Archive for 2010

When Sparky took over as the Tigers manager in 1979, I was eight years old.  When he retired, I was 24.  So throughout the time I was developing as a baseball fan, Sparky was always there.  That’s why I’m saddened to hear that Sparky has been put into hospice care.

In the past, there were two guys I’d pull the car over to the side of the road to listen to if they were interviewed.  One was Ernie Harwell, and the other was Sparky.  The guy always kept things interesting and my I wish his family the best in these tough times.

That didn’t take long.  The Tigers opted to not  exercise Jhonny Peralta’s $7.25 million option for next year.  That doesn’t mean Peralta isn’t going to be in a Tiger’s uniform, it just means they didn’t like that price so now the front office has a few days to get a new deal on the table to lock up the shortstop.

I just got done listening to today’s ESPN Baseball Today podcast and near the very end, Seth Everett mentioned a rumor that the Tigers were pretty interested in Prince Fielder.  Of course Prince is son of former Tiger’s slugger Cecil Fielder so there is a tie and I remember when Prince made the news when he came to Tiger Stadium to hit batting practice.

The big question is, where does Fielder fit.  Does he become the full time designated hitter (he’s a pretty bad fielder)?  Is it worth the money to have him hit every day and not play the field?  How does that hurt the team’s flexibility by locking up a roster spot with a guy who probably won’t see the field?

First off, congratulations to the San Francisco Giants.  It’s been a while for their fans and it’s the first since they’ve moved to the West Coast.  Still, I don’t like the fact that the Tigers have moved up another notch as far as World Series droughts go.  It was interesting seeing all of the former Tigers as well.

So now we enter the new and accelerated free agency season.  Under the old rules, teams had fifteen days to work out deals with their own players before they could talk to other teams.  This year it’s being sped up to just five days so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.  Starting Monday, we could see some players jumping ship. 

The Tigers have a lot of money coming off the books this offseason so the speculation is that they’re going to be big spenders.  I’ve heard both Victor Martinez and Adam Dunn mentioned a bunch, with Carl Crawford mentioned to a lesser extent.  Victor Martinez would give us some more flexibility but might also hinder Al Avila’s development.  My personal favorite is Adam Dunn because you pretty much know what you’re going to get (including 180+ strikeouts) and it’s nice having that consistency.  And then Carl Crawford is coming off of a career year with an .851 OPS.  I could see Crawford nabbing 25 triples at Comerica Park in a season.  Crawford also fills one of our biggest holes in leftfield.

There’s been some talk of expanding the playoffs and I’m pretty much against that.  The only way I’d like it is if they added the one extra wild card team on each side and had the two Wild Card teams play a one game playoff to get in.  This would make the division title more meaningful and make the team with the best record in each league have an extra advantage because they’d play a team with their rotation most likely out of whack.

It looks like the first order of business for the Tigers is what to do with Jhonny Peralta.  Jason Beck thinks the Tigers will turn down the $7.25 million option but still try to sign him.  Getting Peralta at a decent price would fill a hole so hopefully they’ll be able to get this done.

I can’t think of a more polarizing Tigers’ player then Brandon Inge.  It seems like fans either love him or hate him.  Well, the haters have something to complain about because Inge and the Tigers inked a two year deal with an option for a third that should keep Inge at third base for at least the next couple of years.  They’re getting him for $11.5 million for the next two years.  They’ll pay him $5.5 million for the next two years then there’s the $.5 million buy out. If they keep Inge in 2013, they’ll pay him $6 million so it’s probably better to look at this as a 3 year, $17 million deal.  That’s a small bump down from the absolute amounts over the past three years but if you look at Inge’s four year deal that he signed prior to 2007, the overall numbers are about the same.

The question now is whether Brandon Inge is worth the money.  Inge had a quietly decent year at the plate and while his home run totals were way down, his .321 OBP was his best since 2005 and he actually had more extra base hits this year (36) then he did last year (34) in 17 fewer games. Of course most of those extra base hits didn’t leave the park and that’s the difference between the years.

