The Gist: The Tigers and Twins played a game for the ages and both teams followed the respective scripts of the past three weeks. For the Tigers, that meant squandering countless opportunities and watching a division lead evaporate. For the Twins: everything going their way. Rick Porcello was awesome, Miguel Cabrera showed up for the first part of the game and Fernando Rodney, while taking the loss, pitched almost brilliantly in what was assuredly his last Tigers performance.

The Quote: “No matter what we did, it seems like it wasn’t meant to be. This is the best game, by far, that I’ve ever played in no matter the outcome.” — Brandon Inge

The Stat: 1 – The go-ahead run scored by Don Kelly in the 10th. Oh, how I wish it would’ve held up…for his sake.

Up Next: Spring Training, Lakeland, Fla., February 2010

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Everyone in the media piles on Aubrey Huff (who deserves every bit of the criticism) and to a lesser degree, Brandon Inge, but where’s the scrutiny of Cabrera?

Maybe it’s because he’s hitting .321 over the past seven days?

]]> http://www.dailyfungo.com/2009/10/03/and-one-more-thing/feed/ 0 http://www.dailyfungo.com/2009/10/03/late-night-therapy-session/ http://www.dailyfungo.com/2009/10/03/late-night-therapy-session/#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:15:38 +0000 Mike McClary http://www.dailyfungo.com/?p=2865 Here’s what I can’t figure out. This Tigers club has never, not for a nanosecond, felt to me like a team of destiny. Nor is it the team of which you say “They’re never out of a game”, because, well, we saw plenty of games this summer that they were out of by the second inning.

In spite of this, the Detroit Tigers are tied for first on the final day of the regular season. Here are my semi-rhetorical questions about the current sitch:

1. Are the Tigers poised to disappoint a Twins fandom that will be rocking and rolling at the Hefty Bag on Sunday — each and every rooter salivating at the chance of sending off that ramshackle disgrace with a postseason run?

   Or…

2. Is it the Twins that are the blessed ones, ending a 27-year run at the Dome with a championship of one sort or another?

   Or…

3. Will the teams be tied after Sunday giving the Tigers a chance to go to Minnesota and make amends for the Don Kelly Game and stick the Twins with a final HomerDome shiv of disappointment?

What do you think? Help me out here.

The Score: White Sox 8 – Tigers 4

The Gist: Curtis Granderson hit the second pitch of the game out of the park and…game over. Edwin Jackson got his usual pittance of support but unlike most of the year he allowed quite a few runs himself. Then the offense went back to sleep, apparently assuming that some of the 20 hits from Saturday night could be used kind of like, I don’t know, rollover minutes.

The View: As Ian says, nothing’s been easy all year for this Tigers team, so why start now? Still, I mean, you know, it’s just, couldn’t they…ah, forget it.

The Quote: “Today was pretty much our offense, which has been mind-boggling.” – Jim Leyland

The Stat: 2 – The number of Brandon Inge errors in this series.

Magic Number: 6

Up Next: Twins @ Tigers

Rick Porcello (14-9, 4.14 ERA) vs. Nick Blackburn (11-11, 4.18)

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Not so fast, methinks.

I’m not sure what the Tigers’ backup plans are at third base next season, but I certainly would rather have Polanco sign for another year and use him as a part-time third baseman to spell Brandon Inge and a part-timer at second, to serve as a mentor for the Sizemore.

Taking the long view for once and tapping into Polanco’s know-how as a player/coach might make sense for Detroit.

What do you think?

1. Somewhere on the vast Internet I saw a reader comment that the Tigers should fire hitting coach Lloyd McClendon. The thinking was that outside of Brandon Inge, Lloyd the Legend hasn’t developed anyone for Detroit. I’m always hesitant to fire coaches because so little is in their control. (Besides, remember how Chuck Hernandez was the Second Coming in 2006 and today he’s the Indians’ bullpen coach?)

   Anyway, how can McClendon be blamed for an offense that manages to get runners in scoring position but fail (and fail and fail) to drive them home? Take, for example, this instance in last night’s dreadful game: Miguel Cabrera up with the bases loaded and a 3-0 count…and he ends up striking out to end the inning. Is that Lloyd’s fault?

