Tigers Weekly 2005 Season

Week 11: 6/14/05 - 6/20/05

What a week, what a week!  After stuggling on the road
the Tigers came home to Comerica and put together a
solid 5-1 homestand against the Padres and Giants. 
The icing on the cake was Placido Polanco's walk-off
home-run Sunday afternoon to take the series from San
Francisco.  The Tigers hitters showed resiliency and
really picked up the bullpen, which had a rare
off-game.  San Fran went up 5-4 in the eighth and Omar
Infante tied the game with a triple.  The Giants went
ahead 8-5 in the 9th when rookie Todd Linden took Troy
Percival over the wall with two outs.  After a
sac-fly, Chris Shelton tied the game with two outs
with a longball of his own.  Jamie Walker was able to
keep the Giants off the board in the tenth and Polanco
ended it.  I listened to this on the radio and it was
quite exciting.  The win put the fourth-place Tigers
at the five-hundred mark, making the AL Central look
like the best division in baseball.  The White Sox
have the best record, the Twins lead the AL Wild Card
race, and two other teams are at or above .500.  Even
the Royals are playing better under Buddy Bell.  This
week the Tigers will play a Central opponent for the
first time since May 1 (no foolin').  Interleague play
wraps up this weekend at Arizona.  
 
New Subscribers...

Dave "Bergman" Friday
" Joltin' " Joe Bourdon

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Week of 6/14 - 6/20
 
Record:  5-1  WWWLWW-
 
Undy-Five-Hundy:  Once again the undy-five-hundy is
back to zero.  That gives cause for celebration, but
also for concern.  The last time the Tigs evened their
record they proceeded to lose six of their next eight.
The time before that they lost six of seven.  This
five-hundy mark certainly has been a hump that the
club has not been able to get over.  It won't be easy
this time, either, as Detroit has to face the Twins at
the Metrodome, a place that has not been kind to the
Tigers in recent years.  Amazingly the Tigers will
miss AL Cy Young winner Johan Santana for the third
straight time this season.  It mattered little the
last time in Minnesota as they were swept.  Let's hope
they take advantage of their good fortune this time.
 
Up Next for the Tigers...

6/21 - 6/23  @ Minnesota
6/24 - 626   @ Arizona
6/27         no game scheduled...
6/28 - 6/30  Chicago White Sox
 
AL Central Standings

CWS  47 22 -
MIN  38 29 8
CLE  37 31 9.5
DET  33 33 12.5
KCR  25 44 22
 
Tigers Divison

CWS  47 22 -
|
FLA  34 32 11.5
CHC  35 33 11.5
ARI  35 35 12.5
DET  33 33 12.5
TOR  35 35 12.5
LAD  33 35 13.5
NYM  33 36 14
 
Tigers News and Notes:  The Tigers officially put
Carlos Guillen in the 15-day disabled list with his
hamstring injury.  Speaking of bad hammies, remember
Fernando Vina?  Me neither.  Marcus Thames (.188, 6HR,
15RBI in 85 at-bats) was sent down to Toledo. 
Replacing these two on the roster are Jason Smith and
Alexis Gomez, who the Tigers signed claimed off
waivers from the Royals at the end of last season. 
Gomez fills Thames' vacancy in the outfield and Smith
resumes his role as a utility infielder.  Both players
hit from the left side of the plate.

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Tiger of the Week...
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Mike Maroth pitched two times this week, the second of which was on three days of rest. While Jason Johnson also did this, he only threw two innings in his first start due to a long rain delay. Maroth won his first start (against the Padres) by allowing just one run on six hits over eight innings and did not walk a batter. His outing on Sunday was less impressive, but on short rest the five innings he gave weren't that bad. Maroth has suffered through the worst of the Tigers' woes and he served as the poster-boy for the laughing-stock 2003 squad, losing 21 games that season. He never complained and he went out there for every start. Once gain he stepped up and gave the Tigers a decent outing, this time by pitching on short rest. Maroth is one of those guys that doesn't get noticed outside of Detroit, but we Tiger fans should be appreciative of his dedication. It will be a sad day when Maroth leaves the Tiger organization.

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Tigers Weekly Baseball Game
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Again, it looks as if the game is going to happen.  I
have some loose ends to tie up, and then my big
project for the week will be securing a field for the
9th.  Some input that I will need is what time people
would like to play on Saturday.  The Tigers play at
6:15PM, so I think it would be fun to try and play
around 3:00PM and then grab dinner at a local
establishment afterwards and take in some of the game
and talk Tigers...and have a bull-session about the
game just played.  
 
I appear to have an "in" with an umpire in the area
who will hopefully give me information on renting a
field and hiring an ump for the game.  Again, if
anyone wants to volunteer to ump, that would be nice. 
More details will be discussed in e-mails sent to
those who have expressed interest in playing.  It's
not too late to get in on the game, so if you're
interested and available on the 9th, let me know and
I'll put you on the mailing list.  
 
Vegas is giving 4:1 that my trick knee acts up
sometime during the game.