One thing I either missed, or forgot that I saw, was that Brandon Inge is now the all time Tigers’ strikeout leader with 1109.  He passed Lou Whitaker some time last year and he joins Al Kaline and Norm Cash as the only four Tigers to strike out more then a 1,000 times (answer to the trivia question earlier today).

Of course Inge is known more for his defense so that makes the money worth it, right?  Well, Inge’s defense has taken somewhat of a downward trend depending on how you look at things.  If you look at runs saved at Bill James Online, Inge was pretty mediocre (one run saved, thirteenth best amongst third basemen) in 2010 after a good but not great 2009 (10 runs saved, eighth best).  While that’s not bad, it’s a far cry from Inge’s gold glove caliber seasons in 2006 and 2007.  The big question is, was the defensive decline because of the bad knees (which you’d hope would be in better shape next year) or is it just general decline because of age.  If it’s general decline, and Inge takes even a small step back at the plate, this contract could look like a bad one.  If he comes back and either shows he’s back to form at third or takes a further step forward at the plate (or even better, both), it’s probably going to be worth keeping Inge in the fold.

Also, congratulations to Inge for winning the Marvin Miller award for all of his charity work.  Curtis Granderson won it last year so the Tigers now have a two year hold on the award.

I’m watching game three as I watch this and while the Giants have put themselves back into the game, I can easily see the home team winning all seven games in this series.  The Rangers with Vlad Guerrero at DH is a much better team then when their pitcher has to hit and that might just be enough of an edge for Texas in their own ballpark as long as the pitching is there.  As far as predictions, I probably would have taken the Reds (sentimental, they’re kind of my adopted NL team and have been for the past few years) versus the Yankees so I wouldn’t have come close.  For now, I’m saying Giants in seven.

The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2011 is set to hit the shelves in the next couple of weeks.  You can still pre-order the book and it’s a great way to help out what’s, in my biased opinion, still the best free content site out there.

I’m going to actually write something here later today (with a large part of it being the Brandon Inge signing) but in the meantime, here’s some trivia.  What do Brandon Inge, Lou Whitaker, Norm Cash and Al Kaline all have in common?

I’ll write more on this tonight but the Tigers signed Brandon Inge to a two year deal with an option for a third year.

The Tigers declined to take advantage of their $15 million option on Magglio Ordonez, although according to Jason Beck, they’re still keeping the door open to a possible return by the right fielder.  After a rough 2009, Magglio Ordonez took some big strides in returning to form before his season ended prematurely because of that freakish injury when he broke his ankle sliding into home plate in late July.

It looks like Magglio Ordonez wants to stay in Detroit as well but the wild card will be Ordonez’s agent, Scott Boras.  It’ll be interesting to see how much money it costs with the injury risks and my bet is, the Tigers get him to an incentive laden deal.

The Tigers 2010 season is over with and they finished with a nice even 81-81 record.  The last time they finished exactly .500 was back in 1958 when the finished 77-77.  Billy Martin played for the team that year and Al Kaline led the team in OPS with an .864.  Entirely meaningless but a little bit of trivia for you there.

Dave Dombrowski announced that the Tigers won’t have Jeremy Bonderman, Johnny Damon and Gerald Laird back next year.  Neither of those are huge surprises but it does open up a rotation spot that the Tigers have to fill.  The Tigers could always go out and get someone but if they don’t, my money is on Andrew Oliver (as a a SWAG, but of course if he gets the spot, you heard it here first).

Of course with the season’s end, it means another post season missed.  It’s hard to believe that 2006 was four years ago.  I remember talking to people and we were all convinced that in the five years following the 2006 season, the Tigers would probably be in the post season at least two or three of those seasons.  Of course close doesn’t count but 2007 and 2009 the Tigers made runs only to fall short.  Still, the team did a lot better then most people thought they would.

