The worst baseball game ever played...?

The Tigers came into last night’s contest with Cleveland 6 games behind the White Sox for 1^st place in the division.  They welcomed the Indians to Comerica Park for the first time this year after being swept by them earlier this season.  Over the past 2 seasons, Detroit had only lost to Cleveland a hand full of times at home.  Looking at the matchup last night it seemed like the Tigers had a big advantage on the mound with Drew Smyly.  Cleveland is the worst team in the AL against left-handed pitchers, and they countered with what is left of Ubaldo Jimenez.  Some people might have remembered what he did in the first half of 2010, but since then this pitcher has been borderline awful.  He entered sporting a 6.5 BB/ 9 IP, dead last among AL starters.  To make matters worse, it was 7.6 BB/ 9 IP on road starts this season.  He was 0-4 with a 9.00+ ERA in his career at Comerica, and had a 6.35 ERA in road starts this season.  Do I need to continue?  Ok, one more for good measure, Jimenez just came off a 7 ER outing.  If Phil Hughes is the definition of average, Ubalado is nowhere close. The game was over before it started, right?  The Tigers were going to come out and score 9 off Jimenez and force Manny Acta to use his bullpen early in the game.

But as it should be expected now with this offense, Detroit went out and scored 1 time off of the dominant Jimenez.  What is worse is they drew one walk in Ubaldo’s 6+ innings, which happened to come on his last batter, Ramon Santiago.  Last night I was not in a good mood, but I have had time to step back and cool down a bit from the extreme frustration that the Tigers are causing me.  Even now looking back on the game last night, it was the worst approach I have EVER seen a baseball team have.  If you know me, you know that I like to exaggerate some stats once in a while, but this time I actually mean worst I have EVER seen.

Detroit hitters were gifted with 9 2-0 counts while Ubaldo was in the game.  This is the best count for hitters to face, it is a dead fast ball count.  The Tigers were 0-8 with 1 walk in these at-bats.  Did you catch that?  They didn’t get a hit in any of these counts. Brennan Boesch was graced with 3 of these at bats.  In two cases he swung at the 3^rd pitch fastball which were out of the strike zone, once missing and once popping out to the infield.  Even though 2-0 is a great hitters count, I don’t understand why watching the 3^rd pitch against Jimenez is such a bad idea.  The guy could not consistently throw 2 strikes in a row.  He finished with 102 pitches, and was close to a 1 to 1 ratio of balls to strikes.  Then moving on to Delmon Young, his at bats might have been even worse.  In his 3 at bats against Ubaldo he saw a total of 5 pitches.  He had 2 one pitch outs.  I know he has never seen a first pitch he didn’t like, but at some point you have to adjust to the pitcher you are facing.  Ubaldo was under 50% on first pitch strikes, even with Delmon swinging on 2 of them. 

I understand that Leyland does not have much to work with right now to make this offense click, but there has to be someone who can add more to the lineup as Boesch and Delmon Young have so far this season.  Watching this team right now is nearly impossible.  I hope it turns around quickly, but I just don’t see it happening.

After a third of the season recap

The Tigers have played 54 games already this season which means they are exactly a third of the way through the 2012 campaign.  Detroit is sporting the impressive 25-29 record, which is good for third place in the AL Central.  Let’s be honest, this is a lot different than what was expected coming into the season.  While the Tigers do have time to turn this disappointment around and make the playoffs, they need to start playing better sooner rather than later.  Just think, if Detroit is to have the same record as they did last year they will have to go 70-38 from here out which would be a better winning percentage than the best record in baseball currently.  So why not take a look at what has happened so far this season to make it such a disappointment. 

Offense

The Tigers have been the definition of inconsistent with the bats this season.  Everyone expected Delmon, Boesch, Avila, Peralta, and Raburn to continue their success from the 2011 season, and guess what they simply have not.  Delmon Young is sporting a .711 OPS, Boesch .622, and Peralta a .691.  That is brutal.  In case that does not make sense, let me throw another stat from the Tigers normal 5,6,7 hitters out there.  They have combined to strikeout 109 times, and have walked a whopping 34 times.  Raburn was batting .150 and then decided to watch 3 different strike 3’s in Boston and was demoted to AAA again.  This is the same guy that led the entire team in batting average post All-Star game in 2011.  Yes, his average was higher than the batting champ (Cabrera) and VMart.  Avila has been able to draw some walks so far this year, but is not hitting the ball with any sort of consistency right now.  It probably also doesn’t help that he is a bit banged up right now. 

