Game 33: Fourth straight loss
Red Sox 6
Tigers 3
Recap:
- Drastic changes, still inconsistent offense.
Analysis:
- Thank goodness for playoff basketball.
posted in 2008 season | 1 Comment
Red Sox 6
Tigers 3
Recap:
Analysis:
posted in 2008 season | 1 Comment
Per Danny Knobler, the lineup tonight is
1. Curtis Granderson, CF
2. Placido Polanco, 2B
3. Carlos Guillen, 3B
4. Maglio Ordonez, DH
5. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
6. Gary Sheffield, LF
7. Matt Joyce, RF
8. Edgar Renteria, SS
9. Pudge Rodriguez, C
So the lineup hardly changed. Sheffield moved into the field, for the night anyway. I don’t really see Magglio Ordonez as becoming the fulltime DH myself. Sheff also flipped lineup spots with Carlos Guillen, which makes sense.
Hopefully we get some quotes from Jim Leyland tonight to help explain the moves and if anything further will occur. Hopefully there will be more changes, anyway.
Sphere Itposted in 2008 season | 0 Comments
Yup, that’s a pretty drastic start.
Danny Knobler is reporting that the Tigers designated for assignment Jacque Jones and recalled OF Matt Joyce from AAA Toledo.
Jones, as anyone who watched the Tigers knows, wasn’t cutting it. He was a left handed batter. That’s about all you can say about him. His arm was inconsistent in left field. He did show a lot of effort, running himself into the fans in a painful looking attempt at a foul ball. That deserves praise. But he just wasn’t helping the team all that much.
This allows the Tigers to think with some flexibility about moving Gary Sheffield to the outfield, putting Carlos Guillen at DH and putting Brandon Inge at third base, for instance. That’s a popular opinion among Tigers fans though I’m not sure I agree with putting Gary Sheffield in left field. Besides, the Tigers didn’t call up a catcher, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing Brandon Inge at third base for good quite yet either.
I’m disappointed Clete Thomas didn’t get called back up. I loved his defense and he could hit fine. However, Joyce is a fellow left-handed batter.
23-year-old Joyce is batting .299 AVG, .367 on-base percentage and .536 slugging according to First Inning.com. (Updated 4:19)
In April, Matt at my favorite Tigers minor league blog, Take 75 North, opined:
Matt Joyce could be a very valuable outfielder as a left-handed power bat who plays a good outfield.
Matt also profiled Joyce further over the winter. (Update 4:25)
Sphere ItThe big jump in strikeouts is a little worrisome, but if he can keep up with the walks and the power, his defense in the outfield (voted Eastern League’s Best Defensive Outfielder by Baseball America) should make him a very useful player for the Tigers. He’ll be one of the reasons I go to watch the Mud Hens in 2008.
posted in 2008 season, roster moves | 0 Comments
Jim Leyland promises the Tigers lineup will see “drastic” changes Monday.
“There will be no personnel changes or player movement,” he said. “Same pieces, but quite a bit different (order). For whatever reason, we just haven’t had that killer instinct.”
So I guess we begin with Gary Sheffield. Why? Because his scheduled day off today meant Leyland didn’t have a chance to unveil his new lineup. That and he’s been an albatross at the top of the lineup with his lack of slugging. (.309 slugging, .185 average). Sure he gets on base (.349 OBP) and he can steal, but he’s just not getting anything done with the bat. So he can move forward in the lineup to leadoff, as Bilfer guesses (and I have thought would be a good idea). Or he can move backward. Either way, he can’t be the third batter any more in a just world.
What happens from there who knows. Again, we mention Bilfer, as his prediction is Sheffield leads off and Curtis Granderson moves into the middle of the lineup to take advantage of his hitting. I agree it would be nice if that happened.
I’m going to disagree with Kaos, who left a comment on my previous post with his batting order. I think you have to keep Miguel Cabrera high in the lineup. He does have an OPS of .835, and after the slow start in the Tigers uniform, he’s been pretty good. Not quite consistent, but pretty good.
Given what Leyland has said, I’ll just toss this lineup out there as my guess.
1. Gary Sheffield, DH
2. Edgar Renteria, SS
3. Curtis Granderson, CF
4. Magglio Ordonez, RF
5. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
6. Carlos Guillen, 3B
7. Pudge Rodriguez, LF
8. Jacque Jones, LF
9. Placido Polanco, 2B
Here’s the thoughts that went into it:
In any case, I don’t know if a drastic change in lineup was really needed all that bad, but I think it makes sense to try something new with Sheffield and the rest is going to help save face.
