Posts Tagged Detroit Tigers
April 15, 2008 at 2:09 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged command issues, Detroit Tigers, Francisco Liriano, Johnny Cueto, late heroics, Manny Ramirez, Nate McLouth, plummeting velocity, Randy Johnson, Robinson Cano, violent mechanics
As promised, I’m back to quickly give my thoughts on Johnny Cueto and Francisco Liriano’s starts from Sunday, or at least what I saw of them. In my previous post, I mentioned that I “didn’t come away impressed” with either pitcher’s performance on Sunday. That statement might be a little deceptive, in retrospect.
In Liriano’s case, I wasn’t all that impressed. He didn’t have great command, his velocity was down and he looked pretty darn hittable. He did manage to strike four Royals out, but he also walked five of them, so that’s more suggestive of command issues than the kind of stuff he had.
It’s pretty simple with Liriano. If he gets his velocity back — his heater reportedly floated around 90 for much of the day, down about five miles per hour from his 2006 season — he should also regain his effectiveness. Even with the drop in velocity, the lefty’s changeup kept the Royals off balance.
If Liriano’s heater lags in the low-90s for much of the year, his stuff remains good enough that he’ll be able to get by and be a fairly productive starter. Though for that to happen, he’ll need to have better command than he did on Sunday — his five walks set a new career-high.
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April 10, 2008 at 4:22 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged cigarettes, Detroit Tigers, Jim Leyland, Major League Baseball, Marlboro Reds, predictions, smoking
The Detroit Tigers won their first game today, improving from winless to just very bad with a 7-2 win over the Boston Red Sox.
The Tigers, my pick to win the World Series (well, of course), have had a nightmarish start to their season, with injuries sidelining Curtis Granderson, Gary Sheffield, Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney for some or all of the team’s first eight games.
It’s easy to pin the team’s struggles on its weakened bullpen, but that hasn’t been its only issue. The Tigers, predicted by some to score 1,000 runs this season, had produced only 15 in the seven games prior to tonight’s victory. After tonight’s seven run outburst, the Tigers will have to average roughly 6.35 runs per game the rest of the way to meet that unrealistic expectation.
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April 5, 2008 at 3:44 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chad Cordero, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Franquelis Osoria, half-assed retractions, Houston Astros, Justin Duchscherer, Kansas City Royals, LaTroy Hawkins, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, predictions, Rickie Weeks, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals
It didn’t take all that long for the final undefeated team to take a loss in the 2008 Major League Baseball season. The Kansas City Royals had their hopes of a 173-0 season dashed on Friday night when they were edged out by the Minnesota Twins, 4-3. Lefty John Bale, making his first Major League start since September 18, 2003, kept his then-unblemished team in the game by allowing four runs in 6 1/3 innings. Unfortunately for Bale and the Royals, Minnesota’s Scott Baker was a little bit better. The Twins righthander threw 6 2/3 innings of 3-run ball, allowing seven hits and walking none while striking out two.
When Baker departed, he turned the game over to the capable back end of the Minnesota bullpen. Pat Neshek and Joe Nathan joined forces to record the final seven outs of the game while only allowing one hit, enabling the Twins to hang on for the win.
The Royals fall to 3-1 following the loss, and are now tied with the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers for the best record in baseball.
The Detroit Tigers find themselves on the other end of the spectrum after losing their fourth consecutive game to begin the season. A.J. Pierzynski led the charge against the Tigers today, delivering a three-run home run and driving in a total of five runs to lead the Chicago White Sox to an 8-5 win. The White Sox improved their record to 2-2, while the Tigers fell to 0-4.
A quick look at the remainder of Friday’s games after the jump.
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April 4, 2008 at 5:49 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged 173-0, Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Doug Davis, Ervin Santana, Franquelis Osoria, Gary Sheffield, Johnny Cueto, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Major League Baseball, Mean Girls, Mike Hampton, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Skip Schumaker, St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, Xavier Nady
The Kansas City Royals completed their season-opening sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 4-1 win at Comerica Park on Wednesday afternoon, leaving the team as the only one that has yet to suffer a defeat in the young 2008 Major League Baseball season.
I’d like to say that I saw this coming — I could point to my AL Central preview post to show that I at least thought Kansas City would be competitive this year — but this pesky “I shall make a prediction for every game of the MLB season! What a great idea this is!” documents my small amount of faith for the Royals in this opening series (I had them winning on Wednesday, at least). Also, I picked the Detroit Tigers to win the division in that post, and to win it all in this one. So, any way I try to spin it, I still coming out looking like a jackass. Suffice it to say, once again, I was wrong. (What a credibility-building statement. Did I really need to throw in “once again”?)
