Category Archives: 2007 Season

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/7/07

Syracuse 2 Toledo 5
Cory Hamman started for a depleted Mud Hens rotation. He allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, 3 walks, and 3 K’s over 4 innings. Eulogio De La Cruz pitched 2 scoreless innings with a walk and a hit. Ramon Santiago and Timo Perez each had 2 hits. Vance Wilson, batting 2nd to get more ABs, went 2 for 3 as the DH.

Portland Erie

Lakeland 5 Brevard County 2
Wil Rhymes had 3 hits to pace the attack. Kyle Sleeth started the front end of the double header and allowed only 1 unearned run on 2 hits, a walk, and 3 K’s over 4 innings.

Lakeland 4 Brevard County 2
Ovandy Suero was 2 for 4 with 3 stolen bases. Alfredo Figaro pitched 5 innings and allowed 1 run on six hits.

West Michigan 8 Dayton 4
James Skelton homered and singled. Ryan Strieby picked up 3 hits. Deik Scram and Brennan Boesch each had multi-hit games. Angel Castro pitched 7 innings and despite allowing 3 homers only 4 runs were plated.

Minors News

With Zach Miner, Andrew Miller, and Yorman Bazardo all removed from the minor league rotations, there was bound to be some shuffling. Jeff Gerbe and Randor Bierd were moved up to Erie from West Michigan. To backfill, Eleazar Aponte was sent down from Lakeland and Luis Gil was promoted from EST.

2007 Season, Game Post

Game 59: Tigers at Rangers

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PREGAME: Rubber match tonight. Mike Maroth takes on Kameron Loe. Loe has been pretty unimpressive with mediocre strike out and walk rates. He’s also not afraid to give up a homer with 8 allowed in 59 innings.

Game Time 8:35

In Game: In case you were wondering, Grandy’s 12 triples are the most by a Tiger in a season since Larry Herndon hit 13 in 1982.

2007 Season, Injuries, Minors

Zach Miner to the DL

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Jeez. Another pitcher on the DL This time it is Zach Miner with elbow tendinitis. According to Danny Knobler the injury isn’t serious, but rather than be short handed in the pen for a few days, the Tigers are using the DL to get another arm up.

In fact, this time it’s 2 arms in Yorman Bazardo and Aquilino Lopez. One of the two will be sent down prior to Sunday when Andrew Miller will officially be called up.

Bazardo was acquired from Seattle in exchange for minor leaguer Jeff Frazier in the offseason. Bazardo is a right hander who will turn 23 next month. In 11 starts for Toledo he has a 3.77 ERA. His K rate is a rather pedestrian 4.9 per 9 innings and his walk rate is similarly unimpressive at 3.6 per 9. Where he excels is keeping the ball down. He’s picked up twice as many ground outs as fly outs and only allowed 1 homer on the season.

2007 Season

Draft Day 2007

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The draft isn’t really my thing. I just don’t have the time or energy to keep track of amateur baseball. Still, with the Tigers usually picking in the top 10 of the draft, I made a point of getting to know the big guys expected to go at the top. This year the Tigers don’t pick until 27th, so I’m even more clueless than in the past. Still, we’ll use this post as the place to aggregate thoughts so feel free to comment throughout the day.

This will be the first time the draft will be televised, so if you’re fortunate enough to be around a TV at 2:00 you can catch it on ESPN 2 (I still want to call it the deuce).

Resources and information

While I’ll be at work, by buddy and occasional commentor Russ will be updating this post as the Tigers make their selections today.

First Round

With the 27th pick overall the Detroit Tigers selected:

RHP – Rick Porcello – Seton Hall Prep, West Orange NJ
Once again those magic words “signability issues” play to the Tigers advantage. Porcello is largely regarded as the best high school pitcher in the draft. He’s also represented by Scott Boras which means this won’t be a deal that gets done quickly. However, unlike past years where negotiations drag on, one way or another the Tigers will know if he’s signed by August 15th – the deadline specified in the new CBA. BA is confident a deal will get done.

