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The Tigers cruise into the All-Star break a cushy 30
games over five-hundy. A 5-4 road trip ended the
first half of the season. It didn't seem like a very
good trip, but any time that you can have a winning
road-trip you should take it.
The rest of July should be fun. Dmitri Young should
be coming off the DL. It will be interesting to see
if he gets much playing time and how he plays when
he's in there.
White Sox are coming to town... better watch out.
New Subscribers...
Matt "Murton" Klozik
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Weeks of 6/28 - 7/11
Record: 6-4 W-WLWLLW-WWL--
Chase for Five-Hundy: 22 more wins will guarantee at
least a five-hundy season. It seems inevitable.
Up Next for the Tigers...
July 13-16 Kansas City
July 17 no game scheduled...
July 18-20 Chicago White Sox
AL Central Standings...
DET 59 29 -
CWS 57 31 2
MIN 47 39 11
CLE 40 47 18.5
KCR 31 56 27.5
Tigers Division...
DET 59 29 -
CWS 57 31 2
BOS 53 33 5
NYM 53 36 6.5
NYY 50 36 8 <--- playoff spot cushion
Tigers News and Notes: The loss taken by Nate
Robertson on July 7 in Oakland was the first loss by a
Tiger starter since Justin Verlander lost on June 3rd
in Chicago.
Performances of the Tigers in the All-Star game...
Rogers: 2IP 3H 1ER 1K
Pudge: 0 for 2
Ordonez: 0-1 K (pinch-hit for Rogers in the 3rd)
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Tigers Weekly Baseball Game...
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The 2006 ball game is set to go. The date and place
have been set and the time is next. I am hoping that
the game can be played at 3 or 4PM. If anyone who is
hoping to play has objections to this please let me
know. Also, if you have not RSVPed please do it now!
Players: we need things such as bats and batting
helmets. I believe that catcher's gear is taken care
of. Helmets are probably the most crucial thing that
we'll want to have.
There will be a Home-Run Derby at some point. We may
have this before or after the game. Pencil me in for
zero homers.
I'd also like to have music playing in between innings
to add to the mood. If anyone has a decent stereo
that they could bring (I think we'll need batteries as
there aren't any plugs out there) I'd be grateful.
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Mid-Season Report Card...
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So I'll try and give out some grades. Feel free to
agree/disagree. My scale is like this:
A: where did that performance come from?
B: got more than we bargained for
C: par for the course
D: needs to pick up the slack
E: I don't give E's. They are retarded.
F: when's the next bus leave for Toledo?
Pitchers:
Kenny Rogers - B+: After being signed for two years
at 8 million per, Rogers has helped the Tigers in two
ways. He has 11 wins, second in the AL, with a 3.85
ERA. Pretty good. Even better is the way he has
helped the rest of the rotation. Maroth, Bonderman,
and Robertson all have ERA's under 3.60. Last season
each of these pitchers finished with ERA's over 4.40.
Jeremy Bonderman - A-: In the past Bonderman has been
the saving grace of the Jeff Weaver deal, and now he
makes the trade look like an absolute robbery. His
1.14 WHIP (walks + hits / innings pitched) leads
Tigers starters and he has eight wins with bad run
support. He is pitching like an ace.
Nate Robertson - B+: Robertson was probably the most
maligned of the starters the last couple of years.
Most people I talked to didn't have much confidence in
the lefty. This season he has turned it around and
the Big League Chew gets the rallies going.
Justin Verlander - A+: You just can't have expected
anything better from Verlander in his rookie season.
He's 10-4 with a 3.01 ERA. He can dominate when he's
on and can pitch with craft when he's not on. His two
starts last season were ho-hum, but he's been a
humdinger in 2006.
Zach Miner - A: After one "bad" start against Boston
(his first start of the season) Zach has gone 6-0 and
leads all starters with a 2.57 ERA. Miner came over
from Atlanta with Roman Colon for Kyle Farnsworth and
the move, which angered many last season, is paying
heavy dividends.
Mike Maroth - B: Great start for Maroth, but he got
hurt. Good ERA but his 1.48 WHIP is pretty high.
Todd Jones - C+: We expected the rocky innings. He's
23/26 in save chances which is actually quite good.
However, he does have the worst ERA of the current
Tiger pitchers... like to see that come down.
Fernando Rodney - B-: En fuego at the start but has
been having issues lately. He should shake this off
and get back to effectively setting up Jones.
Joel Zumaya - B+: Hot prospect has dazzled in his
first season. Gives up the occasional long-ball, but
has 54 strikeouts in just 43.1 innings.
