First of all, I'd like to say, I'm normally going to save these for the END of the week, but being that I'm done with school for the year and haven't gone home yet, I need something to write about. So here it goes. I'll start off tonight with minor leaguers on the 40-man roster:
Pitchers:
Francisco Cruceta (Toledo): 1-0, 1.29 ERA, 7 innings, 2 hits, 3 walks, 15 k's
Macay McBride: Out for the season
Rick Porcello (Lakeland): 1-4, 2.13 ERA, 25.1 innings, 17 hits, 6 walks, 20 k's
Jordan Tata (Lakeland): 0-0, 54.00 ERA, 0.2 innings, 1 hit, 4 walks, 0 k's
Virgil Vasquez (Toledo): 1-2, 6.33 ERA, 21.1 innings, 29 hits, 5 walks, 21 k's
Hitters:
Brent Clevlen (Toledo): .275, 3 HR, 14 RBI, .340 OBP, .473 SLG
Clete Thomas (Toledo): .250, 1 HR, 3 RBI, .300 OBP, .393 SLG
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Francisco Cruceta
After missing spring training due to visa issues, RHP Francisco Cruceta has finally arrived at Triple-A Toledo. The Tigers have until early May to decide whether or not to call him up or risk losing him on waivers. Based on his performance, expect to see him in the Motor City very soon:
1-0, 1.29 ERA, 7 innings, 2 hits, 1 ER, 3 walks, 15 K's, .083 OBA....
Cruceta is young, features a good-hard mid-90's fastball, a plus breaking ball, and a devastating change-up split piece.
Also, with SP Dontrelle Willis set to return to the rotation soon and Armando Galarraga aparently not wanting to return to Toledo, consider RHP Jason Grilli and RHP Zach Miner's roster spots the most likely to be taken by Cruceta.
My prediction: Miner goes down. Grilli is pitching well right now and Miner and LHP Clay Rapada are the only two relievers with minor league options left. Manager Jim Leyland likes two lefties, which means Rapada stays and Miner goes down.
1-0, 1.29 ERA, 7 innings, 2 hits, 1 ER, 3 walks, 15 K's, .083 OBA....
Cruceta is young, features a good-hard mid-90's fastball, a plus breaking ball, and a devastating change-up split piece.
Also, with SP Dontrelle Willis set to return to the rotation soon and Armando Galarraga aparently not wanting to return to Toledo, consider RHP Jason Grilli and RHP Zach Miner's roster spots the most likely to be taken by Cruceta.
My prediction: Miner goes down. Grilli is pitching well right now and Miner and LHP Clay Rapada are the only two relievers with minor league options left. Manager Jim Leyland likes two lefties, which means Rapada stays and Miner goes down.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Miguel Cabrera
Much has been made of the now infamous youtube.com video featuring a Tigers fan ripping on the trade of Miguel Cabrera from the Florida Marlins to the Tigers. This fellow has a blog at DetroitTigers.name in which he posted this gem:
"Inge batting average as of now = .269
Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm a big Brandon Inge fan, but is this for real? Is he trying to justify his hatred of Cabrera by claiming that Inge's batting average, at the time of his post a mere 5 points higher, makes him a better offensive player? Oh, the insanity of some people. Miguel is one of the premeir 25 years old and under hitters in the entire world. Sure, his early season average (now up to .270) isn't as high as we'd all like, but "Miggy" is still on pace for 30+ HRs and 120+ RBI's.
As far as Cabrera's "injury," as he calls it---how can he possibly incinuate that Miguel was NOT hurt? Correct me if I am wrong here, but wasn't Cabrera was limping badly early on? He appers to have his legs back under him, and now he's taking off.
Link to youtube video for those who haven't seen this yet:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZDAnSTLLfVQ
And in other hilarious news, there is a parody of that video at this link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kbKw9Da3e38&feature=related
"Inge batting average as of now = .269
Miggy’s batting average as of now = .264
Guess he must be “injured” again huh?
And they said I didn’t know what I was talkin about in my video when I said Miggy would be like Rob Deer in batting average."
Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm a big Brandon Inge fan, but is this for real? Is he trying to justify his hatred of Cabrera by claiming that Inge's batting average, at the time of his post a mere 5 points higher, makes him a better offensive player? Oh, the insanity of some people. Miguel is one of the premeir 25 years old and under hitters in the entire world. Sure, his early season average (now up to .270) isn't as high as we'd all like, but "Miggy" is still on pace for 30+ HRs and 120+ RBI's.
As far as Cabrera's "injury," as he calls it---how can he possibly incinuate that Miguel was NOT hurt? Correct me if I am wrong here, but wasn't Cabrera was limping badly early on? He appers to have his legs back under him, and now he's taking off.
Link to youtube video for those who haven't seen this yet:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZDAnSTLLfVQ
And in other hilarious news, there is a parody of that video at this link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kbKw9Da3e38&feature=related
Thoughts on the defense
Man is it great to have Curtis Granderson back patrolling CF. Inge was decent in relief, but Granderson is clearly a step-up defensively. At 3rd, Inge has been stellar so far. While he doesn't have enough innings at this position yet to qualify for leaderboards, his zone rating ( percentage of balls fielded by a player in his typical defensive "zone," as measured by STATS, Inc.) of .931 would rank first amongst MLB 3rd sackers. Over at 1st base, things have gone smoothly for Miguel Cabrera as the Tigers attempt to cover up his horrid 3rd base play. His lack of range at 3rd was costing Tigers pitching a ton of base hits. At first, however, Cabrera has a zone rating of 1.000 with 0 errors. However, he has only logged 49 innings at the position.
So now that 1st and 3rd are in good hands while Carlos Guillen is out with an injury (he's slated to play 3rd upon his return), how are the other positions shaping up defensively?
At 2nd, Placido Polanco is off to a rough start. He has made 2 errors and his zone rating of .800 ranks only 17th amongst 2nd basemen. However, this may be attributed to his bad back. Now that Polanco appears to be snapping out of his early funk (4 hits in his last 2 games), look for his defense to heat up as well. Remember, this is the 2007 Gold Glove winner in the AL.
At SS, Edgar Renteria has been a vacuum, scooping up everything sent his way. His zone rating of .878 ranks 4th in MLB, indicating his range appears to be in good shape. Further, his error in today's game was his 1st of the year. He was the only starting SS in MLB without an error up to that point.
Magglio Ordonez's zone rating is a little down early on in the season. However, his .906 rating still puts him at number 9. He still hasn't made an error in over 160 games dating to last season.
LF has been the Tigers most unstable position. Not only are they struggling to get any offense from the position early on, they're also not exactly lighting up the field defensively. Marcus Thames has a surprising .923 zone rating, but in limited innings. Jacque Jones range has been poor (.826), ranking near the bottom of MLB LF'ers.
Overall, the defense appears to be coming along nicely as the season moves towards the final week of April. This will hopefully take a little stress off a pitching staff still searching for its groove.
So now that 1st and 3rd are in good hands while Carlos Guillen is out with an injury (he's slated to play 3rd upon his return), how are the other positions shaping up defensively?
At 2nd, Placido Polanco is off to a rough start. He has made 2 errors and his zone rating of .800 ranks only 17th amongst 2nd basemen. However, this may be attributed to his bad back. Now that Polanco appears to be snapping out of his early funk (4 hits in his last 2 games), look for his defense to heat up as well. Remember, this is the 2007 Gold Glove winner in the AL.
At SS, Edgar Renteria has been a vacuum, scooping up everything sent his way. His zone rating of .878 ranks 4th in MLB, indicating his range appears to be in good shape. Further, his error in today's game was his 1st of the year. He was the only starting SS in MLB without an error up to that point.
Magglio Ordonez's zone rating is a little down early on in the season. However, his .906 rating still puts him at number 9. He still hasn't made an error in over 160 games dating to last season.
LF has been the Tigers most unstable position. Not only are they struggling to get any offense from the position early on, they're also not exactly lighting up the field defensively. Marcus Thames has a surprising .923 zone rating, but in limited innings. Jacque Jones range has been poor (.826), ranking near the bottom of MLB LF'ers.
Overall, the defense appears to be coming along nicely as the season moves towards the final week of April. This will hopefully take a little stress off a pitching staff still searching for its groove.
Debut Post
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