Category Archives: 2009 Season

2009 Season, Pitching

Knapp ges the WSJ treatment

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Rick Knapp has made the big time now. No, not just his job as pitching coach for one of the AL’s best staffs, but he was the subject of a feature in the Wall Street Journal. He was mostly anonymous until the Tigers hired him to replace Chuck Hernandez and now he’s been dubbed a miracle worker. Nice career arc for Mr. Knapp.

Lot’s of good stuff in the article, but one thing in particular caught my eye:

Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling and John Smoltz crafted Hall of
Fame-caliber careers with the assistance of split-fingered fastballs.
Mr. Knapp frowned on it, viewing the splitter as a “trick pitch” that
harmed young arms more than it helped them.

“If you spread your first two fingers out and extend your arm as you
throw the ball as hard as you can, that doesn’t feel real good,” he
says.

Interesting in the sense that Bonderman is trying to develop the pitch as we speak. But Bonderman also is far removed from being a rookie.

The Detroit Tigers’ Miracle Worker – WSJ.com

2009 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/6/09

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Gwinnett 3 Toledo 10
Jeff Frazier had 3 doubles. Brent Clevlen singled and homered. Don Kelly and Wilkin Ramirez each had multi-hit games with extra base hits. Nate Bump went 8 innings, fanning 7 and allowing just 4 hits. Jeremy Bonderman allowed 3 runs on 3 hits, including a homer, in his inning of work which included 19 of his 21 pitches going for strikes. According to the game story one of the hits was a chopper and the other two came off the split finger fastball which he is trying to develop.

New Britain 10 Erie 0
Cale Iorg doubled. That was it for Erie highlights. Ramon Garcia didn’t make it out of the 5th innings before allowing 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks. Jared Gayhart was touched up for 3 runs in 1.2 innings and has a 7.36 ERA at Erie.

Tampa 7 Lakeland 6
Justin Henry needed a homer to hit for the cycle. Audy Ciriaco, Jordan Newton, Devin Thomas, and Joe Tucker all had 2 hit games. Ryan Ketchner allowed 5 runs (3 earned) in 5 innings on 8 hits and 2 K’s.

South Bend 4 West Michigan 9
Alden Carrithers went 4 for 5 including a triple. Ben Guez went 3 for 5 including a triple. Luis Salas walked twice and doubled. Brandon Hamilton walked 4 leading to 4 runs in 3 innings. Robert Waite picked him up though and threw 5 innings allowing just 1 hit and walking none.

Jamestown 1 Oneonta 6
Rawley Bishop went 2 for 4 with a homer. Keith Hernandez singled and doubled. Carmelo Jaime tripled, singled, and walked. Luis Angel Sanz fanned 8 and walked 1 in 6 innings where he allowed 1 run on 5 hits. Michael Torrealba fanned 5 and walked 1 in 2 innings of no hit work.

GCL Phillies 7 GCL Tigers 3
Edgar Corcino singled and doubled. Pat McKenna and Julio Rodriguez each had 2 hit games. Giovany Soto pitched 5 shut out innings allowing 2 hits and no walks while fanning 6. He now has 23 K’s in 26 innings and a 0.69 ERA…and he turned 18 in May.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.107: Orioles at Tigers

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PREGAME: It’s Rick Porcello taking on David Hernandez today. And Alex Avila makes his debut. And Matt Wieters is young. The combined age of the Tigers battery is 42. The combined age of the O’s battery is 47. Play ball.

Baltimore vs. Detroit – August 6, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: There’s so much to like  about this game. Avila has a very impressive debut with a single, a double, an RBI, a run scored, and some lengthy at-bats even when he made outs. And he caught 4 innings of no hit ball from Rick Porcello. Not a bad way to start your career.

Everybody got in on the fun, with the exception of Miguel Cabrera. Brandon Inge hit his first homer since before the All Star Break. magglio Ordonez hit another ball hard. Curtis Granderson flashed some extra base power. Hopefully these are signs the team is breaking out of it’s collective offensive funk. Or maybe it was just a fluke, but at least they won.

