Ring Around the Roster + No One Wants to Fact Check

I don't know about you, but it seems to me like the past couple of months leading up to the start of the season have flown by. I think this may have been due to a combination of having all my enthusiasm extinguished for a period of about three weeks followed by it mostly coming back, followed by actually going to Lakeland. Anyways, with barely over a week until the season starts, the roster is starting to take shape as the Tigers announced a flurry of cuts yesterday, some surprising, some not. Max St. Pierre is not surprising at all, obviously. Fu Te Ni isn't all that surprising, even though he'd been having a decent spring, because he's not on the 40-man roster and there's enough other lefties pitching well. Clete Thomas had also been having a decent spring, but with all the other outfielders also doing well, he kind of got lost in the mix, and apparently he was granted an additional minor-league option because he was hurt most of last year. There's a lot of surprise about Robbie Weinhardt being sent down, and I have to say that I'm one of them. So if you're assuming that there will be seven guys in the bullpen (plus Phil Coke at the beginning of the season), we know that four spots are taken: Jose Valverde, Joaquin Benoit, Ryan Perry, and Brad Thomas (Sorry, I know most of you aren't exactly enamored with him, but he would've had to have a complete meltdown of a spring to not make the team). And barring an implosion or injury, it looks like Daniel Schlereth's chances of making it into the bullpen are real good. That leaves two spots and three pitchers competing for them: Brayan Villarreal, Adam Wilk, and Enrique Gonzalez. All three of them are starters in the minor leagues, so any of them could fill that long relief role. As I've said before, my preference is for Villarreal to go to Toledo because I find his starting potential to be interesting, but I haven't actually seen him pitch yet and I'd love to have the chance to evaluate him before most of the rest of you guys see him. However, both Wilk and Gonzalez are non-roster invitees, so bringing either them north means someone else gets taken off the 40-man roster, and I'm not sure the Tigers want to ax two guys. The other possibility that's been floated around is that the Tigers will start the season with an 11-man pitching staff since they won't need five starters until the first homestand and so Phil Coke will start the season in the bullpen. That way, they can carry an extra position player until Coke's first start, at which time the position player can be sent down and another reliever (likely Weinhardt) will be brought up. I have no idea if they'll actually do this, but it makes sense if they decide to. And speaking of the position players, we have a winner in the second base competition. Congratulations to Will Rhymes. I have to admit that he's the one I was rooting for. I know Scott Sizemore theoretically has a higher ceiling, but he's yet to prove that in the majors (I'm sure he will once he's given the opportunity, but that doesn't have to be now). Mostly I prefer Rhymes because of the type of hitter that he is. The Tigers already have a bunch of power guys that bash the ball all over the ballpark. Rhymes has sort of that prototypical #2 hitter characteristic going for him. He's a left-handed contact hitter who has good speed and at the very least can move Austin Jackson along to be knocked in by the big bats behind him. And if it doesn't work, well, it's not like there's a shortage of second basemen on this team. At that point you can call Sizemore up and give him a shot (I'm leaving Guillen out of the conversation until there's an actual sign that he's close to returning, since he's got to be the slowest healer ever).

While we're talking about guys on the roster, I'll take a brief look at how our five starters are doing (and I mean "brief"). The only one who hasn't had a hiccup at one point or another is Justin Verlander (no complaints there). I haven't seen him yet (because he pitched the day I arrived in Lakeland and he hasn't been on anyone's TV broadcast yet), but all reports indicate that his stuff looks good. Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello started out strong but more recently they've both wobbled a bit (oddly enough, their wobbles started right around the same time). They were both better in their last outings, although their walk totals were still a little too high (three walks in less than five innings isn't quite the definition of sharp). Phil Coke's outings recently have been a little strange, and I guess his are the most easily questioned since he is the one making the transition to starter. However, I noticed firsthand in Lakeland that if he gets hit around early, he is capable of making adjustments, which is a quality you need in a starting pitcher, so I'm actually feeling better about him than I once was. Brad Penny was the starter on Fox Sports Detroit's broadcast yesterday, and I may have issues this season. And this may turn out to not even be related to effectiveness or who I'd rather see in his place. Penny is SLOW. I mean glacier slow. He makes Rafael Betancourt look like a speed demon. On the bright side, if I happen to work on a night where Penny is pitching, I'll know that I'll have a good chance of catching at least four innings when I get home.

