Tiger Geist

So they made a big deal about calling up Jeff Larish and then didn’t even play him (no surprise against a left handed starter).  Nice game last night from Marcus Thames, and the solid starting pitching continued.

Most frustrating part of the win last night was when you realize how winnable the entire series was for Detroit.  A few hits on Monday, a few more on tuesday (or possibly better bullpen management), and then Galarraga’s performance last night… could easily have been a series sweep.

Hate to start second guessing Tuesday night’s bullpen moves, especially with Bonderman pitching so well.  I’m not sure the better move — keep Bonderman in to keep his confidence up, or go to your bullpen to squeak out a 2-0 win.  With the current situation of the team, a long road trip… might have been better to try for the win using the bullpen to start the 8th.  Either way, two close games and one solid win is better then we’ve been seeing out of the Tigers, and now they head up to Seattle, another team that has been struggling.

Jeff Larish should be DHing all weekend.  Its interesting how Leyland doesn’t have a problem putting new players in at the DH role, but allows Sheffield to talk him into allowing him into the field, with some garbage about “i’m a player, i can only right myself by playing in left”.  No matter that he DH’d all last year.

Kurt correctly points out that Hessman isn’t on the 40 man roster… but Detroit only has 37 men on the 40 man roster.  So its a good question why Larish got the call up — unless it is only while Sheff is on the DL.  Larish can only help his cause and force Detroit’s hand by hitting well (assuming he gets into the lineup somehow).

Eh.. I knew my logic was flawed somehow.  And apparently so are my math skills.

The Jeff Larish era begins this evening. I haven’t read any of the official reasoning, but based on Sheffield going to the DL, and hemmorroids going to Guillen’s backside, detroit calls up Jeff Larish. No idea if he’s playing tonight (Guillen to DH, apparently putting Inge (or possibly Raburn) at third). I imagine Larish gets the call due to Hessman’s roster issues. Go team.

Bugger. Damn it all. Damn it all to hell

I’ve written that I think Mike Hessman should be called up; I think many people are thinking that right now. I’ve finally realized why it isn’t such an easy answer (at least in my understanding of player movement and this article)…

Hessman no longer has player options available — when Detroit sent him to the minors during spring training, he had to pass through waivers. If Detroit decides to call Hessman up, they had better be sure, since it is doubtful the AAA leading home run hitter (who can play multiple positions) would make it back to Toledo. This makes a Hessman call-up for a current 25-man-roster-player-heading-for-the-DL difficult. Actually nearly impossible… the 15 day DL player still counts against the 40 man roster limit. And… wait for it.. wait for it… Hessman isn’t on the 40 man roster. So they can’t demote Ryan Raburn (who has options) to Toledo and bring up Hessman… to my knowledge, they also can’t bring up Hessman if they put Sheffield on the 15 day DL. To purchase Hessman’s contract, they’d have to drop a player from the 40 man roster entirely… which… I don’t know what this means. It can’t be good (a player on the 25 man roster would have to be designated for assignment immediately… not sure what happens if they drop Brent Clevelen from the 40 man roster).

In these instances, Detroit limits their roster flexibility even further with a Hessman callup. Frustrating — he basically has no value to the team unless it can move Brandon Inge (at which point they’re left without a backup catcher, so another move would have to happen). Jeff Larish? Forgedaboutit. He’s probably stuck in Toledo as well, though he IS available in the case of a player heading to the DL. They’re more likely to release Sheffield outright then play Larish over Cabrera.

NOTE: Roster management is very confusing (more confusing in the off-season). Feel free to correct me; i’m trying to dig into my resources at ESPN to find out more.

UPDATE:  Detroit doesn’t have 40 men on its 40 man roster.  Only 37.  So the only real issues here are the inability to move Hessman up and down between Detroit and Toledo… I guess.

As much as I’m against it, but does Ryan Raburn’s recent struggles at the plate, combined with Carlos Guillen’s struggles at third (two errors yesterday), with Gary Sheffield’s muscle strain / weak hitting require a move?  Could this be the time for Mike Hessman to get called up?

Hessman gives the team another third baseman, another first baseman, and a much-needed power bat.  It would allow Inge to resume his position as a backup outfielder and backup catcher, and give more options for the DH spot.  The other move to make would to designate Thames for assignment and keep Raburn on the team.  But Raburn isn’t hitting well and has minor league options left.

Detroit needs to make a move.. and something involving either Raburn or Thames would not drastically alter the team’s core, or cost significant money.  Raburn has more value to the team (in my opinion), but there is a question about the role Thames has on next year’s team.  With the summer months coming, Detroit has to at least pretend that it cares to keep the fans flocking to the ballpark.

I don’t know much about Jeff Larish, but, if possible, he’d be smart to learn how to play the outfield.  He seems like a long shot to play in Detroit… ever… but if they could sneak some first base and DH at -bats to him this year, it might help his trade value.

