Category Archives: 2008 Season

2008 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Dontrelle Willis is almost back and headed to the pen

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WDFN is reporting that Dontrelle Willis will rejoin the team today or tomorrow and will head to the pen while Armando Galarraga stays in the rotation.


UPDATE: Old news now, but the corresponding roster move was Clay Rapada getting DL’d due to bicep tendinitis. Rapada certainly struggled his last time out so which may have cut the rehab session short of another start for Willis.

I’m surprised by the move of Willis to the bullpen, seeing as I just wrote that Willis should take Galarraga’s spot in the rotation. What do you know, I was wrong again.

But I do like that Galarraga isn’t going to the bullpen because I wanted him to remain stretched out as a starter – be that here or Toledo. I’m surprised that they would ask Willis to move to the bullpen. But he seems to be embracing it and was joking around with Todd Jones last night. And if he can work on things with Jeff Jones at the MLB level all the better. The tricky thing is getting Willis stretched out again when he rejoins the rotation.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 46: Mariners at Tigers

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PREGAME: My goodness, wouldn’t it be nice to win back to back games? The last time that happened the Tigers were in New York.

A chunk of the responsibility tonight falls on Kenny Rogers. Rogers was knocked around to the tune of 11 hits and 7 runs in only 4 innings in his last start against the Royals. The 24 walks and 23 K’s in 47.1 innings are pretty ugly, as re the 5 homers. Rogers has limited Ichiro to a .551 OPS but the rest of the Mariners hit him to the tune of .762.

The hitters should be able to carry over the pounding of last night on to Jarrod Washburn. He’s left handed and not that good. But the Tigers have made lesser pitchers look dominant so I don’t know what to expect. One interesting split for Washburn this year is performance on first pitches. When put in play hitters are only 1 for 16 this year. Small samples to be sure but unusual. Also, even when hitters fall behind 0-1 they still hit 317/358/584 against Washburn this year. The career numbers are a 820 OPS for first pitch in play and 242/285/377 after 0-1 which is more telling. So swing away on the first pitch!
SEA @ DET, Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: I missed most of this one. Acutally, I missed all of the Tigers scoring, but say the near implosions by Kenny Rogers.

But looking at the box score (and the parts of the game I saw):
offense=good
bullpen=good
rogers=not so good

All the starters got hits, but it was Marcus Thames and his granny, and Brandon Inge and his double and triple that drove home 6 of the 9 runs.

Zach Miner allowed 1 baserunner in 2.2 innings to pick up a rough night from Rogers.

That’s all I have tonight. Back to back wins are too rare, but still appreciated.

Tigers 9, Mariners 4

2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5-20-08

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Columbus 7 Toledo 5
Your Mud Hens homers tonight were brought to you by Mike Hollimon and Jeff Larish. Mike Hessman is inexplicably stuck on 18. Chris Lambert fanned 7 while allowing 2 runs in 5.2 innings.

Bowie 10 Erie 5
Justin Justice doubled and homered. Wilkin Ramirez singled, tripled, stole his 14th base, and walked. Danny Worth and Deik Scram each added 2 hits. Lucas French allowed 6 runs over 7 innings, walking 1 and striking out 4.

Palm Beach 5 Lakeland 2
Scott Sizemore homered, singled and walked. Ramon Garcia went 6 innings allowing 2 runs on 8 hits, no walks and 1 K.

West Michigan 10 South Bend 4
Ronnie Bourquin doubled and knocked in 3. Cory Middleton also had a 3 RBI day. Phil Nardozzi pitched 5 shut out innings allowing only 2 hits.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 45: Mariners at Tigers

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PREGAME: Well, it’s already been an interesting night at the ballpark. As for the game itself it will pit Justin Verlander against Carlos Silva.

Silva has a 4.17 ERA. In typical Silva fashion he’s allowing his share of hits, and not striking out many, but walking even fewer.

