Month: September 2015

Honor Babcock?

Crippy Hockey , ,

I share this story reluctantly.  I’m not a fan of Keith Gave’s but I agree with his suggestion.  Apparently, the Red Wings are, or were, considering some type of honor ceremony for Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock. Babcock and his Leafs open the 2015-16 NHL season at Joe Louis Arena on October 9th?

Gave says, “Don’t”, and I agree. Enough is enough.  Babcock coached the Red Wings and got paid handsomely to do it.  The Red Wings wanted to keep him. He wanted to move on.  I was offended by the dog and pony show that went on last season.  It was clear to me that when the sides hadn’t reached an agreement by the beginning of the season, Babcock was moving on.

Last time I counted, Babcock won, one, Stanley Cup in his 10 seasons with the Red Wings. That hardly justifies an honor ceremony for a guy who left town and joined arguably, the most hated rival.

I say, good riddance. Let’s honor new head coach Jeff Blashill, by welcoming in a new and hopefully more successful era with a guy that wants to be here.

Rangers 7 Tigers 6

Crippy All-Star Game, Baseball, Detroit Tigers , ,

If you score six runs off of Cole Hamels you probably had a pretty good night.  Not last night.  The Tigers were charged with four errors and probably should have been charged with six. This was a cacophony of nonsense redux.

J.D. hit a two-run homer giving him 101 RBIs on the season. That’s about all I can stomach to write about this one.  It was disgusting. I felt bad for Daniel Norris who struggled but was kicked in the stomach by his pals playing the field behind him.

Tigers 7 Rangers 4

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , ,

The Tigers opened their final road trip of the 2015 season with a win over Texas.

The turning point of game came in the bottom of the fourth.  With the Tigers leading 1-0, Prince Fielder leadoff with a solo-shot off of Justin Verlander.  The next three Rangers then reached base loading the bases with nobody out.

For the second game in a row, however, J.V. gave us a glimpse of the Cy Young winning pitcher of prior years.  He was able to retire the next three Rangers without surrendering another run. He retired the side on a pop up to second and two strikeouts.

The inning did take its toll on JV.  He needed 30 pitches to get through the fourth.  He lasted six complete and gave up just the single earned run, striking out five and walking two.

The Tigers scored five in the top of the fifth, three of which came on a conniption shot off of the bat of Tyler Collins.

Game notes:

  • J.D. drove in his 99th run of the season.
  • Victor left the game with what appeared to be a leg injury.  They might as well shut him down for the rest of the season.
  • With their 73rd win, the Tigers will avoid a 90 loss season.

Twins 7 Tigers 1

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , ,

This was a disappointing home finale to a disappointing 2015 season.  The Tigers had a chance to leave the home fans with a good taste in their mouth but instead gave them one last up close and personal look at the cacophony of nonsense they’ve witnessed this entire season.

The game was decided in the second inning when the Twins scored six runs.  Only four were earned but that is only because official baseball scoring doesn’t assume a double play on a booted ground ball with a runner on base.  Nick Castellanos committed an error on a ball that should have resulted in a double play, Randy Wolf couldn’t pitch around it, and the flood gates were open.

The offense was no help and the home finale was another microcosm of the 2015 season. The Tigers will wrap up the 2015 season on the road.  They need one more win to avoid a 90 loss season, Miggy is still chasing his fourth batting title and J.D. needs two more RBIs for 100. (It’s a stretch but I need something to tune in for.)

We shall see.

Twins 6 Tigers 2

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , , , , , ,

Well, I didn’t see much of this one past the third inning.  However, this was pretty good outing from Simon.  He lasted eight complete and allowed four earned.  Unfortunately, two runs offensively aren’t going to get it done.

The rubber game is this afternoon.

In other news: After hearing rumors that Ron Gardenhire was the next Tigers manager.  After announcing Brad Ausmus would be fired after the end of the season. New Tigers GM, “Big” Al Avila has changed his mind.  BA is staying.

http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2015/09/watch_al_avila_announce_that_b.html

I will take issue with one thing Big Al said in the video above. How exactly do the Tigers work on base running?  Perhaps they should stop.

One more thing, they need a new third base coach.  It’s hard to see how anybody other than Tom Brookens could be worse than Dave Clark.  The Tigers lead baseball in runners thrown out at home.  The only advantage Clark has on Brookens is that Clark gets runners thrown out by 10 feet whereas Brookens got runners thrown out by 30 feet.

Tigers 6 Twins 4

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , , , , ,

It looks like the Tigers are going to be the spoiler – whether they deserve it or not.  They pulled last night’s game off,  somehow, finding a way to win, when they didn’t deserve it. They overcame three infield errors and a sacrifice fly to second base to beat the Twins 6-4.

With one more win the Tigers can avoid a 90 loss season.

Rajai Davis came through with a big two out, two strike, two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth and Neftali Feliz closed it out.

Davis’s homer came after Nick Castellanos lead off the eighth with a double but both James McCann and Dixon Machado took third strikes, failing not only to score Castellanos, but even to advance him to third.  These are the situations that I start doubting the competence of Brad Ausmus. It is the bottom of the eighth in a tie game.  Your #6 hitter just lead off with a double.  Why aren’t you having McCann bunt him over to third?  You only need one run and it is late in the game.