Tiger Geist

I’ve been waiting for the end of the season (and the dreadful last 10 game stretch pre-tampa bay), but had a quick thought.  As I write this, Willis isn’t embarressing himself too badly, and actually had a 1-2-3 inning.

If Sheffield doesn’t hit his 500th home run tonight, Leyland needs to bat him lead off tomorrow.  I don’t care if they move Granderson down or just sit him outright, but just the CHANCE that Sheffield gets to 500 home runs and then decides to retire is worth it.  Should have batted him lead off tonight as well.

I’m extremely confused with Brandon Inge playing in center field this week.  They had extra roster room for Brent Clevlen, not sure why they didn’t bring him up for the end of the year.  Unless trotting a .215 hitter as your starting center fielder makes a whole lot of sense.  Which it doesn’t.

Interesting question:  Does it matter that Rodney is blowing saves?  I guess it hurts his trade value. Here’s what we know:  He will not be the closer on the 2009 Detroit Tigers.  At this rate, he may not be on the team.

I looked at the score, saw that we were up going into the ninth, that Rodney was pitching, and thought “well, at least Miner looked good.”  That is what it has come down to — The season sucks anyway, and to me they’re just playing for 2009.  And for some reason I knew Rodney was going to blow the save.

The bullpen will continue to be a problem for the rest of the year.  Hopefully something changes in 2009.  Whether it be recent draft picks being called up, other farm system arms, or a combination of free agency / trades, we shouldn’t be in this jam again.  At least, not if we plan on contending.

Dontrelle WIllis pitches and puts up very Nate Robertson-esque numbers last night.  5 innings, 3 runs, 5 walks, 4 K’s.. 89 pitches.  Not terrible, if your name is Chris Lambert.  Yes its a small step, hopefulle one in the right direction, and not in the direction of a $29million train wreck.

Reading through the game thread on blessyouboys yesterday, its obvious that different fans have different opinions of what was to be expected of Willis.  Some think it was great (notably, great that he didn’t completely self destruct and lived through the night without having his belt and shoe laces removed from his room), some thought it was awful (he is, afterall, a way-overpaid professional pitcher).  I’m somewhere in between.  However, if this is really a mechanical issue after all… its SEPTEMBER.  Seems like sometime last February or March one of the coaches might have said “hey, see that guy we just signed to a giant contract after regressing last year… ever wonder why he isn’t throwing any strikes?”  What’s the chance a coach stepped in and said (ala Martin Landau in Entourage), “Hey, what if i told you that i could take Dontrelle Willis and his $29million contract and, in September, give you a pitcher that would ONLY walk a player an inning!  Would that be something you’d be interested in?”  Wouldn’t this coach be looked at funny / fired / stoned to death?

So this is where we are.  Two weeks left in the season; Carlos Guillen can’t even smell the field.  Gary Sheffield is getting paid about $850k / home run.  Kenny Rogers has been shut down, Kyle Farnsworth is awful.. and…

Richard Wright is dead.  No more Pink Floyd reunions.  I blame Kyle Farnsworth.  Why Kyle… WHY?

Yes, he won’t pitch again for the Tigers.  But why not?

Not in a meaningful way.  But Jones has had a very positive impact on the team, via two different stints (with two very different teams).  I doubt he’ll pitch again in the majors.  But why not have him throw out the first pitch?

No, not the ceremonial first pitch… the FIRST PITCH.

Last game of the season is at home, against the Rays, on a Sunday.  I know Leyland’s worried about fielding the best teams against playoff contenders.. but for the last game, let’s try this.  Have the starting pitcher do their warm up tosses in the bullpen.  Have Todd strut out, throw the first pitch of the game (most likely a pitch out), and have Leyland yank him.  Crowd goes wild, Detroit shows their appreciation for Jones, and he walks out one last time.  Have the real starting pitcher run out from the bullpen to pitch to the batter (maybe let him throw a warm up or two).

