Category Archives: Injuries

2008 Season, Injuries, Managing & Strategy

Shuffling the deck and rehab news

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A cornucopia of Tigers news that has come out today. Jim Leyland is prepared to make some changes, even if it means hurting some feelings. The skip says:

“So I’m going to change some things around here and see what happens. I think that’s important. As I said, I don’t know if it’s going to work. I don’t know if it’s going to make people angry, but that’s the way it goes.

“I don’t mean for this to sound negative, I don’t mean it that way, but this isn’t about feelings. It’s beyond worrying about egos. This is about doing the job. I’m going to try some stuff.

“We have a great group of guys and I think they’ll understand. They might not agree with it, but the manager has to do what he thinks is best for the team. If this team is what I think it is, they’ll go along with it.

“We have to get it rolling somehow,” Leyland said. “I’m not really a 40-game guy, or a June 1 guy, but you can’t just sit there when it’s not working.

“My general manager has given me a hell of a team here. I haven’t really coached it to the right flow. But I’m not going to sit still. I don’t want to be patient to a fault.”

One thing you can’t accuse Leyland of this season is being complacent. He’s shuffling batting orders, moving people aroudn the diamond defensively, giving pitchers different roles in the pen. The hope is that something sticks. Some of the moves coming out are:

Miggy drops to 6th

Jim Leyland dropped Miguel Cabrera to the sixth spot in the lineup. I have to believe that this move is more psychological that strategic. Let me rephrase that. I believe that the implications of this move will be more psychological than strategic.

Lineup configuration has a pretty limited impact on run scoring. Cabrera hasn’t put up his typical numbers, but has still been an offensive force. He has struggled with RISP to the tune of a 639 OPS. If there is a thought that he’s pressing, perhaps moving him down will take pressure off of him to drive in runs. I don’t really believe any of that and chalk it up more to sample size issues. I’m somewhat supported in this because he has a .903 OPS with men on.

Still odd that Cabrera is productive and gets moved from 5th to 6th while Sheffield was allowed to flounder at the 3 spot.

Rotation flip-flop

With the off day yesterday Leyland is flipping Jeremy Bonderman and Kenny Rogers in the rotation. I’m guessing the move is 2-fold. First, Rogers struggled a little in his last start against the M’s. He allowed 8 hits, 3 walks, and 4 runs in 5.1 innings on May 21st. Second, Rogers is a Cy Young pitcher in Oakland. In 45 career starts he is 25-4 with a 3.46 ERA.

Supposedly there is another move coming with the pitching staff.

Rodney and Zumaya news

The news out of Lakeland is encouraging for Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney. Both will be embarking on rehab assignments soon. Rodney is likely heading to Toledo while Zumaya will stay in Lakeland to start.

I’d guess that Rodney is probably a week or two away if he is heading to the Mud Hens. But given his problems last year and this year, I’d still be surprised if he made it through the rest of the season.

Regardless, barring setbacks both would be joining the Tigers within a month or so because a rehab assignment can only last 30 days.

2008 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Sheffield finally hits DL, Larish up

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Gary Sheffield’s oblique strain suffered in last night’s game has landed him on the disabled list. Jeff Larish has been called up and is jetting to LA for tonight’s game. He won’t be DH’ing though. That role will be reserved for Carlos Guillen tonight. Apparently he is bothered by hemorrhoids which is limiting his mobility. I guess HIPAA doesn’t apply to baseball players.

As for Larish, he’s 25 year old lefty hitting first baseman. He was selected by the Tigers in the 2005 draft and was the runner up for Eastern League player of the year honors last year. He led the AA league in homers and RBI. This year he’s mashing to the tune of 274/369/589 for the Mud Hens.

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, 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, Injuries

Leyland abandons logic in Sheffield mess

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The announcement came out last night that Gary Sheffield’s switch to full time left fielder had come to an end after only 5 games. This latest turn of events isn’t surprising, but the aftermath makes no sense. The Tigers are relegated to carrying a player on the roster who can’t even DH everyday. If only there was some sort of way to deal with injured players so that they wouldn’t take up a roster spot and you could have a substitute for them…

When the news came out that Sheffield was switching to left, it made little sense from a baseball standpoint. Especially since it meant moving better fielding players like Matt Joyce to the DH role. But there was some merit in the move. Given Sheffield and the Tigers problems if there was a chance to get either going I’m all for it. Sheffield didn’t have any miscues in the field, and since the switch he hit 278/458/389 so it cost the team little.

