Category Archives: 2009 Season

Tigers Minor League Wrap – No Hitter edition

Toledo 16 Columbus 2
Don Kelly went 4 for 4 with 2 walks and needed a triple to complete the cycle. Scott Sizemore had 3 hits and a walk. Jeff Frazier, Wilkin Ramirez, and Mike Hessman all homered. Dusty Ryan doubled twice. Eddie Bonine allowed a run on a solo homer in 7 innings with 1 walk and 3 K’s.

Akron 0 Erie 16
Thad Weber pitched a complete game no hitter. He didn’t walk a batter and he fanned 10. He did hit a batter and another batter reached on error so it wasn’t a perfect game. Deik Scram went 4 for 6 with 2 doubles and a homer. Jeff Kunkel also doubled twiced and homered.

Lakeland 2 Tampa 7
Josh Workman and Justin Henry each doubled twice. Andrew Hess allowed 7 runs on 13 hits in 5.2 innings

West Michigan 5 Dayton 7
Ben Guez homered and singled. Mike Gosse doubled and homered. Anthony Shawler was touched up for 7 runs and was lifted with 2 outs in the 3rd inning. Jade Todd pitched 2 perfect innings of relief.

Oneonta 2 Lowell 5
Rawley Bishop and John Murrian each doubled. Jose Siso walked 4 and allowed 5 hits in 3.2 innings leading to 2 runs.

GCL Yankees 3 GCL Tigers 4
James Robbins tripled and is 6 for 14 with a 1.000 slugging percentage in his first 3 games. Zach Samuels allowed 2 runs on 5 hits, 5 walks, and 2 K’s in 5.1 innings. Austin Wood made his debut and allowed a run on 2 hits with a strike out.

Game 2009.122: Tigers at A’s

PREGAME: The Tigers won a road game. Is it getting too greedy to want them to win 2 in a row? Tonight it will be Armando Galarraga taking on Trevor Cahill.

Cahill has some pretty brutal peripherals with 25 homers allowed in 139 innings, only 70 strikeouts, and 57 walks. He somehow has an ERA under 5. But the Tigers have made lesser pitchers look greater.

Galarraga has 2 starts against the A’s. The last one was pretty good and gave us reason to think that Galarraga was starting to bounce back as he limited Oakland to 1 run on 2 hits (but with 6 walks) in 6.1 innings. The one before that he didn’t make it out of the first inning…coincidentally that one was against Trevor Cahill

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/21/09

Toledo 4 Columbus 1
Mike Hessman doubled and homered. Nate Bump allowed only an unearned run in 7.2 innings on 4 hits, no walks and 3 K’s. Casey Fien finished it off with a walk and 2 K’s. in 1.1 innings.

Akron 4 Erie 1
Cale Iorg went 2 for 4. Michael Bertram homered. Jonah Nickerson allowed 3 runs on 5 hits, 5 walks, 4 K’s and 2 homers in 6.1 innings.

Lakeland – PPD

West Michigan 3 Dayton 5
Jordan Lennerton homered and singled. Billy Nowlin and Brent Wyatt each had 2 hits. Brayan Villarreal fanned 7 and walked none, but did allow 5 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings.

Williamsport 2 Oneonta 3
Michael Rockett and Rawley Bishop each had 2 hits. Clemente Mendoza K’d 8 and walked 1 in 6.1 innings.

GCL Tigers 4 GCL Braves 0
James Robbins has had a nice debut and in 2 games he’s 5 for 10 with 2 homers. Ramon Lebron pitched 8 shut out innings allowing just 5 hits and 2 walks to go along with 10 strike outs.

Game 2009.121: Tigers at A’s

PREGAME: The Tigers start their last left coast swing and they do it in Oakland where the Tigers haven’t been particularly impressive, save for 2 games in October, 2006.

Edwin Jackson slogged through a victory against the Royals last Saturday. He wasn’t especially crisp, but he got plenty of run support for a change. Really, out of Jackson’s last 4 starts only the one against Baltimore would you really call strong.

