Category Archives: 2007 Season

Game 14: Royals at Tigers

PREGAME: Abbreviated pregame tonight. Jorge De La Rosa takes on Mike Maroth. Jim Leyland is using the “Sunday” lineup with Omar Infante in centerfield, Neifi Perez at third base, and Marcus Thames playing first base. All righties all the time.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME
: It was a nice offensive night. Placido Polanco got the biggest hits, but he wasn’t the only one hitting the ball hard. Magglio Ordonez hit the ball hard repeatedly tonight, as did Pudge Rodriguez.

Marcus Thames was inexplicably taken out in the 5th inning, after hitting a home run. I don’t really get it. The lefy de la Rosa was still even in the game at that point and it seems too early for a defensive replacement.

Maroth narrowly missed a quality start, and Wil Ledezma wasn’t quite as sharp as he’s been.

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 4/16/07

Durham 0, Toledo 6
Kurt has been stumping for Virgil Vasquez to take over the last spot in the rotation if Chad Durbin falters. Vasquez certainly did his part today with 5 shut out innings. He only allowed 3 hits, 1 walk and he struck out 9. Brent Clevlen was 1 for 3 with a walk. Clevlen isn’t hitting for power yet, but he is sporting a 390 OBP. Chris Shelton was 1 for 4.

Erie 3, Akron 0 (Delayed in 3rd inning)
Another candidate is Jair Jurrjens. He was off to a good start tonight retiring all 6 hitters he faced before the rain came. Because of the various postponements for Erie, Jurrjens has yet to get “stretched out.”

Lakeland 0, Fort Myers 1
And yet another candidate (notice a trend) took the loss tonight, but pitched especially well. Andrew Miller allowed only 3 hits and 1 unearned run in 8 innings with 6 K’s. There wasn’t much Flying Tiger offense to speak of, but Cameron Maybin was 2 for 5.

West Michigan 3, South Bend 2
While not a candidate for the rotation, Jonah Nickerson is one of the more high profile starters at West Michigan. Nickerson went 6 2/3 allowing 5 hits and 2 runs while fanning 5. Gorkys Hernandez, Brennan Boesch, and Ryan Strieby all had 2 hits. Scott Sizemore walked 3 times.

Game 13: Royals at Tigers

PREGAME: The Tigers return home after a 10 game trip. Tonight they’ll send out Justin Verlander, who has arguably been the best pitcher in the majors this year riding a 13 inning scoreless streak. Of course, the second best pitcher might be whoever is facing Verlander. The Tigers bats have mustered one run off Verlander opponents Jorge De La Rosa and Adam Loewen.

Tonight’s opponent will be much tougher in Zach Greinke. Greinke has posted a 12:1 K to walk ratio in his first 13 innings this year.

The wind is ridiculous tonight and will most assuredly be a factor. Let’s hope that the Tigers cope with it better than they did in their last home game.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: The Tigers finally got that laugher they’d been waiting for. They took advantage of some Zach Greinke wildness (and an erratic strike zone) to set up a grand slam for Pudge Rodriguez in the first inning. Some bad defense and Greinke was chased in the first inning. In the end, the Royals burned out two of their relievers for the rest of the series tonight.

It was a big game for most of the offense, and everybody reached base at least once. Sean Casey got a gift double. Magglio Ordonez got lucky with a botched double play ball, but was later robbed of a hit by Jason LaRue. Everybody else had some hard hit balls, but Carlos Guillen and Pudge delivered the big blows.

Justin Verlander allowed more hard hit balls then he probably would have liked, but his 6 K’s helped limit the damage. Jose Mesa was asked to eat a couple of low pressure innings, and couldn’t even make it through an inning. By allowing 2 runs, it also prompted Jim Leyland to burn through Joel Zumaya making him unavailable tomorrow.

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 4/15/07

Durham 8, Toledo 0
For anyone clamoring for Zach Miner to take Chad Durbin’s spot in the rotation, Miner doesn’t appear ready. He didn’t make it out of the 2nd inning today and allowed 7 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks. Cory Hamman did a nice job mopping up going 3 2/3 innings allowing 1 run on 5 hits while fanning 4. The offense only mustered 5 hits. Ryan Raburn was 1 for 2. Chris Shelton went 0 for 2 with a walk.

