Goodbye Mr. Willis

 

 

 

 

The Tigers last night, in a move that surprised no one, Recalled Max Scherzer from Toledo and designated Dontrelle Willis for assignment. This ends the D-Trains reign of terror in Detroit. Since 2008 Willis record in the motor city is an appalling 2-8 with a  6.86 ERA.

Willis was a huge get for the Tigers in 2008, coming over from Florida along with Miguel Cabrera, for Andrew Miller, and Cameron Maybin, whom were the two top prospects in the Tigers organization.  This was a guy who was supposed to anchor the Tigers rotation, he was just a couple of years removed from winning 22 games and finishing 2nd to Chris Carpenter in the NL Cy Young race. However things were not to be as Willis had all kinds of problems throwing strikes. It was never an issue of him missing close, he would pitch and the ball would fly over the backstop. It was a little bit sad to watch.

Willis has 10 days to clear waivers at which point he would be eligible to go pitch in the minors, an option that the Tigers do not think that Willis will take. Gerald Laird seems to think that Willis’ career is not over. He noted that he has watched Willis make huge strides over the last couple of years.

Report Card: Quarter of the way through the season issue.

Yes we are a little over a quarter of the way through the 162 game season, time to do Grade Reports for Your Detroit Tigers:

Starting Pitching

Grade: C+

Starting pitching which carried this team last year has kind of been the Achilles heel of the Tigers this season. Outside of Verlander we really don’t know what we’re going to get. Verlander is a MLB Ace however, just ask Rod Allen, he’ll tell you all bout it. Porcello has had some really good starts and some really bad ones. Opponents are still hitting over .300 against him. Willis still walks every other guy he faces, the sad thing about this is, his pitches are really good. Guys have a hard time hitting the D-Train when he’s on. Bondo has been really good, this needs to continue if the Tigers hope to have a chance of winning the division. The 5th spot is currently held by Galarraga but he’s just holding the spot until Scherzer gets his issues figured out.

Prediction: Eddie Bonine becomes a starter if Galarraga, Willis or Scherzer can’t figure it out

Bullpen

Grade: A+

In 2009 the Tigers pen wasn’t very good. Zumaya spent the majority of the year hurt, Rodney was very inconsistent in non save chances, for the most part the pen sucked. Fast forward to 2010. Zumaya is pitching like the 2006 version of himself, except maybe he’s a little bit better. Jose Valverde has been phenomenal. He may be the single biggest free agent signing in Detroit since Magglio Ordonez.  You know when Valverde comes in to close a game out, its a done deal. Phil Coke and Fu Te Ni have been two very good lefty’s out of the pen. Both pitch extremely well against left handed hitters. Finally Eddie Bonine who I think is headed for a starting spot, has been very very good in long relief for the Tigers.

Prediction: Alfredo Figaro gets a call up to the majors in the near future to work long relief for the Tigers.

Outfielders

Grade: A

This unit has been very consistent, which is pretty surprising considering the youngsters they have playing out there. Both Brennan Boesch and Austin Jackson are rookies and they are probably the two favorites for AL Rookie of the Year right now. These kids can flat out hit, and Jackson is the equivalent of Curtis Granderson in the outfield.  Boesch started out slowly playing the field, but he has made some nice plays recently. Ordonez and Damon provide veteran leadership for the two youngsters, its nice to see Mags return to form. Lets face it 2009 was an anomaly. Damon was a good free agent pickup, he’s still one of the best table setters in the game.

Infielders

Grade: B-

Without Miguel Cabrera this grade would probably be a D+/C-, however Cabby is probably the 2nd best 1st baseman in baseball, right behind Albert Puljos. The rest of the infield has been pretty substandard. Lots of errors. At 2nd base so far we have seen Sizemore, Worth, Raburn, and Santiago, all start there. Guillen will be the starter once he gets back. Inge is still probably the best 3rd baseman in the game, yet he still can’t hit. Everett and Santiago platoon the shortstop position,a role that I would like to see Santiago get 75% of the playing time. Everett is well lets face it, he sucks at the plate. His glove is good no doubt about that, but Santiago’s glove is also good, and He can hit a little bit more consistently than Everett.

Prediction:  Brent Dlugach gets a call up sometime in June.