Sphere Itposted in 2008 season | 5 Comments
Twins 7
Tigers 6
me: *angry face*
Recap:
Analysis
posted in 2008 season, Minnesota Twins | 1 Comment
Twins 4
Tigers 1
Recap:
Analysis
posted in 2008 season | 1 Comment
Some people may say the Tigers are better off without Jason Grilli — I don’t know, maybe they’re right, though I don’t think so. As quirks of baseball love to do, three days after the Tigers traded Jason Grilli, they placed setup reliever Denny Bautista on the disabled list. This resulted in the callup of right-handed minor league reliever Freddy Dolsi, who started the season in High-A Lakeland before moving north to Double-A Erie.
Dolsi … was the recommendation of player development director Glenn Ezell and pitching instructor Jon Matlack.
After the 25-year-old gave up seven hits and 5 runs in 7.1 innings in Lakeland, along with 11 strikeouts and three walks, he moved up to Erie and made two appearances. There he had one strikeout, allowed one hit and one walk in three innings. So I’m thinking it’s quite a jump to the majors myself.
In Danny Knobler’s article, Jim Leyland said he will use Dolsi, fellow newcomer Francisco Cruceta, Bobby Seay, Clay Rapada, “whatever comes around.” So looks like the bullpen roles are still kinda up in the air.
Sphere Itposted in 2008 season, injuries, roster moves | 0 Comments
Twins 11
Tigers 1
Recap:
Analysis:
Site news:
posted in 2008 season | 0 Comments
The correct answer to yesterday’s question — who gets squeezed out of Detroit when Francisco Cruceta comes to town — was Jason Grilli. The reliever was sent to Colorado in exchange for 23-year-old, high-a pitcher Zach Simons. I’m going to echo Bilfer’s surprise in this move.
Relief pitching at the major league level is sort of random. Jason Grilli, while having a bad week here or there, is that not that bad of a pitcher. He is a major league caliber reliever. In 2007 after June 1, he had no month worse than 3.86 ERA. This year, he stumbled badly the first week but since got his ERA down to 3.29. He is not a close-and-late reliever, but he pitched fine for his mop-up role. You do need a guy like that.
So my real problem with this move is, it took a major league reliever out of the Tigers’ system, because Zach Miner did have an option to go to Toledo. And Grilli was basically given away. No offense to Zach Simons, and I hope he proves us wrong, but based on his minor-league stats, his chance of becoming daily major leaguer is pretty low.
I get that the Tigers had to make a corresponding 40-man roster move to get Cruceta to Detroit — something that totally slipped my mind yesterday. And trading Grilli allowed that to happen. But I don’t know. I’m just not a real big fan of this move at the moment.
Sphere Itposted in Random | 2 Comments
As a quick site note, my schedule this week makes my recaps sketchy at best. They will return. But for now, I’m just askin’ and answerin’.
When the Tigers call up Francisco Cruceta, who is going to be sent to Toledo?
The way I see it, and most observers, it’s not a matter of if Cruceta gets the call up to the Tigers bullpen, it’s a matter of when. That when is coming soon. He has pitched in Toledo three times since receiving his visa and warming up in Lakeland. But the Tigers have to either bring him to the majors or put him on the waiver wire by May 10. He’s made three appearances in Toledo. He’s got 15 strikeouts in 7 innings to go with three walks and one run allowed.
That leaves three possibilities for taking the trip to Toledo (or the waiver wire), in order of most likely to least:
So, you can tell, my best guess is Miner is the disposable one. He is pitching better — the whole bullpen is. And that’s a good thing. But with an option remaining and probably the worst stuff of the three, he should be sent back to Toledo. Maybe the Tigers should try to stretch him back into a starting pitcher, which you may remember is how he came to Detroit in the first place back in 2006. But they probably won’t. In any case, a little work in Toledo and a callup if there are any injuries to the pitching staff seems the best move to me. Rapada both deserves his spot and he contributes quite a bit. And Grilli really isn’t that bad. (No, I swear, he’s not!) He may not be popular — inexplicably, because he really hasn’t struggled nearly as much as the public perception goes — but he’s a deserving member of the team.
Now the corollary question: Whose role does Cruceta replace in the bullpen?
This is a more tricky question, because we can’t really assume Cruceta replaces Miner’s mop-up position. For a guy as hyped — and apparently as effective — as Cruceta, that would a waste of talent, wouldn’t it? Aquino Lopez should has been effective as a late-inning reliever. Denny Bautista has walked a lot of guys, which makes me think Cruceta has a chance to surpass him in tight situations, though I think Leyland’s going to want to see him prove himself first. So he should be a 7th inning guy to start. If he proves himself, I could see him filling the classic Joel Zumays c. 2006 role of bridging the gap from starter to 8th inning in a tight game, no matter if that takes 1 out or 6.
But I admit that’s totally a guess.
Update: On further review, I believe the short answer is, he fills in Bobby Seay’s one-inning role….
But that’s still just a guess.
Sphere Itposted in 2008 season | 6 Comments
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