Archive for the '2005 Tigers' Category

I really hope this is the breakout everyone’s been talking about. Jeremy Bonderman shut down a high powered but struggling Cleveland Indians offense. Three hits (including two solo homers) through eight innings is about as good as you’re going to get. He has a 27/8 strikeout to walk ratio, and most of the bad stuff in his stats is all because of the six run first inning in his second start. Take that out, and his ERA drops to 2.29.

With a win tonight, the Tigers will be back to .500 with the month ending series with the division leading White Sox coming up this weekend. Jay at Black Sox Blog is playing it cool, but I need a split or I’m going to be out some cash.

Former Tiger Earl Wilson passed away this weekend. Wilson was the third starter for the 1968 championship team, and he led the league in wins in 1967 with 22. He was one of the best hitting pitchers ever, as he amassed 35 homers and 111 RBIs in 740 career at bats.

My thoughts go out to the Wilson family as a Tiger great passes on.

The Tigers finally figured out the Twins on Friday. It took them ten innings, and the pen once again tried to give the game away, but Pudge came through with a big tenth inning homer to win the game. Unfortunately, the Tigers couldn’t ride the momentum of their first one run win of the season, because the Detroit area was hit by some heavy snow.

So what was supposed to be a day off turns into a day game. I don’t envy the players running out and playing in this stuff, but usually the lesser team gains the most by poor playing conditions, so hopefully the Tigers can pull it out and win the game.

A lot is being made about Tram’s decision to let Pudge swing away with runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth. There was nobody out, and it seems lot of people thought he should have bunted the two runners over. Of course he flew out, and Dmitri Young then grounded into a double play, so in hindsight it looks like a bad move. But I think Tram made the right decision.

If it were Nook Logan, or someone closer to the bottom of the order, I’m confident Tram would have had them lay down the bunt. But this is Ivan Rodriguez, one of the greatest hitting catchers of all time, and a future Hall of Famer. And I haven’t been able to find the numbers, but I have a feeling that Pudge hasn’t done much bunting the last ten years.

Also, the bullpen was a disappointment again. It doesn’t show up in the box score other then as a blown save, but Jamie Walker gave up the go ahead single to Podsednick. The runners were Bonderman’s, so he took the hit to his ERA.

Things aren’t going quite as planned. The Tigers lost a tight game with the White Sox this afternoon, and they dropped to 6-10. What’s most disappointing is the Tigers are 2-8 against teams other then the Twins. And even that 4-2 stretch isn’t all the great considering the way they lost last Friday.

Now, the Twins come to town. A week and a half ago, the Twins took us to task and swept us at the Metrodome. At this point, winning the series would be a huge confidence booster. Losing two of three slips them even further below the .500 mark.

Probably the most perplexing thing this season has been the whole Magglio Ordonez injury thing. Now reports are coming out that team doctors don’t know if it’s a hernia or not. The longer it takes to diagnose Mags, the longer it takes to fix him up and getting healing.

Well, it’s a pretty big “rest of the week” as the Tigers come home for homestands against the White Sox (two games) then the Twins (three games). The Tigers play their AL Central rivals the rest of the month, and none of the series are against the Royals, so we ned to make these games count.

At this point, I know going 3-2 through the weekend would still put us at a game below .500, but based on the competition, I’d take it.

The White Sox have to be the enigma of the league. A lot was made about their personnel changes, yet as Black Sox Blog illustrates, they’re still living and dying with the long ball. Paul Konerko and Carl Everett have gotten off to hot starts and have carried the offense so far.

…but the Tigers have won three in a row. And it was nice seeing them pick up another win against someone other then the Royals.

The Tigers came out hitting from the start, and big games by Brandon Inge (who’s proving me wrong about batting leadoff), Dmitri Young, Omar Infante, and Nook Logan all had big games. What’s most impressive about Inge’s hot start is he’s been very effective (1.056 OPS) vs. right handed pitching.

Hopefully they’ll keep it going and finish off the Orioles tonight. Then they come back home for a short two game series against the White Sox. A two game sweep would be helpful since I’ve placed a gentleman’s bet with Jay Maxwell, the owner of the Black Sox Blog. I’m behind on the front end, but it’s early. If you’ve never checked out his site, he does a pretty good job covering the White Sox, and tosses in some historical stuff which we know I like.

