Nick Castellanos

Brewers 3 Tigers 2

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They’re back!  After a brief hiatus, the two-run Tigers, returned to Comerica Park.  The Lobber was fine.  The bullpen was fine.  The bats were an abomination.  There is no excuse for offensive production, or lack there of, of this magnitude.  Victor needs to sit down for a month.  He can’t hit left handed.  He can’t run, although I thought he was safe at first.  I sound like a broken record but you can’t ask a pitching staff to hold other teams to two runs or less every night. Somebody has to step up and get a clutch, two-out, run producing, base hit, like Iggy had a few nights ago.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone, I’m always looking to Miggy, but it doesn’t look like anybody is going to pitch to him even if his numbers aren’t great in night games; not with Victor hitting .216.  J.D. seems to be coming out his funk but he’s not driving in a lot of runs and I’m not exactly sure what Castellanos is doing. The middle of this lineup looks bad.

White Sox 7 Tigers 6

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Perhaps Brad Ausmus is trying to unseat Robin Ventura as the dumbest manager in baseball.  I can think of no other reason for leaving Joba in the game to give up the go-ahead run in the 8th. I can’t fault him for the bomb off the bat of Melky Cabrera.  He should have been out of the inning.  I’m not sure how the official scorer gave Eaton a hit on the ball that went through Castellanos’ glove but he bottom line is Chamberlain should have been in the dugout with a three run lead.

Speaking of Castellanos, what happened to late inning defensive replacements? Andrew Romine?

This was another sub par performance from Alfedo Simon.  Like Shane Greene yesterday, he had little control. It looks like the three and four spots in the rotation are going to be problems.

There is more blame to go around.  Although the offense scored six runs they left 12 men on base,  Miggy looks horrible and they ran themselves out of the ninth.

Hmmm, has anybody noticed the runs the Twins are scoring.

On the bright side, the bullpen has looked good lately with the exception of The Amazing, Everyday Al and Joba.  Also, Victor drove in four runs and hit his first homer today.

Lober tomorrow to salvage one.

Tigers 9 White Sox 1

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The Tigers took the rubber game of a big early season series this afternoon by beating White Sox starter Jose Quintana into a conniption.

Yoenis Cespedes had a monster day.  He had six RBIs on a grand slam and a two run homer.  Today’s game was a mirror image of yesterday’s game, it was over by the time the Sox came to bat in the top of the fourth.

Shane Greene got his third win.  The Tigers are 10-2 and right now I don’t hate them.

Here are a few early season observations:

  • Iggy looks great at short and even though he swings at a lot of pitches he’s pretty good at making contact.
  • Miggy looks very good, defensively, at first base.
  • Nick Castellanos has been flashin’ leather at third.
  • Despite his miscue today, J.D. Martinez plays a pretty good right field.
  • Doesn’t Miggy usually start seasons slowly?
  • Victor is still hurt.

Yankee are in town tomorrow.

Tigers 2 White Sox 1

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The Tigers moved to 9-1 with a win over the White Sox this afternoon at Comerica Park.

David Price and Jeff Samardzija had a classic pitcher’s duel. Each pitcher surrendered only one run, on solo shots, in eight complete innings.  The Tigers had more chances to score off of Samardzija but a combination of good clutch pitching and bad execution at the plate kept the game tied.

The White Sox made a few crucial mistakes that allowed the Tigers to take this one. First, Alexei Ramirez did David Price, and the Tigers, a favor by flying out on the first pitch he saw in the top of the seventh after Adam LaRoche had worked a six pitch walk.  Price’s pitch count was climbing.  If Ramirez had a better AB, who knows, they may have gotten into the Tigers pen in the eighth.  Second, why in the sam hell didn’t Robin Ventura challenge the play a second in the ninth? On TV, it looked like Castellanos was out by a mile.  If I was a Sox fan I would be furious.  Perhaps he’s still loopy from when Nolan Ryan beat him into a conniption?  Third, and this a friend of mine mentioned, after the Castellanos debacle, why didn’t he walk Iggy and play the infield at normal depth?

In any case I don’t think anybody will be knocking down Ventura’s door after the White Sox fire him.

FYI: The last time the Tigers started 9-1 was 1984. I’m not sayin’. I’m just sayin’.

FYI:

The perfect season is over…

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and the Nebraskadamus prophecy unfulfilled.  The Tigers fell to the Pirates 5-4 for their first loss of the 2015 season.

Anibal was not good.  He gave up 5 runs in 6.3 but the offense nearly made a top of the ninth comeback to bail him out.

If not for a 1 pitch, rally killing at bat, by Nick Castellanos that resulted in a double play, the Tigers may have forced extra innings.  That would have been no guarantee of a better outcome given the bullpen but hope does spring eternal.

I won’t whine too much about being 6-1 but it would be nice to get a win in Pittsburgh.  It seem like the Tigers never play well there.