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Four-Man Rotation
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The Tigers are currently operating on a four-man
rotation.  As mentioned, that had an effect already as
Mike Maroth had to pitch on short rest.  If the Tigers
stick with this plan then Bonderman and Robertson will
have to pitch the last two games of the Diamondbacks
series on short rest as well.  After an off-day this
coming Monday, the Tigers have thirteen straight days
in a row with a game.  They'll most certainly insert
someone else in the rotation then.  
 
The most likely candidate appears to be Sean "Dean"
Douglass.  In fourteen starts at Toledo, Douglass has
compiled a 9-1 record, a 2.87 ERA, and a 76:27
strikeout to walk ratio.  He's certainly dominating
AAA, but that's a different ball game than the majors.
Still, he is certainly earning a shot.  I had never
heard of Douglass until recently, so it will be
interesting to see him if he gets called up.  
 
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Shades of the Old Tribe...
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Two clubs are reminding me of the dominating Indian
teams of the late ninetees.  The first is the current
team, Cleveland v2005.  The Tribe just had a nine game
winning streak stopped, but had ridden that to come
within a game of the second place Twins.  Those bats
that were silent early in the season are starting to
wake up.  Meanwhile, they've left the Tigers in the
dust!  The other team on this list is the best team in
baseball, the Chicago White Sox.  One thing that
characterized those Cleveland teams of old was that
they usually had the division wrapped up by the end of
July.  It appears that Chicago may do that as they
currently hold an eight game lead on second-place
Minnesota and the Twins are about to get swept.  The
Tigers get another shot at the south-siders next week
at Comerica.

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Pine Tar...
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Brendan Donnelly of the Angels was ejected and
suspended for ten games after being caught with pine
tar in his glove.  The umps checked Donnelly's glove
per the request of Nationals manager Frank Robinson. 
The incident annoyed Angels manager Mike Scoscia so
much that the two got into a shouting match and the
benches cleared.  Both managers were suspended a game
for their actions.  
 
One consequence of this was that I got to see, on
Baseball Tonight, the Joe Niekro incident with the
emery board.  It was pretty hilarious to see the thing
fly out of his back pocket.  However, I wonder how you
would use an emery board that is in your back pocket
without getting caught.  Also, it seems like it would
be pretty tough to significnaly scuff a ball with an
emery board.  Niekro was a knuckleballer and claimed
that he used the board to file his nails between
innings.  I think he actually has a decent point.  It
was pretty well known that former Tiger Steve Sparks
kept his nails filed.  I may need follow-up on this
from a Twins fan (i.e. Dr. Hesse) on whether his claim
has any credibility.

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Poll Question...
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If you haven't heard by now, the All-Star game is in
Detroit this season.  There are many events related to
the game being held, from the All-Star Fan-Fest at
Cobo to the Home-Run Derby to the Futures Game.  A
note on that last event:  Guillermo Hernandez will
manage the World Team and George Brett will coach Team
America (check his lineup card for pine tar).  What
events are looking forward to the most, and are you
planning on attending any of the festivities?

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Game Linescores...
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June 14:  San Diego 4 - Detroit 8
Starters:  SDP: Peavy 6IP - DET: Johnson 2IP
SDP  001 002 001  4 8 1
DET  003 002 03X  8 9 2
W: Rodney (1-0)
L: Peavy  (5-2)
Editor's Note:  The game was delayed due to rain,
causing Jason Johnson to leave the game early.  H
returned on "three days rest" to pitch on Saturday.
 
June 15:  San Diego 2 - Detroit 8
Starters:  SDP:  Eaton 2.1IP - DET: Maroth 8IP
SDP  100 000 001  2  7 1
DET  132 000 20X  8 11 0
W: Maroth (5-7)
L: Eaton  (9-2)
 
June 16:  San Diego 1 - Detroit 3
Starters:  SDP: Williams 7IP - DET: Bonderman 7IP
SDP  100 000 000  1 4 1
DET  011 000 10X  3 6 1
W: Bonderman (8-4)
L: Williams  (2-5)
S: Percival  (5)
 
June 17:  San Francisco 4 - Detroit 0
Starters:  SFG: Schmidt 8IP - DET: Robertson 7IP
SFG  020 110 000  4 9 0
DET  000 000 000  0 7 0
W: Schmidt   (4-3)
L: Robertson (2-5)
S: T. Walker (10)
 
June 18:  San Francisco 2 - Detroit 8
Starters:  Rueter 4IP - DET: Johnson 8IP
SFG  200 000 000  2 12 0
DET  211 040 00X  8 14 1
W: Johnson (5-5)
L: Rueter  (2-6)
 
June 19:  San Francisco 8 - Detroit 10
Starters:  SFG: Foppert 3.1IP - DET: Maroth 5IP
SFG  020 020 013 0   8 12 0
DET  011 200 013 2  10 11 1
W: J. Walker (3-3)
L: Eyre      (1-1)
 
June 20:  no game scheduled...

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Readers Write In...
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Peter "The Poet" Ciofani
 
Matt,
First of all, good job as usual. Secondly, I will do
everything in my power to keep Nicholas from betting
the Big 6 & Big 8 when we go to Vegas. Finally, have
you ever routed a copy of the Tigers Weekly to the
team? I would be curious to know what they would
think.
 
