Archive for the '2007 Tigers' Category

Todd Jones is definitely the roller coaster.  He gave up two ninth inning runs to blow a 4-2 Tigers lead but fortunately he got bailed out in the ninth inning.  I was listening on the radio but missed it and I think Curtis Granderson drove home the winning run.  If I find out otherwise, I’ll let you know.

Jeremy Bonderman had a so so start.  He gave up two runs on four hits in five innings and he struck out four, but he walked three.  Wil Ledezma struck out the side but walked two in his one inning of work and of course Jones was knocked around for the two runs (and he picked up the win for his efforts).  To Jones credit, it was his first blown save of the spring.

Brandon Inge had three hits and both Sean Casey and Craig Monroe were two for two.  For Casey, it was his fifth double of the spring.  Carlos Guillen continued to struggle but he did get a hit to bring his batting average up to only .214.  No worries though.

Bad news for Edward Campusano.  He’s been shut down for the rest of the spring and he’s going to see Dr. James Andrews, which is never a good thing.  It looks like Chad Durbin, who’s also an interesting story in camp, may now be the final guy in the pen to make the team for Detroit.

The Tigers play the Nationals in a day game tomorrow and then Saturday will be the Tigers final split squad game of the spring.  Then from Sunday through Friday, four of the six Tiger games will be on TV.  Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be on FSN and then Friday’s game against the Yankees will be on ESPN.

This isn’t a huge surprise because as of right now, they’re players who don’t have much of a role on the team (whether justified or not), but Jayson Stark commented that both Chris Shelton and Marcus Thames were Tigers’ players who are on the market.  I’m not sure if this is just speculation or whether he knows of something specific out there but I’ve also read that some teams are interested in Thames (as they should be).  Keep in mind that a trade isn’t out of the realm of possibility as spring training wraps up.  One of the greatest Tiger trades ever (Willie Hernandez and Dave Bergman for John Wockenfuss and Glenn Wilson in 1984) happened in late March.  In fact, Saturday is the anniversay of that trade.

Jason Beck previewed the Tigers yesterday and provided a bunch of useful information on the upcoming season.  He talks about the team’s strengths and weaknesses as well as some of the key series we won’t want to miss this season, including a May interleague series against the Cardinals.  Good stuff and there’s also links to some of the more specific Tiger preview columns put out recently (like their minor league preview).

Tigers Minors recently discusses a great interview of Jair Jurrjens by Baseball America.  Be sure to stop by and check it out.

MLB.com’s Jason Beck recently profiled the Tigers rotation.  There’s no doubt that the Tigers’ rotation is their perceived strength and to win another pennant, they’ll have to ride those starters.  He touches on Kenny Rogers age, has some quotes from Jim Leyland and also discusses Justin Verlander’s spring struggles.

Mark TR Donahue at Bad Altitude opines on the Tigers’ chances in 2007.  He brings up some good points although it looks like he still holds a grudge towards some of the vending employees at Comerica Park (I’m assuming it’s at Comerica Park, although he doesn’t say so specifically).  Just like my hotdogs, I prefer mustard on my pretzels so I’m not sure what the big deal is.  Nice read though.

Whether you believe in “clutch” hitting or not, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Craig Monroe had some big hits last year.  With that said, I think Monroe’s clutch ability is a bit overstated.  He hit only .259 last year with runnners in scoring position and he was only a .225 hitter with two outs and with runners in scoring position.  His late and close average is a bit better (.294) but hardly spectacular.  It was the seven homeruns he hit in late and close games that Tiger fans remember.  Will he be able to repeat this in 2007?

Regardless, this MLB.com profiles Craig Monroe and talks about how he hopes to become a more well rounded player.  This includes getting it done in non-clutch situations.  My opinion is, if he just works on becoming a better hitter, things will fall into place a bit better in every aspect of his game.

Justin Verlander was touched up for three runs on five hits and two walks in four innings of work. He did strikeout four batters though and the even worse thing was, the poor outing actually improved his ERA slightly to 8.31. He’s got a couple more starts before the real games start so hopefull he’s getting all of these hits out of his system.