   Discuss.

2. On this date in 1993, Travis Fryman smacks five hits on his way to the cycle in the Tigers’ 12-7 loss to the Yankees. He is the first Tiger to hit for the cycle in 43 years.

• 4-3, 1st Place in A.L. Central, .5 games ahead of Chicago
• Streak: W3
• Home Record: 3-0 / Road Record: 1-3

Who’s Hot:

• Miguel Cabrera: .520 avg., .586 OBP, .960 SLG, 3 HR, 10 RBI
• Placido Polanco: .346, .393 OBP, .462 SLG
• Gerald Laird: .318, .400 OBP, .455 SLG
• Brandon Inge: .304, .448 OBP, .870 SLG, 4 HR, 7 RBI

Who’s Not:

• Carlos Guillen:.182, .345 OBP, .273 SLG
• Adam Everett: .238*, .333 OBP, .286 SLG
• Curtis Granderson: .241, .281 OBP, .483 SLG

*Though, wouldn’t we all be happy with .238 for the season from Everett?

Up Next: White Sox

• Today: Zach Miner vs. Gavin Floyd
• Tomorrow: Rick Porcello (0-1, 7.20) vs. John Danks (0-0, 0.00)
• Wednesday: Armando Galarraga (1-0, 1.29) vs. Jose Contreras (0-1, 7.20)

Tigers vs. White Sox

• All-Time Record: 990-979-15
• All-Time at Home: 523-458-5
• All-Time at Comerica Park: 32-49
• All-Time at Chicago: 467-521-10

This is Episode #70, an 8-minute podcast about the Detroit Tigers recorded live from Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.A.

In each daily episode this season we we’ll cover:

• The previous day’s game;
• Look ahead to the next game;
• Look back on Tigers history; and,
• Check in on what the 1984 Tigers were up to.

Download the audio file or grab the RSS feed here.

Improve our iTunes Ranking: If you like the podcast, please leave a comment on our iTunes page!

Comments? Leave a message on the listener line, (602) 903-5174, or leave a comment here!

Talk to you next time…on The Detroit Tigers Podcast.

The Detroit Tigers Podcast is not affiliated in any way with the Detroit Tigers Baseball Club or Major League Baseball.

Sure, he hit a homer to tie it in the ninth, but his error in the eighth got all the bad karma a-swirling.

If Lyon’s 2009 is like his ‘08 in Arizona, there will be plenty of opportunities to rip into him.

Tonight, though, I hang on Inge.

Neat stuff.

• Height: 6′ 0″ | Weight: 180
• 2008 Stats: .213 – 2 HR – 20 RBI

It’s difficult to get a clear picture of new Tigers shortstop Adam Everett based on his 2008 performance with the Twins. He had just 158 at bats (which produced a .213 average) and appeared in only 45 games for the Twins defensively due to a bum throwing shoulder. However, it’s not so much Everett’s production at the plate that concerns Tigers fans – anything close to .250 would suffice – it’s his glove work.

Jim Leyland and the Tigers’ faithful look to the 31-year-old to fortify (along with third baseman Brandon Inge) the left side of the infield. But how can he inject some offense into the lower third of the lineup in 2009? By focusing on the parts of the strike zone he favors; for Everett that’s above the belt from the heart of the plate to the outside corner.

The bottom line is that the Tigers wouldn’t have signed Everett to man a keystone position if they didn’t see him as a defensive upgrade to the departed Edgar Renteria.

• Height: 5′ 11″ | Weight: 190
• 2008 Stats: .205 – 11 HR – 51 RBI

Brandon Inge began last season as the Tigers backup catcher and ended it as the third baseman for 2009. In between was yet another sub-par offensive performance for a player that, as recently as 2006, seemed locked in as a power-hitting, Gold Glove-caliber defensive whiz. Perhaps the shift from full-timer to part-time super-sub weighed on Inge in ’08, pushing his average to .205.

