Seattle: The Windy City…er… The Big Easy…or something dammit idk.

I don’t always enjoy west coast trips and late night games, but when I do, I prefer it be on the weekend. Papa needs to get up early for work during the week…unless of course Scrubs is on Netflix .Which it is. Always. Then sleep isn’t important.

photo credit: some blog talking about public defenders that makes me think of the dude stuttering in My Cousin Vinny.

The Motown boys just completed a 4 game series in Oakland where Torii had to pop a cop ‘cause he wouldn’t give him his props in Oaktown…no? I heard that somewhere. That must be why he was missing in the 4^th game after knocking two out of the park in back to back games. VMart is still hot as hell and you know Miggy is Miggy. It wasn’t a pretty series for Detroit’s pitching since Smyly was put down like a rabid dog, Scherzer forgot where he was for an inning, and Joe Nathan has now given up as many home runs as last year and blown more saves than last year. I don’t even think Verlander knows who he is anymore. Yaaaay… Still, Detroit came out with a 2-2 split. I’ll take that. Win at home and split on the road, right?

The Tigers are now 3-7 in their last 10. That tells you right there they’ve gotta be just plummeting in the standings. I don’t need to bring up any other stats do I? Oh what’s that? Still in first place? The Central sucks, yo. Even with the White Stockings going 7-3 in their last 10, Detroit still has a 4.5 game lead in the Central. 10 games over .500 50 games in. I’ll take it. Still the best winning percentage in the entire AL after what has been a very forgettable second half of May. Get you summa dat.

Up next we have the Seattle Mariners. You’ll see a familiar face in that dugout: Lloyd McClendon! You know, that guy that spent 8 years coaching in Detroit under Leyland’s reign. Seattle is hovering around .500 and in the middle/back of the pack in the AL West. Robinson “Crusoe” Cano missed yesterday’s game against the Angels and is questionable for tonight. He’ll likely play the entire series anyway. And he’ll kick some ass.

Pitching Matchups:

Friday 30 May 2014 – Verlander (5-4, 4.04 ERA) vs. Iwakuma (3-1, 2.39 ERA)

Saturday 31 May 2014 – Smyly (2-3, 3.86 ERA) vs. Young (4-2, 3.30 ERA)

Sunday 1 June 2014 – Scherzer (6-1, 3.00 ERA) vs. Elias (3-4, 4.02 ERA)

Predictions for the series:

Miggy will talk to the first baseman when he is standing on first. Kinsler will get at least 2 doubles. JV will get his ERA below 4 tonight. Scherzer will get his ERA below 3 Sunday. Phil Coke will make an appearance and piss everyone off, but he’s just doing it for the free sno cone after the game. Joba’s beard will grow. Someone will mention Zubaz during the game. I will say “Donnie Kelly baby” after a DK single that has no bearing on the outcome of any games. Lloyd McClendon will not steal first base. Tigers will take 2 of 3.

photo credit: CBSsports.com

The Chicago White Sox Are Coming To Town

It’s warming up out there finally! I actually got a tan while grilling yesterday. Total radness. It’s about time to start getting out those summertime sountracks consisting of Don Henley (or the Ataris), The Beach Boys, LFO, and lots of drinking/country songs. Oh by the way, my lake Up North is still frozen over.

The The Angles Angels Wrapup:

If you’ve never paid attention or learned Spanish, you wouldn’t realize The Los Angeles Angels literally means The The Angels Angels. That’s hilarious. I told that to my Mexican buddy when I was deployed to Kuwait and he called me an idiot. Anyyywayyyy…

I’m not saying Mike Trout is a bad player, but he suffered his first Golden Sombrero at the hands of the D-troit Tigers in Game 2 and and in Game 3 had a sweet error off of another error that led to another error which resulted in Kinsler essentially being walked home from first in about 10 seconds. I could only imagine what California Angels’ manager George Knox would have said. *Wanders off in thought* Just as I suspected, he would have said “let’s keep the profanity down. I mean it. No swearing!” Well crap on that. I’ll swear if I want. The Tigers got bombed in the first game but still came back to win the damn series. Hadn’t done that against the Angels in a couple of years IIRC.