Jose Mesa threw two shutout frames and Preston Larrison and Tim Byrdak each pitched a scoreless inning.  At the plate, Ryan Rayburn and Brandon Inge each had two hits and Inge scored the only run of the game for the Tigers.  He was driven home by Rayburn in the ninth inning.  Ivan Rodriguez hit leadoff again and he drew a walk while Craig Monroe played left field and doubled in the game.

The Tigers get the day off tomorrow then they play a late afternoon game against the Indians on Thursday.  This is the Tigers first and only day off since they started playing spring games.

I’m bouncing the idea around of having a little meet and greet on next Wendesday (3/28).  The Tigers are on FSN at 1:05 (they’re only televised weekday day game) so I might try to find a spot with WiFi, grab some lunch and if you want to stop by, grab a bite and if people show up, talk some baseball.  If you’re interested at all, let me know either with a comment or an email and I’ll try to pick a spot that will allow the most people to stop by. And if nobody’s interested, I’ll just sit at home and watch it and we can try again later in the season.  No sweat.

MLB.com beat writer Jason Beck answered more reader questions in a mailbag column yesterday.  He spends the most time on why Andrew Miller was sent to Lakeland and he fields the question nicely.  I thought he’d start the season at Erie but his explanation for his Lakeland start is the best I’ve seen.

He also touches on where the Tigers offense is relative to the rest of the league this spring and he also fields a question from a guy from my hometown (Southgate) about whether Ivan Rodriguez retires if the Tigers win it all.

The Pirates are taking it to Justin Verlander.  It’s 3-0 in the third inning.

This really bummed me out when I read about it, but it looks like Edward Campusano’s run for a spot in the Tigers pen might have been derailed when his elbow started bothering him.  There was an MRI yesterday, but there still hasn’t been a diagnosis so it’s probably a wait and see.  I’m pretty sure if he goes on the DL, we can still hold onto him under the Rule Five rules (I remember something similar happening with Chris Shelton) so he migth still have a future with the team even if it is pretty serious.  Hopefully it’s not and he’s back on the mound soon.

The Tigers have been pretty careful with Craig Monroe this spring.  He’s played in a lot of the Tigers spring games but he’s also had his share of time as the designated hitter.  Now Rick Wilton from the Baseball Injury Report sheds some light on Craig Monroe’s injured knee.  It appears to be something he can play through, but it’s also something that will bother him all season and limit his production.  While I’m sure the Tigers are entertaining offers for Marcus Thames, you wonder whether the Tigers might want to hang onto as insurance in the even Monroe misses a significant amount of time.  Then again, with the Tigers depth of outfielders, they could always just call up someone like Brent Clevlen.

The Tigers won again and they did it behind a solid game by Gary Sheffield.  The left fielder hit a solo homerun and he also walked twice and scored twice.  Sean Casey was two for two with a run and an RBI while Timo Perez was two for four with a run.

On the pitching side, Kenny Rogers gave up two runs on three hits and two walks with a strikeout in five innings.  Joel Zumaya pitched two more shutout frames while Todd Jones was his old self.  He didn’t give up any runs, but he gave up two hits.

Tomorrow, Justin Verlander throws for the Tigers against the Pirates.  Game time is 1:05.

David Laurila at Baseball Prospectus recently had a chance to interview JeremyBonderman.  It’s a great read and they talk about everything from what stats Bonderman feels are most important to how he throws his pitches.  Probably the most interesting part is Bonderman’s pregame warm up routine.

The Tigers won their fourth straight spring game today with an 8-6 win over the Blue Jays.  Cameron Maybin proved why he’s one of the Tigers top prospects with another solid game.  He hit his second homerun of the spring en route to a two for four performance with three RBIs and two runs.  Magglio Ordonez had two hits and two RBIs while Ivan Rodriguez (batting leadoff) had two hits and two runs.

On the pitching side, Jeremy Bonderman (more on him) was roughed up.  He gave up five runs (four earned) on five hits and two walks with three strikeouts in four innings of work.  The pen picked him up though and Preston Larrison threw two shutout frames and Todd Jones and Joel Zumaya each kept their scoreless springs alive with a shutout inning.

