9th
June
2008
Game 63: Day dreary, D-Train dreadful
posted in 2008 season, Cleveland Indians |Indians 8
Tigers 2
Recap:
- I did not have visual confirmation of Dontrelle Willis’ awful day on the mound. All I have is the 8 runs he allowed in less than two innings and the five walks and two home runs that helped contribute to it.
- But the words coming from Dan Dickerson and Jim Price made it sound more or less like a disaster. That Willis was not just missing the plate on close calls, but also nearly missing Brandon Inge’s catchers glove half the time. Price more or less was begging Leyland to come out and save Willis from the embarrassment and anxiety of the baseball going wherever it darn well pleased.
- He wasn’t helped by Denny Bautista, who hit the first batter he faced in relief and allowed the next two to score.
- Bautista did do fine after that, as did Clay Rapada (3 scoreless innings, saw just 10 batters) and Bobby Seay.
- It rained a bit somewhere in the middle there.
- Brandon Inge played catcher, as he will every other game, so Leyland says.
- Let’s see, what else? The Tigers scored some runs in the fourth inning, and Michael Hollimon made his debut in the majors, and Jeff Larish made his debut at first base
- And that’s about it.
- Tigers split with the Indians and lost two games on the Central Division-leading White Sox in the process.
- If you’re looking for something positive, they are now as far out of the wild card as they are out of the division. Wait… that may not be a positive.
Analysis:
- I don’t really know that we can fault the team for losing this game, although it would be hard to win with only two runs scored. But Cliff Lee is pretty good.
- This was Willis’ loss, in more ways than one.
- Others have already posted about this. Willis is toast. Something needs to be done to get him back on the right track.
- He can’t do it in Detroit — Lord knows it has nothing to do with saving the season. I think we’re past that. It has more to do with the fact the fans apparently hate him in Detroit. Price pointed out, if he gets another start, it better be on the road. But the fact is, he probably needs to go work on things. Like you don’t want your young prospect to try to learn on the fly while playing in the majors, Willis shouldn’t be expected to fix it on the fly either.
- Of course, he’ll have to agree to go to the minors to fix it, but for the sake of his young career, I hope he realizes he has to get this fixed.
- Pudge and Inge alternating? I don’t know what to make of it.
- I think it might signal the Tigers are preparing to punt the rest of the season, as they should at this point. The reason I say that is, they need a long look at Inge catching and decide what happens next year.
- I do buy the fact Pudge can’t catch six days a week. But, oh, so many questions. Is he going to agree to only catch 50% of the time? How long can this continue? Will Leyland try to get him in the field some to keep him happy? Then the Tigers really can’t score. Will it hurt any possible trade value Pudge has? Will the experiment last as long as Guillen in left field?
- Wouldn’t it be better to look at Inge after the trading deadline anyway, since we know either way Pudge won’t be re-signed.
- Ultimately, they’re going to have to trade Pudge. I don’t know if they’ll get too much, some contender might blindly want him, you never know. But they’ll just have to take what they can get.
- The Tigers soon have to look like they have a blue print for 2009 and beyond. Right now, nothing seems to make sense. Nothing seems to continue for more than a few days, when Leyland/the organization move on to other ideas. It looks like no one has a clue what they’re doing.
- Every rock bottom just seems to be one-upped and things get crazier and crazier out of management.
- Story of the season I guess.
NEW TIGER’S COMMERCIAL:
Leyland turns to Hernandez and says, “Meh meh meh…meh meh meh.” Hernandez responds, “Arm slot meh?”
(quick cut)
Mike Illitch looks up from his desk and turns to Dombrowski, “Meh meh meh?” Dombrowski answers “Meh meh meh meh” and throws money out the window.
(quick cut)
Jim Walewander, in a suit and tie and suffering in a horrible corporate job turns to Scott Lusader, who is inexplicably in a full Tiger’s uniform and says “Meh meh meh meh meh.” Lusader nods emphatically and gives hard rock finger salute.
(quick cut)
Pudge speaking Spanish to Mags with the close captioning reading “Meh meh meh meh meh”
(quick cut)
Nick Lidstrom wearing a Red Tigers cap and speaking Swedish to Chris Draper. The close captioning reads “Meh meh meh meh meh” to which Draper responds “Huh?” Nick then replies “OH sorry…Meh.” Draper understands now and says “Oh toooootally Meh.”
(quick cut)
Artie Lange turns to Howard Stern and asks “Meh?” Stern replies “(BLEEP) yes Meh.”
(quick cut)
Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica whispers “Meh?” and Blonde Six in a tight red dress leans down to seductively whisper “Mehhhhh” in his ear.
(Syncopated piano note and then quick cut)
Leyland sighing to himself in an empty dugout and quietly lighting a cigarette then saying “Sigh….meh.”
(Black Screen to titles saying…..)
TIGERS 2008! Catch the Meh!
That would be disturbingly funny.
Should Willis do what Ankiel did and make the switch?
Check out my thoughts on it here:
http://ordosopinion.blogspot.com/2008/06/d-train-has-d-railed.html