The Jacque Jones era ended with a whimper today as the Tigers designated him for assignment after a tough first month to the season.  He was hitting a tepid .165/.244/.253 and with the lack of power, the Tigers must have felt it was time to cut bait.  The bad thing is, he did this bad against righties because he was given just four plate appearances (all strikeouts) against left handed pitching.  Not that this means anything, but historically, Jones has done well in April.  His career line is .287/.341/.450 and that includes this past April that really brought those numbers down.

Matthew Joyce gets the nod and he was kind of at the right place at the right time.  The Tigers twelfth round draft pick in 2005 out of Florida Southern, Joyce tore up the New York-Penn League (.332/.394/.453 in 247 at bats) in his first minor league.  Since then, he had struggled up until this past season.  He put up mediocre numbers in West Michigan in 2006 and then he skipped Lakeland to play at Erie last year where once again he seemed over his head.  This year he seemed to put it together and at Toledo, he was hitting .299/.367/.526 and he already has five homers.  He’s hitting .304 against right handed pitching and it was the left handed bat that probably caught people’s eye when it came time to decide who got the nod.

Joyce is 0 for 2 with a walk tonight as the Tigers are down 4-1.  I’d be nice if he could help the Tigers get something done against Dice-K here.

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