Archive for the '2008 Tigers' Category

Yeah, it’s now 0-7.  Even worse, it was another shutout as Dice-K and the Red Sox bullpen did a number on the Tigers.  Keep in mind, these are the defending champs and the odds on favorites to win it all again this year and they’re playing on their home turf.  This would have been a series where there wouldn’t be much shame if the Tigers dropped two of three with but with the perceived (yes, it’s perceived) desperation, the series takes on a completely different meaning.

The Tigers managed just five hits and two of those came from Gary Sheffield.  It’d be nice to see Sheffield heat up because I’m still convinced that how Gary goes, so goes the Tigers.  Yeah, you have Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez but my bet is, the team’s success will be more closely correlated with how Sheffield is hitting.

Kenny Rogers had a mediocre start but it wasn’t one where he’d be neccesarily handed a loss if the team actually gave him some run support.  Jason Grilli had another rough outing and he gave up two runs while Aquilino Lopez threw a 2 1/3 shutout innings.

Jeremy Bonderman gets the start tomorrow and he’ll face Jon Lester.  I like this matchup, and hence I like our chances in this one.  All monumental taks begin with a single step and hopefully that first step comes tomorrow for the Tigers.

In case you haven’t heard, the Tigers are off to a rather pedestrian start.  When it was 0-3, I told people it wasn’t a problem and even at 0-6, I’m not TOO concerned yet but history tells us some interesting things.  Only two teams have started 0-6 and made the playoffs.  The 1974 Pirates and the 1995 Reds both did it (I picked this up on the telecast last night so I hope they’re the only ones) so there’s some history that teams have been able to bounce back.  The bad news is, the 1974 Pirates won 88 games and the 1995 Reds won just 85.  I’m figuring at a minimum, the Tigers will have to win 92-93 wins to make the playoffs and even that might be low.

Taking this a step further, two American League teams last year had losing streaks of at least six games and still made the playoffs.  The Yankees lost seven in a row for their longest streak and the Angels had a six game skid so the long skid doesn’t neccesarily mean the Tigers are in really deep water.  Ironically, the two teams that made it into the ALCS, the Red Sox and Indians, had just a four game losing streak as their longest. 

I also still think the Indians are the team to beat and they stand at 3-3.  That means the Tigers, while they’re 4 1/2 games out of first place, are just three games back against their primary competition.  I know it’s probably a bit arrogant to discount the White Sox start but I’m figuring they’ll come back down to earth soon.

What’s disconcerting is that American League low ERA of 5.30.  That’s the category where the Tigers are going to have to improve.  I know they haven’t scored the runs, but even with this offense, an ERA of 4.75 isn’t going to do them much better then 85 wins.  Still, through these first six games, the Tigers have the worse offense (15 runs scored) and their pitchers have given up the most runs.  This sounds like a no brainer, but that cannot continue.

Is it disappointing that the Tigers are off to such a bad start considering this is the most anticipated season of my lifetime?  Sure it is, but there’s still months to recover.  And for those keeping score, no team has started 0-7 and made the playoffs so the question is, will tomorrow night’s game be the most important of the season?  Hardly, but it’ll be one more shovel full of dirt that’s coming out of the hole the Tigers are digging themselves into if the lose.

I know the games not over but in a lot of ways, it truly is over.  It’s 13-2 and while the Tigers have the bases loaded, this was still an ugly loss.  It finishes up another sweep and the Tigers now fall to 0-6.

Spoke too soon.  A double play just ended the game.  Sigh.

Anyway, the Tigers are now 0-6 and they head to Fenway for a series against the defending champs.  It’s getting late and I want to go to bed on a good note so I’m not even going to pour through tonight’s box score.  The Tigers have the day off tomorrow so I’ll opine on all of this with a more clear head.

Alright, this is getting old.  Dontrelle Willis had about as bizarre of a start as I could remember.  He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning but he walked seven and after giving up two runs, Zach Miner was the latest reliever to implode and a 3-0 lead turned into a 4-3 deficit in a hurry.

