Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
After dropping the opener to the Royals at home, the Yankees beat up on the majors' worst team on Saturday (a 15-4 victory) and during the first two innings of Sunday's game. They then went down in order (save a Johnny Damon single erased by a caught stealing) over the final seven innings of the series, squeezing out a 6-5 win in the finale.
Today they're in Detroit for a Memorial Day afternoon special to open a four game series with the best team in the majors. The Tigers have a strong offense, which some of us saw coming, but have been winning with dominating pitching, which few if any of us did. This afternoon's contest features the two disappointments of the two rotations, Randy Johnson, about whom more need not be said, and Jeremy Bonderman, who was the Tiger hurler ticketed for a breakout and, through an odd twist, the only one who hasn't experienced one.
That's all I've got for you right now. It's a gorgeous day and Becky and I are going for a picnic. Enjoy!
Detroit Tigers
2006 Record: 35-15 (.700)
2006 Pythagorean Record: 34-16 (.674)
Manager: Jim Leyland
General Manager: Dave Dombrowski
Home Ballpark (2005 Park Factors): Comerica Park (98/98)
Who's Replacing Whom?
Current Roster
1B – Chris Shelton (R)
2B – Placido Polanco (R)
SS – Carlos Guillen (S)
3B – Brandon Inge (R)
C – Ivan Rodriguez (R)
RF – Maglio Ordoñez (R)
CF – Curtis Granderson (L)
LF – Craig Monroe (R)
DH – Marcus Thames (R)
Bench:
R – Omar Infante (IF)
R – Ramon Santiago (IF)
L – Jack Hannahan (IF)
R – Vance Wilson (C)
Rotation:
R – Justin Verlander
L – Kenny Rodgers
R – Jeremy Bonderman
R – Roman Colon
L – Nate Robertson
Bullpen:
R – Todd Jones
R – Fernando Rodney
R – Joel Zumaya
L – Jamie Walker
R – Jason Grilli
L – Bobby Seay
R – Chris Spurling
15-day DL: S – Dimitri Young (DH), L – Mike Maroth
60-day DL: R – Troy Percival, R – Craig Dingman
Typical Lineup
L – Curtis Granderson (CF)
R – Placido Polanco (2B)
R – Ivan Rodriguez (C)
R – Magglio Ordoñez (RF)
S – Carlos Guillen (SS)
R – Chris Shelton (1B)
R – Craig Monroe (LF)
R – Marcus Thames (DH)
R – Brandon Inge (3B)
Johnny Damon CF
Derek Jeter SS
Gary Sheffield RF
Jason Giambi 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Cano 2B
Terrence Long DH
Melky Cabrera LF
Randy Johnson LHP
you have 4 options (bernie, cairo, phillips, long) and you go with the worst.
Now, having said that, it would be fitting for Long to have an amazing day. 3-5 with 2 hrs
Andy Phillips should just beg Brian Cashman to release him. If only he had a clause like Carlos Pena.
No Joe, Unit's DHing tomorrow.
I've got my ticket for tomorrow's game: Small-Colon. Now is it going to be a gut wrenching performance or will the Yankees have the intestinal fortitude to win?
I'm hoping for the big bats to show up
Yes, a live game is shunted to later in order to broadcast a repeat of a foreign game.
And a nice 1 2 3 inning by the Unit.
I was just about to chime in, that tho the Tigers are hitting .280, good for 5th in the league, they don't take very many walks. Guillen at ss seems to be the only regular who does. First inning shows it.
(They seem to be making up for it with an oustanding sluggiung % however -- .474, 2nd only to the Jays and far ahead of our .448.)
Makes Cano look like Giambi and Thome.
Unit threw more pitches to Inge than he did to Polanco, Thames and Pudge combined.
Crap, Long is up...
Shut up, dpmurphy.
If you're a tigers fan, well, good job
WTH!! no more injuries please...
Jeter's out, replaced by Ciaro!
GREAT JOB BY ANDY!!!!
92 Slider, I think. He's also been more aggressive this game, he actually went high and tight to someone earlier in the game, knocking the batter on his butt.
92 94 agreed, the slider was working very well, also I noticed that he was able to locate his fastball in all 4 quadrants (sitting at 92-92 mph). I think it all boils down to command. I also liked the up and in to Pudge and to another batter I don't remember. Very good outing by RJ
What's with Joe yanking pitchers with low counts when they are doing well? Hey, I'm sure if he'd given up a three-run bomb in the third, they'd have left him in to settle down, and he probably would've pitched through the 5th even if he continued to fall apart, but a double in the 7th? Time to go.
I really didn't think Bonderman would wind up outlasting Randy today.
Ride that pen like a rented mule!
97 - most likely, Joe wants to get Proctor & Farnsworth another inning of work - Lord knows they've been underused lately. I'm surprised Villone is in - I didn't know Joe was aware he was on the 40-man roster.