Photo Credit: Screen Cap from Youtube

NEXT!

Chicago Sox are up on the docket at Comerica and it’s the first time we’ve seen them this year. And we will probably seen them about a bazillion more times before baseball starts to matter to the general public again. This will be a 4-game series taking up most of your week, but don’t worry, the first 3 are all 1900hrs starts and only the Thursday matchup is at 1300hrs.

The Sox will likely be shut out in Game 1 after putting up 17 against Texas on Sunday, because that’s how it always goes. By the way, those 17 runs make up a little over 16% of their runs scored for the entire year so far. So the fact that they’re leading the league in runs scored is a little deceiving. Keep in mind they’ve also given up over 100 runs so far. They’re hanging out at the top in terms of worst ERA in the AL. Don’t worry, they can’t get much worse than the D-Backs’ ERA.

Roster moves to note:

Alex Gonzalez is out. Out out. The Tigers essentially gave up Doug Fister and a million dollars for nothing. That’s a whole lot of Snapple.

Danny Worth is up and at ’em! Rise and shine! It’s butt-whipping time!

Will update if anything else happens before gametime tonight on FSD at 1908!

What to watch for:

Miggy needs to pick it up. Only 1 hit during the Angels series and 4 strikeouts. The Tigers aren’t worried and I’m not either, but it’s one of those “any day now Miggy…” things you say to yourself after you see him walk back to the dugout.

Tuesday night is going to be a good one! A matchup of aces in Chris Sale and our own JV.

Also, keep an eye out on the SS position! I’m hearing Brad Ausmus is going to put a scarecrow out there because scarecrows aren’t afraid of anything! …Except a lighted match. And I wouldn’t blame them for that. Even though they’d face a whole box full of ’em for a chance at getting some brains! We could always get Phil Rirruto to come back from the grave if possible. Oh it’s Rizzuto? Dammit Billy Madison, you ruined my ability to remember shortstops from the 40s.

Pitching Matchups:

Monday: Sanchez (0-1) vs. Danks (1-0)

Tuesday: Verlander (2-1) vs. Sale (3-0)

Wednesday: Smyly (1-1) vs. Rienzo (0-0)

Thursday: Scherzer (1-1) vs. Quintana (1-1)

Okay that’s about all I got. Follow @GordieHEntrance even though we probably won’t be as active as we are during Red Wings games.

Orioles Wrap Up, Dodgers Look Ahead

Thus far the Tigers have pretty much suffered from all the issues we thought they might, and they’ve pretty much been good at the plate and the starting pitching has been pretty stellar so far. The issues we saw coming into the season definitely started and ended with the bullpen, and somewhere in the middle was a slight worry about the team defense.

The thing is though, the Tigers are 4-1. So while I’m the type who says you can criticize your team regardless of what they’re doing, you also have to take note of the record. Sure they could have lost at least three of those games, but they didn’t, they’re 4-1.

(photo credit; sports.yahoo.com)

Orioles Wrap Up

The Tigers took two of three from Baltimore over the weekend and looked a little shaky doing it, against and Orioles team missing Manny Machado, one of the best young players in the game. But as Jim Leyland always said, “It’s not about who you play, it’s about when you play them.”

Game one was the exception to the “shaky” talk, as the Tigers took it to Baltimore winning 10-4 in a game that featured a 34 minute rain delay that cut Anibal Sanchez’s start short. Miguel Gonzalez started for Baltimore and probably shouldn’t have come out after the rain delay either, as he gave up two HRs, a 3-run shot to Rajai Davis and solo by Torii which gave the Tigers a 6-1 lead and that was all they needed. Drew Smyly showed out for three innings giving up a hit, a walk and striking out three while not letting a run cross the plate. Ian Krol also came in and pitched a complete inning without giving up a run, it wasn’t until Joba came in and absolutely didn’t miss a bat to four of the first five batters and gave up two runs before eventually finishing out the game.

