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Detroit Tigers Player-by-Player First Half Reviews: Starting Pitchers by Seth9

This post is courtesy of Seth9 who currently blogs with me at MM. Anyone who hasn’t read Seth’s stuff is missing out on perhaps the best up and coming sports blogger on the internets. I asked him if I could post this here and he told me I could so without further ado I give you Seth’s mid-season report card.

 

 

With their 12-9 win on Monday afternoon over the Baltimore Orioles, perhaps the second worst team of the decade (number one being the 2003 Detroit Tigers), the Tigers hold a record of 44-37 over the first 81 games of the year, meaning that we have hit the actual halfway mark in the Tigers season. This record is good for first place in the AL Central, 1/2 game over the Minnesota Twins.

As the Tigers have finished the first half of their season, I will be grading the first half performances of every player. This post is dedicated to the starting rotation. The next will cover relievers and the last will cover position players.

Note: I will not be using a number of advanced statistical performance measures during these reviews. For instance, I will not use the Fielding-Independent Pitching (FIP) statistic because, in my opinion, the assumption that hits should be treated as irrelevant is not a good one to use for pitchers, as a large proportion of Tigers pitchers give up hits at a higher clip because they are power pitchers who tend to locate their off-speed pitches poorly. As a result, they give up a fair number of hits and runs, but are able to lower their FIP by striking out a bunch of batters.

Justin Verlander

Grade: B+

Verlander has without a doubt been the best of the Tigers starters, producing a 10-5 record in 17 starts with a 3.85 ERA. He has 103 strikeouts and 37 walks in 110 innings pitched. He has generally been able to go deep into games, pitching 7+ innings 10 times and pitching fewer than 6 only five times. The problem with Verlander, as usual, was an atrocious start to the season. Verlander's first four appearances included a 1-1 record with a 6.95 ERA, a major problem as the bullpen was strained early on and having to regularly bail out the ace didn't help matters.

Jeremy Bonderman

Grade: C+

Bonderman has been highly inconsistent during the first half. This is not a terrible thing. After all, he has 8 quality starts in 15 starts, which makes him the only Tigers starter other than Verlander to produce a quality start over 50% of the time. The problem with Bonderman is that when he's not having a good start, he is often very, very bad. Even so, considering the rather low expectations that most Tigers fans had for Bonderman going into this season, considering his injury history, a 4-6 record with a 4.81 ERA over 15 starts isn't bad.

Max Scherzer

Grade: B-

Max Scherzer got off to a decent start, going 1-1 with a 2.63 ERA in his first four starts (he gave up quite a few preventable unearned runs that made his start look better on paper than it really was). Then, he had a string of four incredibly awful starts from April 28 through May 14 in which he went 0-3 with a 13.50 ERA, which led the Tigers to send him to the Minors for a couple weeks. Since coming back, however, he's been excellent, going 4-2 in 7 starts with a 2.62 ERA with 11.3 K/9, 3.29 K/BB, and a 1.12 WHIP (Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched). This adds up to a 5-6 record over 15 starts with a 4.88 ERA. Outside of his atrocious stretch from late April to mid-May, Scherzer has been at least as good as Verlander on a daily basis. However, when coming up with a grade for him, a string of starts bad enough to get sent down to the Minors has to be taken into account. That said, his future looks very bright for this season and beyond.

Rick Porcello

Grade: D-

If Jeremy Bonderman in the most inconsistent pitcher in our rotation, then Porcello is our most consistent pitcher. Unfortunately, he was consistently bad. In his 13 starts, he went 4-7 with a 6.14 ERA. He had a decent set of games in May, procuring 3 quality starts in 5 games, but has otherwise been simply bad. Really really bad. As in, Michigan's linebacking corp did better this past season than Rick Porcello is doing this year. Porcello's specific problems are major issues. He's had trouble controlling his pitches and his breaking balls have not bite to them. And he simply seemed to lack confidence on the mound. Porcello was sent down to Toledo in June and will hopefully get back to form and return to the rotation relatively soon, just as Scherzer did earlier this season. After all, his stuff is still excellent when he's on and he's got a lot of potential.

