Tigers Weekly 2006 Season

Week 7: 5/31/06 - 6/6/06

"This was kind of a blah homestand.  We didn't play
very well, which is funny to say, because not very
well this year was really, really good in past years."
- Brandon Inge

Before last night I was going to write about how this
week could have been worse.  Detroit lost both series
with the Yankees and Red Sox, but they didn't get
swept in either.  After seeing Fernando Rodney get
taken deep to lose Tuesday's game against the White
Sox I feel like life as we know it is over.  The
Tigers are starting to lose close games in dramatic
fashion, which can damage a team's confidence.

Homer for Granderson, I'm feeling a little better.

New Subscribers...

Pat "Borders" & Nelson "Cruz" Gould
Jason "Beef" Keefe
Jeff "Weaver" Hunsaker

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Week of 5/31 - 6/6

Record:  2-4  LWLWL-L

Undy-Five-Hundy:  It was one of those rare weeks this
year where the Tigers move in the wrong direction. 
Plenty of breathing room, though, as the index lands
at -16.   

Up Next for the Tigers...

June 7-8    @ Chicago White Sox
June 9-11   @ Toronto
June 12-15    Tampa Bay

AL Central Standings...

DET  37 21 -
CWS  35 22 1.5
CLE  28 29 8.5
MIN  25 32 11.5
KCR  14 42 22

Tigers Division...

DET  37 21
CWS  35 22 1.5
NYY  35 22 1.5
STL  35 23 2
NYM  34 23 2.5

Tigers News and Notes:  The Tigers placed Mike Maroth,
who had elbow surgery, on the 60-day DL.  It's
possible that Maroth could return in late July or in
August, but nothing is definite yet.  Alexis Gomez was
called up from Toledo, and watching tonight it looks
like a good thing.  Craig Monroe just went down with
an ankle injury.  Chris Spurling traded places with
Gomez.

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Tiger of the Week...
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Marcus Thames has filled in wonderfully at DH for the injured Dmitri Young (who hasn't done much of anything this year). He had the highest batting average of all the Tigers this last week (.409) and knocked two homers out of the park.

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Rocket's Return...
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Roger Clemens signded with the Astros and he's getting
mondo media attention.  ESPN even aired his A-ball
game on Tuesday night.  Unbelievable.  He's been out
of baseball for two months!  I'd like to hear from
people (especially guys like Sprague) on what they
think of Clemens and this "comeback."  He's getting
paid a ridiculous sum of money to pitch for only four
months (and the possible post-season).  

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=
2466043

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Tigers Weekly Baseball Game...
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I've gotten some decent response so far for the
baseball game this year.  I'm hoping to hold it a
couple of weekends after the 4th of July.  It looks
like we'll have plenty of equipment, I'll just have to
work on getting a field and an umpire again.  I will
probably be able to contact the same umpire that we
had last year.  It was an easy game for him.  I'm not
sure if we'll be able to get the field donated to us
like last time, but with 18+ people splitting the cost
I can't see the whole thing costing more than $5 per
person.  Please let me know if you are interested. 
All you who played last year, I'd love to see you
again this time around.

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HGH...
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Another scandal may be on the rise in MLB.  Jayson
Stark of ESPN gives a detailed prelude of what's to
come.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist
=stark_jayson&id=2474247

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Is There a Draft...
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The Tigers drafted Andrew Miller, a stud pitcher out
of the University of North Carolina, with their first
pick (6th overall) in this year's draft.  Full
coverage of all the Tigers' draft picks can be found
here (with some poking around as well):

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article
.jsp?ymd=20060606&content_id=1491131&vkey=news_det
&fext=.jsp&c_id=det

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Poll Question...
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The Tigers have struggled mightily against the
Yankees, Red Sox, and White Sox.  Do you think that
this team has, or will acquire, what it takes to
seriously compete for the American League pennant?  I
think the Tigers have shown themselves to be definite
candidates to make the playoffs, but I'm not sold on
their ability to come through in the clutch on the big
stage.  Will they get it together?

