Boros named special assistant to Dombrowski

Overall
August saw the “explosion” of the Tigers offense, and unfortunately the implosion of the pitching staffing. The result is that the Tigers finished the month 6-23. The Tigers also managed to string together their longest losing streak of the season at 11 during the month.

Transactions
The month began with Andres Torres returning to Toledo to make room for AJ Hinch coming off the DL. Two days later Hinch was back on the DL and Brandon Inge was called up (more on Inge later in the post). Unfortunately Danny Klassen was called up when Eric Munson’s season ended while going after a foul ball. Nate Robertson was called up and became an instant starter while Chris Mears was returned to Toledo until the September call-ups. The bullpen received a major shake up when Steve Sparks was DFA’d and Eric Eckenstahler and Matt Walbeck were optioned to Toledo in favor of Franklyn German, Fernando Rodney, and Brian Schmanck. August also saw the Tigers sign first round pick Kyle Sleeth.

Offense
On the surface the Tigers offense appears to have improved dramatically. They moved out of the cellar in most statistical categories, and their home runs and slugging percentage were 5th in the AL for the month, despite 16 of the 29 games being at home. However, the increased production only had a limited effect on the number of runs they scored. Despite being an average offense overall for the month, they were next to last in runs scored. If you look at their run efficiency average, which is runs divided by total bases plus walks (I did some more on REA earlier in the year) for the month, they were 13th at .242 against a league average of .270. If the Tigers were an average team in terms of efficiency, they would have scored an additional 14 runs, or almost .5 RPG. If you look a little deeper you see the Tigers struck out and hit into more double plays than any other team during the month. Which are two offensive events that just won’t help you score more.

Individually, the story has to start with Brandon Inge. In 21 games since being recalled he is hitting .338/.376/.550 with 3 home runs and 14 RBI. He has raised his average on the season to .208 which is 58 points better than the .150 he was hitting before his demotion. The real question is this for real or a hot streak. If you look at Brandon’s career numbers, .208 still qualifies as his best season. His 700 previous at-bats show he is a .190 hitter at best. While I’m rooting for the guy, I’m still not convinced this isn’t anything more than a hot streak. If he can keep it up for a second month in September, I might come around.

Other big performances include Craig Monroe hitting 8 home runs and slugging .605 in an effort to solidify a place with the Tigers next year. Carlos Pena continued his streaky ways by hitting .273/.357/.556 despite being in an 0-12 slump currently. Also interesting is that despite 6 home runs, Pena only had 8 RBI for the month. Higginson on the other hand has turned a month in which he hit .212/.262/.425 into seven home runs and 22 RBI. Dmitri Young is in the midst of a 15 game hitting streak and continues to have a monster year. Finally, Alex Sanchez seems to have found his base stealing groove again with 11 steals against only 2 caught stealing.

Defense
Oh Boy. The pitching staff is starting to produce the type of numbers we expected coming into the season. The bright spot for the month was Nate Robertson who in 3 starts is 1-0 with a 3.72 ERA with 14 strike outs. Jamie Walker was productive in the pen in 14 appearances with a 3.77 ERA. Danny Patterson has given up runs (7 in 11 appearances) but his peripherals are solid with 12K/4BB in 11.1 IP. The rest was ugly. Ledezma/Roney/Spurling/Mears all tanked in the bullpen with ERA’s over 7. Franklyn German has walked 5 in only 3.1 innings. Bonderman gave up 9 homers to go along with 15 walks and 15 strike outs in 31 innings. He did manage to win two games though. Maroth appears a lock to get 20 losses after going 1-4 for the month.

Looking Forward
Are the Tigers good enough to go 8-19 the rest of the way an avoid becoming the worst team ever? I’m not so sure. The players are feeling the pressure, and I’m worried they’ll tighten up. Also, will Tram continue to hold auditions, or play the team with the best chance of winning? Will Maroth and Bonderman reach 20 losses? Will Brandon Inge continue to swing a hot bat and claim the catching job for next year? Will the bullpen get anybody out? Will Illitch announce his intentions for adding payroll next season? This last month of the season will have lots of drama, and for mostly the wrong reasons. The Tigers have 4 games left against Cleveland, and 6 against Toronto. The remaining 17 games are against contenders. The Tigers do have the chance to have an impact on the AL Central race with 14 games left against KC and Minnesota.

It only took 130 games, but the Tigers are no longer the lowest scoring team in the majors. Last night they moved ahead of the LA Dodgers by one run. Granted, the Dogers play in the NL, and the Dogers have given up 293 fewer runs than the Tigers have allowed, and the Tigers are still 112 runs behind the next worst AL team. So while maybe it’s not really good news, at least it isn’t bad news.

