James McCann

Tigers 11 Blue Jays 0

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , , ,

Michael Fulmer, again, was smokin’ balls!  The offense did their part scoring 11 runs.

What is interesting about the Tigers’ offense is that it is scoring runs with little contribution from Jose Miguel Cabrera.

Miggy is slumping right now and I’m getting a bit concerned.  He never seems to struggle this late in the season.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

It looks like Justin Upton and James McCann are perking up at the plate which is good news and Cameron Maybin and Ian Kinsler are doing what they do.

Right now, things look good, let’s see how the rest of this series goes and what they do on the road.

One game over .500 isn’t too bad right now.

Tigers 6 White Sox 0

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

The Tigers ended a miserable season on a positive note by taking the season finale 6-0 over the White Sox. Daniel Norris and the much maligned bullpen combined on a three hit shutout.

The 74th win of the 2015 campaign was good for a last place Central Division finish and will provide the Tigers with a top 10 draft pick next season.

Here is my Good, Bad and Ugly for the 2015 season:

The Good:

  • James McCann finishes the year without making an error.  He has taken over the #1 catcher position
  • J.D. Martinez followed up last year’s impressive year with another one finishing with 102 RBIs, not bad for a guy the Tigers got for virtually nothing.
  • Justin Verlander looks like he will come back and be the Ace of Tigers staff in 2016
  • Nick Castellanos had a good year at the plate.  Remember this was only his second year.
  • Drew VerHagen, Alex Wilson, and Blaine Hardy look like they will be competent arms out the pen
  • Miggy won is fourth batting title

The Bad:

  • Victor Martinez’s injury riddled season
  • Miggy’s injury ridden power numbers
  • Castellanos’s play at third base
  • The inability to play as a team.  No part of the team “picked up” the other
  • Finishing in last place in the AL Central

The Ugly:

  • The base running – leading baseball in runners thrown out at home plate and just the overall incompetence on the base paths.
  • Hitting into the most double plays in baseball
  • Pitching – 28th in ERA 4.64
  • Bruce Rondon being sent home

The season in over for the Tigers but I’ll still be posting throughout the post season.  I’m predicting a Mets | Blue Jays World Series.  I’d like to see Granderson get a WS ring.

A big Flashin’ Leather Thank You to everyone that reads and comments!  I really appreciate your support!

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.

Tigers 5 Twins 4

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , , ,

Alfredo Simon pitched well, better than his final line indicated.  He ran into some bad luck in seventh but this was a quality start. Both VerHagen and Simon’s outings would look and feel better if they had a little luck but both pitched well.

Victor Martinez had three hits and should have, should have, had four. This is his first three hit game since July according to Mario Impemba.

James McCann had three hits, raising his batting average to .276. I didn’t realize, he hasn’t made an error all season.  This is a very impressive rookie campaign.

Drew VerHagen and Alex Wilson both looked good out of the pen and the Tigers have a chance for a series win tomorrow night.

The Twins missed a chance to pick up a game on the Yankees and Blue Jays who both lost tonight.

UPDATE: I almost forgot to mention the perfectly executed hit and run and safety squeeze the Tigers pulled off in the top of the ninth inning. These two plays resulted in the fifth and winning run.  My first thought was, bravo.  My second thought was, ‘where has this been all year?’ In any case, I guess it is better late than never.

Angels 8 Tigers 7

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

Seven runs should be enough to win a game but you know the story.  Basically, I’m tuning in to watch J.D. Martinez, James McCann, hopefully Miggy win a batting title, and perhaps JV return to an ace level pitcher.  Other than that, there’s not a whole lot to watch.

If the Tigers were getting anything out of Victor, this offense would be putting up numbers like the Blue Jays, but he’s is just a wasted spot in the order.  He is very difficult to watch. He’s doing nothing.

If I were Huston Street I wouldn’t have pitched to Miggy in the eighth.  I don’t care if he were 0-20 against me.  He’s hitting just under .500 since his return from the DL and Victor was on deck. No way. Actually, I don’t care who was on deck. The Angels are lucky Miggy didn’t burn them.

VerHagen looked pretty good tonight.

FYI: Nick Castellanos’s base running is exponentially worse than his fielding.

I wonder how playoff ticket sales are going?

James McCann | Fires a Bazooka

Crippy Bazooka, Flashin Leather , ,

From his knees on Sunday, 8/23/2015, to cut down a base runner.

Listen to Rod Allen say “he needs a license to carry that gun”.

I love Rod.  I wish he they would just leave him as the color guy for all of the games.  Nothing agains Jack Morris, he is my all-time favorite pitcher/Tigers player, but Rod is the best.  He makes this crappy baseball bearable to watch.  I often said he was the best thing about the 2003 season. So if anyone from the Tigers or Fox is reading, leave Rod alone and let him do the games.