Unfortunately, there’s little positive Inge can take away from last season; he struggled against righties and lefties alike, and, outside of the fastball, opposing pitchers had little problem fooling Inge. But he and the Tigers view 2009 as a fresh start.

At the plate, Inge will look to rediscover the power that generated 27 home runs in ’06. To do that he’ll need to focus on his strengths, particularly turning on pitches on the inner half of the plate, and avoiding the urge to pull the ones on the outer edge.

In 2009, chances are that Inge will save more runs with his defense than he’ll drive in with his bat. Yet the stability he’ll enjoy as the Tigers regular third baseman could ignite an offensive resurgence.

Brinkman joined the Tigers in 1971 as part of the trade that sent Denny McLain to the Washington Senators.

Brinkman won the Gold Glove in 1972, the same season he finished in the Top 10 for Most Valuable Player, and was named to the American League All-Star Team in 1973.

After his playing career, Brinkman was a coach and scout for the White Sox from 1983-2000.

Brinkman wore number 8 in his four seasons in Detroit. He never hit over .237 — an average the Tigers would welcome from Brandon Inge.

He epitomized good-glove-no-stick at shortstop and, according to my brother who watched him play, was a joy to watch.

So, as I wait out this Tigers/White Sox rain delay from bright, sunny Phoenix, it’s time to weigh in on:

• Todd Jones’s Retirement. The decades-old joke in Detroit is that the most popular person in the city is the Lions’ backup QB and/or the Red Wings’ backup netminder. I think we can now add the Tigers’ setup man to that punch line. Detroit is unusually cruel to its closers. Less than a year after Willie Hernandez won the 1984 Cy Young and MVP awards, he started getting booed and it’s never stopped. Mike Henneman did too, but to a much smaller degree. The Tigers were so unwatchable during Todd Jones’s first tour of duty in Detroit, that often he was the only bright spot. Come to think of it, he was a welcome sight then because it mean the Tigers were in line for a rare win.

  But what was it about Jones in his second stint as a Tiger? What made it so infuriating? Sure, he got 93 saves in just under three seasons but his ERA was always around four and … ah, what’s the use? Jones is a good guy and I’m sure he’ll be missed by his teammates. I guess. For me, though, I’ll never be able to forgive him for not being Joe Nathan.

• Inge Returns to Third. This move makes the Tigers’ infield defense significantly better next season. With the range he covers, Inge is essentially a third baseman and a half. So even if they decide to bring back Edgar Renteria, Inge makes the left side if not a plus than definitely not a minus. Now, about that average…
• Guillen to Left. As I wrote here, I think it’s more likely that we see Carlos Guillen back at short than in left field. Why? If they put Guillen in left and a light-hitting guy at short, the Tigers lose the potential production of Matt Joyce. And, if you put Guillen in the cavern that is Comerica Park’s left field, what are the odds on him pulling a hamstring before May 1? Not good.
• Chuck Hernandez Firing. I know that Doug and others have been calling for Hernandez to lose his job as a result of the pitching staff’s tank job. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a wuss when it comes to firing coaches or managers. The rhetorical question I always ponder is: How much impact does a coach have — or can a coach expect to have — at this level? Was Hernandez, the genius of 2006, suddenly a lousy coach? I don’t think so. He was nothing more than a vessel caught in the perfect storm of Jeremy Bonderman’s injury, Dontrelle Willis’s loss of … everything, Kenny Rogers‘ age, Justin Verlander’s growing pains, and Nate Robertson’s wrought-iron physiology.

  I suppose the decision was also based on the bullpen’s lackluster year. Where do you start there? In fact, I think Hernandez should get a raise for having to deal with Fernando Rodney, Joel Zumaya, Aquilino Lopez and the rest. According to an article in the Free Press, Jim Leyland wants to go with a pitching coach and bullpen coach from the within the organization. I’m sure Joe Coleman, A. J. Sager and Ray Burris are good coaches, but if the Tigers want to show their serious, go after rockin’ Leo Mazzone or Rick Peterson.

