Seeing Guillen bat 5th yesterday was nice. I wonder if it was the start of a trend or just the result of a day where the great Thames and future HOF Alexis Gomez didn't play. Guillen with 10 BBs, only 4 K's and a .410 OBP. He'd better hit in front of some run producers sooner or later on a consistent basis. It's just crazy to waste those numbers on a 7th hitter. Shelton may be the team's best power threat right now, but Guillen is the team's best overall hitter. I would've liked to see either one of them get a shot at batting 3rd instead of Infante, though.
They are putting up wins for now, but we'll see if they can keep it up vs a tough team like the Angels.
Another quality start for Rogers. We've got to put more runs on the board.
Monroe with the golden sombrero. After I saw his first at bat, I said to myself, this guy is going to strike out at least 3 times tonight. He looked that lost, so I'm sure I wasn't the only one. He's on pace for a Dave Kingman-ish season. I guess that's not necessarily very good, but he'll get his HR's it seems.
And wow, the Gomez/Thames duo actually makes me anticipate DY's return! Then we just need fatty to be careful running the bases and/or anything that requires physical activity. Too bad there isn't much going for Toledo right now on offense...
Hmm, Clevlen is starting to pick it up. Maybe if he starts to hit for some more power, he'll be an option later in the year. But hopefully this team won't need him until sometime next year at the earliest.
mcqfesijiba wrote:Another quality start for Rogers. We've got to put more runs on the board.
Monroe with the golden sombrero. After I saw his first at bat, I said to myself, this guy is going to strike out at least 3 times tonight. He looked that lost, so I'm sure I wasn't the only one. He's on pace for a Dave Kingman-ish season. I guess that's not necessarily very good, but he'll get his HR's it seems.
And wow, the Gomez/Thames duo actually makes me anticipate DY's return! Then we just need fatty to be careful running the bases and/or anything that requires physical activity. Too bad there isn't much going for Toledo right now on offense...
Hmm, Clevlen is starting to pick it up. Maybe if he starts to hit for some more power, he'll be an option later in the year. But hopefully this team won't need him until sometime next year at the earliest.
I've been think the same things. One of us should be pretty worried Monroe looks like he is trying to hard to swing for the fences, and his swing has always been a little too long for my liking. The lack of depth shown by Thames and Gomez shows that the Tiges still have a ways to go before they can be serious contenders.
I too have been wondering when DaFatTub will come back and if he can hit right away. This team would be rolling if their bats weren't so dormant right now. And this pitching will not keep up for much longer.
What will Leyland do? Again it is hard to complain about the results we've been getting, I sure didn't think a 12-8 start was in the works, but his sillyness with Shelton and the OF situation is troublesome. I would love for them to wake up and realize that Thames is nothing more that a Crash Davis OFer, rips up the minors but can't hack it in the show. It always stuns me the lack of talent we have to bring up during times like these.
And which Bonderman will show up tonight? I can hardly wait to watch........oh, no TV
Shut out today. Guillen made another error giving him 6 already. Both Thames and Gomez are now both below .200 BAs (and only 2 BBs between them), definitely not what you want from a position that is out there solely for offense. Supposedly Lackey (and Shields) were excellent today, but I am still disappointed to see this offense only manage 2 hits and no runs. This is going by the box score as the game wasn't on TV and I didn't listen to it on the radio.
On the bright side, Granderson walked 2 more times. He K's a lot, but he does find ways on base. On the down side, Polanco needs to keep that average up. He seldom walks and apparently doesn't get extra base hits anymore, so he can't afford to have anything less than an average well above .300. 9 games and counting since Shelton's last extra base hit.
A 6-3 west coast road trip really isn't all that bad, but it could have been better. I hope this team can have a better showing at home this time around...
I think their 6-3 road trip record is fantastic. Going 6-3 on the road with Shelton hitting .200, with no power is much more than we could have hoped for.
Thames and Gomes should be re-assigned. They simply offer nothing else if they're not hitting. It's not like either are gold glovers or has cannons in the OF.
