In honor of the wonderful job the Tigers Bullpen has done five games into the 2017 season, let alone the last 10 years, I’m starting a new twitter hashtag campaign, #NiceBullpen.
Bruce Rondon’s ERA is 40.50, is that good for your setup man? Fear not, he has run into some bad luck, opponents are only hitting .500 against him.
Kyle Ryan, Anibal Sanchez, Alex Wilson, and Shane Greene haven’t been much better.
My good friend, Michael, at Minoring in Baseball tweeted this photo this morning. I had to post it.
Since the NHL season is drawing to a close, I thought I’d share my favorite picture from the 2016-2017 season. Connor McDavid is trying to fire up Patrick Maroon after Maroon scored a goal. I heard an interview with McDavid and he said he didn’t think Maroon was excited enough after this goal so he thought he’d help him out.
Yes, I’m a Tim Tebow fan.
Yesterday, Tebow hit his first minor league home run, for the Columbia Fireflies, off of pitcher Domenic Mazza.
Tim Tebows Christian Faith is no secret. However, did you know that Domenic Mazza was drafted in the 22nd round of the 2015 entry draft by the San Francisco Giants. Mazza was the 666th player taken.
I missed this yesterday. Albert Almora Jr., was flashin’ leather against “Big City” Matt Adams and the Cardinals.
In a previous post, I wrote about Steve Chilton’s speech at the annual dinner held by the Detroit Baseball Society. Chilton started off his speech with a story about his mother who passed away over the summer. He said he was called to the hospital late at night because his mother wasn’t doing well. When he arrived he sat next to his mother’s bed who was sleeping. Sometime early in the morning his mother awoke and said to him, ‘Kinlser got picked off again.”
Those were her last words.
Last season Kinsler made a habit of getting picked off of first base. Yesterday afternoon, he graduated to getting picked off of second base. Kinsler doubled with one out, in the top of the ninth, and then was promptly picked off of second base. Let’s hope this doesn’t continue.
I’m not holding my breath.
was the longest, most annoying spectacle I’ve seen in a long time. What is the story with driving the players out in cars? And that stupid music they played was gruesome.
Go Tigers!
I’m going on record now, the Tigers will win the 2017 World Series.
Cadence Weapon – Connor McDavid
I have been paying moderate attention to the World Baseball Classic. When I remember, I turn it on. On Monday, Miggy hit a solo shot in the ninth, against Italy for Venezuela, that tied the game at 2. Venezuela went on to win the game.
So I’m a little late in writing about this, but with the season fast approaching, I figured better late than never.
Since 2001, The Detroit Baseball Society has been holding an annual dinner. This is the fifth year that I have attended. Previous dinners were held a the Bloomfield Hills Country Club. This year’s dinner, however, was held at the Amnesia Room on the 16th floor of the MotorCity Casino.
In addition to dinner, drinks and appetizer’s there as a silent, sports memorabilia , auction and a slate of guest speakers. The guest speakers included Andrew Romine, Brad Ausmus and Steve Chilton.
Romine was awarded the Bill MacAdam Tenth Man Award and gave a very nice speech. He seemed personable and genuinely excited about receiving the award, which I wondered about, given that the award and presenting organization are not widely known.
Brad Ausmus spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questions for the audience. If you weren’t a fan of BA before the dinner, you probably were after. He was smart, articulate, and seemed like a good guy, he was pretty funny too.
Worth the price of admission was Steve Chilton. The first time I heard of Steve was when I saw him at the 2014 dinner. He is a genuine baseball / Tigers fanatic and a fabulous speaker. In 2014, he spoke about his heartbreak at the Tigers’ playoff loss to the Red Sox. This year he spoke about a shift in trends in MLB in how teams evaluate and value players. Apparently, some teams are using advanced, video analysis of players that allows them to better evaluate their defense and runs they are able to save by making the proper defensive play. He said the these advanced metrics are going to show up in the contracts free agents are offered. I guess we got a little taste this past off season where Bautista and Encarnacion didn’t find the demand they were expecting. (Incidentally, Chilton informed us that the advanced metrics valued Kevin Kiermaier higher than Jose Batista.)
The price of the dinner was $150 and in my opinion, worth every penny.
I picked up a sweet autographed Gordie Howe picture in a baseball uniform.
Flashin' Leather 