Chris Shelton, I mean Clete Thomas, continues to rake and he went two for five.  Four career games and he has a four game hitting streak.  Brandon Inge was the guy who put the team on his back though.  He went two for three with a walk, a double, a homer and he drove in all three runs for the Tigers.  Jacque Jones was two for three with a walk and two runs.

The Tigers try to avoid their second straight sweep tomorrow afternoon.  Justin Verlander gets another chance and it’ll be a once Tiger killer, Mark Buehrle, throwing for the White Sox.

I’m really digging Mosaic for MLB.TV.  There’s only four games on right now, but it’s neat to be able to flip around between games.

The good news is, the Tigers scored a season high five runs.  The bad news is, that’s how many A.J. Pierzynski drove in just by himself as Tigers pitching laid an egg.  Nate Robertson was knocked around for five runs and ten hits in ten innings and Jason Grilli takes the loss with a three run seventh inning.  Denny Bautista and Todd Jones did their job in the eighth and ninth but no dice for a comeback by the hitters.

Clete Thomas has played three games in his career and he has a three game hitting streak.  Today he hit an impressive three for four with a stolen base, an RBI and a run.  Ivan Rodriguez also had his best game of the season with two doubles, a single, two runs and two RBIs.  Miguel Cabera was back in the lineup at DH and both he and Carlos Guillen walked three times.

Dontrelle Willis makes his Tiger debut tomorrow on the national stage in Fox’s game of the week at 4 pm.  Gavin Floyd gets the start for the White Sox.  Willis had a tough spring but the way things are going, he’ll be the guy to bust us out of this slump.

And there’s more from Andrew Hess.  He touches on the White Caps blowout win in their opener in South Bend.

I read an article a while back that said to be really good at something, you need to practice it extensively for ten years.  If that’s the case, you have to put up a lack of excellence for five more years because today marks the fifth anniversary that I started this blog.  Originally, it was an attachment to a fantasy baseball league I ran but it eventually branched out into it’s own domain.  I blogged infrequently the first couple of months and it wasn’t really until July of 2003 that I really found my groove and started taking it seriously.

Since then, I’ve been in seven books (eighth will be out soon), talked to Ernie Harwell on the phone, mixed it up with some of the better known stat gurus, and helped bring SABR back to Detroit.  I’ve also had the privelage to work with several other great bloggers and I’ve learned a ton.  Not just about the Tigers and their rich history but about sabermetrics as well as the happenings in team’s front offices.  I look back and it’s been a wild ride but I wouldn’t have traded it for anything and I hope five year’s from now, I’m still going strong.

Another rough one today.  Zach Greinke shut down the Tigers and it wasn’t until Brandon Inge went yard in the seventh inning that the Tigers scored their first run since Monday.  Inge has stepped it up nicely.  In addition to the homer, he singled and drew a walk.  Ivan Rodriguez continues to struggle as his exception spring didn’t carry over into the real season.

Miguel Cabrera missed the game because of a strained quad.  Inge moved to third and Clete Thomas got the start out in centerfield.  Leyland put him in the leadoff spot of all places and he finished one for four.

Jeremy Bonderman was good enough through five innings but then the Royals got to him for runs in the sixth and seventh innings.  Bobby Seay and mostly Aquilino Lopez held the Royals scoreless the rest of the way but the hitters could manage just the jack from Inge.

Nate Robertson gets the start tomorrow and he was one of the Tigers’ more effective starters this spring.  The White Sox will go with Jose Contreras.

Brian Bannister showed up on a lot of overrated fantasy player lists this past year but I have a feeling that everyone other then Edgar Renteria thinks the Royals starter might have a solid season.  The Tigers were held to just three singles in this one and all three were by Renteria.  They drew a walk and of their four baserunners, two were eliminated by double plays and in only one instance did a Tiger (Renteria) reach second base.  This is about as bad as it gets for offensive performances.

