Tigers Weekly 2008 Season

WEEK 5: 5/1/08 - 5/7/08

The Tigers took a step backward this week in 
their climb to the top of the AL Central.  Things 
looked great after sweeping the Yankees in 
Yankee Stadium, something that hadn't happened 
since 1966.  It was also the last regular season 
game the Tigers would play at the Stadium, so 
they managed to go out in style.  THEN came a 
trip to the Metrodome.  What a place that is.  
The Tigers came out absolutely flat in the first two 
games, but it looked like they would escape with 
a win on Sunday after jumping out to a 6-0 lead 
in the first.  The Twins clawed their way back 
into the game, and in the seventh, scored four 
runs with two outs to take a 7-6 lead that they 
would not relinquish.  In that inning Carlos Guillen 
bobbled a routine grounder and the Twins hit two 
singles that may have been outs on a natural 
surface.  That place is evil.  

Following that heartbreaker (the worst loss of the 
season so far) Jim Leyland went with a lineup 
change that made little difference.  The Tigers 
scored three runs combined in their next two; 
both losses to the Red Sox.  It looked, again, like 
the Tigers would suffer a bad loss which would 
have pushed their losing streak to six, but some 
late inning heroics (and a Boston error) stopped 
the bleeding at five games in a row.  Tonight the 
Tigers will try to split the series with Boston, and 
then that's it with the Sox for the season.  This 
weekend we also settle affairs with the Yankees.  

For the sake of the fans, the Tigers need to get 
more consistent (consistently good that is).   If 
they keep these up and down streaks going for 
too long they'll find that 2008 will quickly pass 
them by.  Still, nobody is running away with the 
Central, so there's no need yet to panic.  

New Subscriber...

Dick "The Mechanic" Cornish

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Week of 5/1 - 5/7

Record:  2-5  WLLLLLW

Undy-Five-Hundy:  The big losing streak has run 
the UFH to five.  This week we'll break out the 
Tigers Division, which shows which teams the 
Tigers are closest to in record.  With any luck the 
quality of the teams will improve over time.

Up Next for the Tigers...

May 8      Boston
May 9-11   New York Yankees
May 12     no game scheduled...
May 13-15  @ Kansas City

AL Central Standings...

MIN  17 15 -
CLE  16 17 1.5
CWS  15 17 2
KCR  15 18 2.5
DET  15 20 3.5

Tigers Division...

ARI  22 12 -
|
KCR  15 18 6.5
TEX  15 20 7.5
DET  15 20 7.5
PIT  14 19 7.5
SFG  14 20 8
WAS  14 20 8

Tigers News and Notes:  The big news this week 
was the shake-up.  After the series in Minnesota, 
Leyland promised some big moves in the lineup 
and in the field.  Roster moves made the last 
week were activating Francisco Cruceta (taking 
Grilli's place), bringing up Freddy Dolsi to 
replace a hurt Denny Bautista, and the call-up of 
Matt Joyce after Jacque Jones was CUT!  So 
much for the Jacque experiment.  The platooning 
lefty only hit .173 against right-handed pitching, 
rendering him useless.  Gary Sheffield is now the 
regular left-fielder.  Questions are there about 
Sheff being able to stay healthy playing the field 
more often.  We'll see if the move stimulates his 
hitting.  Recall that Sheffield stunk last year in 
April and then tore it up in May, June, and July.  

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Tiger of the Week...
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There's no great choice for the honor this week. Honestly, look at the stats yourself. Magglio has a decent average, but the numbers aren't gaudy. Doing a little digging I found that Marcus Thames has a hit in his last five games. One of those hits was a pinch-hit two-run single agains the Red Sox on Monday, which cut the deficit then from 5-1 to 5-3. He hasn't seen much playing time this season (just forty-two at bats) but it's likely that he'll see the field more often with Jacque Jones out of the lineup. Against lefties he's likely to DH and he can also start in the outfield when Sheffield or Magglio need a day off. Marcus is one guy that you can't pin the bad week on, so with his recent mini-hit streak he becomes the Tiger of the Week.

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Internet Grab Bag...
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I did a little snooping and found some different 
articles that you might enjoy...

