Wednesday, April 9, 2008 @ 6:17 pm
Jason Beck is reporting that Francisco Cruceta has been cleared to travel to the US after missing out on all of Spring Training due to issues gathering a visa. Now he’s off to Lakeland to get warmed up and hopefully be able to provide some value to the team:
He’ll report to Lakeland, where he’ll pick up his throwing and prepare himself for games. Once he reports there, the Tigers have 30 days to evaluate him, after which they’ll have to decide whether to add him to their 25-man roster or outright him, since he’s out of minor-league options.
Cruceta had a good year with the Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks, a farm team for Texas Rangers. He pitched 65 innings striking out 70 and walking 40 with a 1.19 WHIP. A pitcher who can come in and get a strikeout when needed would truly help this bullpen. Maybe he could replace Jason Grilli in the ‘pen
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 @ 11:23 pm
I did not feel like writing about another miserable game today, so instead I took a look back at some past prospects to see where they are now. Below are the top 3 picks for Detroit in the 2004 draft. As you’ll see, there is quite a bit of hit and miss but one key pick up in this draft.
1) Justin Verlander - I’m sure I don’t have to introduce Justin to everyone. He moved quickly through the Tiger minor league ranks pitching in high-A and double-A ball in 2005 with an impressive 0.90 WHIP. From there, Justin made the Tigers roster as the fifth starter out of Spring Training in 2006.
Signed for a bonus of $3.12M with a total possible payout of $5.6M, Detroit has already gotten an outstanding return.
2) Eric Beattie - A right-handed pitcher out of Tampa, Beattie was signed in the second round and handed a signing bonus of $800,000. Highly touted and carrying an arsenal of a low-90’s fastball and slider he struggled to find control and walked batters at an astounding rate. Beattie
Beattie never made it out of rookie ball for Detroit before being released in March 2007. He was subsequently signed as a minor league free agent by Boston and pitched low-A and A ball. Under Boston’s control, Beattie continued to walk batters allowing a total of 57 in just 29.2 innings pitched. He was released by Boston in October 2007.
3) Jeff Frazier - A right-handed outfielder, Frazier started in the outfield for West Michigan in 2005 before moving onto Lakeland in 2006. He walked very little and didn’t show power in either league and regressed quite a bit in the move to Lakeland. He was traded to Seattle in February 2007 for Yorman Bazardo, who is now with the big league club.
Jeff improved with Seattle playing in high-A and double-A ball and even showed a little bit of power when he was with the High Desert Mavericks. He is now back in the Detroit farm system after being acquired from Seattle for ‘future considerations’. He’s gotten off to a strong start with the Erie Seawolves so far this season.
Monday, April 7, 2008 @ 12:05 am
Wow, that game was very embarrassing for Tiger batters, pitchers and everyone who took the field. If it weren’t for Joe Crede’s inability to throw to first base the Tigers might have been shut out, on national tv (ESPN) no less.
Spanning back through 2006, Detroit has been horrible when playing in front of the entire nation, that is if you don’t take the playoffs into count. There isn’t a reason for this but tonight would have been a wonderful night for the teams bats to slug out a few runs. Buerhle was also a good pitcher for it as well but Detroit made him look like Cy Young.
There were a few take aways:
- Carlos Guillen continues to be a shining part of the lineup. He continues to work every single at-bat and hasn’t been giving up constant easy outs like say… Magglio.
- Guillen appears to still be uncomfortable at first base. It’s not only with the error in today’s game due to dropping an easy catch, he has played over too far and gone after balls that were really for the second baseman.
- Third-base Coach Gene Lamont, who is normally very conservative, should never have waved Santiago to third base. It was an obvious very bad call and ended in a ridiculously unnecessary out.
- Magglio has swung at the first pitch in nearly all of his at-bats and it feels like he is trying to make something happen.
- Yorman Bazardo was quite a disappointment. In some of the previous games I was hoping they would go with him instead of Miner or Jason Grilli. Oh well.
I don’t leave games early too often but I did tonight. It was cold and there just wasn’t a good game out on the field. Listening to the game on the ride home made me feel good about my decision.
Below are a few pictures from today’s matchup.
(Continued)
Sunday, April 6, 2008 @ 2:35 pm
The first outing in the Detroit uniform for Dontrelle Willis was far from what many had hoped but he likely got off very easy as the damage could have been far worse. It is true that Dontrelle has been regressing drastically in most stats within a pitchers control since his 2005 campaign and had a Spring Training that could only be described as horrendous. Given that, yesterday’s game only proved that he has failed to find his control. A combination of a nice fly-ball friendly Comerica Park, some good defense and impatient opposing batters masked what could otherwise have been a major drubbing.
