Guillen hurt AGAIN. When is this guy NOT hurt? I'm still going to enjoy Cabrera's run at the Triple Crown. I wonder how Ordonez being out of the lineup will affect pitching to him. Without Ordonez slapping base hits, opposing pitchers may not have to pitch to Cabrera as much. Big pressure on Jackson and Damon.
Tigers get no-no'ed on national TV by TB rays Matt Garza as ESPN concentrates more on A-Rods attempt to get # 600. Tiger pitcher Scherzer also had a no hitter through six, but umps help Rays by putting guys on base with walks and then Laird helps out by interfering with a batter on 1-2 count to put another man on base. Scherzer battles former Tiger Matt Joyce on a 3-2 count but he hits a grand slam to blow open the game. Mean while the tigers had a bunch of Toledo Mudhens out there who could only find the Rays gloves in the out field. Even Carbrera was stifled by Garza hitting them hard but right to someone.
Talking about different strike zones. Scherzer can no hit them too if he gets the same strike calls. These umps are an embarrasement, and that was for all to see on national tv. At the same time, Detroit Mudhens can't really compete with the top teams.
The umps are bad all over the league this season..and the Tigers seemed to be a victim of their ineptitude every week. You could say that the second base ump was just in the wrong position, but even smoky eyed Leyland could see that the guy was out by a step. The plate umpire was just as bad as if he didn't want to be part of history with the possibility of two no hitters going into the ninth.....
I wonder if Dombrowski is thinking the Tigers might be too far away from being "buyers" at this point.
There's also an opinion around the league that the Tigers are desperate for help and people ask exorbitant prices for the players. I don't think Tigers have enough to compete, but if they can acquire a long-term asset, they should definitely look into that. I'd say if they keep losing, they should trade Damon if they can get some picks in return. Also, with the injury Maggs may not have enough for his next year's option, so his contract will probably come off the books. The next year looks pretty good to compete, at least IMHO.
The time for "buying" was when Cliff Lee was available. Other than injuries it's obvious our weak spot is starting pitching. We probably didn't have enough assets to get a guy like Lee because we traded all of ours away. I still think we coulda got more for D-Train. OK maybe not.
I don't think DD wants to give up what others are asking for. This team has too many holes, including catcher, 2nd base, starting and relief pitching. They will have some options when big contracts are coming off the books including D-Train, Robertson, and possibly Ordonez.
- We must keep the team above .500. Buy, and don't be cheap. We need one more stopper, relief pitching is fine with 6-1 Coke and 4-0 Thomas. Bondo should go, but stoppers are hard to find.
Speaking of catching, Laird has a good arm, but the dude is a waist sending him up to the batters box...He is one of the few guys on the team that weighs more than 40 pts more than his batting average 225 lbs, .182 batting average) How many times in the past couple of seasons after Pudge left that he came up with men in scoring position only to kill a rally? Alex Avila isn't any better, but at least he is close to his weight batting .206
I think they should give Avila consistent playing time to see what he can do as he is still young and has gotten a very sporadic playing time. If they don' do that, he should be sent down to be an everyday player. Laird was a career back up, but he still was a solid .250 batter. Not sure what happened.
Hard luck Tigers lose 3-2 6th inning, Tigers tie the game with hits by meat of the batting order>Damon and Cabrera with Raburn driving them in.....Rays score a run in the bottom of the sixth to go back up by 1 Tigers load bases in the top 7...and Boesh strikes out to end the threat Tigers load bases in the top of 9th with 1 out and Cabrera up to bat....and he grounds into a double play. Verlander pitches 8 innings, gives up only 5 hits...Tigers get 12 hits tonight after getting a no-no last night, but the combo of Tigers and Mudhens strike out 11 times and leave tons of runners on base....(11) With the Sox and the Twins on mini win streaks and winning tonight .......any bets the Tigers will be 6-7 games back by the end of the week??
Did you hear Leyland yell out a big F!!, when Longoria fielded that Cabrera grounder and turned it into a DP.... I know he had 2 strikes, but I have to wonder was that the right pitch (ball) to swing at. Also when was the last time the Tigers got a sacrafice RBI fly ball?? Yesterday all of the balls went to the out field...today Jackson is siitting out there on third base.....Damon walks after fouling off four pitches. Then all we need is a long ball, in play or out by MC and he does what we all thought he would do....hit into a DP
Cabrera comes through in that situation more times than not. That was ball 4 that he swung at, though. I changed the channel right when he hit the grounder so I missed the f-bomb.
It's a shame about that All-Star break. Really killed Boesch's mojo. Wtih Maggs, Guillen, and Inge out we need that bat to wake up.
The Cleveland Indians have traded third baseman Jhonny Peralta to the Detroit Tigers for minor league left-hander Giovanni Soto. Peralta was in the lineup for Cleveland’s game against the New York Yankees on Wednesday, but was pulled at about 6 p.m. He’s batting .246 with seven homers and 43 RBIs in 91 games. link: Indians trade 3B Peralta to Tigers - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
