Archive for the '2006 Tigers' Category

You have to feel for Jeremy Bonderman.  This is the sixth time he’s gone at least five innings and given up less then two runs in a no decision this season.  If the Tigers give him any kind of run support in any of those games, he’s got at least 15 wins.  Regardless, he threw a very good game last night and kept the Tigers in it.  He struck out eight and gave up only two runs on five hits in 7 2/3 innings.

The big run came on Craig Monroe’s apparant fly out in the top of the ninth.  With runners on first and third, Wily Mo Pena dropped the fly ball.  A baserunning error by Monroe cost the Tigers a potentially big inning because he got caught by Pena while rounding first base but the one run was good enough to walk away with a win.

Placido Polanco came up huge in the game, but in the process, he seperated his shoulder.  He made a huge diving catch that saved a run but came down wrong and had to leave the game.  Of all people, Ivan Rodriguez played the final two innings at second base, the first time he’s played there in his major league career.  Expect Omar Infante to get the bulk of the time there.  It’s really too bad because Polanco has had a pretty good year, both with the glove and the bat.  Whether you believe in clutch or not, he’s hit .374 this season with runners in scoring position.  His OPS isn’t anything to write home about (.684), but he seems to come up with the big hit when the Tigers need it.

Sean Casey had a good game.  He had three hits, including a single that set up the first and third in the ninth inning.  He also doubled in the seventh and drove in two runs to give the Tigers their first lead of the game.

Tonight is youth versus the old man.  I’ve always been a big fan of David Wells, so it’ll be cool to see him pitch possibly for the last time against the Tigers.  He’ll be going up against Justin Verlander.

The Tigers held on to beat the Red Sox last night.  An early five run cushion turned out to be all the Tigers needed, although the Red Sox definitely made things interesting.

Nate Robertson may be only 11-8, but he’s put together a pretty nice stretch.  In his last last eleven starts, he’s gone at least six innings.  And then in his last three, he’s given up three runs or less.  He doesn’t light it up and throw many shutouts, but he’s a very solid back of the rotation starter.  He did have a rough July, but it looks like he’s bounced back from that.  Plus he’s the guy who started the whole Big League Chew rallyroutine that the Tigers have been doing late in the game.

Dmitri Young had another big game.  He went three for five with two runs and an RBI.  He still has an OPS well over 1.000 as his sample size gets larger and larger.  He hasn’t homered in a while, but he’s getting job done with the bat in other ways.

Another solid matchup today.  Jeremy Bonderman goes up against Curt Schilling.

If there’s any consolation, the Tigers still have a 5 1/2 game lead in the AL Central.  Five straight losses will have a lot of fans worried though (including me).  And with three games at Boston this week, it doesn’t get any easier.

Zach Miner was knocked around in the first two innings so the Tigers had to play from behind the entire game.  Once again, Alex Cintron turned out to be the Tiger killer because his three run double was probably the most important hit of the game. 

Carlos Guillen made his 22nd error of the season and that leads the majors at any position.  If you look at Baseball Prospectus’ fielding runs above average, he’s four runs below average but that was before today.  Looking at Win Shares on the Hardball Times, he sits at 3.3 fielding win shares, which is tenth in the American League.  Hopefully he’ll be able to get back on track here.  His career high for errors is only 18 and he’s already well above that.  The good news is, Guillen is second among American League shortstops in total Win Shares because he’s still hitting the ball very well.

Nate Robertson goes up against Josh Beckett tomorrow.  To make matters worse, the White Sox have four against the Royals this week, which should put even more pressure on the Tigers just to win to keep that lead.  The Royals did sweep the Red Sox earlier this week so I guess anything can happen.

I picked up most of this game on the drive down to my parents.  I tuned in and the Tigers had a nice 3-0 lead in the top of the fifth when the wheels fell of the wagon in the bottom half of the inning.  Paul Konerko singled and the next two batters went down in order.  Then Carlos Guillen misplayed Sandy Alomar’s grounder and that left runners at first a second.  A double and a single later (with some help from Marcus Thames misplaying the ball in left field), and the White Sox had tied the game.

Heading into the bottom of the seventh, the game was still tied.  Jermaine Dye singled, but then Joe Crede hit a hard grounder to Brandon Inge in what should have been a tailor made double play.  Instead, he threw the ball into right field and both guys were safe.  Sandy Alomar, Jr. then knocked in Dye with a sac. fly and the White Sox had their first and only lead of the game.