Kenny Rogers was good enough but like Justin Verlander on Monday, he had a bad late inning.  He gave up two runs in the sixth and Zach Miner gave up two in the eight to make it the 4-0 final.

Jeremy Bonderman gets the nod tomorrow against Zach Greinke.  This will be the game the Tigers bats get hot for the simple reason that Greinke is on my fantasy team.  It’s funny how you have a lot of doom and gloom on the radio already.  Not like every team, even the good ones, have two game losing streaks.  And I think the Royals are better then people are giving them credit for.

Unlike my post earlier in the day, I actually have some interesting news.  Last year, I started a sister site, Tigers Minors, to cover the Tigers minor league affiliates.  The first piece of news is, Mike Cassidy has agreed to write recaps again so hopefully you’ll find the site a nice one stop source for updates on all of the teams in the Tigers minor league system.

Not to take anything anyway from Mike, but that’s not the big news.  What’s even more interesting is Andrew Hess, who pitched for UM and was the Tigers nineteenth round draft pick in 2007, will be blogging about his experiences in the minor league at Tigers Minors as well.  He’ll be starting the season with the White Caps and his first post is on some of his spring training experiences.  Stop by and say hello.

The Tigers lost to the Royals today 5-4 in a game where the Tigers definitely had some nice moments.  Miguel Cabrera belted his first homerun as a Tiger, Carlos Guillen belted a huge eighth inning homer to tie the game and then Brandon Inge gunned down a runner at the plate in the top of the eleventh to prevent a run.  Of course on the next play, Inge bobbled the ball but with two outs and the runner going on the crack of the bat, he would have had a tough time making any play at the plate.

Edgar Renteria put the Tigers on the board in the second inning with an RBI double and Gary Sheffield drew a bases loaded walk in the fourth to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.  Cabrera belted his solo shot in the fifth and it looked like the game was in hand with a 3-0 lead and Justin Verlander having a one hit shutout through five innings.

Then the wheels fell of the wagon in the sixth.  Alex Gordon took Verlander deep for a two run blast and then he left runners at the corners with nobody out.  The guy at third scored off of Jason Grilli to tie the game and then the other inherited runner scored on a single off of Aquilino Lopez.  For those who thought the bullpen was a concern, Tigers game number one is also case study number one.

Carlos Guillen tied things up in the eight with a no doubt about it blast but Denny Baustista gave up the go ahead run in the eleventh inning (his second inning of work).  Clete Thomas led off the bottom of the eleventh with a double in his major league debut but the Tigers couldn’t push him around to score.

I looked at the advance Gameday data and the Clete Thomas at bat was an interesting one.  Joakim Soria threw him four straight fast balls to push the count to 2-2.  The fifth pitch was his only breaking ball and he belted it for a double.  Soria handled Renteria in a similar fashion with five straight fastballs to make it 2-2 (there was a foul in there) but it was finally a slider that sent Renteria to the dugout.

And here’s the WPA graph of the game.  When Justin Verlander got the first out in the sixth inning, the Tigers had an 88.4% chance of winning.  This fell to just under 70% after the Gordon homer and it turned when the Royals scored two in the seventh.

The Tigers get the day off tomorrow and then it’ll be Kenny Rogers going up against Brian Bannister.  I’ll be at work so I won’t get to catch this one although I’ll probably Tivo the game.

Brandon Inge just gunned down Mark Teahan at the plate in the top of the eleventh.  If the Tigers pull this one out, that’s the play of the game.

Miguel Cabrera hit his first homer as a Tiger.  Tigers lead 3-0 and Justin Verlander has looked very sharp.  I like our chances in this one.

***UPDATE***

Ooops, hope I didn’t speak too soon.  Alex Gordon just went yard with a two run shot.