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Game Linescores...
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May 31:  New York Yankees 6 - Detroit 1
Starters:  NYY: Mussina 9IP - DET: Robertson 8.2IP
NYY  100 010 022  6 11 1
DET  000 000 001  1  6 0
W: Mussina   (7-1)
L: Robertson (5-3)

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Toolie Sees a Ball Game:  Game #3 for me this year at
Comerica.  The day started in Lansing where Nic "Gilby
Gilbert, Jason "J-Dub" Werner, and Rick "Sweetchuck"
Grillo scarfed down some brats and burgers (thanks
Rick) and jumped in the car.  We met up with Matt
"Taxman" Brady in Clawson and pooled down to Detroit. 
As we walked to the stadium storm clouds could be seen
rolling in.  We picked up the tickets from will call
and headed in.  I immediately used the bathroom and by
the time I got out it was pouring.  We ran into an old
high-school friend (all these guys are my high-school
crew) and then tried to get into one of the indoor
beer gardens.  When we got there we were denied
because our tickets weren't of the $50+ variety. 
Yikes.  I guess if they didn't have that policy then
the place would have been overflowing, but it seemed
pretty elitist. 

The storm lasted about an hour and then we loaded up on napkins and headed to our seats. Before the game we took notice of our fan-of-the-game. I've included a picture of the guy. I think it speaks for itself.

It wasn't too thrilling of a game.  The Tigers chance
to get into the game came when, down 2-0, they got the
first two men on base.  Polanco bunted, but to the
first-base side, and Andy Phillips was able to get the
force at third.  Pudge then grounded into a double
play and the threat was over.  

Robertson pitched about as well as he could for giving
up six runs.  Mussina was dominant.  

Funny moment of the night came when they had the Fan
Cam going and this moron sitting close to us was
dancing like a fool trying to get on.  He kept looking
behind him at the scoreboard (we were in left field)
and eventually Brady yelled "He's on TV" and drew a
big "made-you-look" moment from our friend.  I guess
you had to be there.

Cuppy Coffee won for the second time (both time he's
won I've been in his section).  

Dunkin Donuts Race Standings
Cuppy Coffee - 2
Biggie Bagel - 1
"The Original" Dashing Donut - 0

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June 1:  New York Yankees 6 - Detroit 7
Starters:  NYY: Wang 4IP - DET: Verlander 5IP
NYY  014 010 000  6 12 0
DET  000 320 002  7 13 0
W: Rodney     (4-1)
L: Farnsworth (1-3)

June 2:  Boston 3 - Detroit 2
Starters:  BOS: Schilling 6IP - DET: Rogers 7IP
BOS  000 100 002  3 7 1
DET  100 010 000  2 8 1
W: Seanez   (1-0)
L: Jones    (0-3)
S: Papelbon (20)

June 3:  Boston 2 - Detroit 6
Starters:  BOS: Wakefield 7IP - DET: Bonderman 7.2IP
BOS  100 000 010  2 4 0
DET  010 200 03X  6 9 0
W: Bonderman (6-4)
L: Wakefield (4-7)
S: Rodney    (7)

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Toolie Sees a Ball Game:  It was an impromptu second
game for me this week as I got a call from Andy
"After-Hours" Leon saying he was going to be in town
from New York and catching the game.  I convinced Lia
to accompany me to the game and we left Flint around
5:15PM...

...and got there just after 7PM.  What a mess the
roads were.  They keep closing sections of I-75 on the
weekend and it's killing me.  We took this detour via
Woodward and then got to Greektown...

...and stayed stopped on Lafayette for about 15
minutes!  There was this car with its blinker on that
WOULD NOT move!  Eventually I had to pull the sweet
"stick my nose out" move to get into the other lanes. 
I turned away from the park and found a $5 lot.  I was
just happy to get out of the car.  

Oh yeah, and it was raining (thankfully the game was
delayed or we would have missed a couple of innings). 
So I bust out the umbrella and we hike it to Comerica.
Once inside we find our seats (which were not
adjacent; we had bought them that afternoon) and got
in touch with the group.  After the second inning we
were able to sit next to the gang, so that was nice.  

It was a fun game to watch.  It had a lot of positive
elements: great pitching by Bonderman, close through
the 8th inning, home runs, and a Tiger victory in the
end.  Magglios three-run blast in the 8th sealed the
win for Bondo and ensured that Jones would not be
spoiling this win.  Guillen homered again.  I think he
has a thing for my girlfriend.  He's hit three of his
seven homers when she's been in the audience.   Hmmm,
you have to watch out for those Latin-lover types.  