In game two, Rick Porcello got the start and had a bit of a shaky first inning giving up a walk and a hit that led to the only run he gave up all day. In the bottom of the third, the Tigers loaded the bases and Torii roped a double off the base of the left-field wall that scored three and gave the Tigers a lead, that eventually was increased to 7-1 by the time Ricky P left after 6.2. Porcello gave up three hits, 2 walks and only the first inning run, while striking out three. Evan Reed came in and got the job one through the 8th and then Phil Coke… He faced four batters, gave up 2 hits, a walk and three runs while only recording one out. Al-Al quickly replaced him and came in to give up a hit and a run to the only batter he faced, before Joe Nathan was brought in to get a save, yea a save after being up 7-1 in the 9th. He got it done but not without giving up a run first.

Game three, the only game the Tigers have lost so far this year, featured a little too much of what we saw a lot last year, a great start by JV that ended with him getting a loss despite pitching eight innings of two-run baseball. The Tigers scored a lone run on a HR by Torii and lost the game 3-1 in the end after Albuquerque came in and gave up another run in the 9th.

(Photo credit; sports.yahoo.com)

The good; Great starting pitching, Miggy was 6/13 in the series and Torii hit a bomb in all three games. Kinsler has looked to be a solid leadoff hitter, Jackson is hitting .350 through five games and Castellanos is hitting .385 so far.

The bad; The bullpen and the defense. That, and Nick Castellanos on the base paths, but that can be fixed hopefully.

Dodgers Look

(Photo credit; sportsillustrated.cnn.com)

That is Yasiel Puig and he is my Cuban Jesus. He’s also a super huge pain in the ass to his coach and might not make it with the Dodgers much longer, we shall see! He’s also injured and may miss both games of this short series in LA.

The series looks to feature quality pitching matchups against two of the better offensive teams in the league and two of the top five highest payrolls in the MLB.

Pitching Probables;

4/8 – Scherzer v. Haren and 4/9 Sanchez v. Beckett (Season Debut)

The Dodgers have the advantage on offense and in the bullpen, although, they haven’t shown the strongest effort from the pen so far this season. The Tigers have the advantage with the starters, as they will in most series this year.

LA is 5-3 so far, early in this season, and they haven’t had the best pitcher in the game back off the DL yet, Clayton Kershaw will be back in a week or two and we’ll see just how good this team really is, and if the preseason favorite can win a World Series. The Dodgers got Matt Kemp in the last series and on Sunday he hit two bombs off Giants starter, Matt Cain, and played quality defense. If Kemp comes back and plays like the MVP runner-up that he was three years ago, the Dodgers will have a logjam in the outfield with Kemp, Puig, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier, and one of them has the potential to be dealt by the deadline.

The series is in LA so I guess the Tigs have to lose once, right? It’s so hard to pick against Max and Anibal so I won’t pick which one, but I assume the Tiger bats go quiet one game and they split the series 1-1.

Get involved on twitter @GordieHEntrance and find us on Facebook.

Happy reading Tiger fans!

What’s a Tiger article without a picture of Miggy?

(Photo Credit; suffolkvoice.net)

 

Tigers Last Look: Preseason Peek

I promise, it’s spring, it may not look like it, but it is technically spring and the Tigers are due to open up the season in only 6 days! This is your last and final look at the Tigers, their offseason and what is to come for the rest of the season, from the boys over at GHE.

Let’s get some of the fun stuff out of the way first, I asked all my cohorts what their thoughts were on the upcoming season, how many wins for the club? Where do they finish and who leads the team in wins for a pitcher? I don’t imagine anybody would pick anybody but Miggy to lead the team in homers or average, so other than him, who leads the team? Here’s what we came up…

A lot of love for VMart at the dish, along with Jackson picking up right where he left off in the playoffs. A good mix of starting pitchers coming back should create a healthy competition for who could lead this staff, a lot of us are counting on JV to come back and be the JV of late last season. Hopefully Joe and I are wrong and the Tigers can win the Central Division for the 4th straight season.

