Tigers Weekly 2006 Season

Week 14: 7/26/06 - 8/1/06

The Tigers have been rolling since the All-Star Break,
so it was a bit strange that the general feeling going
into this past weekend that they were underdogs in
their series with the Twins.  The Tigers answered the
challenge by winning the first two games of the series
and only missed a sweep due to one disastrous inning
on Sunday.  As it stands, the Tigers have yet to lose
a series since the All-Star Break.  August will
present many difficult series for the D.  They must
face the Yankees and Red Sox on the road, and also
have the Twins, the Rangers, and the White Sox
(twice).

There were a handful of memorable moments from this
week.  The first was the call-up of Brent Clevlen from
Erie.  Clevlen's first major league start came
Saturday and he also played on Tuesday.  He has gone 5
for 8  with two homers and an outfield assist in his
first two games!  Next, Sean Casey was acquired from
the Pittsburgh Pirates for Brian Rogers (a AA
pitcher).  Casey had a homer and two RBIs in his debut
Tuesday.  Lastly, Carlos Guillen became the first
Tiger since Damion Easley to hit for the cycle.  What
a week for the Tigs.  

New Subscribers...

Fidelis "Mim" O'Toole

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Week of 7/26 - 8/1

Record:  4-2  W-WWLLW

Chase for Five-Hundy:  Tuesday's win was the 71st of
the season.  71 is all the 2005 Tigers were able to
win, and this year they are there by the first of
August.  Ten more wins will guarantee a five-hundy
season.  The magic number for the division is 50.  

Up Next for the Tigers...

August 2-3    @ Tampa Bay
August 4-6      Cleveland 
August 7-9      Minnesota

Note:  The games on Thursday and Saturday will be
broadcast on TV20 (or UPN or whatever it comes on in
your area).

AL Central Standings...

DET  71 35 -
CWS  63 42 7.5
MIN  61 44 9.5
CLE  46 59 24.5
KCR  37 69 34

Tigers Division...

DET  71 35 -
NYY  62 41 7.5
BOS  63 42 7.5
CWS  63 42 7.5   <---  Playoff Cushion
NYM  63 42 7.5   

Tigers News and Notes:  Colby "Moonlight" Lewis was
brought up from Toledo on Wednesday... and then sent
back on Saturday when outfielder Brent Clevlen was
summoned from Erie (AA).  Lewis did not get to pitch
in his short time with the club.  Alexis Gomez was the
casualty from the old roster.  He's back in Toledo. 
Says Leyland on Clevlen:  

"We wanted to buy some time for the trading deadline
and we wanted to bring up a [position] player. Even if
he doesn't hit, and we know he's struggled this year, 
he's a good defensive outfielder."

Indeed, Clevlen was hitting .224 in double-A.  It looks
like there is a technicality that prevents the Tigers
from recalling Gomez until a ten-day period has passed.
Clevlen did have a great debut on Sunday against the 
Twins and a two-homer game on Tuesday in Tampa (so much
for not hitting). Apparently Clevlen wants to stick 
around.  Also, with Sean Casey coming over to play first
base, Chris Shelton was optioned to Toledo.  More on 
that later.

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Tiger of the Week...
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Plenty of players were on fire this week. Craig Monroe, Chris Shelton, and Placido Polanco all hit over .400 in the last six games. Magglio lead the team with seven RBIs, and Justin Verlander picked up two wins and now leads the league with 14 wins. Todd Jones slammed the door on three of the four Tiger wins. Brent Clevlen looks like the second coming of Al Kaline. These were all great accomplishments, but it's quite rare that a player hits for the cycle. Carlos Guillen batten .360 this week, stole three bases, and hit for the cycle on Tuesday. That's good for TOTW honors. He now has 13 homers and 15 steals on the season. Could he be a 20-20 guy this season? Possibly.

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Casey In, Shelton Out...
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Well, Shelton's not exactly out, he's just down in the
minors.  Casey comes in from Pittsburgh, where he was
hitting .296 in 56 games.  He is not known for his
power (he had three homers at the time of the trade)
and there are supposed issues with his back.  He does
have a nice OBP.  This year he had 23 walks and 22
strikeouts with Pittsburgh.  Casey is in the last year
of his contract and this year his salary is 8.5
million dollars.  He spent most of his career in
Cincinnati.  

Shelton began 2006 hotter than any other hitter in
baseball.  After putting up a .326 average in April
Shelton hit .286 in May, .205 in June, and .289 in
July.  Despite the recent comeback, the organization
felt that Shelton has some work to do in Toledo.  He
will certainly be back at some point this season (in
September teams are allowed to carry more men on their
rosters).

