Category Archives: 2006 Season

2006 Season, Injuries

Maroth and Wilson hurting

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During last nights broadcast, Rod Allen mentioned that Mike Maroth’s elbow was hurting him again. Today Maroth was hammered. Maroth’s elbow has been a recurring problem since spring training. With only throwing 27 pitches today, hopefully he can make his next start. Otherwise the Tigers will probably dip into AAA and recall Wil Ledezma or Jordan Tata. I’m not sure that either would start, but they could make Roman Colon or Jason Grilli available to slide into that spot.

Also, Vance Wilson was supposed to get the start today. But he stepped on a ball while running during batting practice and rolled his ankle. It sounds like only a sprain, and it hopefully won’t be serious. In the meantime it will probably just mean less time off for Ivan Rodriguez. And in the event that Pudge gets hurt, the Tigers have a plan for emergency catcher. If you were thinking Brandon Inge or Chris Shelton you’d be thinking logically, and you’d be wrong. Instead, your emergency catcher is none other than Ramon Santiago.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 47: Royals at Tigers

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PREGAME Mike Maroth takes the mound for Detroit as the Tigers try and complete their 7th sweep of the season. The Royals send out Denny Bautista, who has been decent since returning from the disabled list. In his last outing agains the Cardinals he allowed one run on 5 hits as St. Louis pounded the ball into the ground (GB/FB – 16/2).

POSTGAME: You guys have already hit on many of the salient points of the game, so I’ll keep my comments along the lines of HOLY FREAKIN’ CRAP. HFC that Mike Maroth allowed 6 runs and never got a second out. HFC that the Tigers score 13 runs without Magglio Ordonez and Chris Shelton in the lineup. HFC that the Tigers scored 3 runs on one hit in the 2nd inning. HFC that the best pitching performance the Tigers faced in the series came from Bobby Keppel who completely shut the Tigers down for 3 1/3 innings. HFC that Pudge Rodriguez, who was supposed to get the day off until Vance Wilson rolled his ankle stepping on a ball, hit both a triple and a homer after the 7th inning.
Continue reading Game 47: Royals at Tigers →

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 24th

Toledo 1, Buffalo 0 (10 innings)
Jordan Tata made his second solid start in a row, allowing 6 hits and one walk in six innings. He fanned 4. Chris Spurling added two innings of scoreless relief and dropped his era to 0.93. Mark Woodyard got the win after two more scoreless innings.

Erie 5, Harrisburg 4
Kody Kirkland doubled and hit his 11th homer. Chris Maples and Kelly Hunt also added homers (Hunt doubled and singled also). Virgil Vasquez had a hard time limiting baserunners with 11 hits and 2 walks in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out 5 and allowed 4 runs.
Lakeland 11, Vero Beach 2
Jeff Frazier had two hits and a walk, and Jeff Larish added two hits also. Brent Dlugach doubled and walked twice. Dallas Trahern pitched 7 shutout innings allowing only 3 hits and a walk while K’ing 5.

West Michigan – DNP

2006 Season

Believe it or not

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Look at what’s happened to me,
I can’t believe it myself.
Suddenly I’m up on top of the world,
Should have been somebody else.

Believe it or not I’m waking on air
I never thought I could feel so free
Flying away on a wing and a prayer
Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it’s just me.

Looks like the light of a new day,
Hit me from out of the blue.
Breaking me out of the spell I was in,
Making all of my wishes come true.

Yes I am using short lived obscure early 80’s TV theme music tonight. (Greatest American Hero for all you young’uns)

With the Tigers winning, there are some remarkable phenomena taking place. Continue reading Believe it or not →

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 46: Tigers at Royals

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PREGAME: The Tigers look to continue their 4 game winning streak in Kansas City. Jeremy Bonderman looks to rebound from a performance that was, well, awful. After only throwing 66 pitches, he should be fresh. Bonderman has been significantly better on the road this year. This will be his 6th road start, and he’s only allowed 11 runs.

Jimmy Gobble will make an emergency start for the Royals. The Tigers don’t have a lot of experience against Gobble, but outside of a 5 for 6 effort for Polanco the results haven’t been impressive.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 23rd

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Buffalo 5, Toledo 0
The Mud Hens managed 8 hits and 4 walks, yet weren’t able to score. Ryan Ludwick had a double and a single. Don Kelly added two hits. Colby Lewis allowed two homers amongst 8 hits for 5 runs. He fanned 8 and walked none in 7 2/3 innings.

Erie 14, Harrisburg 0
Humberto Sanchez had a stellar outing. He got all but the last out, allowing only 4 hits and a walk while fanning 9. Mike Rabelo had 3 hits, including 2 doubles. Kody Kirkland added a grand slam. Despite all the offense, Brent Clevlen continued to struggle going 0 for 4 with 3 K’s.

Lakeland 6, Vero Beach 5
Wilkin Ramirez hit his 5th homer. Jeff Larish added a double and Jeff Frazier picked up two hits. Jeremy Johnson came on in relief of Lance Davis and picked up a 4 inning save allowing only two hits.

West Michigan 3, South Bend 0
Ramon Garcia continues to be one of the most impressive pitchers in the Tigers system. He threw a complete game one hit shut out today and his ERA stands at 1.05. Michael Hollimon doubled and singled to lead the West Michigan offense.

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 45: Tigers at Royals

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PREGAME: It will be Kenny Rogers taking on Runelvys Hernandez. Rogers will look to repeat his Kaufman Stadium Opening Day performance. Rogers will also try to prolong the scoreless streak. It stretches back to the Griffey slam in the 7th inning on Saturday.

POSTGAME Nice jinx on that scoreless streak huh? That said, it was a very nice come from behind win. More clutch hitting for everyone, with Curtis Granderson once again delivering the big blow. Rogers clearly struggled – 4 homers – to the Royals? But the bullpen completely shut the door.

As for the Royals, that game looked painfully familiar. Your offense actually hits the ball pretty well, and has a weeks worth of homers in 7 innings. Your starter is pitching a very solid game and you find yourself with a lead. Your defense has made several nice plays and not thrown the ball around. And yet you just kind of had the feeling that it wouldn’t last. That those last 9 outs wouldn’t come quick enough. Once again, all I can say is I sympathize with the plight of Royals fans.

2006 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Young to DL, Hannahan up

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Dmitri Young has been place on the disabled list. Whether or not it was his quad or his other issues limiting him, he needs time to get himself right.

Jack Hannahan will get his first major league taste in Young’s place. Hannahan is 26, bats left handed, and spent the bulk of his minor league career as a solid defensive third basemen. This year he’s been playing several infield positions. He’s had a solid year at the plate hitting 282/390/412.

2006 Season, Offense

De-emphasizing OBP

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In the Detroit News Tiger notebook, Tom Gage points out that the Royals had a better OBP than the Tigers in May. I disagree with Gage’s take on the situation. Instead of opining that this is a glaring indication that despite the Tigers success there are still opportunities for improvement, Gage uses this information to downplay the relevancy of the statisitic.

Yes, you can get buy with a sub average OBP if you slug the bejesus out of the ball and allow a run a game less than every other team in the league. As long as you keep up those other paces, a weak OBP probably won’t be a problem. But really, do we expect to keep up those stats at the rate they are going now?

Jim Leyland also downplays OBP’s significance

“I’m not saying on-base percentage isn’t important,” manager Jim Leyland said. “It’s definitely important. But my question about a guy when I hear he has a great on-base percentage is whether he scores runs.

“If a guy walks, but can’t steal a base, can’t score on a double, can’t score on a sacrifice fly and can’t go on contact with a man on third and the infield in, that’s not good. So there’s a lot more that goes into it than merely getting on base a lot.”

So a good OBP is useless unless you’re fast?

Lost in that is the fact that with a higher on base percentage, you are making fewer outs – which is a good thing. The fewer outs you make, the more men you send to the plate, the more scoring chances you have, the more the pitcher has to work…

I have to say I’m a little discouraged to read comments like these.

2006 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 22nd

Toledo – DNP

Erie 6, Harrisburg 2
Kurt Airoso hit a homer and walked twice. Brent Clevlen was 0-3, but with 2 walks. Tony Giarratano added a triple, a single, and his 12th stolen base. Nate Bumstead went the distance for Erie. He fanned 6, walked 3, and allowed 2 runs on 3 hits.
Palm Beach 4, Lakeland 3
Kevin Whelan, who started the season so fast, couldn’t find the plae. He walked 4 while retiring one and 3 runners scored. It wasted a spectacular effort by Jair Jurrgens. Jurrgens went 7 innings and fanned 10 while walking none. Jeff Larish provided the offense with a double and 2 singles.
South Bend 4, West Michigan 0
The Whitecaps only managed 4 hits. They did receive a strong a 4 hit effort from Lucas French. French lasted 8 innings, walking 3 and striking out 2 to allow 2 earned runs.

2006 Season

Series Wrap: Reds at Tigers

The Tigers first interleague series of the year certainly wasn’t lacking in drama. After a rough outing by Jeremy Bonderman on Friday, the Tigers pieced together a couple of late inning rallies to secure back-to-back one run victories. What’s more is that they did it in front of 100,000+ enthusiastic fans.

Reds Tigers
Wins 1 2
Offense
Runs 15 12
BA .218 .279
OBP .319 .324
SLG .446 .413
HR 4 3
SB/CS 1/0 1/2
Pitching
BB/9 2.0 4.2
K/9 7.1 7.1
ERA 3.71 4.82

Continue reading Series Wrap: Reds at Tigers →

2006 Season, Game Post

Game 44: Tigers at Royals

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PREGAME The Tigers head out on the road again for a 4 game set against the Royals. The game isn’t on TV which means Justin Verlander is pitching for Detroit. It is his first appearance against the Royals. Jeremy Affeldt takes the ball for the beleagured Royals.

They have lost 9 in a row, and found themselves visitors in their own stadium when St. Louis came to town. Royals fans – at least those that remain – are imploring owner David Glass to do something, or anything for that matter. It’s only been a couple years since the Tigers were in the same position, and I think all Tiger fans can empathize.

While a sweep is certainly possible, it probably isn’t likely. For one thing, it’s tough to beat a team 4 times in a row (and 8 on the season). For another, its hard for a team to drop 13 in a row.

POSTGAME: Justin Verlander throws a complete game, 5 hit shut out. Nobody has scored on Verlander since May 10th. I believe that only 7 balls reached the outfield the entire game. I know that Jon Papelbon is the early favorite for ROY, but Verlander has to be a very close second right now.

The oddity of the game had to be contact expert Placido Polanco recording 3 strike outs. What made it stranger is that the rest of the strike out prone team only managed one.