The pitching was quite good with the exception of Bobby Seay who didn’t feel secure in his strike zone. Ni was very good, Lyon bailed out Seay and got the save. And the kid certainly built on his previous outing even though he kind of wore down towards the end. Good win. Good series.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.106:Orioles at Tigers

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PREGAME: Don’t look know, but the last turn through the Tigers rotation was not good at all. Edwin Jackson threw 115 pitches in 4 innings his last time out. Armando Galarraga was rocked. Justin Verlander gave up 5 runs in his first inning of work. Jarrod Washburn had a less than stellar debut. Rick Porcello was the only bright spot.

I bring this up because it is Jackson’s turn once again. The Tigers need to start taking care of business against the bottom dwellers in the league and they need their stud pitching to be stud pitching. To channel Jim Leyland, “I’m not calling anyone out and Jackson has been a horse for us, but he needs to give us more than his last time out. That’s not calling anyone out, that’s just a fact.” Of course Jackson nearly had himself a complete game last time out against the O’s, so that is a positive indicator.

Jeremy Guthrie takes the mound for the Orioles. He’s allowed 26 homers this year. Hopefully we all get some Arby’s tomorrow.

Baltimore vs. Detroit – August 5, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: First of all I want to clear up some confusion, Leyland didn’t make the above quote. That was an imitation. Sorry. That said, Jackson certainly delivered tonight. My goodness did he deliver. He was getting all those swings and misses that he couldn’t muster in Cleveland to the tune of 8 K’s. Do you realize the only time an outfielder made a play on a ball for the first 5 innings was when Curtis Granderson chased down Gerald Laird’s errant throw?  It was a remarkable effort.

And once again it looked like the Tigers team would need every bit of that effort. Clete Thomas and Carlos Guillen made bids for homers to left center, but both were tracked down. It was a Magglio Ordonez line drive homer off a 92mph fastball that looked to be the difference maker, until a 3 run 8th inning provided enough breathing room.

  • Ordonez and Everett put good swings on the ball every time up. Ordonez added a single to the aforementioned homer. He also hit into a GIDP but once again the ball was well hit. Everett sent balls to the warning track in left and right  before getting a big single in the 8th.
  • Speaking of Everett, a day after I ask for more from him on defense he delivers. He made a sensational play to take a hit away from Adam Jones.
  • Two outs on the bases are never a good thing. The Thomas pickoff with 2 outs and Cabrera up wasn’t exactly the way you draw it up. Laird was out on a hustle play, I don’t have too much of a problem with that.
2009 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Rehab and Minor League Wrap 8/4/09

Toledo 10 Buffalo 6
Nate Robertson started and went 2.2 innings. He allowed 1 a run on 4 hits, including a homer, with 2 K’s. Jeremy Bonderman went 1 perfect inning throwing 13 pitches. He was in the high 80’s and mostly threw a slider. Max St. Pierre homered again as part of a 4 for 4 day. Jeff Frazier and Mike Hessman each had 3 hits and Scott Sizemore had 2.

New Britain 2 Erie 7
Michael Bertram homered, singled, and walked. Casper Wells had 2 hits and a walk. Cale Iorg homered. Jonah Nickerson went the distance despite not striking out a single batter.

Lakeland 0 Tampa 4
Jordan Newton and Audy Ciriaco doubled. Charlie Furbush fanned 4 and walked 3 in 5 innings allowing just 1 run on 2 hits.

South Bend 6 West Michigan 0
Brayan Villarreal started and went 4 innings allowing 2 runs on 5 hits, 2 walks, and 3 K’s.

Jameston 5 Oneonta 3
John Murrian and Alexis Espinoza each had 2 hit games. Jose Siso allowed 5 runs in 5 innings, but only 2 were earned. Kevan Hess pitched 3 shutout innings allowing just a walk and a hit.

GCL Tigers 2 GCL Pirates 3
Julio Rodriguez doubled. Ramon Lebron walked 5 and fanned 5 in 5 innings allowing 2 runs on 5 hits.

2009 Season, Minors, Roster Management

Avila and Lambert up

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It’s almost like the Tigers got a bulk discount on a shuttle between Toledo and Detroit. Wilkin Ramirez’s stay in the Detroit was very brief and expressly for the purpose of facing Brian Matusz. Chris Lambert will replace him on the roster. But that’s not all my friends. We also have a lefty catcher in our midst with Alex Avila replacing Dusty Ryan on the roster. Let’s think this through now because there are some implications worth considering before we debate the merits of the moves.

  • Ramirez will not be bumping Magglio Ordonez from the roster for at least 10 days. Barring a DL stay Ramirez cannot be recalled.
  • Alex Avila will likely not burn an option year this year. If even the Tigers decide to change their minds and send him down, as long as he spends less than 20 days off the big league roster it won’t count as an option. So if he’s up for another 8 days that won’t be an issue with the roster expanding on September 1st. He will accrue service time, but probably not enough to move his free agent clock up a year. It does mean he will need to remain on the 40 man roster in an offseason where he otherwise wouldn’t need to.
  • I have a hard time seeing how Dusty Ryan has a future in the franchise. Laird has been struggling mightily at the plate and Ryan still could supplant him more than once a week. Now he’s being exchanged for a catcher who has one year of professional catching experience.

As for the new guys, Avila is one of the two guys I consider to be nearly untouchable largely due to the fact i envisioned him filling a critical role in the near future. I wasn’t thinking this month though. Avila’s overall numbers are very impressive…for a guy one year removed from the draft playing in AA. But his 262/360/446 line is far from overwhelming and he’s only hitting 191/280/393 in the last 28 days (thank you minorleaguesplits.com.

Lambert has been pitching very well for the Mud Hens as a starter. In his last 10 starts he has a 2.07 ERA with 52 K’s and only 11 walks. He’ll presumably pitch out of the bullpen until the team decides to recall either Casey Fien (at least 10 days from now) or Jeremy Bonderman gets healthy.

The Lambert move is fine by me. He’s earned a spot. The Avila move is a mystery. I understand wanting to get some offense from the catcher spot and with Avila being a lefty it makes for a more natural time split for Laird who is scuffling. But I can’t see how this helps Avila in the long term and it’s not that clear to me how it helps the team in the short term. There is a big enough learning curve for typical players, let alone catchers. This is a rush move and can only be considered a move of desperation. Then again if you feel the need to call up a player from the minors just to face a guy making his big league debut because nobody else on the roster can hit…then maybe you’re past the point of desperation.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.105: Orioles at Tigers

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PREGAME: The Tigers certainly keep things interesting for us bloggers. The simple game story would be to talk about Jarrod Washburn’s Tigers debut. But Leyland and Dombrowski shook up the roster and the lineup tonight by recalling Wilkin Ramirez.

From the Orioles perspective they have a debut of their own with Brian Matusz, their first round pick from last year, making his debut.

As of “press time” I don’t know the lineup, but visions of a Ramirez/Raburn/Ordonez outfield with Washburn on the mound certainly isn’t reassuring. EDIT: Yep. That’s the outfield tonight.

Here is your Wilkin-ized lineup:

  1. Ramirez, LF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Ordonez, RF
  4. Cabrera, 1B
  5. Thames, DH
  6. Raburn, CF
  7. Inge, 3B
  8. Laird, C
  9. Everett, SS

POSTGAME: I’m sure that’s not the way that Jarrod Washburn wanted his debut to go (I encourage you take check out Samara’s Lion King-esque artistic interpretation). The first couple innings were rough for Washburn before he settled in and got on a nice role…until Nick Markakis launched one almost onto the concourse.

