Tigers playoff stretch run venting!

[Dannomyte]

That's right, if you want to get something off your chest or just feel like making a comment during the last 3 weeks of the season this is the place to do it!!

[Dannomyte]

I was at the game last night and a few things caught my eye.

Did Verlander look scared to anyone else last night??

He wasn't going after everyone like he always does. He was missing A LOT with his off speed stuff early in counts and it seemed like all of the Texas hitters were just sitting on his fastball. Did Rod and Mario talk about this at all or am I just imagining things???


Neifi Perez is horrible. I was wrong in an earlier thread when I said that Perez was an upgrade to Santiago. They are almost identical players with a possible slight edge going to Santiago and that's sad. What's even worse is we are stuck with Perez next season for $2.5M AND DD gave up one of our very few catching prospects for him. Sure Robinson might not be great but when you don't have much depth at C to begin with every little bit helps! No way Perez should ever start over Infante. I don't care if it's a lefty or a righty on the mound Infante is one of the Tigers hottest hitters right now and should be in the line-up daily.


With all of the offensive woes the Tigers have had lately you would think they would shake up the line-up. Then you go look at what's available and you realize that there really isn't much you can do. One thing I would consider is hitting Infante 3rd and dropping a struggling Monroe back down in the order. Then again that would mean Infante would have to start over Perez and we all know that the Skipper isn't going to let that happen.

Until Casey pulls his head out of his ass there needs to be a full fledged platoon at 1B. Casey against righties and Shelton against lefties. It can't be much worse than what Casey is doing by himself right now. Can it??? Hell it might just light a fire under him.

And last but not least, WHY is Granderson still leading off??!?!?!? Hey skipper it's been 2 months and he's not pulling out of his slump!!! Time to go with plan B. I can see a case being made for him possibly leading off against righties but against lefties I don't know if he should even be in the line-up let alone leading off. More Clevlen please!! Hell, CF would be a great place for a spot start for Infante if Leyland insists on having Perez in the line-up.

That's all I've got for now, feel free to add your own ventings!

[gfantasy]

I still think they'll pull it out. I would hate to see them crumble. Even as an NL fan...

[mcqfesijiba]

Neifi Perez is horrible. I was wrong in an earlier thread when I said that Perez was an upgrade to Santiago. They are almost identical players with a possible slight edge going to Santiago and that's sad. What's even worse is we are stuck with Perez next season for $2.5M AND DD gave up one of our very few catching prospects for him. Sure Robinson might not be great but when you don't have much depth at C to begin with every little bit helps! No way Perez should ever start over Infante. I don't care if it's a lefty or a righty on the mound Infante is one of the Tigers hottest hitters right now and should be in the line-up daily.

You won't find any argument here. I was hating on Neifi before we ever traded for him. Someone mentioned him as a possibility in another thread when Polanco went down. I never thought it would happen.

With all of the offensive woes the Tigers have had lately you would think they would shake up the line-up. Then you go look at what's available and you realize that there really isn't much you can do. One thing I would consider is hitting Infante 3rd and dropping a struggling Monroe back down in the order. Then again that would mean Infante would have to start over Perez and we all know that the Skipper isn't going to let that happen.

And last but not least, WHY is Granderson still leading off??!?!?!? Hey skipper it's been 2 months and he's not pulling out of his slump!!! Time to go with plan B. I can see a case being made for him possibly leading off against righties but against lefties I don't know if he should even be in the line-up let alone leading off. More Clevlen please!! Hell, CF would be a great place for a spot start for Infante if Leyland insists on having Perez in the line-up.

I've been very disappointed with some of Leyland's actions of late, including his stubborness to mix up the lineup. Sometimes I think he's just been overly confident with the lead that is almost gone. Guillen really needs to move up in the lineup. He is the best overall hitter on the team by far. He would be a perfect #3 hitter when Polanco comes back or maybe if they really wanted to try something different they could put him at leadoff. Sorry, you just don't hit your best hitter 5th in the lineup. Does Pujols bat 5th? Does David Ortiz bat 5th? Does Ryan Howard bat 5th? Does Barry Bonds hit 5th? Well I could go on and on, but I think that makes my point.