Porcello has 4 above average pitches including a fastball that sits in the mid 90’s. He also has a curve, a slider, and an improving change-up. The guy has stud written all over him and it’s great to see the Tigers undeterred by cost issues. This is a tremendous steal at this point in the draft in terms of talent – provided the Tigers actually sign him.

For more: Baseball America scouting report – Video

Compensation Round

With the 60th pick overall the Detroit Tigers selected:

RHP – Joey Hamilton – Stanhope Elmore HS, Millbrook Ala
The Tigers followed up with another high school arm. According to MLB.com he has a fastball that sits at 87-92 and a spike curve. What’s troubling is that is also says he doesn’t deal well with adversity, didn’t display a lot poise, and wasn’t particularly aggressive. Still supposed to be lots of upside.

To me it sounds like a project, but one with considerable upside. The scouting reports don’t wow me, and this may be the trade off for aiming high with Porcello in the first.

Cather Mitchell Canham was selected 3 picks earlier, and very well might have been the Tigers selection here.

Second Round

With the 91st pick overall the Detroit Tigers selected:

SS – Daniel Worth – Pepperdine U – Junior
The Tigers turned to college for their first position player. Worth is supposed to be a good glove, line drive hitter without a lot of power or speed. The Tigers shortstop options are pretty thin, so this feels more like a need pick.

3rd round

With the 121st pick overall the Detroit Tigers selected:
RHP – Luke Putkonen – North Carolina
Another flame thrower who touches mid 90’s with his fastball – which is his only above average pitch. He’s 6′ 6″ 200lbs so he’s a big ‘un. Maybe bullpen help? He had TJ surgery in 2005.

4th round

With the 151st pick the Detroit Tigers selected:
LHP – Charlie Furbush – LSU
From BA:

While he didn’t live up to his reputation as the Cape’s top lefthanded starting prospect in 2006, he’s still a southpaw with the potential for three solid pitches, which should get him drafted in the third to fifth round.

The Tigers are loading up on pitching for their lower levels.

5th round

With the 181st pick the Detroit Tigers selected:
RHP – Casey Crosby – Kaneland HS
This is probably the most interesting pick after Porcello. BA says he has the talent to be a sandwich pick with a low 90’s fastball and a 6′ 5″ 200lb frame. As a receiver on his HS team he 1150 yards and 19 touchdowns. The tough thing will be signing him – which caused his slide in the first place.

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 6/6/07

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Syracuse 2 Toledo 9
Mike Hessman and Dane Sardinha each doubled and homered. Ryan Raburn banged his 13th homer as well. Chris Shelton and Ramon Santiago each had 2 hits. Dennis Tankersley twirled a 2 hit shut out for 6 innings.

Portland 8 Erie 4
Kody Kirkland was a triple short of the cycle. Clete Thomas added 3 hits as well. Eddie Bonine allowed 6 runs, 5 earned on 7 hits in 7 1/3 innings.

Lakeland – PPD Rain

West Michigan – DNP

Minors News

Matt continues to ponder the Tigers plan for Eulogio De La Cruz. I’m thinking that they are seeing if he can perform in a relief role as potential help in the pen with the big club. He’s already on the 40, so bringing him up doesn’t require significant roster manipulations.

2007 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Nate Robertson to the DL – Andrew Miller’s in

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The big question, that got even bigger after last night’s shellacking was “what’s wrong with Nate Robertson?” The question hasn’t been answered yet, but he is being sent to the DL with a tired arm. He’ll miss two turns in the rotation at a minimum and can’t come back until June 22nd. (just about the same time that Kenny Rogers may be ready)

The bigger news is that Andrew Miller will be starting in his stead. Jim Leyland said the team will likely recall a reliever until Sunday, at which point Miller will be added to the rotation. Miller has been lights out since being promoted to Erie where he posts a 0.59 ERA over 30 2/3 innings with 24 K’s and 5 walks.

