome throw to second. Here’s hoping that Justin Verlander can play the role of stopper and the bats come out angry tomorrow.

Tigers get Sean Casey

The Tigers traded for Sean Casey from the Pittsburgh Pirates. They sent the Pirates minor league pitcher Brian Rogers. To make room for Casey, Chris Shelton was optioned to Toledo.

Rogers had 62 K’s and only 14 walks in 60 innings as a 24 year old for Erie. I’m not sure of Rogers ceiling, but his performance this year was definitely solid.

Casey brings in a 371 career OBP, and he’s at .377 this year. He doesn’t bring much power to the position with only a .408 slugging percentage. Defensively he’s below average at -4 fielding runs above average. But he does provide a left handed bat, and in an interview today on WXYT he sounded absolutely giddy. Casey is in the last year of his current contract and is making $8.5 million.

Chris Shelton of course has been struggling. His offensive numbers for the season are still better than Casey’s and he has 7 fielding runs above average.

So the Tigers made a move, and didn’t give up a ton, but I don’t think they appreciably improved themselves either. The infield defense which has been a huge strength of the team, and one of the chief reasons for the pitching staff’s success could be taking a hit with this move.

As for Shelton, I do think that some time at AAA with hitting coach Leon Durham will be beneficial. I’m just curious as to what happens if Shelton gets his swing back at Toledo and starts ripping the ball. Does he languish at Toledo or do the Tigers create another three headed first base/DH monster?

Tigers Minor League Wrap – July 30th

Toledo 6, Louisville 1
Josh Phelps homered and Alexis Gomez, Kevin Hooper, Rayn Ludwick, and Jack Hannahan all had multi hit games. Chad Durbin allowed one run on three hits over 8 innings.

Bowie 7, Erie 5
Don Kelly went 2 for 4. Nate Bumstead gave up 11 hits and 7 runs in 5 innings.

Lakeland – DNP

West Michigan 6, Clinton 2
Cameron Maybin doubled, walked and stole his 24th base. Mike Hollimon also doubled Jeremy Laster also doubled and walked. Burke Badenhop scattered 5 hits and 3 walks to hold Clinton to 1 run over 7 innings.

Oneonta 4, Tri-City 2
Deik Scram had 3 hits and Ronnie Bourquin had 2. Scott Sizemore had a rare 0 for 4. Matt O’Brien allowed 1 run over 8 innings of 4 hit ball. Brett Jensen allowed an unearned run while picking up his 10th save.

GCL Tigers 9, GCL Phillies 2
Audgy Ciriaco doubled, singled, and had a stolen base. Matthew Righter allowed 1 run in 5 innings on 5 hits. Jesse Caraballo pitched a scoreless inning of relief lowering his ERA to 0.95.

Game 104: Tigers at Twins

PREGAME: With a win today the Tigers would match last year’s win total, and a quick check of the calendar tells me it’s still July. Of course I’m not going to count the chickens in the pre-hatch phase of the post, especially with Johan Santana pitching for the Twins.

With the series in hand, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Jim Leyland employ the Sunday lineup and give Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez the day off. With the Tigers playing 7 straight days on turf it might not be a bad idea. Pudge may still be out, and there was talk of Brent Clevlen starting in centerfield today. (Like that isn’t a tall order – welcome to the bigs).

So runs may be at a premium, but that is pretty much what Jeremy Bonderman has been accustomed to this year. Bonderman looks to make things just as difficult on the Twins, and with a 2.67 ERA and 74 strikeouts in his last 10 starts he certainly seems up to the task.

POSTGAME: I think this one definitely falls under the category of: ERGH. That is about as beatable as Johan Santana gets, and about as dominant as Jeremy Bonderman gets. The only thing I question is leaving Bonderman out there to face Cuddyer, actually the entire walk Joe Mauer to get to Cuddyer. Jamie Walker was warm and available. I know Bonderman wasn’t getting hit hard, and he was still throwing 95, and even the pitch that Cuddyer hit wasn’t a bad pitch. But there is probably a limit to the frustration one pitcher should face in an inning, and he threw a ton of pitches.