Tiger 4 Twins 0

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Well, this was almost a perfect game to start off the 2015 season.

David Price pitched 8.2 shutout innings and Joe Nathan got the final out, striking out Torii Hunter.

J.D. Martinez and Alex A Squared Money Avila went deep and Yoenis Cespedes was two for three with a double and a triple.

The Tigers flashed plenty of leather today as well. Cespedes, Iglesias, Kinzler Castellanos, and Miggy all had nice plays defensively.

I hope this is a harbinger of things to come for the 2015 Tigers but I can’t help wondering if Price and Cespedes are only here for half a season.

We’ll see.

Twins 11 Tigers 4

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Uh oh!

This game was over before it started. I don’t know what is up with Freeway Ricky but he has been horrible lately. Not only is he giving up hits but the extra base hits, double and home-runs, is very concerning. That being said, he didn’t get much help from Rajai Davis or Nick Castellanos.

On the first pitch of the game, Danny Santana hit a long fly ball to straight-away center field. Davis came in, then went back, then turned the wrong way. Santana ended up on second. A good center fielder would have made the catch.

If the Tigers make it past the wild-card game, Castellanos cannot start at third. He is an abomination. He is directly responsible for four of the Twins’ eleven runs yesterday. He isn’t doing anything at the plate either. In fact, the Tigers aren’t getting much from the 6,7 or 8 hitters.

I have a bad feeling the Tigers’ season is going to be over Tuesday. The Royals are not going to lose to the White Sox and I’m not sure the Tigers will win the last two against the Twins.

I hope I’m wrong.

Tigers 9 Royals 5

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The Tigers survived JV and Joba Chamberlain and came away with a 9-5 win over the Royals.

Let’s face it, JV is bad. There is no way to sugar coat it. I know this is crazy because the bullpen is an abomination, but if Verlander is going to continue to start, he needs to be pulled after six innings, if he makes it that far. I’ve heard all kinds of stats about how a pitcher’s ERA explodes in the 6th year when logging so many innings and Verlander falls into this statistic. If his arm has too many innings on it, then it is time to limit the number going forward. Keeping him out there into the seventh is not doing anybody any good.

The inning that really annoyed me today was the third. The Tigers put two runs on the board in the bottom of the second then JV comes out in the third and gives them back? HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hat’s off to the offense. They put up nine runs today. Castellanos let the way with two RBIs and Hunter had three hits. Miggy was 2-5 and got is 101st RBI.

I’ll take the win but this pitching situation has to be sorted out.

Tigers 8 Twins 6

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The Tigers survived a bad start from Verlander, a bad game from Miggy, and Joe Nathan to get a badly needed win. I’m not saying this is a turning point but it’s nice to not have to write about another loss.

Even though Miggy was bad, enough of the other guys stepped up to put eight runs on the board.

The key play in this game came in the top of the sixth when Eugenio Saurez got a one out hit that drove in the tying and go-ahead runs. It is the kind of hit, although with only one out, that this team has failed to come up with.

Torri, Victor, J.D, Costellanos, Suarez and Bryan Holaday also had good nights offensively. When six of the players in the lineup have good nights, they can overcome a night where Miggy was slightly better than horrible.

When Miggy got his hit and RBI in the eighth, he looked like he was limping when he got to first base. I think he’s hurt a lot worse than I know or even suspected. If he is, I tip my hat for playing everyday.

I’m not sure what to make of JV. His velocity seemed pretty good but I’m not sure about his pitch selection. It looked like when he shook Holaday off, he paid for it.

Oh, well, I’ll take the W.

Tigers 5 Pirates 2

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The offense hit well, the pitchers pitched well, and the Tigers won their second in a row.

Well, not all of the pitchers pitched well, Phil Coke was horrible, but Joba came in to clean up the mess and save the game.

Max was absolutely smokin’ balls. Fourteen Ks in eight innings. It looks like his plan for a bigger payday might be working out. I’ll bet he ends up with the Yankees next season.

J.D. Martinez was 2-3 with a bomb and two RBIs and Nick Castellanos was 2-4 with two RBIs.

Interestingly, after Coke gave up two runs in ninth and created a save situation, Ausmus called Joba’s number not Nathan’s. I was wondering what the crowd reaction was going to be if that shit dog came into the game. I was hoping he’d get booed out the stadium no matter what he did.

Also, Joba tipped his hat to the crowd after the game. I wonder if that was his version of a Bronx cheer, taking another shot at the crowd?

I really want Nathan gone. I know he apologized but I don’t care. He has shown Tigers fans, on several occasions, his true colors. (Remember when he blamed his blown save on Castellanos?)

A very wise person once told me, “when a person tells you who they are – believe them.”

Up yours Nathan you shit bird.

“God I love baseball.” -Roy Hobbs | The Natural