The other reason to be in favor of the move is that it seemed like it would force an action one way or the other. Either Sheffield would respond and show he was okay and get rolling. Or he’d show that he’s not healthy finally prompting what seems to be an inevitable trip to the DL.

But instead we have a player who can’t take warmup tosses between innings and who by his own admission is restricted in his swing and that he “isn’t getting to certain pitches I’d like.”

Now let’s take a step back and look at Sheffield’s recent performance with the nice OBP and empty slugging percentage. In Leyland’s post game presser after Tuesday’s loss he said it’s nice that the Tigers have a good OBP, but he likes slugging and bringing runners around. And yet he continues to trot out a player who admits he can’t drive the ball, who Leyland recognizes can’t drive the ball.

This is bizarre, befuddling, and downright stupid. I understand that Leyland has respect for Sheffield and is trying to do what he can to get him going. But a quarter season of on the job rehab isn’t helping Sheffield and it isn’t helping the Tigers. DL him now. Call up Jeff Larish or Mike Hessman. Larish is left handed and is entirely capable of slugging. Hessman is right handed but can play a couple positions and is entirely capable of slugging. But don’t carry a player who is only capable of playing once a series.
Shoulder relegates Sheffield to the DH

2008 Season, Injuries

Tigers to skip Galarraga and Dontrelle’s rehab

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Though it’s not really a surprise, when Dontrelle Willis comes back he’ll be taking Armando Galarraga’s spot in the rotation. Or perhaps Galarraga will be returning Willis’s spot. You could see this was the plan when Willis started his last rehab assignment on the same night Galarraga was pitching.

Dontrelle will make rehab starts for the Mud Hens on Monday and Saturday. A Monday start would be normal rest for Galarraga, but with the open day he’ll be skipped to keep Justin Verlander on his regular rest. So Galarraga’s next start will be in Arizona on Saturday.

There is a possibility that Galarraga could stay with the club in the bullpen, but that would be a mistake. He needs to keep starting and being ready to fill in should injury or prolonged ineffectiveness plague another member of the rotation.

2008 Season, Injuries

Freddy Dolsi? Really?

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Freddy Dolsi cr Roger DeWittThe curse of Jason Grilli? A couple days after the Tigers had to clear a spot in the bullpen to make room for Francisco Cruceta the Tigers place Denny Bautista on the DL with the ambiguous shoulder tendinitis. He’s expected to be able to throw again in a week. Just ask Fernando Rodney about those timetables though.

Freddy Dolsi will take his place. If you ask many fans of the Lakeland Flying Tigers they would tell you that Dolsi would fill Grilli’s role in the bullpen nicely. But his numbers at high A weren’t bad last year with a 7.7 K/9 rate and only 17 walks in 51.2 innings as their closer. He has 4 innings of experience above Lakeland though so this is still kind of a surprise despite the favorable impression that Dolsi made in spring training.

Beck’s Blog: Bautista DL’ed, Dolsi called up

2008 Season, Injuries

Dontrelle Willis finds strike zone in Toledo

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Dontrelle Willis made his first rehab start for the Toledo Mud Hens. The one thing everybody should be looking for was to see if Willis had regained any modicum of control. I haven’t seen postgame reports or interviews yet, but the box score tells a favorable story.

Willis pitched 4.2 innings and allowed 4 hits and two runs. But the big numbers were 0 walks and 4 strike outs. He threw 72 pitches and 71% of them went for strikes. Encouraging signs to be sure.

My guess is that Willis makes one more start and if the results are similar he would rejoin the Tigers rotation in Kansas City. If you’re wondering what would happen to Armando Galarraga, I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t coincidence that Willis made a start the same night that Galarraga did. Things could get shuffled and maybe someone else in the rotation develops a tired arm, but otherwise Galarraga would be the one heading out.

2008 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Grandy’s Back!

