Tigers Weekly 2005 Season

Week 22: 8/31/05 - 9/6/05

"You mean we're not gonna score? We came all this way
and we're not gonna score? It's not fair; we never
score. I'll bet this old dude scored, like, a million
times. But we never score."  - Beavis
 
It's been another rough week for the Tigers.  Luckily
we fans don't have to worry about contending anymore
this season.  The Tigers have been a non-factor in the
Wild Card race ever since they fell out of the race
themselves.  Teams have been walking over them with
ease and it appears the club might be losing their
edge.  The fact that they're losing isn't as alarming
as the fact that it's the regulars who are playing so
poorly.  Last week the word was terrible pitching. 
This week we're reliving the 2003 season as the Tigers
are struggling to score runs.  With a somewhat
meaningless run in the ninth tonight the Tigers
snapped a 27 inning scoreless streak.  Yikes.

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Week of 8/31 - 9/6
 
Record:  1-6  WLLLLLL
 
Undy-Five-Hundy:  It looks like things are beginning
to snowball for the Tigers.  The index climbs up to
ten this week...the highest it's been all season.  The
team has lost eight of its last nine games and they
look absolutely lost out there on offense.  All of
their hits seem to be coming with two outs and without
runners in scoring position.  They're really not
giving us much reason to watch.
 
Up Next for the Tigers...
 
September 7      Cleveland
September 8      @Cleveland - makeup, Aug 30 rainout
September 9-11   Kansas City
September 12-14  Minnesota
 
AL Central Standings...

CWS  86 51 -
CLE  77 61 9.5
MIN  72 66 14.5
DET  63 73 22.5
KCR  44 92 41.5
 
Tigers Division...

STL  88 51 -
|
CHC  67 71 20.5
BAL  65 73 22.5
SFG  63 73 23.5
DET  63 73 23.5
CIN  64 74 23.5
LAD  61 76 26
ARI  62 77 26
(Several teams still playing...)

 
Here the number in parentheses is the number of games
in which the team trails their division leader.
 
AL Wild Card (BOS, CWS, ANA leading divisions...)

NYY -     (4)
CLE 0.5   (9.5)
OAK 1.5   (1.5)
 
NL Wild Card (ATL, STL, SDP leading divisions...)

HOU -    (13.5)
FLA 1    (6.5)
PHI 1.5  (7)
WAS 2.5  (8)
NYM 4    (9.5)
 
Tigers News and Notes:  The Tigers putchased the
contract of pitcher Doug Creek and so he's back in the
bigs.  Rondell White was moved to the 60-day disabled
list so he is done for the season.  Rondell probably
won't be back next season as Craig Monroe will likely
take over as the regular left-fielder.
 
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Tiger of the Week...
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Mike Maroth put together two quality starts against the Tribe this week. In a stretch that was low on quality this makes him an easy selection for Tiger of the Week. Mike pitched the Tigers to their only win of the week Wednesday in Cleveland, giving up just three hits in seven innings and striking out six. He was equally effective on Monday as he went six innings with a WHIP of 1.00 and struck out another six batters. In both games he surrendered two earned runs. After the Tigers' run of terrible starts, Maroth's outings have restored a little stability to the rotation and has helped to give the bullpen a break.

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Colon Moves Into Rotation...
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Roman Colon, the pitcher for whom the Tigers traded Kyle Farnsworth, will take Sean Douglass' spot in the rotation and will start Wednesday night against the Indians. Colon's numbers have been better as a starter (with Atlanta) so it will be interesting to see how he handles his first opportunity with the Tigers. I've got a good feeling about this guy.

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Gettin' Higgy With It...
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I fully expected Bobby Higginson to come back for the
last couple of weeks of the season and end his career
as a Tiger on the field.  Apparently he's done for the
year and obviously won't be back next season.  This
little blurb made me chuckle.
 
