Verlander & Schlereth of the Series (Yankees)

After losing another series against a team with a winning record, the Tigers continue to dig themselves into a deeper hole in the division race.  They are currently finished with a third of the season, and are 6 games back of the surging White Sox. I still do not think it is time to hit the panic button yet, but the team needs to start turning things around quickly.

The Verlander of the Series will go to Miguel Cabrera by default.  The Tigers continue to only score runs by solo homeruns, and if it weren’t for Miggy knocking the cover off the baseball in game 2 we would be looking at another home sweep.  While Nelson Cruz just hit the longest homerun of the season last night (484 feet), Miguel might have the longest average of homeruns (2 or more in a game).  The big fella took Yankees pitching deep to straight away center field on Saturday night, and he did it twice.  The total home run distance was 910 feet. The Tigers were playing in Comerica Park.  In case you are not aware, straight away center field is one of the deepest parts of any park in MLB. Miguel hit one in batting practice range for his first bomb, it hit the ivy in front of the centerfield walkway.  The second moon shot landed in the camera booth.  Just in case that wasn’t enough, Miggy hit his patented laser double to left center.  Saturday night made Miguel look like one of the best hitters in the game today.

The Schlereth of the Series has a couple different candidates this time around.  Crosby showed why he is absolutely not ready for the majors by walking 4 people in one inning and then giving up a grand slam, but it is hard to come down on a kid making his MLB debut against the Yanks.  The Tigers might have been better off using a boulder behind the plate on Saturday night in place of Omir Santos, I am not sure if he was nervous or if he really is just that bad of a defensive catcher, but yikes.  But he hit the walk off sacrifice fly to win the lone game of the series, so I will continue my search.  Then we go to Justin Verlander, who for the first time is actually a decent candidate for this award.  He came out and didn’t have his normal dominant start, which you could see from the very first pitch.  Then he wasn’t in good position to back up Miggy on a throw to third which resulted in the 5^th run to score when the ball went into the dugout. But the worst part is after the game JV actually mentioned the 5 minute delay because of the Magglio ceremony might have thrown him out of his rhythm.  Really?  I know you have a routine, but you are the best pitcher in baseball and you just didn’t have your stuff today.  I cannot believe JV is 5-4 at this point of the season.  But he is still JV and even one of his worst games of the season still should have been enough for the Tigers to get the win with Phil “I have a WHIP of a slow pitch softball pitcher” Hughes but JV is on the mound so they managed to scrape across 1 run.  Watch out now, we are heating up!  But the real Schlereth of the weekend has to go to the bleach blonde spud. Yes, that is right, Jose Valverde (Papa Grande) has bleached his hair and his weird looking goatee. Gross. But on top of looking like a complete moron, he had one of the worst save opportunities I have ever seen.  With a one run lead in the top of the 9^th inning, Valverde came in and hit the leadoff batter with one pitch (9^th batter on top of it).  Then he walked Derek Jeter.  After getting Granderson to pop out, he gave up a double steal.  Then he really focused on ARod by throwing the ball at his heavily protected elbow.  The bases were now loaded for Cano, who for some reason swung at the 1-0 pitch and popped out to short.  The twice baked spud might actually get out of this fiasco. Nope, he then walked Texiera on a full count pitch that wasn’t even close.  There goes the lead and another save. He didn’t even give up 1 hit in the inning, yet gave up the lead and left the bases loaded. But we ended up winning the game, and Valverde improved his record to 3-1.  Maybe he is going for the most wins ever by a closer.    

Tigers Week 8 Recap (24-27)

I sound like a broken record with this team.  Another week of mediocre at best baseball and they are still below .500 and are fighting with the Royals for 4^th place in the division.  It is hard to believe this is how the season has gone so far.

This week was a roller coaster 7 games.  The Tigers finally broke the streak of not winning back to back games by sweeping the twins (I do not capitalize the t because some just don’t deserve it).  Then, when some fans thought it was alright to look again, they dropped a stink bomb in Fenway.  Fister got rocked and headed straight to the DL again, Verlander got rocked for the first time in 2 years for his 2^nd straight loss, and Ortiz looked like an MVP candidate against our pitching. 

The Tigers are closing in on completing a third of the season, and they just don’t look like a very good baseball team right now.  The scariest part about that is the division doesn’t look nearly as bad as last season.  Detroit has been hit hard with the injury bug, I guess it is making up for last season when nobody seemed to be injured. Looking back on last season, it is becoming more clear that it was a dream season.  The lack of injuries, Valverde’s perfect season, the bullpen in general not blowing a single lead after the 7^th inning (in 77 chances), Peralta’s career season, and Avila being the starting AL catcher.  The Tigers got all of the breaks last season, and they were a very fun team to root for.  This season, I would have to say a very small amount of breaks have come Detroit’s way, and when they do they seem to be the bad ones.  This baseball team is flawed, that is easy to see.  But they are better than a sub .500 team.