Both starters threw well.  Kenny Rogers gave up four unearned runs with only four hits in seven innings.  Mark Buehrle was credited with three runs, but most of that was because of a misplayed double play by I think Juan Uribe (I picked this up on the radio) that extended the Tigers big inning.

Jamie Walker had only one unintentional walk leading into Wednesday’s game against the Twins.  Since then, he’s walked two batters without getting a single out.  Fortunately the walk today didn’t come back to haunt them, although then again, the White Sox didn’t end up need the run.

Tomorrow is Zach Miner vs. Freddy Garcia at two o’clock our time.  This is a pretty important game for the Tigers because they can really stop the damage with a win.

Just when you thought the Tigers were nice and safe, the White Sox make a nice run.  In a lot of ways, the White Sox are a better team this year then they were last year when they won the World Series so nobody thought they’d roll over and die.  They took two of three against the Yankees earlier in the week in a series that could have been a sweep, and now they pretty much blew us out yesterday.  Jose Contreras looked like he knew exactly what the Tigers’ hitters were going to do yesterday and he got them to swing at a lot of bad pitches.  The net result was Contreras’ first career complete game shutout.  On the other side, Justin Verlander gave up thirteen hits over only five innings.  Not good.  I was worried that he maybe got too much rest when his start was skipped so we’ll see what happens next time around.

Jeff Passan, who’s become one of my favorite columnists, recently did a story on Jim Leyland.  I remember hearing Passan on AM1270 when the Tigers drafted Andrew Miller and he was very articulate and told some great stories about the Tigers first round draft pick so it wouldn’t surprise me to see he makes it in radio.

Today’s game is on FOX at 1:20 and it pits two struggling pitchers.  Mark Buehrle has been awful since the All Star Break, and Kenny Rogers hasn’t been lighting it up either.  We’ll see if either guy can bounce back and get the job done today.

Minor league guru Kevin Goldstein has had an ongoing series of minor league position breakdowns.  In the columns, he talks about the top prospects at each position.  The good news is, he picked Cameron Maybin as the best centerfield prospect in baseball.  No big surprise there as he’s been playing exceptionally well in low A ball at nineteen years of age.  Justin Upton, who was taken first overall the same year Maybin was drafted in 2005, was third on the list.

There is some bad news though.  Goldstein has now finished up all of the positions and outside of Maybin, no Tiger minor leaguer made any of the other lists, even as an honorable mention.  So the Tigers don’t have a top fifteen prospect at any position anywhere in the majors except for center field.  They have arms like Andrew Miller and Humberto Sanchez, but it looks like the Tigers won’t really be able to look to their minor leagues for ready made position players in the immediate future. Not a huge deal because if you look at the Tigers now, only Brandon Inge and Curstis Granderson came from the Tigers farm system.

Rany Jazayerli wrote a fantastic two part article on how the Tigers went from rock bottom in 2003 to the best team in baseball in 2006.  You can check out part 1 and part 2.  Great stuff.

Jeremy Bonderman has been very good tonight.  Unfortunately, Johan Santana has been even better.  Bonderman gave up a run in the first inning and that’s been the extent of the scoring.  He’s now in trouble in the sixth with runners on first and second and one out.  Hopefully he’ll be able to get out of this jam.

***UPDATE***

Not only did Jeremy Bonderman get out of that jam (he eventually loaded the bases), the Tigers now have tied the game up.  Brent Clevlen led off the sixth with a triple and Placido Polanco singled him home.  1-1 in the sixth.

***UPDATE***

It didn’t take long for the Twins to take the lead back.  A two out infield single by Luis Castillo scored Josh Rabe.  Bonderman did strike out the side in that inning.  Now the Tigers have the lead off man aboard (Carlos Guillen walked) with Marcus Thames up.  Johan has a 100 pitches and I’ll be glad to see him gone.

Thames just struck out as I was writing.  Now it’s up to Brandon Inge.

***UPDATE***

That didn’t take long.  Inge hit a huge two run shot down the left field line.  Tigers are now up 3-2.

***UPDATE***

Justin Morneau took Joel Zumaya deep for a two run shot in the top of the eighth, so the Twins are back on top.  One of those runs is credited to Jamie Walker after walking the lead off hitter, Mauer.

***UPDATE***

Still 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth.  Some mixed news out of Toledo.  Mike Maroth started his rehab assignment, which is definitely good.  The bad news is, he got shelled.  He gave up three runs on three hits (two of which were homeruns) and two walks in only three innings.  He threw 60 pitches, which I’m assuming is right around where they wanted him to be at.  Fortunately, the Mud Hens came back and won the game 5-4.