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Trades that Went Down This Week...
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A * by the name indicates the player is in the minors
(I think).

Tuesday, July 25...

Dodgers traded cash, Odalis Perez, Blake Johnson*, and
Julio Pimentel* to the Royals for Elmer Dessens.

Wednesday, July 26...

Mariners traded Shin-Soo Choo and a player to be named
later to the Indians for Ben Broussard.

Yankees traded Hector Made* to the Phillies for Sal
Fasano.

Friday, July 28...

Nationals traded Mike Stanton to the Giants for
Shairon Martis*.

Phillies traded David Bell to the Brewers for Wilfrido
Laureano*. 

Brewers traded Carols Lee and Nelson Cruz* (an
outfielder) to the Rangers for Kevin Mench, Laynce
Nix, Francisco Cordero, and Julian Cordero*.

Braves traded Wilson Betemit to the Dodgers for Danys
Baez and Willy Aybar.  

Sunday, July 30...

Indians traded Ronnie Belliard to the Cardinals for
Hector Luna.

Phillies traded Bobby Abreu and Corey Lidle to the
Yankees for Matt Smith*, C. J. Henry*, Jesus Sanchez*,
and Carlos Monasterios*.

Red Sox traded Luis Mendoza* to the Rangers for Bryan
Corey*.

Monday, July 31...

Tigers traded Brian Rogers* to the Pirates for Sean
Casey.

Reds traded Justin Germano* to the Phillies for Rheal
Cormier.

The Twins traded Kyle Lohse to the Reds for Zach
Ward*.  

The Cubs traded Todd Walker to the Padres for Jose
Ceda*.

The Mets traded Xavier Nady to the Pirates for Oliver
Perez and Roberto Hernandez.

Rangers traded Joselo Diaz* to the Royals for Matt
Stairs.

Rangers traded Jesse Chavez* to the Pirates for Kip
Wells.

Devil Rays traded Julio Lugo to the Dodgers for Joel
Guzman* and Sergio Pedroza*.

Rockies traded Ryan Shealy* and Scott Dohmann to the
Royals for Jeremy Affeldt and Denny Bautista.

Braves traded Jorge Sosa to the Cardinals for Rich
Scalamandre*.

Yankees traded Shawn Chacon to the Pirates for Craig
Wilson.

Sorry if I missed any.

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Poll Question...
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Plenty of trades went down this week:  the Tigers got
Casey, Greg Maddux went to the Dodgers, Bobby Abreu to
the Yankees, and Todd Walker to the Padres to name a
few.  Some teams didn't make any moves, and some
players that were rumored to be on the move (Soriano,
Tejada, Clemens, Lidge, etc.) stayed with their
respective teams.  

What teams made the best/worst deals?

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Game Linescores...
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July 26:  Detroit 4 - Cleveland 1
Starters:  DET: Verlander 6.2IP - CLE: Sabathia 7IP
DET  000 003 100  4 11 1
CLE  000 000 100  1  5 0
W: Verlander (13-4)
L: Sabathia  (7-7)
S: Jones     (27)

July 27:  no game scheduled...

July 28:  Detroit 3 - Minnesota 2      F/10
Starters:  DET: Miner 6IP - MIN: Liriano
DET  200 000 000 1  3 6 0
MIN  101 000 000 0  2 6 0
W: Rodney (5-3)
L: Rincon (3-1)
S: Jones  (28)

July 29:  Detroit 8 - Minnesota 6
Starters:  DET: Robertson 6IP - MIN: Radke 3IP
DET  211 200 011  8 14 0
MIN  000 200 301  6 14 0
W: Robertson (10-6)
L: Radke     (9-8)
S: Jones     (29)

July 30:  Detroit 4 - Minnesota 6
Starters:  DET: Bonderman 7.2IP - MIN: Santana 5.1IP
DET  001 011 001  4 13 4
MIN  000 000 06X  6  6 2
W: Neshek    (1-0)
L: Bonderman (11-5)
S: Nathan    (22)

July 31:  Detroit 3 - Tampa Bay 7
Starters:  DET: Rogers 5IP - TBD: Fossum 7IP
DET  010 000 002  3 10 4
TBD  000 214 00X  7  8 1
W: Fossum (5-4)
L: Rogers (11-5)

August 1:  Detroit 10 - Tampa Bay 4
Starters:  DET: Verlander 5IP - TBD: Howell 3.2IP
DET  051 021 001  10 18 0
TBD  201 000 010   4 10 1
W: Verlander (14-4)
L: Howell    (0-1)

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Readers Write In...
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Jay "Newbery" VandeVoorde

Matt, Unable to sleep so I can finally take a second
and thank-you for the interesting up-dates.  Tigers
are really impressing a lot of people.  I've watched
more baseball this year than I did the past five
seasons.  Keep up the good work.
Thanks-Jay

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Steve "Stone" Sprague

Toolie,

I've gotta vent.

