Category Archives: 2009 Season

2009 Season, Pitching, Spring Training

Today’s 5th starter battle run down

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Robertson pitches Friday in Lakeland
Robertson pitches Friday in Lakeland - cr Roger DeWitt

I really wish there were other stories in this year’s camp, but aside from the fact that 4 of the team’s 5 most prominent offensive forces are on the other side of the country, it comes down to the battle for the rotation.

Rick Porcello gets as big of a stage as you can during spring training pitching in Tampa against the Yankees. It’s his first start since March 9th as he’s been sidelined with a minor finger injury.

Nate Robertson pitched wonderfully yesterday throwing 4 scoreless innings and only allowing 2 hits while fanning 5. That comes on the heels of 3 scoreless innings his last time out.

Dontrelle Willis is going back to his old wind-up with the exaggerated leg kick. He demo’d it in his third inning of work on Thursday night and Rick Knapp is working with him to refine it. Why not, nothing else is working says Jim Leyland:

“We’re at the point where we’re trying pretty much anything. I think that’s pretty simple. And I think [Willis] feels comfortable with that.”

2009 Season, Game Post, Spring Training

ST Game Post: Tigers at Braves

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PREGAME: Is it just me, or does it seem that FS Detroit always seems to schedule one of their rare spring training telecasts the same day as opening day of the NCAA tournament? Tonight is an especially tough choice for me, what with Jeremy Bonderman making his first start of the spring (followed by Dontrelle Willis, Brandon Lyon, Bobby Seay, and Juan Rincon) and Michigan making their first tournament appearance of the millenium.

Anyways, if you choose to follow either game, feel free to comment here. I’ll be going PIP for a couple hours tonight.

Game Time 7:05

In Game: Two scoreless innings for Bondo. Good Stuff. Bad stuff is Placido Polanco hit with a pitch and he left the game immediately.

2009 Season, Roster Management, Spring Training

Bad news for one reliever, good news for another?

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The Tigers announced that they have outrighted the contract of Macay McBride to Toledo. McBride is still trying to get health after Tommy John surgery last year and doesn’t really figure in the immediate plans. The outrighting does open up a spot on the 40 man roster though. There are three relievers not on the 40 man roster who look to be in contention for a spot on the 25 man roster. Ryan Perry, Casey Fien, and Juan Rincon are all making a favorable impression this spring and would require a 40 man spot. Is this good news for one of the trio? Is it a sign that the Tigers are about to make a trade for a starter to flush out the rotation? Or is it just a clerical move?

2009 Season, Pitching, Spring Training

Are things looking up for starters

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It has been a tumultuous spring for the Tigers starters. Exactly what you wouldn’t want to see with the hopes of the team largely relying on the incumbents ability to bounce back from a rough 2008. Bonderman injured. Verlander working on mechanics. Willis, Robertson, and Miner playing hot potato with the 5th starter spot. Galarraga not doing a whole lot of anything (literally). If it weren’t for Porcello the first few weeks of spring games would have been a disaster. But are things turning around?

Justin Verlander went 6 innings on 70 pitches and only allowed one hit today. The K’s weren’t there but everything else seemed to be working.

Nate Robertson turned in 3 scoreless and efficient innings over the weekend. His first positive outing. He’ll actually get a start on Friday with Rick Porcello being pushed back a day because of his finger.

Jeremy Bonderman felt good enough after his simulated game that he’ll pitch for real Thursday night.

And if you look hard enough, you can even draw some positives from Zach Miner’s outing on Monday. Yes, the final numbers don’t look good. But if you watched the inning, it was set up with a couple weak hits. Miner has continued to throw strikes at least, and it appeared on Monday he was keeping the ball down. He’s understandably frustrated.

A couple of good outings isn’t a reason to get excited. But even a couple is better than none. Maybe they are rounding into form.

2009 Season, Game Post, Spring Training

ST Game Thread: Cardinals at Tigers

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PREGAME: We have ourselves the first FS Detroit televised game of the spring today. I thought we’d mark to the return of Rod and Mario with a game thread for those who are able to watch along (I won’t be one of those).

Zach Miner starts for the Tigers today and he will be followed by Brandon Lyon, Bobby Seay, Freddy Dolsi, and Ryan Perry.

Game Time 1:05 from Joker Marchant Stadium. The game will be replayed on FS Detroit at 7:30.

Also, it sounds like cuts are coming today, but none are major. Jon Kibler, Rudy Darrow, and Jeff Kunkel were in the first round.

2009 Season, Pitching, Roster Management

Pondering Pen Possibilities

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While the performances of the Tigers starters have been fairly unremarkable this spring, things are better at the back end of games. It looks like there are actual battles taking place, and in the favorable sense.

Brandon Lyon, Fernando Rodney, and Bobby Seay are locks for the pen leaving four spots open. Zach Miner is also a pretty solid bet, enough to pencil in at least. That leaves three spots open.