Jeremy Bonderman was picked to pitch opening day for the Tigers and he’ll most likely face Roy Halladay on April 2.  Also, the Tigers sent Yorman Bazardo and possibly Kody Kirkland down to the minors.  You can check out the details at Tigers Minors.

Tomorrow, the Tigers split up the squads with games against the Devil Rays and the Braves.  More important, the game against the Devil Rays will be the first FSN broadcast of the spring.  Be sure to tune it at one o’clock.

The Tigers continued to roll as they outhit the Phillies today.  Brandon Inge had a big game.  he doubled, tripled and drove in five runs.  Carlos Guillen, Curtis Granderson and Timo Perez all homered in the 12-9 win.

Mike Maroth threw five innings and in four of those he was pretty solid.  He did give up three runs in third though.  All of the damage came on a three run shot by Shane Victorino.  Jose Mesa was bombed for three runs in the sixth inning (no surprise) while Edward Campusano showed he’s mortal when he gave up three runs in the ninth.  Campusano did strike out two in just the one inning though.

The Tigers are now 11-6 this spring and the Yankees are the only American League team with a better record.  Next up in the road show is the Blue Jays in a day game.  Jeremy Bonderman gets the start.

Nate Silver is the latest baseball writer to preview the Tigers with a nicely penned article over at Baseball Prospectus.  He talks about Gary Sheffield’s impact with his bat and a slew of other things that the Tigers could potentially do to make it back to the playoffs.  He’s pretty cautious in his prediction but he does leave some room for a repeat performance in 2007.  Nice read.

The Tigers dealt another shutout yesterday, this time of the one hit variety.  Justin Verlander looked sharp from the boxscore although I didn’t get a chance to listen in.  Four no hit innings is definitely something I can live with.  For a nice recap, be sure to stop by Bless You Boys where Mark wrote it up.

I’m going to try to restart my season lookback project this weekend.  It’s been a while since I’ve done one, but in case you missed them, it’s basically a snapshot summary of an old Tiger season.  I had started with the Tigers inaugural season in 1901 and had worked my way up to 1903 until I quit.  And in checking the dates, it’s been over a year so I’ll try to get to 1904 this weekend.  To check out what I’m talking about, here are the older seasons.

1901 Tigers
1902 Tigers
1903 Tigers

I’m also hoping to get up another 1967 retro over at the 1967 AL Pennant Race site.  If you have a nomination, let me know.

Nate Robertson had a solid season last year, but his record didn’t neccesarily reflect it.  He finished the season at a dead even 13-13 and while he posted a rock solid 3.84 ERA and a 137/67 strikeout to walk ratio in a career high 208 2/3 innings he may have been even better then what those numbers indicate.

Baseball Prospectus tracks a statistic call pen support which tracks the number of runs that the bullpen gave up that ended up getting tacked on to the starter as runs.  Nate Robertson finished with a fourth worst 4.336 pen support in all of baseball.  And while Robertson does share some of the blame because those runners reached base because of him, you also have to ding the pen for letting them score.  Regardless, if you take those four runs off of his earned run total, you’re talking about an ERA of closer to 3.66, which would have put him right behind Justin Verlander (3.63) in the top ten in the American League.

For comparison sake, Verlander was second worst on the team with a 2.598 pen support.  The pen actually helped out Jeremy Bonderman with almost one run saved while Mike Maroth was the biggest beneficiary of the Tigers solid bullpen with a -1.581.  For Zach Miner and Kenny Rogers, the effect was pretty much neutral.

I was recently part of a Tigers preview podcast with the guys from the Big League Baseball Report.  We touched on everything from whether 2006 was a fluke to some of the moves the Tigers made in the offseason to get better.  It was a lot of fun and hopefully you’ll check it out.  I’ve been told it’s also on iTunes.

It looks like Gary Sheffield is going to miss some time in camp for undisclosed reasons.  Thankfully it has nothing to do with the health of either Sheffield or a part of his family and Jim Leyland expects him to be back tomorrow in the Tigers’ spring game against the Phillies. 

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