Tiger Geist

I’m going to imagine that the Phillies are going to win the series at this point.  Question for Tampa is similar to what Detroit dealt with in the wake of the 2006 world series disaster:  How to assess their situation, how to address any glaring needs, and how long do they feel they have a window at winning?

I saw an interview with the TB GM earlier this year, and he stated something to the effect that Tampa has a limited payroll, and when they have a shot at a championship they have to take it.  Does that mean they make a serious run at a high priced free agent?  Or make some trades (ala Detroit with Gary Sheffield) for a missing piece?

I don’t think this year was a fluke for Tampa, I think they can be competitive for a few years if they decide to keep everything intact.  Whether management will give them the green-light to make some moves is to be deteremined.  In the long run, it doesn’t appear the prospects given to the Yankees in the Sheffield trade was a huge deal… on the flip side, the issue was being stuck with Sheffield and his troublesome shoulder (and contract extension).

Good luck to the Rays in the future;  I have to tip my hat (and thank them) to any team who makes espn freak out by knocking out both the Yankees and Red Sox from the playoffs (well, kept NYY out of the playoffs, knocked out Boston).  I would really tip my hat to them if they were willing to take Mr Sheffield off of Detroit’s hands.

Big Al and Greg Eno talk about Steve Blass in relation to Dontrelle Willis.  My thoughts:  I don’t know what happened with Steve Blass.  I believe Rick Ankiel’s issue was mental — he’s an awesome athlete and there is no other explanation for losing his pitching skill.  Dontrelle, however, doesn’t seem to have a mental issue.  He might kill the next batter he faces because he can’t control his fastball, but he has no fear of throwing the pitch.  I think that is what separates him from the Steve Blass syndrome — he’s not a headcase.

Most likely, Dontrelle was able to get by purely on talent / skill and not mechanics.  As things caught up to him (he went to a better league, he got older, his body started changing a little), he hasn’t been able to adapt.  Maybe he’ll never adapt, maybe he’s done.  But I don’t think he’s a headcase, and that’s probably why Detroit thinks he can be salvaged.  Or maybe they don’t, they have no choice but to try.  One thing he does not lack, however, is confidence.

In terms of the new pitching coach (Rick Knapp), I’m excited.  Its nice to have someone new, not part of the good ol’ boys network, or a retread.  I think what I can only assume is a more hands-on style (due to his extensive work in the minors) will help Detroit’s starters.  And let’s be honest — they have plenty of guys who need work (Bonderman, Robertson, Willis) as well as guys who need ‘tweaks’ (Verlander, Rodney).

If Knapp can help Bonderman and / or Robertson regain their sliders, would either be closing candidates?  Both are big and strong, both have problems throwing over 6 innings without giving up a big inning, and both rely extensively on their slider.  After watching Brad Lidge save game one last night for the Phillies, I wonder if either of detroit’s slider-happy pitchers could duplicate that success?  If you can’t get Bonderman to throw a split finger or a change-up, i think they need to at least entertain the idea.

Keeping it simple.. I watched the last three innings of the first world series game last night.  Love both teams, rooting for the Phillies.  Couple of things stood out to me:

• How can anyone watch these games on TV?  It must take sixteen hours to get through one of them.. and to have to listen to these douchebag commentators?
• They stated it, and i looked it to verify:  The Phillies are 79-0 (86-0 if you count the playoffs) in 2008 if they are leading after the eighth inning.  Holy Shit.  That’s what a bullpen can do for you.  I know Detroit struggled on both sides of the pitching staff this year, but… man… 86-0.
• I love Ryan Howard, and I almost cried watching him take strike three in the top of the ninth.  Actually I yelled so loud my wife came running into the room, hoping i had impaled myself and she could collect the insurance money.  He looks lost at the plate.
• It pains me to see Carlos Pena on a major league team.  I think he’s a headcase that couldn’t quite put it together in Detroit.  Imagine if he HAD turned out here.. what a great trade (Pena / Bonderman for Jeff Weaver).  That might have turned into one of the better trades in history.
• Side Note:  Also included in the trade was Franklyn German, quite frankly a name I’m not sure how to pronounce correctly (probably Herman???)… at a game at Joker Marchant last spring, a 75 year old man was wearing a Franklyn German jersey, and my brother in law & I just looked at each other…
• No idea who will win the series, or even game 2.  I do think that the first game in Philly will be CRAZY…
• This whole “who wins the all-star game gets home field advantage” is crap.  Interesting — Brad Lidge took the loss for the NL, though the NL ran out of pitchers so it wasn’t really fair.

My father, brother-in-law & I officially accepted the Phillies as our National League team to root for last spring;  we went to see Detroit play an ‘away’ spring training game at the Phillies beautiful stadium and decided they were the team to root for.  Their facility was awesome, the fans were great, and the restaurant across the street had outfits that put hooters to shame.  That was of course the infamous ‘broken hand’ game for Curtis Granderson, that helped kill the season.  Go Phillies!

On some other notes, I’ve been trying to get over a nasty bout of “Tigers suck”-ness, which i’m slowly recovering for.  Remember that as a season ticket holder to UM Football, this is not the best Fall I’ve ever had.  But I’ll slowly recover for more Tiger talk.

Baseball thoughts:

• MLBPA thinks the league is against Barry Bonds.  Honestly.. hard to argue with them.  Who knows, but they say they have ‘evidence’.  Thats not a good sign.
• Jake Peavey is on the market.  I imagine Detroit is out of the running for this type of trade, or any other big name free agent signee.
• I’m sure Detroit will pursue Derrick Lowe, or maybe even AJ Burnett.  Dombrowski had Burnett in Florida, but i’m sure he’ll get more money then Detroit wants to spend.  It would be interesting if Lowe wants to ‘return home’… whatever that means.  If I get a call from a company in the Detroit area right now offering me a job, i’d probably turn it down too.  I also would worry about pitchers going from the NL to the AL — the NL is a much much much easier league to pitch in (See Sabathia, C.C.)
• Starting to think 2009 is a good year to try Zumaya out as a starter.  He’s having some control problems and it would give him more time in spring training, etc to work it out.  Maybe he can return to the closer role in 2010 when he proves he’s healthy.  Right now it might be easier to just let him get healthy.
• If we’re looking for a stop-gap solution at short stop, I imagine a platoon of Omar Vizquel with Ramon Santiago is preferred to dealing with Edgar Renteria again.  Unless Renteria wants to play on a one-year contract worth $2million.  That would def. be a defensive upgrade, though Omar can’t hit.
• Sf Chronicle speculates that Detroit might be interested in Huston Street as a closer (or even a reliever).  I imagine they’ll want prospects that we won’t be very interested in giving up, but Oakland will need to shed payroll for a guy they probably don’t need.  Another thought — if we took Eric Chavez and his contract off of his hands, much less would be needed.  Don’t know what will happen on that front, but a healthy Chavez is a gold glove third basemen and hits better then Inge.  Who knows if he’ll ever be healthy again, but its not like Oakland’s medical staff is top notch. Then again, the same could be said about the Tigers.  Its going to be hard to say what Illitch will allow going into next year in terms of payroll, and paying for a player who’s been hurt each of the last three years (who makes $11 million /year) probably isn’t in the cards.

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).