Category Archives: 2008 Season

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 75: Tigers at Padres

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PREGAME: The Tigers rap up their road portion of interleague today in San Diego. The pitching match-up will be Justin Verlander and Randy Wolf.

Miguel Cabrera is Hungry Like A Wolf (I know, it’s awful) with 22 career plate appearances, 10 hits, 2 homers, and 3 walks against Randy. Lefties have been hitting Wolf to the rune of a 997 OPS this year so I’d like to see Granderson stay in the lineup. Wolf has been much tougher at Petco with a 2.45 ERA there and a 5.84 everywhere else.

DET @ SDP, Sunday, June 22, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 4:05

POSTGAME: I like the winning. Justin Verlander had the live fastball thing working with 10 K’s. However he also had 5 walks, 2 of them intentional. That makes for a lot of pitches and he was at 115 when he was lifted with one out in the 6th.

  • Very nice job by Bobby Seay coming into a 2 on, 1 out situation and getting out of it unscathed.
  • Pudge Rodriguez walked twice and picked up his first unassisted homer of the season. Don’t look now, but his OBP is up to .325.
  • Magglio Ordonez found his extra base groove with a double and a homer, following up on his homer last night.
  • Granderson hit the ball well again today, with only one hit to show for it. But seeing him take a left hander to the warning track twice was encouraging.
  • Joel Zumaya came in with the lead, and left with the lead. But he did allow a walk and a couple hits and had the tying run gunned down (closely) at the plate.

White Sox are down 6 in the 9th as I write this. Assuming the Cubs can hang on, the Tigers are only 5 games back with 87 games left on the schedule. That so seems doable.

2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-21-08

Toledo 5 Scranton 9
Fernando Seguignol was 2 for 4. Brent Clevlen went 1 for 3 with 2 walks. Yorman Bazardo was hammered for 5 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks in 1.1 innings.

Harrisburg 4 Erie 3
Ryan Roberson homered and singled in 4 at-bats. Wilkin Ramirez was sent back to Erie with the return of Brent Clevlen to Toledo and things didn’t get better for him with 3 K’s in 4 at-bats. Danny Christensen allowed 4 runs on 4 walks, 4 strikeouts, and 7 hits in 7 innings.

Lakeland – PPD

West Michigan 4 South Bend 5
Alex Avila was 2 for 4 with a double as the DH tonight. Ronnie Bourquin had 3 hits and drove in 2. Alfredo Figaro allowed 4 runs on 9 hits with no walks or strike outs.


Tri-City 10 Oneonta 0
Uh, the O-Tigs were no hit tonight. Mark Sorenson allowed 4 runs on 5 hits in 4.1 innings walking none and fanning 3. Sean Finefrock was beat around for 6 runs on 7 hits in .2 innings.

GCL Tigers 1 GCL Yankees 2 – Game suspended in 3rd inning

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 74: Tigers at Padres

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PREGAME: The Tigers will look to bounce back from another late inning collapse. They’ll send out Nate Robertson who pitched 6 innings of shut down ball spanning a rain delay his last time out.

The Padres send out Cha Seung Baek. You may remember him from a Seattle Mariner beat-down. Baek got to leave Seattle and has been starting for the Padres with decent results. He hasn’t allowed a homer in any of his 3starts, and his last 2 have been quality in nature.

Via Beck, Marcus Thames gets the night off – or at least he isn’t starting. I’d think he’s a decent bet for pinch hitting duties later on. And Brandon Inge returns to the lineup.

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Guillen, 3B
  4. Ordonez, RF
  5. Cabrera, 1B
  6. Renteria, SS
  7. Thomas, LF
  8. Inge, C
  9. Robertson, P

DET @ SDP, Saturday, June 21, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:05

POSTGAME: This was a big win for a number of reasons. It assures a .500 road trip and gives them a chance to win the series. It keeps the team in 3rd place. The team picks up a game on White Sox. And it means the Tigers only have two more 10 pm starts this season!