You can check out my predictions over at the Hardball Times this morning.  People will call me crazy for picking the Reds to win the National League pennant but I really think this team has some talent (although some of it got kicked down to Triple A to start the season).  I also think giving Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey a month or two in the minors will help them out for the long haul.  I’m not a huge fan of Dusty Baker, but he does seem to get his teams to play for him so I view this as a sort of a perfect storm. 

I thought picking the Rays to finish third would put me by myself too but great minds think alike and almost as many people picked them as the Rays.  And it almost worries me that most of the people picked the Tigers. 

Looks like the weather isn’t going to cooperate with everyone tomorrow, which makes for a very tough decision.  Postponing opening day is a logistical nightmare (ask the Indians last year) and at one point in time, it looked like Tuesday was going to be even worse but they’ve changed the forecast since I last checked.  It looks like the best chance of rain, as of right now, is after 4 pm so the best scenario looks like most of the game is played in a light drizzle and they get it in before the bad stuff comes.

I did my predictions and I’ll link to them over at the Hardball Times when they’re up.  It’s been a while since I’ve gone with the home team but the Tigers have as good of a chance as any this year.  Probably my only surprise team is who comes out of the NL Central, which is a crap shoot anyway.

You have to love opening day.  Barring any rainouts, you could turn the TV on at 1 pm and watch baseball nonstop all the way through to 1 am.  It’s kind of like those opening days of the NCAA tournament, only better because it’s baseball.  I’ll have to take about a four hour break (I’m taking the day off, but not going to the game) but I’ll probably have something on most of the day.  I’m hoping to also try out my Mosaic (you can have six games on at the same time) through MLB.TV tomorrow.

In what’s probably the most meaningless game of the year, the Tigers lost their final spring training game in Houston against the Astros.  Nate Robertson had his worst start of the spring while Yorman Bazardo was simply pummelled in the sixth inning.  Carlos Guillen belted his seventh homerun and he was second to only Ivan Rodriguez in that department (Pudge hit eight).   Guillen led the team with RBIs while Pudge led the team with sixteen runs.  On the pitching side, Aquilino Lopez of all people led the team in strikeouts with 17 which is probably why he earned a spot in the pen.  Dontrelle Willis had 15 walks in 16 2/3 innings.

Baseball (real baseball) is here and I couldn’t be happier.  Hopefully the Tigers can put the Royals away tomorrow and get off to a nice start.

At this time of year, a big deal is made about the final roster spot.  It all turns out to be moot because while this player gets the privilege of playing in the major leagues, they’re also the most expendable so if they don’t pan out, the 25th man becomes a new 25th man.  Someone else gets hurt and now the 25th man is the 24th man and so on.  The final decision turns out to be all a big deal over nothing, except probably for the guy who makes the team and the handful of people who didn’t make the cut.

That player 25th player happens to be outfielder Clete Thomas.  The Tigers sixth round pick in 2005, Thomas had an exception debut in the season he was drafted.  He demolished New York/Penn League pitching (1.017 OPS in 70 at bats) before getting bumped up to West Michigan, where he finished off the season with some solid numbers (.284/.356/.376).  In 2006, he played the entire season at Lakeland where he appeared to hit a ceiling.  There he hit just .257/.333/.367 with 127 strikeouts.  He did steal 34 bases and he picked up 30 doubles.

He bounced back last year playing for Erie.  He belted a career high eight homers and he saw a 64 point improvement in his OPS (.764 last year for Erie).  He also struck out less (110) and walked three more times in just four more plate appearances.  His base stealing seemed to meet their match though and he stole just 18 bases in 29 attempts.

Then when you combined a solid spring season (.345 batting with a .500 OBP in 26 at bats) with a Curtis Granderon injury and you have your fifth outfielder.  Clete will probably spell Brandon Inge out in center once in a while but his big league at bats will probably come sparingly.  And his time with the club will probably coincide with how long Granderson is out.