Looking ahead, the Tigers welcome in the Yankees and the Indians to Comerica before interleague play.  This is another important week of trying to get on a bit of a hot streak.  The way this season is going though, I really doubt that it happens. I guess at this point the only thing we can hope for is for AJ to come back fully healthy this week, then Andy and Doug to continue to heal and be 100% when their 15 days are up, and Alex to get back behind the plate soon because I don’t trust Santos.  

My trip to Fenway, and another live Tigers loss

For my 1 year wedding anniversary, my wife and I headed out east to spend the long Memorial Day weekend in Boston.  In order to move onto sports as soon as possible, I will just say that Boston is an amazing city and I hope that Chelsea and I can go back there again.  While there we of course had to visit Fenway Park (and lucky us the Tigers were in town for Memorial Day). 

Fenway reminded me a lot of Wrigley Field in the seating design and feel of the stadium.  Its old people.  It turned 100 this year, and is still the pride and joy of all Bostonians. It is a beautiful park.  Our seats were down the right field line pretty close to Pesky Pole.  The seats were facing the Green Monster (not home plate), and since the seating incline is so shallow it was pretty difficult for Chelsea to see much of the infield action.  After the top of the 2^nd inning she turned to me and said, I am glad we get to go to Comerica to watch the Tigers. Also, since it is an old park, the seats are pretty cramped.  I am not that tall, and I didn’t even have much leg room.  But this park is not about the comfort or the viewing angles, it is about tradition and being absolutely unique.  There is not another park like it anywhere in the world. 

Another thing that made the visit so great was we were surrounded by Tigers fans and very friendly Sox fans. It might have helped that the game wasn’t close for much of it.  Us Detroit fans had a few things to cheer about though, the Delmon bomb, the Leyland ejection, and Luis Marte pitching lights out for his first outing of the season.  On top of all of this, the weather was beautiful. 

Memorial Day at Fenway was a special event.  It began with the flag covering the entire Green Monster and the Coast Guard Quartet performing the Star Spangled Banner. After every inning different veterans were recognized and given standing ovations.  It was a special day in Boston. Then possibly the best part of the day was singing Sweet Caroline with 36,000 other people. 

Like Chelsea, I am glad that our home park is as comfortable and beautiful as Comerica Park, but Fenway was a great experience with such a unique environment.  I am very thankful my wife likes baseball enough to go to a city where the Tigers are playing for our anniversary trip.  I snagged a keeper, folks.

Verlander and Schlereth of the Series (Twins and Red Sox)

Hello again folks, sorry it has been so long since I have posted.  After getting back from Boston, I had a lot of business to catch up on.  Today seems a little slower so I will try to crank out a large number of posts (including my trip to Fenway).

Let me back track a little bit and had out the awards from last week’s 2 series against the Twins and Red Sox.  The Tigers finished 4-3 in the seven games, but it included a 3 game winning streak followed by a 3 game losing streak.  The Verlander of both series would have to be Quinten Berry.  After the Yankees series, this kid is tied for the team lead in steals.  He is making a strong push to be a regular player even when Austin and Andy come back from the DL.  Just think people, an outfield of Dirks, Jackson, and Berry patrolling the vast outfield of Comerica.  That looks a lot better than Delmon the Dreadful, Action Jackson, and Boesch the Butcher that we were looking at when the season began.  I think the speed and defensive quality of this potential new lineup could overcome the enormous shortcomings of our infield’s defense.  Then on offense, Berry could give Leyland all sorts of versatility in the lineup.  Q could continue to lead off, which would push AJ back to the 2 hole or even the 5^th hitter (where we hope he continues to swing well).  Austin could lead off, with Dirks in the 2 still, and the Q could anchor the bottom of the lineup.  Imagine Berry on base with Austin at bat.  The amount of pressure Berry puts on the pitcher when he is on base is incredible, and should result in AJ seeing some good fastballs. Yes, I am likely too high on this 27 year old journey-man.  He is most likely not the answer for the Tigers, but he could be the energy we need at this point in the season to turn things around.  Also, just think of Berry coming off the bench in the late innings to be a pinch runner.  We would actually have a base stealing threat.  Who would have imagined the Tigers running the bases, amazing.