Edgar Renteria vs. Orlando Cabrera

Click HERE for article from ESPN

I hate the Sox, but I still love Ozzie!

Click HERE for article from ESPN

A-Rod Bites the Dust at Birth of Daughter

Click HERE for article from Fox Sports

Home Video of Magglio's Walk-Off in the 2006 
ALCS

Click HERE for video from YouTube

Inge Reportedly OK with Catching

Click HERE for article from Detroit News

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Gilby's Fast Facts...
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As of games played on 5/5...

The Tigers are 0-16 when the team scores less 
than five runs.

With all the focus on the lack of hitting the team 
seems to have:

- The Tigers have a total of 8 quality starts this 
year, last in the majors.  Galarraga 3 of 4, Rogers 
3 of 7, Bonderman 1 of 6, Verlander 1 of 7, 
Robertson 0 of 6, Willis 0 of 2.

- The Tigers have allowed 18 unearned runs so 
far this year on 21 errors.

- Pitchers have issued 138 walks (2nd to last in 
the majors)

- Team ERA is 5.01 (3rd worst)

In every hitting statistical category the Tigers are 
in the top 10 in all of baseball.  

However, the Tigers have grounded into 34 
double plays (4th worst in MLB) on 424 ground 
ball outs so far this season.

Curtis Granderson's last 23 homeruns dating 
back to last season have all been solo shots.

Freddy Dolsi - courtesy of detroittigers.com and 
Jason Beck

"Dolsi became just the third Tiger since at least 
1956 to give up a home run to the first batter he 
faced in the Majors, according to research on 
baseball-reference.com. Greg Gohr was the last 
to do it, giving up a Terry Steinbach home run on 
his third big-league pitch on April 7, 1993 at 
Oakland. The other was Fred Gladding, who 
surrendered a Jim Gentile homer at Baltimore on 
July 1, 1961."

The series with New York Yankees coming this 
weekend, the Tigers will not have to face Wang, 
Mussina, A-Rod, or Posada.  Talk about 
catching a team at the right time.  In fact the 
Tigers will not have had to face Wang at all this 
year.

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Poll Question...
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How many more defensive alignments do you 
think we'll see before things get settled?  Carlos 
Guillen made a big error on Sunday that opened 
the door for the Tigers' loss, and Gary Sheffield 
will be much more injury prone playing left-field.  
Brandon Inge makes a great third-baseman.  
Could we make Carlos a DH and play Brandon 
at third?  If you were managing the Tigers, what 
would your everyday lineup be?  What gives the 
Tigers the best chance to win a ball game?  

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Game Linescores...
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May 1:  Detroit 8 - New York Yankees 4
Starters:  DET: Robertson 5.2IP
           NYY: Kennedy 4.2IP
DET  004 002 200  8 11 2
NYY  300 010 000  4 10 0
W: Robertson  (1-3)
L: Albaladejo (0-1)

May 2:  Detroit 1 - Minnesota 11
Starters:  DET: Galarraga 6IP
           MIN: Hernandez 7IP
DET  010 000 000   1  8 1
MIN  102 010 43X  11 16 0
W: Hernandez (4-1)
L: Galarrage (2-1)

May 3:  Detroit 1 - Minnesota 4
Starters:  Verlander 7IP
           MIN: Baker 3IP
DET  000 000 010  1 6 0
MIN  000 101 20X  4 9 0
W: Bass      (1-0)
L: Verlander (1-5)
S: Nathan    (10)

May 4:  Detroit 6 - Minnesota 7
Starters:  DET: Rogers 6.2IP
           MIN: Bonser 6IP
DET  600 000 000  6 10 1
MIN  000 120 40X  7  9 1
W: Guerrier (2-1)
L: Miner    (1-2)
S: Nathan   (11)

May 5:  Boston 6 - Detroit 3
Starters:  BOS: Matsuzaka 5IP
           DET: Bonderman 6IP
BOS  020 200 101  6 11 0
DET  000 100 200  3  5 2
W: Matsuzaka (5-0)
L: Bonderman (2-3)
S: Papelbon  (10)