---
 
Sep. 5
News: Higginson (elbow) scrapped plans to attempt a
September comeback after experiencing some discomfort
throwing a ball, the Tigers' team site reports.
 
Spin: Higginson, who is a free agent after the season,
said he hopes to latch onto a contending team next
year, even if it's as the 25th man on the roster. "I
wouldn't be playing for the Devil Rays or the Kansas
City Royals, or something like that," Higginson said.
 
---
 
OK, Bobby... if you say so.

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Campus Comments...
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College football is off and running and that means the
original internet newsletter "Campus Comments" is back
for another season.  The Comments, which was the
inspiration for The Weekly, is written by Chas "Corso"
Claus.  There is no team affiliation but a majority of
the readers who contribute are heavy on Michigan
schools and ND.  There is a lot of love for the MAC in
the Comments as well.  It's a great weekly read and if
you enjoy college football then you'll certainly enjoy
Campus Comments.  E-mail Chas at chas79@hotmail.com to
get yourself on the list!

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Poll Question...
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2006 has been the year that the front office has been
dangling in front of Tiger fans for a few years now. 
That's next year!  So according to guru Dombrowski we
should see a team, next season, that will compete for
the Central Division.  
 
Where do the Tigers need to improve to have a chance
at competing in 2006?  Do you think the biggest
concern is the offense, defense, starting rotation, or
the bullpen?  What types of moves can you see
Dombrowski making in the offseason?  

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Game Linescores...
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August 31:  Detroit 4 - Cleveland 3
Starters:  DET: Maroth 7IP - CLE: Lee 6IP
DET  200 000 020  4 10 0
CLE  200 000 001  3  6 0
W: Maroth     (12-12)
L: Betancourt (2-3)
S: Rodney     (7)
 
September 1:  Detroit 3 - Chicago White Sox 12
Starters:  DET: Johnson 5.1IP - CWS: Contreras 7IP
DET  000 000 210   3  5 0
CWS  010 302 06X  12 18 0
W: Contreras (10-7)
L: Johnson   (7-11)
 
September 2:  Detroit 1 - Chicago White Sox 9
Starters:  DET: Douglass 3.2IP - CWS: Garcia 7IP
DET  000 100 000  1 3 0
CWS  040 401 00X  9 9 0
W: Garcia    (12-7)
L: Douglass  (5-3)
 
September 3:  Detroit 2 - Chicago White Sox 6
Starters:  DET: Robertson 6.1IP - CWS: Buerhle 7IP
DET  010 000 010  2 11 1
CWS  102 001 20X  6 12 0
W: Buerhle   (15-7)
L: Robertson (6-12)
 
September 4:  Detroit 0 - Chicago White Sox 2
Starters:  DET: Bonderman 8IP - CWS: Garland 9IP
DET  000 000 000  0 4 0
CWS  100 100 00X  2 5 0
W: Garland   (17-8)
L: Bonderman (14-12)
 
September 5:  Cleveland 2 - Detroit 0
Starters:  CLE: Elarton 6.1IP - DET: Maroth 6IP
CLE  100 010 000  2 5 0
DET  000 000 000  0 8 0
W: Elarton (8-7)
L: Maroth  (12-13)
S: Wickman (36)
 
September 6:  Cleveland 6 - Detroit 1
Starters:  CLE: Lee 8IP - DET: Johnson 6IP
CLE  002 000 130  6 9 1
DET  000 000 001  1 5 1
W: Lee     (15-4)
L: Johnson (7-12)

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Readers Write In...
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"Dig" Dug Senters...
 
I have an idea.  Let's not give any Cy Young Awards
this year. On second thought, I am going to take the
bitter 2nd-grader route and say that since my two
favorite American League pitchers (Tim Hudson and 
Mark Mulder) are no longer in the AL, Dave Stewart
earns the award by default.  He never won one, which
is a tragedy.

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Nick "Eagle Scout" Ciofani
 
Only Katrina can stop the Tribe... 

