***Officialish Detroit Tigers Thread*** (3 Viewers)

[Raider Nation]

Dotel doing his best to ensure a walkoff.

 

[Limp Ditka]

Dotel doing his best to ensure a walkoff.

This MFer

 

[Raider Nation]

Oy vey. This calls for another Marlboro.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Jesus. Well I guess I'll stop #####ing about Valverde now.

 

[Limp Ditka]

 

[jon_mx]

omg...

 

[Limp Ditka]

OD,PGDIAF

TIA

 

[Bojang0301]

Jim Leyland needs to go... Not only should Fister have stayed in, so should have Coke. I have never seen another manager lose as many games throughout the season as Leyland.

 

[Limp Ditka]

Great job, Smokey!

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Jim Leyland needs to go... Not only should Fister have stayed in, so should have Coke. I have never seen another manager lose as many games throughout the season as Leyland.

They scored two runs against a scrub starter and patchwork bullpen. Dotel sucked but he isn't the closer and he was the right guy to put in there if Valverde was unavailable. Dotel had basically thrown one bad pitch all year before tonight, #### happens.But the two runs should be your first #####, this team should be scoring more than two and three runs a game.

 

[Bojang0301]

Jim Leyland needs to go... Not only should Fister have stayed in, so should have Coke. I have never seen another manager lose as many games throughout the season as Leyland.

They scored two runs against a scrub starter and patchwork bullpen. Dotel sucked but he isn't the closer and he was the right guy to put in there if Valverde was unavailable. Dotel had basically thrown one bad pitch all year before tonight, #### happens.But the two runs should be your first #####, this team should be scoring more than two and three runs a game.

This sentiment needs to stop. It's year after year. He let .129 Ryan Raburn hit in top 9 then pulls him for Santiago in bottom 9. It's mind numbing. Dotel threw a pitch 20 feet behind that batter and that should have been it. Instead he faces two more. This #### is routine Leyland but blah blah blah the players love him an remember before '04. That stuff is bull ####. A candlelit vigel of Sparky Anderson could have managed this game better tonight. He lets Max and JV go to 120 routinely Fister off injury 70. Put a bullet in my skull. Brad Eldred batted fifth two weeks back. God awful. That is all.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

this team should be scoring more than two and three runs a game.

 

[Da Guru]

Jim Leyland needs to go... Not only should Fister have stayed in, so should have Coke. I have never seen another manager lose as many games throughout the season as Leyland.

They scored two runs against a scrub starter and patchwork bullpen. Dotel sucked but he isn't the closer and he was the right guy to put in there if Valverde was unavailable. Dotel had basically thrown one bad pitch all year before tonight, #### happens.But the two runs should be your first #####, this team should be scoring more than two and three runs a game.

I like Dotel and it does happen but why is it etched in stone that your 8th inning guy has to come out? Coke breezed through the 8th with a low pitch count of 8 and looked to have his best stuff I have seen in awhile. Let him at least start the 8th with Dotel ready to go.

 

[tri-man 47]

Jim Leyland needs to go... Not only should Fister have stayed in, so should have Coke. I have never seen another manager lose as many games throughout the season as Leyland.

They scored two runs against a scrub starter and patchwork bullpen. Dotel sucked but he isn't the closer and he was the right guy to put in there if Valverde was unavailable. Dotel had basically thrown one bad pitch all year before tonight, #### happens.But the two runs should be your first #####, this team should be scoring more than two and three runs a game.

I like Dotel and it does happen but why is it etched in stone that your 8th inning guy has to come out? Coke breezed through the 8th with a low pitch count of 8 and looked to have his best stuff I have seen in awhile. Let him at least start the 8th with Dotel ready to go.

That was my first question. As with the recent Sox loss, Coke had a great, quick inning ...and that was it. Why take out a hot hand??But: Miggy stranded 6 ...shades of Avila, who has had games where he stranded 7 and 8 already this year. As DD notes, blame the offense, too.Good things - Fister following another strong outing by Porcello, so the pitching line-up looks strong ..and the top four in the line-up generally doing what they need to do. With just a few better breaks, the Tigers would be leading the division. Nice to see the Sox stinking it up.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Everyone needs to calm down, they are still in the AL Central. Last year they were 12-17 and it looked pretty bad, then they won three of four vs NY and they started cruising. If they don't win the division Leyland is gone, and with him Lloyd and Lamont who are not great at what they do. Leyland's loyalty is the one thing that makes him a guy players want to play for, while at the same time making fans want to hate him. I can't believe anyone can blame him for last night, the team stranded a bunch of runners and lost a strange game in which their bullpen anchor just melted down.