Also, the Mud Hens resumed their suspended game from yesterday and won. Jeremy Johnson who was promoted from Erie to take Jordan Tata’s spot went 3 innings allowing 1 run on 2 hits to go along with 4 K’s.

Erie – PPD At this rate the entire 2nd half schedule will be double headers.

Lakeland 2, Clearwater 5
Sendy Vasquez walked 4 and allowed 7 hits in 4 1/3 innings for 5 runs of damage. Cameron Maybin and Wilkin Ramirez each went 2 for 4 and Justin Justice added a double.

West Michigan 5, South Bend 4
Scott Sizemore had 2 hits coming into today. The story is a little better now after a 4 for 5 day. Jeramy Laster was 3 for 4. Audy Ciriaco added a double, a HBP, and a walk. Duane Below made it threw 4 1/3 innings allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 7.

Game 12: Tigers at Blue Jays

PREGAME: It’s the last game of a 10 game road trip that has already been deemed successful. They’re also coming off a game featuring some late inning heroics. Do they have enough juice to take one more before heading home?

Maybe they can draw on the history of Jackie Robinson. Gary Sheffield, Marcus Thames, Craig Monroe, Curtis Granderson, Lloyd McClendon, and Pudge Rodriguez will be among the MLB players wearing the retired 42 today. For more on the day, check out Bless You Boys.

The Tigers send out Nate Robertson who is coming off a sterling performance against Baltimore in which he went 7 1/3 innings on only 80 pitches and allowing only 5 baserunners.

Josh Towers will be making his second start of the year. In his first start we last 5 2/3 innings while allowing 10 hits, but no walks and 6 strikeouts.

Game Time 1:07

POSTGAME: Three singles and a walk. That combination would probably make for a nice rally some inning, but not spread out across 9. The offense which had been showing signs of life the last few days crawled back into a hole. What was most frustrating is that this was a lineup full of starters, against a pitcher that hasn’t done much since 2005. And yet they had to rely on a thrown away pick-off attempt and Granderson’s legs to plate a run.

Nate Robertson was good, but he would have needed a shut out to win this one. Still, he was in line for a no decision until Sean Casey cut off a Gary Sheffield throw home. I don’t know that Royce Clayton would have been out, but there certainly would have been a play. Compounding the problem, Casey didn’t even throw to 2nd to cut down John Macdonald advancing.

Granderson picked up the 2nd error of his career when he air-mailed everybody in the 2nd inning. The error didn’t cost the Tigers though as it set-up an outfield assist for Granderson on the next play ending the inning.

Even with the loss today, the 6-4 road trip has to be considered a success. The Tigers won despite not generating a whole lot of offense. They are probably lucky to have the record they have, but there’s no reason to apologize for that.

Tigers 1, Blue Jays 2

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 4/14/07

Durham 2 Toledo 4 – suspended in the 4th inning
Yorman Bazardo had a pretty good game going through 4 with 4 hits, 2 runs, 0 walks, and 3 K’s. Chris Shelton was 2 for 2.

Erie 6, Harrisburg 1
Dallas Trahern had his 2nd solid start allowing 6 hits, no walks, and a single run over 6 1/3 innings. Mike Hollimon was 3 for 5 with a double raising his average to .386. Matt Joyce had 2 hits and Kody Kirkland added a double. Jeff Larish had his first rough game going 0 for 5.

Lakeland 1, Clearwater 10
Eleazar Aponte surrendered 6 runs (5 earned) in 4 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out four. Dusty Ryan hit his 4th homer of the spring. Ryan, who is 22, had a 698 OPS with 6 homers last season so this power surge is kind of unexpected. Cameron Maybin walked in 4 plate appearances.

South Bend 2 West Michigan 0
Lauren Gagnier and Phil Napolitan combined to allow only 2 runs on 5 hits, but it wasn’t enough. The Caps could only muster 3 hits.

South Bend 1 West Michigan 2
Angel Castro went innings and allowed 1 run on 6 hits and 2 walks. Gorkys Hernandez doubled and scored one of the 2 runs.

Minors News

My update yesterday about Jordan Tata came from the Mud Hens game notes. Today, the picture doesn’t look as good with Tata on his way to see Dr. Lewis Yocum for shoulder soreness. Yocum is the Angels doctor and also cleaned out the bone chips from Mike Maroth’s elbow.