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Dennis "Hot Rocks" Holland
 
Who cares about the Cy Young award???  The best thing
to happen at the ball park this summer was the Rolling
Stones  on August 31.
 
Uncle Dennis

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Terrance "Oats" O'Toole
 
Hi Matt,
Don't follow close enough to answer the Cy Young
Award question.  The winner should be the guy with the
best stats but like all other awards this
seems to be another feel good award that considers
where your club ends up in the standings.  Ever since
they gave the Cy Award to Vida Blue over Mickey Lolich
in the 70's I haven't given a Tinkers Dam who gets it.
 
Dad

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Dan "Berol" Kemp
 
I'll admit I'm biased, but I think the NL Cy Young
should go to Carpenter.  He leads Willis and Clemens 
in wins, although Clemens could have more if he had
any run support.  Clemens ERA is unbelievable, 
especially for his age, but Carpenter does have the
next lowest ERA in the league.  One area that isn't 
mentioned often is Innings pitched and Carpenter leads
both Willis and Clemens in this area.  My vote goes to
Carpenter.
 
I went to the Cards/Nats game on Saturday, August 27th
in DC.  I went with 5 friends, one was a St 
Louis fan, two who were Nationals fans and the other
two were neutral.  When looking for prices, the 
only thing still available was the upper deck for $15
a seat.  Most of the guys are used to decent seats, 
so we decided to go through scalpers to get seats.  I
had never gone through scalpers before but only a 
few we found online had 6 tickets in a row.  We ended
up sitting on the third baseline, underneath the 
upperdeck and behind the box seats for $90 a ticket. 
Face value on the tickets was $25!  These seats 
allowed us to see the whole field, but we couldn't see
the ball once it was hit in the air.  On any usual 
summer day, these seats would have provided excellent
shade from the heat.  However, the weather 
was overcast  and cool and I wish we could have been
in the open a little more.
 
The game went unusually fast as Marquis pitched a
shut-out complete game for St. Louis.  This was a 
surprise because Marquis actually has a losing record
this year.  Previous to this year, he had never 
pitched a complete game.  He now has 3, with 2 of them
coming in the last week.  Eckstein, our small 
but energetic shortstop barely poked a ball over the
left field wall near the foul poll for a homerun.  
Some tremendous defensive plays were made by the
Nationals third baseman and shortstop to stop 
some hard-hit balls and turn them into outs.  
 
Although RFK isn't a rundown rat hole, it isn't the
best stadium to play baseball in.  I can understand 
why the Nats want a different place to play.  The
stadium wasn't filthy or falling apart but I think the
 
best way to describe it is that it was designed for
football in mind, and not baseball.  This is
especially true of any seat in the 3xx sections which
have somewhat limited view to anything vertically
above the playing field.  
 
I was impressed by Nats fans in general.  Despite
being down 6-0 in the ninth inning, most fans stayed. 
 
I was waiting for the mass exodus to begin so I could
get closer seats to the field but I was never given 
the opportunity to do so because they were always
filled.  One Nats fan in front of me started a decent 
conversation and was impressed with our desire to see
a game, especially since we came from Iowa.  He 
actually shook my hand and congratulated us after
Eckstein's home run.  He could also sense that we 
became frustrated with his friends who continually got
up to get something to eat, drink and block our view. 
He actually spoke up for us and told his friends to
sit down.  
 
Overall, I was pleased with the experience.  If I did
it again, I would find cheaper seats outside of the 
300 section but I would go back if I had the
opportunity.
 
Dan

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Anthony "Ferny" Morano
 
Hey what's up Matt
Props again on the tigers weekly!
Is there a lions weekly?
 
I'm actually flying out saturday morning
to watch the lions whip Green Bay's ass
in person with D RUNK. 
 
Anyone you know going to the game?
We might also go to the Tigers game 
which is before the lions start.
 
Go Blue
Anthony aka Fern OG

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Toolie's Trashtalk...
 
