Category Archives: Spring Training

2008 Season, Game Post, Spring Training

Spring Training Game 1: Mets at Tigers

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PREGAME: I’m not expecting another 17 runs, but we’ll see what the Tigers lineup can put up against Mike Pelfrey. The Tigers are going with all their regulars save for Gary Sheffield who is busy with that Scott Boras nonsense. Timo Perez will DH in his stead and bat third. Danny Knobler has the lineup, and Jacque Jones is batting 9th with Renteria 7th.

The Tigers send out Jeremy Bonderman.

Game Time 1:05. This one’s on the radio so we can listen along.

POSTGAME: The Tigers prevailed 4-2, but it was a matter of the Tigers bench and minor leaguers knocking off their Mets counterparts. Jeremy Bonderman gave up a run in each of the first two innings. However he was pleased with his performance because there was no pain, and he wasn’t using his trademark slider at all.

The Tigers regular lineup only mustered an infield single. But Marcus Thames, Brandon Inge, and Mike Hessman all contributed to a 7th inning rally.

The Tigers bullpen allowed only 2 hits and a walk over 7 innings.

2008 Season, Spring Training

Play Ball

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Realish, live, Tigers baseball today. It’s the annual spring training kickoff against Florida Southern. The game is 1:05pm. Todd Jones gets the start, and most of the regulars will be playing for only an inning or two. There’s no broadcast, but there is a live box score at the Florida Southern site.

Miguel Cabrera homers against Florida Southern

POSTGAME: Well, the offense seems to work. The above photo was taken by Deran of Lakeland Flying Tigers Blog (click the picture for more from today’s game) and it is Miguel Cabrera smacking a missile to center field. The ball hit off the top of the batter’s eye which is located beyond a fence that is 420 feet from home plate.

It was the second homer of the inning following a two run Placido Polanco shot. The Tigers offense rolled up 17 runs including a solo homer from the beleaguered Brandon Inge. Mike Hollimon, my choice for utility infielder I’ll have you know, hit a 3 run jack of his own, to go with a double. In all the Tigers had 5 dingers with Scott Sizemore adding one to his two walks.

Jeff Larish had two hits and two walks while Freddy Guzman had a 3 for 4 day with a triple.

Jordan Tata was charged with all 4 runs in 1 2/3 innings and he didn’t help his cause with 3 walks.

Yes, the Tigers are projected to have one of the best teams in the majors while Florida Southern is a college. The Tigers were supposed to win big. I’m just happy to have a post game report to do, and I’m happy that the good guys did what they were supposed to.

Detroit 17 Florida Southern 4

2008 Season, Defense, Spring Training

Color me surprised, Tigers like Cabrera’s glove

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credit Roger DeWitt

I’d consider this the first bit of surprising news coming out of camp, but the Tigers are impressed with Miguel Cabrera defensively at third has had me a little nervous since the trade was made. A rotation with three southpaws, two of which are extreme ground balls pitchers, means that third base becomes very important. Whether or not this is spring-training optimism talking remains to be seen (Jose Macias was dubbed a gold glove centerfielder by Randy Smith one spring).

Defensive metrics have been quite unified when assessing Cabrera’s defense. It’s not that just that he rates poorly, it’s that he rates as one of the worst at this position.

His struggles had been largely blamed on his weight gain, which became most problematic last year. It’s been widely reported he has arrived to camp in great shape having lost that extra weight. But he rated at -14 runs per 150 games using UZR in 2006 as well. In 2005 when he was primarily a left fielder, he rated as -21 runs according to UZR. So his defensive struggles probably weren’t only the result of his weight.

Moving beyond the weight though the Tigers have been very impressed with his soft hands and are now thinking his defense could be a plus.

“We haven’t worked anyone hard yet as far as movement,” said manager Jim Leyland, “but I can see he has very good hands, soft hands. (Infield coach Rafael Belliard) has looked at tape after tape of him and has said to me that he has a chance to be real good.”Tigers love Cabrera’s glove

It raises an interesting question as to what extent the Tigers can “coach him up.” He apparently as the hands, and his arm strength has long been well regarded rating a 70 in the fans scouting report. Are the tools there to turn him into a defensive force? Can Rafael Belliard help him with positioning and throwing accuracy? I’m still skeptical, but also encouraged.

2008 Season, Spring Training

The gang’s all here

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Full squad workouts are now underway.  Before you know it we’ll have the first pitch of the Florida Southern game.  But for now, here’s a summary of the day’s stories out of Lakeland:


credit Roger DeWitt

Helter Skelton

Catcher James Skelton has been on my radar for a little while now as really the only catcher prospect in the system. The only thing is his prospect status is diminished because of his diminutive stature according to many. Take 75 North is also a fan and was happy to see a Jason Beck profile of Skelton.