Catchers

Grade: D

The catching position has been woefully inconsistent. However even if Laird and Avila can’t hit they both are pretty solid defensively.  The Tigers are going to have to hope that Avila grows into this role, and hopefully he can replace Laird as the everyday catcher.

Overall Grade: 

 

There you have it folk the Tigers a little over a quarter of the way through the season Report Card We Own The Central Style.

ESPN Power Stankings

So in ESPN's new power rankings, The boys in Bristol rank the Tigers who sit a game out of first place 11th. The Twinks who are currently ONE game up on the Tigers, are ranked 4th. What gives ESPN?

This is a Tigers team who has been playing really good baseball over the last 3 weeks or so. Forget losing 2 of 3 to the Dodgers, whom may be the hottest team in baseball right now. This Tigers team has series wins in the last few weeks over, The A’s, The Red Sux, The Yankees, the Twins. This is a good baseball team, albeit a Team with a few lingering issues.

We need more starting pitching. Dontrelle is reverting to the old Dontrelle ways of walking every other batter he faces. Galarraga is still the same pitcher he was last year. His fastball has incredible movement on it, however that doesn’t matter much when you can’t locate it.

You never know what you’re going to get when Porcello goes out there. Sometimes(like on Sunday) he looks like a legitimate ace, other times he looks like Armando Galarraga. I’m not going to be too hard on the kid yet though, he is only 21 years old. And then there is Bonderman who is starting to figure himself out. I think Bondo could be a pitcher who can give you 12-15 wins per season. His slider is a very good pitch and he is learning how to throw the 2 seam fastball.

Finally Justin Verlander for my money is the best pitcher in baseball. I wouldn’t take another starting pitcher over him, but yes I am a bit of a Homer. 

Taking over Fox Tonight!

So our beloved Tigers take over Fox tonight. Will we become bigger than the Simpsons? We Already have.

Armando Galarraga gets the start for Detroit tonight hoping to build off of his good outing last week against the Yankees. I noticed that Armando’s two seam fastball had tons of late life on it. His control was erratic at best, but with the way the Dontrelle Willis has pitched his last couple of starts, we really need Galarraga to step it up.

Fwiw I really think that Scherzer is probably on his way back soon. I also think that the D-Train may be done in the Motor City. This is unfortunate but the Tigers are trying to win a Division, and 14 walks per 9 isn’t going to get it done.

Speaking of Scherzer, in his one start at Toledo he went 8 innings giving up only one hit and walking only one while striking out TEN. Max we’d love to have you back pitching with the old English D on your chest. Hurry up and figure out your stuff and come back and win us some games.

Chance at First

As I am writing this the Minnesota Twins are Losing to the Boston Red Sux 4-0 in the top of the 5th. If the Twins don’t mount some sort of comeback the Tigers will be tied for first going into inter-league play.

So why didn’t I wait. Maybe a small part of me thinks posting this before the final will prove that I have super powers. If the Sux end up blowing this game, you can lynch me, because I most certainly have the power to change the course of a Major League Baseball game.

So yeah this post is too more or less find out if I’m super.

Inter-League play kicks off tomorrow with the Tigers heading into LA to face the Dodgers. I love inter-league play, when MLB decided to adopt this format, they did it right. Baseball purist’s you can suck it.

No LiveBlog tonight

I'll try again tomorrow night, just remember to support you neighborhood TIGERS!

Preview Chicago White Sox

 

The White Sox come into Detroit with an astounding 15-22 record. Have Ozzie Guillen’s meltdowns spelled doom for this team? I don’t know.

This has turned into a very good rivalry over the last couple of years. In this series the Tigers will send two of their best(Porcello and Verlander) to the mound to face the reeling White Sox.

Porcello gets the start tonight, coming off his best outing of the season, in which he beat the Yankees 2-0, throwing 7 strong innings. I look for this trend to continue, as Porcello’s stuff is just to good to keep getting hammered. Facing him will be Freddy Garcia.

Verlander gets the start tomorrow, squaring off against John Danks. Once May arrived, Verlander really seemed to turn the corner, and once again is the dominating pitcher we have all come to love. Danks has had a very strong year, but has been hurt by lack of run support.