Tigers’ Sunday woes continue with a tough loss to the Twins, losing the series 2 games to 1.  Don’t look now, but Detroit most likely will have an even WORSE record in the month of May then they did in April.  So much for improving.  Its also a concern when, as a fan, I look at the starting lineup and wonder how Detroit will score any runs without Matt Joyce in the lineup.

The Good:

• Gutsy 7th inning by Verlander.  Excellent outing overall, but gutting out that inning is what an ace does.
• Gary Sheffield has put together a week of hitting that didn’t absolutely suck.

Detroit crushed Minny yesterday… just a day after Minny beat them up pretty well.  Good signs over the last few days:  The starting pitching has been better.  Galarraga had control problems on Friday night (five walks), and it will be interesting to see how he responds in his next match-up.  Bonderman had another solid game on Thursday, though i’m still concerned that his strikeouts are way down.  Robertson wasn’t bad either.. for some reason I wish he could go longer then 6.1 innings when he gets such run support.

Sheffield has broken out of his slump (I’ll hold my breath), and Miguel Cabrera has quietly lifted his average to .282.  Ramon Santiago still leads the team, batting over .350.  With the concern over Guillen at third and the reports of average fielding by Renteria, it bears watching to see if Jimmy Leyland gives a few more starts to Santiago.  And while his average is slowly dropping, Matt Joyce has continued to produce in the seven hole.

Detroit needs another series victory, and they put their ace on the mound this afternoon.  As always, baby steps. 

Good news on the rehab of Zumaya and Rodney.  Zumaya is the most pleasant surprise;  there were concerns that he might not pitch again, let alone throw over 90 (he hit 98).  Of course, this won’t mean anything if the Tigers’ starting pitching doesn’t continue to improve.  The current whipping boy might be Kenny Rogers;  here’s to hoping he pulls it together.

Obviously i’m nuts, but when Jimmy Leyland called out players that were hitting .200 and .220 and said they shouldn’t be concerned with anything but their own performance, I imagined he was talking directly to Inge and Sheffield, since they were both quoted in the USA today article.  Nope… apparently it didn’t really bother him, since both inexplicably are playing tonight.  Why inexplicably?  Its lost on me why Inge would start in center over Ryan Raburn.  I imagine Granderson will get back into the game as soon a right handed reliever is inserted for Seattle (after his three hits last night, they really need to try to keep him rolling).

Plenty to read about Leyland’s blowup last night.  I love how he attacked Grilli — interesting how he’ll protect his players when he’s on his team, yet let them have it when they’re out of line and no longer with them.  Interesting to see how his other comments work through the system — he didn’t seem pleased some players were talking in the media.  I wonder the effects on Inge and Sheffield’s playing time (Sheffield goes 0-5 last night while the rest of the crushes the ball).  Overall, it was a bitch session that could easily alienate a team from its manager, depending on how well the team respects the manager.  Tonight’s game is as important as last night’s game in my mind — they must be competitive or Leyland’s outburst didn’t mean anything.

Great move today, announcing Dontrelle Willis will move to the bullpen to work out his control issues.  Couple of thoughts here:

• Gives competition to the rest of the starting rotation
• Without hurting Dontrelle’s pride (by using his injury as the reason he’s out of the rotation to start with), they send a message to the rest of the rotation.
• They protect themselves in case Galarraga’s start is somewhat a fluke, as mentioned here.

No matter if Galarraga’s starts have been a fluke or not, you can’t yank him as long as he’s putting the team in a position to win every time he goes out.  If some of the contact against him starts dropping for hits, you can make that decision.  But you don’t yank your most consistent pitcher because you ‘feel’ like he might have been lucky.  I ‘feel’ that Willis can’t throw a strike, and that Robertson hasn’t been very good this year.  But i also have the stats to back it up.

The bad part of an off day is there is no internal hope that the team might improve their record.  The good part, for the 2008 Detroit Tigers, is they can’t get any worse when they don’t play.  Maybe its a good time for a day of reflection.

Here are some questions I have (outside of “why do we suck so bad”)

1. The players have nothing to play for.  Outside of things like “personal pride”.
2. Personal performance has no correlation to playing time.

If someone isn’t playing well (say like a Gary Sheffield, who currently has the worst batting average for a position player), they still play.  If someone is playing well (say Armando Galarraga, our best pitcher this year) they are in trouble to LOSE THEIR JOB.  Let’s rethink these last two sentences:  Play poorly, and you keep playing.  Play well and you get sent to the bullpen or the minors.

How can we expect the team to care if this is how management is treating playing time?  My hope is that this off-day gives management some time to reflect on how they are treating the season.  Maybe Mr. Ilitch is too wrapped up in the Red Wings’ recent struggles to realize how the Tigers are being run this year.