Tigers Weekly 2005 Season

Week 5: 5/4/05 - 5/9/05

One of the last things that I taught my students in
Applied Calculus this semester was periodic functions.
If I had needed another example to get the point
across I could have pointed to the Tigers.  It's been
feast or famine for the Detroiters so far this season.
The Tigs have had six streaks of three games or more
this season, and they have alternated between winning
streaks and losing streaks.  Right now we're
experiencing a crest as the club is getting healthy
out west.  Tigers pitching has been phenomenal of
late, holding the mashers known as the Red Sox to 3.5
runs/game, the Anaheim (I'm stubborn) Angels to 2
runs/game, and shutting out the Rangers in the first
of three in Arlington.  The team ERA is currently
3.87, good enough for fourth in the American League. 
If they get that record up to fourth in the league,
that means a playoff spot (most likely).  Currently
the team is four games back of the Wild Card, but it's
far too early to be considering these things.  You
never know when the next losing streak might come
along.

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"Week" of 5/4 - 5/9
 
Record:  3-3  LLLWWW
 
Undy-Five-Hundy:  Three down, three up, and the index
remains the same (1).  The Tigers get more of Texas
and Anaheim this week to try and vanquish the index. 
Only five games on the slate due to off-days on
Thursday and Monday.  
 
Up Next for the Tigers...

May 10-11  @ Texas
May 12     no game scheduled...
May 13-15  Anaheim
May 16     no game scheduled...
May 17-19  Tampa Bay
 
AL Central Standings...

CWS  24  8 -
MIN  19 12 4.5
DET  15 16 8.5
CLE  13 18 10.5
KCR   8 24 16
D03   7 25        ***2003 Tigers through 32 games***
 
Tigers Division:  With a little over a month having
passed it's time to reinstate the Tigers Division. 
This will include the top team in the league, followed
by the two teams directly ahead of the Tigers, then
the Tigers, then the two teams directly behind the
Tigers.  More teams are included if there are ties. 
It's meant to be a measuring stick for where the
Tigers are in comparison to the best and the rest of
the league.
 
CWS  24  8 -
|
TEX  17 16 7.5
TOR  17 16 7.5
SFG  16 15 7.5
DET  15 16 8.5
MIL  15 16 8.5
PHI  15 18 9.5
OAK  14 18 10

Tigers News and Notes:  Troy Percival finds himself on
the 15-day DL with a partial tear of his "right flexor
pronator muscle mass."  I have no idea what that
means.  Chris "The Turnicate" Spurling was recalled
from Toledo to take his spot in the bullpen.  So far
at Toledo Spurling has a 4.12 ERA.  I dubbed Spurling
"The Turnicate" one night when I was watching the
Tigers play the Rockies.  Naturally Spurling got
rocked that night.  

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Tiger of the Week...
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Even if the Tigers had been hitting this week it would have been hard to deny Nate Robertson the honor. After a couple of rough starts earlier this season I was doubting Nate's abilities. I'm quickly becoming a believer as Robertson just wrapped up his third straight quality start...eight scoreless innings on the road at Texas. Couple that with two earned runs over six and two-thirds against the Red Sox and you've got yourself a week worth some accolades. Robertson has pushed his ERA under 3.00 this week and became the last Tiger to pick up a win. His effort Monday night was sorely needed as opposing pitcher Chris Young shut out the Tigers over eight innings as well. This was some big-time pitching against some big-hitting lineups.

  
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Softball Challenge...
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Judging from the latest results I don't think that
Dmitri Young would make the cut for the
Hillsdale-reigning-champion Highlands Softball squad. 
We have high standards and it sounds like Dmitri is
falling a bit short.  

The following is an excerpt from an article written by
Jason Beck and originally published by MLB.com on
5/7/05.

---
Can't hit this: Young doesn't have many pitchers who
own him. He's 3-for-22 against C.C. Sabathia, 2-for-18
with nine strikeouts vs. Kerry Wood and 2-for-19 with
eight strikeouts off of Jose Contreras. Add another
pitcher to the list of those who own him: Jennie
Finch. 