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Curtis Granderson has been activated and will be leading off and patrolling center field. Just like old times. The only person in Detroit to view this as bad news is Clete Thomas who was sent to Toledo to make room. Thomas did well for himself and made the most of his time with the big club. A 298/338/393 line isn’t too shabby for a last minute roster addition who didn’t figure to be in the Tigers plans.

2008 Season, Injuries

Injury roundup

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Man I’m getting tired of adding to the injury lists. Gary Sheffield and Placido Polanco were both out of today’s lineup. Polanco was actually out of Canada and back in Detroit to get his back examined. It sounds like Sheffield is close behind him to get his shoulder looked at.

Gary Sheffield hadn’t been hitting early on, but he’d still been getting his walks and has 12 for the season. But on Friday night he looked too much like the Sheffield from last August. He fanned 3 times and was chasing pitches out of the strike zone. His line drive percentage is only at 11% (he’s normally in the 16-18% range) and he’s hitting infield flies at an alarming rate of 36.8%. Unfortunately a DL stint looks inevitable at this point.
Continue reading Injury roundup →

2008 Season, Injuries, Pitching

Junkballing: Injury updates and more

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Being at the game last night, I’m way behind on the injury updates. But let’s get caught up…

Rodney

It’s not quite official, but it’s looking like Fernando Rodney might be toast – at least for this season. He is headed to Alabama for a consult with Dr. James Andrews. Given his injury prone past, and the pattern or not being able to stay healthy for two months at a time last year, and the inability to throw without pain right out of the gate this year, it’s all bad news.

Granderson

And some good news for Curtis Granderson who took
live batting practice today. He also ran the bases, which I’m less concerned about. I haven’t seen anything from the team about a return date, but I’m guessing it is next week.

Sheffield

Detroit Tigers Thoughts points to an analysis of Gary Sheffield’s shoulder. Reports of tearing scar tissue don’t sound good, but the results have been impressive the last 3 days. Was it what was needed, or is it a short term gain in exchange for longer term risk?

Robertson

This is brand spanking new, but he left tonight’s game with some lat pain on his throwing side. In the locker room Nate said the plan was for some anti-inflammatory medicine and he doesn’t expect to miss a start at this time.

Verlander

Okay, don’t freak out. He may not be injured at all. But Dave Cameron blogging for Fangraphs notes that
Verlander’s velocity is down significantly and his other stats are moving in the wrong direction as well. I think it’s too soon to call it an injury at this point but it is something to watch.

Leftovers

Bless You Boys delves into Craig Monroe’s quotes about being bitter. Like Ian I can appreciate Monroe’s view point. Yes if he’d played better this wouldn’t have happened and so on and so forth. And to his credit he didn’t slam the organization on the way out or after the fact.

2008 Season, Injuries, Roster Management

Willis slips on to the DL, Guillen to miss time

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Dontrelle Willis is landing on the disabled list because he didn’t land correctly on Friday night. The initial diagnosis was a hyperextended knee and that was confirmed today by an MRI that revealed no structural damage. He’s not expected to miss significant time, but he wasn’t going to make his next start. Armando Galarraga will get the call, but he hasn’t been placed on the roster yet. That spot went to Ryan Raburn who will provide some positional flexibility to Jim Leyland.

Miguel Cabrera has been hobbled for the last week, and Carlos Guillen strained a hamstring that will require him to miss a few days. With uber sub Brandon Inge set to give Pudge Rodriguez his first day off behind the plate, Leyland would probably like to have someone man 3rd and do the same for Cabrera. Plus, Raburn deserves to be on the team regardless.

But back to Willis, this leg injury may be a blessing in disguise. We know the story about the 7 walks in his first start, and he wasn’t close to the strike zone in his limited time in the second start. An extra week might not be sufficient to find that elusive control, but it certainly can’t hurt. As for Galarraga the fact he’s contributing is a surprise. If he’s productive the trade in which Dombrowski acquired him might be his best of the season. All the Tigers gave up was an A ball hitter Michael Hernandez who they signed out of a tryout camp. Hernandez was subsequently released by the Rangers.

MRI reveals no tears but Willis placed on the DL; Galarraga will start | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Guillen’s injury not serious enough for the DL; Inge to catch for first time this year | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press