Polanco is showing why the Phillies were willing to let him go. He is too slow to be a singles hitter and lacks the pop to be a doubles and homers hitter. That and they had Utley He is far from a problem for the Tigers right now, at least he fields his position flawlessly. What he lacks in range he makes up for in fielding whatever he gets to.
Now we come home to meet out fate. We simply must win more than we lose on this homestand. The Twins are reeling, the Royals are the Royals and the Angels.......well okay, we had better beat up on the Twinkies and Royales.
I think Polanco is capable of better and we'll probably see better as the year goes on. His career OPS is something like 150 points higher than it is now. I just think he needs to turn it up so that he's not a liability in the #2 spot. He's scored only 5 runs and has an OBP barely floating above .300. I'm not advocating dropping him in the lineup or anything like that right now, but he needs to be watched. And yes, his fielding has been excellent.
I don't think much more can be said about Thames/Gomez. Thames is a way below average hitter with a bit of pop and not much else. At least Gomez is a decent fielder and hits left handed, albeit not very well, haha. I'm going to assume they will ride them out until DY returns, but what about the next time DY goes down? Maybe they'll look into giving Hannahan or Espinosa a shot and could easily do at least marginally better. They certainly can't do worse than Thames or Gomez. Maybe Phelps will have gotten it going by then?
Also, Thames/Gomez should be dropped to 9th in the order if they are out there. It's like having a pitcher in the lineup, except in our lineup, they hit 7th (after hitting 5th for a while). Little things like optimizing the lineup will go a long way vs. the tougher teams. Man aren't there any fat/old guys out there that can't run, but can rake that this team can sign to DH?
By the way, DY needs to go and smack his little brother around a little and let him know attacking umps with bats is bad. Geez.
In regards to the Gomes/Thames issue, they have proven they cannot hit big league pitching. So bring up Phelps. Every now and then you run into a hitter that hits better in the show than in Toledo. Something about more strikes being thrown more consistantly. But we might as well cycle these others through and see if we can find lightening in a bottle.
We've nothing to lose.
What is the deal with big leaguers more talented kid brothers? Delmon throws a bat, Marcus Vick stomps on a player. Do they feel that much above the rules?
Hmm. I'm running out of things to nitpick about right now. So I'll move on and say the Twins are really bad right now. Radke/Silva/Lohse just look totally overmatched by MLB hitters right now (not just the Tigers) and there are very few threats in their lineup. RonDL White looks awful after his offseason surgery and looks to be a very good subraction to the Tigers. I said before the Twins were going to be vulnerable this year, but wow. I had no idea. Good to see the Tigers take care of such an inferior opponent like they did. 33-1 in a 3 game series!? We didn't just beat the Twins, we practically raped them. Wins are wins, but I just can't say the wins are necessarily coming against elite teams right now.
I am stunned at how well the pitching has held up so far. Rogers slid in the second half last year, as did the Tigers whole staff, so let's not go printing playoff tickets just yet.
Did I just type Tigers and playoffs in the same sentance? Things really are looking up
As long as the Tigers keep doing what they're doing, I will keep doing what I'm doing. Tigers are on a roll of sorts. Is getting DY really going to be a good thing? We'll need his bat at some point, but for the time Thames is on one of his hot streaks (even though we all know he's probably due for an 0-25 skid soon right?). Should present an interesting situation when DY gets back from his AA stint. BTW, Gomez doesn't even matter. We all know he will be the guy to get booted back to AAA when the spot is needed.
As far as the pitching goes, I'm more interested to see it vs some more league average and above offenses. More specifically, the Yankees, Red Sox, Indians, White Sox, and Blue Jays. Seattle, Minnesota, KC, Angels, and even the A's just don't have very impressive lineups if you ask me. Wins are wins and we've gotten quite a few. Now if only Shelton would get going again...
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by mcqfesijiba » Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:46 am 
Monroe looks like he is trying to hard to swing for the fences, and his swing has always been a little too long for my liking. The lack of depth shown by Thames and Gomez shows that the Tiges still have a ways to go before they can be serious contenders.
Supposedly Lackey (and Shields) were excellent today, but I am still disappointed to see this offense only manage 2 hits and no runs. This is going by the box score as the game wasn't on TV and I didn't listen to it on the radio.