The Tigers will have the following lineup:

  1. Granderson
  2. Polanco
  3. Sheffield
  4. Ordonez
  5. Cabrera
  6. Guillen
  7. Joyce
  8. Renteria
  9. Rodriguez

SEA @ DET, Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: It’s never easy is it? Tonight a solid outing by the ace and an outburst by the offense was nearly undermined by the mostly trustworthy arms of Aquilino Lopez and Clay Rapada getting roughed up. And the outfield made 3 errors. And the errors came from the defensive outfielders Raburn-Granderson-Joyce.

But how ’bout that offense. The slumping Edgar Renteria was a double short of the cycle including a bases loaded triple. And the slumping Curtis Granderson singled, doubled, and homered. And the slumping Carlos Guillen hit a bomb to straight away centerfield.

So it’s a win amidst the turmoil. Now heaven help me if they get shut out tomorrow or Rogers biffs.

2008 Season

Everything is broken…arrggghhh

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UPDATE: Leyland responded to the comments. Beck has the transcript and the audio is here. And it looks like Grilli has responded back.

This really was a rant for the ages. Leyland’s gone off before, but it has been to players with only terse summaries for the press afterwards. This was out there for everybody and I think he was 100% right in what he said. You’ve got to listen to the audio for yourself if you haven’t heard it yet. It ended with “Beck. If you write a horse— article you don’t blame John Lowe.”

Also, I wouldn’t expect Nightengale around the clubhouse for awhile. I did talk with people familiar with baseball clubhouses and there was nothing out of the ordinary that night. It’s normal baseball behavior and when you get to the park 5 hours before game time there is going to be downtime. Grilli is saying he was misquoted which could just be CYA backpedaling. But I do find the Guillen quote out of character. And I can’t help but wonder how many, if any, players Nightengale spoke with that indicated no clubhouse problems but it didn’t make the story.

Hey, you may have heard there was an article today about the chemistry in the Tigers clubhouse. I know there has already been a lot of discussion about this in another post, but I wanted the chance to address it. Please read the article first because the points I’m going to hash out below assume you will have read it.

  1. There are quotes in this article that I do find very disturbing. The Sheffield quotes and the Inge quotes don’t bother me too much. Sheffield probably said what he was thinking and in a day or two he’ll explain what he meant. As for Inge, he seems to say lots of things. What bothered me the most are the Guillen quotes in which he seemed to imply that the expectations were unfair. Bull—-. While a 1000 run offense expectation may not be fair, expecting to be a good team was completely in line. The fact that this came from someone who is perceived as a team leader is bad.
  2. Bob Nightengale wanted to paint a picture here. I’ve never been in a clubhouse before a game (or at anytime) but if I pictured one it would be players hanging out, checking fan mail, reading, listening to music, and even sleeping. This doesn’t seem odd to me at all and yet it is painted as a negative. Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez were singled out for not watching a tape of Dan Haren (leaving the impression that Cabrera had done no preparation). Cabrera homered and Ordonez had 3 hits. I don’t know what the players do to prepare. Maybe they actually did nothing, but to assume they did is quite the leap.
  3. The MLBPA tried to ban Nightengale last year because Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield claimed that Nightengale took quotes that were off the record and printed them, leading to potential punishment from the commissioner. But then Sheffield talked to Nightengale for this article so I don’t know what to make of it. Nightengale also reported that Magglio Ordonez wanted to be traded in 2005.
  4. It isn’t surprising that this story came from a national writer. In one respect you should take pause because he’s getting a snapshot of the team. In one respect you should give it more credence because he doesn’t have the same pressures as a beat writer having to go in there everyday.
  5. Jason Grilli shouldn’t be talking. He complained of cliques. Of course there are going to be cliques on a team. Most likely they break down along positional and racial lines. In the Tigers case many of those lines are related. Look at the infield – all from Latin America. Four-fifths of the starting rotation is white. I also thought it was interesting that Grilli singled out Sean Casey and Brandon Inge as the type of player they needed. Perhaps other guys from his clique?
  6. Read this article. (It’s different than the other one)

Look. I know stuff is broken with this team. They are playing like crap and way below their abilities. I don’t know why. But I know there is a more that I don’t know. I don’t know what these guys do on a daily basis to prepare. I don’t know how much they care and I know I can’t tell by looking at them what is going on in their heads. I don’t know if they are lazy because of their contracts or if the only thing they care about is winning. I don’t know if they like each other or if they hate each other. I don’t know if they’ve tuned their manager out, or if they are trying too hard, or not trying hard enough. And frankly I don’t care. I just want to see them play some decent baseball damn-it.