Maybe it's the fact that spring training is winding down and writers are getting tired of all those preview-type stories they have to write, but I've been noticing a lot of silly mistakes recently. However, none have been as bad as SBN Cleveland's Tigers preview. Now, as far as SBN is concerned, I mostly hang around Bless You Boys (and the writing is terrific there), but from the little bit of the other sites I've seen, the writers have generally been fair-minded and accurate. I've never looked at any of the Cleveland teams, however, and I hope this is a fluke, because otherwise it speaks very badly of their writers. In this article, they make their case that the Tigers might not be the contenders most people think they are because there are a lot of holes. I don't mind the fact that they're criticizing the Tigers. After all, I think the Tigers are a good team that certainly should contend but I also see potential for a repeat of 2008. What I take issue with is that SBN Cleveland has gotten an amazing number of things just flat-out wrong. First of all, they describe Miguel Cabrera as a "part-time" first baseman. Since when? Cabrera made 148 starts at first base last year and only two as DH. That doesn't sound very "part-time" to me. Second, they consistently use the plural word "basemen" when they're only talking about one person. Along the same line, Jhonny Peralta played for the Indians for many years, and yet they still spelled his name wrong (technically, you could make the argument that they actually spelled it correctly, but you know what I mean). They seemed to have missed the memo that Phil Coke is now a starter because they say the Tigers have a "fifth starter by committee" (Granted, there's the possibility that may happen, but not right away). And the discussion of contracts is also screwy. They say Brad Penny is on a $7.5 million contract, when in reality it's $3 million guaranteed plus $3 million in incentives. That $7.5 million contract was with the Cardinals last year. Then they discuss Magglio Ordoñez and how he "almost made 18 million last year even though he hasn't played a full season since 2008." First of all, Magglio's option for 2011 was $15 million not $18 million. Second, it was a vesting option. If he'd played the entire season, there wouldn't have been a choice in the matter. This article makes it sound like Magglio was asking for $18 million in a new contract for this year, which makes no sense. Now, one mistake or even two is okay. Goodness knows I've done that before. However, I counted at least six and possibly more, and these six points make up the bulk of their argument. Messing up that many times really hurts your credibility. The Tigers have a lot of holes? Maybe, but they don't have as many as this article does. I suppose I should just be glad that they didn't bring up Cabrera's DUI arrest.


Lost Boys Update: I wasn't going to update on Pudge and Armando so soon, but there have been developments since the last post and in the case of Galarraga, it ties in nicely with my complaints in the previous paragraph. It appears that Venezuelan writers are not immune to not fact-checking, although this time it's mostly made me confused. The Venezuelan newspaper Lider reported this morning that Galarraga had lost the battle for the fifth starter spot to Barry Enright and that the Diamondbacks were trying to decide what to do with him. The problem with this statement is that the Diamondbacks have more than one rotation spot open. According to MLB.com, there's still at least one spot still open, possibly two (since Kirk Gibson will not guarantee Joe Saunders a spot just yet), so he's still in a battle with Aaron Heilman, presumably (I did see where Heilman's spring ERA is almost six, so it's not as if he's doing all that stellar, either). However, this may not be just a simple case of lack of fact-checking, because Cesar Marquez, who wrote the article, tweeted a quote from Armando that basically translates to "I want to remain a starter, but I'm a professional and it's up to me to work hard to return to the rotation." Note that he specifically said "return" and not "stay" or "remain" (and I know I'm translating the word "volver" correctly as "to return"). He seems to think he's on the outside looking in. The way his spring has gone, I can understand why. Actually, his last couple outings have been really strange. He'll start an inning by giving up a bunch of runs and then he'll retire, like, the next eight hitters in a row or something. From what I've read, it sounds like he's still battling the confidence issue. They say that his stuff looks really good, but he's got to get it into the strike zone more often. Meanwhile, the Nationals apparently want Wilson Ramos to be the starting catcher, so they tried to trade Pudge to the Red Sox but the Red Sox weren't interested. Hey, I have no strong feeling toward the Nationals either way, so if they don't want Pudge as the starter, then I'm all for trading him to a team that wants him to be the starting catcher (so long as that team isn't the Red Sox, any AL Central team that isn't Detroit, or a team where 7 is retired or in use by a top-line player, because seeing him in 12 or 77 just seems wrong). I just find it annoying that both these guys are fighting for their starting lives. By the way, I will NOT be giving daily updates on these two during the season. I may bring them up on a slow news day or an off-day or if I really need to post something, but it's not going to be a regular occurrence.