Brandon Inge got it done at the plate today and he was a perfect three for three with three RBIs and a run.   Inge got another start out in centerfield where he’ll start the season and he was also batting ninth, which will most likely be his spot in the lineup.  Clete Thomas belted a two run homer while Placido Polanco went yard with a solo shot in the Tigers 14-5 rout over the Phillies.  It was the final game at Joker Marchant this spring.

Kenny Rogers threw four solid innings in the win and that was his final spring start.  Preston Larrison threw 1 1/3 shutout innings and he could be a dark horse to make the team as a reliever while Aquilino Lopez, another guy who could make the squad, threw a shutout fifth inning.

Just in time for what should be a record setting season at Comerica Park, the team added 778 seats out in right field.  Unless the Tigers fall flat on their face, we should see the team top 3 million fans again this season.  For the first time in a long time, the Tigers are a tough ticket to get before the season even gets underway.

Bill James takes on the question of Alan Trammell’s Hall of Fame chances in an interesting read.  It’s subscriber only but I definitely like James’ logic and conclusions in this analysis.

Dontrelle Willis had another tough time this afternoon in the Tigers 7-4 loss to the Pirates.  He was shelled for seven runs in just three frames and he gave up eight hits and four walks.  No, this wasn’t the Yankees, it was the Pirates.  Even pitcher Zach Duke picked up a pair of hits off of Willis and this caps off a pretty poor spring. 

Willis is one of the polarizing figures with a lot of people on both sides.  His advocates like his style and his near Cy Young season a couple of years ago while his detractors look at his poor 2007 and a move to the American League as a disaster waiting to happen.  I’m leaning more towards the positive but after this spring, it’s hard not to be worried.

And now the Tigers are making their own holes in the bullpen.  Last year’s breakout reliever, Tim Byrdak, has been given his release.  He filled in admirably as the Tigers left handed specialist when Jamie Walker left for the Orioles but now he’s off the team after a very rough spring.  That leaves Bobby Seay as the Tigers primary left hander coming out of the pen to start the season.  Macay McBride is an option but he’s still a work in progress.

Kenny Rogers gets his final start of the spring tomorrow against the Phillies.  It’s on FSN, but it’s an afternoon game.

Ivan Rodriguez continued his hot spring and you have to hope that this carries over into the regular season.  Pudge hit his eighth homer of the spring and after going one for two, he raised his spring batting average to .358.  Magglio Ordonez also continued to rake with three hits, two runs and and an RBI while Miguel Cabrera picked up two singles and he scored twice.  Justin Verlander struggled and he gave up six runs in three innings and Tim Byrdak was also roughed up.  The Tigers pulled it out though with a 10-9 win.  Dontrelle Willis makes his final start of the spring tomorrow afternoon against the Pirates.

Speaking of Cabrera, his blockbuster extension was finalized.  Cabrera will make $152.3 million over the next eight years and it’s the fourth largest deal in baseball history.  It’s fitting because Cabrera is an elite hitter and in four or five years, you’ll probably see more and more $20+ million per year deals being signed.  What a lot of people forget is, Cabrera still doesn’t have an official at bat as a Tiger yet but here’s to hoping that Cabrera is the lynchpin of at least a few Tigers playoff runs.

Jon Paul Morosi wrote a very interesting article about Rick Porcello’s spring.  Be sure to check it out at Baseball America.

Curtis Granderson was placed on the disabled list with his broken finger.  This is a kick in the you know what and it kind of rains on the whole Miguel Cabrera contract extension parade. It looks like he’ll be out at least the first two weeks of the season barring any set back.  Interestingly enough, Brandon Inge appears to be ready to take over as the starting centerfielder.  It also means Ryan Raburn will stick unless the Tigers go with Freddy Guzman instead.

Nate Robertson threw his second to last spring start of the season and once again got the job done.  He gave up just a single run in 5 1/3 innings and that drops his spring ERA to 1.26.  Zach Miner took the brunt of the damage with a two run eighth in the 5-3 win.  Justin Verlander gets the start tomorrow and it’s a 6:05 start time.

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