Villone was very good in the 7th. I would probably start him in the 8th., and then use Myers even Erickson if there's no one on. Then, for the 9th. you have to play it by ear.
I love you too, Terrence F'ING LONG!!!!
So why pull a guy in the seventh, working a two-hitter on 91 pitches? So he gives up a lead-off double. The run probably scores (and again, kudos to Ronnie Villones for preventing that), but they're up 4-0. If saving the pen from the fifth inning is a good idea, so is saving it from the seventh, if possible.
Now I see they're going to try to squeeze a few more outs from Villone, but they'll probably end up using three relievers anyway, instead of two, and if they only use two, those guys are that much less likely to be available tomorrow.
It's 93F in Detroit today. (I had personal experience of it. Yech. It's incredibly hot, humid, and muggy in the Midwest today.) Randy has always said he doesn't pitch well until it gets hot.
If so, today was tailor-made for him.
Anyone know this Colon guy?
They said at the Yes site that Jeter jammed his hand and they took him out so he could ice it. Any word?
Recalled to Detroit on the 11th, he pitched 10 innings in 3 games, 3.60 ERA 10 hits, 5 BB 7 Ks. Haven't seen him pitch, so I don't know what stuff he has, but I suspect Leyland is going to have to piece together 9 innings by using the bullpen a lot.
Basically, it is going to be emergency starter vs. emergency starter.
And a good result.
I have to say, I am glad in many ways that RJ didn't get the no-no. It somehow seems easier to chalk that up to a freak occurance, as opposed to a two hitter, which usually signifies darn good pitching. From my tiny mlb.tv screen, I saw a fastball that hit spots, and interestingly, seemed to change speeds a lot. Maybe a Moose influence? I also saw a nasty slider that actually hit the dirt rather than staying up to be hit. And as already mentioned, I saw an aggressive, nasty Randy who went after hitters rather than letting them go after him. There was also the benefit of a huge park, but not many of the balls were to the warning track...
Build of that Johnson, because a team with Moose and you pitching like that is in another world of better....
And please, tell me that Torre is not seriously considering sending Bubba down in favor of T-Long...
And MLB.com has this quote from Torre:
>>The Yankees will have to make a roster move to make room for Crosby, but Torre has liked what he's seen so far from Long in the past week.
"He's a pro," Torre said. "He's easy to like in the clubhouse; everybody seems to be very comfortable with him. He's been in the fire before, with Oakland when they were winning divisions and getting in the playoffs, he was there. You can never discount that experience in my mind."<<
Um, Joe, what about how he plays? Doesn't that count for anything?
(That quote was fake, right? Nobody would actually want T-Long on their team.)
http://tinyurl.com/encs9
"Long needed some at bats to stay sharp, so we gave Melky the week-end off. Melky's a good kid, but he hasn't been through a pennant race before."
"He's a winner - a proven winner," said Torre. "There's a certain IT about him."
Acknowledging his team's current need for depth at catcher, Torre added, "I've never actually seen Fasano play in my life. But, according to BaseballReference, he was on those Oakland playoff teams in 2000 and 2001, so I'm sure knows how to handle himself in the fire, if you know what I mean."
When reminded that Fasano is no longer playing organized baseball, Torre scoffed. "At the bare minimum, I've got three guys on my roster right now that have no business playing in the big leagues. And yet, somehow, I've got all the faith in the world in them."
And don't look now, but Boston's down 0-6 in Toronto.
I'm fascinated at the doom-and-gloom here, despite the Yankees win. You all putting too much in what Torre is saying. What's he suppose to say, "Terrence Long is a bum and we are only using him right now till we get a better option. I definitely don't want to play him."? From hearing the pre-game yesterday, it definitely seems like the organization is leaning on playing Melky over anyone else till Matsui comes back.
Unless that manager is Ozzie Guillen, Torre is not of the ilk to say his true feelings to the press. The only time I've ever seen Torre visibly upset was when Jose Contreras was sent to single A by Billy Conners and/or Tampa, despite Torre and Mel telling Contreras that he was going to triple A.
dwuhv Terrence fugzl Long wqudgo hccghl
Fasano is actually on a ML team now--maybe the Reds?
6-6 tie now. :-P
Anyway good win for us today, hopefully RJ can keep up the turnaround.
Cliff I got a question for you, looking at the Tiger's stats, they are striking out like crazy (most in the AL) and pretty much not walking at all ( only more than the Royals Mariners and Angels...) they are also having the fewest SBs while having the most CS at the same time!!
That seems like a pretty toxic combo, they are pretty much reling solely on .AVG and SLG to get things done, they have a pretty darn good SLG and AVG right now and still are only middle of the pack offense, isn't AVG and SLG very prone to ups and downs ? is the Tiger offense really ok?
While striking out a ton and stolen bases aren't a huge deal, it's obviously not a plus, and getting so many CS is definately not a good sign, while low walks are always pretty bad in general I thought.
So here's the question, you really think the Tigers offense is around where it should be? or is it due to sink back sooner or later?
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