Jamie Walker - B+: Jamie has a smoking 0.79 WHIP, 20
Ks, and just two walks in 24 innings. The left-handed
specialist has his niche.
Jason Grilli - C: Grilli's been all right and , as a
long-relief guy, usually isn't pitching when the heat
is on. He's no slouch when he's in the game.
Roman Colon - C-: Probably having the most
difficulties of all pitchers currently on the roster.
Wil Ledezma, Chris Spurling, Jordan Tata, Bobby Seay:
not enough innings.
Curtis Granderson - A: Another rookie that is giving
the Tigers all he can give. He sure strikes out a
lot, but he sees a lot of pitches and also leads the
team in walks (3rd in OBP). He's the leadoff hitter
the Tigers have been lacking.
Placido Polanco - C: After last season Placido has
been a little bit of a disappointment. His average is
ok but he has only 39 runs scores and 32 RBIs.
Brandon Inge (9th hitter) is hitting .221 and has more
of each than Polanco (2nd).
Ivan Rodriguez - B: Pudge is having a nice year
hitting .308 and has looked quite good behind the
plate. He remains one of the best catchers in
baseball.
Magglio Ordonez - A: After the injury-filled 2005
season Magglio is giving Mike Ilitch peace of mind for
all the dough he shelled out. Maggs leads the team
with a .312 average and 62 RBIs. A healthy Magglio
has led the way.
Carlos Guillen - B: Carlos has been the most
well-rounded of the Tiger hitters. His average is
just under .300, he has 10 homers, 50 runs, 56 RBIs,
and he leads the team with 12 steals. The one blemish
is his 14 errors (2nd most of all shortstops).
Marcus Thames - B+: Tied for the team league in
homers and has made us forget the loss of Dmitri Young
to injury. Limited at-bats so far is keeping his
R/RBI totals down.
Craig Monroe - C+: His average is poor (.245) but he
is producing runs at a nice rate.
Chris Shelton - B: Unreal in April, ok in May, rotten
in June, picked it up on this last road trip.
Brandon Inge - B: OK, so his AVG is abysmal, but he
has helped in every other category. He's also hit
some clutch homers.
Vance Wilson - A-: As Tom "Brookens" Bellsky stated
today; "We have the best back-up catcher in baseball."
It's true. The Tigers have hardly missed a beat with
Wilson in there and three of his four homers have come
in games that were decided by one or two runs.
Omar Infante - B-: Not bad from Omar. Doing well as
a fill-in.
Ramon Santiago - C: Even less playing time than
Infante, but playing admirably when he's in there.
Alexis Gomez - B-: A left-handed bat, yes, but won't
be cracking the regular line-up. He's got speed and
is a good defensive replacement in left late in the
game.
Dmitri Young - D: Yeah, he's hurt, but he was jobbing
before he went down. I wouldn't be surprised, though,
if D.Y. picks up his game when he gets back. Luckily
the team has survived .
Jack Hannahan - not enough at-bats.
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Poll Question...
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Looking ahead, what do you think will be the toughest
stretch for the Tigers in the 2nd half? The schedule
can be viewed here.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/schedule?team=det
&season=2006&seasonType=2&half=2
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Game Linescores...
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June 28: Houston 0 - Detroit 5
Starters: HOU: Pettitte 6.1IP - DET: Verlander 8IP
HOU 000 000 000 0 4 2
DET 000 102 20X 5 10 0
W: Verlander (10-4)
L: Pettitte (6-9)
June 29: no game scheduled...
June 30: Detroit 7 - Pittsburgh 6
Starters: DET: Rogers 4.1IP - PIT: Wells 2.1IP
DET 034 000 000 7 7 2
PIT 101 030 010 6 11 0
W: Colon (1-0)
L: Wells (0-3)
S: Jones (21)
July 1: Detroit 2 - Pittsburgh 9
Starters: DET: Bonderman 5IP - PIT: Gorzelanny 5IP
DET 010 010 000 2 11 4
PIT 001 100 70X 9 13 1
W: Capps (3-1)
L: Grilli (0-1)
July 2: Detroit 9 - Pittsburgh 8
Starters: DET: Miner 5.2IP - PIT: Snell 5IP
DET 310 000 500 9 13 1
PIT 000 002 600 8 11 0
W: Miner (5-1)
L: Snell (7-6)
S: Jones (22)
July 3: Detroit 3 - Oakland 5
Starters: DET: Robertson 7IP - OAK: Blanton 7IP
DET 010 011 000 3 10 0
OAK 002 003 00X 5 7 1
W: Blanton (8-7)
L: Robertson (8-4)
S: Street (19)
July 4: Detroit 1 - Oakalnd 2 F/10
Starters: DET: Verlander 7IP - OAK: Haren 7IP
DET 000 010 000 0 1 6 0
OAK 100 000 000 1 2 8 0
W: Gaudin (1-2)
L: Rodney (4-3)
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Game Recap by Peter "The King" Gregory: O'Toole - I'm
now 1-1 on the season but glad the Tigers have a much
better record. Of note on this Independence Day:
George Bush recorded a brief message which received a
good round of booing. And I thought that "Take Me Out
to the Ballgame" was being replaced by "God Bless
America." They managed to sneak in both.