May 6:  Boston 5 - Detroit 0
Starters:  BOS: Wakefield 8IP
           DET: Robertson 6.1IP
BOS  030 000 200  5 11 1
DET  000 000 000  0  3 0
W: Wakefield (3-1)
L: Robertson (1-4)

May 7:  Boston 9 - Detroit 10
Starters:  BOS: Buchholz 4IP
           DET: Galarraga 5.1IP
BOS  000 221 310   9 12 1
DET  004 130 002  10 18 0
W: Jones    (1-0)
L: Papelbon (2-1)

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Readers Write In...
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Adam "Doc" Goyt

Dear Matt,

Sorry this comment is a week late.  It got 
rejected when I sent it last week.

I was talking to my brother at the beginning of the 
season when the tigers were crapping out and I 
said, "The problem is that we don't have Curtis 
Granderson.  That guy ignites the lineup."  Sure 
enough the win column started to grow 
exponentially once Granderson came off the DL.  
If the tigers ever lose him, they'll be sorry.

The tigers will be in my neck of the woods 
(Twins Territory as they call it) this weekend.  
I've been talking smack to my students ever since 
we had the two game sweep of the Twins earlier 
in the season.   I'm looking forward to keeping up 
the smack talk.  

Best Wishes,
Adam

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Justin "Rat Man" Carroll

If the want to get over five hundred, all the Tigers 
need to do is: 

Let Leyland play - - 

Firstly, he hits grand slams to win (never to tie, 
and only walk offs (otherwise, he'll simply 
forfeit the game and call it a day, because he
has to go out in style)). 

Secondly, all the nicotine in his system has 
actually given him the ability to actually go back
in time, and re-win games! 

Thirdly, Toolie thinks it is a stupid idea, and 
therefore, it must be brilliant idea.  Ipso facto. 

And to quote Rod Allen, "You can't slip a piece 
of cheese past a rat."

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Lia "The Scorekeeper" Bottinelli

I have my dad to thank for my Yankee Stadium 
experience. When I was in 5th grade, he took my
grandparents and me to NY to visit the Baseball
Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Ellis Island (that
stop was for my grandma, who came to the U.S. 
when she was 13), and, of course, Yankee Stadium.
Why? My dad has been a Yankees fan since he was 
a little boy (please don't hurt him; he grew up 
in Colorado, needless to say LONG before the 
Rockies existed). 

I don't remember much about the stadium, except 
for the fact that after the game was over, my 
grandma and I somehow got separated from my dad
and grandpa, and couldn't find them for about an
hour (this was before cell phones, mind you). 
Imagine a 10-year-old and an 80-year-old woman
walking around a deserted Yankee Stadium at 
night. It was a traumatizing experience for my 
grandma, who still talks about it to this day. 

I do have vivid (happy) memories of the Hall of 
Fame, however. It was the visit there that got
me interested in baseball's history, a 
fascination which was later fed by my watching 
all ten hours of Ken Burns' "Baseball" 
documentary, which I highly recommend to any 
fan of the sport. 

As inspiring as that trip was, it doesn't hold a 
candle to the countless afternoons and evenings 
I spent sitting in the center field bleachers at 
Michigan & Trumbull. Comerica is a beautiful 
park, but it'll never hold the same nostalgia that 
good old Tiger Stadium does. I don't care about 
those annoying beams in-the-way; it's still my 
favorite!!! 

That said, I would also like to give props to U.S. 
Cellular Field for having frozen margarita 
backpack vendors. I never had to get out of my 
seat! (Author's note: This MOST DEFINITELY 
DOES NOT mean that I support or wish to be 
associated with positive feelings about the White 
Sox IN ANY WAY.) 

Lia 

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Chas "Michael Michaels" Claus

Chas attends three games...

Bonjour, y'all!  I'm sitting here on a Friday 
morning, reveling in the Pistons closing out Round 
One, the Wings closing out Round Two, and the 
Tigers completing their first sweep at Yankees 
Stadium since Al Kaline and Denny McLain were 
the heroes.  For those of you who are familiar 
with my work, you'll be disappointed to know 
that three buddies & myself went in on a 1/2 
season ticket package this year, so you'll be 
hearing a lot more from me.  Better e-mail the 
Editor to get yourselves removed from the mailing 
list before it gets much worse...