On Dotel, he was always a bit of a wildcard in the 9th. Not sure how you can be lights out in the 7th and in high pressure situations like the playoffs and then meltdown in the 9th of a May game at Seattle, but it happened. I think it's a good lesson learned, Benoit or Coke should pitch the 9th if Valverde isn't available going forward.

But the bottom line with this team is they aren't hitting, when they do they've had some bad luck. Cabrera hit a ball so hard with runner on 1st and second last night that he knocked the pitcher out of the game and Raburn missed a two run double by a foot. Starting pitching looks very good with Fister, the bullpen should be good with Below, Coke, Benoit, Dotel and Valverde and the defense is not the disaster some had predicted (in fact it looks better than last year). Once the hits come they will win, if they don't then Leyland's days in Detroit are over. Now sit back and enjoy the season!

 

[Premier]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250.

Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

 

[Gopher State]

6 -- Games Detroit has lost this season when leading after seven innings. The Tigers were 77-0 leading after seven innings a year ago but are now 9-6 after dropping a 3-2 decision at Seattle Monday night when the Mariners scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth.

It's early, but you have to start wondering about the tiger bullpen

 

[scrumptrulescent]

Everyone needs to calm down, Now sit back and enjoy the season!

Fister looked fantastic. Good grief, the bottom just drops out on his pitches and he makes hitters look stupid.Liking the Dirks experiment so far. And Boesch lower in the lineup takes some pressure off him and he can swing away.....and if he gets hot, lookout. Delmon I'm not excited about but he could get hot too.Raburn needs to take a seat and give Santiago a whole bunch more starts.They need to score runs. Not so many LOB's. It'll come though. And when it does we'll also be talking about how strong their pitching staff is, and their bullpen.

 

[Eephus]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Cabrera projects at -27 TZ Fielding Runs if you extrapolate out to 1200 innings at 3B

 

[Premier]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Cabrera projects at -27 TZ Fielding Runs if you extrapolate out to 1200 innings at 3B

Wow. Christ. What's that -4.5 wins?

 

[Eephus]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Cabrera projects at -27 TZ Fielding Runs if you extrapolate out to 1200 innings at 3B

Wow. Christ. What's that -4.5 wins?

Granted it's a small sample stretched over a much longer period and there's the possibility that he'll improve at 3B as he gets more comfortable there. But the organization sure seems committed to the experiment. When the move was announced after the Fielder signing, I never would have imagined that Cabrera would play third for 27 of the team's first 28 games.

 

[scrumptrulescent]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Cabrera projects at -27 TZ Fielding Runs if you extrapolate out to 1200 innings at 3B

Wow. Christ. What's that -4.5 wins?

This team was never built to win games with defense. It's built to do what it did in the first week of the season when it did what it do against Boston and Tampa. Once the bats heat back up the team will once again do what it did when it did those 2 AL East powerhouses. Until then it's doing very little.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Actually Cappy, Longoria and Miggy have the exact same UZR/150. Tigers are 8th in MLB in fielding percentage and Cabrera is middle of the pack with just three errors in 81 attempts. They aren't horrendous, and that ground ball ratio will adjust to the mean over time. Also the 4.5 wins thing has to be shtick.

 

[Premier]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Actually Cappy, Longoria and Miggy have the exact same UZR/150. Tigers are 8th in MLB in fielding percentage and Cabrera is middle of the pack with just three errors in 81 attempts. They aren't horrendous, and that ground ball ratio will adjust to the mean over time. Also the 4.5 wins thing has to be shtick.

You're a pretty reasonable guy, sports-wise. Surely you don't think Cabrera is even competent over there do you? Come on. Don't homer up here. He's the worst defensive player in the game. Comparing him to Longoria

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Actually Cappy, Longoria and Miggy have the exact same UZR/150. Tigers are 8th in MLB in fielding percentage and Cabrera is middle of the pack with just three errors in 81 attempts. They aren't horrendous, and that ground ball ratio will adjust to the mean over time. Also the 4.5 wins thing has to be shtick.

You're a pretty reasonable guy, sports-wise. Surely you don't think Cabrera is even competent over there do you? Come on. Don't homer up here. He's the worst defensive player in the game. Comparing him to Longoria

You wanted to tell us the Tigers have horrendous d, I gave you the Longoria vs Miggy numbers. Wa la.