Catchup to Speed

With this offseason, there has been ups and downs, and the feeling that you get when talking to the fans around town is one of nervousness, and I don’t think fans are wrong for feeling that way. The additions so far, don’t seem to equal the subtractions all the way around.

The biggest moves include moving Prince Fielder for Ian Kinsler which shipped Miggy Cabrera over to first base and created room for highly-touted prospect, Nick Castellanos to finally come up and be the Tigers opening day third baseman. Next came Doug Fister being shipped of to Washington for prospects, Ian Krol and Robbie Ray along with utility infielder, Steve Lombardozzi. The move created a void in the backend of the bullpen because the Tigers had to move Drew Smyly into the rotation, which was likely the plan all along anyway, but the bullpen still needed help.

All the while this was going on, the Tigers watched Joaquin Benoit and Jose Veras leave in free-agency and replaced them with oft-maligned former New York Yankee, Joba Chamberlain, who will be counted on to perform well out of the pen as the Tigers likely 7th or 8th inning man.

The more nondescript moves include bringing in Rajai Davis to platoon in leftfield, trading spot-starter Jose Alvarez to LA for Andrew Romine and most recently, trading Lombardozzi to Baltimore for 37 year-old shortstop, Alex Gonzalez who was likely going to be put on waivers in the coming weeks.

(If you’re curious about some of the new guys, try these articles: Volume 1; The Speed, Volume 2; The Pen and Volume 3; The Rest)

That was the tedious part, a repeat and regurgitation of what most of you probably already knew, but it’s my responsibility to get all the rest of the fans up to speed. Finally, here’s your look at what’s been going on the last week or two heading into into the season and what we have to look forward to for the next five or six months.

Starting with the bad, it came out in the last week that Max Scherzer had turned down a deal from the Tigers, reportedly worth 6 years and $144 million. It has been rumored that Scherzer and his agent, Scott Boras, are looking for 8 years and roughly $220 million. The statement that came out from the Tigers front office is the bigger cause of concern;

“”The Detroit Tigers have made a substantial, long-term contract extension offer to Max Scherzer that would have placed him among the highest paid pitchers in baseball,” the statement reads. “And the offer was rejected.””

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/detroit-tigers-max-scherzer-contract-2014-3#ixzz2x05R6Zn1

That statement is a sign that the Tigers are upset about what happened with Max and is the result of a team who is usually very coy about their moves becoming frustrated by a player and an agent, and effectively slammed the door on any real chance of bringing Max back longterm.

No matter what happens this season, Max Scherzer will be getting paid next season and he has earned that. Scott Boras is going to take him to free agency and get him a $200 million contract. If Zach Grienke, who had injury/mental health problems, can get 6 at $147 million, Max will get his and it likely won’t be from the Tigers.

Scott Boras, Max Scherzer’s Agent (Photo credit; gettyimages.com)

Injuries

You know what may hurt the most? Jose Iglesias missing at least 5 months, and likely the whole season with stress fractures in both of his legs. Just this morning, the Tigers sent Danny Worth to their minor-league camp and Hernan Perez was assigned to AAA Toledo, leaving Andrew Romine and Alex Gonzalez as the SS combo to start the season. Unfortunately, both of these players rate out as below replacement players and it took the Tigers making trades to get them both here, rather than going to their farm-system which has been known as one of the weakest in the league for the better part of the last decade.

As if the city of Detroit needed more injury woes with it’s sports teams, Bruce Rondon, the phenom fire-baller who was supposed to be the Tigers 8th inning guy, will be sidelined for the entire season with Tommy John surgery. There’s not a clear answer for his replacement at this point, it will probably be a who’s-who of whichever bullpen guy is hot at the time.

Prediction Time;

It sounds like new head coach, Brad Ausmus has most of his lineup figured out to this point and unless something drastic happens, the top 6 should go: Kinsler 2B, Hunter RF, Miggy 1B, Martinez DH, Avila C, Jackson CF followed by some combination of Davis LF, Castellanos 3B and Gonzalez SS.