A Scattering of Thoughts

It goes without saying that I wish I was still in Florida. Lakeland was wonderful and right now I'm back into the grind of school and work (and it doesn't help that at least two of my friends are in Lakeland right now). I'm not sure when I'll get to my first regular-season Tigers game. I know I'll be going to games on July 16th and August 20th, and if all goes well I'll be attending their four games in Oakland in September, but I'm holding out hope for more than that. At any rate, I don't really have anything concrete to discuss (since I really don't find the battles for the final spots in the bullpen and on the bench to be all that interesting), but it's been a week since I've posted, so I have to say something. Hence, you get this.

It's occurred to me in the last few days just how thoroughly uninteresting most of the Tigers' starting pitchers are (regardless of their level). Now, by that statement I do not mean I don't think they're good pitchers, but watching them pitch (or listening on the radio) is not very exciting (Verlander is awesome, but he's really the only one that I enjoy a lot; I enjoy Rick Porcello a little bit, but Max Scherzer and Phil Coke are only marginally interesting and the most positive thing I ever feel about Brad Penny is complete apathy, and that's when I'm in a good mood). I've gone through the past three years with two starting pitchers that I've gotten passionately excited about and really enjoyed watching. Now that I'm down to one, I'm realizing that I just don't go for pitchers all that often. However, I did notice a trend. The starting pitchers that I have developed some level of interest in (not necessarily Tiger pitchers) have all thrown no-hitters. But what's weird is that in every case except one, I got interested in them BEFORE they threw their no-hitter (the lone exception is Anibal Sanchez, who threw his in 2006, before I really got into baseball). And you should know very well by now that I don't necessarily develop interest in pitchers with traditional "no-hit stuff." Right now, there is one Tigers starting pitcher prospect that I'm intrigued by, and that's Brayan Villarreal. I wonder what that means for him (I know there's talk of moving him to the bullpen because he's theoretically blocked by Jacob Turner and Andy Oliver, but I really hope they don't do that; the starting corps in the minors could use a spark like him).

Is there a reason why Jon Heyman has a personal vendetta against Miguel Cabrera? He seems to have gotten tired of making unfunny drunk jokes about him on Twitter and has moved on to making unfunny fat jokes on Twitter (and they don't need to be justified by linking to them). He quoted Dave Dombrowski expressing confidence that Cabrera will be at the weight he needs to be at once the season starts, but then pointed out that he didn't say what Cabrera's weight is, as if to discredit him. First of all, Cabrera himself said he was at about 270 pounds when he arrived in Lakeland (though I think he was exaggerating a little). Second, I did see a couple pictures of him during the offseason where he looked kind of big, but he wears really baggy street clothes (which'll make anyone with a large build look even bigger) and for the past couple months, he's been working out intensely with a personal trainer in Florida (I've talked to him several times on Twitter; he's also been working with Magglio Ordoñez and Alex Avila). The extra weight is almost entirely muscle. Third (and most importantly), I've seen him up close and in person. He looks fine. If there's anyone on the team who looks like they've put on weight, it's Brad Thomas, of all people.

