Tigers Weekly 2008 Season

WEEK 16: 8/5/08 - 8/14/08

We're about to the midpoint of August and the 
Tigers are running out of time.  While Chicago 
and Minnesota are pushing each other in a tight 
AL Central race, the Tigers are going out of their 
way to trip on every branch, step in every 
manhole, and run into every passing car.  Once 
again, the month of August is haunting the Tigers' 
chances, as they continue to stay around the .500 
mark.  While that dog may hunt in the NL West, 
it will not get the job done in any division in the 
American League.  A win today prevented a 
four-game sweep at the hands of the Blue Jays, 
but there isn't a lot of optimism that they are 
ready to go on a run.  

Sorry for the delay this week.  I was planning on 
doing this either Sunday or Monday, but I put this 
off due to the passing of a great Tiger fan: my 
grandmother, Fidelis O'Toole.  She passed away 
on Friday and we celebrated her life Sunday 
through Tuesday.  It was tough being at her home 
and seeing her things being divvied up, but I did 
come away with a Tigers '84 Champions rug that 
will be displayed on my wall for many years to 
come.  

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"Week" Record:  4-6  LLWLWWLLLW

Undy-Five-Hundy:  After a long road trip that 
saw the Tigers go 3-7, a little home cooking was 
supposed to right the ship and get the team back 
on the right side of five-hundy.  So far it's been a 
3-4 homestand with the Birds coming in to finish 
things off.  The Tigers sit three games undy.

Up Next for the Tigers...

August 15-17    Baltimore  (2-1 vs. TEX, 2-2 @ CLE)
August 18-20  @ Texas  (1-2 @ BAL, 0-3 @ BOS)
August 21       no game scheduled...

AL Central Standings...

CWS  68 52 -
MIN  67 53 1
DET  59 62 9.5
CLE  54 66 14
KCR  54 67 14.5

Tigers Division...

ANA  75 44 -
|
TOR  62 60 14.5
TEX  61 61 15.5
DET  59 62 17
BAL  58 62 17.5
OAK  55 65 20.5

AL Notes:  Tampa and Anaheim lead the other 
divisions.  Boston trails the Rays by three games 
and the Twins trail Boston by three for the Wild 
Card.

NL Notes:  The Mets and D-Backs lead their 
division by just a half game over the Phillies and 
Dodgers, respetively.  Milwaukee leads the Wild 
Card (by three over the Cards) and trails the 
Cubs in the Central by 4.5.  

Tigers News and Notes:  Freddy Garcia was 
signed to a minor league contract by the Tigers.  
Garcia, who looks like The Rock and was once a 
force for the Seattle Mariners, has had trouble 
since 2006 and is coming back from surgery to 
repair a torn labrum.  Check the link below for 
the whole story...

Click HERE for article from Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers also placed Joel Zumaya on the DL 
(his second home) and called up Francis Beltran 
from Toledo.  Freddy Dolsi was optioned, today, 
which makes room for Todd Jones, who is 
expected to be back on Friday.  

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Tiger of the "Week"...
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Where would the Tigers be without Armando Galarraga? Picking up the slack for Dontrelle Willis, Galarraga is sporting an 11-4 record after racking up a pair of wins in the last two series. His performance on Thursday against Toronto was all you could ask for, and the offense came through in the eighth inning to get Armando the win. Since losing to Baltimore on the 18th of July, the rookie has won four of his last five starts, and he left the non-win in after seven innings with a two-run lead. His ERA is down to 3.11, good for sixth in the American League (the next Tiger starter is Justin Verlander at 34th with a 4.77 average). Some people believe that this is a fluke season, but let's hope that the acquisition of Galarraga for Chris Shelton goes down as another Dombrowski steal.

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Tigers Weekly Baseball Game 2009...
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I've been floating the idea of a baseball game with 
Josh and the rest of the guys from Agate.  If 
you're interested in playing a game of almost-full-
pace baseball in the Lansing area sometime in the 
near future (perhaps the last weekend of August, 
but nothing's for sure yet) then let me know.  In 
the past it's been a great deal of fun.  We will 
probably get an umpire for the game, and there 
are usually post-game shenanigans.  You can 
check out some photos from previous games 
here...