The crew from "This Week in Baseball" came to Angel
Stadium on Saturday to talk with Young, who took part
in the regular tradition of players who appear on the
show by trying to hit pitches from the Olympic
softball great Finch. Only a few players, including
Cincinnati's Sean Casey and Seattle's Scott Spiezio,
have made contact on a ball. Young didn't come close,
swinging and missing on two changeups and a rising
fastball. 

As Young took his cuts in the cage, he shook his head
in amazement, much like he did while trying to hit
Jeremy Bonderman early in Spring Training. Between the
underhand pitching motion, the close proximity between
pitcher and batter plus the different movement on the
ball, it was a little much for him. 

"That wasn't fair," Young said. "I'm serious. She
wasn't messing around." 

Young jokingly blamed hitting coach Bruce Fields, who
didn't know it was taking place until the last minute.
"I was like, 'Good luck. Close your eyes and swing
hard in case you hit it,'" Fields said. 

Young wasn't the only one fooled by the pitches.
Bullpen catcher Todd Maulding, who caught Finch during
the showdown, said he missed all six of the different
pitches in Finch's repertoire the first time she threw
them during warm-ups.
---

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Milking it For All It's Worth...
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Check out the spot on Franklyn German in this article.
The following is an excerpt from an article written by
Jason Beck and originally published by MLB.com on
5/7/05.

An udder-ly classic comeback: As versatile as Franklyn
German has been as a reliever this year, the Tigers
couldn't have imagined this. The Angels had a
cow-milking contest as part of their pregame
ceremonies and asked the Tigers for a player to
participate. Detroit's choice was German, who said he
grew up on a farm in the Dominican Republlic. 

Though he had to avert potential disaster, German
eventually proved a pleasant surprise, following the
theme of his season to date. The first cow he tried to
milk kept stepping away from him before using its back
leg to try to kick him, forcing German to quickly back
off to avoid a hoof. 

German was ready to give up and headed for the dugout,
but was called back to try milking the other cow in
the contest. That cow didn't raise a fuss, and German
milked more than two pounds of milk out of it to win
as teammates looked on laughing. 

"He had the milk flowing," Pena joked. "He's the best
cow-milker in the league." 

He probably should be. When he was growing up, he
said, he used to milk as many as five cows in a day.
He said he still has a few cows at home, though
someone else handles those duties nowadays. 

German actually won a prize for his talent. He said he
was given a block of cheese. Unfortunately, he also
took the scent of victory in the bullpen. 

"In the bullpen, my pants smelled like milk," he said.
---

If this was last year or the year before I might make
a joke that German should be doing this instead of
pitching.  This year German has a 2.25 ERA.  He still
is walking twice as many people as he is striking out,
which will lead to problems if not fixed.  

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Words from the Webmaster (Gilbert)...
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Due to computers crashing and lost data, I am behind
on website updates.  However, I still am looking for
input as to what people would like to see and what can
be changed for the better on the site.  Is there
anything else that would better the site as a whole? 
I have received little to no input on the site
overall, and thus I am not 100% sure what people feel
when they visit the site, if at all.  I am also
presently contacting the Tiger's offices to try and
get an interview or two from Tiger's players/staff. 
So, I am wondering if that VERY SMALL oportunity
arises, who would you most like to see an interview
from?
 
Editor's Note:  The previous two humorous articles
were brought to my attention by Gilbo as well.

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Poll Question...
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A lot of people who don't care for baseball complain
that the game is boring.  What about the game of
baseball makes you love it?  Which parts of the game
are the most exciting to you?  What is the most
exciting play in baseball?  What sets baseball above
other sports that you may or may not enjoy?

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Game Linescores...
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May 4:  Boston 4 - Detroit 3
Starters:  BOS: Wakefield 7IP - DET: Robertson 6.2IP
BOS  003 000 010  4 10 0
DET  010 020 000  3 11 2
W: Wakefield  (3-1)
L: Farnsworth (1-1)
S: Foulke     (6)
 
May 5:  Boston 2 - Detroit 1
Starters:  BOS: Arroyo 8IP - DET: Johnson 7IP
BOS  010 000 001  2 12 0
DET  000 000 100  1  3 0
W: Arroyo (4-0)
L: Urbina (0-3)
S: Foulke (7)
 
Toolie Sees a Ball Game:  I was back in the D for the
first time this year.  It was the second annual "Math
Department Goes to Baseball During Finals Week" trip. 
Last year we saw a victory over the Oakland A's, but
today the bats were disappointingly silent.  
 