2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5-19-08

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Columbus 3 Toledo 4
Clete Thomas doubled, homered, and walked. Brent Clevlen and Erick Almonte each had a pair of hits. Jeremy Johnson allowed 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walk in 4.1 innings. Yorman Bazardo allowed 1 run on a walk and and a hit in 2.2 innings.

Bowie 8 Erie 4
Wilkin Ramirez and Justin Justice each had 2 hits. Ryan Roberson homered. Luis Marte couldn’t find the strike zone with 6 walks leading to 4 runs in 4.1 innings.

Palm Beach 13 Lakeland 2
Brennan Boesch was 1 for 4 with a 2 run homer. Cale Iorg was 2 for 5. Matt O’Brien didn’t make it out of the 4th inning before allowing 6 runs, only 3 of which were earned, on 8 hits, no walks and 4 K’s. Zach Simons blew up to the tune of 5 runs in .2 innings.

West Michigan 1 South Bend 4
Ronnie Bourquin knocked in the only run and had one of only four hits for the Caps. Brandon Hamilton allowed 3 runs on 3 walks, no strikeouts, and hits. Andrew Hess did a nice job in relief allowing 1 run in 4 innings.

2008 Season, Pitching, Roster Management

The Galarraga rotation debate

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Let’s do an old Rob Neyer construct, Player A versus Player B:

Pitcher A:
Record: 3-1
GS: 6
IP: 40
ERA: 2.48
K/BB: 23/12
HR: 2
OPS against: .618

Pitcher B:
Record 3-1
GS: 6
IP: 35.1
ERA: 3.06
K/BB: 24/14
HR: 3
OPS against: .571

Pitcher B is Armando Galarraga in his first 6 starts this season. An impressive display for a team that needed some quality starting pitching. Pitcher A is Nate Robertson in his first 6 starts last season. Now why would I bring this up? Because even an average-ish starter can string 6 nice starts together. Galarraga has decent minor league numbers, but far from overpowering numbers and stuff. This was a player for whom the best offer the Rangers could get is a player the Tigers signed out of a try out camp – and he had an option left.

Dontrelle Willis has at most one more rehab start in the minors and it’s no coincidence that his rehab starts have coincided with Galarraga’s big league starts. Willis will replace Galarraga in the rotation and it is the right decision.

Yes, you can argue that Galarraga hasn’t done anything to warrant losing his spot and I can’t say you’re wrong. He also did little to get the spot in the first place other than have Willis slip. And with one start and 2 batters I think it’s a little early to say that Willis pitched himself out of the rotation. Yes I’d like to see more control and better results during his time with Toledo, but the Tigers need to see if Willis can be successful and right or wrong his contract dictates that he isn’t going to get Wally Pipp’d.

As for removing another Tigers starter from the rotation, it ain’t going to be Justin Verlander who if he doesn’t return to form would render this discussion moot. And Jeremy Bonderman has managed to post a decent ERA despite awful peripherals. Nate Robertson is the starter with the best walk rate and an acceptable strike out rate. Not to mention that 2 of the aforementioned 3 have new multi-year deals.

That leaves one starter who Galarraga could reasonably supplant and that is Kenny Rogers. Rogers has walked more than he’s fanned and has generally been hit hard as he’s struggled to find the corners. Rogers is also on a one year deal meaning the longer term ramifications are lessened – aside from that whole “he’s like another pitching coach” business. And the Tigers aren’t going to dump Rogers this soon in the season.

