Baseball By Paul

The Detroit Tigers called up pitcher Zach Miner from the Toledo Mudhens while optioning Jack Hannahan. The 24-year old righthander was brought over with Roman Colon in the Kyle Farnsworth deal last season and has pitched exceptionally well for the Mudhens over the course of two seasons. This year in nine starts covering 51 innings, he was 6-0 with a 2.82 earned run average, 1.26 WHIP, and 1.9 K:BB. The move looks to shore up the front end of the bullpen. an area that hasn’t been clicking on all cylinders of late for the team.

A look at Miner’s numbers prior to 2006:

What started off very poorly, ended in the same fashion. The Tigers dropped their second straight game to the New York Yankees despite erasing a five run deficit late in the game. Roman Colon was rocked in his first start since substituting for Mike Maroth in the rotation, allowing five runs in 2 1/3 innings of work. After Ivan Rodriguez‘s 4th home run in the bottom of the third, the Tigers were down 6-1. Their comeback was spurred by a Derek Jeter error that led to two runs in the three run fifth. Runs in the 6th and 8th innings tied the game and sent it to extra innings. After a scoreless 10th for both teams, Todd Jones came unglued in the top of the 11th. A solo home run by Jason Giambi was good enough to seal the victory, but the Yankees piled on four more insurance runs. Mariano Rivera polished off the win in his third inning of work with a 1-2-3 11th inning for the 11-6 win.

I am very displeased by the back-to-back losses, as expected being that I’m a Tigers fan, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t even more angry because they have come against the Yankees. Though the team was able to come back, I had a bad feeling about the game as early as the first inning. It was during that inning that the first three batters got on against the Aaron Small and the Tigers managed ZERO runs! You simply have to convert that opportunity for at least one run and get your pitcher a lead. Despite posting three runs in the fifth inning with Pudge’s triple and Magglio Ordonez‘s RBI single, I’m still a bit miffed they weren’t able to have a real big inning considering they had no outs after Ordonez’s at-bat. Instead, it was three straight outs. Then in the 8th inning, they had the bases loaded with no one out and score just one run. That is abysmal and unacceptable for a team that strives to be one the league’s elite. The hitters left 22 men on base (8 left on as a team), which is actually fewer than the Yankees’ 23 and 12, but it was the situations that the Tigers did that cost them this game.

Fernando Rodney‘s control, or lack thereof, almost prevented this game from going to extra innings in the first place. After a walk to Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano grounded into a busted double play that ended up being a fielder’s choice with an error by Rodney that allowed Cano over to second. Bernie Williams was intentionally walked, a move I hate in general though it was at least justified because there were two outs. After reading Baseball Between the Numbers by the guys at Baseball Prospectus, I’ve seen that it is never a good idea to increase the expected runs of a team even to set up a force play. Walking a man to get runners on 1st and 2nd is especially bad if your pitcher throws a wild pitch to the next batter moving those runners to 2nd and 3rd. Not only have you eliminated the edge you aimed to get by walking that batter, but the expected runs for the opposing team goes from 0.457 to 0.661. Then, in an attempt to get me to throw my monitor out the window Rodney threw another wild pitch, but Pudge chased it down and threw a BB to Rodney to nail Cano at home. Upon further review, it was an excellent call by homeplate umpire, Tim Tschida.

Even with that great escape and the comeback to force it into extras, the Tigers were still dropped for their third straight loss. In terms of the big picture, they remain a game and a half ahead of the Chicago White Sox as they were dumped by the Indians, 4-3. On a smaller scale, the Tigers have started off a huge 13-game stretch down 0-2 to the New York Yankees and I don’t like the possible effects it could have on their confidence if they don’t grab the final two wins of this series. Not an easy task with Mike Mussina (6-1, 2.72 ERA, 5.4 K:BB) on the hill tomorrow against Nate Robertson (5-2, 3.02 ERA, 1.7 K:BB).

By the way, I’ve dubbed the nine games after the Yankees series as the All American Stretch. I realize it contains three against the Toronto Blue Jays, but it is against the Red Sox, the White Sox, and the Blue Jays in that order.

I know just two days ago, I said Brandon Inge wouldn’t hold his huge home run pace. Maybe he took exception that assertion as he raised the pace a bit to 38 with his 11th home run. His two-run homer against Kansas City tonight has the Tigers up 3-0 through five right now.

I don’t have much today, despite the big comeback win. I went to the bar to watch the Pistons lose game one and missed the entire Tigers game. Even at 4-0, which I saw on the ESPN scroll, I was sure the team could come back and sure enough they did. I’m pretty tired so I’ll leave on this note. Here is why the Hold statistic is a joke:

Pitcher-Ambiorix Burgos (H,1)
IP 2.1
H 2
R 2
ER 2
BB 1
SO 3

That performance should be labeled (S, 15) for Burgos’ 15th Suck of the season.

The WPC from last night:

In his last game, a heavyweight match against Johan Santana, rookie starting pitcher Justin Verlander failed to strikeout a batter, but allowed six hits and walk no one in the 2-0 win. Tonight, he one-upped himself against the Kansas City Royals throwing a complete game shutout striking out seven and yielding just five hits and one walk in the 8-0 win. He dropped his earned run average to a miniscule 2.70 and raised his K:BB ratio to 2.3 (34:15) notching his sixth win against three losses. Say what you will about the quality of competition (or lack thereof), but a complete game shutout as a rookie in the majors is a feat no matter who it is against.