Click HERE for photos from Tigersweekly.

We also played in 2007, we just don't have any 
photos posted from that game.  

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Zito Chasing Twenty...
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Believe it or not, the Tigers are not the only team 
in the majors suffering from an overpaid superstar 
(or many).  In 2003, Mike Maroth became the 
first pitcher of modern times to lose twenty games 
in a season.  This year, the Giants' Barry Zito has 
a legitimate shot of joining the former Tiger in that 
company.  Zito, who is earning a cool 14.5 
million dollars, has a record of 6-15 for the light-
hitting Giants.  It's not all the offense's fault, 
though.  The "ace" has a 5.73 ERA and a K/BB 
ratio that is barely over one.  He probably has 
around ten starts remaining, and he should make 
them all unless the Giants put him on the shelf.  If 
they do, it will probably be out of pity; Zito has 
started at least 33 games in each of the last seven 
seasons.  If they do pull him for that reason I will 
be all over the Giants.  If Maroth can take the 
heat, then so can this guy.  Poor San Francisco... 
they owe Zito better than 18.5 million PER 
YEAR for the next five seasons.  

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The Sheffiled Saga...
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When the Tigers traded for Gary Sheffield, fans 
knew we were getting a player who likes to 
speak his mind.  Until recently, the outbursts 
were primarily about off-field issues.  But Sheff 
has been much more vocal, recently, about his 
displeasure in the way he's being used.  It doesn't 
seem to bother the "slugger" that he isn't slugging, 
he feels that he should be playing every day.  
Sheffield was then placed on waivers, meaning 
that another team could claim him and the Tigers 
could work out a trade.  It seems, though, that no 
team claimed him in time.  Here is an article that 
well-describes the situation and contains quotes 
from both Sheff and Leyland...

Click HERE for article from ESPN.

What do you think should be done with Gary 
Sheffield, who has another year at 14 million 
dollars as a Tiger?

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Toolie Sees a Ball Game...
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Friday night I made my first trip to Comerica as a 
married man.  My friend, Matt Brady, invited the 
wife and I for a baseball double-date (it beats 
going to see Mamma Mia!).  We stopped at his 
house for pre-game brats and headed to the 
park.  

We missed the first inning (I guess it was sort of 
my fault) but the fireworks began in the second.  
Here's how the conversation went...

Guy Next to Me:  Marcus Thames is going to hit 
a home run today.

Me:  You sure?  He's really been struggling lately. 

Guy Next to Me:  He's gonna hit a home run.

And then Marcus did just that, blasting a line 
drive into the second level of foliage in straight-
away center-field to put the Tigers up 2-0.  It 
looked good for Detroit; they had a 2-0 lead and 
were facing a pitcher named Dallas (a true jobber 
name).  Kenny Rogers had a history of success 
against Oakland, and the A's were in the midst of 
a ten-game losing streak.  

Well, a three-run fifth inning and a solo shot by 
Emil Brown in the sixth changed those thoughts.  
I should have known things were going to go 
badly when "The Original" Dashing Donut won 
the Dunkin' Donuts race.  The Tigers managed 
just two hits after the second inning, making for a 
lackluster finish.  At least the company was good.

Late in the game we headed down to sit with 
Webmaster Nic "Gilby" Gilbert, was the 
beneficiary of great seats about ten rows back of 
the space between the Tigers' dugout and the 
netting behind home plate.  Given the recent state 
of things we didn't have a problem getting down 
there and watching the rest of the game and 
fireworks.  I still wouldn't shell out sixty bucks for 
that location, though.  There isn't really a bad seat 
in the place.

So my record fell to 1-3 on the season.  I'll be 
seeing the Tigers play at least once more, and 
that will be in Cleveland.  If I can sneak another 
game in sometime then I will have averaged one 
game a month.  It shouldn't be hard; I hear there's 
tons of time for baseball once you get married...