The Schlereth of the (two) Series will go to the umpires.  I didn’t see most of the Twins set, but did get to see the Fenway debacle.  Of course the game I get to see in person, the play of the game comes from the umpires.  They made one of the worst calls I have ever seen live, and then on top of that missed a call at second base that should have resulted in a leadoff double for Worth.  On a foul tip strike 3, Aviles tipped the ball into Laird’s mitt.  All 9 guys on the field for the Tigers began making the trip into the dugout.  Aviles had his head down and was headed into the Sox dugout.  He was not arguing the call.  Then what seemed like minutes afterward, the first base ump (Bill Welke) decides the ball hit the ground and the inning continues. Then like clockwork, the Sox go ahead and score 3 runs with 2 outs and win the game 7-4.  The horrible call got Jim fired up and then ejected after he put on quite a show at first base.  I thought he was going to punch the ump.  I don’t know what it is about this season, but every morning when I turn on sportscenter, it seems like one of the topics is a missed call by an umpire.  Could it be that the games are televised more and more with more camera angles catching all of the problems?  It is a possibility, but when is it going to be enough (even for the baseball purists) and instant replay to be installed?  Hopefully soon, because I cannot stomach much more of this garbage.

Tigers Week 7 Recap (20-24)

To echo my last weekly update, rough does not come close to comparing whatever the Tigers put on the field this week. They went 2-4 against the Indians and Pirates.  The offense continued to just be dead, and I have a hard time believing it all has to do with Austin missing for these 6 games. Instead of pulling closer to the Indians in the division they continue to dig themselves into a deeper hole. 

Of course the week started with one of the best pitching performances you will ever see.  Justin was one weak base hit away from his 3^rd no-hitter, and the offense came to life in scoring 6 runs on a Verlander start.  Then in the remaining 5 games the offense combined for 13 runs.  The starting pitching had 6 decent starts (4 quality starts), and the bullpen actually pitched closer to average than we have seen in a while. The terrible defense continued to show its face and the complete lack of offense just keeps frustrating me beyond anything else.  Before the season we knew our infield defense would be below average, so as much as stupid errors are tough to watch they are pretty much performing how we expected.  This team was built for one thing, to score runs… lots of runs, and through 44 games the random assortment of the Cleveland Indians lineup is outscoring the star-laden Tigers. Everybody is struggling at the plate right now.  Miguel is getting useless singles with 2 outs, Prince is swinging at anything, and the bottom of the order can double their average and still barely be hitting their weight. 

I will admit right here on May 24^th that maybe my expectations for this team were just too high.  I expected Avila to be the hitting catcher of 2011 not 2010, and so far his 2010 campaign is looking pretty good right now.  Peralta had a career year last season, and it was unfair to expect him to do that again.  Raburn’s hot spring gave me hope his first half woes would finally go away, but how wrong I was.  I feel like most pitchers just physically do not have the stuff to get Miguel out on a normal basis, but he has had some of the worst at bats that I have ever seen from him to start this season.  Both Prince and Miggy are walking half as much as they did just a year ago (yes that could be because both were intentionally walked a lot, and pitchers cannot offer free bases to back to back hitters), but Prince normally walks more than he strikes out.  This year he has fanned 31 times, and has walked only 15.  Austin Jackson is the only player right now that is exceeding everyones off season expectations, and guess what, he is injured with no time table to return.  Could it be that this team just is not that good?  What would happen if the Tigers don’t win the Central, don’t make the playoffs, or don’t win 81 games?

On the pitching front, Justin Verlander continues to be special, but even today with his average stuff gave up 2 runs.  That sounds like a great start, but he got the loss.  Yes, he is the best pitcher in baseball, but so was King Felix a few years ago when he won the Cy Young with a 13-12 record. Verlander cannot continue to be expected to pitch 8-9 innings of 1 run baseball.  That makes every inning a pressure environment which will wear him down faster.  Verlander should really not have a loss right now and be closer to 8-0 than 5-2.  When is Porcello and Scherzer going to become consistent, because if it isn’t soon then they both should offer some good trade value (possibly for David Price which Tampa has been rumored to be shopping). We cannot expect Smyly to continue his surprising start all season, which will mean Rick or Max has to step up and roll off 5 good starts in a row or 8 of 10.  Yes, Max just struck out 15 and it was very impressive, but what will he do on Friday?  Fister has been given some bad luck as well after he has come back from the DL. 

I know that there is over 100 games left of this season, but from what I have seen in the first 44 I do not like what I see.  The Tigers are just not playing good baseball, and they are really tough to watch with the lack of hitting and defense.  I hope they can turn it around and go on a winning streak, but I guess I would take back to back wins again. 