…The media has really taken to ripping Mike Illitch this week. Lynn Henning called him out on Sunday, mostly for his complete silence during this season. Danny Knobler took his shot on Tuesday, attacking Illitch’s refusal to share his plans for the offseason…

…By now everyone knows the roster moves the Tigers made optioning Eckenstahler and Walbeck to Toledo for the recall of Franklyn German and Fernando Rodney. The third move of DFA-ing Steve Sparks was a little surprising. Sparks always came across as a class guy, and I hope he finds success wherever he ends up next year. In other transaction news, Peter Gammons published a list of the players who were put on waivers and blocked. Wil Ledezma was on that list…

…While everyone has been talking about the resurgence of Brandon Inge (or maybe it should just be surgence), Craig Monroe has put together a fine month and really made a push for the 4th outfielder spot next year. In addition to making a number of fine defensive plays, he’s hitting .271/.328/.610 with 6 home runs and 14 RBI…

…With September call-ups soon to be on the way, Tram will face a dilemma. What is more important, auditioning players for next year, or avoiding becoming the worst team in baseball?…

Tim D over at Tigers Central has a great analysis of the state of the team.

Diamond Mind simulated a World Series of the ’62 Mets vs. ’03 Tigers. The good news is the series went 7 games, the bad news is the Tigers lost.

Lynn Henning updates the progress of Cody Ross, Ryan Rayburn, Brent Clevlen, and Kody Kirkland.

Wil Ledezma’s stint as a starteris over. Shane Loux will take his spot in the rotations. This follows fellow rule 5’er Matt Roney’s demotion to the bullpen. Nate Robertson, acquired in the Redman deal, was called up to take Roney’s spot. To make room for Robertson, Chris Mears was sent back to Toledo.

Well, I’m back up and online. However, I’m still out of the loop on the Tigers. Thursday night when I was sitting in the dark, I tuned in 1270 but they were off the air. Last night, I didn’t have the TV on trying to conserve electricity. And, my fantasy football draft is tomorrow which has cut into my Tiger time. So while I’m back, I’ve got nothing to say…Except…”Despite the fact the Tigers were on the west coast, they still remained a part of the Detroit community and voluntarily went powerless last night” I know, it was weak.

Stuff:
-Munson broke his thumb and is on the DL. Danny Klassen has taken his place on the roster. Eric showed quite a bit this season, and has to be considered one of the “brighter” spots this season. While his batting average is low, he still can draw a walk and hit for power. His first year at third was definitely a learning experience that wasn’t always smooth. However, he didn’t embarass himself either.
-Matt Roney has been removed from the starting rotation. Roney had two good starts, and a bunch of really bad ones. He struggled with his control on a regular basis (15 walks against 9 K’s in his last 6 starts). Three of his last 4 starts were only 2 innings. To the best of my knowledge a replacement hasn’t been named, but an AP story in the Detroit News speculates it will be Shane Loux or Steve Sparks.

Tigers first round pick Kyle Sleeth finally signed. He’ll start pitching in the instructional leage in the fall. Apparently he needed a break anyways.

Hmmm. I love hearing that our top draft pick had a heavy workload in college. Sounds like surgery waiting to happen.

I guess when you’re the manager, and you look at your options and see two players with an OBA above .330, and one player with a slugging percentage over .450, you can understand why he might want to get creative with the lineup. On Wednesday, DH/1B Kevin Witt started in left field because Dmitri Young’s achilles’ were hurting too much to play the field. I love the fact that Tram wanted to keep Witt’s bat in the lineup, even if it meant sacrificing some defense. On Thursday, Ben Petrick was playing center and leading off. I like that Tram put someone else in center besides Sanchez. The A’s showed Sanchez no respect whatsoever by taking an extra base whenever the ball was hit in the general direction of Sanchez. Sanchez plays too deep, gets poor jumps on the ball, won’t lay out to catch a ball, and has the arm of a first basemen. It was nice to see some non-traditional thinking, no matter what the motivation. I still don’t understand why the centerfielder has to lead off though.

Also surprising was the newly recalled Brandon Inge hitting second. Brandon has hit decent at Triple A with a new approach-“don’t think.” I can’t help but being a little doubtful, but even if Brandon can hit .240 with a little pop, it would be a huge step forward. I want Brandon to suceed, I really do. What I fear is that Brandon will play just well enough over the next 6-8 weeks to make people think he’s “figured it out.” If he has truly improved that’s great, but given his track record, I’d hate for the Tigers to not try and improve the catching position.

Other Stuff
-Work has been keeping me real busy, plus football season is starting. The result if fewer posts. Fortunately, there is another Tiger blog to read. Also, Brian’s been updating on a daily basis as well.
-Despite being the weakest division on the field, the AL Central has some excellent bloggers. Two of the best are Twins guys Aaron and Twins Geek.
-Munson is tied for the rookie lead in home runs with Mark Teixera at 17.

From the Detroit News:

Detroit’s revenue problems have nothing to do with being a small market club. Detroit’s revenue problems come from being really really bad. Illitch spent a whole bunch of his money (or borrowed money) on Comerica. Most nights, even when there is a game it sits vacant. Things won’t get any better for the Tigers if the money the Tigers get from revenue sharing goes into paying off stadium debt instead of improving the team.

Jim Caple gives Comerica high marks