As always, don’t forget to check out the great ticket deals from Tigerblog’s site sponsors. Just click on one of the sites to the right for all of your ticket needs.

Be sure to check out Tigerblog’s sponsors on the right for all of your ticket needs.

Maybe it’s something about Fridays. Ugueth Urbina, for the second straight Friday, gave up the lead and cost the Tigers a win. After a fairly mediocre start by Wil Ledezma, Urbina gave up a two run shot in the eighth. The Tigers now stand 0-4 in one run games, and despite a Pythogorean Win/Loss somewhere around .500, the team is now 3-7.

The Tigers team ERA is 5.00, which is pretty much unacceptable considering where they play. Urbina and Troy Percival are dragging this down the most as they stand at 8.10 and 9.00 respectively. You’d figure they’d have the lowest ERA on the team.

With two games left in Kansas City, the Tigers need to walk away with two wins. Jeremy Bonderman can hopefully continue what’s a pretty solid season (if you take away the first inning in his last start), and hopefully Mike Maroth can follow up his solid start with a win.

When it rains, it pours. Magglio Ordonez hit the DL because of a hernia. Reports on the radio said he’d be out 4-6 weeks minimum, and that’s from the time he has his surgery. I’m not sure how that sickness he had turned into this, but it causes some major problems in the outfield. I guess we’ll have to wait until June to see Mags get his first hit.

This makes the decision to keep Bobby Higginson look even more sound. With Thames up, the Tigers still have four decent outfielders, and we don’t have to rush up a guy like Curtis Granderson. To replace Ordonez, the Tigers called up reliever Andrew Good. With the Tigers current pitching woes, Tram has had to resort to twelve arms a lot quicker then he probably would have hoped.

The series with the Twins was pretty pathetic. The Twins showed why they’re the three time defending AL Central champs, and why the Tigers aren’t quite in their class yet. And this makes the series this weekend at Kansas City that much more important. They need to take two of three or fall even further below .500.

AM1270’s Sports Inferno, with Terry Foster and Mike Valenti, had a lively discussion about the lack of a true lead off hitter. It was agreed that neither Brandon Inge or Omar Infante fit the bill, but I got back to work before I could hear their opinions on who should be the leadoff man.

In my opinion, Bobby Higginson, at least when he’s playing, would be a fine choice. He’s willing to take pitches and work the count. People will point to his .182 average, but you have to hope he’d break out of that slump eventually.

Another unlikely candidate would be Carlos Pena. While he strikes out quite a bit, his eye seems to have improved as he’s boasting a 6/9 strikeout to walk ratio. With the small sample size, he’s got an impressive .459 OBP. Unfortunately I couldn’t find his pitches per plate appearance number, but you figure it has to be decent with that kind of walk rate.

And if you’ve never listend to Sports Inferno (10 am through 1 pm), I highly recommend it. Mike Valenti really knows his stuff, and he’s a Spartan to boot. Terry Foster is one of those rare excellent writers who also makes the transition to being a fine on air host. The banter between the two is very funny at times, but when they get down to business, you know you’ll get a great discussion.

I was disappointed when I had to get rid of my comments section. It was always nice hearing from the readers, but comment spam became too burdensome.

But my web guy has come up with a to fix things, so it will allow me to open up my posts to comments again. I’m going to start with my post this morning.

Tigers are tied 2-2. Hopefully they can pull this one off.

Is it too early to panic??

Our new and improved bullpen has been more of a liability then an asset. Outside of Farnsworth, our top three have vastly underperformed. They’re also 0-3 in one run games, which was a number several people pointed to as the bane of the 2004 Tigers and the inadequacies of that team’s bullpen. I know it’s early, but Urbina and Percival have already lost a game each.

Throw in inconsistent starting pitching and a slew of injuries, and it could make for a rough first month. Guillen and Ordonez were both out of the lineup, and with Ramon Martinez on the DL, Tram’s very limited in what he can do.

Fortunately, the Tigers go to Kansas City. If they can beat the Twins tonight, then take two of three against the Royals, they’ll be right back at .500.