Looking forward, the Tigers continue their weak May schedule which will likely mean 2 more losses in Minneapolis even though this is a series that they could sweep without much effort.  Can Smyly bounce back from 2 average starts in a row? Can Scherzer follow up his 15K start with just a quality start? Can the offense score more than 2 runs per game against the little league pitching staff that makes up the Twins rotation?  Following up the trip to Minnesota, the Tigers head to Fenway for a 4 game series in Boston.  I will be present for the series opener, but at this point I have to be honest… I am not super excited to see the offense get shut down live.  It will be a tough game to sit through if Fister gives up 2 runs and gets hit with the loss.  Oh well, at least Red Sox fans are friendly, right?  Guess not.

Verlander & Schlereth of the Series (Indians)

Welp, this was an ugly week mostly due to rolling over and playing dead against the Indians.  When is this team going to turn things around, and if they do, will it be too late?

It is really difficult to choose a Verlander of the Series for this one because most of the team looked lost at Progressive Field. I will just go with the starting pitchers.  None of the starters (Porcello, Fister, Verlander) had career games, but they were by far better than anything else the Tigers put on the field for these 3 stinkers.  Porcello again was the victim of shoddy defense, Fister was hampered by a 29 pitch first inning then settled down and made one bad pitch to Hafner who put it in orbit, and Verlander just didnt have his change up working like he did against Pittsburgh but he still shut down Cleveland for the most part and was throwing 101 mph fastballs in the 8th.  The thing these pitchers have in common is the offense let all of these guys down. 

Schlereth of the Series is such an easy pick it is a little sad.  The Tigers offense was just atrocious, did they forget it in Detroit or are they just that miserable without Austin Jackson?  If that is the case, I really hope AJ comes back soon, I cannot take much more of this terrible garbage they call baseball.  After the 2nd game when Detroit left the bases loaded in both the 7th and 8th innings their batting average with the sacks full dipped to .129.  You read that right, .129.  I honestly didn't know it was possible to be THAT bad as a team.  Brandon Inge almost has as many RBI's from bases loaded hits as the entire Tigers team does to this point.  If you are feeling sick about that stat, you are not alone.  The Tigers left 29 men on base in 3 games and were 3-23 with RISP.  Folks, it cannot get any worse than this. 

What more does JV need to do to get a win... 8 IP, 7K 2 ER and he gets the loss.  I couldn't handle being a starting pitcher in those situations.

Looking ahead, if the offense does not pick it up against the worst pitching staff in the majors then I don't know what will.  Hopefully they can score close to 20 runs in the 3 game series against the Twins and get closer to .500 again. 

Verlander & Schlereth of the Series (Pirates)

Hello again.  The Tigers welcomed the Pirates to Comerica this past weekend, and Detroit finally wins a series.  The Pirates are the worst hitting team in the NL, but even with that fact, two of the Tiger's pitchers brought their A game to the park.  Let's get to the awards.

Verlander of the Series: I never thought I would need to say this when one pitcher goes a complete game of 1 hit ball (8 1/3 of no hit), but this weekend's award is a little competitve.  Scherzer had one of his best starts as a Tiger, striking out 15 Pirates over 7 innings.  It increased his lead of K/9 in the AL, and set the Comerica Park record.  The dude was dealing.  But I just have to go with Verlander on this one.  I was lucky enough to watch his start from the first pitch, and it seemed special after only the 3rd inning. Verlander was just dominant.  He was one bad luck ball away from having his third no hitter of his career.  This guy now leads the AL in almost every pitching category and has continued his 2011 dominance.  JV might have the largest expectations of any starting pitcher in baseball, and somehow he still finds ways to exceed them.  I am excited to see what he can do against the Indians on Thursday. 

Schlereth of the Series: Since I can't pick just one offense player here, I will just choose the offense in general.  Yes the Tigers are still batting .277 with RISP (4th in the AL), but they have struggled to get those clutch hits to push runners across all season.  That was the reason the Tigers lost the game on Saturday, they were 1-8 in this category.  I will put a little asterisk by that number though, because most of those chances were with 2 outs.  The Tigers just couldn't get runners on base early in innings, and it cost them a sweep.  Yes, I am probably nit-picking a little, but I had to pick something here.  Over the past week I have been impressed with the direction the offense was heading, and then Jackson got hurt.  He has been the catalyst all season, so it is very impressive the Tigers were able to win a series with DK in the leadoff spot.  AJ come back soon!

Looking ahead, the Tigers get their first shot at the division leading Indians and then head to Minnesota.  Again looking at the schedule (and the pitching matchups) Detroit could win 5 of these 6 games.  But, the games have to be played on the field, and if AJ doesn't come back soon the offense could have another tough series.  I just hope they can get back over .500 before they (and me) head to Fenway for the Memorial Day series.