Every time I think I’m going to be able to keep up with the team here, something derails my plans.  I’m not giving up, I just can’t commit because I’ll go hot for a week then cold for two.  I still have some personal things to resolve and until those fully play out it’s hard to plan too far ahead.

Armando Galarraga fell to 4-7 on the season with his second straight rough start in the Tigers 9-6 loss to Kansas City.  The first four innings went fairly well then the floodgates opened in the fifth and he gave four runs (blowing a 3-0 lead).  Alfredo Figaro and Eddie Bonine were also tagged for a pair of runs each.

Despite Galarraga’s recent struggles, I think he’ll still stick as the Tigers fourth starter next year.  The big questions is whether Jeremy Bonderman is going to back as the team’s fifth starter.  He showed some signs of improvement (namely he pitched the entire season) we’ll just have to see what the asking price is.

Brandon Inge went two for four with an RBI.  Ryan Raburn hit home run number fourteen and Miguel Cabrera belted his 35th of the season.

One interesting note, the Royals have 62 wins and Joakim Soria has 40 saves.  That’s a pretty high percentage and I wonder if anyone out there knows if this is a record or close to one.

My latest BOB Report should be up over at the Hardball Times soon.  It’s been a couple of weeks but I touch on the McCourt’s divorce and the Athletics stadium situation amongst other things.

The rubber game is tonight (I might be at the game).  Max Scherzer throws for the Tigers and Kyle Davies is the Royals starter.

It’s been a rough year for Zach Greinke.  Coming off of his Cy Young season, he got off to a nice start in April (five starts, 2.56 ERA, 1.11 WHIP) only to get little run support and he went 0-2.  Since then, he’s looked mortal and he now finds his ERA sitting at a nice even 4.00 after the Tigers tagged him for six runs (five earned) in six frames.  Greinke will be back in my opinion but in more ways then one, I’m sure he’s not too sad that we’re closing the books on 2010.

Rick Porcello looked sharp through four innings but then he was tagged for five runs in the top of the fifth inning when the Royals took their first and only lead.  In all, he gave up twelve hits in 5 1/3 innings and this was after a nice string of starts for Rick.  The hitters came through and his four game winning streak is intact.

The Tigers took the lead back in the sixth inning when Will Rhymes belted a two run home run on a shot that was reviewed by the replay officials. Al Avila then hit a solo shot in the eighth inning for some insurance.  Avila finished three for four with the home run, three RBIs and two runs.  Ramon Santiago had a pair of singles and an RBI.

Brad Thomas picked up the win and he improved to 6-2 with 1 2/3 innings of shutout relief.  Dan Schereth struck out the side in the eighth and then Phil Coke got the final two outs for his second save of the season.

Game two is tonight.  Armando Galarraga goes up against Bruce Chen.

I went to bed after the seventh inning thinking the Tigers had this one in the bag.  I was kind of right because they won but the game went into the eleventh inning and thanks to the bottom of the order, the Tigers walked away with the win.  After this one being a pitchers duel through six innings, the Tigers finally got to John Danks and it started with a two run home run by Casper Wells.  Then the Tigers took a four run lead into the ninth only to see Phil Coke (with an assist by Robbie Weinhardt) implode.  Then the Tigers got it done in the eleventh with an RBI single by Gerald Laird to go ahead and then Austin Jackson doubled home Brennan Boesch for some insurance.  Eddie Bonine then got into trouble in the bottom of the eleventh before Dan Schlereth pitched out of the jam to pick up his first career save.

Jeremy Bonderman gave up his share of base runners and while he gave up three runs, only one of those was earned.  I could have done without the five walks and he didn’t strike anyone out but he got his ERA back below 5.00 for the first time in over a month.

Ryan Perry came up big and he pitched two shutout innings.  I still think he’s the heir apparent for the teams closer and while we have Jose Valverde one more year, the Tigers can begin getting Perry ready to fill his spot.