Another beautiful day for a ballgame, less sunburn
than in April. Section 242, Row 11 put us (church
youth group) in the shade for most of the game, though
I moved up a row after the third inning. Couldn’t see
the outfielders. My new Tigers cap protected my face
from the elements. This one also went down to the
wire. All-Star candidate Verlander put up a nice
outing – 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. Leyland must have
had him on a pitch count – he topped 100 in the
seventh and didn’t return. Our bullpen had more
difficulty. Zumaya threw some heat (103 mph) but
allowed two singles in both the eighth and the ninth.
Rodney entered for the tenth – two outs and two walks
were followed by Jay Payton run scoring single. A’s 2,
Tigers 1. Game over. Following are my impressions from
the game.
Verlander and Zumaya are good. The future looks
bright. The A’s Dan Haren was no slouch either – 7 IP,
4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K. The Detroit bench produced:
Wilson went 2-4 with a solo home run; Infante was 1-3;
Gomez had a one out double as a pinch hitter in the
ninth. Too bad Thames, Ordonez, and Monroe went 0-12
with five strikeouts. Ordonez missed a HR by five feet
with a foul ball toward left field. The Tigers were
aggressive on the basepaths – perhaps overly
aggressive. Guillen’s two stolen bases were wasted.
Wilson was caught off the bag and run down. In the
fifth Shelton was caught stealing second (it was
close). That was the difference in the game. Wilson
followed with a should-have-been-two-run HR. Tigers
lose 2-1. And we had more opportunities. Guillen led
off the tenth with a walk and then stole second. We
should have played small ball – a bunt could have
moved him to third base – but ended with two shallow
fly balls and a ground-out. Final observation: the
walks killed us. The two A’s runs both scored from
second on Jay Payton singles, one in the first and one
in the tenth (the A’s had no extra base hits). But
those runners only made it to second because of the
Big Hurt. He took two walks – the second with two outs
and a runner on first in the bottom of the tenth. So
it came down to little things – a man caught stealing,
two walks, and a close play at home. That final run
scored on a one-hop single to right field. Ordonez
grabbed it and fired home. It arrived just as Bobby
Crosby bowled over Wilson. Ump looked like he called
an out, but I don’t think Wilson had the ball. In this
potential playoff matchup the Tigers struck me as good
but not great. The little things do matter. But even a
2-1 loss is a far cry from 2003. Go Tigers!
---
July 5: Detroit 10 - Oakland 4
Starters: DET: Rogers 5.2IP - OAK: Saarloos 4.1IP
DET 024 112 000 10 13 0
OAK 000 301 000 4 10 1
W: Rogers (11-3)
L: Saarloos (3-5)
S: Colon (1)
July 6: no game scheduled...
July 7: Detroit 6 - Seattle 1
Starters: DET: Bonderman 8.2IP - SEA: Piniero 7.2IP
DET 100 010 130 6 13 1
SEA 000 000 001 1 6 0
W: Bonderman (8-4)
L: Piniero (6-8)
July 8: Detroit 2 - Seattle 1
Starters: DET: Miner 5IP - SEA: Washburn 6IP
DET 011 000 000 2 9 1
SEA 010 000 000 1 6 1
W: Miner (6-1)
L: Washburn (4-9)
S: Jones (23)
July 9: Detroit 2 - Seattle 3
Starters: DET: Robertson 8IP - SEA: Meche 7IP
DET 000 200 000 2 4 0
SEA 000 020 10X 3 9 0
W: Meche (8-4)
L: Robertson (8-5)
S: Putz (16)
July 10: AL/NL Home Run Derby: This year the homers
from the first round carried over to the second round.
The finalists would then go head-to-head in the
finals with a clean slate.
