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April 17, 1935 White Sox 7, Tigers 6 (0-1)

The defending American League champions dropped their home opener to the White Sox in a back and forth afair. The Sox jumped out to a four run lead in the fourth, but Schoolboy Rowe held on through the middle innings, allowing the Tigers to tie the game up in the sixth.

Rowe got hit hard in the top of the eighth and gave up three runs that put the White Sox in front for good. The Tigers bounced back with two in the bottom half of the inning, but couldn’t complete the comeback.

Goose Goslin had a big game for the home team. He went three for four with a homerun, and he crossed the plate twice. Schoolboy gave up ten hits and seven runs in the loss.

Tomorrow will being my most ambitous project on this blog. I’m going to take a stab at documenting the first season that the Tigers won the World Series. What’s somewhat ironic is when the great Tiger teams are thrown on the table, you always here of 1968 and 1984. Rarely do you hear of 1935. But the third team that usually gets put into that class is the 1934 Tigers.

At the time, the 1934 Tigers set the team record for wins in a season (101), this has since been tied (1961) and passed in both 1968 and 1984, but the mark for winning percentage still stands (.656) to this day.

It was Hall of Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane’s first season coaching the team, and he had about as good of a collection of talent as you can get. Four future Hall of Famers played for the Tigers that season, and you can make a strong case that Tommy Bridges should be a fifth. As a team, the Tigers hit .300 (and this included pitchers hitting) and had a team OPS+ of 114.

Hank Greenberg’s 63 doubles is still fourth on the all time list. Five players on the team were in the top 10 in the MVP voting, with the winner and runner up being Mickey Cochrane and Charlie Gehringer. Four starters had an OBP above .400, and Gerhinger’s .450 was second in the league. Five players scored 100 runs, and four drove in more then 100.

And their pitching was solid as well. Schoolboy Rowe and Tommy Bridges both won 20 games, and they finished second and third in strikeouts.

As a team, the Tigers 957 runs scored was more then a hundred more then the next closest team. They finished second in ERA (4.06), second in strikeouts (640), and allowed the fewest walks (488).

About the only negative you can throw at this team is they outperformed their Pythagorean Win/Loss by three wins. Oh, and they did quite pull it off in the World Series as they lost to the Cardinals in seven games. They’d have to wait until the following year to finally claim their ring (and they’d eventually get their revenge by topping the Cards in 1968).

So be sure to check back tomorrow (and throughout the season) as the Tigers make history and bring home their first World Series.

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.

This is sounding like a broken record, but I was in bed all weekend with the stomach flu. When people tell you that infants are germ factories, they’re not kidding. I was hoping to put the whole sick thing behind me once April started, but this weekend might have been the worst. Thankfully I’m feeling better today, so I’ll comment on the Tigers Opening Day game tonight.

Baseball’s here folks. It doesn’t get much better then this.

There’s two guys who, when interviewed on the radio, I literally pull the car over to make sure I catch the whole interview. One of those guys is Sparky Anderson. He’s very entertaining to listen to, and while I don’t always agree with his strategy, he’s the Hall of Famer not me, so what do I know.

The second guy is Ernie Harwell. If there’s one guy I could sit down and talk baseball with for a few hours, it’s Mr. Harwell. And Billfer got to do just that, so make sure you check out his interview with Ernie Harwell.

Nook Logan wasn’t much of a surprise, despite his struggles of late. Bobby Higginson was. Despite the fact Marcus Thames probably deserved to make the team, I like this move.

Basically, Tram and the boys are giving Higgy one last chance to show his stuff. Had we cut him, we would have gotten nothing in return. Now Higginson has a chance to play for what’s basically his career, and hopefully he’ll be up to the challenge and help out this team. He provides a good eye, and a left handed bat that hopefully will find its stroke.

And if he doesn’t perform, he’ll be cut like everyone thought he’d be. There’d be no real harm unless Thames holds all this against the team. Hopefully he’s professional enough not to do that. He’ll get to play everyday down in Toledo, and in the event something happens to Rondell White, be it trade or injury, he’ll be able to step in and provide the Tigers with another quality bat.

In the meantime, we’ll hopefully be able to build some value by playing Higginson. If he does well, it will either benefit the team by providing them an offensive boost, or it will help them by allowing them to trade him to a team that might yield a low grade prospect of some kind. Something is better then nothing. And if he’s struggling at the end of April, a lot of people will get their wish and he’ll probably be gone.

One of the consequences of taking care of a sick kid and wife is a total lack of sleep. The previous two nights I’ve been pretty much been up since 2 AM, with maybe a couple short cat naps between then and 6 AM when I usually get up for work.

So I’m not too surprised that I botched up the fact that Estaban Yan wasn’t put on the DL, but Fernando Rodney was. And yes, Yan doesn’t even play for us anymore. So I touched up my previous entry to make it correct, but I wanted to apologize for those of you who stopped by and read the wrong version.

The Tigers put Rodney on the DL today. His shoulder was stiffening up. Tram said it’s common for guys who go through Tommy John surgery to have shoulder tightness out of the gate. Hopefully he’ll be back to form because he looked quite good this spring. It does make the Tigers decision a little easier though, so German will be making the squad.

Tigers are down 4-0 early. Knotts gave up two homers in the first inning.

This could have been the feel good story of the spring. In some ways, it’s disappointing because you always want to root for a guy who’s trying to make it back. Palmer has hit .302 this spring, but he’s hit only one homer, and the rest of his nine hits have been singles. And with the way Inge has hit the ball during the preseason, it made it a little easier for Tram. I’m not sure if he’s going to accept a AAA assignment, or whether this means he’s going to retire.

Jason Johnson’s struggles have knocked him from the Opening Day start. Your new opening day pitcher is Jeremy Bonderman. Good for the kid, because he deserves it. If we’re grooming him to be the ace, we should treat him like he’s one.

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