  • Nate was Nate. He looked dominant at times as he breezed through the lineup. He made a pretty good pitch that Michael Barrett hit out. But later he walked the pitcher which led to the tying and go ahead runs (with some help from Cabrera). The pitcher. It reminded me of Robertson’s start against the Diamondbacks where he was pitching great, took a couple big swings when batting, and then couldn’t locate the strike zone. I think Robertson needs the take sign.
  • The bullpen did a good enough job. Each pitcher allowed a baserunner, but no damage. That was thanks in part to Ordonez who gunned own a runner in the 8th at home plate.
  • Granderson is ripping the ball, at least for the last 2 days. One of my favorite things about watching the Tigers is seeing Granderson round first with his eyes on third. It’s a thing of beauty.
  • Marcus Thames though came in to pinch hit for Granderson against a lefty. Definitely a questionable move, but not a questionable result has Marcus goes boom-diggity.
  • The Tigers got their second assisted homer of the season when Magglio hit one deep to straight away center that glanced off of Jody Gerut’s glove and into the stands. It happened to Pudge earlier at Comerica Park. The Tigers are 2-0 when opposing outfielders assist balls over the fence.
2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-20-08

Toledo 8 Scranton 4
Matt Joyce was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles. Brent Clevlen struck out 4 times, but homered also. Lauren Gagnier allowed 4 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings.

Erie 6 Harrisburg 9
Danny Worth went 2 for 5 with his 5th homer. Caonabo Cosme also homered and added a walk. Ben Fritz allowed 10 hits and 2 walks but only 4 runs came around to score in 7 innings.

Lakeland 2 Tampa 3
No Gary Sheffield tonight. Louis Ott and Cale Iorg each went 1 for 3 and added a walk. Matt O’Brien allowed 3 runs in 7.1 innings.

West Michiga 8 South Bend 5
Jordan Newton was a homer shy of the cycle and he added a walk. Alex Avila made his debut and was 1 for 4 with a walk. Mauricio Robles started and allowed just 1 hit, but also 5 walks in 3 innings.

Oneonta 9 Tri-City 1
Joaquin Guzman and Hayden Parrot each went 2 for 5. Keith Stein singled, doubled, and walked in 4 plate appearances. David Stokes went 6 innings allowing 1 unearned run on 3 hits. Anthony Shawler pitched 3 innings of relief fanning 5 and allowing only a walk.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 73: Tigers at Padres

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PREGAME: After enjoying a couple days with little to do in San Diego, the Tigers get back to work tonight against the Padres. The Pads are on a 4 game losing streak and have dropped 5 of their last 6.

I recently participated in a discussion led by Padres blogger extraordinaire. He is the proprietor of the long running blog Ducksnorts (it was around before there were blogs) and a long time internet friend. The roundtable which included Brian from Tigerblog and Lee Panas from Detroit Tiger Tales can be found on Geoff’s site. Geoff also gave each of us an opportunity to ask him some questions. Lee’s were so good I’m just goiing to link to his.

As for tonight’s scrum it will be Eddie Bonine making his second career start and Greg Maddux making his 723rd career start. Bonine was knocked around for 6 runs on 9 hits in his debut, but did keep the ball in the strike zone with no walks. Maddux only has 15 walks in 89 innings this year so he always keeps the ball in the strike zone.

Marcus Thames will have a tough time with the homer streak playing in spacious Petco Park. But he was supposed to have a tough time against Tim Lincecum and it didn’t seem to phase him.

DET @ SDP, Friday, June 20, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 10:05

2008 Season, Roster Management

Denny gets Bautista’d

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Denny Bautista is odd man out of the bullpen with the return of Joel Zumaya. I’d offer up my feelings, but instead I’ll point you to Detroit Tigers Thoughts who already has it covered.

UPDATE: It appears that the Tigers tried to move Bautista prior to DFA’ing him. Regardless I think it’s a bad move. Bautista hasn’t been bad. Rodney is a long shot to make it through the rest of the season. And while the rehab stint was good for Zumaya can he be counted on holding up? If it’s me I’m hording talent and sending down Dolsi or Miner – and I’m a Dolsi fan.

But instead they are keeping 3 guys with options and losing a guy who hasn’t pitched that bad.

2008 Season, Uncategorized

The 4th Inning – 2008

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Last year Sam Hoff started breaking down the season into 18 games segments, each representing 1/9th of the season, or an “inning.” Here is the 4th inning report.

The 4th Inning is over.