GAME ONE: Chicago White Sox 5 - Detroit 
Tigers 3 (Saturday, April 5, 2008)

In 2006, I attended four Tigers playoff games, 
and had a record of 4-0.  (The Tigers were 4-5 
in games I did not attend).  Thinking I was good 
luck, I attended 13 games last year.  After 
sporting a 2-11 record for a team that was 
significantly over .500, I spent an uncomfortable 
off-season questioning my karma.  This game did 
little to calm my fears.

Dontrelle Willis made his first start of the year, 
which fired me up.  I had seen him start twice 
before, once in Miami against the Phillies, and 
once in NYC against the Mets, and he had a 
combined 2-0 record, 17 innings and 1 earned 
run.  When the blockbuster trade was made this 
summer, I was actually more excited about Willis 
than Cabrera.  However, this game was an 
enigma to me.  Through five innings, Willis had a 
no-hitter going, but had walked five, as the Tigers 
took a 3-0 lead.  In the top of the sixth, Willis 
walked two more and then gave up a double to 
Thome, before being yanked.  I'm not sure what 
this means, but a starting pitcher with a stat-line 
of 5+ innings, 1 hit, 7 walks, and 3 earned runs, 
is not typical or comforting for those of us 
picturing what Andrew Miller will be like in a 
year or two.  Either way, the Tigers gave up five, 
rolled over, and died.

The lovely & talented Emily Sawyer and I left, 
shaking our heads, with a 5-3 loss.

GAME TWO: Chicago White Sox 7 - Detroit 
Tigers 0 (Saturday, April 12, 2008)

I decided that a change of venue might help, 
so exactly one week after my first outing of the 
year, the lovely & talented Emily Sawyer and I 
journeyed to Chicago to catch the Tigers with a 
few of my Windy-City-based cousins and my 
brother Mike.  It was a decision that we basically 
regretted from start to finish.

The day was rainy and cold, as early April in 
Chicago often is.  We tried to throw together a 
little tailgate, but while raindrops falling in your 
beer is inspirational before Big Ten football 
games, it's mostly depressing leading into a 
baseball game.

This was one of those afternoons where you 
try to dry off your seat, sit down, and bunker in 
for the entire day, refusing to move for anything 
short of the building catching fire.  It seems as 
though both teams adopted the same attitude, as 
Tiger after Tiger and Sock after Sock had at-bats 
that were weaker than anything we see in the 
annual Tigers Weekly game (which is saying 
something).  Clete Thomas got gunned out at the 
plate in the top of the first, and Orlando Cabrera 
touched Verlander for a solo homer in the third.  
Other than the top of the first, neither team sent 
more than four batters to the plate in an inning 
until the eighth, as both starters were still going 
strong.  In the eighth, Verlander melted down, 
gave up a few, got yanked with a few still on, and 
saw his ERA skyrocket as the bullpen couldn't 
stop the bleeding and let all the runners score.

Of course, the most interesting aspect of this 
game was that Gavin Floyd of the White Sox 
took a no-hitter deep into the game - far deeper 
than I've ever seen in person.  My brother and I 
were openly discussing it from about the fifth 
inning on, but were disappointed that the crowd 
didn't seem to realize it/care until much later.  
Surely the weather played a role, but it wasn't 
really until there were two outs in the top of the 
seventh before there was a notable buzz/people 
standing/etc.  My experience with SoxFan (not to 
be confused with SawxFan) in the past hasn't 
really impressed me, and this game cemented 
SoxFan in my mind as a lower-third fan-base, 
down there with DodgersFan or D-BacksFan, 
but not nearly as low as D-RaysFan or the 
worst-of-the-worst.

Anyway, Floyd gave up a legitimate single to 
Renteria with one down in the eighth and the rest 
of the game was irrelevant.  The Tigers lost and 
we rolled home to wring out our clothes and dry 
out.