Gio Gonzalez is on the mound for the A’s. The lefty took the loss when the two team’s hooked up in July. His game log shows someone who a)rarely pitches through the 7th inning and b)seems to be really good or really bad. He strikes out a batter an inning, but he walks one every other inning and has allowed 8 homers in 56 innings. In 67 PAs lefties are OPS over 1.100 against him, bolstered by a freaky .459 BABIP

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 21, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

Tigers Minor League and Rehab Wrap 8/20/09

Toledo 10 Columbus 1
Nate Robertson went 5 innings and allowed 1 run on 5 hits with no walks and 4 K’s. Jeremy Bonderman didn’t allow a hit in 2 innings and he fanned 2 and walked none. Dusty Ryan went 3 for 5 with a homer. Don Kelly also had 3 hits and a homer. Wil Rhymes went 3 for 6.

Erie 2 Trenton 0
Brennan Boesch went 1 for 2 with 2 walks. Jared Gayhart fanned 6 and walked 1 in 5 innings of 1 hit ball. Cody Satterwhite fanned 3 and allowed 1 hit in his 3 innings.

Lakeland 3 Tampa 4
Max Leon went 3 for 5 with 2 doubles. Charlie Furbush allowed 3 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks with 5 K’s in 3 innings.

West Michigan 4 Dayton 5
Ben Guez went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles. Billy Nowlin had 3 hits including a homer. Luke Putkonen fanned 5 and walked none in 7.2 inning and all he surrendered was 1 unearned run on 2 hits. Tyler Stohr has been good this year, but didn’t have it last night as he allowed 4 runs in the 9th inning.

Williamsport 5 Oneonta 8
Camelo Jaime homered as part of a 3 for 4 day. Jaime Johnson singled twice and tripled. John Murian went 2 for 4 with a double and a walk. Nate Newman allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk in 2 innings.

GCL Braves 7 GCL Tigers 8
Alexander Nunez went 4 for 6 with a triple. James Robbins went 3 for 6 with a homer. Nolan Moody went the last 4 innings and allowed no runs on 2 hits, 1 walk and 5 K’s.

Game 120: Mariners at Tigers

PREGAME: Some lefty-on-lefty action today with Jarrod Washburn taking on his old team and the hyphenated one Ryan-Rowland-Smith (yeah, it’s an extra hyphen but I don’t have time for a proper pregame so instead you get lame punctuation jokes – sorry).

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 20, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers were wheels up for Oakland just before 7 p.m., but thanks to a Clete Thomas line drive to right they’ve been flying since Miguel Cabrera rounded home plate to head to first base and congratulate Thomas. A late rally from 4 runs down surely lifted the spirits of the team and the hopes of a fan base as the Tigers put a dramatic capper on a 4-2 homestand.

For a change today, it was the offense bailing out the starting pitching. Washburn has been extremely homer prone since coming to Detroit (his homer/flyball rate was unsustainably low with Seattle but c’mon with the ultra rapid regression) and with 4 more today it meant 3 bad outings out of 4.

Of course the Tigers did some thumping of their own and solo shots by Raburn and Inge cut a 4 run lead down to 2…but Washburn promptly gave those back. One of them on a near Pepsi-Porch shot by Russell Branyan. Coincidentally, I believe it was Branyan who hit one off the facing of the Porch back in his Cleveland days.

And then the rains came…but not before the Tigers loaded the bases in the 6th and chased Rowland-Smith. And then Jim Leyland started to really manage. He pinch hit Huff for Laird (who hit the ball too softly to second for an inning ending double play). And then Avila hit for Everett and came up with the big knock to close the gap to 6-5.

Fortunately Zach Miner (aka “the much maligned Zach Miner”) and Bobby Seay were perfect for 3 innings the giving the Tigers 3 more cracks at plating the tying run. They would have tied the score in the 8th were it not for some spectacular defense from Gutierrez and Wilson to rob Avila and Polanco on consecutive would-be run scoring plays.  But then there was the 9th.

