Matchup of the week: Thursday night at Comerica Park, Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito of Oakland faces the only team he has a losing record against since the start of last year. That’s right, Zito is 1-2 against the Tigers. He’s 28-8 since the start of 2002, and the other six losses are against teams that entered play Sunday a combined 162 games over .500 in that same span.
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Tigers win 4th in row
Tigers Sweep Brandon Inge sporting a new swing hit two home runs and drove in 3.
Matt Anderson sent down
Anderson to Hens; Avery called up
Manager Alan Trammell said Anderson will start every fourth day in Toledo. Anderson, whose first start will be Friday, will pitch three innings per start in an attempt to regain arm strength. The Tigers can’t afford to give Anderson those innings in the majors.
And a little more Zumaya
Zumaya worked out with Barry Zito during the offseason, and one of his points of emphasis upon rejoining the Tigers was raising his arm angle and repeating his delivery. If he can learn to do that, he’ll improve the consistency of his curveball and changeup, both of which are still in the developmental stages. Those secondary pitches will become more important as he progresses through the minors.
He was born on Nov. 9, 1984, and at 18 he’s one of the youngest players in the Midwest League. He’s 6-foot-3, 210 pounds and still growing, so he could add more velocity in time.
He was born on Nov. 9, 1984, and at 18 he’s one of the youngest players in the Midwest League. He’s 6-foot-3, 210 pounds and still growing, so he could add more velocity in time.
How bout that Joel Zumaya…
Baseball America – Daily Minor League Highlights
WEST MICHIGAN (MID) RHP JOEL ZUMAYA struck out 14 batters in seven scoreless innings, but did not figure in the decision as the Whitecaps lost to the Beloit Snappers, 2-1. An 11th-round pick of the Detroit Tigers in the 2002 draft, Zumaya yielded just three hits and recorded at least one strikeout against all nine Beloit batters. The 18-year-old California native fanned seven batters, including the side in order in the second inning, as he sat down nine straight hitters to start the game.
Well that’s more like it
I think it’s safe to say that everyone had to enjoy last nights game. Well, except maybe Mike Maroth who had Omar Infante and Matt Anderson throw away yet another win-but then again at least he didn’t get a loss. Dmitri Young exploded going 5-5, 2 HR’s, 2 3B’s and 5 RBI. If lashing out at the fans is what it takes to get Dmitri motivated, so be it. Aside from Young, the most refreshing thing about last nights game was the two out hitting. In the third inning, with two outs Infante doubled, Higginson singled, and Young tripled. Pena kept the inning alive with a walk before Monroe flew out to center.
I’m sure that next week Jayson Stark will have some interesting stats about Dmitri’s game, but here are a couple quick ones until then”
-Young had 15 total bases last night. The team didn’t get it’s 15th base until the 4th game of the season
-Young now has 45 total bases on the season, meaning that a third of them came in one game. The barrage raised his slugging percentage from .300 to .429 and his OPS from .555 to .716
-Young had 5 RBI last night. It took him 24 games to get his first 5 RBI of the season
While not a Tiger post, this site is an aggregator of baseball blogs. It includes rss feeds of blogs when possible, and is easy to navigate. The author claims it is still in beta mode, but it is pretty slick.
Tiger articles from Philly
Philadelphia Inquirer-Higginson: Tigers will survive
Despite their horrendous start and the comparisons to the ’62 Mets, the Tigers have a remarkably upbeat clubhouse.
There are two reasons for that:
1) Alan Trammell is the manager.
2) Luis Pujols is not the manager.
Philadelphia Daily News-5-25, but Tigers aren’t in tank
“We knew we weren’t going to win the division this year,” Dombrowski said. “We never imagined we’d get off to this kind of start, but here’s the question I keep asking: Would it be different if we were 8-21? Or 12-17?”
Nate Cornejo
“Mr. Cluck has really gotten into his head,” Trammell said, referring to pitching coach Bob Cluck. “Nate is learning how to pitch. It’s a wonderful thing, learning how to change speeds, hit your spots and not trying to blow everyone away. There are a lot of successful pitchers in baseball who do it that way.”
Farm report – 5/5/03
Msicellaneous Stuff
Searching for consistency
After a relative offensive explosion this weekend where the Tigers amassed 23 hits, 13 runs, and 4 HR’s and in only two games, one can’t help wonder if this was just taking advantage of a poor pitching staff of if the bats are starting to come alive. Don’t look now, but the team’s batting average is up to .195. Carlos Pena went 3-4 on Sunday showing opposite field power with a double and home run. So often this season, we’ve seen a struggling hitter put together two games of good swings, only to fall into another 0-fer slump. Here’s hoping that Pena can sustain this, and that he and Craig Monroe (.886 OPS) can rub off on the other hitters.
Small Ball Woes
We all know that scoring runs has been tough for the Tigers, and that big innings have been hard to come by. We know part of the reason is that the bats have been anemic, but is Trammell helping also by giving up too many outs. First there is the issue of base stealing. The Tigers have attempted to steal 20 times and have only been successful 7 times. For a team that is searching for baserunners, that is a lot of outs given up in the quest to get one base. Now granted, it seems that several of the attempts were hit and runs where someone missed a sign, but are they being too aggressive on the basepaths? Or, is this aggressiveness stemming from the lack of offensive production? Also, the Tigers rank second in the Amercian League in the sacrifice bunts. Between the steals and bunts, are the Tigers giving away too many outs? Or are all the sacrifices the result of the starting pitching keeping the Tigers in the game, and the fact that they are typically only down by a couple runs? I don’t have the answers, just raising some questions.
Odds ‘n Ends
-3 of the Tigers 4 wins have come on Sundays
-Bonderman, who threw 118 pitches in a loss 5 days ago was pulled after 88 pitches on Sunday
-Bobby Higginson’s solo HR in the first inning gave him 10 RBI on the season, making him the first Tiger to reach double digit RBI’s this year
-For those of you comparing the Orioles 1988 start, or the Tigers 84 start, the Orioles were 4-25 at this point, and the 84 Tigers were 25-4.
Prospect Watch: Joel Zumaya
Baseball America – Joel Zumaya
Drafted as a 17-year-old, Zumaya is one of the youngest players in the low Class A Midwest League this season at age 18. After striking out 10 in five innings last night, he paces the circuit with 42 K’s in 25 innings.