In the end the inning was reminiscent of the 8th inning melt down in Pittsburgh. Just plain ugly.

Offensively I couldn’t be happier. The Tigers made Santana work and repeatedly hit balls hard. Yes they left 13 men on base, but I look at situations like the 4th inning where the Tigers had runners on 2nd and 3rd and after a Clevlen K, Polanco and Thames both hit line drives that were caught. It happens – just like the 8th inning happened.

And yes, Brent Clevlen. That was quite a debut for a move I was questioning. He doubled and walked off of Santana, it will only get easier from here on out. And as for the outfield assist, it was a perfectly executed play. Clevlen made a strong accurate throw and Wilson blocked the plate. But I think the Tigers caught a break because Castillo appeared to have scored.

Two last thoughts on the series. First, I love the old school helmets that both Mauer and Redmond wear when catching. And secondly, could someone please ask Tim McClelland to make a strike call before the ball has been returned to the pitcher?
Game Time 2:10

Tigers Minor League Wrap – July 29th

Toledo 5, Louisville 4
Alexis Gomez and Ryan Ludwick both homered and Ramon Santiago added 2 hits. Jon Connolly allowed 3 runs on 7 hits in 5 winnings. Preston Larrison came on in relief and allowed 1 unearned run in 3 innings.

Bowie 7, Erie 4
Jackson Melian kept his hot hitting alive with a homer. Chris Maples also homered for Erie. Jair Jurrjens returned from the disabled list and was knocked around for 6 runs on 8 hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Lakeland 2, St. Lucie 1
Clete Thomas and Nic McIntrye each had 2 hits. Jeff Larish was 1 for 3 with a walk. Dallas Trahern allowed 1 run on 1 walk, 5 hits, and 5 K’s in 7 innings. Kevin Whelan fanned one in a scoreless 9th.

West Michigan 13, Clinton 6
Michael Hernandez had a 4 hit night including 2 homers and 7 RBI. Cameron Maybin was 2 for 5 with a walk, as was Mike Hollimon. Erik Averill allowed 4 runs in 7 innings with 1 walk to 4 strikeouts.

Tri-city 4, Oneonta 1
Scott Sizemore picked up 2 more hits and is hitting 349. Zach Piccola allowed 2 unearned runs in 5 1/3 innings.

GCL Tigers – DNP

Game 103: Tigers at Twins

PREGAME: Brad Radke has owned the Tigers for as long as he’s been in the league. But a lot of those Tiger teams just weren’t very good. That isn’t the case this year. The Tigers have beat Radke the two times they’ve faced him this year. In fact Pudge Rodriguez has the highest batting average against Radke of any player with 50 or more at-bats and he’s knocked him for 8 homers. Unfortunately Pudge won’t be playing tonight as he recovers from a bruised thumb.

Fortunately the player with the second highest batting average against Radke will be manning the clean-up position. Magglio has managed a .406 career mark against Radke. Other Tigers with success off of Radke, though in a smaller number of at-bats, are Craig Monroe, Carlos Guillen, and Dmitri Young. Young will be playing first base in place of Chris Shelton.

Taking the ball for the Tigers will be Nate Robertson. Robertson has faced the Twins twice this year and has allowed 3 runs in 12 innings. An interesting match-up will be Robertson and Joe Mauer. Mauer has been hitting the entire league this year, what with him having the best batting average and all, but the left hander has struggled with Robertson in his limited opportunities going 1 for 12.

If you’re looking for the Twins perspective, head over to Stick and Ball Guy. Here is the link for their Game Post. I read through last night’s and was impressed with the knowledge and reasonable-ness (word?) of the commentors.

Game Time 7:10

POSTGAME: Once again a big early lead ends up getting interesting. True, much of the big early lead was built on ground balls that missed everyone, but they weren’t all fluky hits. (Okay, Inge probably had the luckiest 3 hit night of his career) Granderson’s and Young’s homers were both legit of course, and the the Tigers had 3 other balls driven to the wall.