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Poll Question...
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With this season quickly slipping away, which 
players do you think should be retained for the 
2009 campaign?  A lot of new faces have been 
brought in these last two years who have not 
panned out (Sheffield, Renteria, Willis).  Should 
we dump the aging veterans and get fresh blood 
on the field?  The only locks for next season's 
rotation appear to be Verlander and Galarraga... 
who fills the other three spots?  Can we trust 
anyone in the organization to take over as the 
closer?  Does Toolie have a shot to make the 25-
man roster? 

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Readers Write In...
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Bob "Woodchuck" Hesse...

A Defense of the Metrodome

H H H Metrodome
Minneapolis Minnesota
“We like it here”

These were the words painted above the 
maintenance door by the right field in the 
Metrodome until about 1990 (and then were 
replaced by a “king of beers sign”). I spent a 
large part of my teenage and college years going 
to the dome to see Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, 
et al bashing the ball, making spectacular catches. 
I remember 1987 when we upset the Tigers with 
stellar pitching from Frank Viola and Jeff 
Reardon. I remember going to home games 
where every game but Jack Morris pitched (I 
think I had a 6-1 record of Jack winning when I 
attended).

I don’t intend to convince anyone that watching a 
game in June, July or August in the Dome is 
better than watching a game outside. As a kid I 
went to the old Metropolitan Stadium, a.k.a. “the 
Met”, and saw some great games there. 
However, the games before Memorial Day and 
after Labor Day could be (and often were) 
brutal. Yes Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland can have 
rough weather. We have it worse.

We’ll be getting a new outdoor stadium. I’m sure 
it will be a great place to watch a game in the 
summer. But unless the Twins are doing really 
well, we’ll be back to the same problems we had 
at the old Met.  If I’m at a game during typical fall 
weather, I’ll be wishing I was back inside the nice 
grey sterile box called the Dome.

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"Lefthanded" Louie

If the "weekly" will entertain the views of  a life-
long Sox fan, I'll chip in with a few zingers.  
"Clone":  "Farmio" and "Stoney" are truly 
embarrassing, even for those of us who love the 
Sox.  (Full disclosure:  Yours truly, the Portly 
Portsider, hit a homerun off Ed Farmer in a 
Catholic League playoff game,  back "in the day".  
He played for St. Rita, and I played for Loyola.  
I didn't really know him, but he seemed like a 
jerk even then.  But since he is my only "claim to 
fame" in sports, I have to root for him to stick 
around, despite his obvious incompetence).  
Stone actually knows something about baseball, 
but he seems more concerned with demonstrating 
that he's oh-so-much smarter than everyone else, 
rather than explaining what just happened.   And 
if you can't stand this duo, try the Hawk and his 
sidekick D.J. on the TV side.  Hawkeroo at least 
can be considered "so bad he's good", which 
cannot be said for the radio pair--they're just 
bad. Despite the '05 Championship, it can be very 
tough rooting for the Sox. Last night's game was 
a great win for the Pale Hose (I've never actually 
used that expression before).  It was well worth 
staying up way past my bedtime to watch the 
game in its entirety.  Kyle Farnsworth obviously 
brought his gasoline can with him from New 
York.  And the Tigers can't blame this one on 
either the Rollercoaster or the Punching Bag 
(Rodney).  How long will it be before Tiger fans 
pick up on that chant so beloved by Yankee fans:  
"Farnsworth-less!  Farnsworth-less!  
Farnsworth-less!"?  I expected Farnsworth to 
fail, but not this spectacularly nor so soon.

For the past two seasons I've been all over 
Rodriguez for his unwillingness or inability to 
move his feet and block balls in the dirt.  He just 
stabs at them with his glove.  The Tiger pitching 
staff in '07 led the majors (by a lot!) in wild 
pitches, with Verlander first and Bonderman 
fourth, individually.  This year is following the 
same script, minus Bondo.  It seemed to me that 
many of these were actually passed balls that 
were blamed on the pitchers due to Rodriguez' 
reputation.  Having said that, it's been remarkable 
to watch Inge miss pitch after pitch since he's 
taken over the full-time catching duties.  He move 
his feet very well--he just can't actually catch the 
ball.  Or maybe it's really been the pitchers all the 
time?  I've never seen anything like this. 