GM Dave Dombrowski and Coach Brad Ausmus (Photo credit; blogs.metrotimes.com)

The starting rotation won’t be vastly different than last year, going: Verlander, Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, Rick Porcello and Drew Smyly.

The bullpen is the biggest question, but unlike years past, that doesn’t start with the closer. Joe Nathan will lock down that position and the Tigers will build from the 9th inning backwards with the pen. The guys likely to break camp with the team are Al Albuquerque and Joba Chamberlain (likely guys to get 7th and 8th inning), along with lefties Ian Krol and Phil Coke and righties, Evan Reed and Luke Putkonen.

The bench will likely be filled out by Romine, Don Kelly, Tyler Collins, Bryan Holaday and potentially Eugenio Suarez.

My prediction for the season is that an improved Cleveland team finally makes a run at the division and holds off the Tigers down the stretch. Any sort of injury to Miggy, JV, Scherz or any of the other many cogs, could seriously cripple this team and make it difficult for the Tigers to repeat as AL Central champs for the 4th straight season. Detroit has huge questions on offense coming from LF, C, SS and potentially with Nick Castellanos. The speed should be vastly improved, which has been proven so far by the Tigers leading all teams in stolen bases in Spring Training (I know it’s only Spring Training). Castellanos was never known for his defense in the minors but replacing Miggy at the hot-corner isn’t a huge task, while moving Miggy to first in place of Prince is a huge improvement on the other corner. Jackson will be what he has been for the last couple years, a gold glove caliber CF. Torii is another year older and wasn’t the best defensive outfielder but he gets the job done, while Dirks (Gold Glove candidate last year in LF) is out, Davis will be taking his place and despite his speed, he takes bad routes and has a wet-noodle for an arm. Shortstop is going to be the biggest drop-off, with Iglesias being gone, that leaves Gonzalez and Romine, who are not “glove guys” the way Iggy is, and that could cost a pitching staff that is made up of a couple different ground-ball pitchers.

I think starting pitching will be one of the best rotations in the league, the offense will be there but the pen and the defense will cost the team the most.

 

The Fun Part: What You Can Look Forward To

• At some point during the 2014 season, you are likely to see Miguel Cabrera become one of the highest paid players in baseball history, if not the very highest, and how could he not be?
• You are going to see Nick Castellanos get a huge role with this team and hopefully develop into the hitter that he has always been projected to be.
• This team is going to run, so for all the people who disliked the lack of speed with the Tigers in seasons past, you’re finally going to see a team built for the park.
• Is it a bold prediction to claim that we’re going to see Miggy compete for the Triple Crown again and probably be a top contender for the AL MVP for the third straight year?
• Brad Ausmus is going to be a fun coach to follow, he’s got new ideas and a liveliness about him that Leyland seemed to lack at times. (For the record; I loved Jim Leyland as a coach)
• If you’re a fan of competition, you’re going to see a fun season, with an improved Cleveland team and a young but skilled Kansas City team challenging for the division crown.
• If they’re in the race, which they should be, the Tigers will likely make yet another splash at the deadline.

 

(Photo credit; static6.therichestimages.com/)

Obviously all of our hopes (other than Jeremy, who’s a RedSox fan) are that the Tigs compete to bring owner Mike Ilitch that World Series banner that he’s been wanting so bad for so long. This team has all the pieces to do it as long as they stay healthy and maybe get a little luck here and there. No matter what happens though, we know at GHE, that this team has some of the best fans in the league, and you guys will be there all season to cheer this team on, starting with next Monday as they kick the season off against the Royals… as long as the weather cooperates, of course.

For one last time, we’re asking for your prediction. What do you think about the upcoming season? Can the Tigers compete? Does Miggy win another MVP? Is Ausmus going to bring this team a championship in the next 3-5 years? Get involved, let us know your thoughts on twitter @GordieHEntrance or comment on our facebook page; The Gordie Howe Entrance

There’s always more to say, just ask if you’ve got questions or let us know if you have comments!

#EatEmUpTigers