I know there was probably some nervousness about Jones, but he actually did nothing wrong last night. the offense against him came from bunts, bloops, and dribblers.

This was the first time I’ve seen Pat Neshek, and I’m still confused.

Fortunately the Tigers are going into a Santana match-up with the series already in hand.

Brent Clevlen recalled, Lewis out

My speculation in last night’s game post appeared to be sound. With the Tigers pressing needs for a pitcher seemingly put aside, and with a prety thin bench, Colby Lewis’ stay with the team was short lived. What was suprising was that Brent Clevlen was recalled.

Clevlen was awesome repeating at Lakeland last year, and had a very solid spring training. However his season at Erie has been a disppointment. He’s batting 222/303/341 with 120 strikeouts – including a stretch of 9 straight K’s just last week.

I would have expected the call be for David Espinosa (279/374/496)or Ryan Raburn (282/364/505) from Toledo. The main difference is that Clevlen is already on the 40 man roster where the other 2 aren’t. Right now the Tigers have 39 men on the 40 man roster, but a space will need to be available for when Mike Maroth comes off the 60 day DL.

Tigers Minor League Wrap – July 28th

Toledo 8, Pawtucket 4
Josh Phelps homered as part of a 4 for 4 night. Alexis Gomez picked up 2 hits in his return to Toledo. Jordan Tata went 6 innings on 110 pitches. He held Pawtucket to 4 hits, but he walked 5.

Bowie 6, Erie 0
Nook Logan picked up 2 hits and a walk. Bobby Jones pitched an inning before giving way to PJ Finigan. Finigan went 4 1/3 and gave up 6 runs on 3 homers. Chris Maples was used as an emergency pitcher.

Erie 4, Bowie 3
Vince Blue had 3 hits and Brent Clevlen doubled and walked. Mark Woodyard pitched 3 innings and allowed 1 run on 3 hits, 1 walk, and 4 K’s.

Lakeland 5, St. Lucie 1
Jeff Larish, Jeff Frazier, and Clete Thomas all had 2 hits. Andrew Kown pitched all 7 innings and allowed 1 run on 5 hits.

St. Lucie 7, Lakeland 2
Clete Thomas had 2 hits and a walk. This game was close until the top of the 7th inning when Jeff Hahn was torched for 7 runs, 2 earned, in 2 2/3 innings.

West Michigan 9, Clinton 7
Cameorn Maybin had 2 hits and a walk. Mike Hollimon added 2 hits, 2 walks, and a stolen base. Josh Rainwater allowed 4 runs on 5 hits, 2 walks, and 9 K’s in 6 innings.

Tri-City 7, Oneonta 5
Scott Sizemore had 2 hits and walk. Brennan Boesch hit a 3 run homer. Tom Thornton allowed 5 runs in 4 1/3 innings. Randor Bierd allowed 2 runs in 2 2/3 innings. Lauren Gagnier pitched 2 scoreless innings fanning 2.

GCL Tigers 13, GCL Indians 0
Gorkys Hernandez homered. Chris Carlson picked up 3 hits including his 8th homer. Christian Martinez pitched 6 shutout innings. He scattered 5 hits and no walks among 7 strikeouts.

Game 102: Tigers at Twins

PREGAME: For the first time in a long time, a series has me nervous. As everybody knows, the Twins are ridiculously hot. They are winners of 34 of their last 42. They just swept the White Sox in Chicago. The Tigers will be facing 2 of the top pitchers in the American League. The Twins are 37-11 at the dome. Since June 8th their offense has been plugging along at a 305/370/468 clip. This ain’t gonna be easy.

But the Tigers aren’t too shabby themselves and still have an 8.5 game lead. The Tigers will be sending out Zach Miner, who has been hammered in his last 2 starts. The Tigers offense, which has been pretty darn solid since the All Star break (304/350/442), will try to scratch out some runs against Francisco Liriano. Liriano of course is striking out everybody and has allowed like no runs per game. But the Tigers did have some success against Liriano when he was relieving. Curtis Granderson, Magglio Ordonez, and Brandon Inge are all 3 for 7 with home runs.