It’s all about the hair


credit Roger DeWitt

First base prospect Jeff Larish reported to spring training with Ordonez-esque flowing locks. Leyland quipped

“The hair looks better when they hit it over the fence.”

Speaking of Magglio he spoke to reporters and talked about his batting title season, wanting to be part of a championship team, and that he’s basically ignoring Jose Canseco.

Other stuff

[Mlive] Leyland: Don’t call us team to beat. Skip says it’s Cleveland’s division until someone takes it from them.
[DetNews] Rodney’s tuneful ways are weird, but wonderful. Fernando the free spirit.

2008 Season, Roster Management, Spring Training

He looks good, he’s happy, and other reports from spring training

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Imagine if the players turned the tables on the beat writers during spring training and wrote stories about the beat writers.

“The official reporting date wasn’t until the 14th, but he was down here a couple weeks ago getting ready.”

“You can tell he was really working out this offseason. His vocabulary has grown as much as his forearms. Both are the product of intensive typing.”

“He’s excited to be down here. You can hear it in his voice when he talks about how excited he is to get to work.”

“As the new guy on the beat, he’s still trying to get a feel for his fellow media members, but he seems to be fitting in great.”

“As a 6 year veteran, and the only remaining beat writer from that awful 2003 team, it’s clear that he’s a leader in and out of the locker room and the other guys look to him for cues.”

“He’s excited to try out the new language he was working on over the winter. By adding Spanish to his repertoire he should really have an advantage over the competition. If he can gain confidence in it, it could be what he needs to push him from beat writer to elite columnist.”

I kid of course, especially on a day when there is so much news coming out of camp.
Continue reading He looks good, he’s happy, and other reports from spring training →

2008 Season, Spring Training

Men in uniforms

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Brandon Inge on first day of Spring Training
credit Roger DeWitt

The first day of official workouts. Now we’re rolling.

Link round up

Catching up with Inge – Detroit Tigers Insider – MLive.com
A TALE OF TWO CATCHERS
Jim Leyland addresses Brandon Inge’s future with Tigers
Leyland isn’t concerned about lineup, is concerned about bullpen
The Official Site of The Detroit Tigers: News: Notes: Porcello gets first taste

Inge on Inge and Leyland on Inge

In an effort to move things along and avoid having everyone answer the same questions over and over again, Jim Leyland and Brandon Inge held a mini-presser. The main message wasn’t anything new. Everybody wants Inge to be traded. It may or may not happen. Inge just wants to start and he won’t be a cancer. Leyland also stated that Vance Wilson’s progress wouldn’t be a factor in Inge being moved.

The most interesting quote though came from the Freep article.

“I went to work on my swing this off-season,” Inge said. “My swing was a little long. Cutting down strikeouts is crucial.”

Glad to hear some self awareness.

Remember when PFP was a big deal?

Rick Porcello and Bobby Seay

In non-Inge news the Tigers have some pitchers in camp as well. The first day of workouts means PFP, which was a circus last year.

Rick Porcello was put into Kenny Rogers pitchers-fielding-practice group, and it probably wasn’t by accident. Porcello marveled at Rogers, then again Porcello was probably marveling at quite a bit. He’s not even a full year removed from high school. Most of his friends are making spring break plans while Porcello went south to work out with a major league club.

The bullpen

Leyland is concerned about the bullpen and realizes how important talent evaluation will be this spring

“We have to do a better job than ever of projecting what a guy is going to do (in the regular season). We have to find out everything we can about their personalities and their understanding of what is going on.”

While normally there is quite a bit of flexibility in making some of these bullpen decisions, the option status of many of the candidates means that at least one player will be cut loose. And nobody wants to see the wrong guy jettisoned.

One of those guys in contention, Francisco Cruceta is a late arrival. He’s having visa issues getting into the country.

2008 Season, Injuries, Spring Training

Spring Training day .5 round-up

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Dontrelle arrives at Lakeland
credit Roger DeWitt

While today was officially “Pitchers and Catchers report” day, it was just that. Reporting day. The official workouts don’t begin until tomorrow. Still, the players and beat writers are all in town so the stream of news has started to flow.