Each. 18 games represent 1 inning of a baseball season. The Tigers record for the first 4 innings in 2008:

                                               Starters:         Bullpen:
    W-L   RS –RA     HR-SB-AVG/OBA/SLG    W-L-IP-   ERA     W-L-S-ERA
1:  6-12  74 -112    15-10-262/345/404    3-9- 96.2-5.96    3-3-3-5.28 
2:  9-9   98 -87     21- 6-261/350/426    5-8-105.2-5.11    4-1-2-3.61
3:  8-10  89 -75     19- 2-275/326/442    8-5-109.2-4.19    0-5-4-3.83
4:  11-7  85 -74     19- 8-268/350/416    8-4-113.0-3.27    3-3-5-5.17

In the 4th inning started out with a 1-5 record including a sweep at Oakland. The fortunes of the team changed on June 7th when a 5 run bottom of the 8th against Cleveland broke a 3-3 tie. Marcus Thames led off that inning with a solo homerun and Edgar Renteria later added big insurance with a Grand Slam. Including that night, the Tigers have won 10 out of 12 games and have moved to 3rd place in the division (6.5 games behind the White Sox). If the Tigers average 11 wins for the remaining 5 innings they will be at 89 wins, which may very well be enough to win the central.

The starting pitching has been terrific. Armando Galarraga withstood a strange demotion to the bullpen to come back and win 3 straight starts with a 2.08era in those starts. He is now being discussed as a possible ROTY candidate. Kenny Rogers is tapping the fountain of youth with a 1.24era in 4 starts (but only 1 win as he had no run support). Justin Verlander had a 1-2 record, but pitched to a 3.10era and only allowed 30 base runners in 29 innings. Nate Robertson was 2-1 with a 3.86era in 3 starts. Three other starters were used as the demoted Dontrelle Willis (2 starts), injured Jeremy Bonderman (1 start), and promoted Eddie Bonine (1 start) combined for a 1-1 record with an 8.66era allowing 36 base runners in 17.2 innings.

The Bullpen numbers are skewed by Casey Fossum’s horrible 5 appearances as well as Fernando Rodney and Francisco Cruceta each getting bombed in their only appearance. Those 3 pitchers combined for 0-1-24.55 in 3.2 innings. The rest of the bullpen combined for a 3.53 era. Todd Jones continues to be perfect in save opportunities (4/4 in this inning) despite giving up all kinds of base runners (12 in 7.1 innings). Bobby Seay lost a game and gave up 4 runs in 5 innings. Dolsi, Miner, Bautista, Lopez and Rapada were all solid with a combined 2-1-2.25 in 28 innings.

The Hitters continue to perform at a substandard pace based on their lifetime numbers. Marcus Thames is red hot (8-12-234/333/766). Guillen (1-11-328/416/478) and Polanco (0-10-380/413/451) have also been swinging a good bat. The new catching platoon of Inge and Pudge seems to be working as they combined for (2-5-292/387/446). Cabrera is showing signs of coming around to his usual self (2-12-294/355/471). Granderson (2-7-222/279/381), Magglio (1-8-227/320/303), and Renteria (1-7-228/328/281) all struggled in the 4th frame.

I stated that the panic button needed to be pushed after the 3rd inning, and after losing 5 of 6 to drop to 24-36, the panic button was fully engaged. Don’t let the 10 out of 12 fool you, the Tigers have very little margin of error for the rest of the season. They must win more than 60% of their contests for the rest of the year to have a shot of making post season.

2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 6-19-08

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Toledo 4 Scranton 3
Mike Hessman doubled. Freddy Guzman singled and walked. Virgil Vasquez allowed 7 hits, but no walks and he fanned 5 in 5 innings. Aquilino Lopez pitched two scoreless innings.

Erie 2 Binghamton 3
Kody Kirkland homered and singled. Dusty Ryan added a homer as well. Andrew Kown went 8.1 innings and allowed 3 runs on 8 hits and a walk.

Tampa 3 Lakeland 6
Shawn Roof had 3 hits. Brennan Boesch singled, tripled, and walked. Gary Sheffield was 0 for 2 with 2 walks. Rick Porcello allowed 2 runs in 5.2 innings with a walk and 3 K’s.

West Michigan 1 South Bend 6
Ronnie Bourquin had 2 hits. Phil Nardozzi allowed 4 runs in 5 innings. Noah Krol allowed 2 runs on 3 hits in 1 inning.