I vowed that I wouldn't be late to the game, as that
trend had begun to develop over my last few games. 
However, an elongated stop at an A&W (root beer floats
and a hair found in a chicken wrap made this stop
memorable) made sure that I'd miss an inning of
entertainment.  We parked in Greektown and hustled up
to the Will Call window.  While picking up my tickets
I overheard a fellow next to me trying to use some
sort of pass to get tickets to the game.  The chap
wasn't too happy when the staffer informed him that
his pass was no good for the series against the Red
Sox.  Given that the game wasn't even close to sold
out (attendance was around 24000 if I remember
correctly) it seems silly that they wouldn't let him
use the pass, but high ticket sales were expected and
much like a blockbuster movie he had to pay full price
for his ducats (SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT!!!). 
 
We were a little bummed that we were getting the "B"
squads on this afternoon.  Not in the lineups were
I-Rod, Manny, and Rondell.  Plus, Edgar Renteria left
the game during his first at-bat.   We also had to
endure three at-bats by Bobby "Boo-Birds" Higginson.
Higgy went 0 for 3 to lower his average to .077.  Ugh.

Bronson Arroyo and his high leg kick were kicking butt
the entire game.  See attached photo for said leg
kick.  The Tigers mustered one base runner in the
first six innings, and that was a Marcus Thames walk. 
Carlos Guillen broke up the no-hitter in the seventh
with a solo home run that just barely cleared the
fence in right.  Boston got a two-out bloop single in
the ninth from Trot Nixon, and then David Ortiz hit a
laser to the wall in center to plate the go-ahead run.
The breaks seemed to be going Boston's way all day. 
They had at least three infield hits and two bloopers
that fell.  The Tigers, on the other hand, were robbed
of a few hits by nice plays by the Sox.  
 
I actually caught up with Matt "Meet You at the Ticket
Booth" Weiland this year.  If you recall, I missed a
good third of that Oakland game last year because I
was waiting outside Comerica for Weialnd and Aaron
"INS" Turner to show up.  Around the fourth inning,
Weiland found me up in section 217 and we did a little
catching up over the next inning and a half.  He had
lucked out into some sweet seats about ten rows up
from the Tiger's dugout, but he took the time to come
see us in the stratosphere.  That was much appreciated
and it was good to catch up.  
 
Post-game festivities included trips to the Old
Shillelagh for Smithwicks and eight-ball, Hellas Greek
restaurant for dinner, and the Astoria bakery for
dessert.  That bakery is amazing.  It was a day of
indulgence, indeed.  
 
Dashing Donut won the base race.  I think Biggie Bagel
had better switch to low-fat cream cheese the next
time I sit in the upper deck.
 
May 6:  Detroit 3 - Anaheim 4
Starters:  DET: Ledezma 5.1IP - ANA: Escobar 7.1IP
DET  010 000 020  3 7 0
ANA  100 201 00X  4 7 1
W: Escobar   (1-1)
L: Ledezma   (1-3)
S: Rodriguez (8)
 
May 7:  Detroit 2 - Anaheim 1
Starters:  DET: Bonderman 8IP - ANA: Colon 9IP
DET  000 000 020  2 8 1
ANA  001 000 000  1 5 2
W: Bonderman (5-2)
L: Colon     (4-3)
S: Percival  (3)
 
May 8:  Detroit 10 - Anaheim 1
Starters:  DET: Maroth 8IP - ANA: Washburn 2.1IP
DET  107 000 200  10 13 0
ANA  000 001 000   1  3 2
W: Maroth   (3-2)
L: Washburn (2-1)
 
May 9:  Detroit 2 - Texas 0
Starters:  DET: Robertson 8IP - TEX: Young 8IP
DET  000 000 002  2 8 0
TEX  000 000 000  0 7 0
W: Robertson (1-2)
L: Cordero   (0-1)
S: Urbina    (2)

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Readers Write In...
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Nic "Gilby" Gilbert
 
My apologies for being absent from the column for a
few weeks now.  Since I have been gone for so long, I
feel I should include a series of questions that have
come up at this point of the season.  Feel free to
comment on them in the future, as they all will
continually be important unless drastic changes take
place.
 
