In 1984, the Tigers made the no-brainer decision to leave southpaw reliever Sid Monge off the playoff roster. Monge had an undistinguished half seaon with the Tigers after being picked up off waivers from the Padres — 1-0, 4.25 ERA in 19 games. He didn’t pitch enough in the regular season and, left hander or no, he wasn’t going to appear in the ALCS or World Series. And God knows we didn’t want him to. This morning we learned that another seemingly no-brainerish decision — to leave Brad Penny off the ALDS roster — was, in fact, not made. What the …? Jim Leyland hasn’t, and likely won’t, offer much to the media to chew on in the way of rationale for this decision.…
Good Saturday morning. Thank goodness Al Alburquerque is going to be okay after a batting practice scare yesterday. The Tigers placed Alburquerque on the seven-day disabled list with a concussion effective August 12 and recalled Ryan Perry from Toledo. Perry appeared in 20 games with the Mud Hens, posting a 3-0 record, 3.03 ERA, seven saves and 30 strikeouts. Leading Off: The Tigers won their seventh-straight one-run game, topping the Orioles 5-4 [highlights here]. Andy Dirks went 4 for 4 and knocked in the winning run and Brad Penny was good enough for his eighth win … The victory marked the seventh straight game the club has won by one run. According to STATS LLC, Detroit’s seven straight wins by one run matches a…
Remember back in late 2006 when the Tigers signed 41-year-old Jose Mesa to a one-year contract and most of us said, “Is it 1996?” Fortunately or unfortunately, the Mesa Experiment was short lived. By June 3, 2007, he was released after posting some staggering numbers: W L ERA SV IP H R ER HR BB SO WHIP 1 1 12.34 0 11.2 19 16 16 3 6 9 2.143 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 5/16/2011. This all came to mind this evening as free-agent prize Joaquin Benoit got ripped by the Blue Jays for three runs in the eighth and notch yet another dreadful appearance in his short time in Detroit. After Monday night Benoit’s stats might not be as gruesome as…
A few overdue thoughts as I work the previous-channel button on my remote, switching between the Tigers and Wings games. When a few specific things occur, I know for certain the baseball season is in full bloom — eight games in or not. Two of these things have already taken place in the past 24 hours: the Tigers lose to the Royals and Ryan Raburn makes at least one bone-headed play in the field. Speaking of the Wings, if they end up playing the Coyotes in the first round, I’ll have to endure lame Detroit jokes in the media out here. Did the Tigers really lose to Bruce Chen? Bruce Chen? Slowly — very slowly — I’m gaining confidence in Alex Avila. He was…
Former Tigers catcher Robert Fick earned his reputation as a bad seed thanks to some poor on-field decisions and in-flight activities. If you followed the Tigers during his five years (and five uniform numbers) in Detroit, you won’t be surprised by this Fick-related anecdote from former-Tigers flamethrower Matt Anderson: First Anderson drove from Louisville to Atlanta to say goodbye to the kids. Then he headed west to California to see his friend and former Tigers teammate, Robert Fick, who had possession of the two game gloves — a Mizuno and a Rawlings — that Anderson used during his last stint in pro ball. After continually badgering Fick to send him the gloves, to no avail, Anderson figured it would be easier to just pass…