 

[Premier]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Actually Cappy, Longoria and Miggy have the exact same UZR/150. Tigers are 8th in MLB in fielding percentage and Cabrera is middle of the pack with just three errors in 81 attempts. They aren't horrendous, and that ground ball ratio will adjust to the mean over time. Also the 4.5 wins thing has to be shtick.

You're a pretty reasonable guy, sports-wise. Surely you don't think Cabrera is even competent over there do you? Come on. Don't homer up here. He's the worst defensive player in the game. Comparing him to Longoria

You wanted to tell us the Tigers have horrendous d, I gave you the Longoria vs Miggy numbers. Wa la.

The two have literally nothing to do with each other. And so far this year, the Rays have saved 26 runs due to their defense.

 

[Eephus]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Actually Cappy, Longoria and Miggy have the exact same UZR/150. Tigers are 8th in MLB in fielding percentage and Cabrera is middle of the pack with just three errors in 81 attempts. They aren't horrendous, and that ground ball ratio will adjust to the mean over time. Also the 4.5 wins thing has to be shtick.

You're a pretty reasonable guy, sports-wise. Surely you don't think Cabrera is even competent over there do you? Come on. Don't homer up here. He's the worst defensive player in the game. Comparing him to Longoria

You wanted to tell us the Tigers have horrendous d, I gave you the Longoria vs Miggy numbers. Wa la.

So far this year, Longoria is -2 TZ Fielding Runs vs. average (extrapolated to 1200 defensive innings). His actuals over the past three seasons were +19, +12 and +12

 

[Premier]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Actually Cappy, Longoria and Miggy have the exact same UZR/150. Tigers are 8th in MLB in fielding percentage and Cabrera is middle of the pack with just three errors in 81 attempts. They aren't horrendous, and that ground ball ratio will adjust to the mean over time. Also the 4.5 wins thing has to be shtick.

You're a pretty reasonable guy, sports-wise. Surely you don't think Cabrera is even competent over there do you? Come on. Don't homer up here. He's the worst defensive player in the game. Comparing him to Longoria

You wanted to tell us the Tigers have horrendous d, I gave you the Longoria vs Miggy numbers. Wa la.

So far this year, Longoria is -2 TZ Fielding Runs vs. average (extrapolated to 1200 defensive innings). His actuals over the past three seasons were +19, +12 and +12

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Actually Dr. D, the defense is horrendous. At least in the infield. The league is hitting about .300 on ground balls against the Tigers. League average is around .250. Lot of extra hits getting through those holes.

Actually Cappy, Longoria and Miggy have the exact same UZR/150. Tigers are 8th in MLB in fielding percentage and Cabrera is middle of the pack with just three errors in 81 attempts. They aren't horrendous, and that ground ball ratio will adjust to the mean over time. Also the 4.5 wins thing has to be shtick.

You're a pretty reasonable guy, sports-wise. Surely you don't think Cabrera is even competent over there do you? Come on. Don't homer up here. He's the worst defensive player in the game. Comparing him to Longoria

You wanted to tell us the Tigers have horrendous d, I gave you the Longoria vs Miggy numbers. Wa la.

So far this year, Longoria is -2 TZ Fielding Runs vs. average (extrapolated to 1200 defensive innings). His actuals over the past three seasons were +19, +12 and +12

Saying the Tigers are horrendous in the infield is like saying Tampa has a good fan base. Tigers aren't even close to being the worst fielding team even by advanced metrics, the Indians are much, much worse. They aren't the '85 Cardinals but you seem to think they are like a beer league softball infield, which they aren't. They also have one of the best defensive catchers in baseball in Avila and Delmon ####### Young in LF. Miggy has a good glove and putting his bat at 3B mitigates the range he has there. It is what it is, but to my original point...it is better than expected.

 

[Premier]

No, it's worse than expected and all the advanced numbers show it, but continue to live in homer dreamworld.

I always love hearing how Tampa has a bad fanbase from a Detroit guy who is a Seattle Seahawks fan.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

I always love hearing how Tampa has a bad fanbase from a Detroit guy who is a Seattle Seahawks fan.

You really have to come up with some new material.

 

[MAC_32]

The defense is not good, but it has been better than I expected.

Get your head out of the stat book and watch some games.

 

[scrumptrulescent]

I always love hearing how Tampa has a bad fanbase

You must be full of love then. Your star 3B is begging for bandwagon fans on twitter.

