Game Post

Game 2016.2: Tigers at Marlins

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It’s a brand new season, but is it the Same Old Tigers? It sure looked at first glance like the SOB (Same Old Bullpen), as Francisco Rodriguez, or FRod (pronounced “Fraud,” per PHToy) had absolutely nothing in the 9th inning, and was a highlight Justin Upton catch away from handing the game to the Marlins. It’s easy to put too much importance on just one outing, and the first outing of the year at that, so we need to see a few more before getting too excited about our closer situation. But it’s hard to be rational having seen all this before—the Tigers have had a knack for having a closer who has just then lost his effectiveness, and then sticking with him for way too long after.

Lost in all of that is how good the rest of the bullpen was, which is definitely not something we had too many occasions to say last season. Together they combined to give up only 2 hits and 1 walk in 5 shutout innings, and Shane Greene looked unhittable. Would this be the worst idea in the world: when Daniel Norris returns from the DL, let Shane Greene close out games? Not that it would ever happen, since we have A Closer. (I see Stormin’ Norman beat me to that idea).

The other SOB of the game was the Same Old Baserunning, as JD Martinez may have cost the team a run by sleeping on 2nd instead of advancing, as he easily would have, on a long fly to right, then Iglesias ran into a rundown situation, which found Martinez asleep again (instead of moving toward home with Iglesias in the rundown, he stood on 3rd with his hands in his pockets, making the rundown easy for the Marlins). And then of course the inevitable pickoff (the Tigers lets the league in runners picked off last year), with the usual suspect being the batting hero of the game, Ian Kinsler. At what point does Omar Vizquel start taking heat for this stuff?

Anyway, the Tigers will have a lot less room for error in today’s game, with Jose Fernandez on the mound, who has never lost a game at Marlins Park. Anibal Sanchez is no slouch himself, undefeated at Marlins Park since 2012.

Today’s Undefeated Lineup:

  1. Kinsler, 2B
  2. Upton, LF
  3. Cabrera, 1B
  4. JD Martinez, LF
  5. Castellanos, 3B
  6. Saltalamacchia, C
  7. Iglesias, SS
  8. Gose, CF
  9. Sanchez, P
Game Post

Game 2016.1: Tigers at Marlins

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Happy Opening Day Everybody!

Miguel Cabrera carefully selects the bat the will bring to the plate, while across Marlins Park Dee Gordon does the same, in the much-anticipated, historic Opening Day meeting between league batting champions, for the first time in Major League Baseball history.

Thanks to ESPN for that one, I never would have guessed it on my own. Not that Opening Day should need any extra hooks to pull you in, but I must admit it’s a bit odd to start the season out with an interleague game, and on Tuesday at that. So much for every team starting the season in first place: the Tigers are already in third. Never mind though, the 2016 Tiger season is here. Play ball!

Of course, being an interleague game in a National League park, there is no designated hitter, so the Tigers will start the season with a not-everyday lineup. Originally, Brad Ausmus had planned to go with Cabrera at 3rd base and Victor Martinez at first, but a tweaked Martinez hamstring changed his mind on that.

After losing the honors to David Price last season, Justin Verlander will take the mound again in his 8th Opening Day start, as he edges into Jack Morris territory (Jack Morris has the franchise record with 11 Opening Day starts). If I weren’t afraid of heights I’d go out on a limb here, but I’ll settle for throwing out a hunch that this season Verlander will show that he’s not quite done yet. New manager Don Mattingly gives Wei-Yin Chen the honors for the Marlins, and will start off with a challenge—Ian Kinsler has a career 1.045 OPS against Chen.

Tonight’s 2016 Opening Day lineup:

  1. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  2. Justin Upton, LF
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. JD Martinez, RF
  5. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  6. James McCann, C
  7. Jose Iglesias, SS
  8. Anthony Gose, CF
  9. Justin Verlander, P

I’m mildly surprised to see Kinsler in the leadoff spot in the lineup, I would have predicted Gose. Is Ausmus taking advantage of the Kinsler-Chen history?

2015 Season, Game Post, Roster Management

Your 2016 Detroit Tigers

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Here is a look of the team the Tigers will be sending out on Opening Day tomorrow:

Detroit Tigers 2016 Opening Day Roster

Pitchers:

Starters:

  • Justin Verlander (R)
  • Jordan Zimmerman (R)
  • Anibal Sanchez (R)
  • Mike Pelfrey (R)
  • Shane Greene (R)

Relief Pitchers:

  • Buck Farmer (R)
  • Logan Kensing (R)
  • Mark Lowe (R)
  • Drew Verhagen (R)
  • Francisco Rodriguez (R)
  • Kyle Ryan (L)
  • Justin Wilson (L)

In the starting rotation, Zimmerman and Sanchez replace Price and Simon from last year’s Opening Day roster, but it’s the relief corp where the greatest turnover has happened; in fact the entire bullpen has turned over. It’s hard to imagine this group not being able to improve on what Alburquerque, Chamberlain, Gorzelanny, Krol, Nathan, Nesbitt, Rondon and Soria provided last season, but then again things didn’t look as bad at the start of last season as they turned out to be, so keep the seat belts fastened and trays in an upright position. The starting rotation looks solid, or maybe solid-ish, and should at least be able to burn a lot of innings. Sanchez’ health is suspect, as usual, but the Tigers have Daniel Norris parked on the DL as another starter.

