Tiger Geist

Spent an afternoon with my father Don and brother in law Casey at Joker Marchant last Friday. Pictures can be found here. Thoughts on the game:

• Toronto’s fringe pitcher Jesse Litsch ate us up. Random Toronto fan in front of us said he was their fifth starter.
• Miguel Cabrera is HUGE. He was running wind sprints with Magglio and towered over him. His size really stood out in the infield, where he was playing with Inge and Raburn



• Raburn is a little guy. Not Kevin Hooper little, but it felt like Cabrera dwarfed him.

Pitching:

• Maybe we were a little to quick on the draw for Dontrelle’s contract extension. He couldn’t throw a strike. Worse, the Jays ran all over him. His elongated delivery worries me against teams who like to steal bases. His inability to throw a strike worries me against teams that have decent players. Toronto only brought one star (Alex Rios) and Willis really had some problems.
• Zach Miner looked solid in 2 2/3 innings. Nothing spectacular, but he was in control.
• Lopez / Seay / Beltran didn’t have too many issues

Hitting:

• Gary Sheffield is a machine. Got a nice shot of his home run swing on camera.
• Cabrera had a rough day but seemed to get the most out of his at-bats
• Team looked lost at the plate vs an average pitcher

Fielding

• They put Inge at short, Raburn at 2nd, Cabrera at third. Cabrera seemed to have a rough day in the field, and you wonder what goes through Inge’s head as he’s standing 30 feet away. Maybe we I’m being too judgmental about defense.
• Raburn seems like he can play anywhere and looks comfortable. He had a nice play on a pick-off by Willis.
• Willis has some nice pick-off moves. It helped with the number of base runners he allowed.
• Pudge still has a great arm.
• Raburn got a couple of innings behind the plate. I don’t remember any previous years where ‘emergency’ catchers got so much live work.

Random

• Toronto fan turns and asks us, “where are you planning on putting Inge this year?” Dad’s response: “On a greyhound”. The fan replied “seems a waste to not use him.. I had thought we should try to get him”. Made me wonder.. are there actually other fans in other cities who think Inge is a good player? Have we been blessed with such a good team in recent years that we forget that other cities would love to cheer for an average yet overplayed player?
• I remember this from last year, but both Mike Hessman and Cody Kirkland are gigantic. For some reason i get a thrill out of watching them warm up. They’re both 6′ 4″ or taller, but on the diamond they look more like 6′ 8″.