***UPDATE***

Joe Nathan put the Tigers down in order so the final is 4-3 Twins.  Fortunately, it looks like the White Sox are going to lose.  Day off tomorrow and then three against the White Sox this weekend.

Nate Robertson was pretty good last night, which is definitely encouraging.  His seven innings now puts him just short of the 150 mark.  Last year, Robertson had some pretty good starts until Auguest 28th, when he finished the season with six tough starts out of seven.  That slide happened right after he topped the 150 inning mark.  So we’ll see how Robertson does going forward.

The Tigers just couldn’t get the bats going yesterday.  Dmitri Young had a pretty good game and he continues to tear it up (he’s now hitting .422 since coming back) and the Tigers threatened in the eighth and ninth but couldn’t get any runs across.  Carlos Guillen had two hits and a walk and he extended his hitting streak to ten games.

Tonight is the finale and it’s going to be a good one.  Jeremy Bonderman will square off against Johan Santana.  The last time these two guys squared off, Bonderman was awesome until he fell apart in the eighth inning.  He also got roughed up by Cleveland late last week so hopefully he’ll be able to bounce back.

Heading into the beginning of this season, I thought Craig Monroe and Marcus Thames were interchangeable parts.  They were basically the same type of player (25 homeruns, mediocre fielding corner outfielder) so I always felt since Monroe was given more time, he’d be the best guy to trade since he has more value.  Then Monroe stuggled out of the gate while Thames tore it up in a part time role, eventually working himself into the lineup with more frequency.

Now, the tables have turned and Monroe has been red hot.  Both he and Thames hit homeruns yesterday, but Monroe is now at .276/.311/.507 while Thames is at .273/.346/.587.  I’d still rather have Thames in there every day, but it’s hard to argue with Leyland riding Monroe’s hot streak.

Francisco Liriano is a great pitcher, until he throws against the Tigers.  Once again, Zach Miner outdueled the phenom.  Although Jesse Crain’s four walks in the seventh were just as big of a reason for the Twins loss then Liriano was.  The Twins had pulled the game to within a single run before Crain blew up in that four run seventh inning.

Tonight we have Brad Radke going up against Nate Robertson.

It was the third one run win of the series, and it was the only one we didn’t have to come back from.  Wil Ledezma was given the start in place of a “fatigued” Justin Verlander and with a moment to shine, he took full advantage of it.  He threw 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball and struck out five.  The only run came on Craig Monroe’s RBI single in the fifth and Monroe extended his hitting streak to 13 games today.  He’s now pulled his batting average up to .271.

Next up is another big series with the Twins and the pitching matchups are identical to last weekend.  Tomorrow we’ll see Zach Miner square off against Francisco Liriano.  I wonder if this one is going to make ESPN Monday night baseball.  The White Sox lost, so the Twins are now just a half game back of the White Sox and 9 1/2 games back of the Tigers.  This is a big week and if the Tigers win four of their next six, they’ll pretty much have put the division to rest.

What a game.  Kenny Rogers got into some big trouble in the first inning and gave up three runs on two different homeruns, but he calmed down and shut the Indians down the rest of the way.  Marcus Thames hit a solo homerun in the fifth to make it 3-1 and then the Tigers scored in the seventh on Placido Polanco’s RBI single.

The Tigers threatened in the eighth but couldn’t get a run across to tie the game up.  In the ninth, Brandon Inge bunted himself on and then Granderson struck out after failing to bunt Inge over to second.  Placido Polanco then grounded to short and just beat out the double play, which would end up being huge.

Then Ivan Rodriguez came up and took Indians’ reliever Fausto Carmona deep for a two out two run shot to end the game.  You could tell it was gone as soon as it was hit.

Give some props to Joel Zumaya.  He threw two shutout innings to close out the game and he’s now 6-1.

The White Sox and Twins both won as well so it looks like the AL Central is back to one big matching game. 

What a game.  The Tigers were down 5-0 and they came back to win it in 7-6.  Craig Monroe continued his excellent second half with a two run homerun that gave the Tigers the lead.

Jeremy Bonderman struggled, although he’s had some problems against the Indians in the past.  It was a great lineup that he faced, but he spotted them three runs in the first inning.

Also give some props to Roman Colon and Todd Jones. Colon did give up a run after the loading the bases up, but he got out of the jam.  Jones gave up a a two out single to Victor Martinez to make things interesting, but he got out of the jam and picked up save number 30.