Galarraga has been a pleasant surprise, but he’s also been a little lucky. His .180 batting average on balls in play is hardly sustainable even with a good defense. So his ERA is going to climb. I’m appreciative of what he’s done and it sucks that he’ll lose his spot. But the Tigers won’t bail on Kenny Rogers this soon. And while Jim Leyland would like to send Galarraga to the bullpen I think it is a pretty short sighted move. If Rogers continues to struggle, or in the event a starter goes down with injury (anyone notice Nate grab his back after one of his swings?), it would be nice to have someone to entrust a handful of starts to.

2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5-19-08

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Toledo 10 Columbus 0
The homer barrage continues with Mike Hollimon hitting 2 (10 in the last 8 games) and Timo Perez and Nick Trzesniak joining him with a pair apiece and Freddy Guzman hit one. So today the Mud Hens hit as many homers as the Tigers have since May 3rd. Casey Fossum fanned 10 in 7 shut out innings.

Erie 10 Binghamton 5
Max St. Pierre homered, walked, and added 2 singles. Wil Rhymes had a 3 hit day and Wilkin Ramirez had 2 hits and a walk. Danny Christensen allowed 5 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings.

Palm Beach 0 Lakeland 4
Jonah Nickerson allowed 1 hit and 1 walk while fanning 8 in 7 shut out innings. Brennan Boesch had 3 hits. Jeramy Laster homered, singled, and walked.

West Michigan 4 Lansing 2
Jon Kibler pitched a complete game allowing only 2 hits. He walked 1 and fanned 8. Casper Wells walked twice and singled. Jordan Newton tripled and drove in two runs.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 44: Tigers at Diamondbacks

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PREGAME: If the Tigers keep playing like they have over their last 1 games, they’ll be back to .500 9 games from now. The Tigers will try to turn a win into a winning streak behind Nate Robertson.

Robertson took a no decision in his last start, one that saw him allow only 2 runs while scattering 10 hits over 7 innings. It was the first time this season he hadn’t allowed 4 or 5 runs.

The Tigers get to face a lefty in the form of Randy Johnson. Johnson has allowed quite a few hits this year, but is still fanning a batter an inning. Left handed batters have exactly 1 hit and 2 walks off of Johnson this year. So it’s probably a good idea that Curtis Granderson and Matt Joyce are out of the lineup. But with Carlos Guillen also getting the day off, the 3 spot looks empty with Edgar Renteria and his 633 OPS.

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

DET @ ARI, Sunday, May 18, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Robertson looked dominant for a big chunk of this game, but in the end it was a typical Nate start with 5.2 innings and the customary 4 runs allowed. The only moment of the game where I can really fault him came in the 6th inning, where after an Ordonez error a third run scored. Following an intentional walk, an unglued Robertson walked Randy Johnson. Otherwise Nate pitched fine, but again it would have taken a shut out to even have a chance at a no decision.

In typical fashion the offense generated scoring chances early but did nothing with them. At least they got some doubles instead of the single-per-inning approach they took in Kansas City.

Last night it was Rodriguez who routinely killed scoring chances. Today it was Ordonez’s turn. In the first inning he ended a two-on, 1-out threat with a double play. In the 3rd it was a 2-on, 2-out situation ending in a full count tapper to the pitcher. He ended the day with a 1-on, 2-out, comebacker as well.
Game Time 4:10

2008 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 5-17-08

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Toledo 8 Columbus 5
Dontrelle Willis made another rehab start and stuck around for 96 pitches this time. He only allowed 1 run but he walked 4 in 6 innings and fanned 4. Jeff Larish is trying to catch-up to Mike Hessman and he knocked 2 more homers. Mike Hollimon added his 9th dinger and Brent Clevlen his 6th.
Erie 0 Binghamton 2
Wilkin Ramirez had a rough night with 3 K’s in 3 at-bats. Andrew Kown went 4.2 innings allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, a walk and 4 K’s.
Erie 5 Binghamton 7
Danny Worth tripled and homered and Ryan Roberson added a homer and a single. Wil Rhymes and Justin Justice each had multi-hit games. Jon Connolly allowed 7 runs on 10 hits in 4 innings and owns a 7.07 ERA.