A walk, a pop-out, some cursing, a double, a IBB, a sac fly with a collision, and a big knock and we had ourselves some walk-off fun.

  • Inge made a couple of nice plays going into the stands. It was against Seattle 2 years ago where he literally laid out going into the stands. I’m sure they are tired of seeing that.
  • The Tigers made a few loud outs today as well and were it not for some sterling defense maybe this one isn’t close. Cabera and Avila were both victimized by Gutierrez
  • Unlike most of Granderson’s days off, he actually got the whole day off…and he’ll get tomorrow off as well
  • Ryan Raburn (there is no y in Raburn) slotted nicely into the 3 spot with a homer and 2 singles.
  • With 2 walk-offs recently, I think it is time for some Clete’s Cougars:
Clete's Cougars like them some walk off
Clete's Cougars like them some walk off

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/18/09

Toledo 7 Columbus 6
Scott Sizemore doubled twice and homered. Dane Sardhina homered and singled. Brent Dlugach had 2 hits. Dontrelle Willis started and allowed 1 run on 1 hit and a walk with a K before leaving in the second inning with a knee injury. Brooks Brown came in and threw 4.2 innings allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, a walk, and a strike out.

Erie 6 Trenton 7 (10 innings)
Max St. Pierre doubled and homered. Danny Worth and Mike Bertram each had 2 hits. Ramon Garcia allowed 10 hits and 6 runs in 3 innings with no walks or strikeouts. Robbie Weinhardt and Brendan Wise each pitched 3 scoreless innings of relief.

Erie 1 Trenton 2
Mike Bertram had a double. Jon Kibler walked 5 and allowed 5 hits leading to 2 runs in 5.1 innings.

Clearwater 7 Lakeland 10
Devin Thomas went 2 for 3 with a homer and a walk. Christopher White homered and doubled. Mark Sorensen continues to struggle at Lakeland, this time he was tagged for 5 runs on 12 hits in 4.1 innings.

West Michigan DNP

Williamsport 0 Oneonta 2
Jamie Johnson doubled and walked. Luis Angel Sanz got the complete game shutout with 9 K’s, 3 walks, and 4 hits.

GCL Tigers 6 GCL Phillies 3
Alexander Nunez tripled and homered. Jordan Cruz had 2 hits. Rayni Guichardo allowed 3 runs on 4 hits, 2 walks, and 2 K’s in 6 innings.

Minor Links

  • Baseball America published their A ball best tools list. Casey Crosby rates as the best pitching prospect in the Midwest League by sporting the best fastball. Audy Ciriaco and Gustavo Nunez rated as the best infield arms in their respective leagues.
  • Take 75 North speculates on Daniel Fields (who threw out the first pitch Wednesday night at Comerica Park) starting assignment next year.

Game 2009.119: Mariners at Tigers

PREGAME: Justin Verlander has been a little up and down lately. He sandwiched 2 monster starts against Sox of different colors around 3 outings where he allowed at least 4 runs. The last time he faced the Mariners he had no hit stuff, except for the 5th inning where he had multi-hit stuff.

Ian Snell is still adjusting to the Pacific Northwest. He has made 3 starts since the M’s acquired him. The first one was pretty good (6 innings, 2 runs, 3 hits). The next 2 were pretty awful and he was chased in the 2nd inning in one of them. Snell lost to the Tigers earlier this year. He only allowed 2 runs in 7 innings, but the Tigers tagged him for 10 hits and 2 walks (they had some RISP issues)

The 80 plate appearance countdown to $18 million lineup is:

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

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 19, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Tigers didn’t hit good enough. Verlander was good except for a rough-ish inning. Tigers lost. Maggs didn’t make an out in 4 PA’s. Tigers waste a favorable pitching match-up. That is all.

