Bless You Boys: FanPosts

Pimping Rick Porcello,

bpoe13 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:17:48 -0000

Hey all,

Sorry to invade your board but I thought some of you may be interested in some videos I was able to take on the 4th of July of your golden arm in the minors, Rick Porcello.

As a huge Rays fan and regular on DRaysBay, I wanted to share. A little break down is also available to go along with the videos. The site that its on is a new site that yes I am pimping but hopefully you’ll find some good stuff there as its all free. We are a new fantasy site that is giving away a ton of new info for football and in regards to baseball we work hard to keep you up-to-date on guys in the minor leagues.

Rick Porcello Analysis and Video

As a new site we would love any feedback both positive and negative should you have any.

Thanks in advance,

Poe

We may need an additional column for errors by the umps

alwayshoping — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:53:16 -0000

Anybody notice that Thames' 6th inning homer was initially called a foul ball by the same umpire that called out the Tiger in the extra inning Tiger loss at home plate against the Birds. We may want to have the umpires' schedules along with our teams' schedules just so we can add more factors to the statistic-laden sport of baseball. This may be another reason to bring in the instant replay for the close calls (and not so close calls) made by the game watchdogs.

Astonishing

Tony K — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:58:43 -0000

OK, let’s look at this situation: first and second, no outs, Guillen up to bat. Looks like a big inning could be brewing with the heart of the order coming up. Guillen has a 3-1 count and this pitcher can't hit the strike zone. He's throwing wild and his breaking pitch either hangs or misses. So with a 3-1 count, Guillen swings at a ball, and grounds out to the shortstop, opposed to loading the bases with a walk and no outs. Cabrera scores the run with an RBI groundout, Guillen advanced to third on a wild pitch (ironic), and Joyce flies out to end the inning. So with two men on, and no outs, we only score one. With a hitter's count you HAVE TO BE LOOKING TO WALK. Instead, our all-star swings irresponsibly, and may cost us a game. This is why the Tigers are a .500 team. Leyland has no problem having guys swing away on 3-1 counts with two on and no outs, but refuses to ever give the go ahead to one of the most natural base stealers in the game, who happens to be a leadoff hitter? I'm confused. Maybe it isn't a lack of player performance, but mismanagement that's killing this team.

Great run, but...

pfuhrmeister — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:48:47 -0000

So here we are at the mid-point of the season, one game over .500, 41-40. Not only that, but they've won 17 of their last 21! Very impressive. I'm not going to lie to you, I have been watching, waiting, and hoping to get back up to .500 this year. It's pretty much been what we've been hoping for since about oh, I don't know, mid-April? And here we are.

Sure, it's a tremendous accomplishment for the way this team started. But let's not buy our World Series tickets just yet. First let's take a closer look at that winning streak. 2 of those wins were against Cleveland (currently playing at a .451 pace.) 3 from the Dodgers (.469) 2 from SF (.439) 2 from San Diego (.386) and 3 from the Rockies (.390)

Granted, they did manage to wrest 2 out of 3 from the Cardinals (.566) and a sweep of the Pale Hose (.568) but Chicago really wasn't playing well during that stretch.

Still, 41-40 *IS* a game over .500, and good enough for third place in the Central right now, and we are all thinking that the Tigers are going to the post-season. Time for a good stiff shot of realism. Here are the last five years Central Division and Wildcard winners win totals:

Div WC

2007 96 94

2006 96 95

2005 99 95

2004 92 98

2003 90 95

So to make the playoffs out of this division is going to require AT LEAST 90 wins. And that's clinging to some pretty slim odds. Here's how many games some relevant teams are on pace to win in 2008:

White Sox 91

Twins 88

Rays 97

BoSox 95

Yanquis 86

Angels 96

So again, it's going to take at least 90 and a lot of praying. What would it take for the Tigers to win 90? They'd only have to go 49-32 the rest of the way, playing .605 ball. Here's some more pipe dream numbers for you:

To win PCT

91 .617

92 .630

93 .642

94 .654

95 .667

96 .679

97 .691

98 .704

99 .716

In case you still don't see that as long odds, go look how many games the Tigers have against Minnesota in the next two weeks. Seven. Sure, they could sweep those two series, plus take out Cleveland and Seattle. But it's not likely. And I have to ask myself if the rookie pitchers are going to look this good all season. Or if the injuries to Mags and Brendan are going to let some of the recent gains fade quickly into memory.

It's been a great run, and this may not be the peak for the boys this year. But I think it's time that we ask ourselves "Can we be satisfied finishing third in the Central this year?" Because that's what this year's Tigers' destiny appears to be.

Now go out there and prove me wrong, Jim.