Austin Jackson and Gerald Laird both had two hits and two RBIs.  Brandon Inge and Brennan Boesch both scored a pair of runs.

The Tigers come home for the last time in 2010.  First up are the Royals beginning tonight and we’ll get Rick Porcello against Zach Greinke.  Johnny Damon has been good against Greinke (.318/.375/.500 in 24 plate appearances) so look for that matchup.  Brandon Inge has the third most plate appearances (49) against Greinke then any other players and he’s hitting .244 with a pair of home runs.  Game time is 7:05.

I forgot to throw this up, but David Laurila talked to Tigers minor leaguer Scot Drucker.  Pretty good stuff especially on how the players keep up with some of the minor league sources like Baseball America.

Tigers are winning now after a big seventh inning.

I’m about twenty minutes behind on the game (thank you TiVo) but the Tigers haven’t gotten anyone on base after ten hitters.  Check that, Sizemore just hit a home run right before I made myself look foolish for criticizing Leyland for hitting him second.  2-1 White Sox.  Now Raburn just got a double.  Interesting note on Raburn, he’s only four for twenty against Danks, but of his four hits, three have been for extra bases (two doubles and  a home run).

UPDATE

I’m still 16 minutes behind, but I snuck a peak at the WPA graph and it looks like nobody has scored yet.  Looks like the Tigers chances of winning right now are about 26%.  This game is kind of cruising though.

Scott Sizemore blasted a big three run home run in the top of the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie in the Tigers 6-3 win over the White Sox yesterday.  It was just his second home run on the season in what’s been a disappointing year for the upstart second baseman.  It’ll be interesting to see what the Tigers do at second base in 2011 and a lot will depend on what happens to Carlos Guillen, who the Tigers have for one more year (more on him in a bit).  Three players started more then 30 games and five different players started at least ten games at the position.  Even worse, as a team the Tigers got just a combined .727 OPS from their second basemen.  That’s not their worst position hitting wise but it goes to show you why the Tigers have struggled at times to put runs on the board.

Ryan Raburn drove in a pair of runs.  He has 40 RBIs and a .933 OPS since the All Star Break.  Raburn has not only played six different defensive positions, but he’s also hit at every spot in the lineup.  It’ll also be interesting to see what the Tigers do with Raburn because this coming year will be the first one that he’s eligible for arbitration.

On the pitching side, Justin Verlander was, well, Justin Verlander.  He struck out eight and went the distance for his third complete game and seventeenth win of the season.  I’m not sure why he was kept out there for 123 pitches in a meaningless game but Jim Leyland must have had his reasons.  Yesterday I talked about Verlander reaching 200 strikeouts and now he’s just two away from that mark.

And since we talked about Guillen earlier, he has a microfracture in his knee that’s going to require surgery.  The Tigers haven’t said Guillen won’t (yes, double negative, I know) be ready for the start of spring training but it looks like we need an optimistic healing and rehab time table for that happen.  Dombrowski has said he’s comfortable with a Rhymes/Sizemore platoon at second base but I don’t so we’ll see.

The Tigers are playing on ESPN tonight.  Jeremy Bonderman will go up against John Danks and depending on what’s happening on the home front, I might do something I haven’t done in a long time and that’s sit and watch a baseball game.

The Twins won earlier this afternoon so that means the Tigers are 15 1/2 games back with 15 to play, ending even their formerly remote chances of making the playoffs.  Not surprising considering the Tigers are 25-36 since the All Star Break. Only the Kansas City Royals (21-37) have had a worse record.

Jeff Passan has a piece on baseball trivia and he mentions Austin Jackson’s .413 batting average on balls in play.  That’d be the best since Babe Ruth in 1923 so he has some pretty select company.