I am not going to blame this season’s deficiencies on injuries since every team has them and Detroit should have a good enough farm system and 25 man roster to cover up (over the short term) injuries to anyone besides Cabrera, Fielder, and JV.  Just when it seemed the offense was coming around, Austin got injured and has been out for 18 games now.  He is currently hitting .344 from the lead off spot.  Dirks was batting over .400 in the 2 hole during his limited at bats, and now he has been placed on the 15 day DL.  They have been replaced by Berry who has provided a major spark in his time with the big club, but will never be close to a .300 hitter let alone .344,  The 2 hole has been a joke since Dirks has gone done.  So now, with the bottom 5 in the lineup not contributing still, the 2 hole is an automatic out as well. 

The Tigers are 15-3 on the season when they score 5 runs or more, and they have scored 134 runs in these 18 games.  In the outings they have scored 4 or less runs, they are 10-26 and have scored a total of 99 runs in those 36 games.  The Tigers have scored a majority of their runs in a third of the games so far this season.  This begs the question, will the offense ever turn it around this season?  Also, if they do, will it be too late?

I am really hoping Austin and Dirks come back fully healthy soon and can be re-inserted to the top of the lineup.  However, I also think that Berry has proved his worth to this Tiger’s team and should stay in the majors for the rest of the season.  Berry should be moved over to right field, and Boesch should be placed on the bench.  Then the question is what to do with the DH position right now.  Delmon and Boesch have been the same hitter so far this season, just one from the right side and the other a lefty.  Both swing at anything from chin to dirt, have a high strike out rate with an incredibly low walk rate, and can add a touch of power if they make contact.  The Tigers would then have the option to try and trade Delmon
(or release him) and make Boesch the full time DH, or platoon these guys in that role.  I also think that Peralta should be given a chance in the 5 hole for a bit because even if he is having a disappointing year so far, he draws a ton more walks than Delmon.  Putting Jhonny there would keep the off-setting hitters (right, left, right, etc). Also, by leaving Berry in the lineup it gives the bottom of the order a little boost of energy.  No matter what Leyland decides to do with the lineup, the bottom line is that the offense has to get better and begin to lessen the pressure on the starting pitchers and bullpen. 

Starting Pitching

The starters really haven’t been the main issue so far this season.  Verlander is getting some of the least amount of run support from his offense and is somehow still 5-4 after 2 bad outings. I would imagine JV is getting a little frustrated, but wouldn’t it be nice if he had a few CC Sabathia starts where the offense bails him out and JV can put it in cruise control?  As bad as he pitched on Sunday against the Yankees, he only gave up 5 runs, and against the useless pitcher that is Phil Hughes, the offense should have been able to give JV the no-decision. Scherzer and Porcello have been average to good more than they have been bad, which is seeming like all we can expect from them in their careers. Smyly has been a nice surprise, but has strung together 4 bad starts in a row and needs a good outing tonight to begin straightening things out.  Then there is Fister, who most people expected him to continue his second half of 2011.  People, he was the best pitcher in baseball last year after being traded to the Tigers.  He outpitched Verlander during that time.  This was not going to be able to continue.  Then in his first start he injured his side and it has been nagging him all season so far.  I have no doubts that he will come back and be our number 2 starter hands down if he can get healthy.  I am not sure what more we can get from the starters right now, especially without Fister.

Bullpen pitchers

Overall this group has been very disappointing.  Eight relievers have earned 10 losses.  Did you get that? Almost a third of the losses have come from the bullpen.  On top of that, Valverde now is sporting a 3-1 record as a closer.  Benoit and Valverde both had career seasons last year, and should not have been expected to continue their complete dominance.  Benoit has been turning things around, until he got some arm soreness in his last outing.  Valverde is just looking awful so far this year.  He cannot command his fastball, and has all but removed his split finger pitch from his arsenal. When Benoit is healthy again, will Leyland make the switch to him to be the closer?  Below has been a nice surprise so far.  Villareal looked terrible in his first stint with the team, but has come back and looked dominant at times.  If he can locate his fastball for strikes, this kid could be the best pitcher in the pen for the Tigers.  Marte has added depth to the pen since coming back from the DL, and most people don’t remember but he won a job out of spring training and then got injured just before opening day.  Then there is Dotel, who started as the best pitcher in the bullpen, and recently has been struggling to locate pitches and has a tendency to give up the big fly.  Also, the Tigers are still expecting Al Albequerque to come back from injury after the All-Star game.  This group of guys will need to begin to pitch more consistently if this team is going to start closing the gap with the White Sox.