135.00 ERA ... Not a Typo

Tigsfan — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:27:12 -0000

Short but sweet post about tonights game.

I don't get too detailed with this one, just more reiterations of what I feel is one of the key's to the Tigs problems. I'll give you a hint... his name rhymes with a commonly used 4-letter swear word that I used after the end of this game.

Read the post here

Check out my blog here

Comments always welcome and as always encouraged to say the least :)

AAA

rbuck44 — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:25:12 -0000

OK i can understand why theyd would want to move thomas back up, but why do they have to send down clevland, why not larish, the only time i watched larish get a hit was his home run, which i think was his only hit. We need a cannon in the outfeild like clevlands, larish doesnt do anything besides strike out, and make the routine catch. its not so much watching him in the outfeild that makes me mad, but when hes up to bat, its pretty much a gaurensheed out.

Edgar...... Roll Em' down!

Ramon Santiago (little man big heart) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:10:32 -0000

The tigers early on were struggling as we all well know, so somebody came up with the idea to roll up the socks negro league style. The isn't a knock on that great tradition of the negro leagues but the lack of fashion in that style caused most of the tigers to slowly roll them down, but even now our solid shortstop Edgar Renteria still has them rolled up. It's obvious he isn't the hottest right now but why edgar? Why? Hitting around .270 with 32 RBI's isn't Renteria type play but the socks aren't quite helping so Roll Em' down!

The Marcus Thames Show: A Look at the Resurgence of the Detroit Tigers and the Importance of the Longgggggggg Ball

Tigsfan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:53:58 -0000

Howdy Y'all

Back again with a mid-game post. I probably should've waited, but oh well.

I look at Marcus Thames, and the importance of the long-ball (obviously), See above.

I feel that the long-ball has been greatly undervalued this season, and I addressed my opinions on this in the post.

You can find the post here

You can find my full blog here .

As always I love comments, suggestions, opinions, etc...

Hope y'all enjoy!

Highs and Lows

ahtrap — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:57:06 -0000

Just perusing the schedule to date, and noting a couple of things, about where this Tigers team roller coaster has taken the squad and its fans this season so far. There have been a couple of definite valleys, along with a moment or two where a glimmer of hope has shone through the gloom, thought I'd point those out before the next turn of the wheel takes the kitties up further towards the promised land of .500 baseball (hey, when all else fails, set the bar low and go from there, right?), or deeper into the depths of baseball purgatory.

The opening stretch to the season was a definite low point. Who among us didn't perhaps look ahead a week on the schedule, when Boston loomed as the first big test of the season for our 1000 run Tigers? Well, I didn't, but that's probably because I don't usually know who the Tigers are playing on a daily basis. Just lazy, I guess....but it seems that maybe the Tigers were overlooking the Royals as, well, the Royals, and the White Sox as being yesteryear's team, and Detroit just came out of the gate and stunk up the joint. By the time they go to Boston, and got shut out for the second time in a season in which the offense was supposed to be unstoppable, the bloom was certainly off the rose.

But Detroit fought back from that, and on May 1, after sweeping the Yankees, the record stod at a respectable 14-15, the Twinkies were on the schedule, and the apparently unbeatable Armando Gallarraga was on the mound.....and he got crushed, 11-1. errr....oops? It was straight downhill from there, and quickly, the Tigers found themselves in an even deeper hole than they'd dug in the first week of the season, ploughing down to 17-27, and later, to 24-36, an astounding 12 games below .500 in a year where we were expecting to contend for the crown.

But then things turned around. A little. A split with Cleveland, two sweeps in a row, and suddenly, the skies are a bit bluer around Tiger fans. 9 of the next 12 games are against NL West bottom feeders San Francisco, San Diego, and Colorado (all with worse records than the Tigers! I'll just keep to myself the reminiscence of what happened the last time the Tigers played the NL West in interleague play....hint, it was 2003), and there's a chance here that that .500 barrier can actually be breached.

Who knows what will happen thereafter....if the Tigers get on a roll through this stretch, the next set of games after that, save for a holiday weekend set against the Mariners (always good for the bottom line) comes against a pair of division rival, Minnesota and Cleveland, a chance to make some hay in the Central.

We all know how well getting hopes up have worked so far this season....but hey, what can I say, as a Detroit sports fan, unlike most everything else in life, I am an optimist....well, except in the case of the Lions, where all I can say is....FIRE MILLEN!

But these Tigers....they could make some noise in the month upcoming....we shall see.....

How Sweep it Is... A Poem

Tigsfan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:12:07 -0000

Hello Y'all,

Back again with another post... This time I decided to get poetic. As most of you know i've been a cynic of late on my posts, but this time I tried to lighten up by gettin down with my poetic self and spittin out some jive words for the Tigs of the D.