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/18/09

Columbus 7 Toledo 8
Scott Drucker was rocked for 7 runs in 3 innings but Matt Rusch, Zach Simons, and Casey Fien followed with 6 innings of shut out ball. Mike Hessman hit his 19th homer and doubled. Scott Sizemore went 2 for 4 with a double and a walk. Brent Dlugach was a homer short of the cycle and added a walk.

Erie – Suspended

Lakeland 1 Clearwater 4
Audy Ciriaco and Jordan Newton each had 2 hits. Lauren Gagnier surrendered 4 runs on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 6 K’s in 7 innings.

South Bend 2 West Michigan 9
Casey Crosby allowed 3 hits, 3 walks, and no runs over 5 innings to go with 3 K’s. Brent Wyatt doubled twice and walked. Jordan Lennerton homered. Luis Salas and Billyi Nowlin each had 2 hits.

NYPL All Star Game
Michael Rockett went 0 for 1. John Murrian went 0 for 3. Kenny Faulk pitched a scoreless inning.

GCL Tigers 7 GCL Phillies 4
Francisco Martinez went 3 for 5. Elvin Soto doubled and tripled. Brett Anderson homered. Chao Ting Tang picked up 2 hits. Alexander Nunez homered and singled. Giovany Soto pitched 5 shut out innings allowing 4 hits, 1 walk, and 3 K’s.

Game 2009.118: Mariners at Tigers

PREGAME: Aubrey Huff makes his Tigers debut tonight and he’ll be batting 5th in the lineup. I don’t know if Daniel Fields will make an appearance tonight or not, but he’s in town.

As for the pitching match-up it will be a rehabilitated Rick Porcello. Rehabilitated in the sense that he has done time for his crime of having a helmet chucked at him (yep, still bitter). He’s facing Seattle after a lengthy layoff having only gone 1 inning and 1 pitch his last time out. The last time he faced Seattle it came on the heels of his summer vacation (that 2.5 week stretch where he was off) and it didn’t go so well.

He’ll have to be better this time out though because Felix Hernandez takes the mound for the Mariners. Hernandez is awesome. He just is. But he has had some problems with walks as of late with 14 issued in his last 3 games.

Your Aubrey-ized lineup is:

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Guillen, LF
  4. Cabrera, 1B
  5. Huff, DH
  6. Thomas, RF
  7. Inge, 3B
  8. Avila, C
  9. Everett, SS

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 18, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I think it’s safe to deem this game a battle. Porcello and Hernandez battled. Tigers hitters battled. Fernando Rodney battled Jose Lopez. Fortunately for the Tigers they won more of the battles.

Porcello and Hernandez was essentially a draw. Porcello was better than at any ponit this season through 5.2 innings. He picked up 8 K’s and he had the fastball and breaking ball working. It appeared he tired a little in the 6th though, because the ball started leaving the infield. Through the first 5 if the M’s weren’t whiffing they were grounding out meekly.

The Tigers didn’t fare any better at the dish while Hernandez was in the game and he held them to 4 hits and 1 walk and 1 run in 7 innnings. He made Granderson look particularly foolish as Grandy was on his way to the golden sombrero before he was lifted.

Bobby Seay struggled again against the Mariners. You may remember it was Seattle who broke Seay’s scoreless appearance streak in July and got to him on consecutive nights. This time it was a jam job double by Ichiro that set up a couple sacrifice flies.

Fortunately Mark Lowe struggled more with some “help” from his defense. Alex Avila started off the 8th with a monster mash to visitor bullpen and that opened things up. A great pinch hit at-bat by Santiago resulted in a single. A Granderson foul out was followed by a chopper to short . Probably not a double play but there should have been an out except the misplay resulted in runners at the corners. A Guillen walk was followed by a Cabrera clutch 2 run single that would pull the Tigers ahead and be the difference.