Today is Paul Byrd and Kenny Rogers.  While I think Rogers’ rotation spot is very safe, a lot of people are calling for him to go to the pen while he’s struggling.  I’m hoping he’ll bounce back here (as long as whoever is playing first base makes their plays) and put those in doubt to rest.

The Tigers signed Andrew Miller today, and that’s huge.  The best player in this year’s draft slipped to the Tigers because of signability issues and once again, Dave Dombrowski got the job done.  Miller will probably head to Lakeland and Dombrowski said at the press conference that Miller could be part of the September call up.

Justin Verlander is going to miss a start because of shoulder fatigue.  Not good news and hopefully this is precautionary.

Elden Auker passed away today at 95 years of age.  The submarine pitcher debuted for the Tigers in 1933 and he was a pivotal part of the rotation in the Tigers’ 1934/1935 pennant winning season.  Auker finished with a career 130-101 record and he won eighteen games in 1935, the year the Tigers won their first World Series.  I think Auker was the oldest living player, so I’m not sure who takes over in that respect.

A pretty solid start by Nate Robertson went to waste tonight.  He threw six shutout innings, then in the seventh, got into trouble.  With one out and runners on first and second, he was pulled in favor of Joel Zumaya, who almost immediately gave up a single to B.J. Upton.  Curtis Granderson came home, but the ball was cut off and they had Upton in a pickle.  Right before they were about to tag Upton, someone (I can’t remember who ended the pickle) came home and the throw was wide.  In the meantime, Upton got to second base.  Fortunately, no further damage was done but we should have gotten at least one out on that at bat.

Just as costly was another botched hit and run attempt.  Dan’s been bringing this up in the comments and once again he proves to be correct. Dmitri Young led off with a single in the seventh, but then he was caught stealing in a strike em out, throw em out double play when Craig Monroe couldn’t make contact on the hit and run.  True to form, Sean Casey then singled, which would have given us a runner in scoring position with only one out.

Speaking of Young, he had another good game.  Three for four, including a ninth inning double that gave the Tigers a chance in the ninth. 

The Tigers come home for three games against the Indians.  Tomorrow’s gave will have Jeremy Bonderman going up against Cliff Lee.  Bonderman’s had a tough time in three of his last four starts, including the eight inning melt down game last weekend against the Twins.  Hopefully he’ll be able to bounce back and get the Tigers back on track.

Okay, the Tigers were only down by one, but after scoring two first inning runs, the Tigers’ bats didn’t do much until the eighth inning.  Magglio Ordonez doubled home two runs and then Craig Monroe continued his solid second half (.353/.375/.603 in 69 at bats since the All Star break) with a two run shot.  The Tigers added two more in the ninth as insurance but those two runs ended up not being needed.

Fernando Rodney is beginning to scare me almost as much as Todd Jones does.  He came in to pitch in the eighth and immediately walked the lead off hitter.  He ended up getting out of the inning, but that’s not what you want to do when the team just came back and gave you a three run lead.

Dmitri Young homered again, and he’s pulled his batting average all the way up to .250.  Since he’s come back, he’s hit .394/.447/.848 in 33 at bats.  I know that’s a small sample size, but he’s been absolutely raking the ball.  He’s hit a homerun in five of his last seven games.  And this is just how the Tigers’ season is going.  In April it was Chris Shelton and then in May and June, Marcus Thames was getting the job done.  Now in July, it’s been Craig Monroe and now Dmitri Young.  And all the while you’ve got guys like Curtis Granderson, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen and Pudge Rodriguez who have been consistently good for most of the year.

Even though it’s get away day, the Tigers play in the evening.  It’ll be Nate Robertson against the struggling Jae Seo, who’s played for his third team in the past twelve months.

What a night for Carlos Guillen.  He tripled in his first at bat, homered in his second and then lined out in the fourth for his third at bat.  In the sixth, Guillen singled and then in the eighth he doubled to finish up the cycle.  The last time a Tiger hit for the cycle was in 2001 when Damion Easly did it.  I was at that game.

Sean Casey had a nice game in his debut for the Tigers.  Two for five with a homerun, two runs and two RBIs.  He also made a nice scoop to finish up a great play by Brandon Inge in what I think was the fourth inning (maybe the third, I was putting my son to bed and caught it as I was leaving the room).  Rookie Bret Clevlen had a career day.  Three for five with two homeruns (his first two of his career), two RBIs and three runs.  He almost got his third outfield assist in this one as well.