Oneonta 13 Vermont 8
Hayden Parrott doubled and homered. Wade Lamont had 3 hits and 2 walks. Joaquin Guzman and Carlos Ramirez each had 3 hits. Darwin De Leon, formally known as Edward Reynoso, allowed 4 runs in 4 innings on 6 hits, 2 walks, and 3 K’s. Aaron Furhman allowed 2 runs in 3 innings but fanned 6.

GCL Tigers 1 GCL Braves 7
Luis Salas, Adam Frost, and Jordan Lennerton all doubled. D’Andre Vaughn singled and added 2 walks. Victor Larez allowed 6 runs in just 3 innings. Richard Zumaya pitched 3 innings of relief allowing 2 hits and a walk while striking out 5.

Minors Notes

Take 75 North and Tigstown both break down the GCL Tigers roster.

The Surge notes that Chris Carlson broke his hand in the All Star game.

Lastly we have a couple of pictures of Flying Tigers that reader Bill Bouie sent me tonight.

2008 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-18-08

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Toledo – DNP

Erie 5 Binghamton 4
Deik Scram, Wil Rhymes, and Dusty Ryan all had 2 hits including a homer for Ryan. Josh Rainwater allowed 4 runs, 2 of which were earned, in 6 innings.

Lakeland 2 Sarasota 8
Gary Sheffield struck out, flied out, and bounced out twice to second. Mike Bertram had the only extra base hit with a double. Ramon Garcia walked none and fanned 5 in 6.2 innings of 3 run ball.

West Michigan – DNP

Oneonta 8 Vermont 1
Keith Stein homered and singled. Carlos Ramirez also went yard. Luke Putkonen allowed just 3 hits and a walk while fanning 5 in 5 shut out innings. Tyler Stohr pitched a scoreless inning with 2 K’s.

2008 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Clete for Clevlen

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Clete Thomas has been recalled from his rehab assignment. It has come at the expense of Brent Clevlen. Clevlen didn’t get the bat going, but he did play some slick defense in the outfield. Clevlen and Thomas are probably a push defensively, but Thomas carries a left handed stick which is probably the reason for the move. One would hope that this wouldn’t lead to more platooning of Marcus Thames.

Leyland was encouraged by what he saw from Clevlen saying

“I think Clevlen is really, really close to being a Major League player for sure.”

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 72: Tigers at Giants

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PREGAME: Armando Galarraga and Barry Zito in the series finale today.

DET @ SFG, Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 3:45

POSTGAME: I saw about one inning of this game today. The Tigers scored their 7th run while I was watching so I can’t take too much credit for the victory. Not having seen the game I can just go by the box score. It was very pretty for Placido Polanco who had 4 hits and a walk.

Also enjoying a lovely day was Galarraga who had 2 walks and a sac bunt, and allowed no earned runs in 6 innings dropping is ERA to 3.03.

But what the hell was Leyland doing lifting Thames for a pinch hitter with the homer streak on the line? Come on, how often does a guy get in a position like that? And in a laugher of a game. This wasn’t a nail biter.

A nice series win with a couple hard fought games. The boys get a day off in San Diego which is a nice treat for a team that has won 10 of their last 12.

2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 6-17-08

Syracuse 4 Toledo 5
Fernando Seguignol walked twice, homered, and doubled. Freddy Guzman had 2 singles and 2 walks and 3 stolen bases. Anastacio Martinez allowed 3 runs in 5 innings of work. Francisco Cruceta allowed a run in 1 inning on 2 hits a walk and a strike out.

Erie 1 Binghamton 10
Deik Scram had the RBI with a single and a walk. Lucas French was knocked around for 6 runs on 7 hits and 5 walks in 4 innings.

Lakeland 5 Sarasota 2
Gary Sheffield walked twice, homered, and grounded out. Cale Iorg and Brennan Boesch added multi hit games. Jonah Nickerson pitched 7 innings of shut out ball allowing just 4 hits and a walk while fanning 6.

Midwest League AS Game
Kyle Peter went 0 for 2. Chris Carlson had a hit and RBI. Alfredo Figaro allowed 3 baserunners but no runs in his inning of work. Jon Kibler allowed a run on 2 hits.

Oneonta 4 Vermont 6
Ben Guez homered and walked. Mark Brackman allowed 6 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks.