After spending a couple days at Tiger games this weekend, and 5 for the season, I’ve noticed some changes around the ballpark.
Continue reading The Comerica Park Experience
Category Archives: 2006 Season
Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 21st
Columbus 6, Toledo 1
With only four singles for the Hens, there aren’t really any offensive highlights. Chad Durbin went 7 innings, fanning 6 and walking none. However he allowed two homers and 6 runs.
Erie 3, Reading 1 11 innings
Chris Maples and Mike Rabelo both homered for Erie. Brent Clevlen struck out 4 times in 5 ABs. Brian Jones threw 6 scoreless innings to drop his ERA to 1.69.
Lakeland 2, Palm Beach 1 (10 innings)
Jef Larish hit a homer in the 9th inning to tie the game. It was his 6th of the year. Kevin Ardoin went 7 innings without an earned run. He allowed 6 hits and no walks while K’ing 6. Kevin Whelan got the save while allowing a walk and fanning one.
South Bend 4, West Michigan 1
Burke Badenhop had rough outing. He allowed 10 hits and 3 walks while only lasting 5 2/3 innings. Josh Rainwater came on in relief and allowed 3 runs and 7 hits in 3 1/3 innings. Pedro Cotto picked up two more hits and is now hitting .333. Dusty Ryan hit his second homer this week.
Game 43: Reds at Tigers
PREGAME The Tigers look to repeat last night’s drama, and hopefully there will be a repeat of a full house as well. I’m off to the game…
POSTGAME: I typically appreciate a fast moving pitchers duel. That goes double when I take a 3 year old and a 5 year old. I love spending an afternoon or evening as much as anyone, and I usually don’t care to rush the event. However, a fast moving game with the little ones (especially the littler one) is a beautiful thing.
Nate Robertson continues to walk people, but he did everything else right today. Amazingly, despite the 5 walks he protected the shut out without the benefit of the double play.
Once again the Tigers put on a good show for a pretty full house. The crowd of 31,000+ was very engaged and enthusiastic. It’s fun being a Tiger fan again.
Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 20th
Columbus 4, Toledo 3 (11 innings)
Jack Hannahan hit his 4th homer, and Ryan Raburn added two more hits. On another note, Carlos Pena hit two homers for Columbus. Alex Herrera walked 3 and fanned 3 in 3 innings. Mark Woodyard followed with 3 innings of 1 run ball (on a Pena homer). Chris Spurling continues to pitch well allowing a hit and walk in 2 scoreless innings.
Erie 2, Reading 1
Erie had two hits. One was a Mike Rabelo homer. The other was a Chris Maples double. Preston Larrison pitched a complete game (7 innings in minor league double headers). He allowed 5 hits while fanning 6 and walking 2.
Erie 3, Reading 0
Brent Clevlen continues to struggle with another 0 fer. Eulogio De La Cruz got a rare start, and pitched 4 shut out innings. He allowed 4 hits, no walks, and no strikeouts.
Lakeland 7, Palm Beach 3
It was a good day for several L-Tiger prospects. Clete Thomas tripled and walked. Chris Robinson added two more hits. Jeff Larish doubled and walked. Wilkin Ramirez homered. Andrew Kown went 7 innings allowing only 4 hits and fanning 5. His ERA now stands at 1.64.
West Michigan 4, South bend 3 – 7th inning in rain delay
Dusty Ryan hit his first homer of the season. Erik Averill struck out 6 in 6. He walked 3 and allowed 3 runs.
Put me in coach
Put me in coach
I’m ready to play, today
Put me in coach
I’m ready to play
Today
Look at me
I can be
Centerfield
So prior to the series we hear the stories about how Curtis Granderson idolized Ken Griffey Jr. and how excited he was for the series. It made for nice filler, with the promising young centerfielder having a chance to go head-to-head with his Hall of Fame bound hero.
However Curtis didn’t get the start tonight. Meanwhile, he got in the game as a defensive replacement to see Junior launch a moonshot grand slam over his head to put the Reds up a run. And then it just had to be Granderson up with 2 outs in the 9th and his team down a run. And Granderson just had to hit the home run.
You can’t script stuff like this, and it’s just another example of all the subplots and stories that make baseball, and really all sports so damn compelling.
Game 42: Reds at Tigers
PREGAME: Milton versus Maroth. That’s all I have time for tonight.
POSTGAME: Well that was a pretty good show in front of the 4th largest crowd in Comerica history. I’m having a hard time organizing my thoughts on this game so I’m going bullet form:
- As important as anything is Mike Maroth continues to impress without overwhelming. I’ve always pulled for Maroth, but part of me is still expecting a collapse, or at least a derailment. This time he did it against a pretty good offense. Maybe Dave Dombrowski knew what he was doing when he inked Maroth for a second year.
- To Joel Zumaya – stuff happens. You got beat by a Hall of Famer. Your team still won. Shake it off. And did anybody else see the radar gun show 104 on the first pitch to Griffey?
- As far as extra-inning rallies go, I really think the Reds deserve pretty much all the credit. Carlos Guillen gets hit by a pitch. He should have been out stealing second if Brandon Phillips catches the ball. A walk to Shelton (Big Red gets credit for this part). The Reds fail to double up Dmitri Young of all people when Phillips doesn’t field the ball clean. And then Felipe Lopez chokes on Monroe’s inning ending ground ball. Not that I’m complaining.
- I’ve really wanted Dmitri Young to succeed. But he’s lost at the plate. He’s being arraigned on Monday. He probably won’t stay healthy this year. I’d just assume Thames get the majority of his at-bats. He’s become Bobby Higginson. Without some serious production pretty soon, his career will end ugly.
- I’d be remiss without mentioning Curtis. But I’d also be remiss throwing it into a game thread. So I gave it its own post.
Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 19th
Norfolk 3, Toledo 2
Ryan Raburn continues a recent surge with two hits. David Espinosa also had two hits, including his second homer. Wil Ledezma allowed four hits in 7 1/3 innings, but hasn’t quite resolved his control issues since his DL stint. He walked 4 and fanned 4.
Erie – PPD rain
Lakeland 3, Palm Beach 1
Jeff Frazier had two hits, as did Chris Robinson. Dallas Trahern allowed one hit and 3 walks in 5 1/3 innings with 4 strike outs. Kevin Whelan picked up the save despite allowing a walk and a hit.
West Michigan 4, Peoria 3
Matt Joyce doubled and homered. Michael Hollimon doubled and walked. Sendy Vasquez fanned six and allowed 3 runs (2 earned) in 6 innings. Ricky Steik pitched two scoreless innings and Orlando Perdomo notched his 12th save. Perdomo fanned two in an inning sof work.
Game 41: Reds at Tigers
PREGAME: So prior to the season, this matchup looked like a dog. Two perennial 4th place teams duking it out. Instead the Tigers are leading all of baseball, and the Reds 24-16 record is good enough for second in the division. I’m excited enough to take in two games, including tonight.
Typically when I look at the pitching match-ups, I look to see how the opposing team has done. In this case there isn’t a lot to talk about. The Tigers as a team have 4 at-bats against Brandon Claussen (Polanco has 3, Wilson 1). It isn’t much better going the other way with only Scott Hatteberg having more than 10 at-bats against Jeremy Bonderman.
What I do know about Claussen is he has been brutal on lefties. He’s allowing a .484 OPS to hitters on the left side, but .912 to righties.
I will point you to a couple of excellent Reds blogs, Red Reporter and Redleg Nation, for more info on this weekend’s opponent.
Let the quest for the Sparky Cup begin.
POSTGAME Uh yeah. At least the Pistons won.
Series Wrap: Twins at Tigers
Three more games in Comerica against the Twins, and three more Tiger wins.
| Twins | Tigers | |
| Wins | 0 | 3 |
| Offense | ||
| Runs | 7 | 14 |
| BA | .239 | .286 |
| OBP | .317 | .363 |
| SLG | .273 | .440 |
| HR | 0 | 3 |
| SB/CS | 1/0 | 0/3 |
| Pitching | ||
| BB/9 | 4.1 | 3.7 |
| K/9 | 9.4 | 3.0 |
| ERA | 4.50 | 1.67 |
Now this performance wasn’t nearly as complete as the last time the Twins came to town. And really, for the second consecutive series I look at the stats and wonder, “How was this a sweep?” Twins pitcher struck out more batters per game than the Tigers struck out in the series – and the Tigers didn’t even bat in the 9th each game. The Tigers had 3 caught stealings, and got themselves out between 3rd and home 3 times. And yet they won, and won, and won. Continue reading Series Wrap: Twins at Tigers
Tigers Minor League Wrap – May 18th
Toledo 8, Norfolk 2
Jordan Tata made his second start, with better results. He last 5 innings and allowed one run on 3 hits. He did walk 4, but fanned 7 before being pulled after 97 pitches. Ryan Raburn his his 7th and 8th homers and added a single. David Espinosa had 4 hits, and Don Kelly reached base 3 times.
Erie 4, Reading 3
Tony Giarratano had a double, a single, and two walks. Kody Kirkland homered and singled. Virgil Vazquez allowed one run in 8 innings. He allowed 7 hits and 3 walks.
Brevard County 10, Lakeland 3
Chris Robinson had 3 hits, including 2 double to raise his average to .269. Jeff Larish also had 3 hits, including his 5th homer. Lance Davis was the victim of 4 errors and allowed 7 runs (3 earned) on 8 hits in 6 innings.
West Michigan 1, Peoria 1 11th inning in progress
This game just won’t end. Matt Joyce homered and singled to lead the Whitecap attack. Ramon Garcia keeps impressing. He pitched 9 innings and allowed 7 hits while fanning 6. Cameron Maybin didn’t play, but got good news from his MRI. It won’t require surgery, but he’ll be out 3 weeks. Now that we know he’s out, I’ll stop pointing it out every night.
PECOTA said this might happen
Now that we are at the 40 game mark, people are starting to really try and determine which surprises are real. The Tigers have received a lot of attention, what with the best record in baseball and all. Most has been positive, but there are dissenters, and they have just cause. The Tigers, particularly the pitching staff, are playing at levels that are by and large, well above what their careers would indicate. But back before the season started, PECOTA thought this might happen. Continue reading PECOTA said this might happen
Game 40: Twins at Tigers
PREGAME: Ah, that magical game 40 when it is suddenly safe to make judgements about teams. Today’s game will feature Kenny Rogers taking on Brad Radke.
A couple weeks ago the Tigers beat the stuffing out of Radke. Hopefully they can repeat the effort. Working in the Tigers favor is that they have 4 players hitting over .400 against Radke for their careers (min of 25 ABs) – Monore, Rodriguez, Ordonez, and Guillen.
I very rarely make predictions, but I think Pudge goes yard to day. He’s been sitting on two home runs for a long time, and he has 8 career dingers off Radke.
POSTGAME: You know things are going good when your pitcher is sick but doesn’t allow any earned runs, and you make two fielding errors, and a couple baserunning errors, your closer has a rocky outing, and you still pick up the win.
I was wrong about Pudge’s homer, but Placido Polanco managed to pop his first of the season.
And aside from the win, and resulting 2nd consecutive sweep, there were actually 26,000 there to see it. With the Reds coming to town this weekend, I’ll be disappointed if they don’t break 100,000 for the series.