First Round Results
David Wright 16
David Ortiz 10
Miguel Cabrera 9
Ryan Howard 8
Jermaine Dye 7
Miguel Tejada 3
Lance Berkman 3
Troy Glaus 1
Second Round Results
David Wright 18 (2)
Ryan Howard 18 (10)
Miguel Cabrera 15 (6)
David Ortiz 13 (3)
Finals
Ryan Howard 5
David Wright 4
Notes: For each homer hit with 9 outs (each player
gets 10 per round) Century 21 donated 21,000 dollars
to charity. When all was said and done the players
were able to raise 294,000 dollars (126,000 of it from
Ryan Howard alone).
July 11: AL/NL All-Star Game
Starters: AL: Rogers (DET) 2IP - NL: Penny (LAD) 2IP
AL 010 000 002 3 7 1
NL 011 000 000 2 6 0
W: B.J. Ryan (TOR)
L: Trevor Hoffman (SDP)
S: Mariano Rivera (NYY)
MVP: Michael Young (TEX) 2-run triple in 9th
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Readers Write In...
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Brian "Stymie" O'Toole
I just hope the Tigs don't trade away for Smoltz . . .
how ironic would it be that they trade away the future
OF John Smoltz for Doyle in '87 then
trade away the future FOR John Smoltz in '06. Just a
thought. Wish I could be there on the 22nd for the
game . . . you guys all have fun.
Brian
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Paul "Jerome" Kersey
You talk about White Sox fans being morons. You don't
know half the story. Try Googling "Disco Demolition
Night".
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Mike "Colonel" Kopec
Toolio,
Great issue, as always. I try not to be "that guy"
and point out minor typos, but I couldn't pass this
one up: unless Red Wings GM Ken Holland suddenly
jumped ship - and sports - to join the White Sox, I
believe you were referring to White Sox GM Kenny
Williams!
As far as potential trades go, I offer one word of
advice to Dave Dombrowski: Do NOT trade Zumaya.
The Colonel
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Danny "Tartabull" Simpson
I know that the Weekly just came out and that my
comments may seem a bit tardy by next week. But I
can't wait to pass along my comments.
One thing that is promising about the Tigers these
days is that they are showing their ability to win all
types of games. I know that you too mentioned this
O'Toole. Gone (and hopefully for good) are the days
when the Tigers would have to hit six homers to win a
game 12-10.
Tigers are winning pitching duels: Robertson's win
over Clemens was impressive (especially getting out of
the 3rd & no out jam); Bonderman has pitched some
recent gems when the bats have been silent. Tigers
are winning blowouts: how about the weekend when
Wrigley turned into Comerica. Tigers are winning
large scoring games: outslugging St. Louis 10-6 in
the first game comes to mind. Tigers are winning in
comeback style with the long ball: Thames against
Isringhausen. Tigers are winning in comeback style
with the small ball: Inge bunts and is aggressive on
the bases to win the 3-1 win against Milwaukee.
The Tigers are also scoring lots of runs in the late
innings. This is something they weren't doing early in
the season too frequently (with the notable exception
of that great A's game when they improved their record
to 9-7!). The Tigers are scoring late runs to come
from behind and they starting to "go for the throat."
Leyland has talked about this and it seems like the
Tigers are starting to put this into practice. There
were some games a while back when the Tigers had a
slim lead, had opportunities to add more, didn't do
it, and then lost at the end (losses to Minn, Bal,
Tor, Bos, and ChW come to mind). However, how about
two recent victories against the Cards and Astros. In
the first game against StL, our Tigs had a 7-3 5th
inning lead that got trimmed to 7-5 by the 8th. But
they scored three in the bottom of the 8th and when
Pujols homered in the top of the 9th, the lead was
still four instead of one (Tigers win 10-6). The same
is true of the Houston opener. Tigers have a 6-1 in
the 4th that shrinks to 6-4 after Munson homers in
the 7th (the Astros also stranded two big runners in
the 6th). What looks like an upcoming tense 8th & 9th
turns into a rout when Pudge homers in the 7th and
they add three more in the 8th (Win 10-4). I like this
team.
5 Cool Tiger Stats (in ascending order of coolness):
5) The Tigers win 88% of the games in which they score
at least four runs (42-6). They are a crazy 13-2 (87%)
when scoring only 4 or 5.
4) The Tigers have now held the best record for 39
days and have been in a postseason spot for 68 days.
3) OPS (on base pct + slugging pct) is one of the main
indices that is used to evaluate players. It helps to
balance power and average. Guess
who are the top 5 in baseball*.
1 - Pujols, 2 - Hafner, 3 - Giambi, 4 - Ramirez, 5 -
Marcus Thames (1.026) *(if he had 20 more ABs)
I know Marcus has been doing really well, but that
absolutely shocked me. I'd like to see the Tigers lock
up Thames and Granderson for multi-year contracts.