I wanna be wrong about this season Tigs, I want to be wrong so bad.

Read the post here

Catch up with the blog here .

Hope y'all enjoy ;)

Leave some groovy comments ;) As always cynics like myself or not, opinions are appreciated.

This could be where it turns around

Tony K — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:42:04 -0000

I know we have heard that many, many times before, but a sweep or even a series win over the divison leaders followed by a whole slew of weak NL teams coming in, on top of Verlander hitting stride, Cabrera and Polonco getting their bats going, and the team playing good defense really could turn this thing around. 8 or 9 games back is nothing, more than a month before the all-star break. It's now or never boys, but I haven't given up on the playoffs.

GO Tigers!

Determining Fanhood... a post by Tigsfan

Tigsfan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:40:02 -0000

Hello all again,

I just finished writing up another kneejerk piece of writing after reading some comments that I've went and suddenly become a bandwagon fan. I typically ignore these comments as i know that I'm not, but today I thought I'd share some Tigers memories as well as clarifying my love for the Tigers.

I wrote the post with complete honesty and tried to explain myself and some of my frustrations with the Tigers of late.

I loved the recent move of sending willis to Lakeland which I also touch on in the post. It signifies change, which I explain more in the entry.

Anyways I hope y'all like it .

You can find my blog here .

You can read the post here .

Comments are always welcome ;) even jeers and "bandwagon" fan shots ... I love critism in any form.. ;) Call me a masacist if you will lol

The Green Monster and the 800 Pound Gorilla

busta — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:23:00 -0000

Hey all

I've had the pleasure of visiting 20 ballparks since my first game at in 1986. Today, I finally had a chance to go to Fenway Park. Fenway was different than any of the others I've been to in about 10 years. Fenway offered a unique experience where baseball and it's traditions were the focus. I think it's something that you can only experience at one of the historic parks; where even if the management was want to hype the show for the non-fan, the surroundings prevent it. I felt something at Fenway that reminded me of the best baseball experiences I've ever had. Maybe it was the way that the park melted in with the neighborhood. Maybe it was the lack of a bunch of silly games. Maybe it was just the old pictures hanging on the walls in the hallways as we walked to our seats, nothing felt fake, it was something I'd missed.

I tried to figure out where the feeling of nostalgia was coming from, I'd never been to Fenway before. I thought immediately of Wrigley, classic old park that it is, but the fan atmosphere is all wrong. They just don't care that much on the north side. I thought of Comiskey, the old one that I remember better than US cellular field, but it never had the personality of either Fenway or Wrigley. Finally I thought of the old white exterior of Tiger Stadium and the first game I saw there. I thought of my family and some of it's crazier members that used to listen to every game on FM 98.3 out of South Haven MI, and I thought of Ernie Harwell calling the games. I thought of Tram, Lou, and Jack Morris. I thought of the stories that people told me of Al Kaline and Hank Greenberg before him. I thought of how great it was to stop at White Castle before and after a game. Mostly I just thought of Tiger Stadium and all the great memories I have of the place and how the players who patrolled it's infield helped me develop a love for their game that has lasted regardless of the current trends.

I miss Tiger Stadium, I haven't been back to the D in a few years now and I know there are plans to tear it down this year. In my mind it's been gone for a long time, when I drove by it the last time I was in Detroit it didn't even look familiar to me. It's a shame that its been allowed to waste away, but people much smarter than myself have said as much more eloquently than I ever could. I'm glad I went to Fenway, somehow it took me back to Tiger Stadium.

Verlander's going to be just fine

C-Gon — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:03:22 -0000

I'm not a Tigers fan (A's all the way, darn you guys for taking us out of the playoffs two years ago), but I'm a huge stats guy and avid fantasy baseball fan. I was looking at Justin Verlander's numbers and came across some really extreme splits that might explain why he's been struggling:

2008:

Bases empty: .218 BAA
With Runners on: .314 BAA

Bottomline: He's going to be fine, better than fine.

Now compare that split to the previous two years:

2007:

Bases empty: .235 BAA

With Runners on: .230 BAA

2006:

Bases empty: .274 BAA

With Runners on: .254 BAA

While you can't say that a pitcher should have the same BAA with the bases empty and with runners on, over 100 points difference is pretty extreme. And while some pitchers are terrible from the stretch (one prime example is Dave Bush, who despite great WHIPs every year can't seem to put up a decent ERA with a career .252 BAA with the bases empty and .290 BAA with runners on), others turn it up with runners on (One extreme example with some luck involved is Zambrano, who has a .280 BAA with nobody on, but .188 with runners on this year).