Robertson swears nothing is wrong, but is heading for additional tests regardless.

My take is that these moves need to happen for a variety of reasons. Robertson hasn’t really been helping the team for the better part of a month, and Miller really can’t do worse and should do better than an injured Robertson. Miller is dominating at AA and had a successful debut. I don’t think they are rushing him.

The upside is that for a least a few weeks this will quell talk of moving him to the pen, or moving him to the rotation to move Maroth/Durbin to the pen. Neither move I was a fan of. Putting him in the pen at this point in the season does nothing to strengthen his arm and build up his stamina for next year when he will need to be a member of the rotation for a full season.

In terms of flip-flopping Maroth/Durbin and Miller it would probably cause a lot of short term grief for something that couldn’t be sustained over the course of a season. Once Miller would hit his inning limit in mid to late August, one of them would have to come back to the rotation. Miller won’t be allowed to throw 190 innings this year, it just won’t and shouldn’t happen. Plus with Maroth’s propensity for the long ball, I don’t know that I’d want him as a reliever anyways.

2007 Season, Game Post

Game 58: Tigers at Rangers

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PREGAME: The key for Detroit in tonight’s game falls on Justin Verlander’s shoulder. With a depleted bullpen, it would be nice for Justin to at least get through 6 innings, preferably with the lead. To do that he’ll need to be considerably more efficient than he was in his last start in Cleveland. He only walked 3 batters while fanning 6, but struggled with his control and pitched from behind in the count. And quite frankly, if Verlander doesn’t turn in 6 innings, it very well may prove to be the key to tomorrow night’s game as well.

On the other side Kevin Millwood takes the mound for the Rangers. In his first start off the disabled list he was touched for 10 hits, 9 of which were singles, in 5 innings of work.

Game Time 8:35

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6/5/07

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Syracuse 0 Toledo 6
Ron Chiavacci pitched 6 shutout innings and allowed only 3 hits and 3 walks while fanning 2. Roman Colon pitched 2 scoreless innings, but allowed 2 hits and 3 walks. Ryan Raburn had 2 hits and walk while Jack Hannahan had 2 walks and a hit.

Portland 5 Erie 8
Jon Connolly was lit up for 5 runs on 9 hits in just 3 2/3 innings. Kody Kirkland homered, singled, and walked twice. Jeff Larish added a homer and 3 RBI. Mike Hollimon, Erick Almonte, and Matt Joyce all had mutli-hit games.

St. Lucie 15 Lakeland 8
Lucas French allowed 9 runs, only 4 of which were earned in 3 innings. He was touched for 8 hits, 2 of which were homers. Cameron Maybin was 3 for 5 with no strikeouts. Mike Hernandez doubled and homered. Wilkin Ramirez tripled, singled, and walked twice.

Fort Wayne 2 West Michigan 11
Brennan Boesch, Jeff Kunkel, Brandon Timm, and Audy Ciriaco all had 2 hits. Jonah Nickerson allowed 9 hits, but only 1 run in 6 2/3 innings.

Minors News

2007 Season, Game Post

Game 57: Tigers at Rangers

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PREGAME: The Tigers enter the final leg of a 10 game road trip by journeying to Arlington. When I was a kid it seemed that Channel 4 always televised the Texas series, so when ever the Tigers head down to take on the Rangers I always think of George Kell drawling out “and the Tigers’ll be in ARlington on Tooosday night.” I miss Kell.

Anyways, things are getting back to normal for the Tigers. Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge return to the lineup tonight and Fernando Rodney was officially activated from the DL. The Pudge-as-leadoff-hitter experiment seems to be over because for the 2nd straight game, Omar Infante it atop the lineup against a southpaw.

The southpaw in question is John Rheinecker who is fresh off a AAA rehab stint as well as the 60 day DL. He’s a late substitution for Vincente Padilla. Rheinecker split time in the rotation and pen for the Rangers last year accruing 70 2/3 innings. He allowed 6 homers, 104 hits, 19 walks and 28 strikeouts. So people will put the ball in play against him.