2) Whenever comparisons are made between the Tigers
and White Sox, the analysts almost invariably point to
Chicago's superior pitching. And the dirty sox do have
a good staff - Contreras and Buerhle are 5th and 7th
in AL ERA (respectively, of course). But check out a
comparison of all starters for ERA and I will combine
Maroth and Miner's stats (Maroth's 3.56 and Miner's
2.59 makes 3.18).
White Sox - Contreras 5th, Buerhle 7th, Garcia 29th,
Vazquez 36th, Garland 42nd
Tigers - Verlander 3rd, Robertson 4th, Maroth/Miner
6th, Rogers 10th, Bonderman 16th
1) The Tigers are incredibly hot right now - winning
12 of 13 and 16 of 18 puts them at 54-25. They are on
pace for 111 wins. However, those of us who know their
baseball history know that winning 111 (69% of one's
games) is very rare. (This is, I think, one of the
great things about baseball (and raises it above the
other sports). Fail 7 out of 10 times to the plate for
15 years and they put you in the Hall of Fame. World
Series champions only win 60% of their games.)
With all this said, even the most optimistic Tiger fan
can expect some stretches of losses. Meanwhile, the AL
has many good teams this year. ChW, Bos, NY, Tor,
Oak, Tex, & Minn are all posting a significant
amount of wins. Suppose that all of these teams
continued at their current pace for the rest of the
season and the Tigers cooled to a mortal .500 for
the rest of the year (going 41-42 for the rest of the
year). Guess what the final standings would look like?
One knows that both Sox teams would pass us; one would
also suppose that a few others would leapfrog us too.
However, the Tigers would finish at 95-67, finish two
games ahead of the Yankees (93-69), possess the 3rd
best record in the AL, and win the AL Wild Card! And
that's if they go just under .500! Though I'm trying
to remain calm, this Tiger fan is dreaming big! Go
Tigs.
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Brian "Clarence Carter" Vessell
Hey Toolie,
I agree with your assessment of the Tiger strengths
and weaknesses regarding a trade. We could use the
most help at LF and 1B. I read that the Tigers
contacted the Mets about the availability of Cliff
Floyd, but were told that he won't be traded. And
that's really the key - who's available? Maybe
Alfonso Soriano? I'm not sure I'd like to see the
Tigers trade Joel Zumaya, or even Jamie Walker, for
Soriano.
I remember when the Tigers traded John Smoltz to
Atlanta for Doyle Alexander in 1987 to help push for a
playoff run. The Tigers won more games than any
other team that season, but lost in the ALCS to the
Twins. Alexander was long gone shortly thereafter,
and the Tigers haven't won anything since trading
Smoltz. And the Braves have won 15 straight division
titles! Not that it all has to do the the Tigers
trade, but I think having Smoltz for the past 15
seasons might have been better than have Doyle for
essentially half a season.
I don't see the Tigers going after a 1B because of
Shelton's age, and his marketability. The Tigers have
been putting Shelton's face all over everything since
early April. I think they will give him some more
time before bringing someone else in. With that said
DY will definitely take some atbats from Shelton, but
I feel the Tigers have Shelton penciled in as the 1B
of the future.
Anyway, that's my beef...
Keep Stokin'
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Nick "The Greek" Ciofani
Big League Chew reminds me of the Solon Rec Dept., it
always ran out since it was so popular.
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Toolie's Trashtalk...
Sorry about missing a week. I've been sort of busy
lately.
All-Star game just finished up. It was a pretty
lackluster game. Normally I really enjoy a
low-scoring affair, but almost nothing happened
between the thrid and eighth innings. Now, the ninth
inning was very exciting. One strike away from
winning their first All-Star game in ten years, the NL
couldn't hold it. Michael Young hit a two-out double
to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead that was secured
by Mariano Rivera (naturally). The AL wins again and
gets home-field advantage for the World Series again.
This year it may actually matter to Tiger fans!
Pudge and Magglio didn't do anything at the plate. I
actually missed Magglio's at-bat! Oops. Rogers had a
nice outing, I thought. Wright hit a nice line-drive
homer off of him but other than that Kenny was
effective.
Gotta cut it short this week. More to come next week.
I'll be in attendance this Saturday for the Royals.
I'm attending the Baseball Game and a Movie deal with
a couple of my cousins amd company. It should be a
good time.
I'm out.
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Tigers Weekly is in no way affiliated with the Detroit
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Play Ball!
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