 

[Premier]

I always love hearing how Tampa has a bad fanbase from a Detroit guy who is a Seattle Seahawks fan.

You really have to come up with some new material.

Yours was fresh?

 

[Premier]

I always love hearing how Tampa has a bad fanbase

You must be full of love then. Your star 3B is begging for bandwagon fans on twitter.

I've never said Tampa has a great fanbase. I also have no idea what this has to do with Detroit's awful infield defense. Talk about deflecting.

 

[scrumptrulescent]

I always love hearing how Tampa has a bad fanbase

You must be full of love then. Your star 3B is begging for bandwagon fans on twitter.

I've never said Tampa has a great fanbase. I also have no idea what this has to do with Detroit's awful infield defense. Talk about deflecting.

I've never said Detroit had a good defense. The offense will soon makeup for defensive deficiencies.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Let's get it back on track...

My link

The Tigers can’t seem to buy runs and its getting frustrating. Oh sure, fans want to find Octavio Dotel’s house and throw garbage at it. It’s completely understandable. Fans on Saturday wanted to pour sugar into Jose Valverde’s gas tank. But blaming the back half of the bullpen is ridiculous. With the payroll that the Tigers have invested in the bats they should be producing more than 2 runs per game.

There are plenty of people who are blaming Jim Leyland, and they are coming out of the woodwork Braveheart style. Some people are blaming Dave Dombrowski some have called for the release of Valverde outright (which has calmed a bit since Dotel’s meltdown). There seems to be outright frustration and that is fine. While Dotel was melting down, all I could do was laugh.

This blog merely sits among a thatch of others who are laying down hand spans to map the Tiger’s issues. Last week I lamented that the Tigers bats were had passed “sleeping” and lapsed into a coma. Now it seems that they are showing signs of atrophy and bedsores.

Leyland has done the best he can. He can’t move the monsters. He tried moving Andy Dirks, and that has been met with mitigated success. Both players in that transaction have benefited. The Tigers can’t really manufacture runs, as they don’t have any team speed. They made the decision to live and die by the long ball when they signed Price Fielder this winter. No backsies on that. If you say you were against it from the start you are a liar. I took a lot of crap for saying that you can’t buy runs, and I heard none of you galloping to my defense. If you try to climb into my bandwagon now I will kick you off.

The Tigers need help and it’s time to look outside of baseball. Yogi Berra famously said that 90% of the game is half mental and I think he is 100% right about most of it. You of course need confidence to stand in against guys who throw the ball 100 mph. But you also need support of the baseball Gods. The baseball Gods seem unhappy with the Tigers so it’s time to get a little bit of help. Here are some actual ceremonies that are performed by actual people around the world that might help the Tigers get their bats going:

Pagan ritual to break a curse – Paganism. It’s actually older than all major religions so maybe they are on to something here. I have no idea. All I know is I have bumped into several Pagan women that I would want to … uh … perform rituals with. I think every guy remembers that pagan girl from high school smelled like patchouli and was hot enough to actually listen to for a moment. Plus something about a woman wearing what amounts to curtains kind of does something for me. The Pagans suggest (I swear): The Salt and Dragon’s Blood bath ritual. I certainly hope that your bathtub isn’t white! The description of this ritual un-ironically says that you should “Mix dragon’s blood with jojoba oil” You can just BUY Dragon Powder? We restrict nuclear materials but Dragon Powder is found at any store? Where? Whole Foods? Is that in the area with the grains? I never go there, so maybe. So apparently you mix those two common household items together and you take a bath in them. Sounds soothing. That will get the bats going. Not interested in Dragon’s Blood? How about:

Self immolation – Well, no one will question your commitment at the presser afterwards. This is the polite way of say “set yourself on fire”. Saying someone is on fire is usually a casual cliché. This in an actual ceremony performed by actual religions. I imagine volunteers would be hard to come by in this ritual.

Church of God with Signs Falling – Sounds legit, right? I can only imagine the horror on someone’s face that unknowingly walks past that sign and into the building. This is the polite name for the snake handling religion, apparently popular in West Virginia (if you have ever been to West Virginia, this makes perfect sense). People gather every Sunday and sing to the snakes. As part of the ceremony, you must approach the pulpit and grab the snake. I of course punch out of this ritual way before that. I am pretty sure I am running as soon as I see a large snake uncaged in the room with me. But yeah, these idiot- people actually pick the snake up and let it oil around on them for a while. What’s worse is that the snake religion people almost exclusively go with poisonous snakes. If a parishioner is bitten, the snake people just chalk it up to that person not being a true believer. Whoever has been bitten does not really deserve the trip to the hospital and they should die right then and there. There has never been a religion that has so definitively proved the theory of evolution.