If all you want to hear about is Tigers stuff, you can stop here. I won't be offended, but I guess I'll give an update on the two of my Magnificent Six who are no longer with the Tigers (Pudge Rodriguez and Armando Galarraga). Pudge started off the spring pretty hot, but he's fallen off quite a bit. Last I checked he was hitting .238 with two RBIs, and in the last couple years, his bat hasn't been what it used to be (although he did have a good first half last year, which was wiped out by a terrible second half). However, his defense is as strong as ever and catching prospect Wilson Ramos isn't hitting that much better (.250 with one RBI). Pudge has been battling a minor calf injury for the past couple days. Currently, the Nationals plan to have Pudge begin the season as the starting catcher and then have Ramos take over after the All-Star Break (this is leading to speculation that Pudge could be a trade deadline candidate). However, there is speculation that Ramos could take over sooner than that if he gets off to a hot start. All I'm going to say is that Pudge is 183 hits away from 3000, I really want him to get to that mark (and I know that's his big goal), it'll probably take him two years as a starter to get there, and it's going to be really hard to do if he's relegated to a backup role. As far as Galarraga is concerned, well, remember when I said that he doesn't pitch well in spring training? That has not changed. I can't bring myself to listen to any radio broadcasts or watch on MLB.tv (I can't even bear to look at a picture of him in another uniform right now), so all I have to go on is Gameday, but it hasn't been pretty. His first spring outing was an exercise in lack of control (according to one of the Venezuelan writers). The second was against Texas and was probably the best one so far (featuring strikeouts of Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz). The third was last Saturday against the White Sox and was a complete disaster (In three innings he gave up seven hits, six of which went for extra bases). His last outing was Tuesday and was kind of a roller coaster. His first inning of work was terrible, giving up three runs (two of which came on a home run by Aubrey Huff). However, he followed that up with a pair of 1-2-3 innings, including striking out the side in his final inning (he had five strikeouts total, which is really good for him in a three-inning span). The problem is that he's not guaranteed a rotation spot. He's battling with three others for one of two spots (there had been four competing, but Zack Duke broke his hand and will miss 4-6 weeks). I know Barry Enright has pitched well (and I know this because he's been pitching on the same days as Galarraga), but I have no idea how Aaron Heilman is doing. I don't know what the Diamondbacks plan on doing with him if he doesn't make their rotation, but they're starting to get to the point where two competitors won't be able to pitch on the same day, so I imagine a decision may come shortly after the next outing.

Lakeland Day 2: Nationals vs. Astros (AKA Road Trip to Viera)

I won't lie; the drive from Lakeland to Viera is long and actually pretty boring, except when you're going through the part of I-4 where all the Disney World exits are. At that point it becomes downright chaotic. But at any rate, this was the first baseball game I've ever been to that wasn't Tigers or Mud Hens. Of course, it was entirely because I wanted to see Pudge, which I got to do. I didn't get his autograph, but for once, my shyness had nothing to do with it. It was actually due to a combination of a high school glee club that was singing the national anthem and me being in the wrong place. Can't do anything about that (and I JUST missed getting Steven Strasberg's autograph; the coaches made him leave before he got to me). However, my seat was at just about the perfect vantage point for me to watch him (and I was close enough to the dugout that I could hear him laughing at one point; if you've ever heard Pudge laugh, you'll know it's rather distinctive). There are only three downsides: 1) He didn't get a hit, 2) He was only in the game for six innings (which I expected, being spring training and all), and 3) My camera kept auto-focusing on the screen behind home plate instead of the players, so I was constantly battling blurriness. Still, I managed to get a TON of fairly decent pictures of him (and by "ton," I mean bordering on stalker-quantity). I've put the best ones on Facebook, along with the pictures of the other players. And now for some additional notes:

• There was at least one other Tigers fan there, as I saw a guy wearing an Austin Jackson t-shirt. There were also a few Cubs and Reds fans there. 
• This game took FOREVER. I mean, the final score was 14-9 in favor of the home team, and the Nationals scored nine runs in the 8th inning (all with two out), but it was dragging even before then thanks to a lot of hits, walks, deep counts, and long at-bats. 
• At one point, Pudge jogged out to talk to whichever Nationals pitcher was on the mound (he made a LOT of those mound visits in this game), as he was walking back to the plate, the stadium people played an airplane sound effect. That didn't really make sense (I know it's Space Coast Stadium, but it still doesn't make sense).
•  Nationals fans seem rather unsatisfied with Jayson Werth. They cheered for him enthusiastically when his name was announced in the lineup, but after that, whenever he batted, there was a lot of complaining and booing going on. The fact that he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts didn't help matters. I checked the boxscore, and he IS hitting only .077 so far, but it's only spring training. I mean, closer to home, the Tigers middle of the order is hardly setting the world on fire right now, but I'm not worried about them, and most of the fans in Lakeland don't seem to be worried either. 
• Speaking of Jayson Werth, at one point he fouled a pitch straight off the umpire's chest and the umpire didn't even flinch. 
• Unlike in Lakeland, the Space Coast Stadium grounds crew does NOT dance. 
• I also got to see former Mud Hen (with a very brief Tiger cameo mixed in) Jeff Frazier, whom I've met before. He had a nice day with a single and a walk. At one point, though, he nearly took out his third base coach on two consecutive foul balls. 
• Nationals pitcher Garrett Mock began the fifth inning by giving up a hit-by-pitch, a walk, and a three-run homer before getting pulled. As Jim Riggleman was heading to the mound to make the pitching change, an old lady that was sitting near me shouted, "Leave him in! He needs the practice."
• I was sitting about three rows behind the Nationals dugout. During the middle of the game, one of the vendors stopped at the stairway closest to me and gave the familiar "Ice cold beer" shout that you hear at every baseball game. A guy from over near the Astros dugout shouted something, and somehow everyone on the first base side could hear him. The vendor yelled out, "Is somebody dying out there?" to which the guy replied "I'm dying over here!" Apparently there was only one beer vendor in the entire stadium? At any rate, the vendor shouted, "I'll be with you soon, sir." The guy (politely) yelled back "Take your time." The vendor's response? "I won't take as long as this game is." That got laughs and applause from just about the entire stadium. I think even a couple of the players (including Pudge) smiled at that.
• When we sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Comerica Park, we sing "root, root, root for the Tigers." At Fifth Third Field, we "root, root, root for the Mud Hens." I always wondered how it got sung if the home team was more than two syllables. Well, as far as Washington is concerned, they just try to condense "Nationals" into that line as best they can.
• I really wanted to see Pudge throw someone out, but the only time a runner took off (and it wasn't a hit-and-run) was when there were runners at the corners and he held onto the ball to make sure the runner at third didn't take off for home. This was the correct move, because the runner sure did look like he was going to try and score. 
• And yes, I did get to see the phenom Bryce Harper. He hit two doubles during the nine-run eighth.
• Finally, I'd just like to point out that I am loving the above picture. That is quite possibly the best picture that I have gotten of any player ever. Anyways, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow it's back to Joker Marchant Stadium to see the Tigers play the Marlins.

Sweep Times Two

Photo: Getty Images

I couldn’t find a really funny picture for this one, so I’ll just give you the postgame high fives. Apparently Jeremy Bonderman’s day began with some really loud outs, although at the time I did not know this, since Gameday’s description of “Ryan Zimmerman flies out to center fielder Don Kelly” doesn’t tell you a whole lot beyond that. Luckily, class ended early and I was able to listen to or watch most of this game, and by then Bonderman had made an adjustment and settled in. Tigers pitching sure did rack up a lot of strikeouts in this series. And Valverde got a bit of a break, so I’m guessing he should be fresh and ready to go tonight if he’s needed.

It was a good day for just about everyone in the Tigers lineup. Every starter except Don Kelly got multiple hits. For the first time on the homestand, no one hit a home run, but they didn’t really need to. Two Tigers hit doubles right to the wall. One was Alex Avila who drove in two, and the other was Miguel Cabrera, who added to his league-leading RBI total with three on the day (which is good, because Vladimir Guerrero was starting to catch up again). And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Ramon Santiago, who had himself a 4-hit game.