Maybe when Polanco gets back and shakes off the rust, they could give him a look at leadoff? He may not be a walk machine, but at least he's not a K machine. Hell, in the 4 games that Pudge has led off he has looked ok, as if he has a totally different approach in that situation. Give him a look.

Monroe's hot streak has fizzled considerably. He is a hacker and I hope they upgrade over him this offseason.

Ordonez is looking a little better at the plate lately at least. Not great, but better. Still looks like he's running near empty at times though. He's going to be in the middle of the order through thick and thin regardless. We need him to show some life in the worst way.

I'm still not overly optimistic on Infante, but one thing's clear. He should play over Neifi and when Polanco returns should be the top backup infielder. But I don't know if Leyland agrees. He still has his thing for Neifi.

Until Casey pulls his head out of his ass there needs to be a full fledged platoon at 1B. Casey against righties and Shelton against lefties. It can't be much worse than what Casey is doing by himself right now. Can it??? Hell it might just light a fire under him.

Casey can't be 100% right now. He's better than this. This is not the player that the team probably had in mind when they acquired him.

And Verlander has obviously run out of gas a bit. I'm just impressed he's kept it going quite as well as he has even though from what I've seen, he hasn't had his best stuff very much for the past month or so.

Someone give Bonderman the Heimlich Maneuver. I think he might be choking....again! He hasn't pitched a good game in a month.

Unfortunately, the team's greatest weaknesses are things that probably can't be fixed until the offseason, if at all. It seemed like so many things that necessarily shouldn't have were going right for the team earlier in the season. Now we are seeing the complete opposite. The race may not come down to whether or not the Tigers can get it back together, but instead to whether or not the Twins or Sox can get themselves over. Both of those teams have issues of their own.

[moochman]

Hey! I thought I was the one to start all the be-yotching threads

I agree with mcq and danno: Leyland is making some poor decisions with his line-up selection.
No way should Granderson ever see lead-off again. Let him struggle in the 8 hole and work his way up to 6-7th slot that his talent would dictate.
Bottom line is that this team has no leadership. We have two highly paid players that are not only not producing, but don't show any leadership qualities. Sad thing is that it will only get worse. Pudge and Maggs will be no better next year.

The rest of the hitters are free swinging impatient hitters with no clue how to approach a game. My gosh, would it kill the coach to tell a hitter not to even think about swinging until there is a strike? I blame Slaught, he will probably pay for it with his job after the season is over. He hasn't been able to help any of the hitters. Not one.

But there are things that should be done to help and Leyland doesn't seem to want to do them. There are three things you need to do in the game: Pitch, field, and hit. Now we see they cannot hit, so scratch that. We also see that, except for Big Game Bonderman, we can pitch. But our fielding has been terrible. I blame Leyland for that. Not that he could make them field better, but he could put better fielders on the field.
Perez is a terrible fielder. Infante or Santiago are much better in the field. Given that Nefi can't hit either, I see no reason we shouldn't have him go help Dmitri Young with his moving. In the OF, Monroe and Maggs are puke out there. Too slow to get to a lot of balls and don't make plays. I know Monroe made 3 assists the other night, but two of them were against brainless Carlos Lee. Bite the buller and put Gomez out there If you cannot hit you have to field.

The other move should be to take pitch calling away from Pudge. Ever wonder why Tigers pitchers seems to give up multiple hit innings? I think it's because hitters know two things: With runners on base Pudge will call for more fastballs, and he won't call for them high in the strike zone. Wierd how the Tigers swing and miss at tons of shoulder high pitches yet Pudge never calls for them himself. I don't know why this is, but it is.

I also don't like the way he handles V. He does't seem interested in taking control of him. Remember 3 or 4 starts ago when he let V just throw and didn't bother trying to help him out? What was that about? He didn't do much to help him last night either. Maybe he doesn't like him?