Mr. C

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Nick "Gans" Ciofani
 
Cleveland's Undy Five Hundy is in Negative #'s
Yesssssssssssssssss!

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Deana "Carter" Carr
 
I wish I lived closer.  I'd love to join the baseball
game!  I've been to the Tigers Fantasy Camps many
years, and I played a summer for the women's baseball
team, the Detroit Danger.  Maybe another time.
 
Deana 

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Anthony "Ferny" Morano
 
Hey Matt. Keep on sending the newsletter I think it's
awesome. I pretty much try to watch every tigers game
on my dish. Last week Dave Runk flew out to the left
coast to visit and we went to the Tigers game against
the Dodgers in LA.
 
It was pretty cool. We sat on the first base side
behind the tigers dugout on the middle level.
There were alot of tigers fan rooting the D on.
 
My favorite moment was seing #23 get a standing
ovation on both nights and also the LA fans giving
the pistons a standing ovation for beating the heat.
 
The first game the tigers looked like the flight 
caught up to them and bonderman made a couple
of bad pitches. also they made D Lowe look like a
ground ball machine
 
Night two was different story as the boyz from motown
brought out the big red baseball bats and hit some big
dingers. Tony "Godfather" Giarrantino from the bronx
replaced Guillen when he pulled his hammy and
hit his first hr also DYoung hit a monster swat.
Percy came in and gotthe save. I think the urbina
trade will work out.
 
I'm trying to put the pictures I took from the game
and email them. 
 
fern

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Toolie's Trashtalk...
 
You have to be happy with the Tigers' performance this
week.  This good stretch has pushed their interleague
record to 8-7 with one series to play.  Then we get
back to seeing American League teams once again. 
These next three weeks are pretty key as we're going
to be seeing mostly winning teams.  If the Tigs can
weather this storm then they will be rewarded with
back-to-back four game series against the Devil Rays
and Royals.  
 
I love seeing the Central do so well.  Maybe now Peter
Gammons will shut his big yapper about how Chicago and
Minnesota will mop up against the rest of the
division.  The Central has been dominant in
Interleague play, running their record to 48-27 after
this week's games.  If the Wild Card team comes from
the Central I'll be a happy guy.  
 
I feel like I'm going to miss out on a lot of the
All-Star fun.  It's not the easiest thing to get down
to Detroit and I'll be pretty busy with studies once
this baseball trip that I'm going on is over.  That,
by the way, begins next Wednesday night.  We have to
leave somewhere around 1AM to make it to our first
game...an afternooner in Washington.  
 
This week I learned that Nook Logan's real first name
is Xavier.  
 
Mr. C, I've never sent the Weekly to the team, and I'm
not even sure how I'd do it.  It's not really a
publication that they could put out, and if I ever
wanted to do something like write for the team (which
I don't feel like I'm qualified to do) I would have to
alter the way I do things.  Still, it would be
interesting to see if I got any kind of reaction.
 
How in the world is Tino Martinez leading the AL
All-Star voting for first-basemen?  He had one stellar
week and it looks like he may get voted onto the team,
though Mark Teixiera is apparently gaining ground (and
rightly so).  Other injustices so far include Mike
Piazza leading at catcher (Paul LoDuca or Ramon
Hernandez are having better seasons) and Nomar leading
at SS having hardly played at all.  At least it looks
like Bonds won't get voted on the NL squad.
 
Omar Infante has looked good these last couple of
games.  With Tony Giarratano struggling, Trammell
inserted Infante at short (recall he was the Tigers'
shortstop of the future at one point) and Omar
responded by going 5 for 8 and hitting for the cycle
over those two games.  Infante has expressed that he's
not upset over the trade for Polanco, as he hadn't
been producing.  It sounds like Omar is a pretty good
guy and I hope that he gets his stroke from last year
back.  
 
Tim Kurkjian has to be the biggest stat geek in the
world.  He's always talking about how Manny Ramirez
never homers when there's a full moon or how Dmitri
Young hits over .300 with a 'fro.  I would go crazy if
I ended up like Kurkjian where all I'm doing is
digging for useless facts.  Wait a second, I'm a
mathematician...
 
One aspect of the Urbina deal that I never touched
upon was that there was a fight between Urbina and
some other Tiger players on the plane ride out to Los
Angeles.  Urbina seemed sort of volatile in general
and he probably wasn't thrilled that he was headed
back to a setup role.  What is it with Tigers players
getting into trouble on the team plane? 

If you ask me, Chris Shelton looks sort of like Ron
from the Harry Potter movies...minus the red hair, of
course.  He's sort of goofy looking.  

I've included a photo of the walk-off shot on Sunday. I suggest viewing the video on mlb.com if you missed it. It was pretty intense. In the words of the great Porky Pig: That's All, Folks!!! Well, at least for this week. Remember, if you'd like to participate in the game on the 9th to send me an e-mail. It should be fun.

 
Go get 'em Tigers!  
 
I'm out.
 





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Play Ball!

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