Tiger fans may find some reason for optimism 
because of Ken Grirffey's obvious inability to 
play centerfield anymore.  He was unable to cut 
off a routine ball last night, allowing an 
unnecessary extra-base hit, and he doesn't cover 
much ground.  With Dye and Quentin on either 
side of Junior, this may be the worst defensive 
outfield in the Show.  I thought bringing Griffey in 
made some sense if the Sox would then move last 
night's hero,  Swisher,  to first base on a 
permanent basis, and make the difficult but 
necessary decision to platoon Koko and Thome 
at DH.  But Guillen continues to play Konerko at 
first and lets Jimmy hit against lefties.  It's 
ridiculous.  I don't think the Sox are much 
improved, and that gives your Tigers, as bad as 
they have been, a glimmer of hope. 

So much for the random musings of an 
unapologetic Sox fan.  I enjoy the "weekly".  
Keep up the good work. 

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Toolie's Trashtalk...

After the Tigers' fourteen-inning loss to Chicago, 
a game where they took a two-run lead into the 
bottom of the fourteenth, I receieved three text 
messages almost simultaneously...

1: Season = Over
2: Unfuckingbelievable!
3: I hope you weren't awake to see that.

Well, I was awake, but I was just checking out at 
Meijer (a late night run for the essentials...).  I 
gathered that we had lost, and figured it must 
have been pretty dramatic, given the barrage of 
texts.  I was dumbfounded watching the 
highlights.  How does Renteria botch that ground 
ball?  That put the Tigers 7.5 back instead of 5.5 
back.  Things have since gotten worse.  The 
number of games that they SHOULD have won 
this season is impressive.

I am now beyond the point where I am upset 
after a Tigers' loss.  Even as I watched them 
blow a 4-1 lead to Toronto on Tuesday night I 
was just lethargic.  The lead of the Sox and the 
Twins is just getting too big.  I know that it's not 
over 'til it's over, but even Yogi would be making 
October tee times at this point.  Even if the Tigers 
went on a twenty game winning streak, both 
Chicago and Minnesota would have to play at 
.500 for the Tigers to catch them.  And that's IF 
the Tigers win twenty straight.  There's no way 
that they catch both teams.  

A couple of Tigers prospects are representing the 
USA on the baseball team in Beijing.  One you 
have certainly heard of, but maybe not the other.  
Mike Hessman and pitcher Blaine Neal are trying 
to wrestle a gold medal away from the grip of the 
Cubans, who have only been denied gold once.  
Neal is the Mud-Hens' closer, and he has a 1.27 
ERA and 25 saves for Toledo.  He also has 39 
strikeouts to just 12 walks.  I'll be he's wondering 
when his turn to close will come.  Team USA lost 
to Korea in their opener and beat the 
Netherlands in their second game of round-robin 
play (top four advance to medal round).  They 
are currently tied 2-2 with Cuba in the seventh 
inning.  Though the softball game is being shown 
on TV, I am watching the baseball game (sans 
commentary) through NBC's Olympic website.  
These Chinese fans "ooooh" and "ahhhh" at 
everything!  Some good back and forth "USA 
USA" - "Cuba Cuba" chants... and they even 
played "Take Me Out to the Ball
Game" in multiple languages.  

I hate the Metrodome just for the way it plays.  
Nothing is more maddening than a key hit against 
the Tigers that would have been a routine out in a 
grass stadium.  I understand the cold arguments, 
but I'll be glad to see the place imploded.  Too 
bad they aren't building a stadium with a 
retractable roof (seems logical, no?).

Louie, I find it amazing that the radio crew for the 
Sox is worse than the TV guys.  Thanks for the 
insight, though.  It's great to hear from fans of 
other teams.  

Speaking of which, our two writers this week 
were Twins and White Sox fans.  Don't let 'em 
take this thing over, people!   

Gotta call it a night.  Give that baseball game a 
thought.  We've had a lot of fun with it in the past.  
I hope to be back on a regular schedule now.

I'm out...






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