July 22, 2009

Wednesday Walewanders

By Mike McClary in Featured, Wednesday Walewanders | 4 comments

spaghetti.jpgIn our recent Fungo Pulse Check, readers said — barely — that they prefer the Tigers go after Toronto’s Roy Halladay (38 percent, 10 votes) over Oakland slugger Matt Holliday (27 percent, 7 votes).

Interestingly enough, almost as many votes came in for “Neither” (35 percent, 9 votes) as votes for Halladay. Personally, I’d like to see Rockies’ rightfielder Brad Hawpe in a Tigers uniform but with the Rockies hanging around the N.L. Wild Card race he’s going nowhere.

The Tigers should go after the A’s Holliday but only if they can sign him to a reasonable extension — if for no other reason than to see what a “reasonable extension” looks like from the Tigers.

In other news…

  • With Joel Zumaya back on the shelf, don’t the Tigers have to at least consider making him a starter? If we’ve learned nothing else, we now see that he’s not built for the late-innings role but might excel in the rotation — think “marathon versus sprint.” Also, if the Tigers have a young Ryan Perry waiting in the wings, why not try to extend Zumaya’s career? What do you think? Take our latest poll –>

  • Great to see Magglio Ordonez go yard with a grand slam last night. Still, it was an off-speed pitch. No chance he gets around on a Joe Nathan fastball, though.

  • A report here in the Arizona Republic says the preliminary Interleague schedule for next season has the Diamondbacks visiting the Tigers. Enough with the Interleague already.

  • On this date in 2005 the Tigers acquired infielder John McDonald for a player to be named later. If you recall, that player was John McDonald.

Finally, in case you were wondering, 25 years ago the Tigers were 66-29 and had a nine-game lead over Toronto in the American League East. On July 22, 1984, the Tigers beat the Rangers 2-0 at Tiger Stadium behind Dan Petry’s 8-2/3 innings of four-hit ball. Sparky lifted him with two outs in the ninth with lefty Pete O’Brien coming to the plate with the tying run on base. Willie Hernandez came in and got O’Brien to pop out on the first pitch. (And the game lasted only two hours, 11 minutes. Imagine.)

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4 Comment(s)

  1. Big Al | Jul 22, 2009 | Reply

    I said as much about Zumaya becoming a starting pitcher on Monday’s Knee Jerk podcast. He started off as a starter in the Detroit system, so it’s not as if it’s foreign to Zoom. It’s funny saying he could save his career by pitching longer stints, but using the marathon vs. sprint analogy is right on the money.

    Save Zumaya from himself by stretching him out in the rotation. It’s worth a shot, as it’s becoming obvious relief is too strenuous on his arm, which is confirmed via the continued trips to the DL).

  2. Kurt | Jul 22, 2009 | Reply

    I went with no future. He’s just so injury prone. Get a little contribution here, a little contribution there, and you’re happy. Other than the last month anyway.

  3. Doug | Jul 22, 2009 | Reply

    I’d like to point out I was on board with Zoom as a starter back in 2007. His rookie year in the pen was a bonus, but for every Papelbon there’s a half-doze Zumaya’s and Chamberlain’s out there who can’t handle the stress (mental and physical) of being ready to throw every day.

  4. Mike McClary | Jul 23, 2009 | Reply

    I can attest for Doug’s out-in-frontness on this topic.

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