Bloggers are previewing this series like crazy. For even more info check out Mack Avenue Tigers, Sweaty Men Endeavors, and Baseball by Paul. Finally, my buddy Seth chronicles the roster moves and players that have brought the Twins to where they are.

POSTGAME
: I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to win this game. I mean no disrespect to Zach Miner, but he isn’t Francisco Liriano. Liriano was all that was advertised, but the Tigers did manage to raise his ERA. In the end the Tigers won a game the Metrodome way with a couple turf singles setting up Monroe’s game winner.

I thought that the Tigers were doing a poor job working the count against Liriano, at least until he left the game. Detroit hitters made Joe Nathan and Juan Rincon work for everything. In fact, there patience against Nathan in the 9th inning forced 25 pitches and probably prevented Nathan from coming out for the 10th. My perception of impatience against Liriano was probably more of a testament to how well he pitched.

Zach Miner was a tad shaky in the early innings, but he became quite effective. His last 2 outings were brutal, but if you look at his contribution in whole (even including those outings) I think you have to be thrilled with what he has done as a rotation fill-in. With the off day, Verlander’s long outing, Miner’s return to form, and Craig Monroe tweaking his leg, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Colby Lewis returned to Toledo for a position player.

Miner was helped by his defense that kept the Twins out of scoring position. Craig Monroe cut down Luis Castillo stretching a single to a double and Brandon Inge made a nifty heads up play gunning down the lead runner on a sacrifice bunt.

And of course I’d be remiss without mentioning the bullpen. Jamie Walker, Fernando Rodney, and Todd Jones were nearly perfect.

Tigers Minor League Wrap – July 27th

Pawtucket 3, Toledo 0
Josh Phelps and Jack Hannahan managed the only 2 Mud Hen hits. Bobby Seay started (!) and went 4 innings allowing only 1 run on 2 hits. Anthony Claggett, promoted from West MIchigan (!), pitched a scoreless inning.

Erie 13, Bowie 2
Brent Clevlen homered as part of a 2 for 3 night and picked up 2 walks. Kody Kirkland returned and added 2 hits, including a homer. Jackson Melian also joined in with a homer and a single. Reliever Eulogio De La Cruz went 8 innings (!) and allowed 2 runs on 8 hits, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts.

Lakeland – PPD

West Michigan 6, Peoria 5
Cameron Maybin and Pedro Cotto both doubled and singled. Matt Joyce and Jeremy Laster added home runs. Sendy Vasquez pitched 6 innings and allowed one run on 3 hits, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Jose Fragoso pitched 2 scoreless innings and Orlando Perdomo picked up the save despite allowing a run in his inning of work.

Williamsport 6, Oneonta 0
A Scott Sizemore double was the only extrabase hit for the O-Tigs. Jeff Gerbe allowed 4 runs, 2 earned, in 5 innings. He fanned 5 against 1 walk.

GCL Yankees 8, GCL Tigers 4
Gorkys Hernandez was 2 for 5 with a stolen base. Eric Beattie, who had managed a couple solid outings, went back to struggling with his control. He walked 5 in 2 2/3 innings.

Verlander, Granderson, Maybin and More

Justin Verlander Thwarts Running Game

One of my favorite baseball columns is Dave Studemund’s “Ten Things I Didn’t Know Last Week” piece he writes for Hardball Times. This week’s column highlights just how hard it is to run on Justin Verlander. We know about his lightning quick pick-off move that has gunned down 5 victims. You may not know that only 1 base has successfully been stolen off of Verlander. What may be even more impressive is that only 4 runners have tried. So he has more pickoffs than attempted steals, which my intuition tells me is rare. What makes it all the more incredible is that he is doing it right handed. Those numbers are what you expect from the top southpaws.

Curtis is the clutchiest

Another tidbit from the same column points to a blog that looks at WPA data from Fangraphs and regular batting data to determine who has been “clutch” this year. It essentially looks at what a batter’s line would typically contribute in terms of wins, and compares it to WPA wins.