And do something about the $12 chicken fingers.

Red Sox 7 Tigers 2

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , ,

Daniel Norris’ second start didn’t go as well as his first.  In fact, he needed 40 pitches to get out of the first inning.  His offense didn’t show today either but that’s another story.

I have tried to defend Brad Ausmus and give him the benefit of the doubt but I am at my end with this team’s base running.  This has to be the worst base running team I’ve ever seen an I have seen some abominations.  How many double plays and does this team have to hit into? How many line drives have to not get through, with runners taking off, do we have to sit through for something to change? Can’t they at least try sacrificing? Can’t they at least try to move runners over?

Tempers flared in the dugout.  Jose Iglesias shoved James McCann after they exchanged words over something apparently regarding defense.  I like Iggy but he may need an attitude adjustment.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/141789874/jose-iglesias-james-mccann-exchange-words

The Tigers just can’t win three in a row.

Twins 7 Tigers 1

Crippy Baseball, Dailies, Detroit Tigers , , ,

I’m late with this post.  I was under the weather most of last week and the weekend.  The Tigers play didn’t help any either.  They finished the theoretical first half .500 and were fortunate to do so.  The first few months of the season they couldn’t score consistently. Their pitching, including the bullpen, paced them to an impressive early season record.

The bats woke up the first week of June. The starting pitching imploded and the bullpen had a Fukushima like meltdown.  Since May 16th the Tigers have the worst record in the American league.  In June the Tigers bullpen ranked 29th in ERA. In July, so far, some how, they rank only 28th.

What has this taught me?  An old lesson that I guess I need to learn over and over no matter how much baseball I watch. If you can’t pitch you can’t win.  It is a lot more entertaining to watch a team that hits until you wake and realize you team sucks and isn’t going anywhere.

If your team can pitch it can win no matter how crappy the hitting is.  I guess we’ve seen this in practice over the last five to six years.  We had sit through an inconsistent offense that would score 10 runs one game then nothing for a week and they found a way to make it to the post season.  Granted, we are still waiting for a World Series but we are looking at a team right now that is scoring over six runs a game but can’t pitch a lick.  We are seeing a tale of two seasons in one this year.  The first two months of the season the Tigers could pitch and couldn’t hit but were winning.  The last month and a half they are hitting and can’t pitch and are one of the worst teams in baseball.

Here’s another conclusion i’ve come to.  I don’t want to trade Nick “The Quick” Castellanos.  I’ve been critical of him.  However, He’s young. He’s show’s flashes.  He’s homegrown.  They need somebody on this team that’s homegrown. Geez.  Look around this team  Avila and Nick.  That’s it.

Speaking of A Squared Money.  There’s no hope that Avila is going to hit if he stays behind the plate.  I don’t know why they didn’t leave him at first and leave McCann behind the plate.  They’re not getting anything from Kraus offensively.  His .135 is worse than Avila’s .192.  What exactly did they think Kraus was going to give them?  Put Avila back a first. McCann behind the plate.  Wait for Miggy to come back.  Get what you can for Price.  He’s not staying.  The Tigers aren’t going anywhere this year. Start planning for 2016.

FYI:  You need a whole bullpen.

Blue Jays 10 Tigers 5

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

The Blue Jays avoided a sweep by putting 10 runs on the Tigers pitching staff, seven off of former Cy Young winner, Justin Verlander. For four innings JV looked pretty good. He surrendered only one run in the first off of a bloop double and a ground ball single then retired 13 straight.  He got into trouble in the fifth and that was all she wrote.

Ausmus found no relief in the pen either. VerHagen, Wilson, Hardy and Farrell didn’t look very sharp collectively. That being said, when a team scores seven off the starter you probably aren’t going to win too many of those games.

I was really impressed with former Tigers prospect and current Jays second baseman Devon Travis.  It is a small sample size but he looks like a keeper. I’m not sure if you saw Mike’s comment, from Minoring in Baseball, from yesterday’s post.  Yesterday when McCann picked off Travis at first it was an “all Whitecaps play, McCann to Avila, picking off Travis.”  There is something nice about homegrown talent.  Unfortunately there is not a lot of it on the Tigers.  Which brings me to another thing I’ve been thinking about.

Dave Dombrowski’s philosophy seems to be draft power arms then trade them for what you need to fill out the roster.  It is hard to argue with the success he’s had with the trades he’s made.  The Tigers have gotten the better end of the vast majority of his deals.  However, shouldn’t baseball be littered with former Tigers pitchers?  The only one I can think of that is still around is Andrew Miller?  Is the scouting that bad that nobody the Tigers scout and draft ever pans out anywhere?  I guess Cameron Maybin looks like he’s turned things around but he’s not a pitcher, but who else?