I gotta say, I’m more optimistic now than I was at the start of the season. Look at the batting averages, everybody except Polanco, maybe Granderson will go up. Two of our five pitchers have been hit around (Maroth, Durbin.) The bullpen minus Jones, Zumaya, and Ledezma has struggled…yet they are 8-5.

Well, we have no chance in this game. Maroth is already about to give up at least one run, and Perez is in the lineup.

Mike Maroth is not a good pitcher, and I’m not sure why anyone thinks he is or ever was. There are a million pitchers just like Mike Maroth.

Well..as I was typing this he gave up an RBI single to Mike Sweeney. It was a 80-some mph “fast”ball right down the middle of the plate, thigh high.

Sheffield has been just awful. We can’t expect the rest of the players to keep bailing him out, as Ordonez did in the first inning today. If Sheffield can’t get a man home with one out and a lefthander on the mound, he is worthless. This cannot continue.

Maybe he will snap out of it, but then again, maybe not. That’s the risk you take when you sign a player as old as Sheffield. Guys like that tend to drop off of a cliff at a moment’s notice.

3rd inning, 1st and 2nd, no one out, and Sheffield pops out. Utter garbage. He’s swinging at pitches out of the strike zone, and he’s not hitting the ball hard. This says to me that his timing is off or that he’s losing bat speed. ot every team is going to hand us ballgames the way the Royals have been.

Unfortunately, Sheffield is a world-reknowned jerk and because they’re paying him a fortune for these pop-ups, you can’t send a message or drop him down in the order. No matter how bad he looks you have to keep carting his ass out there.

Well, bailed out again by Ordonez. Nice to see him hitting again.

So Gary Sheffield is a bad player and Mike Maroth is going to get bombed? I don’t know Dan, things are looking pretty good so far.

You don’t think Mike Maroth sucks, Brian?

Sheffield has been a bad player so far. Not just abad player, a really terrible player. We could have gambled and lost on this one, Brian.

Also Brian, Casey replaced Thames in the 5th, right after Thames hit a homer. Why? There is no indication from the guys in the booth. It looks to be a simple switch. Are you kidding me?

Also, they had better hold on, and Maroth will have to pitch pretty deep because Mesa shat the bed yesterday, forcing Leyland to go to Zumaya, who is unavailable tonight.

Stupid decisions all over the place. Mesa. Casey. Thames never plays, and then he gets jerked around when he does play. They’re winning tonight, Brian, you’re right. It’s going well so far. Does that mean the decisions weren’t stupid? The Royals have the worst pitching staff on the planet, and they’ve handed us runs the entire series. No every team will do that. I’m talking about recognizing problems before they kill the team. It’s not my fault no one is listening.

My mistake – looks like maybe Thames is still feeling a little sick. Unfortunately, a sick Thames is a better hitter than a healthy, waddling, powerless Sean Casey.

In case you’re wondering what it is I’m asking of you, I’ll answer that now. When the Tigers pick up a piece of garbage player like Sean Casey, Mesa or Neifi Perez, I don’t want everyone on every blog to say what they all said: “I just don’t understand this move by Dave Dombrowski.”

It’s not rocket science. There is nothing to understand. Call them what they are – dumb moves made by someone who hasn’t thought things through. Jose Mesa is nothing more than a name. People who evaluate the performance of baseball players objectively aren’t fooled by things like that, and we recognize that he’s been crap for a long time now. He’s old and he’s been crap for a while now. He’s done.

Nice AB by Sheffield there, striking out against a lefty on whom the rest of the team has been teeing off all day. Bad sign, and it probably indicates more than a garden variety slump.

Yeah Brian, the game is going great now.

Rod Allen, when Maroth came out of the game:

“Mike Maroth did a nice job today.”

5 2/3 IP, 7 hits, 4 earned runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts. Yeah, grat job!

Maroth had a string of good outings last year, and that’s all he’s ever done. He has been garbage his entire professional career. If Maroth is anything other than your 5th starter or swing man, you are not a contending team. He has garbage, and no Brian, it’s not second guessing. I have been saying this for all of Maroth’s career. He sucks.

Good thing we have Casey’s bat in the lineup now though.

No, I don’t think Mike Maroth sucks.

That was obligatory for Sheffield. Thank you for chipping in, Chef.

4.78 lifetime ERA, ERA+ of 91, current ERA 5.40, but i guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.

My problem is that he’s talked about as though he’s a good pitcher. He is, at his best, a league average pitcher. That has value, to be sure, be he isn’t at his best all that often. He throws like 84 miles per hour.

How about Casey. You think Casey sucks?

Ledezma walks the leadoff batter on 4 straight pitches. Nice.

For the record, I don’t think Ledezma sucks. That sucked though. Too bad we don’t have Zumaya for this situation.

Maroth is pretty much like a lefthanded James Baldwin, except not as many strikeouts, if you can imagine that. And James Baldwin isn’t even the most famous James Baldwin.

An added note: no matter what we feel about Maroth or Casey, we can all agree that Polanco is pure magic. Unreal.

No, I don’t think Sean Casey sucks either.

You have a funny way of looking at baseball players, Brian. I think what you mean to say is, “He’s a Tiger, so I don’t want hiom to suck.” That’s different than the objective reality, which I assure you confirms that Sean Casey sucks.

I know you can’t agree with me on this, Brian, because it’s anathema to the Tigerblog sesibility. Still, I know you know I’m right.