GAME THREE: Detroit Tigers 11 - Minnesota 
Twins 9 (Monday, April 14, 2008)

Going into this game, our beloved Tigers were 
2-10.  I was still questioning my karma, but 
figured that I could hardly be held accountable 
for the 8 games they had already dropped 
without me in attendance, so decided to go 
anyway.  However, I did feel the need to change 
something up and wondered if attending these 
games with an Indians fan - the lovely & talented 
Emily Sawyer - was the real cause of the negative 
vibes.  So I brought my Dad, instead.

The game opened much the way that the 
preceding twelve had opened, with the Tigers 
building a 5-0 deficit by the top of the sixth.  The 
pitching sucked (Bonderman = 4 earned), the 
defense sucked (3 unearned on 3 errors), and the 
hitting sucked (no runs scored).  In the bottom of 
the sixth, with two outs and nobody on, Sheff, 
Maggs, Cabrera, Guillen, and Renteria strung 
together hits to cut the lead to 5-4.  However, in 
the top of the seventh, Bonderman poured 
gasoline all over the mound by allowing two to 
reach, and Bobby Seay brought in some matches 
from the bullpen and burned the place down, 
allowing the deficit to balloon to five again.

At this point, I have to give credit to three 
people, none of whom are on the Tigers' payroll:

1. I have to give credit to fellow CHS teacher 
and Tigers aficionado Nick Hagewood, who was 
also in attendance this night.  Before the game, he 
was running up & down the stairs of section 212 
declaring "The new season starts tonight!  The 
new season starts tonight!" (The Tigers are 12-5 
since).

2. I have to give credit to my father, who wore 
his "lucky," bright-orange, "Cat-Scratch Fever" 
shirt to the game, and repeatedly declared his 
faith in it.

3. I have to give credit to myself, who noted in 
the fifth (with still no runs on the board) that I 
thought our swings had been much, much better, 
and also noted in the top of the seventh (back 
down by five) that the preceding two-out rally 
had been the first sign all season that we had a 
team that was willing to actually battle back when 
faced with a large, late-inning deficit.

In the seventh, Pudge homered to right.  In the 
eighth, Sheffield doubled.  Ordonez doubled.  
Cabrera reached on an error.  Guillen singled.  
Renteria made an out, but Pudge tripled to tie the 
game.  Jacque Jones laced a line-out to left, and 
Pudge beat Delmon Young's throw to the plate 
(he would have done better if he was throwing a 
bat) for the go-ahead run, as the crowd went 
nuts.  Clete Thomas tripled and Polanco singled 
to provide an insurance run.  In the ninth, Todd 
Jones did his usual bit (out-out-walk-hit-out) and 
the Tigers had won their first home game of 
2008.

I certainly hope that this most recent game 
represents a shift in my fortunes, as I will be 
attending three games next week, Monday & 
Thursday against the Red Sox, and Mothers Day 
against the Yankees (I actually am taking my 
Mother, who is a huge fan and was laughing out 
loud with joy when her least-favorite player ever, 
Jason Grilli, was traded earlier this week).  If 
anyone is attending those games, give me a buzz.  
I'll report in again next week.

As a side-note.  My father now wears his Cat-
Scratch Fever during every game (even watching 
them on TV), and refuses to wash it during 
winning streaks.

P.S.  Two recent performances not to go 
unnoticed: 

1. Roy Halladay's 5 straight complete games 
pitched - who does he think he is?  Cy Young?  
Walter Johnson?  Mordecai "Three-Finger" 
Brown?

2. Johan Franzen's 11 goals in 10 games in the 
NHL playoffs.  "The Mule" just broke Red 
Wings franchise records for game winning goals 
in a month (8), and goals in a playoff series (9 - 
as many as the Avs scored as a team in the 
series).  Both records used to belong to Gordie 
Howe, who was a pretty decent player.  Props to 
my bother, Fitness Machine Tycoon Mike Claus, 
for hyping Franzen before the playoffs ever 
began.