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April 3, 2008 at 4:18 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged Al Reyes, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Daniel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers, Eric Gagne Disease, Florida Marlins, fortune cookies, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, manipulative rainfall, Matt Garza, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, predictions, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals
A day ago, I pointed out what I thought was an interesting pitching matchup in Wednesday’s Tampa Bay-Baltimore meeting. The game was to involve two pitchers who had previously dominated the opposing team — Matt Garza for Tampa Bay (3-0, 2.16 ERA in three starts vs. Baltimore) and Daniel Cabrera for the O’s (6-0, 3.04 ERA in 11 starts against the Rays). I speculated that pitching would likely be the key to the game, even calling it a “sleeper” matchup.
Well, I was wrong. Neither pitcher made it past the sixth inning — Cabrera was gone after four — and neither factored into the decision. Cabrera was particularly awful, relinquishing six runs on six hits in the four innings. As he often does, Cabrera also struggled with his control, walking five batters while only striking out a pair.
Garza’s line wasn’t much prettier. He got the hook after tossing 5 1/3 innings of 5-run ball. He allowed six hits and walked two batters while striking out three. Despite his poor outing, the former Twin left the game in a position to pick up his fourth win in as many starts against the Orioles.
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April 1, 2008 at 4:37 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, bad ideas, Baltimore Orioles, blown saves, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, comically bad earned run averages, Detroit Tigers, Eric Gagne, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Kerry Wood, Kosuke Fukudome, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Tom Gordon, Washington Nationals, YouTube
The first full day of the 2008 Major League Baseball season has passed, with 12 of today’s 15 scheduled games having been played to their completion. As it usually does, Opening Day provided us with several wild games, a number of star pitchers getting lit up, and a couple of statistical anomalies.
Two of the more interesting anomalies are directly related to each other. The Washington Nationals are currently the best team in Major League Baseball, having won both of their games. They followed up Sunday night’s Ryan Zimmerman walk-off home run with some more late-game heroics, as the Nats, for lack of a more delicate way of putting it, beat the shit out of interim Phillies closer Tom Gordon. Gordon retired only one batter while being charged with five earned runs, which impressively puts his ERA at 135.00.
Two other closers imploded Monday in what was likely the game of the day between the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs. Ben Sheets and Carlos Zambrano were both dominant, with both starters taking shutouts into the seventh inning before turning the games over to their respective bullpens. Until the ninth inning, both ‘pens were similarly magnificent, and the game remained tied.
Then came the guys that are paid to slam the door shut.
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March 31, 2008 at 9:32 pm · Filed under MLB ·Tagged Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, October baseball, predictions, Seattle Mariners, World Series
Now that I have the regular season predictions out of the way, it only makes sense that I at least give some brief thoughts on what I think things might look like in October in Major League Baseball.
To recap, here are the teams I think will win their respective divisions (as well as the wild card):
National League East: New York Mets
National League Central: Milwaukee Brewers
National League West: Los Angeles Dodgers
National League Wild Card: Arizona Diamondbacks
American League East: Boston Red Sox
American League Central: Detroit Tigers
American League West: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
American League Wild Card: Seattle Mariners
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March 31, 2008 at 5:47 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, bad ideas, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Opening Day, persistence, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, predictions, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals
Well, I’m down to 1-2 following Washington’s dramatic 3-2 win over the Braves on Sunday night. With Monday’s slate of games fast approaching, I decided to err on the side of caution and just throw out my quick and dirty picks for Opening Day. In the future, I’ll probably briefly feature at least one of the day’s scheduled games before making my picks. But, in the interest of saving time, I’m just going to bust out the picks and then take about a seven hour nap. If you’re looking for MLB-related content, though, I’ve recently written preview pieces of each of the six divisions, and will probably culminate that series with my playoff/World Series picks on either Monday or Tuesday.
Here it goes.
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March 30, 2008 at 4:58 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged AL Central, American League, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Kevin Mulvey, Major League Baseball, Minnesota Twins
Well, after playing beat the clock to produce the AL East and AL West predictions, I took a couple days off from the blog (‘ja miss me?) to embark on the exciting world of municipal reporting. Yeah, journalism!
Anyway, having completed my real world assignments, I’m back to competing with time as I try to fire out the remaining four MLB previews before Opening Night/Day.
It would probably make sense, then, to start off this next set with the National League East, seeing as how the Nationals will open their new stadium tomorrow night by hosting the Atlanta Braves on Sunday Night Baseball. However, I still have a little bit of unfinished business with the American League, namely the AL Central. I never got around to finishing the AL off last week as I had hoped. So I figured, in the interest of symmetry and/or completeness, that I would get that preview out of the way first before graduating to the Senior Circuit.
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Merrill Park Superstar 