It was a good crowd.  It's exciting seeing the stadium
full, and I'm sure it would have been even more full
if there was nice weather.  Tigs are 2-2 for me this
season.  I guess I can't complain.

"The Original" Dashing Donut got off the snide with a
win in the big race. 

Standings...

Cuppy Coffee - 2
Biggie Bagel - 1
"The Original" Dashing Donut - 1

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June 4:  Boston 8 - Detroit 3
Starters:  BOS: Clement 6IP - DET: Miner 4IP
BOS  020 020 130  8 11 0
DET  000 102 000  3  8 0
W: Clement (5-4)
L: Miner   (0-1)

June 5:  no game scheduled...

June 6:  Detroit 3 - Chicago White Sox 4
Starters:  DET: Robertson 6.1IP - CWS: Garcia 6IP
DET  020 100 000  3 8 1
CWS  010 000 03X  4 8 0
W: McCarthy (3-3)
L: Rodney   (4-2)
S: Jenks    (16)

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Readers Write In...
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Dallas "Big D" Senters

i am hoping the tigers win this whitesox series.  the
indians play the sox after that, and then following
weekend the reds play them.  if the good guys win
these series, then the sox are looking up at the
indians.

last night the reds did a good job against the
pujol-less cardinals...i'll take some more of that for
the next couple of nights.

if bonds thinks everyone hates him he should not go
for hank aaron's record, especially since he'd have to
leave the giants to accomplish that.  san francisco is
the only place that likes him, although lots of people
would probably cheer for bonds if he played for their
team.  boo to them.

i am clearly interested in TW baseball II.  the
utility fielder's glove is in the car. 

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Toolie's Trashtalk...

OK I've got this issue dated for the 6th but the game
is already over tonight (the 7th) and the Tigers
dropped another one to the Sox.  I've had all I can
take from Alex Cintron and Bobby Jenks.  White Sox
pitching looks fine to me.  All that crap about them
having a shaky bullpen... we haven't seen it.  Just
like the Tigers own the Royals, so the White Sox own
the Tigers.  Tomorrow's afternooner (televised on
TV-20) is a big game with the AL Central lead at
stake.  More importantly the Tigers need to show
themselves that they can beat the White Sox.  

Tigers bullpen pitchers have been complaining,
recently, of crinks in their necks.  Those have been
caused by watching long-balls being hit by opposing
hitters.  Here's a short list of taters hit in the
last week off of Tigers relievers.  

Tuesday May 30:  Jason Giambi off of Todd Jones
Friday June 2:   Kevin Youkilis off of Todd Jones
Sunday June 4:   David Ortiz off of Jamie Walker
Sunday June 4:   Manny Ramirez off of Roman Colon
Tuesday June 6:  Alex Cintron off of Fernando Rodney

These guys have to start keeping the ball in the park.
That Cintron home-run was like a knife in the heart. 
It was his first of the year (and only devastating
since Rodney walked two batters in front of Cintron). 
Earlier in the night I was watching with my roommate
and I commented "just throw it right down the
middle... what's he going to do, hit a home run?"  I
guess I asked for it. 

Injuries are starting to pile up.  Since the start of
the season we've had Maroth and Dmitri go down and now
Monroe and Pudge have picked up injuries in the last
couple of games.  This could be tough times for the
Tigs.  There is a little bit of a let-up in the
schedule after Toronto as the D catches Tampa, the
Cubs, and Milwaukee.  Then it's back to the grindstone
with series' against the Cardinals and Astros.  

Zack Miner is slated to start again in the "Maroth
Hole."  He'll face Ted Lilly on Saturday in whatever
they call SkyDome now.  The Tigers will thankfully
miss Roy Halladay.  Kenny Rogers tries to salvage one
of these games against Chicago.  So far Kenny is 6-1
against the Central (has not pitched against Chicago).

Tigers need to pick up some wins this week!  Lots of
TV coverage this month, though it's not all on FSN. 
Check out the wallpaper at www.tigerscentral.com to
see on what channel you can find the Tigers. 

I'm out...
 





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