We won't try to figure out whether this is a mechanical issue with pitching from the stretch or some mental issue, but just from looking at Verlander's past two seasons, he doesn't seem to fit the bill of someone who struggles this badly from the stretch. His LOB% this year is a terrible/unlucky 63.5% compared to 74.9% and 78.3%. All of these scream that there will soon be some regression to the mean.

While there are some bad signs such as his low K/9 (5.28 compared to 8.17 last year), the bottom line is that Verlander will be alright. The 100 point difference in BAA with runners on won't stay that way all season long, and his K/9 will improve, although maybe not to last year's levels.

Here's another interesting split if you look at his era by pitch count:

Pitches 1-15: 14.73 ERA
Pitches 16-30: 3.27
Pitches 31-45: 3.86
Pitches 46-60: 4.97
Pitches 61-75: 2.70
Pitches 76-90: 5.73
Pitches 91-105: 1.35
Pitches 106-120: 8.31

I know it's not a huge sample size, but he's definitely getting rocked at the beginning of games, and then being left in too long (couple starts where he was lights out... then once he got into the 6th or 7th, he gave up like 4 or 5 runs, and suddenly a great start gets ruined). One such example was Apr 27 start against the Angels:

Through 5 innings, his numbers looked like this:

5 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Not bad... then the 6th inning came around:

0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 3 BB

So whatever it is that's plaguing him, whether it's some mental block at the beginning of games and with runners on, I think Verlander will be Verlander again soon, and the Tigers will be the team everyone thought they would be at the beginning of this year (except when you guys play the A's of course).

Dear Tigers, I'm Done With You till Something Changes

Tigsfan — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:46:27 -0000

My latest post on my blog about the latest ugly game they lost and how I'm giving up on this team.

Basically a rundown of some things I think need to be done to improve the team.

Also, My thoughts on the games of late, and why I'm done with this team till I see some changes made.

View my blog here .

Here is the post.

Hope Y'all enjoy...

as always feel free to leave comments, or in some cases shouts if you like ;)

GO WINGS!!!!

WCWS

SonOfGibby — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:09:35 -0000

For years I have ignored women's softball. I found myself with nothing else to do about a week ago and decided to tune in. Good Lord! These girls are drop dead gorgeous and strong in all the right places. Of course there are some husky linebacker types, but there are an equal amount of girls that I would call at least twice. If you find the time fellas, keep your eyes peeled for Arizona State and Florida (Wow!). My favorite without a doubt was Arizona but I believe that the they were eliminated on Saturday.

The Maggstache

SonOfGibby — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:49:52 -0000

I feel that nothing could motivate the tigs more than Magg's new druglord look. This is just the spark that we needed. Good call Ordonez!!!! It has yet to take reach out to long time tiger heartbreaker/thrillseeker Todd Jones though. He was once again living on the edge today as he danced with the Seattle lineup in what should now be called the dangerzone in Detroit (the treacherous 9th inning). Thank god we took more than a one run lead. Seriously Jones, hang up the handlebars and call it a career.

Pitch Good… lack hitting, Hit good… Lack Pitching…

Tigsfan — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:26:16 -0000

Yesterday's game pissed me off... so I wrote a short post about it out of frustration. Just damn annoying to watch... Damn cruceta...

Well here it is again:

My third post on my new blog. (sorry I don't like being restricted to the SB Nation Fanpost blogs)

Short, simple, and sweet post.... Frustration continues, Verlander crying, cabrera, and jurrjens...

Read it here

Hope y'all enjoy ;) LEAVE COMMENTS (if you like ;) )

P.S. Screw Gary Bettman ONCE AGAIN for scheduling hockey when the Tigs are on!

Wow... did that just happen?

Tigsfan — Sun, 25 May 2008 05:19:18 -0000

Did everyone else see what I just saw? Fun fun fun stuff... GO TIGS!!

So of course I had to write about this game...

My second post on my new blog.

I'm gonna talk about tonights game, what was great about it, what made me want to bang my head against a wall...

Read it here

Hope y'all enjoy ;) LEAVE COMMENTS (if you like ;) )

P.S. Screw Gary Bettman for scheduling hockey when the Tigs are on!

Newsflash: Passion Is There, Tigs Still Struggling

Tigsfan — Sat, 24 May 2008 05:31:48 -0000

I recently wrote a post on my new blog , about my thoughts after the Tigs loss to the Twins, The new blog will have my random thoughts on the Tigers, and i'll reference it under the FanPosts section of "Bless You Boys" when I update it.

Here's my first post:

Hope Y'all like it ;)

P.S. I used to have a blog called "The Sportsgeek" but I liked Tigsfan's Mumblings better... so there ya go.