Yeah, I am plenty upset about how this team is performing right now, and the questionable moves from the coaches. It has been one heckova season, though, and I have to tip my cap to Leyland and his magic dust for that. What I wouldn't give for one more handful.

[Dannomyte]

A couple of things from Danny Knoblers blog today don't look promising for the Tigers.

No Zumaya tonight
DETROIT -- The Tigers still don't believe Joel Zumaya's condition is serious, but after the right-hander played catch this afternoon, he said he's not ready to pitch.

``It didn't feel too good,'' Zumaya said. ``I didn't feel the strength I had.''

Also, Placido Polanco took batting practice and said he's about ``60 percent.'' And Matt Stairs is expected to be in uniform at some point during tonight's game.

Zumaya's injury is a little worrysome. They said he would be fine after a couple days rest but his arm still hurts and he doesn't feel the strength he had. Not a good sign but hopefully they are right and it's just minor.


Polanco is only at 60%?!?!? UGHHH! The Tigers had been making it sound like he is only days from returning and had even said he could very well be in the line-up for the Chicago series starting on Monday. While a 60% Polanco is atleast 60% better than Perez it doesn't sound likely he returns any time soon. The fact that he is taking BP is a great sign but to say you're only 60% isn't very promising.

[mcqfesijiba]

I blame Slaught, but in a different way. We have free swinging players and teaching patience just isn't that easy. However, often times, the hitters just don't seem prepared as they should be. Maybe Slaught can't suddenly turn the hackers this team has into onbase machines overnight, but he can help them prepare for games better than what he has. He is simply inexperienced at the position and this is not an easy team to be an inexperienced hitting coach for. We would probably be better off parting ways with him in the offseason and getting somebody with a little more experience. That is the risk in hiring a guy with no real track record. Mixing in another hitter or two who shows some form of discipline would definitely make things easier for the hitting coach next season.

About Polanco, I heard that when he comes back, he was going to be only around 80%. Hopefully the injury doesn't sap what little power he has for the rest of the season. We saw how ineffective he was earlier in the year when he was less than 100%. Makes me worry that he might be rushing back and actually prove less effective than Infante.

[moochman]

About Polanco, I heard that when he comes back, he was going to be only around 80%. Hopefully the injury doesn't sap what little power he has for the rest of the season. We saw how ineffective he was earlier in the year when he was less than 100%. Makes me worry that he might be rushing back and actually prove less effective than Infante.

I agree with you Slaught slant, he doesn't seem to prepare hitters. Simple stuff like so~n~so will start you off with.....

As for Infante, I think he should be starting at 2B the rest of the way. Let Polanco DH to try and get a swing back without risking hurting the shoulder in the field. Infante has more range than him and isn't a bad fielder. But Omar seems to be hitting most every night, gotta find a way to keep him in the line-up. Heck I'd be for having Polanco play 2B and moving Omar to CF.

[Dannomyte]

But Omar seems to be hitting most every night, gotta find a way to keep him in the line-up. Heck I'd be for having Polanco play 2B and moving Omar to CF.

Now we're talkin! There is no reason why Infante shouldn't get spot starts in CF especially when a lefty starting pitcher is on the mound.

Infante vs lefties .308 AVG .357 OBP

Granderson vs lefties .214 AVG .270 OBP

[Dannomyte]

This Zumaya update sounds a lot more promising .

DETROIT - Matt Stairs joined the Detroit Tigers Friday. Joel Zumaya could return as soon as tonight.

Zumaya hasn’t pitched in a week, because of tendinitis that led to him getting a cortisone shot in his right wrist. The Tigers had hoped he’d be available Friday, but after Zumaya played catch Friday afternoon, he came back saying: “It didn’t feel too good.”

After Friday night’s 17-2 Tiger win over Baltimore, Zumaya clarified what he meant.

“There’s nothing wrong,” he said. “There’s no pain. It’s just that I hadn’t thrown in five days.”

Zumaya said he plans to play catch again this afternoon, and could pitch tonight.