Armando Galarraga

Grade: A+

On May 16, Galarraga was called up to pitch against Boston to take over Max Scherzer's spot in the rotation while he worked in the Minors. He stayed in the Majors after Scherzer came back, as the Tigers chose to release Dontrelle Willis and keep Galarraga in the rotation. A couple days later, Galarraga pitched what should have been a perfect game, retiring 28 batters in a row, despite giving up a nominal infield single to Jason Donald because of because of perhaps the worst call in MLB history:

 

Since the near-perfect game, Galarraga has not been very impressive, producing only 1 quality start, which came against the Pirates, in five outings (of course, as I write this, he's pitching very well against Baltimore). In those five starts, he has gone 1-1 with a 6.00 ERA and a worrying 0.60 K/BB ratio. Since these grades are supposed to cover the entire first half, Galarraga doesn't really deserve an A+. However, he does deserve a perfect game, so I figured I'd give him a compensation prize. It isn't much, but it's more than what Bud Selig gave him.

Dontrelle Willis

Grade: C-

Willis did not play well in his time at Detroit. Before this year, he played in a few games, showed no control, and spent most of his time on the DL for anxiety disorder. This year, he started in 8 games and produced a 1-2 record with a 4.98 ERA. He actually pitched fairly well in April, but fell apart in May. The biggest problem with Willis was that he never went deep into games. His longest outing lasted 6 innings, a feat he accomplished only 3 times, none of which happened outside of April. As such, when Scherzer was ready to come back from Toledo, the Tigers chose to release Willis and let Galarraga in the rotation. Willis was picked up by Arizona and released after a performing poorly in both the rotation and a relief appearance.

Andrew Oliver

Grade: C

Oliver was called up to replace Porcello while Porcello works out his issues in Toledo. He has gone 0-2 in his 3 starts with a 5.93 ERA. However, he also has 11 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings, as well as 2 quality starts. And, when you look at his games individually, the overall stats do not seem as bad. Oliver had a solid first outing against the Mets, in which he gave up 2 runs in 6 innings and got the loss. In his second outing, he went up against the Twins and was the recipient of poor defense on the way to his second loss (although he was the cause of some of it). After his first two games, he had a 3.00 ERA and 10 strikeouts in 12 innings. His latest outing, which I attended, against the Orioles was terrible. He gave up 6 runs (5 earned) in 1 2/3 innings and his pitches had little movement and were not well located. Still, he's been decent and has done well enough for a temporary call-up from the Minors.

Overall

Grade: C

The rotation has not been good this year. While Verlander and Scherzer project well for the second half, definite questions remain for the bottom of the rotation. If this season is going to be a success, then Porcello needs to get it together and Bonderman and Galarraga need to be more consistent, or the Tigers will need to make an acquisition before the deadline. The problem is that the Tigers do not have a ton of prospects available to trade and there are also holes at catcher, the middle infield, and, thanks to the Zumaya injury, the bullpen that demand Dombrowski's attention and he cannot solve all of them.

Willis and Jackson make their return to Comerica

Former Tigers, Edwin Jackson and Dontrelle Willis roll into Comerica Park this weekend, with their new team, The Arizona Diamondbacks. Jackson is having a rather subpar year, so far he is 3-6 with a 5.18 ERA. He has walked 35 while striking out 75. A 1.43 WHIP hasn’t exactly helped him.

The D-Train has made two starts for the Diamondbacks and hasn’t looked terrible so far. He still has control problems as he has walked 10 in 10 IP for the DBacks. I loved the D-Train while he was in Detroit. He was one guy I always rooted for, and I wish him the best in Arizona. Hopefully he can put it all together, and get back to the way he used to be. I just hope that the turn around doesn’t start tonight.

The Tigers, winners of 6 in a row, look to keep that winning streak going tonight as they send Mr. Perfect, Armando Galarraga to the hill. This guy has been fantastic since he was called up from Toledo. LETS GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!