The Tigers counter with Nate Robertson who is still trying to right the ship. Robertson hasn’t made it through the 6th innings since May 2nd. His biggest problem as of late is walks with 10 over his last 3 starts, and only 8 K’s.

Game Time 8:35

2007 Season, Fan Experience

Visiting the Jake

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P1050487I took the family down to Jacob’s Field this weekend and caught the Sunday tilt. Luckily it was one of the wins.

I had been to Jacob’s Field back in 2002, but a lot had changed since then. They added a park behind the trees in centerfield celebrating Indians history and their stars. It is very well done and a really cool place. Didn’t think to snap any pictures of that.

They’ve also expanded the scoreboard making it the largest. But unlike the Comerica Park scoreboard which it surpassed, it displays a ton of information:
P1050521
While Comerica Park does display more stats than it used to, it just never seems to effectively use all the real estate.

The other thing that was very different was the mix of fans. In 2002 the Indians were still relevant while the Tigers were still a joke. This time I saw just as much Detroit gear as Indians clothes. There were also a ton of empty seats – way more than you’d expect for a battle between the top 2 teams in the division. The announced attendance was over 30,000 but there weren’t nearly that many in the stands.

Our section was high above home plate, and it seemed that we were in Comerica Park given the mix of fans. It almost seemed like Ticketmaster gave everyone with a Michigan Ip address seats together. Despite taking over sections of the stadium, the Tribe fans we encountered were pretty friendly. I think the Cavs win over the Pistons helped to smooth any rough edges.

P1050515As for the game itself, Jeremy Bonderman was dealing. After a couple hard hit balls in the first inning, he didn’t allow another hit until the 7th. Any concerns about the blister seemed to have vanished. I did notice that Bonderman did throw at least a half dozen balls back to the umpire. There was theorizing that the stitches were higher this year, and I wonder if with returning so many balls if that’s what he was trying to avoid.

The offense continued to produce, and looking at the linescore you’d never know that the Tigers were missing 2 key components. Neifi Perez takes a lot of abuse, but he did a fine job filling in for the last week. He’s never going to hit a ton, or even a couple pounds, but that’s not really his job. He’s the last guy on the bench, and save for one error he turned in some solid defense. He also put together a few nice at-bats including a walk on Friday night well try to lay down a sac bunt. He also had an extended at-bat on Sunday where after falling behind 1-2 he saw 6 more pitches before hitting a grounder to short scoring a runner from third. He also knocked a few line drives that ended up in gloves.

Perez is the last guy on the bench and he’s getting playing time that reflects it this year. A big part of the problem last year was that Omar Infante was a better option and was left to languish on the bench due to one error while Perez continued to not produce. I’m not saying Perez is a good player, or that acquiring him was a good idea. But as the last guy on the bench, it really isn’t a big deal.

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 6/4/07

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Toledo 3 Buffalo 9
Jordan Tata started and was rocked 3 homers leading to 6 runs in only 2 1/3 innings. Eulogio De La Cruz who was recently promoted came on in relief and walked 5 batters and lasted only an inning. Ryan Raburn hit his 12th homer.

Erie – DNP

St. Lucie 2 Lakeland 6
Wil Rhymes was 3 for 3 with a walk. Wilkin Ramirez and Justin Justice each had 2 hits. Burke Badenhop went 5 2/3 innings allowing 2 runs on 7 hits.

Fort Wayne 2 West Michigan 4
Gorkys Hernandez had 2 doubles. Deik Scram had 2 hits and a walk.

Minors News

Matt explores the Eulogio De La Cruz promotion. I hadn’t thought much about it, but maybe they are giving him a whirl as a reliever at the higher level to see if he can be added to the bullpen. His starter numbers are better than as a reliever, but his stuff can be impressive regardless.

TigsTown notes that Vincent Blue was released and Vance Wilson is about to start rehabbing at Lakeland.