I had a chance to watch most of this game, and it was nice to see Bonderman and the Tigers battle their way back into this. Jeremy simply got clubbed in the first inning, and he was somewhat lucky to come out with “just” six runs. But he calmed down and actually gave the Tigers five quality innings following the first, and it gave the Tigers to claw their way back into it.

The final was 7-6 and the Tigers finish their home stand with a 3-3 record. Not bad, but not great either. Hopefully they’ll be able to take two of three against the Twins, considering we shouldn’t see Radke or Santana.

…that the Tigers are second in the AL in OBP with .365, that their GB/FB ratio is above average at 1.41, and that Pitches per Plate Appearance and Line Drive Percentages are both above the league average???

If not, the Hardball Times has their first of many pages of cool stats up on their Team Page. Be sure to check this stuff out. Over the next couple of weeks, more and more will be added to the point where you could spend hours just going through them.

The Tigers, and Ugueth Urbina, lost yesterday. The final score was 4-3. With the score tied 2-2, Urbina gave up a two run shot to Aaron Boone, and while the Tigers tried to stage a comeback in the eighth, they fell just short.

A lot was made by the announcers about Urbina no longer being the “closer,” and I specifically remember last year Urbina saying (at least the announcer said he said it) that if it’s not a save situation, he struggles because he needs the pressure. Now I’ve never played professional sports, and I topped out at about Open League Softball (and our team was pretty sad). But isn’t every out important. Why should it matter if we have a four run lead or a one run lead in the ninth. Shouldn’t the pitcher pitch the same, i.e. to get the batters out.

Now we fast forward (from last year, I guess from today we’re rewinding) to yesterday. Isn’t coming into the game in the eighth with the game tied about as high pressure as you can get? Getting those three outs are almost as important as getting the three outs in the ninth. But Urbina came in and dropped the game. Hopefully he’ll be better next time, but in the first “real” test of what’s supposed to be a vastly improved bullpen, we came out on the losing end.

And this all gets back to how relievers are measured, and the current measurements are poor. If you want a great read on relievers, and a ton of very cool, and very quality, statistics on relievers, be sure to check out the Hardball Times Bullpen Book.

…a single game can make. And what a difference a subsequenly horrible game can make. Tuesday everyone was talking division title. Now people are a lot more reserved. Probably the most interesting part about this is the Royals send their best starter, Zack Greinke, to the mound tomorrow. I’m smelling a series loss.

But in the grand scheme of things, it’s a long season. Sparky always said every team wins 60 games and loses 60 games. It’s those middle 40 that make the difference. Fortunately he didn’t stick around to see the 2003 Tigers, or he’d know 60 wins isn’t a guarantee. If we then sweep the Indians this weekend, all will be better again.

In the “stretching myself too thin” category, I’m going to be doing yet another writing assignment. At Reds Cutting Edge, I’ll be doing a 1975 Reds diary. Blade has the intro up, so check out the site today, and then be sure to stop back tomorrow for Opening Day.

Baseball Analysts has posted their compilation of predictions from their staff and the writers who took part in their Two on Two chats. Be sure to check it out.

If you missed it, the Hardball Times put up their staff predictions. Craig was the only one who hung tough and picked the Tigers to finish in second place with me. I picked the Giants expecting Bonds to be back by mid-May.

What a way to start the season. The Tigers made the most of their renovations by putting on a show in front of a record crowd at the ballpark. Dmitri Young became the first Tiger to hit three homers on an Opening Day as the Tigers laid down a beating on the Kansas City Royals.

Not to be outdone, Brandon Inge hit a two run shot of his own, and drove in three runs. The only Tiger starter who went hitless was Magglio Ordonez, so hopefully he’ll get his when we need it on Wednesday.

Jeremy Bonderman threw a very solid game against a relatively weak Royals lineup. He struck out seven batters over seven innings.

This is a pretty important series for the Tigers. Not because they were playing a good team, but because they need to come out of this series with at least two wins. Good teams beat bad teams. The Royals are a bad team, but until the Tigers show they can beat the bad teams consistently, they won’t be able to take that next step, contention.

At least for a couple of days, Tigers fans have something to be happy about.

« Previous Entries | Next Entries »

Powered by
WordPress

Click to advertise

http://every1bets.com