The Tigers added on with a “double steal” where Lowe tried the fake throw to third (after a nice job tagging up and getting to 3rd by Raburn who Leyland inserted for Guillen) then get the guy breaking off first. The play that never works…except Cabrera was actually moving on the play. Raburn managed to score as everyone was safe.

A composed Rodney gave up a ground ball single and a line drive single, but he fanned Russell Branyan and eventually fanned Jose Lopez after a tremendous 12 pitch at-bat to end the game. Rodney threw 28 pitches, 22 of them for strikes.

  • A longer postgame than normal, but after a detailed bashing of the lack of offensive execution on Sunday this team/game deserved equal positive treatment.
  • And to that end how about Adam Everett with the big hit early in the game to plate the first run.
  • Very nice outing by Ryan Perry who came in with the bases juiced and 2 outs and got out of the innning, then fanned the side the next inning.
  • Seay threw a lot of pitches, Rodney threw a lot of pitches, Perry pitched in parts of 3 innings. Is the pen thin tomorrow and do they make a move?
  • Cabrera stole bases in consecutive games for just the 2nd time in his career, the other time was May 21-22, 2006
  • Aubrey Huff was introduced to Comerica Park by hitting a 410 foot out to center

Tigers Draft Signing Presser

Many of the principles involved in the drafting and signing process were on a conference call to discuss the draft. Here are some of the highlights from the call.

Key: DC=David Chadd, DD=Dave Dombrowski, JT=Jacob Turner, DF=Daniel Fields, BF=Bruce Fields, JF=Julie Fields, AO=Andrew Oliver

  • DD: Willing to go over slot because these players were the best available and could help the organization the most
  • JT: “Dream come true to play for an organization like the Tigers.”
  • AO: Exciting day and reassuring that the hard work and dedication is paying off
  • DF: “Exiciting day getting drafted by the Tigers, my hometown team.”
  • DC: All 3 players are heading to Lakeland to get in shape and all will participate in the instructional league. That’s the only plan right now
  • DF: On his decision he said it was very tough because he loves Michigan but it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
  • BF: “It’s a dream come true” to have his son follow in his footsteps. They wanted him to go to school all along, but left the decision up to him.
  • DF: On his exposure to big league clubhouses as a kid: “It’s helped a lot because I’ve seen how hard everybody has to work to get to the major leagues.”
  • DC: “Jacob and Andy give us an influx of starting pitching right away. Daniel gives us a tremendous amount of options as far as his athletic ability goes. He’s a talented shortstop that I can see down the road playing multiple positions. I’m not ruling him out as a SS, he’s coming out as a SS.”
  • AO: Early in the year he got stuck between a slider and a curve and he’s excited to work with the organization to get his breaking ball back.

Tigers Minor League and Rehab Wrap 8/17/09

Columbus 4 Toledo 8
Mike Hessman 2 for 4 2B, HR. Jeff Fraizer 2 for 4, HR. Ruddy Lugo 6 IP, 3 R, 6 H, 3 BB, 3 K. Jeremy Bonderman 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K.

Erie DNP

Clearwater 5 Lakeland 1
Audy Ciriaco 2 for 4, SB. Justin Henry 2 for 4, 2 SB. Ryan Ketchner 6.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR.

South Bend 3 West Michigan 8
Alden Carrithers 2 for 4, 3B. Ben Guez, 2 for 4, 2 2B. Avisail Garcia, 2 for 3, 2B. Adam Wilk 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 W, 2 K.

Oneonta DNP

GCL Tigers 2 GCL Pirates 3
Francisco Martinez 3 for 5, 2B, SB. Chao Ting Tang 2 for 5. Zach Samuels 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K.

Roster/Rehab Notes

Chris Lambert was DFA’d to make room for Jacob Turner’s contract. Lambert was at least solid for AAA despite his struggles. I’m a little surprised it wasn’t Mike Hollimon who has battled injuries and is too old to really be considered a prospect at this point.

In the same article it is noted that Dontrelle Willis was scratched from a rehab start due to a sore hip and his rehab is now on hold.