Other pitchers on the 15-Day DL: Jeff Ferrell, Blaine Hardy, Angel Nesbitt, and Alex Wilson.

Position Players:

Starters:

  • C James McCann
  • 1B Miguel Cabrera
  • 2B Ian Kinsler
  • 3B Nick Castellanos
  • SS Jose Iglesias
  • LF Justin Upton
  • CF Anthony Gose
  • RF JD Martinez
  • DH Victor Martinez

Bench

  • C Jarrod Saltalamacchia
  • INF/OF Andrew Romine
  • INF/OF Mike Aviles
  • OF Tyler Collins

There has been less turnover on the position player side, with the most noticeable difference from last season being Justin Upton in left field instead of Cespedes. McCann should be a big upgrade from Avila offensively, with a solid backup in Saltalamacchia, who can also spell Cabrera at first. The CF position looks very week, with only Anthony Gose—who thinks analytic stats are a scam—and some non-CF-type backups. Goes had a good spring training at the plate, but then again he started well last season also. Cameron Maybin is on the DL for a bit, and will probably bump Collins then. As usual the key to the lineup will be the health of Victor Martinez.

One other big change between the 2015 and 2016 Tigers is the man putting the roster together. It will be interesting to see how Avila handles in-season roster changes. His acquisitions of Upton and Zimmerman were very Dombrowski-esque.

Spring Training

Welcome to Spring Training 2016

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“Old, poorly managed, and have no depth.”

Sigh. That date went even worse than expected.

Oh wait…that was the Kevin in Dallas summation of the Tiger franchise. He is in Dallas, after all, so perhaps there is something Dallassian in the view, but, maybe that is really where we have gotten ourselves to? What do we think?

At any rate, while the turtle clears its throat, it’s time to start cranking up the ol’ DTW post machine. Special thanks to the stalwarts (an underused word, by the way) who kept the comment section going over the cold dark months, StorminNormin, jud, Tony de Florida (Lakeland, per chance?), JimEggersUSMC, Only Tiger Fan in Mississippi, Angus, and all the others. Time to scare up some more of the old names and a score of new ones.

With the first game of Spring Training just around the corner, it’s time to start taking a look at what we think this 2016 team will look like. I will, unless Kevin beats me to it, put up separate posts where we can take a look at the lineup and the pitching, which looks like it already has a big issue, as Anibal Sanchez seems to have gotten an early start this year on the annual injury thing. Any other suggestions you might want to shout out from the dugout are welcome.

2015 Season, Game Post, Hot Stove

Offseason News

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With the big news coming out today, it seemed as good a time as any to get a new post up here where we can discuss offseason moves and the like.

In case you haven’t heard yet, the Tigers have signed 29-year old starter Jordan Zimmerman to a deal reported to be for 5 years at 110 million. I had heard a rumor on Saturday that the Tigers were talking to Zimmerman; today it’s supposedly a done deal. That was quick.

2015 Season, Game Post

Game 2015: 159-161

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Well, here we are, the last handful of games.  This season certainly didn’t turn out the way anyone expected, but that’s baseball.

In other parts of the baseball universe, there is still a playoff race going on. Houston has pulled back into the 2nd wild card spot, and still has an outside chance at the division. And the Angels and Twins (Twins!) are both within one game of Houston. I may have to tune in that Rangers-Angels series this weekend.

 

 

 

2015 Season, Game Post

Game 2015.156-158: Tigers at Rangers

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If you need a reminder of how a manager can galvanize a team and what that can mean to a W-L record, look no further that the Texas Rangers. This team was written off by everyone, trust me, everyone, in May.

Now the Rangers are strong favorites to win the division.

And on the other side of the diamond the Tigers are bringing back Brad Ausmus.

Goodness.

Here’s a picture of Verlander in a Rangers hat.

Also, has anyone noticed what a slump Miggy is in? .202 with 0 HR and 8 RBI over the last month. This has been a trend…last few years it was the injuries. Hopefully he will still win the batting title.

2015 Season, Game Post

Games 2015.143-145: Tigers at Twins

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Key Series for the Twins as they are 1 game behind Texas for the 2nd wild card spot. Texas starts a 4 game set with the Astros, only 2 games behind the ‘Stros for the division. September baseball is fun for other teams.

Tonight’s lineup:

1. CF Anthony Gose

2. 2B Ian Kinsler

3. 1B Miguel Cabrera

4. RF J.D. Martinez

5. DH Victor Martinez

6. 3B Nick Castellanos

7. LF Steven Moya

8. C James McCann

9. SS Andrew Romine

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