And so this has been a very good homestand so far. Next up: The last-place Diamondbacks with a slew of former Tigers. This has the makings of one very awkward series, especially considering that tonight’s matchup essentially features the guy the Tigers cut loose against the man who replaced him. You didn’t think we’d see Dontrelle Willis again so soon, did you? Since departing for Arizona, he’s made two starts for them. In the first, he pitched quite well, throwing six shutout innings. In the second, he gave up two runs in four innings and walked six (also had two wild pitches and two balks). Do I even need to tell you what the game plan should be? A word of caution, though: Those of you who have watched all season know that Dontrelle has been quite good at getting himself out of trouble, usually in the form of a key double play. There’s no reason to think that won’t continue (It has to stop sometime because allowing that many baserunners will catch up to you eventually, but it hasn’t yet). And there actually are a few Tigers with history against him (Johnny Damon, Carlos Guillen, and Brandon Inge), but it’s been several years. Meanwhile, since replacing Willis in the rotation, Armando Galarraga has pitched three really good games, but has only come away with one win (no points for guessing which one that was). The Tigers have won all three of those games, but for the most part they have taken the lead very late in those games (This is a very plausible scenario for tonight because the Diamondbacks’ bullpen has been awful this year). He faced the D’Backs once before, back in 2008. He got the win and gave up only one hit, but he walked five in that game (That was a very strange game for all sorts of different reasons. That was the infamous sock rally game, Galarraga drew a walk when he was at the plate and actually scored the first run for the Tigers, Pudge made one of the most heads-up defensive plays I have ever seen late in the game, and the starting pitcher for Arizona that night was Max Scherzer). The only current Diamondback with a hit against him is Adam LaRoche, who is 2-2, but as I said, several of the others have at least one walk. One thing to watch for is that with the lefty starting for Arizona, Gerald Laird will likely be behind the plate tonight. He has only caught Galarraga once this year, and it was the one bad start against the Dodgers. Now, I’m a firm believer that both catchers should be able to catch all the pitchers, but Galarraga and Avila have had a nice rhythm going during these past three starts (and even last year, Avila seemed slightly better at keeping Armando focused and not overthinking). Still, I don’t mean that as a knock on Laird, and I would hope the two work just as well together. It’s just something to look out for. But you’ll have to do the looking out because I’ll be at work.

The Cure for What Ails You?

Photo: Detroit News

Yeah, I had a nice, AP photo all set to go, but this one was too funny not to use. I missed most of this game due to work, so forgive the really superficial analysis. Justin Verlander continued his dominance of the National League, and finally got himself a double-digit strikeout game in the process. He also gave up a couple of very long home runs (although I’d like to point out that Alex Avila’s home run on Sunday went into the shrubbery and stayed there, while Adam Dunn’s merely bounced off the shrubbery). But Verlander settled in and he says his curveball was working real well. I won’t argue with that. He also gave up an RBI single to Pudge (which would’ve caused more internal conflict if I had seen it; and as an aside, I’ll spare you the fashion police rant), though I don’t appreciate FS Detroit repeatedly showing footage of him striking out (Seriously, Verlander had 11 strikeouts and Pudge only struck out once. Show someone else). And the Tigers honored my wish of scoring enough runs to give Valverde a night off, so Enrique Gonzalez wrapped things up for the Tigers. I can’t give much of an assessment of him, but he did retire the side in order.

It’s a testament to the kind of year you’ve been having when you give up eight earned runs and your ERA only goes up to 2.95. Maybe Livan Hernandez was simply wild, or maybe he had a game plan that blew up in his face. Having Gerald Laird in the lineup against the righty paid off, because he hit a two-run single that gave the Tigers the lead for good. Brennan Boesch was the big contributor of the night. I was in the car when he hit his home run, so I settled for the replay, but that was a bomb. And I have no idea why Livan Hernandez was left out there long enough to give up eight earned runs, but that’s not my problem.

If you have some spare time (and I know you do), I’d recommend checking out the transcript from Armando Galarraga’s online chat yesterday. There’s some real interesting tidbits in there (as well as Galarraga flashing his sense of humor). Some of the questions/answers were in Spanish during the live chat and have since been translated (If you want to view the original Spanish, click here). And oh, by the way, I make a brief cameo in that transcript.