Justin Verlander was only okay, but the bullpen picked him up and he won his fourteenth game.  Once again, I question why Joel Zumaya was used in a blowout.  I would have thought maybe Walker would come in first, and then once the game was in hand, Jason Grilli would finish it up.

According to Will Carroll, Mike Maroth should start his rehab assignment next week.  It’s encouraging to know that help is on the way.

Another rough outing by Kenny Rogers.  He did cross another innings threshold in yesterday’s start (now has 130 1/3 innings) so it’ll be interesting to see whether he further regresses or can bounce back.  His ERA is now up to 4.63 and his WHIP (1.30) and batting average against (.266) are both right around his career averages.  He’s now only had one start in his last seven where he gave up less then four runs.  Probably the most distressing was the uncharecteristic four walks that he gave up last night.  Two of those guys ended up scoring runs so they came back to haunt as they usually do.

Wil Ledezma gave up a run and allowed an inherited runner to score in his two innings of work, but he struck out four batters.  So he was a mixed bag.  Those two runs didn’t end up coming into play, but after the two runs in the ninth, the Tigers would have been a lot closer then the 7-3 deficit they faced.

Casey Fossum made us look bad at times.  He struck out ten Tigers and it wasn’t until the Tigers got deeper into the pen when they finally put a couple of more runs on the board.  Craig Monroe and Dmitri Young hit back to back homeruns in the ninth but by then, the game was pretty much over.  The Devil Rays bunched all of their runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth. 

Today, Justin Verlander goes up against former Royal J.P. Howell.  Howell came over to the Devil Rays from the Royals in the Joey Gathright trade, and he was a decent pitching prospect who got stuck in the Royal’s farm system.  He makes his season debut in place of the injured Scott Kazmir.  Sean Casey will make his Tiger debut.

This is one of the low risk, low return type of trades that at the end of the day, probably won’t have much of an impact one way or the other on how the team does down the stretch.  Sean Casey is a a career .304 hitter, and he will take a walk (.377 OBP this year).  The problem is, he hits for pretty much no power.  He has three homeruns this year, and other then his breakout 2004 season, Casey’s hit no more then 14 homeruns in a season in the past five years.  Casey’s biggest problem is, while he doesn’t strikeout a ton, the downside of that is a ton of double plays.  Casey grounded into 27 last year and is pretty slow.

On the flip side, everyone points to Chris Shelton’s struggles but he seemed to be getting back on track.  In a “what have you done for me lately,” Shelton hit .289/.344/.386 in July.  He hit only one homerun.  While that doesn’t sound too impressive, Casey hit .308/.389/.359 with no homeruns in July which isn’t that much better.

Neither Casey nor Shelton are stellar fielders, so that’s a wash.  Basically, I see this deal as insurance.  It gives us one more guy in case Dmitri Young has a melt down, or someone like Marcus Thames, who’s been spending some time at DH, gets hurt.  And it gives Chris Shelton some time to experiment and maybe get back to where he was in April without much pressure down at Toledo.  On top of that, Casey is supposed to be a good locker room prescence.  While I don’t really look at that as a huge positive, it’s much better then getting someone with a bad attitude (duh).

And you have to feel for Casey.  He went from the worst team in the National League to the best team in baseball right now.  He seemed excited on the radio so hopefully the chance at a ring gives him some motivation and he gets off to a nice start tomorrow.

More on this tonight.  I’m not overwhelmed and think it was unneccesary, but the price wasn’t very high.

What a weird inning and what a way for the wheels to come off the wagon.  Jeremy Bonderman was cruising.  He had a one hitter going through seven innings, and that one hit was the lead off hitter in the first inning.  Then Bonderman went five batters without getting an out and mixed in there was an error by Chris Shelton and a bases loaded balk by Bonderman.  The Tigers actually got the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but they fell short of coming back. 

On the face of things, if you would have told me on Friday afternoon that the Tigers would win two of three, I would have taken it.  The one bright point of the day was the White Sox lost their game when the Orioles came back on them in the ninth inning.  So the Tigers head into a four game series against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, minus Scott Kazmir, with an eight and a half game lead.

The second big deadline deal took place today.  Earlier this week, Carlos Lee went to Texas and now today, Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle are both Yankees.  I’m not sure I like this influx of talent all coming to the American League but I don’t see the Tigers making a big splash tomorrow as the first trade deadline expires.

***UPDATE***

For a Twins’ fan perspective of yesterday’s game, here’s Aaron Gleeman’s analysis of what went down yesterday.  Good stuff as always from Aaron.

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