It’s Boesch Time!

Brennan Boesch is by far the most impressive rookie I have seen play this year. This kid, who for the record, wasn’t rated in the Detroit Tigers top 30 prospects, continues to kill the fucking ball. I love Brennan’s baseball philosophy, “See Ball, Hit Ball”. That is exactly what he does. He rips the cover off the ball. It’s an absolute joy to watch.

He did it again tonight against the Nationals. The youngster went 3 for 4 with 4 RBI’s including a mammoth 3 run homer off of Livan Hernandez in the 7th. You knew the second that you seen him make contact that this ball was out of here, an absolute no doubter.  

I should also mention that Justin Verlander went 8 solid innings, including 11 k’s. This was the first time all year that Verlander had reached double digit strikeouts. Verlander did give up 2 long balls early in the game, but you know what they say “no harm, no foul.”

If we could only play bottom tier National League teams for the rest of the year. Bondo looks to complete the sweep tomorrow and the way he’s been pitching I’d say there’s a good chance of it happening.

‘Gers Beat the Nats

7-4 was the final score, the Tigers had a fine offensive performance including a 3 run shot by Ryan Raburn. Max Scherzer struck out 9, and gave up 4 earned over the course of 6 innings. Brandon Inge extended his hit streak to 10 games.

This win currently puts the Tigers win streak at 4 games, all which have come against bottom tier National League opponents. I guess you do whatever you can to make up ground, although Minny is currently up 9-3 on Colorado in the top of the 9th as I write this.

I think maybe the Tigers have things figured out. I realize that I’ve said this about 936 times so far this season, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen recently. The starting pitching has been consistent, if not pretty good. The bullpen has been very good, and the bats, especially the bottom 3rd of the lineup, have seemed to perk up.

It’s really to bad that we can’t play every game against Washington and Pittsburg, but what the well at least we get 6 in a row. Hopefully the Tigers can continue there magic over the next couple of games.

BTW, I’ll try to update the site a little bit more, life has been hectic lately. 

26 Hours Later

I thought I would take some time and allow myself to cool off before I wrote anymore on the debacle from last nights Tigers game. I briefly covered my feelings on the matter here.

A little more than 24 hours later and honest to God I feel the same way. Armando Galarraga threw the 21st Perfect Game in MLB History. I know that the record books will call this game a one hitter. However we fans of Major League Baseball sometimes have a duty to throw record books out the window. Jim Joyce admitted he blew the call. Bud Selig decided he won't overturn the botched call. So what? We as fans of the game have a duty to remember this as a piece of perfection. Cy Young would want it that way, Don Larson would want it that way. Hell Babe Ruth would want it that way. Major League Baseball has a rich and storied history, and Armando Galarraga just help write a new chapter. 20 years from now I sincerely hope that people remember 6-2-2010 as the day Galarraga threw a perfect game.

Fwiw Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga may be the two classiest human beings to ever be a part of this game that we love so much. First Galarraga who in my epinion should have been irate last night, instead humbly accepted Joyce’s apology. He said that no one is Perfect we all make mistakes. Armando you were wrong because last night my friend you were perfect.

Jim Joyce will go down in the history books as my favorite umpire. It took s0 much guts to go out there today and call this game. And he did it, and called a good game. He had tears in his eyes when Galarraga brought the lineup card out to him. He profusely apologized to Galarraga for costing him the Perfect Game. That is guts. More officials in the game need to take a page out of Joyce’s book. It’s so easy to forget that we are all human and therefore prone to making mistakes. 

Armando has probably received more fame from almost throwing a perfect game, then had he actually done it. This was easily the top story in all of sports for the last 26 hours. He also got a sweet new Corvette out of the deal courtesy of Chevy. The quote of the day also comes courtesy of Mr. Galarraga.

I will keep the CD," Galarraga said. "I will tell my sons I have (a perfect game). It's not official, but I know I have it.

Well done Armando, Well done.