The offense put together good at-bats early on, but not at-bats resulting in enough hits, and once again the big hit never came and the team seemed to press more. Some Zach Miner add on runs and it was a blow-out, the second on in 3 days and both to inferior teams.

  • Adam Everett didn’t make 2 tough plays and both led to runs. Neither play was easy, but those are the plays Everett needs to make. He’s not here for his bat, and as his offensive numbers plummet it’s important he makes the tough and routine plays.
  • Zach Miner has to stop walking people. It cost him and Washburn a run when he walked the number 8 hitter to load the bases.
2009 Season, Roster Management

Wilkin Ramirez recalled

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The Tigers have called up Wilkin Ramirez. Ramirez is hitting .316 with 6 extra base hits and 5 walks in his last 10 games…with 13 strike outs. Casey Fien was optioned out. Fien had an impressive debut coming in with the bases loaded against the White Sox, but he struggled in Cleveland this weekend.

Those are the facts, but this move doesn’t make sense to me. Carlos Guillen is close to returning to the outfield and joining Marcus Thames, Ryan Raburn, Clete Thomas, and Magglio Ordonez in the corners. If there were an injury you’d think somebody would get DL’d. I can’t help but think there is another move on the near horizon.

UPDATE: Steve Kornacki reports that Ramirez will lead off and play left field.

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/3/09

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Buffalo 2 Toledo 3
Max St. Pierre doubled and homered. Scott Sizemore walked 3 times. Eddie Bonine allowed 2 solo homers, but that was it for the scoring as he tossed 7 innings with 5 hits, 2 walks and 4 K’s.

Erie – DNP

Lakeland – DNP

South Bend 0 West Michigan 1
Ben Guez doubled, tripled, and stole a base. Luke Putkonen pitched 8 shut out innings with 6 K’s, 5 hits, and a walk.

Tri-City 4 Oneonta 1
Jamie Johnson went 3 for 4 with a double. Cory Hamilton went the first 3 innings and allowed 2 runs on 3 hits.

Oneonta 10 Tri-City 0
Jamie Johnson doubled and homered. Rawley Bishop doubled and singled. Clemente Mendoza went all 7 innings allowing 2 walks, 6 hits, and fanning 3.

GCL Blue Jays 4 GCL Tigers 3
Jordan Cruz singled, homered, and walked. Luis Castillo doubled twice. Jared Wesson fanned 7 and allowed just a hit and a walk in 3 innings.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.104: Orioles at Tigers

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PREGAME: It’s looking like there might be some weather tonight, and a mid game rain delay would really work against the Tigers with their ace on the bump.

Justin Verlander has stepped up huge like his last 2 times out with a complete game against the White Sox when the team was reeling, and a 13 K’ performance against the Rangers when the team was reeling. The Tigers are more floundering now than reeling, but another ace-esque performance should come in handy. The O’s ran his pitch count to 112 in 6 innings the last time the teams met.

Chris Tillman will make his 2nd career start tonight. He was knocked out with 2 outs in the 5th inning after 93 pitches and 3 runs against the Royals in his debut.

Baltimore vs. Detroit – August 3, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Ideally you don’t need a walk-off homer when a rookie pitcher is going up against the staff ace, but a walk-off is a walk-off. No complaints here. Thank you very much Clete Thomas.

Justin Verlander got knocked around pretty good in the first inning. I was out with the family and was recording the game. I was on fast forward through the opening and before I could hit stop 1 run was in and 2 were on base. I couldn’t believe how the hits rolled of the bat and the night had disaster all over it, but the Tigers answered right away.

After 2 games with no extra base hits, the Tigers started off triple, double, walk, double. And then Verlander locked in. He came up with 9 K’s and amazingly lasted 8 innings. Verlander is a stud.

