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.
The Tigers were able to salvage one game in Anaheim, and two on the road trip, thanks to Michael Fulmer and Francisco Rodriguez.
Fulmer was smokin’ balls and K-Rod finished off the game with a four out save.
Even if K-Rod couldn’t save the game I thought Brad Ausmus made the right move in bringing him in for an extended save. Really, what other option did he have, Mark Lowe?
The offense sucked, this game should have been a blowout but nobody could deliver the knockout blow.
Miggy looks bad, again. I’m not sure what his story is this year.
In other news, Anibal Sanchez has been removed from the rotation and sent to the pen. Although, I agree with Sark, I’m not sure what he’s going to do there.
Oh well, a win is a win, and they’re home tomorrow for the makeup game with the Yankees.
This one is going to leave a mark!
Down 9-2, the Tigers offense came all the way back to tie the score at 9, then Mark Lowe entered the game.
THE END.
Ok, so yesterday I was critical of Ausmus, I thought he should have taken JV out of the game in the 8th on Monday. His pitches were up in the zone and the bottom of the order were hitting the ball hard. However, had he gone to the pen, the result probably would have been the same.
In yesterday’s game, I don’t think there was anything Ausmus could have done. The bullpen is an abomination and Anibal Sanchez is worse. Sanchez has to come out of the rotation, but replace him with whom? Mark Lowe can’t come pitch in close games, if at all anymore, but what do you do with him and who replaces him? Sanchez to the bullpen? Lowe DFA?
I’m not sure Buck Farmer is an answer to either the pen or the rotation.
This is ugly.
Twelve games into the season the Tigers are 7-5. The offense is better than I expected, the pitching, however, is a hair shy of an abomination.
Shane Greene and Blaine Hardy were not good last night, as Sanchez was not good on Sunday in Houston.
While the offense is humming along nicely, I am little concerned about two things. First, the outs made on the base paths, it will come back to haunt them. Second, I love Miggy. I really do. He’s probably the best hitter I’ve ever seen but I’m beginning to wonder if he is on the downside of his career. His bat looks slow and he didn’t look good against Herrera in big spot with the bases loaded. That being said, if you score six runs, you should be able to win.
I hope I’m wrong about the Mighy Miggy.
I was listening to MLB radio yesterday afternoon, I guess like every afternoon, and they were discussing what went wrong with the Tigers in 2015. One host said that basically it is starting pitching. It isn’t the bullpen because they have never had a bullpen. The difference between this year and the past few years is starting pitching. I guess you don’t have to be a genius to figure that out. When you don’t have good starting pitching it taxes your bullpen even more, not good, especially when it’s weak, and it demands that your offense produce everyday, and produce a lot. Tuesday night, the Tigers’ offense, despite a two hour and sixteen minute rain delay, produced a harvest and the pitching staff needed it.
Kinsler had five hits, Iggy had two and J.D. had a conniption shot in the first. Kinsler has really turned a miserable season around. Too bad it isn’t in the middle of a playoff run.
Can the Tigers afford J.D. now?
Ian Kinsler has turned what started out as a miserable season completely around. Sort of under the radar, well at least under mine, his batting average is up to .296, he’s hitting in Miggy’s old #3 spot, and he knocking in some runs. He’s making me forget that 4-50 streak, or whatever it was earlier in the season, where he was just an automatic out.
Let’s turn to Victor now. Since Miggy went on the DL he has been horrible. This afternoon, however, he hit two bombs and drove in five runs. The Tigers needed every one of them and more because Anibal wasn’t very good and didn’t get any help from Neftali Feliz or Blaine Hardy.
Blaine Hardy gets a pass, he has been excellent all season but why is Feliz still around? He wasn’t good in Texas. He has been worse here. Why not go through growing pains with someone else?
Big Nice series win.
The bi-polar Tigers, behind new acquisition Matt Boyd, put in a masterful performance tonight and downed the Kansas City Royals 2-1 tonight at Comerica Park.
This game was the complete opposite of last night’s game. They got great starting pitching, executed on offense and flashed leather on defense.
Speaking of Flashin’ Leather, J.D. Martinez doesn’t get enough credit for the way he plays right field. He made a catch in the ninth inning that looked like it was headed for the gap. Physically, he doesn’t look like he should be a good fielder but he always seems to make nice, if not incredible, catches.
http://m.mlb.com/det/video/topic/8877502/v336051883/?c_id=det
It’s either J.D. or Alex Wilson for team M.V.P. (Blaine Hardy could be a close third.)
How about Matt Boyd? He out duels Johnny Cueto in his third career start going seven innings allowing only one run and walking ZERO! Walking ZERO is the most impressive stat in my humble opinion.
Anthony Gose gets an honorable Flashin Leather mention for his catch in the ninth as well.
Two of the last three games the Tigers have sent rookies to the hill and they’ve delivered gems. Let’s hope they can continue because I’m not sure what to expect from Sanchez, Simon, and Verlander.
I can’t say BIG win any more so I’ll say NICE win.
What do you think about the new site theme?
During his first two at-bats I thought J.D. Martinez was going into another funk. He was swinging at bad first pitches and immediately finding himself in 0-2 holes. He changed that in his third at-bat by hitting his 26th home run.
J.D. also flashed some leather robbing Chris Davis of a home run with a a nice catch at the wall in right. This is slowly becoming the J.D. Martinez show.
They got enough pitching from Anibal and the pen, although, Soria scares me, to piece this one together. It’s nice to start the “second half” off with a win.
The Tigers won the series finale and took two out of three from the Mariners with a big 5-4 win this afternoon.
Anibal Sanchez didn’t pitch great, but well enough to give the bullpen a bit of break. He lasted 6.1 innings, allowing four runs, three earned on five hits. I guess it qualifies as a quality starts but his walks were high, five, and he continues to give up home runs. However, given the starts they got from Ryan and Simon and the way the offense is to click, this looked like a gym.
What is the story with Jose Iglesias wearing his sunglasses on his hat instead of over his eyes. He made one error and almost made another one. With the struggles the pitching staff is having the last thing they need is to have to throw extra pitches and get extra outs. If it’s sunny enough to get your sunglasses out why not put them over your eyes?
Off to Minnesota.
If my memory serves me correctly, the only two places the Tigers play worse than Seattle are Anaheim and Yankee Stadium, so it was nice to start this road trip off with a win.
Alfredo Simon continues to be a mess. He allowed five runs in five and two thirds Luckily, the bullpen showed up tonight with good performance from Blaine Hardy, Ian Krol and Bruce Rondon.
Everyone got in on the 12 run, 19 hit parade except Ian Kinsler who was an absolute abomination at the plate. He went 0-5 and hit into two double plays.
Don’t look now but Nick Castellanos has started to hit the last few games. He had four hits tonight including a home run,
All-Star J.D. Martinez had three hits and raised his average to .290 with another homer and three more hits. He is basically on Miggy like tear right now. I hope he continues this pace. With JMC on the shelf, the Tigers are going to need it.
Victor seems to finding his form again. At the risk of sending this offense into a tailspin with the my fingers and keyboard, this offense is firing on all cylinders, the only problem is the Tigers only have two starting pitchers. After Price and Sanchez I’m not sure where they turn for the 3-5 starting slots. I guess if they score 5+ runs a game they might be able to squeak by for a while.
Doesn’t it seem like this is 180 degrees opposite of the first two months of the season?
I’ll the take W any way they can get them.
Flashin' Leather 