• Jeff Jones’s Firing. I remember when Lloyd McClendon was named the Tigers’ bullpen coach for 2006. My reaction was “What does he know about a bullpen?” The answer, it would seem, was nuttin’. And if you read into this comment from Leyland, that’s precisely what the skipper wanted:
  

  “It was a weird situation, and I won’t say for sure, but I doubt that I’m going to have a pitching coach as my bullpen coach. It’s worked very well in some places, but I think it makes people uncomfortable from time to time.”

  Hmm. I would’ve thought being a pitching coach would help in guiding the bullpen. But now that I think about it, it probably makes about as much sense as having two hitting coaches – one for day games, one for night. Well, maybe not that example but perhaps there was some yin-and-yang between Hernandez’s approach and that of Jones which made Bobby Seay incapable of retiring a left-handed hitter?

• Sheff’s 500th Homer. The most entertaining parts of the weekend series against the Rays was watching Gary Sheffield’s family — including Uncle Dwight Gooden — stand up and wave homemade signs for every at bat. My favorite: “Gramma Says 500″. I sure hope Sheff gets number 500 today in Chicago. There’s been no player in my years of following the Tigers on which I’ve turned 180° like Gary Sheffield. (By the by, I loved Leyland slotting Sheff in the two spot in the order on Sunday.)

Finally, I relied heavily on DirecTV’s Extra Bases Game Mix channel over the weekend to track the playoff races. It’s one screen with eight games shown at once. I kept going back to the Mets and Marlins game, hoping to see the Mets force a playoff with the Brewers. That didn’t happen, of course, but what I did see was Cameron Maybin catch the final out at Shea Stadium.

Here we are, approaching the third weekend of August, and the Tigers are mired in third place, nine-and-a-half games out of first place. And, as I’m always reminding myself, only five games out of last place. This was supposed to be like 1984, 1968 or even 1945. It was not supposed to be like – gulp – 2005.

The Tigers record coming into this weekend series against the Orioles is 59-62. Entering play on Aug. 14, 2005, the Tigers were 53-61, 21-and-a-half-games out of first.

While the 2005 club was further back in the standings mathematically on Aug. 14, the current team feels about that far behind the White Sox and Twins. Doesn’t it?

Three years ago, Tigers fans seemed more interested in whether or not Alan Trammell would return as manager, who they’d acquire in the offseason, and what on God’s green earth to do with Carlos Pena?

Today, well, the team has probably more questions than the 2005 team did. One thing we can be assured of is Jim Leyland returning as manager. And that’s a good thing. Of course, some may disagree with that, but I believe there are very few buttons he could’ve pushed this year that would make up almost 10 games in the standings.

Here are 17 questions about the 2009 season rattling around in my head:

1. Who’s the closer in 2009?
2. Does Chuck Hernandez return as pitching coach?
3. Is Nate Robertson a Tiger next season?
4. Can Dontrelle Willis bounce back?
5. Can the Tigers deal Carlos Guillen?
6. If the Tigers can get a catcher, do they — and do they move Brandon Inge back to third?
7. Does Vance Wilson return at long last?
8. Who’s the shortstop?
9. Would they deal Magglio Ordonez as some suggest?
10. How does Jeremy Bonderman recover?
11. Is Clete Thomas on the big club to stay?
12. Who is 2009’s Matt Joyce?
13. Are the Tigers counting on Freddy Garcia?
14. Will Brent Clevlen finally break through?
15. What can the Tigers expect out of Joel Zumaya?
16. Do they sign Placido Polanco to an extension before the season?
17. What’s Gary Sheffield’s role — if any?

Ultimately, the 2005 Tigers finished 20 games under .500. Will this year’s team finish that far off the pace? Some days (i.e., against Tampa Bay) it certainly feels as if they could, but I doubt it.

I’m tending to believe that Doug’s right — 81 and 81 for this year’s club. But the fate of the 2009 team lies in how they address the pressing issues hovering over the organization.

That trade was a no-brainer. The Tigers weren’t going anywhere in ‘96 — little did we know it would be another 10 years before they’d post a winning record — and the Tigers had a young Tony Clark set to take over at first base.