  • Miguel Cabrera has been maligned for his lack of clutch production, but he got the big 2 run double in the first and the game tying homer later on. In between he hit a ball sharply up the middle that Brian Roberts made a nice play on
  • The defense was also impressive with Cabrera making a nice play at first and Marcus Thames making some dramatic catches in left field.
  • The offense overall was impressive. They plated 6, but made a number of hard outs as well. They were consistently centering the ball for a change.
  • Fernando Rodney was quite good, fanning Luke Scott and getting a couple of quick outs for the win.
  • But I have to mention one negative and that was Granderson. He’s looked lost at the plate too often since the Texas series. He did smoke his triple tonight, and hit another ball well. But his last 2 at-bats were awful. He got ahead 2-0 in his next to last PA and tried pulling a fastball off the plate. In the 9th he was ahead 3-1 and swung at ball 4, again off the plate, before taking strike 3 right down the middle. I’m not hating on Grandy, he’s still my Tiger, but there have been too many of those types of “backwards” at-bats lately. He’s taking too many good ones and swinging at too many bad ones and the check swings are on the rise. He may need a day off and I wouldn’t mind seeing him take a breather the next time there is a lefty starter.
2009 Season, Injuries, Pitching, Statistics

Infirmary report and other thoughts

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Aside from Joel Zumaya’s season ending surgery, the news is actually pretty good on the injury front. So much so that the only wound licking to take place should be residual pain of a 2-4 road trip.

  • Carlos Guillen, already swinging a productive stick from the left side, could be playing in left field by the end of the week. Now Guillen in left isn’t necessarily good news from a defensive perspective but it also means he isn’t locked into the DH role. Beck’s Blog: Guillen close to playing in field
  • Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson had good reports the day following their simulated game and head out on rehab assignment. Both will be in Toledo starting Tuesday (so the Mud Hens should eat well) with the goal to stretch Robertson out as a starter while Bonderman will be pitching out of the pen. I wouldn’t expect Robertson back before September 1st when the rosters expand. Tigers Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson to pitch in Toledo on Tuesday | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
  • After Saturday’s effort I’m in no hurry to bump Porcello from the rotation, but the addition of either pitcher, or someone else after September 1st could help to curtail Porcello’s workload down the stretch. With a bigger roster to work with Leyland could do some split starts with Porcello if need be.
  • Brandon Inge’s balky knees have bothered him less of late due to a change in his treatment regimen, and the fact he’s been working with a specialist on a way to put the pain out of his mind.
  • Gerald Laird has been the Tigers best baserunner. Who knew? Tiger Tales: A Detroit Tigers Blog: Gerald Laird Leads Tigers in Base Running
  • Speaking of Gerald Laird, i was wondering if he might have any soft of advantage working with Jarrod Washburn since they spent several years in the AL West together. Turns out Laird only has 16 plate appearances against him. And in case you were wondering, Luke Scott is only 1 for 3 off of Washburn lifetime. 
  • Finally, a look at Rick Porcello’s awesome outing through the lens of pitch f/x. Fire Jim Leyland: Rick Porcello’s Start Through PITCHf/x
2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/2/09

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Buffalo 1 Toledo 6
Don Kelly was a triple short of the cycle. Mike Hessman homered. Scott Sizemore had 2 hits. Chris Lambert was one out short of a complete game with 9 K’s against 1 walk.

Reading 1 Erie 3
Cale Iorg homered and tripled. Michael Bertram also tripled. Pat Stanley allowed 4 walks and 6 hits in 7 innings, but only 1 run crossed the plate.

Lakeland 11 St. Lucie 12
Justin Henry went 5 for 6. Christopher White singled, doubled, and walked twice. Mark Sorensen made his Lakeland debut and was rocked for 10 hits and 6 runs in 3.1 innings.

Cedar Rapids 4 West Michigan 10
Ben Guez went 5 for 5 and needed a triple for the cycle. Adam Wilk made his West Michigan debut and pitched 6 innings of 2 hit, shut out ball with 7 K’s.

Tri-City 7 Oneonta 6
John Murrian, Alexis Espinoza, and Chris Sedon all had 2 hits. Jeff Gerbe fanned 6 in 4 innings and allowed 3 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks.

GCL Tigers DNP