I am sick and tired of all the media types making an
issue about Mark McGwire's HOF status.  Correct me if
I'm wrong but he was the most feared hitter in the
game for the latter part of the 1990's and one of the 
most feared hitters in the late 1980's.  At one point
he held both the rookie and everyone records for
homers in a season.  What is not HOF worthy about 
all of that?  If we are to believe what we have heard,
which is all we need to condemn Big Mac, then
approximately half of baseball was juicing during 
that late 90's era.  Before when questions came up
about players from pior eras about skewed numbers we
always heard that we need to look at players in
terms of who they played against.  McGwire played
against other steroid users and excelled.  Plenty of
pithcers were juicing, more on that in a minute, and
plenty of hitters juiced and didn't hit 70 homers in a
season as McGwire and Bonds did, or have multiple 60
homer seasons as Sosa and McGwire did.  Seems to me
that Big Mac was head and shoulders above his peers,
he deserves the Hall as much as anybody.

Now for the pitchers.  I'm not sure if it has been
mentioned in this publication but I love the
conspiracy theory that Clemens was really sitting
out until mid June due to a super secret steroids
suspension.  This conspiracy theory is tied with the
theory that Michael Jordan retired from basketball due
to a gambling suspension.  Everything about it lines
up too.  If he wasn't suspended why not just sign with
any team right away rather than waiting for Houston? 
Don't give me the bull about wanting to spend time 
with his family, any team would have gladly flown them
around in private planes for Clemens.  Also when he 
signed with Houston why didn't he just sign a deal 
that said "...you will be paid x dollars to pitch" as
opposed to figuring out a whole season salary and then
pro-rating it?  The answer because he had to be
suspended without pay per the steroid testing rules.
He really signed that huge contract last december and
then the failed test came out.

Ridiculous?  A little, but definitely enough to make
you think.

Steve Sprague

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Toolie's Trashtalk...

Sean Casey is the newest Tiger.  I like the move.  The
Tigers didn't mess with the core of the team, they
didn't trade away any highly touted prospects, and
they added a lefty who hits for average and doesn't
strike out a lot.  Shelton is the casualty, but I
think that Casey, at this point, is an upgrade.  

For all the talk about how hot the Twins have been,
the Tigers have been right there with them.  The Twins
are 36-11 since June 8th.  The Tigers are 33-12 over
the same period.  The only difference is that the
Tigers had a great record at the start of that run. 
No question, the Twins were getting all the press
going into that weekend series, especially since they
had just swept the White Sox in Chicago.  The Tigers
should have swept that series.  Jeremy Bonderman
cruised through seven innings and had a 3-0 lead in
the eighth.  Two errors, two infield hits, and a balk
later and the game was tied.  Before all was said and
done the Twins tacked on three more and the game was
all but over.  

After a loss on Monday I was a tad worried about the
state of the team.  The Tigers lucked out by missing
Rays ace Scott Kazmir (injury) and jumped all over his
replacement.  It looks like things are back to normal.
Not used to seeing them lose two in a row...

Hey Sprague, about McGwire...  I agree that he has
Hall of Fame statistics.  His career OBP is near .400,
he has great home run numbers, and he has generated
some of the most memorable moments of his era.  The
voters can go one of two ways, in my mind.  It is now
widely believed that a majority of players in this era
have used some sort of performance enhancing drug.  If
that is the consensus, then the voters would either
have to A) not elect anyone from this era or B) not
exclude anyone on the basis of drug use.  Certainly
the latter case is the most likely to happen. 
HOWEVER, I still think that players from this era will
have a cloud over their heads as dopers.  I think that
using steroids or other drugs to give you an unfair
advantage over your opponents is worse than what Pete
Rose did.  Pete Rose did nothing wrong as a
player...nothing.  Yet he will never be voted to the
Hall of Fame as a player due to his lifetime ban for
what he did as a manager.  These guys, however,
deliberately cheated as players in the game.  They
will make the Hall of Fame.  It makes no sense to me. 
That can't be rewarded in the same way you reward
those who play the game the right way.  

So what I'm trying to say is that, despite the
numbers, there is an argument for keeping McGwire and
company out of the Hall.  I think he will get in.

Kenny Rogers had another rough outing.  That 2nd half
reputation is holding true so far.  Let's hope he
rights the ship.  

Some good baseball to watch in August.  Go Tigers.

I'm out...
 





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