The links to the stories are below with my comments to follow:

Beck’s Blog: Happy Reporting Day
Det News: Leyland – Strong possibility Inge will get traded
Det News: Tigers catchers Wilson aims for mid-March return

Opening Day starter

It’s the first-ish day of spring training so of course it is time to find out who the Opening Day starter will be. Leyland is leaning towards Justin Verlander which really is who it has to be isn’t? I don’t think there’s much mystery that the rotation will be Verlander-Rogers-Bonderman-Willis-Robertson. Rogers will be sandwiched between the two righties and Willis and Robertson will fill out the 4 and 5 spots.
Continue reading Spring Training day .5 round-up →

Links, Players, Spring Training

The pre report date link round up

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Robertson, Bonderman, Verlander, and Rogers work out
Photo Credit Roger DeWitt
  • This picture has nothing to do with the links in the post. I just really liked it. Notice the high socks on Jeremy Bonderman. That has to bode well for the upcoming season. You can see more pictures from Lakeland at both Roger DeWitt’s Flickr page and the new Lakeland Flying Tigers blog. Expect many links to these sites over the next six weeks as they present first hand information from Tiger Town.
  • For all the talk of the Tigers being old, they do have some young talent. Including 3 of the top 10 25 year olds in the game.
  • Bless You Boys notes the passing of Roy Scheider. After he went fishing for a shark and before he captained Seaquest DSV, Scheider played the role of Tigers right fielder Billy Young in TigerTown. The fictional Tigers legend, who sported the number 6 if I recall correctly, brought joy to a boy who had lost his father.
  • Bless You Boys also points us to some archived radio related to the Tigers. No play by play, but a couple of the clips have Paul Carey saying “Tigers Baseball” as only Paul Carey can. Plus, there is this gem, along with Bless You Boys.
  • There’s a blog looking back on the 1988 Topps baseball card set. Some recognizable names already have been profiled including: Jim Walewander, Dan Petry, and Lance Parrish.
  • Lastly, The Hardball Times Season Preview is now out. I’ll confess that I don’t have a copy yet so I can’t vouch for it. But I do know many of the bloggers on the list, and I’ll be happy to vouch for their work. Included in that list is Brian from Tigerblog who wrote the Tigers section.
2007 Season, Players, Spring Training

Oh-mar

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If you peruse the Tigers spring training stats, you’ll see a roster full of guys with some pretty impressive numbers. Sure, Carlos Guillen is slumping a little but his 8:6 K:BB ratio is still favorable. But if you look at Omar Infante this spring, there isn’t much to like.

Infante has a 172/179/250 line thus far. He’s fanned 12 times in 64 at-bats and only picked up one walk. He has no stolen bases. He has more errors (4) than extra base hits (3).

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t been following Infante everyday, so I don’t know if this has been a March-long slump or a nosedive the last 2 weeks. I do know that a third of his strikeouts came the last 2 games. Either way he’s not building towards the regular season at this point.

Now you never want to make too much out of spring training stats, but you hope to see something encouraging. Since Infante is slated to be the first guy off the bench to spell Inge, Polanco, and Granderson he will get a reasonable amount of playing time.

In Infante’s limited career, he’s been an every-other-year kind of guy. He struggled a ton in 2003, rebounded in 2004, struggled enough in 2005 to warrant trading for Polanco (I know Urbina helped negotiate that deal as well), and did okay as the super sub last year.

At 25 years old anything can still happen with his career. But avoiding a down year could be a big step for Infante – at least if he wants to be more than a career back-up.

2007 Season, Minors, Roster Management, Spring Training

Tigers announce 10 more cuts

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The Tigers optioned Mike Rabelo and Brent Clevlen to AAA Toledo. There was some question (at least in my mind) whether they would have Clevlen repeat AA given his struggles last year. I wonder if this is any indication that they may be moving Cameron Maybin to Erie to start the year.

The Tigers assigned Craig Dingman, Dennis Tankersley, Joey Eischen, Brent Dlugach, Mike Hessman, Kevin Hooper, Cameron Maybin and Brandon Watson to minor league camp.

Don’t read too much into Maybin. He wasn’t going to make the team, and it’s about getting him more playing time at this point.

2007 Season, Game Post, Spring Training

Game Thread: Devil Rays at Tigers & Tigers at Braves

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It’s is split squad action today. It also marks the first telecast of the year on FSN which will have the D-rays and Tigers. Meanwhile, WXYT will have the radio of the Tigers and Braves game.

Nate Robertson will be the starter in the Devil Rays game and Zach Miner will start against the Braves.

Unfortunately, I’ll be unable to watch this afternoon but feel free to comment here.

Game Times 1:05pm

2007 Season, Roster Management, Spring Training

Tigers make first cuts

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The Tigers trimmed 8 players from big league camp: righthanded pitchers Jordan Tata and Virgil Vasquez to Triple A Toledo, righthanded pitchers Eulogio De La Cruz and Kyle Sleeth to Double A Erie and lefthanded pitcher Andrew Miller to Single A Lakeland. Additionally, the club assigned righthanded pitcher Jair Jurrjens and catchers Gabe Johnson and Dusty Ryan to minor league camp.

And as expected, Miller will be starting the year in Lakeland and will likely head to Erie when the weather warms up.