Tiger Geist

Day one (er, 1.5) of our spring training action was an exciting game between Detroit and the Nationals.  Our seats were second row, right behind the on-deck circle and five seats from the Nationals’ dugout — thank you stub hub!  Pretty exciting game.  I’ve had spotty wifi coverage so I’ll just try to put down thoughts on players, etc

• Joker Marchant — as awesome as ever.  Even though one lucky usher didn’t seem to like me very much (obviously not a fan of tigergeist), we had great seats and there was easy access to facilities and… beer.
• Nate Robertson — as you’ve probably read, very effective.  A ton of movement on his pitches, though he wasn’t throwing very hard.  His off-speed pitch (maybe his slider??) was coming in around ~71mph and just dropped off the table.  Only notable ground ball was to Larish, who handled it easily.  Problems:  When the players got a good swing, they tagged the ball — quite a few warning track shots.  Good outing (4 innings, no runs).
• Umpires:  Very very very loose strike zone.  Robertson’s numbers weren’t as great if you include the number of called third strikes on both sides.  Good for Robertson, not good for Mike Hessman.
• Gary Sheffield:  The man can still swing a bat.  If healthy (a very very very very big if), he could have a monster year.  One shot that he crushed, another to the same spot but 30 feet closer (warning track fly ball).  And he works the count.  It did seem his elbows were up high, like they were in 2007.  My dad commented “I wouldn’t want to face him if i were a pitcher”, which i responded “I wouldn’t want to face him in a dark ally, either”.  He looks to be a little bigger this year then I remember his as well… thicker.
• Marcus Thames looked good in the batters box and in the field.  Very good at-bats.
• Jeff Larish is on the team;  he can swing a bat and can play an acceptable third base.  Especially if Robertson is going to give up all those fly ball outs.  There was a play on a foul pop-up that Larish mis-played that I felt Inge might get at, and that got Lyon into some trouble later on (he later walked the batter).  If there is a race for the 25th man, Larish isn’t in it.  He’s a solid 24th man right now.
• Wilkin Ramirez:  the man can play.  He’s large.  He still had some obvious flaws with breaking balls, but the Nationals knew it.  And a few times he’d go 0-2 quickly, only to see another three or four pitches.  He battled every pitcher and even in his outs, he saw six pitches.  He’s one to watch for sure — it seems like he gets it.
• Matt Treanor is a strapping young lad.
• Will Rhymes:  easy to see why Leyland likes this kid.  He hit a pop up to shallow center that was an easy play, but he swung and TOOK OFF — he was easily at second when it was caught.  Scrappy.
• Mike Hessman:  I don’t know why there isn’t some sort of work – share program between the Tigers and Lions.  This guy could be the Lions’ starting middle linebacker or defensive end — he’s a mountain of a man in person.
• Lyon was impressive working out of a jam that he pseudo-created.  Excellent breaking stuff that he can throw for strikes.
• Ni — an interesting delivery; we’ll see how he does in the minors.  Might have a future.
• Fien — not as crisp in this outing, for someone who is known as a strike-thrower, he seemed to mess around with the hitters too much in this outing.  But still effective.

Thoughts on the bullpen:

I think Detroit needs to take Williamson and Rincon north.  Not that they are the BEST pitchers in the system at the moment, but here is my fear:  Fien or Perry (or Rapada or Dolsi) make the team.  They have some issues…. who do you bring up?  Its pretty bare at that point (assuming Williamson and Rincon refuse an assignment to the minors after spring training — maybe they can, maybe they can’t).  It seems in Detroit’s best interest to have some insurance for the 2009 bullpen that they didn’t have in 2008.  Its not a question of money, since they’ll all be cheap.  But in terms of experience and depth (and lets not forget that Rodney isn’t a stranger to the DL), I think Leyland will give Rincon and Williamson every opportunity to make the team.

Photos will be up soon;  it was a beautiful day in Lakeland.  Today’s game is in Tampa against the dreaded Yankees (and the dreaded Yankee fans).  Today’s temp in Tampa:  80.  Go Blue tonight!  And congrats to the I-dont-like-them-but-my-sister-went-there Michigan State Spartans.

Interesting story of the day:

Friday, my father & I walked into JJ’s cafe in downtown lakeland for some breakfast, both wearing Tiger t-shirts.  The woman behind the counter kept making bizarre baseball references,  (“step up to the plate!”, “I didn’t know you guys were off today?”, etc).  I didn’t quite understand what was going on, my time zones are screwed up and I just wanted some french toast.  Finally my dad realizes what’s going on:  She thinks i’m Brandon Inge (we actually do look alike according to family friends, though they all agree if i went pro I would have hit at least .265 last year).  My dad politely told her that I wasn’t on the team, which she seemed to disagree with at first, but we assured her we were watching from the stands.  Later, when we’re eating, may dad remarks “i’m fine with her thinking you’re Inge as long as she didn’t think I looked like Leyland”.  Does this make Inge my tiger?