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Deana "don't call me Carter" Carr

Hi Matt - I was at the Friday Tigers game in 
Minneapolis.  It was cool and raining pretty 
heavily, so it was good that we were in a dome.  
They were hot off a sweep of the Yankees, and I 
was looking forward to a little momentum.  There 
wasn't much of that.  Galarraga pitched fairly 
well, but the Twins got a run early and tacked on 
a couple more in the 3rd, and that was all they 
really needed.  The Tigers didn't hit much.  They 
loaded the bases, with no one out, in the 
2nd....and didn't score!  It was frustrating to 
watch.  The most exciting thing that happened 
early in the game, was that my friend, Olga, and I 
noticed a guy wearing a really cool blue Tigers 
fleece.  We commented on how much we liked it 
before the game even started.  Well, that guy sat 
4 rows in front of us during the game.  "That guy" 
ended up being Jeff Daniels, the actor AND 
Tiger fan!  It was fun watching him, watch the 
Tigers, all night.  He appeared to be as frustrated 
as I wasthroughout the game.  I passed him out in
the concourse once, when we went to get food.  He 
walked with his head down, and it was obvious 
that he wasn't too interested in talking to anyone.  
My friend, Olga, is from Baranquilla, Colombia.  
That is also the town that Edgar Renteria is from, 
so she was very excited to be able to see him 
play live.  The final score ended up being 11-1, 
so watching Renteria and Jeff Daniels ended up 
being the most exciting parts of the game.

Deana Carr

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Toolie's Trashtalk...

Even better than the celebration after Polanco's 
game-winning hit last night was seeing the 
highlights this morning of Jonathan Papelbon 
taking out his frustrations on the Gatorade cooler 
in the dugout.  

Just before last night's game I did a voodoo 
dance involving my umbrella that, presumably, 
nobody saw.  I must have looked pretty 
ridiculous (think of the Doctor's Fee guy from 
Monopoly) but it worked.  No word yet as to the 
possibilty of another dance tonight.  

Lots of exciting statistical feats happening lately.  
Among them were Chicago's Gavin Floyd taking 
a no-hitter into the ninth (he came close to no-
hitting the Tigers this year), Minnesota's Carlos 
Gomez coming back the next day to hit for the 
cycle, and Cincinnati rookie Joey Votto hitting 
three homers against the Cubs.  All young guys 
having big days.  

Adam, sorry that you might have to endure some 
ribbing when the next semester starts.  Don't 
worry though... the cream always rises to the top.  
I must say, though, that I didn't feel too badly 
about Craig Monroe having a nice game against 
us.  He did a lot for the team, especially in the 
playoffs.  He would go through some dry spells, 
but when he was on he was fun to watch.  

Deana, I love Jeff Daniels... especially after he 
made the music video "Lifelong Tiger Fan Blues" 
in 2006.  Haven't seen the video?  Click below!  
"I get that old lovin' feeling... every time I see
Jim Leyland."

Click HERE for video from YouTube

Ahhh, great to be getting the recaps from "The 
Original" Editor, Chas Claus.  For years I 
enjoyed his Campus Comments college football 
newsletter.  Claus is also one of the architects of 
the highly entertaining Baseball Roadtrips.  If you 
skipped his write-in I suggest you go back and 
re-read.  

My fiance keeps encouraging me to solve one of 
the million dollar problems in mathematics.  I've 
been going for the million, all right, but it's been 
by playing MLB.com's Beat the Streak.  If you 
can beat DiMaggio's hitting streak (56) by 
selecting a player, in fifty-seven consecutive days, 
who gets a hit then you get a cool million (minus 
taxes which makes it probably closer to 600K... 
and probably more like 300K after this year).  I 
had a seventeen game streak alive until Michael 
Young of the Rangers blew it for me.  Back to 
the drawing board.  Maybe solving the Riemann 
Hypothesis would be more likely.

Well, there's not too much more to be said.  The 
Tigers just need to pitch better and come up with 
some clutch hits.  The Yankees series was 
amazing.  The pitching was solid and there was 
plenty of run support.  Then things just fizzled.  Is 
a fifteen game winning streak too much to ask 
for?  Let's get it going!  

My first game is TONIGHT!  Verlander vs. 
Beckett in the series finale.  It would be a big 
boost to split this series.

I'm Out.
 





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