But today’s trade of Ivan Rodriguez to the Yankees for former Tiger Kyle Farnsworth raises a much more pressing concern: Who’s going to catch? The easy answer, Brandon Inge. But that’s tonight.

What about next week when Inge needs a night off? Dane Sardinha. Okay. What about next year? Inge? All year?

It could be that simple. And I think it is. The Tigers could be rewarding Inge with the full-time catcher’s role four years after Pudge arrived from Florida and took Inge’s job.

The Tigers know that Inge is still smarting from his third-base job being taken by Miguel Cabrera in the offseason and then Carlos Guillen in May. I don’t think they can afford to yank his chain again.

So Brandon Inge is the Tigers catcher.

And between now and Spring Training, Dave Dombrowski will be looking high and low for a seasoned backup as well as a long-term solution.

Of course, Dombrowski may have another trade in the works, perhaps one including Guillen in a trade for a catcher. Then, Inge moves back to third. But I doubt it.

As for Farnsworth, he gives Jim Leyland another cannon in the bullpen for the seventh and eighth innings. All in all, I think it’s an even swap. Like Pudge, Farnsworth isn’t likely to return to Detroit next year, but who knows?

My heart says it’s tough to see Pudge go. It’s almost a cliche now, but it also happens to be true: His signing with the Tigers in 2004 gave this team instant credibility and served as the foundation for a pennant winner. No minor accomplishment.

My head says, this one, just like Big Daddy to the Yankees in ‘96, is a no-brainer.

The Score: Tigers 5 – Orioles 1

The Gist: Justin Verlander dominated — 8.2 IP, three hits, three walks, three strikeouts — and Magglio Ordonez and Marcus Thames went yard to lead the Tigers to a series split against the pesky Orioles. Brandon Inge made the play of the week, if not the year, for the final out of the game (to save Todd Jones’s bacon).

The Quote: “One of the hottest days I can remember.” — Inge on the conditions at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 96 at game time.

The Stat: 7. The number of points Gary Sheffield (.225) has over Inge’s batting average.

Up Next: Tigers @ Royals

Zach Miner (3-3, 4.23) vs. Luke Hochevar (6-7, 5.10)

The Score: Tigers 6 – Orioles 5

The Gist: Gary Sheffield went yard (almost twice), as did Marcus Thames and Brandon Inge, and Kenny Rogers pitched just good enough to win the opening game of the four-gamer against the Orioles. Magglio Ordonez went 1 for 5 in his return from the DL. In the eighth, Baltimore leftfielder Jay Payton robbed Sheffield of his second homer of the game. Todd Jones freaked everyone out for his 18th nearly blown save.

The Quote: “But like I say, `If you see something, say something.’” — Sheffield on his willingness to take hitting advice from, say, a former big-league star that Jim Leyland ran into in New York this week.

The Stat: 13. The number of baserunners Rogers allowed (11 hits, two walks) in six innings of work.

Up Next: Tigers @ Orioles

Armando Galarraga (7-3, 3.27) vs. Daniel Cabrera (6-5, 4.33)

The Gist: Hey now! Jeremy Bonderman earns a quality start — and a win — after a six-inning, eight-hit outing against the Mariners. And what do you know? The Tigers beat the Mariners 9-2 to sweep the series. Freddy Dolsi was lights-out over three innings of no-hit relief. The Tigers banged out 13 hits (43 for the series), including three from Gary Sheffield (to raise his average to .202), two from Matt Joyce and a three-run jack from Brandon Inge.

The Quote: “They want me to run on and off the mound. I smoke three packs a day.” — Jim Leyland on MLB’s efforts to accelerate games.

The Stat: .281 – Placido Polanco’s average, despite an 0 for 4 day on Thursday. Talk about flying under the radar.

Up Next: Twins @ Tigers

• Friday: Armando Galarraga (3-1, 3.06) vs. Kevin Slowey (0-4, 5.49)
• Saturday: Nate Robertson (1-5, 6.08) vs. Boof Bonser (2-5, 5.25)
• Sunday: Justin Verlander (2-7, 5.61) vs. Glen Perkins (1-1, 3.44)