Lately I've been watching Tigers games with one eye on
the TV and one eye somewhere else.  The dog days for
Tiger fans were delayed a bit but boy have they come
on strong.  Losses are getting me down less and less
as they become more common and as the the Tigers slip
further below five-hundred.  It looks like 81 wins
will not happen this year.  If the Tigers are going to
contend next season I think it would be important for
them to have a good primer year.  Finishing fifteen
games or more under five-hundred would not cause much
optimism.  And let's not forget that even if
management brings in a lot of talent from outside the
organization and raises payroll that doesn't mean the
team will be any good (see New York Mets).  There has
to be some chemistry and some belief that this core
group of players can win consistently over a six-month
season. 
 
As far as the Cy Young goes, I find it absurd that a
pitcher would get passed over just for the fact that
he doesn't have the wins.  ERA is a statistic that
depends very little on how your team plays.  The only
time it's really affected is when a player makes an
error and the scorer calls it a hit, but this happens
far too infrequently to really factor in over a
season.  You can't get a win if the team scores zero
runs when you're on the mound.  This has happened to
Clemens EIGHT times (that I count, anyway)!  How can
you penalize a guy for that?  Clemens is smoking
Willis and Carpenter statistically.  Games are
determined by runs scored.  Clemens has been by far
superior at not allowing runs.  Thus, he has been the
most effective pitcher in the bigs this season. 
Carpenter has less walks and more strikeouts, but
given the same offensive support there would be no
debate.  I will admit that the statistics become more
impressive as the innings pitched pile up.  Carpenter
has an edge there.  I'd still vote for Clemens. 
Willis, in my opinion, isn't even in the discussion.  
 
The American League, I think, comes down to Roy
Halladay and Johan Santana.  While Halladay has a
better ERA, he has missed considerable time.  Santana
and Mark Buerhle have the next-best ERAs (both around
3.00) but Santana's WHIP (Walks plus Hits divided by
Innings Pitched) is at 0.97 while Buerhle's is at
1.17.  Santana allows less than one base-runner per
inning.  Halladay has a WHIP similar to Santana's, so
if the lack of games pitched by Halladay (he still has
19 compared to Santana's 28) is ignored, then Halladay
is an easy choice.  Still, since both pitchers lack
wins, the award could fall to any of Buerhle, Bartolo
Colon, or Jon Garland.  These fellows have 15, 18, and
17 wins respectively and all have ERA's below 3.30.  
 
My one big hope for this year is that either the
Yankees or Red Sox fail to make the playoffs.  I am so
sick of them.  I will continue to pull for Cleveland,
Oakland, and Anaheim to win as much as possible down
the stretch (except for when they play Detroit,
obviously).  
 
Ahhh, the Rolling Stones at Comerica.  They should be
pumping "Satisfaction" over the P.A. system until the
Tigers put some runs on the board.  Or maybe "Start Me
Up" could get the offense going.  I would love to see
the Stones just to see Mick dance around to "Start Me
Up."  He's got great moves.  

Berol, I think that you sat in almost the same seats that I was in for the road trip, except we were on the first-base side. The shade was much appreciated on that day. We were also impressed with Nats fans. The subway ride there had a playoff game atmosphere as we were packed in like sardines, surrounded by red. I've included a photo from that day. I'm the guy stuffing his face with pizza and the other two chaps are Mark "McGwire" Gentry and the Grey Fox, Chas, himself. The girl sitting next to me in the Roethlisberger jersey will make a fine girlfriend for a young Pittsburgh lad some day.

Ferny, you'll have to give a detailed account of the
Tigers-Lions experience.  Make sure Joey throws more
than those 3-yard checkdowns on 3rd and long.
 
As my aunt Kitty would say, TTFN (ta ta for now). 
Let's hope the Tigers find their stroke this week and
get a few wins.  The Royals are coming to town so
there can be no excuses.    
 
I'm out.






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