How can this be bad?  They’d have to put Jones back on the active roster (which i don’t think is an issue after Sept 1)… they can talk to the other team and umpires about how they want to do it as a gesture and how it won’t disrupt the flow of the game, just maybe delay the start by a few minutes.  Seriously, how much of an asshole would the Rays manager have to be to be against this?

Way to squander a great start by Nate Robertson.  Oh well, season is lost anyway.

• Not sure if this is a sign of things to come for 2009 or not RE: Robertson.  He’s always had the ability.  Maybe his demotion will lead to some maturity on his part — its obvious that he understands now that he has to concentrate better and work harder.  Or at least thats what i’m hoping he gets out of this.
• Dusty Ryan is my Tiger.  Until he proves he hits like Inge.
• Andres Galarraga had a rough afternoon today;  Miner had one a couple of nights ago.  I wonder if it might have been smart to go to a 6 or 7 man rotation for a week or two, with the influx of pitching from Toledo.  No reason to kill these guys (or the bullpen) with nothing on the line — might as well keep them healthy going into the winter / spring.
• I disagree with starting Willis again, but if you’re going to do it, I think Leyland is doing it the right way in terms of scheduling.
• I don’t care what Detroit thinks they can do better, but they’re not going to be much over .500 in 2009 if their DH and another player (be it starting catcher or third baseman) are hitting .225 and .225 with little power.  Gary Sheffield has said he’s as healthy as he’s been in years right now, but he’s hitting a scorching .211 in August, and .250 (through 8 games) in September.
• The way Leyland is attacking his pitchers, it appears there may be a lot of open competition going into the spring.

Its been nice to see Detroit on a winning streak, though I haven’t had a chance to watch anything with the start of football season(s).  Some quick hits:

• Willis to start next week, Garcia to start as well.  I’m fearful of the Willis start and think its a bad idea.  If things work out, you still have questions going into next spring.  If he does poorly, its a disaster.  Seems like its easier to just let him sit out the month.
• Chris Lambert still hasn’t shown much this year.  I wonder if he would be a competent relief option.
• Not sure what to make out of Mike Hessman.  If I were him, I’d call the SF Giants about a job for next year.
• I think Cabrera ends ups with 35+ home runs and 130+ RBIs.  No one would have guessed that on July 1.
• A strong September will boost Magglio’s trade value.  I think he stays.  I don’t like his power numbers going down, but I imagine batting third all year next year will be a boost as well.
• Hoping Miner’s struggles are fatigue related.
• I bet Dusty Ryan and Dan Orlovsky are the most popular athletes in Detroit right now.  Hope Ryan can play.
• Went to the Giants / Diamondbacks game last night.  Tim Lincecum is the man.  Maybe a draft mistake by Dombrowski taking Andrew Miller #6 in 2006 (Lincecum went #10).

Staring at some numbers from my last post, I took a look at Carlos Guillen’s last five years, all with the Tigers.  He’s had a surprising drop in power in 2008, which makes many very worried about the rest of his contract.  There are a couple of thoughts I have.

1. We’re screwed.  OR
2. He’ll decline slowly (a given), but this year was an anomaly, and / or
3. He’s been hurt more this year then reported

Just a thought, but if you look at his numbers, his 2008 numbers reflect his 2005 numbers more then 2004, 2006 or 2007.  On top of this, he was tearing the cover off of the ball early this year while most of the team struggled (his April 2009 numbers reflected his 2007 season).  What’s important about 2005?  That’s the year he missed significant time due to injury, playing in only 87 games.  His slugging percentage is nearly identical between those two years, a significant dip from the other three years.  Yet his batting average in 2005 stayed at .320, while it has dipped to (currently) .286 in 2008 — which is just about where he’s been since July 6.