Defense

Last and certainly least.  The big question with adding Prince Fielder was going to be the defense and with Miguel moving back to third base.  Well, the defense has been worse than expected in my book.  The Tigers have a .670 defensive efficiency good for dead last in the AL.  The Tigers have a roster full of DH’s.  Somehow Miguel has been the least of the concerns in the field right now.  Prince is having his worst fielding year of his career, and I personally think he is the worst defensive first baggers in the entire league.  2^nd base has been a joke for most the season so far.  Peralta seems to have taken a huge step in the wrong direction in the field.  How many times has a ground ball been hit to the middle of the field and a double play has not been turned.  Whether it is Peralta bobbling the ball, taking too much time tossing to 2^nd base, covering 2^nd too late, or even taking too long to make the exchange from glove to right hand to throw to first base. Then moving out to the outfield, Delmon wouldn’t be able to cover enough ground to play left field on a little league outfield.  Analysts love anointing players as 5 tool players.  This means they can hit for average, hit for power, run, field, and throw.  Delmon Young is a successful half tool player (he can hit for power when he doesn’t strike out). I also used to think Brennan was a plus defender, but have quickly realized he is a butcher out in right field.  The scary part of this area of the game is that I don’t think they can improve over what they have been doing so far this season.  I don’t think they are slumping in the field, I just think they are simply that bad. The saving grace for this though is if the offense can score 5+ runs per game, these defensive lapses can be overlooked since the wins will start to pile up.

Heading into the middle third of the season, the Tigers will need to get the bottom of the lineup rolling with the bats.  They cannot wait much longer to start playing good baseball.  It will help a lot if Austin, Dirks, and Avila can come back from injuries soon.  I personally think that Brennan having success is a big part of this team’s success, and he just doesn’t look comfortable in the batter’s box right now.  I think sending him down to AAA or sitting him for a few games could really benefit the youngster.  Detroit has a pretty weak next 18 games where they should be able to  get in a bit of a winning streak (but the entire month of May was against lesser competition and they finished under .500).  I think it will be safe to count Detroit out if their division deficit grows to double digits by the end of this month, but if they can stay behind Chicago by 4-5 games then anything can happen.

Is Tiger back?

I know most sports fans do not consider golf a real sport, and even more cannot sit and watch a golf tournament on tv.  I, however, am not one of these people.  I will admit, I am not the biggest golf fan and do find some rounds pretty boring when I don’t know the names on the leader board, but I do follow every tournament that Tiger enters until he is no longer in contention. 

Well, in case you missed it, Tiger Woods won his 5^th Memorial Championship yesterday, and a glimpses of dominant Tiger peaked through during the final round.  He started the day 4 behind the leader and came out aggressive but under control.  The turning point of the round though happened on the 16^th hole.  Tiger’s first shot went just past the hole and onto the down slope of the rough.  It was not a favorable lie.  As the camera showed the view from Tiger’s second shot, all that ran through my mind is that water is very close.  He did not have much green to work with in front of the hole, and even less past it.  If I had 10 chances to throw the ball into the hole, I probably wouldn’t come close even once.  Tiger’s competitive nature came through and he expected to make this shot. Needless to say, he did.  He made the perfect shot and let the ball trickle into the hole as his caddy walked onto the green with the putter in hand.

Then came the classic fist pump made famous in Augusta. For the next hour Tiger of old was back.  You could tell from the look in his eyes.  He calmly played the 17^th hole safely and put his first two shots exactly where he wanted and tapped in for par, then stepped up to the 18^th tee box, the same hole he was +3 in the first 3 rounds.  Again he placed his first two shots where he wanted them and knocked down the birdie putt to all but seal the victory (his second of 2012).  It has been a while since I have seen final round Tiger look like that, and I loved it.  Golf becomes must watch tv when Tiger is playing like that.  I just hope he can do it for 3 of the 4 rounds in the US Open, and if he does, look out, he will run away from the crowd for his 15^th major championship. 

Another thing that I found interesting was watching the fist pump took me back to watching the first one on the green at the Masters.  I loved the energy that Tiger brought to the course.  This energy is what made Tiger a star.  Yes, he once was the most dominant golfer of all time, but not only did he win he was different than the cookie cutter, robot, golfer.  He was the normal dude on the course getting pumped when he made an amazing shot.  People loved the emotion.  Then he got injured and the winning slowed down, and Tiger continued to show emotion.  Except it wasn’t the positive energy, it was the frustration and disappointment of making poor decisions and shots.  Again, he was the standard guy on a golf course. The problem is nobody liked the emotion any longer, and Tiger was constantly ridiculed and even fined for not being a perfect gentleman.  I say you cannot have one without the other.  If you are drawn to Tiger because of the passion and emotion that he wears on his sleeve during the good times, you have to accept the negative emotion during a bad round. 

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.