John Lowe at the FREEP has another article today documenting two things that we’ve been talking about here at Flashin Leather, the Tigers lack or a run defense and the struggles of the Amazing Al.
Al Alburquerque has played a prominent postseason role in each of his first two seasons with the Tigers. It remains to be seen if he will do any important pitching in any potential postseason games this October.
The right-handed reliever gave up two homers in Boston on Wednesday night and has allowed five this season. He never gave up a regular-season homer in his first two seasons.
His ERA is 5.58. That’s up from 1.87 in his rookie season. It’s up from 0.68 last year, when he appeared in fewer than 10 regular-season games because of elbow surgery.
But most notably, Alburquerque has not been throwing his best pitch, the slider, for strikes consistently.
Keep reading here.
Thanks again to Nebraska for pointing this article out.
“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Flashin' Leather 
I don’t know about Al squared, but he won’t be on the playoff roster anyway. He was a typical flash-in-the-pan and it’s time to move on. I think the Tigers would be best served to go with an 11 man pitching staff in the payoffs, since there will be only 4 starters. Bullpen can be Benoit, Smyly, Porcello, Rondon, Veras (ouch), Bondo (ouch), and maybe Coke (ouch). You could make an argument in favor of Putkonen over Bondo.
While that is so-so news, this is way more important!
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130906/SPORTS0104/309060118/1361/Say-it-ain-t-so–Tigers–Singing-Hot-Dog-Man-fired
I didn’t mind him at first, when the team sucked… I suspect the complaints have become so common they had to let go.
Sark, I want Putkonen over Bondo or Veras, the both suck.
Say it ain’t so about Charlie! I didn’t care for him at first but after I got to know him, he was a nice guy. I feel bad for him.
FYI: I wrote “say it ain’t so” before reading the article. 🙂
Bondo Oh No….Veras Yes……Coke left hand batters only and I am still scared! Putkonen …yes