The Tigers will go for the sweep in today’s day game. Jeremy Bonderman pitched well in his last start but came away with a no-decision as it took until the tenth inning for the Tigers to win that game. He has faced the Nationals before, back in 2007 in what was eventually an 8-4 Tigers victory. The two current Nationals who have hit him well are Adam Kennedy (.364) and Cristian Guzman (.385). And because I’ve highlighted him in my other two game previews in this series, I will mention that Pudge has never faced Bonderman (although with it being a day game after a night game, I doubt Pudge will be in the lineup). The Nationals will start rookie Luis Atilano. I don’t really know that much about him. His starts have all been either really good or really bad with not a whole lot in between. In his last start, he gave up six runs to the Indians, but only three were earned. Being a rookie, he has never faced the Tigers before, and none of the Tigers have ever seen him. Leyland has already said that Austin Jackson will not be in the lineup today, so I’d imagine we’ll see either Don Kelly or Ryan Raburn in the leadoff slot. Johnny Damon will also get the day off, supposedly. And I’d imagine that Alex Avila will catch (although in his limited sampling, Atilano has been better against lefties than righties).  

Hello Again, Old Friend

Photo: AP

Here we have conclusive evidence that Pudge Rodriguez should NOT stand next to Miguel Cabrera. Seriously, that looks Photoshopped. Could there be a bigger contrast in height? (I have been told by those who have met Cabrera that you don’t realize just how huge he is until you stand next to him). At any rate, it was real nice to see Pudge again (and I was thrilled that the public address announcer still calls him “Pudge” even though he’s now a visiting player), and he got a real nice reception from the crowd. And I can’t say I’m really that disappointed that he got a single. Perhaps it’s not so great that it drove in a run, but that’s only because Adam Dunn was standing on third. At any rate, Max Scherzer pitched a decent game. It looked to me like he was fighting the command of his fastball (both in terms of not throwing it for strikes and giving up 0-2 hits), but his slider and changeup were working really well, as he got several swings and misses on those pitches, plus they allowed him to throw fastballs for called third strikes in areas where he normally might not get away with them. The bullpen did a terrific job, although Jose Valverde made things a little nervous in the ninth with a hit batter and a walk. I wonder if he might be tired, because he’s now pitched in the last four games (with an off-day mixed in). It’d be nice for him if the Tigers could score lots of runs tonight, enough to make it a non-save situation.

As expected, there was a lot of complaining about having Ryan Raburn in the leadoff slot, but it paid off, because he had two hits and four RBIs. Basically, he was the difference in the game. It was also good to see Magglio back in the lineup, and he responded by getting four hits (important since the Nationals have decided that Miguel Cabrera is getting nothing to hit in this series). The other offensive leader of the day? Gerald Laird, who finally shook off his bad luck for at least his first three at-bats and got three hits. He could easily have had four, but had to settle for a lineout to center instead. As an aside, I’d like to mention that the production truck was one big pile of fail last night. There were at least two shots where the camera was out of focus, there was an unnecessary lingering shot of the Nationals’ dugout, and several lower thirds and graphics were displayed at the wrong time.

The series continues tonight with Justin Verlander on the mound. Verlander beat the Pirates in his last start despite the fact that his fastball was “horrible” (his words, not mine). He’s never faced the Nationals before, but he does have some history against a few of their hitters, one of whom is Pudge (1-4 with a double). The Tigers will face Livan Hernandez, who you could describe as a crafty righty. Jim Leyland says he one of the smartest pitchers in baseball, and I’ve already said how to defeat smart guys. The Tigers last saw him in 2008, where they got a lot of baserunners against him but not much in the way of runs, and you got the sense that Hernandez was firmly in control the entire time. Miguel Cabrera has a whopping FIFTY-SEVEN plate appearances against him (I didn’t even know that many were possible). He’s 14-53 with 5 doubles, a home run, 10 RBIs, and 12 strikeouts, so it’s not like he owns him. Some of the other Tigers have faced him before as well, but Johnny Damon is the only other one with significant history against him (but he’s only 2-13). Gerald Laird is 2-4, and maybe that is why he is in tonight’s lineup (plus the three hits last night couldn’t hurt matters).