Dunedin 4 Lakeland 2
Ryan Strieby doubled, homered, and walked. James Skelton and Jeramy Laster each added 2 hits and a walk. Cale Iorg tripled and singled. Duane Below allowed 3 runs on 7 hits, no walks, and 5 K’s in 6 innings of work.

Lansing 5 West Michigan 3
Chris Carlson had 2 hits including a double. Ronnie Bourquin also doubled. All the runs allowed in this game were unearned coming on the heels of 3 errors. Lauren Gagnier allowed 1 unearned run on 4 hits, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts in 7 innings.

2008 Season, Game Post

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78 Comments

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POSTGAME: For those wondering, no we won’t be doing every game in reverse-text until they lose again. This was a one time slump busting move. Though I do expect the Tigers socks to remain high for the time being.

The Tigers seemed to have rubbed off some on the D-backs. It was Arizona biffing a bunt and then Orlando Hudson having the brain fart and not running to first while the Pudge Rodrgiuez made the heads up play to turn 2. It was Connor Jackson letting a routine dribbler extend an inning leading to the Tigers first runs. It was Arizona pitching walking 6 batters. It was Arizona hitters failing to deliver with runners in scoring position and hitting into double plays.

Okay, the Tigers still did most of that stuff too. They walked 6. Ryan Raburn dropped a double play throw. It appeared there was another pop-out that went uncalled. The Tigers still struggled with RISP. But a win is a win. And there was stuff to be encouraged about. Miguel Cabrera continued to hit the ball hard. Curtis Granderson managed a couple hits. And Matt Joyce looks completely unfazed despite hitting 4 homers in 10 games.

Armando Galarraga could probably be described as effectively wild last night. He wasn’t particularly sharp in issuing 5 walks, but he did only allow 1 hit. It was the 4th quality start in the last 5 games for Tigers starters who appear to be turning things around as a group.

2008 Season

Evidence of bizarre strike zone disappears

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In last night’s Detroit-Arizona game there were several moments where I was completely befuddled by CB Bucknor’s strike zone. But I was going to just consider my bias as a frustrated fan and let it go. Then I saw Tom Gage’s game story and a ball-strike call was the lead for his story. So I thought I would go back to the pitch f/x data and post a couple of the at-bats in question. Except for one thing. The pitch f/x data that had been there throughout the game had disappeared this morning.

One of the moments in question was in the top of the 7th inning when Jeremy Bonderman appeared to freeze Justin Upton with a called third strike on a 2-2 count. Except it was called a ball and Upton would later go on to walk. I was IM’ing with Ian and couldn’t believe the pitch, but I chalked it up to being the frustrated fan of a floundering team.

The other egregious call was in the top of the 8th inning when Curtis Granderson was called out an a fastball that was borderline low, and at least 6 inches off the plate. The frustration of the one call combined with the crappy play of my team had me furious at this latest call. But I thought I would give it some time before posting. I try not to blog angry.

But when I went to post the at-bats in question this morning, the pitch f/x data is gone. There are still plots of the pitches, but not as tracked by pitch f/x and not where the actual pitches were. The system was working last night. It worked the night before at Chase Ballpark and the data still persists. It worked in other ballparks last night where the data still exists.

Perhaps it is some kind of data glitch where things were broken only at Chase only after that game. And in fairness I checked the other games that Bucknor has done this year, and all the data is there. So maybe I’m just irrational frustrated fan guy right now who is pissed because his team isn’t playing better, but I did want to graphically show how bad the calls were. Plus I have a long running disdain for Bucknor for other reasons.

C.B. Bucknor’s umpiring acumen has been well documented. In a 2003 Sports Illustrated survey of players he was voted worst umpire. In a 2006 Sports Illustrated survey of players he was voted worst umpire. So at least he’s consistent in his sucking.