Baby Tossing – That isn’t a metaphor. At the temple of Digambeshwara in India, it is a centuries old tradition to throw babies over the wall of a church. The toddlers are then caught by people below with a sheet. There really isn’t any data of toddlers dying from this practice, but they of course are a little disturbed. I mean the children and not the people performing the ceremony. On second thought, I mean pretty much everyone involved is disturbed. There are plenty of these videos on YouTube. If you laugh at the videos at all, you may be a bad person. At least you know.

lol, pretty clever stuff.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Avila day to day with left knee soreness.

DIRKS! DIRKS! DIRKS!

 

[Raider Nation]

Millwood is pretty good.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Verlander not that sharp tonight, need more runs.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

The fan who caught Prince Fielder's HR thought it would be clever to throw it back on the field, since the Tigers are the enemy and all. Problem is Prince hit it so far the fan threw it with all his might, and it landed three rows from the wall. So that fan got it and threw it on the field. Basically Mariners fans needed a relay guy to get that HR back on the field, lol.

 

[Limp Ditka]

Potato Fat!

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Number of losses when leading after 8 innings over the past four years: 5 (4 in 2008)

Number of losses when leading after 8 innings in 2012: 4

9th inning runs this year: Tigers 8 opponent 21

Fielder should have had that ball to complete the double play to end the game, nothing is ever easy. Walking the first two hitters in the 9th is ridiculous, but Valverde recovered. Putting the winning run on first base is different but that worked also. Leyland pulling the strings from the clubhouse.

Absolutely awful plate umpiring tonight by Knight, both teams had huge issues with him and Leyand got tossed for arguing balls and strikes and the Mariners were chirping a lot as well.

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

Sweet catch by Kelly.

 

[whoknew]

Number of losses when leading after 8 innings over the past four years: 5 (4 in 2008)

Number of losses when leading after 8 innings in 2012: 4

9th inning runs this year: Tigers 8 opponent 21

Fielder should have had that ball to complete the double play to end the game, nothing is ever easy. Walking the first two hitters in the 9th is ridiculous, but Valverde recovered. Putting the winning run on first base is different but that worked also. Leyland pulling the strings from the clubhouse.

Absolutely awful plate umpiring tonight by Knight, both teams had huge issues with him and Leyand got tossed for arguing balls and strikes and the Mariners were chirping a lot as well.

Fielder is a really poor fielder. Much worse than Cabrera at first. And the ump - holy moly. The second pitch to Montero in the 9th was literally right over the middle of the plate. Ball. Wow.

 

[Greco]

it s easier to wake up and read about it imo

 

[tri-man 47]

it s easier to wake up and read about it imo

Banker called yesterday offering skybox seating for next Tuesday's day game in Chi-town.

 

[Da Guru]

Number of losses when leading after 8 innings over the past four years: 5 (4 in 2008)

Number of losses when leading after 8 innings in 2012: 4

9th inning runs this year: Tigers 8 opponent 21

Fielder should have had that ball to complete the double play to end the game, nothing is ever easy. Walking the first two hitters in the 9th is ridiculous, but Valverde recovered. Putting the winning run on first base is different but that worked also. Leyland pulling the strings from the clubhouse.

Absolutely awful plate umpiring tonight by Knight, both teams had huge issues with him and Leyand got tossed for arguing balls and strikes and the Mariners were chirping a lot as well.

Fielder is a really poor fielder. Much worse than Cabrera at first. And the ump - holy moly. The second pitch to Montero in the 9th was literally right over the middle of the plate. Ball. Wow.

The issue is that Prince is a mediocre fielder at 1B, Cabrera had turned himself into a very solid first baseman but Miggy is a below average third baseman. With Rayburn at second they are like my softball team in the field.

 

[scrumptrulescent]

The issue is that Prince is a mediocre fielder at 1B, Cabrera had turned himself into a very solid first baseman but Miggy is a below average third baseman. With Rayburn at second they are like my softball team in the field.

No, they aren't.

 

[Da Guru]

The issue is that Prince is a mediocre fielder at 1B, Cabrera had turned himself into a very solid first baseman but Miggy is a below average third baseman. With Rayburn at second they are like my softball team in the field.

No, they aren't.

You are right..I think my softball may be a bit better.