Continue reading Pondering Pen Possibilities →

2009 Season, Pitching

Did Porcello make the team?

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Lynn Henning has been writing about Rick Porcello daily, basically imploring Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski to take him north. In fact it’s the only story he’s been writing about. (although I haven’t written about much either so I’m not really ragging on him for this). Well in this afternoon’s piece Henning says:

Fans are nervous. Fans are excited. Rick Porcello is coming to town, as near as we can tell today, as part of Tigers manager Jim Leyland’s rotation.

Is this Henning speculation or fact? I have to believe it’s more the former than the latter. Porcello is clearly outperforming Robertson/Willis/Miner and is healthier than Bonderman. And if the season started next week I think the Tigers would take Porcello over the other options. But last I looked it’s March 13th and the season doesn’t start until April.

Why would the Tigers make this decision now? With Robertson and Willis on multi-year contracts there is no money to save by ending the competition now. Both will have several more chances to earn a spot and Porcello will have several more chances to demonstrate his readiness. It all seems premature.

Add in the fact that there is no Leyland quote about this and the other beats don’t make mention of it, and I think this is an informed guess as opposed to breaking news.

In other rotation-y news though, Jason Beck notes that the rotation order is lining up for the regular season with Justin Verlander starting on Opening Day (no surprise) and Edwin Jackson pitching game 2. And Jon Paul Morosi notes that there is no more slack remaining in Jeremy Bonderman’s schedule if he’s going to be ready for the first week. Most years the Tigers could get by with four starters the first week or two, but with the team playing 10 straight days there is no flexibility.

2009 Season, Pitching

Is it time for Rick Porcello

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With a job in the rotation up for grabs, the leading incumbents have struggled. Dontrelle Willis has taken a step forward from his struggles last year, but it hasn’t been a big enough step to warrant a rotation spot. Nate Robertson, who I expected to pitch better this year, simply hasn’t. But Rick Porcello? The longshot? He spun 3 scoreless innings where he did allow 5 hits, but none for extra bases and no walks. We’re still almost a month away from Opening Day, but is it time for the 20 year old?

The most compelling argument to keep Porcello in the minors relates to workload and stamina. In his only professional season he was kept to a hard 75 pitch limit in each of his starts. He also amassed only 125 innings. I say only not because that was too few, but it is less than where he’d need to be. So there is work to do in building stamina.

But the stamina/workload issue might also be the most compelling reason to bring him North right away. If you are of the belief he has multiple major-league-ready pitches right now (which many scouts do), why not take advantage of them early in the season? Why wait until he is closer to his seasonal inning limit later in the year. Why not get what you can from the kid to start the season?

Yes he is all of 20 years old, but poise and maturity don’t seem to be an issue for him.

There are of course economic reasons to keep him in the minors. Two of those are the contracts to Robertson and Willis. A third is the contract to Porcello himself. “Rushing” him and ruining him would be quite the blow given the bonus he received. Plus it accelerates his service time.

The Tigers (and every other team in the Central) are in contention for the division. If Porcello is going to pitch for the club this year, I’d rather it be in April than August. There are reasons to keep him in the minors. But it should only come down to 5 reasons – and those would be the 5 guys who prove themselves to be better options in the rotation. So far, and things could change in the next 4 weeks, those 5 reasons haven’t become apparent.

For more:Case closed? Bring Porcello north ยป Mack Avenue Tigers : A Detroit Tigers Blog

2009 Season, Injuries, Spring Training

The injury report

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Catching up on the Tigers injuries and recoveries of note:

2009 Season, Fan Experience

Tigers ticket thread

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Tigers individual tickets go on sale at 10am today. Last year there was a mad dash for tickets. Opening Day wasn’t even an option and the equivalent of 27,000 tickets had been drained from the capacity of every game. This year is a little different.

Season ticket sales are down. Official numbers haven’t been released but the fact that Opening Day is available to the general public for the first time in awhile should be a clue that the total is south of 15,000.

Also in play is premium game pricing. Interleague and AL East power games typically go quickly. Will that be a factor this year?

Let us know what your ticket buying experience is this year. How long did you have to wait. Did you get what you wanted? Or are you taking a wait and see approach with the team and the economy and you’ll go the game day walk up route?

2009 Season, Spring Training

What to make of Dontrelle’s day

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The final line isn’t at all impressive. Three walks in three innings of work. But the third inning was a clean inning, and against some good hitters in Bobby Abreu, Miguel Cabrera (who fanned), and Magglio Ordonez.

So what do you make of the day? Those 3 walks all came in the second inning, and included walking in a run. So it shows that Willis is still capable of losing the strike zone. The 3rd inning was great showing he’s capable of getting guys out.

Do you chalk it up as progress that he bounced back or just more of the same as Willis still searches for a clean outing?

D-Train gets outing back on track