I wonder if, by playing third base, he was able to play more games this year then he would have been able to if he was the full time short stop, due to his knees (and now some back / nerve issues).  Maybe the team felt an 80% Guillen was more important to have on the field leading the team then putting him on the shelf for a few weeks.  With what we’ve seen with the how they’ve handled Sheffield (even with Sheffield spouting off about the training staff), this isn’t crazy talk.

My real fear is that a ‘rebound’ year really just means 15 home runs next year, and another .285ish season.  I know he dedicated himself to working out last year, and he’s currently listed at 215 pounds.  I imagine it would be a good idea to drop 10, 15, or even 20 pounds in the off season to keep his knees from taking a pounding (and the back injury isn’t a good sign).  I still think he’s started to break down a little sooner then expected, so maybe some tuning of the off-season routine can keep him on the field longer.

The one shining moment of the remaining Tiger games is that there are so many other distractions to deal with in September.  Between elections, college football, NFL football, fantasy football, off-shore gambling… not too many people will notice the Tigers tanking the rest of the season.

It’ll be interesting how Detroit handles Kenny Rogers’ next scheduled starts.  I can’t see why they would hold him out, but he has what appears to be 4 starts left for the team — two against his old teams (Oakland, Texas) and the last one against Tampa at home in Detroit.  I think its pretty obvious he’s going to retire, so we might as well celebrate his career and stint as a Tiger.  The fans could give him quite a send off if he were to announce his plans before his last start, and it appears it will fall on the last Friday of the season.

On a last note, I’m still torn about the facination with keeping Granderson in the leadoff spot.  Its hard to gauge reaction, but I get the feeling a lot of people think he should stay in the leadoff position.  Leyland says he’ll have to bat leadoff since they don’t have anyone else.  Taking a look, i compared A-Rod’s numbers with Granderson’s.  A-rod has a better batting average, has a higher on base percentage, steals a similar number of bases, and walks more (minus this year, they’re about the same).  My point?  If the Yankee’s leadoff hitter went down with an injury, I don’t see A-rod moving up in the order.  If Granderson is a complete player, he’s a great #3 hitter.

Nice little 9-6 victory Detroit pulled out last night.  The starting pitching was average (not great, but at least they were in the game), the bullpen was average (not great, but at least they were in the game), the defense above average, and they knocked in some runs.
Sounds like Mike Hessman doesn’t suck at third.  I’m starting to get really upset about the Detroit’s lack of production from the DH spot (Sheffield), poor third base defense (Cabrera / Guillen), and lack of power at third (Guillen), while this guy has been sitting in Toledo.  Interesting, two years ago Brandon Inge took a bad average and power numbers with solid third base play into a crazy contract.  Mike Hessman probably gives you the same thing, and for some reason he can’t make a big league club that has played under .500 for most of the year.

Yes, I know Hessman isn’t the solution for a bad year.  But he’d hit like Thames with better defense.  I think Detroit is hoping that Jeff Larish can do the same next year, but like Big Al, I’m not sold on him yet.

Tigers season is almost over, and sometimes it seems the all wish they could just end the season yesterday.  Between fantasy football drafts and Michigan’s entry into the Rich Rod era, its been a busy few weeks.
A brutally honest interview with Lynn Henning popped up on the detroit tigers podcast, which I loved.  Obviously its time to start more discussions about next year, and to talk about what happened this year.  Something I took away from the podcast:  How much did Jim Leyland know he was in trouble heading into this year?  Lynn thinks he probably knew he could be screwed.  So in terms of recent callups, etc, while we think we all know who are the next stars (and, in detroit, the most popular person in town is usually the backup QB for the Lions), sometimes I have to remember that Leyland and Dombrowski aren’t idiots.  I am very surprised that Brent Clevlen didn’t get a callup for September, but maybe they don’t feel he’s in the plans for 2009.  Or maybe they know what they have in him, want to give him some time off, and see if he’s ready to push for a spot in spring training.  My general thought is:  They have a plan.  I love to disagree with it, and we’ll never know exactly what happened behind the scenes this year, but I bet it would be an interesting read.