The optimist would say he threw a one hitter and that a bit of wildness can help a pitcher throw batters off. This is something not even D-Train himself seems to believe:
“I was terrible and that’s pretty much it,” said Willis, obtained from Florida along with Miguel Cabrera in a six-player deal. “But you still have to battle and try and keep your team in the game.”
Outside of the 7 walks allowed (3 of which went to Nick Swisher) over just 5 innings pitched there are a number of other worrisome stats that, while possibly helping Willis during this outing, won’t last for future starts. In yesterday’s start, Willis threw a total of 89 pitches with only 46 of them being for a stike. That means that an astounding 48% of his pitches were balls, this against a team that is not the most patient in the league.
Where some combination of luck, a large park and good defense helped out was with balls that were hit into play. Looking at stats such as BABIP and what happened with balls put into play shows a drastic difference between Willis’s one start and those of the rest of the starters. Below is a breakdown of each Tiger’s first start of the season:
| Pitcher |
GB |
FB |
LD |
IFFB |
BABIP |
| Dontrelle Willis |
5 |
8 |
1 |
8 |
.066 |
| Justin Verlander |
10 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
.216 |
| Jeremy Bonderman |
14 |
9 |
2 |
0 |
.262 |
| Kenny Rogers |
11 |
5 |
3 |
0 |
.279 |
| Nate Robertson |
5 |
7 |
5 |
0 |
.397 |
One might think that Willis is a fly-ball pitcher from these stats, but he has historically not been such a pitcher as his lifetime GF/FB average is 1.34. Willis coaxed a large number of infield fly balls, which are easily handled, as well as outfield fly balls. The White Sox were struggling to get a good hit and these stats show that but they weren’t giving anything to hit. In reality, against a more patient lineup there should have been a much larger number of walks and a much worse score.
D-Train needs to get his control fixed and quickly.
Saturday, April 5, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
According to the Free Press, RHP Francis Beltran has joined the big league club and Ryan Raburn was sent down to Toledo to make room. This is due to a negative outcome from Fernando Rodney’s latest bullpen session:
Leyland said that when Rodney had his latest bullpen session Friday at the team’s spring-training base in Florida, he had stop to throwing because of pain in his shoulder. Leyland said the news on Rodney “isn’t good at all.”
This, obviously, puts a timely return by Rodney even more in doubt and raises questions of whether he will return at all. Fernando faced shoulder issues through the entire 2007 season which caused major struggles for the first few months. These lingering problems don’t seem to be subsiding so we shouldn’t be surprised if surgery is in his future.
Beltran saw limited action during Spring Training making appearances in 10 games in which he allowed 13 hits and 7 walks with only 5 strikeouts. His ERA was 1.42 but those peripheral stats are not impressive. Beltran has had a long career in the minor leagues after being signed by the Cubs in 1996 but has only seen 61.3 innings in the major leagues. We should keep our expectations low here with the purpose being to allow more rest for the other bullpen pitchers.
Friday, April 4, 2008 @ 10:46 pm
A couple weeks ago during the a Tigers spring training game against the Indians, FSN Detroit held an auction to raise money for the Detroit Tigers Foundation. There were three auction packages that went for thousands of dollars, but for a $50 dollar donation they would send you a bunch of items:
- Game-worn Tigers cap.
- FSN Detroit T-Shirt and pen set.
- Autographed FSN Rod Allen and Mario Impemba photo.
- Tigers player photo cards.
- Comerica Park pencil.
- Tigers Pride pin.
- Game Program from inaugural game at Comerica Park.
- Ticket holder and limited edition pin from inaugural game at Comerica Park.
- 2005 All Star Game luggage tag and beaded necklace.
- Tigers sticker, wristband and rally towel.
- Magglio Ordonez, Joel Zumaya, Curtis Granderson and Carlos Guillen player magnets.
Well, the package arrived today and was well worth it. The money went to the Tiny Tigers, a t-ball club of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan. The game-worn cap we got says ‘31′ under it so I’m assuming it belonged to Zach Miner though I’m partial to the Game Program from the inaugural game played at Comerica Park. I wasn’t at the game yet it’s strangely nice to have the memento. My wife is a fan of the Rod & Mario signed pictures.