Max Scherzer pushed his record onto the winning side as the Tigers came back to beat the White Sox 9-2.  Scherzer gave up runs in the fourth and fifth and he had to wait until the seventh inning, when the Tigers scored six runs, to finally get some run support.  In all, it was another nice outing by Scherzer and he struck out eleven in eight innings of two hits ball.  Unfortunately, those two hits went over the fence. The eleven strikeouts were his second best total of the season and that brings his season total up to 173.  It’ll be cool to see next year the possibility of the Tigers having two 200 strikeout guys in the same rotation.

Ryan Perry pitched a shutout ninth because Jose Valverde was shut down.  Valverde has been having some problems with his right elbow so for now he’s not going to pitch.  The Tigers haven’t said it, but I doubt if we’ll see Valverde again this year.  After an awesome first half, Valverde has looked mortal with a 6.95 ERA and a 1.818 WHIP in 22 innings.  Phil Coke was given the closer job for the time being.

Al Avila and Austin  Jackson had the big hits in the Tigers sixth run seventh.  Avila gave the Tigers the lead with a two run double and then Austin Jackson capped off the inning with a two run home run, his fourth of the season.  Jhonny Peralta drove in two runs and Ryan Raburn continued his exceptional second half with a single, three walks and two runs.

The Tigers play at 4:10 this afternoon and it’ll be Justin Verlander going up against rookie Lucas Harrell.    Either a Tigers loss or a Twins win means the Tigers will be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.  Verlander needs 10 strikeouts to reach the 200 mark and if he does that, he’ll be the first Tiger since Jack Morris in 1986 and 1987 to reach 200 strikeouts in back to back seasons.

Alright, my big tax deadline has come and gone and at least one of my excuses for not writing is out of the way.  Not only that, I have an incentive to get back on track so now it’s time to make up for some lost time.  My timing couldn’t be better because Detroit lost a rough one last night to the Texas Rangers.  The Tigers gave Armando Galarraga a two run first inning lead but that went up in smoke pretty quickly and he was bounced in the fourth frame.  Eddie Bonine and Ryan Perry also gave up runs in the loss.

With Josh Hamilton on the shelf and the Tigers in Texas, the whole MVP debate has been pretty live these days.  Miguel Cabrera doubled and drove in two runs and he now has 45 doubles on the season.  If Cabrera hits another home run to bring his season total up to 35, he’ll be just the second Tiger to reach 35 home runs and 45 doubles in the same season.  Only Hank Greenberg has done it and he did it three times (1935, 1937 and 1940) so that’s some pretty select company.  It’s only been done 15 times since 2000 (Magglio Ordonez is on the list when he was with the White Sox, Adam Lind is kind of the weird stand out).  Hamilton probably would have reached both those marks had he not missed so much time.  In the end, I think both are pretty worthy, but the fact that Hamilton might win the batting title and he’s playing for a playoff contender will hurt Cabrera.  Evan Longoria, who’s name hasn’t been thrown around quite as much, actually leads the AL in WAR (Wins above Replacement) so it’ll be interesting to see how he fits in the whole mix.

I’ve also heard Austin Jackson’s name mentioned for ROY although I think that’ll go to Neftali Felix (also a Ranger).  Since we’re throwing out tidbits, Jackson could become the Tigers’ first player to hit .300 or better, score 100 runs and strike out more then 150 times in a season.   That’s only been done nine other times (three of those nine were by Sammy Sosa) ever.

The Tigers head to Chicago for three games beginning tomorrow.  Edwin Jackson will be on the mound and he’ll face his trade mate, Max Scherzer.  Then next week is the Tigers final homestand of the season with the Royals and the Twins coming into town.

This has nothing to do with baseball, but if you want to check out some top notch comedy this weekend, Mike Green is going to be performing at Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Royal Oak this weekend.  He’s a local guy, a Tigers fan and he puts on a great show.  You can check him out at his website, Oreo Man.

At home against teams with sub-.500 records (before tonight’s game) the Tigers are 28-10 if you assume they’ll hold on to their 12-2 lead against the Royals tonight.  In all other situations (on the road and at home against teams with winning records) they’re 34-53.

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