For the Tigers Curtis Granderson has contributed 1.462 wins more than his batting line would indicate making him the clutchiest Tiger so far. At -1.2 Chris Shelton has been least clutch. In a strange twist, Placido Polanco has been the second clutchest Tiger. While his WPA total is only .329 wins, his overall poor offensive contributions are good for -.618 wins. So Polanco is making the most of the offense he has provided.

Cameron Maybin likes the opposite field

The website FirstInning.com has batted ball charts for minor league players. I took a look at Cameron Maybin’s and noticed some interesting trends.

First, he pulls the ball less than the average right handed hitter, and less than he hits it to right field. On balls hit in the air, only 7% have gone to left or left center while 15% have gone to right or right center.

Second, he is really putting his speed to work. He is hitting .422 on ground balls hit to the left side where the average right hander hits .258. In Maybin’s case that is an additional 7 hits more than the typical player.

Third, the man hasn’t bunted yet this year.

The Tigers don’t need a position player

Nate Silver wrote a very interesting piece at Baseball Prospectus that took a look at the big 3 bats available (Bobby Abreu, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Lee) and the 7 teams that would have a shot at acquiring them. The piece is premium so I’ll just give you cliff notes (but really a subscription to BP is something you should consider).

Silver looked at what the incremental gain would be of adding said player over what that player would be replacing. The Tigers are expected to get more production from Monroe/Thames/Young than any of the other contenders are getting in their current situations. This means that while any of the 3 would be an upgrade, it would be less of an upgrade for the Tigers (who are actually getting slightly above average production).

Second, he took a look to see which teams had the most to gain in terms of securing a playoff spot. Because the Tigers are already at 95% to make the playoffs, the incremental value of adding anyone is pretty small.

The bottom line is that from this analysis the Tigers have very little to gain by acquiring one of these players – at least in terms of making it to the playoffs.

Now this is just one analysis and is dependent on players performing like they would be expected to perform, and it doesn’t take into account the psychological aspects of adding or not adding to a team. But it is interesting nonetheless.

Tigers Minor League Wrap – July 26th

Pawtucket 6, Toledo 5
Rayn Raburn went 2 for 3 with a homer. Ramon Santiago homered as well and David Espinosa picked up 3 walks. Cory Hamman was touched for 5 runs on 8 hits, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings.

Akron 11, Erie 4
Jackson Melianwent 2 for 5 with his 11th homer. Brent Clevlen went 1 for 3 and stole a base. Virgil Vasquez gave up 4 homers en route to a 6 run, 6 inning outing.

St. Lucie 8, Lakeland 6
Kevin Ardoin pitched 6 innings allowing 4 runs on 4 hits with 4 strike outs and 3 walks. Loren Fraser made his Lakeland debut and gave up 4 runs, 2 earned, in 2/3 of an inning. Jeff Larish went 3 for 4 with a walk. Gil Meija and Brent Dlugach also had 3 hits each.

Peoria 11, West Michigan 4
Cameron Maybin had a 4 for 4 night and Michael Hollimon added 2 hits including his 11th homer. Lucas French gave up 6 runs in 7 innings.

Oneonta 7, Williamsport 5
Ryan Strieby went 3 for 4 and Ron Bourqin added 2 hits. Chistoper Cody only lasted 3 2/3 innings and gave up 4 runs on 6 hit, 3 walks, and 2 K’s. Brett Jensen pitched a scoreless 9th for his 9th save.

GCL Tigers 10, GCL Braves 3
Kyle Sleeth had his longest outing in a whlie lasting 6 1/3 innings. He allowed 3 runs on 9 hits with no walks and 5 strikeouts. Alredo Figaro fanned 4 in 2 2/3 innings of one hit relief. Gorkys Hernandez was 3 for 4 with a walk and a caught stealing. Audy Ciriaco tripled in a 3 hit night. Luis Arlet was held hitless but walked twice and stole his 13th base.