Higginson sucks plain and simple.  He is now batting
undy 100ndy for the year.  He is making, what 8
million this year.  He has shown no promise all year
when given the chance, he just barely made it on the
roster to start with, and he has consistenly proved
that he cannot hit in the clutch.  There is now good
way for the Tigers to make and positives out of this
situation.  They just need to cut their losses and
learn from their mistake.  You just can add Bobby to
the list of mistakes the Tigers have made over the
years.  However, you can count on the fact that Bobby
will not be a superhero on any other team ever.  He
just plainly sucks.
 
AL Central Questions:
 
The Tigers have looked so good this year, yet they
still have a losing record.  The one question mark
going into the season was starting pitching.  Yet, the
starters have one of the best starting rotation stats
of the entire league (minus a few ugly games which is
natural).  The bullpen is just down right ugly still. 
Blown save after blown save really adds up.  Is there
any change in the future or will this be the problem
that haunts them all year long?
 
Can the White Sox continually produce the way they
have been?  Nobody saw this coming and they have shown
no signs of slowing down as of late.
 
Along the same lines, will the Royals continually be
this bad?  Also, do you think the Royals of today will
be as bad as the Tigers of 2003?  Is it possible to
have a weekly progress of the Royals compared to the
03 Tigers, just like the Tigers wins compared to Adam
Dunn's HRs section in 03?  I really think that the
Royals may make a run at history in the wrong
direction this year unless drastic changes take place.
It will be quite interesting to watch.
 
What is up with the Indians?  They were supposed to be
one of the hottest teams this year.  Yet, they have
team batting statistics all ranking 27th or lower in
all major categories.  I think they presently have a
team batting average below .250.
 
Well, my time has come to get back to work.  Baseball
is surely different at this point in the season than
in year's past.  You have the mighty Yankees
struggling, Brian Roberts hitting Home Runs like he is
Barry Bonds (without the juice), teams like the White
Sox and even the Diamondbacks succeeding while making
huge changes to the team that critics thought could
not work, dominant players like Schilling, Bonds,
Thome, and Gagne have little to no impact on their
teams, the Washington Nationals surprisingly competing
in the new town, and finally the MLB steriod policy
and testing repeatedly.  Who knows what the next big
story of the year will be?  I can only guarantee that
there will be many more to come.  I feel this year is
going to be one to remember.  I just hope that the
same eight teams do not make the playoffs as in year's
past.

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Toolie's Trashtalk...
 
You have to love what the Tigers' pitchers are
accomplishing lately  At the same time, Tigers hitting
has to be making your stomach turn.  The boys haven't
been hitting much of anything lately, bringing up
shades of 2003.  Until the end of this week, the
Tigers looked especially bad in the late innings. 
They are something like 4-9 in one run games.  Looking
on the bright side, 9 out of their 16 losses have come
by just one run.  Win some more of those and the
Tigers are right in the thick of things.  
 
I had my first catch of the season this weekend with
Lia and Bobby "Higginson" Bottinelli (Lia's dad).  We
tossed the ball around on Sunday and even hit some
balls around a nearby softball field.  We played a
little "5 Dollars" and had a good old time.  It felt
great to wake up on Monday with a sore arm.  Nothing
like the first of the year.  
 
I just saw an ad for the WNBA.  You know, I never see
ads for those fishing shows that come on Saturday
morning on ESPN, and they probably draw a larger crowd
than WNBA.  Am I wrong?  Is the WNBA growing?  
 
Stupid White Sox.  Stop winning!  Strangely enough it
took the Devil Rays to stop the South Siders' eight
game winning streak (previous last loss was last
Friday against the Tigers).  Right now they are
winning close ones and getting great pitching.  If you
ask me, they have nowhere to go but down.  
 
3AM?  Yikes, I need to punch the sack.  Here's to a
winning streak that isn't followed by a longer losing
streak!  Until next week...  
 
I'm out.
 





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