The Tigers play two games on national television this weekend. They will play on FOX tomorrow at 3:55pm and then on ESPN Sunday at 8:05pm. These will be the first games that I will get to watch for the Tigers on TV and unfortunately it will be Joe Buck (FOX) and Joe Morgan (ESPN) announcing. Ugh. Only a few years ago I would be complaining about the lack of national exposure and now I’d rather watch the game on FSN Detroit.
I will be in attendance at the Sunday evening game to watch Justin Verlander’s second start. I’ll hopefully post some pictures afterward.
Friday, April 4, 2008 @ 10:00 am
This season hasn’t started out quite as I had imagined but we’ve only played 1.85% of the games. I’ve had to pretty much keep my radio off on the way into and home from work since talk radio has been rife with second guessing many off-season moves that just days ago were being applauded. After the second loss the Detroit Free Press ran an article that had the following in the title: “don’t panic just yet, but modest concern is OK“. No, even modest concern is not OK just quite yet.
Brandon Inge has been spectacular to start off the year and looked unlike the Inge of 2007. He’s shown great plate discipline through the first couple games, as well as back in Spring Training, and continued to show that he can play nearly any position in the field competently. He’s earned multiple walks and shown power out of the gate, yet Miguel Cabrera is better. This first three-game sweep by the Royals has brought the Inge-supporters out in droves, but nothing has really changed. If anything, Brandon is helping find himself a starting spot elsewhere which can only benefit Detroit later in the season when particular needs are more apparent.
If there is anything to be concerned about it is the one thing that can really hold this team back; injuries. The season has started with many key players out (Joel Zumaya, Fernando Rodney, Curtis Granderson) and now Gary Sheffield is appearing to have as serious problem. There have been some mixed messages in what has been in the crowd, but as Blake points out, it does not sound good. Miguel Cabrera will take Shef’s place in DH today.
Today Nate Robertson will look to carry his successful Spring Training starts into the regular season. For the Chicago White Sox, Jose Contreras will take the mound. If there is any pitcher that the Tiger bats should come alive against, it is Jose. Detroit took him for 26 hits and 4 walks in 18 IP over the 2007 season and slugged .587. He was just bad in ‘07 and didn’t look as if he had straightened out at all this past spring.
Game time is 1:05 PM @ Comerica Park.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 @ 10:35 pm
Tigers are starting off the season with a number of divisional match ups against Kansas City and Chicago. These are all games that the team must win because the schedule gets much more difficult going into May and June. Below are a look at the projected starting pitchers through next weekend assuming starting lineups stay consistent. Boston is the most in question with Beckett still out but likely to start on Sunday which would put him not in the Tigers path.
The White Sox rotation is probably the most vulnerable and the Tigers hit Boston’s Tim Wakefield last year in the one game they saw him. I’ve heard the story of the season being a marathon and not a sprint, but it’d be real nice to put Cleveland a few games behind from the start.
Monday, March 31, 2008 @ 8:31 pm
Thing’s didn’t go quite like Justin Verlander had planned yet his outing was far from horrible. Verlander managed to rack up 6 K’s and had a only gave up his first hit in the fourth inning, a single to Billy Butler. He appeared very dominant and it’s hard to take anything negative from his outing.
The weather held up as perfectly as you could imagine given the horrible forecast. It was overcast the entire day and the lights remained on throughout the game. This interfered with the military jet fly-by rendering them not visible by the crowd.
There was quite a bit of good and some bad on the day:
- Denny Bautista failed to look anything like his Spring Training performances. He lacked control which prompted multiple visits to the mound and gave up 3 hits and 2 walks in only 2 innings of work.
- Brandon Inge played like a man possessed or one looking for a starting job. He swung the bat today far better than we all saw last year. He laid off the low pitches, swung at the good ones and even took a walk. Additionally, his performance in Centerfield was good and he had the chance to show off his arm throwing out Mark Teahan at home. That said, he doesn’t have Grandersons range.
- Clete Thomas doubled in his first major league at-bat and made two catches in left field. He replaced Jacque Jones late in the game for defense and, as it turned out, offense.
- Gary Sheffield walked four times in five plate appearances. Some of which he started off 0-2. Nuff’ Said.
- Polanco came up hitless today but he looked his normal self. He couldn’t seem to get the ball out of the infield which led to him stranding 6 runners.
While the lineup didn’t produce the needed run support, there were definitely spurts at which you could see the potential. While it’s easy to blame this loss on the bullpen, I won’t as they combined to perform better than Justin. Grilli and Lopez both allowed inherited runners to score though they were called in with runners at the corners and no outs. This will be a great squad to watch this year.
Below are some pictures from today’s match up:
(Continued)
D-Town Baseball