Detroit Tigers Baseball » Oakland A’s

Tigers Blow A Chance To Gain Ground

admin — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 07:12:19 +0000

On a day where Cleveland, New York and Seattle all lost, the Tigers had a 7-2 lead in the 7th inning. They lost 8-7. There really isn’t much else to say.

Justin Verlander Pitches Another Gem

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 05:06:05 +0000

Justin Verlander looked great for the 2nd start in a row. Coincidentally, that was when the Tigers noticed a flaw in his pitching mechanics. Apparently, he was leaning slightly back before delivery lately, and this had a tremendous negative impact on his pitching. Once this was discovered and corrected, he has been a new man.
Verlander The Workhorse

He put in serious work today, throwing almost 130 pitches. After going 6 2/3 and allowing one run with 10 strikeouts, Leyland pulled him at just the right time. Yet another quality start leads to a Tigers win. I’m seeing a pattern here.

If Robertson gets consistent, and Bonderman and Verlander continue in their recent manner, they give the Tigers a good shot down the stretch. Rumor has it that Kenny Rogers might be activated off the DL Wednesday. Depending on how he looks, The Tigers just might squeak into the playoffs where they could do some serious damage with a healthy (finally) starting pitching staff, reenergized bullpen and a return of Gary Sheffield to the line-up.

The flip side of that is The Indians are showing no signs of letting up, leaving The Tigers to chase a slumping Seattle and the Yankees for the Wildcard spot. Seattle looks like they are dying a slow death, so it really depends on if Detroit can make up those 3 games on New York before September runs out.

Virgil Vasquez Is Not Ready For The Big Leagues

admin — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:33:49 +0000

Hey Leyland – please send this guy away. I know we’ve got some arms on the DL right now, but we’ve lost his 3 starts this year. He has lasted 2 2/3, 5 and 4 innings respectively in his 3 starts and has an ERA of 20.25, 9.39 and 9.26 in those starts. I guess technically that shows an improvement, but at this rate it’s going to be a long time before we don’t get crushed with him on the mound.

As always, the bullpen came in and looked great, but Zumaya didn’t look so hot. Both batters he faced hit the ball very hard. I know he’s the poster boy for Comcast, but Fernando Rodney is the real deal. I don’t pretend to know baseball like Jim Leyland, but I’m wondering what the plan is with Rodney. If you are only going to use him in one inning, make him the closer. He has been absolutely UNHITTABLE since coming off the DL. If you want to use him as middle relief, leave him in the damn game! Maybe he’s saving him up for the playoffs? Here’s a news flash: There might not be playoffs in Detroit at the rate things are going.

We need to win now, and we need to win often. Zumaya has looked OK, but Rodney has been flawless. Either make him the closer, or pitch him for more than an inning.