A different look at the Bonderman-Halladay Duel

Taking advantage of the enhanced gameday data once again, I’ll take a look at Jeremy Bonderman’s and Roy Halladay’s awesome performances last night.

We’ll start with Jeremy Bonderman. The table below shows the mix of pitches and results for Bonderman:

It was a little surprising to see that Jeremy Bonderman didn’t miss that many bats last night, and none with his fastball. But what he did was induce a ton of weak contact. This was probably one of the biggest factors in keeping his pitch count so low.
Continue reading A different look at the Bonderman-Halladay Duel

Game 11: Tigers at Blue Jays

PREGAME: Yesterday was pitcher’s duel extraordinaire. I’m not expecting the same today. Chad Durbin was roughed up in his last start, and the Tigers tagged a wild AJ Burnett for 6 runs chasing him in the 3rd inning. Of course Burnett rebounded with 6 2/3 3 hit innings in his next start against the Royals.

Neifi Perez is 9 for 16 lifetime against Burnett, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see Carlos Guillen or Placido Polanco get the day off.

UPDATE: Polanco gets the day off, but in favor of Omar Infante who makes his first appearance on the field this year. He bats 9th and Pudge is in the 2-hole.

Game Time 1:07

POSTGAME: Some walks, some misplays, some bloops, and a broken bat got the job done for the Tigers in the end. If you’re a Blue Jay fan stopping by, I can certainly understand your frustration because that one slipped away.

BJ Ryan certainly had control problems, but at the same time there were a couple pitches to Gary Sheffield that I thought could have been (and should have been) called strikes. What appeared to be a very inconsistent strike zone manifested itself in that at-bat and changed the complexion of the inning.

After loading the bases I was thrilled to see Jim Leyland turn to Marcus Thames. After Thames swung through 2 belt high fastballs on the inner half I was just praying it wouldn’t turn into a double play. Instead a shattered bat double was the result.

For those that complain about Todd Jones, he won’t walk the bases loaded setting up rough luck situations. Granted, it wasn’t the norm for Ryan either, but when Jones gets beat it’s because the other team hit the ball.

Other stuff:

  • Jason Grilli draws a lot of ire in internet circles. It’s largely overblown for a long guy in the bullpen. Today Grilli came up big with 3 scoreless innings and gave the offense a chance to get back into the game. Without Grilli’s performance, the Tigers don’t win today.
  • Gary Sheffield seemed to coast a couple times on the base paths. Once with Ordonez’s double and the other time with the bloop hit. I understand that players can’t go all-out all the time, but not scoring either of those runs would have been huge slip-ups.
  • For a guy that was staring down the golden sombrero at one point, Craig Monroe had actually put together some impressive at-bats. His first 3 at-bats were K’s, but he saw 5, 7, and 9 pitches with full counts in the latter 2 ABs. His double off the top of the wall also came on a full count, 8 pitch plate appearance. On the day Monroe saw 33 pitches.
  • Brandon Inge had 3 more well hit balls. The average is still way down, but it’s climbing
  • Props to 2nd base umpire Jeff Kellogg who made a nice call on Brandon Inge’s stolen base. The throw was there, but the tag wasn’t applied in time. It seems obvious, but that call isn’t always made.

I probably need to comment on Chad Durbin as well. Leyland said that he’ll still start as scheduled against the White Sox on Friday, but I’d imagine he’ll really have to show something. He was simply not good today. He doesn’t have to be great, but getting to the 6th inning and giving up fewer than 4 runs would at least be keeping the team in the game. The trouble is Zach Miner has struggled in Toledo, Jordan Tata is on the DL, and Andrew Miller was roughed up in his last start. In other words there isn’t anyone knocking the door down.

Tigers 10, Blue Jays 7

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 4/13/07

Durham 4, Toledo 5
Dennis Tankersley started and lasted 6 1/3 innings surrendering 4 runs. Ryan Raburn hit his second homer of the year and knocked in 2. Chris Shelton took a rare 0 for 3.

Erie 3, Harrisburg 16
Jon Connolly took the beating giving up 8 runs on 10 hits while not surviving the 4th inning. PJ Finigan had struggles of his own surredering 5 runs in one inning. Jeff Larish continues to rip the ball with 2 more hits. Mike Hollimon doubled and walked. Kody Kirkland got his first homer of the year.

Lakeland 7, Clearwater 3
Justin Justice was 3 for 5 tonight with a triple. Cameron Maybin’s homer streak ended as he didn’t put a ball in play. He did acquire 3 walks and he fanned twice. Dusty Ryan picked up his 3rd homer. Lucas French allowed 3 runs on 7 hits, no walks and 5 K’s.

West Michigan – PPD

Minors news

  • There’s a nice article in the Toledo Blade about Chris Shelton. He’s batting 2nd to try and place an emphasis on covering the strike zone and not have him worry about slugging.
  • If you’ve been looking for Jordan Tata, he’s on the disabled list with a sore shoulder. He’s expected to make his first start on April 17th.

Game 10: Tigers at Blue Jays

PREGAME: It’s an Opening Day rematch of Jeremy Bonderman and Roy Halladay tonight in Toronto. The Tigers have put together a few more walks and hits the past few days, but they’ll have a stiff test tonight.

Jim Leyland has juggled the line-up moving Pudge Rodriguez to the #3 spot and pushing everyone else down a spot. Beck reports that Pudge is 10 for 21 lifetime off of Halladay. My take on lineups is basically “whatever,” but when Carlos Guillen is hitting 6th something doesn’t feel right.

Speaking of match-ups, Bonderman avoided Matt Stairs in the opener, but his nemesis returns to the lineup tonight.

Game Time 7:07

POSTGAME
Sure I’m bummed about the loss, but it is hard to be upset. It was a spectacular game with just incredible pitching on both sides. Yes Jeremy Bonderman deserved better, but neither pitch deserved to lose.

And I know there are people probably ready to jump on Fernando Rodney, but it was an infield single and 2 bunts. He didn’t get shelled and he threw strikes. It was just and unfortunate ending to a tremendous game. And that first bunt, yes it looked awkward and Rod Allen said it was Casey’s play. But Rodney got there first, was moving in the right direction and still couldn’t make the play. I’m not sure Casey would have gotten it either.

Of course not much offense to speak of tonight, but I don’t blame the hitters.

Tigers 1, Blue Jays 2

A different look at Zumaya’s outing

I think everyone was mighty blown away by Joel Zumaya’s 2 inning save last night. He pounded the strike zone with 100mph plus heaters and buckled knees with his curve ball. But just for fun, and because we can, let’s take a look at all the pitches that made up his night.

I don’t know if you noticed in the playoffs last year, but MLB Gameday started using an enhanced version that had camera’s catching the path of the pitch, the velocity, and the release point. This was kind of a neat feature, but what makes it gold is that the data is captured and stored on MLB.com’s servers. Inspired by the book Baseball Hacks: Tips & Tools for Analyzing and Winning with Statistics, and with some programming of my own, I worked this offseason to be able to capture and analyze this data. Imagine my disappointment when after the first 8 games the Tigers hadn’t had an “enhanced” game. Fortunately they did last night.
Continue reading A different look at Zumaya’s outing

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 4/12/07

Erie 2 Harrisburg 6
Eddie Bonine started and allowed 3 runs on 4 hits(1 homer), no walks, and 3 K’s. Matt Rusch allowed 3 runs of his own in relief. Clete Thomas and Mike Hollimon set the table at the top of the order with each picking up 2 hits. Jeff Larish doubled in one run and added a walk. Kody Kirkland added a hit and a walk as well.

Cameron Maybin
Photo Credit: Roger DeWitt

Fort Myers 4, Lakeland 10
Cameron Maybin seems to have found his stroke. He homered for the 3rd time in the last 2 days (one each in 3 straight games). He also added 2 singles and a walk. Wilkin Ramirez is off to a good start also and added a triple amongst his 3 hits. Maybe this is the year it all comes together for him. Justin Justice also had 2 hits.

Burke Badenhop started and pitched 5 innings of shutout ball before surrendering 2 runs in the 6th.

West Michigan 1 Lansing 3
Awesome outing by Caps starter Christopher Cody. Cody went 6 2/3 innings surrendering only 2 hits and a walk while fanning 11! Randor Bierd relieved and allowed 2 hits, 2 runs (1 earned) on no walks and 4 K’s. Unfortunately the offense and defense didn’t support the pitching. James Skelton had 2 hits to lead the offense. Scott Sizemore continues to struggle seeing his average drop to .056. He did however get hit by his 3rd pitch in the last 2 games.

Minors news

Mack Avenue Tigers notes all the top prospects playing somewhere in the state of Michigan right now.