Verlander was backed nicely by his offense as they jumped all over Jeremy Affeldt, scoring five in the second and three more in the fifth. Everyone had at least one hit while Magglio Ordonez and Omar Infante each had three. Brandon Inge clubbed his 10th home run raising his pace to 37 for the season. There is almost no way he’ll reach that lofty mark, but you cannot say enough for far he has come as a major league player.

Year AB AVG OBP SLG
2001 189 .180 .215 .238
2002 321 .202 .266 .333
2003 330 .203 .265 .339
2004 408 .287 .340 .453
2005 616 .261 .330 .419
2006 130 .223 .299 .492

His on-base percentage and average thus far in 2006 leave plenty to be desired, but he has made the most of his hits with 17 extra-base hits. He isn’t great, but after his 2001-2003 seasons, I pegged him as one of the worst players in all of the major leagues. Now, at age 29 he is a solid if unspectacular everyday player capable sustained periods of big offense.

I won’t rain on Verlander’s parade by pointing out the utter incompetence of the Royals. We all know about it, but if it were easy to dominate even the worst teams then we would routinely see no hitters and complete game shutouts against them, but we don’t meaning it is always an accomplishment. There were 63 CGShOs in 2005 and the league is on pace almost the same amount in 2006. I’ll post the WPC tomorrow morning when it becomes available, though I doubt it shows any significant variance over the course of the game.

Detroit Getting Pub Elsewhere
At this point, there isn’t really anyone who hasn’t noticed what the Tigers are doing through 44 games and many sites and media outlets have addressed it. The folks over at Hardball Times.com are the latest as Tigerblog.net writer Brian Borawski put together a piece examining the Tigers huge start. In keeping with the HBT theme, Mr. Borawski does a fine job with the breakdown.

I can’t help but feel culpable for tonight’s loss to the Cincinnati Reds, 9-4, snapping a seven game winning streak. I spent the evening at a restaurant watching the Detroit Pistons force a game seven on Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers all the while text messaging my sister for updates on the Tigers since she could flip between back in Detroit. As I lamented the early deficit the Tigers found themselves in to my sister, she told me I had to choose between the Pistons winning a do-or-die game or allowing the Tigers to extend their streak to eight. I sacrificed the opener in the Interleague series to push the Cavs series to the hilt. Sorry everyone! The Pistons held on 84-82 and come back to Detroit for the series finale. I am a loyal fan of all the Detroit teams in all four major sports, with the Tigers and Lions pulling rank ahead of the Pistons and Red Wings, but tonight was the season for the Pistons so I had pull them through.

Back to the Tigers and sadly, the streak was bound to end. It is very nice to put these stretches together, but they cannot last forever. The Reds are considered Detroit’s geographical rival for Interleague play and thus they are matched up frequently. In four season series since Interleague play began in 1997, the Tigers have split with the Reds at six games apiece while being outscored 57-53. This season’s series is the first that actually holds any significance with each team out to the most surprising start in their respective leagues. Detroit, after today’s loss, are tied for the best record in baseball at 27-14, while Cincinnati is two games back of the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central at 25-17.

Starter Jeremy Bonderman last just three innings allowing seven runs on six hits and three walks while striking out only three. Contrary to his career-trend, Bonderman has found himself in trouble during the middle innings while plowing through the first three with relative ease (as compared against his career numbers) in 2006. Tonight, he had a mix of his past with the present allowing two runs in the 2nd and six in the 4th. This season, pitches 46-60 have been Bonderman’s tightest spot. Prior to tonight, he has allowed hitters a .313/.389/.375 line during those pitches and that was no doubt worsened as he lasted just 66 pitches against the Reds. The jams he was constantly putting himself in during those pitches finally caught up to him tonight. He had only allowed two runs despite that line while allowing 14 runs on pitches 1-45, but the Reds punished him for putting runners on this time around.

Placido Polanco‘s bat is coming alive of late with nine hits in the last six games as he teamed with Ivan Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez to go 7-for-14, but it was not enough. Leadoff man Curtis Granderson was kept off base in five tries and Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge were each saddled with 0-for-4 nights leaving on four base runners apiece. Marcus Thames rapped his 6th home run in 53 at-bats giving him one per 8.8 at-bats and one per 9.7 plate appearances. With Dmitri Young‘s hitting woes and now potential off-the-field problems, Thames could a pile of well deserved at-bats in the coming weeks. I’d rather see better circumstances under which Thames would get time, but it is a silver lining to the situation.

Roman Colon failed to offer substantial long relief in Bonderman’s short outing as the team continues to search for that effective mop-up guy. Colon put on six in three and two-thirds allowing two runs and striking out three. It was only his second outing of the season, so he is likely to get a few more shots at being that guy, but tonight he was not able to squelch the fire started by Bonderman. He allowed 2.2 HR/9 last year in 69 1/3 innings between Atlanta and Detroit last year, and picked up where he left off tonight giving up Adam Dunn‘s 14th home run of the season.

Tomorrow, Mike Maroth (5-2, 2.18 ERA, 1.2 K:BB) is scheduled to face Eric Milton (2-1, 6.50 ERA, 2.6 K:BB) with first pitch set for 7:05 PM Eastern at Comerica Park. With a Pistons off-day, I’ll have all my force behind a Tigers victory and on Sunday, I think the Pistons can pull through on their own, but I might have to split the love between the two.

DE-TROIT BASKET-BALL!