Rod Allen

Thoughts on Miggy

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Miggy has had two good games in Chicago and while I’m not saying, ‘he’s back’, his production has been nice to see.  That being said, I have noticed a few differences in his normal demeanor.  First, when he hit his home run yesterday, he put his head down and ran around the bases, foregoing his usual stutter-step before third base.  Second, I haven’t seen him constantly clowning around with everyone at first base whether on offense or defense.

While the commentators play off his incessant clowning as ‘a love for playing the game, IMHO, he takes it to the extreme and this extreme clowning projects a lack of seriousness.  Perhaps his lack of seriousness is understandable considering the amount of success he’s had and his success came immediately.  The Marlins brought him up at 19, he hit the ground running, and never looked back.  Maybe his recent struggles have humbled him a bit and forced him to refocus and take this craft a bit more seriously.  Like I said, I’m not sure he’s back, but the last few games have been fun to watch him again.

On another note, I wasn’t a big fan of Jack Morris’ color commentary with Mario Impemba but I like him a lot with Dan Dickerson. They seem to have good chemistry.  I don’t like Gibson period.  The booth rotation has to get Rod on more and get rid of Gibson for good. He’s horrible.

James McCann | Fires a Bazooka

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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.

Tigers Drop Two Out of Three in Boston

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The only pitching staff in the American League worse than the Tigers’ is Boston’s and the Tigers still couldn’t win a series.  Yet, I’m listening to MLB Radio and the hosts are still expecting the Tigers to acquire a pitcher and make a playoff run.  Here’s the problem; on the statistical anomalous occasion when they do get good pitching their offense decides not to score runs. There is an almost perfect discordant balance with this team that is hard to explain if you don’t watch them every game.

Rod Allen was on MLB Radio last week and he was asked if he thought the Tigers had a run in them.  He said he didn’t see it.  I agree.

I’ll be interested in seeing how Castellanos, Iglesias, and Verlander finish the season.

Tigers 2 Royals 1

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The offense is still AWOL.  However, last night, the CY Young Award winner, David Price, showed up and shut down the Royals.  Thanks to Price, the Tigers have a chance to salvage a split in this series.

In my post yesterday, I lamented the inconsistency of the Tigers offense.  Prior to the game, Mario and Rod showed a statistic validating my complaint.  I don’t have the number committed to memory but I believe the graphic showed that the Tigers lead the league both in games scoring two runs or less and games scoring 10 runs or more.  Like I said yesterday, this goes beyond this year, this is a problem with philosophy.  It is a stubborn philosophy that has plagued this team for the last 5-8 years and they refuse to change.

Victor can’t hit right now, left handed, to save his life.  Defenses play “the shift” on him and give him the entire left side of the field but he won’t take his single. I know he can run but with the way the defense is playing him he doesn’t have to.  Same thing with Avila.

I believe someone a lot smarter than me once said “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.”

Mr. Illitch, I know you are a regular reader, it is time for a different direction.  Start with DD and BA.

A GEM FROM MARIO IMPEMBA!

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As a Tiger fan, I love our TV announcers.  Mario and Rod are fabulous.  And, I often said, that Rod Allen was the only thing that made the 2003 season bearable.

Today, they had a beautiful conversation.  They showed a clip of current White Sox manager Robin Ventura getting beaten into a conniption by legendary pitcher, Nolan Ryan.  As they showed the clip, Rod said, something to the effect that Ventura had a few knuckle sandwiches.  Mario replied, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘it was more like a picnic.”  I have been laughing for the last 10 minutes.

Here’s a video of that fateful day in 1993.

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

I Was Wrong About Victor….

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it looks like I was too quick to pull the plug on Victor Martinez.  Since I wrote my Why Victor Must Go...post he has shoved those words down my throat.

And his tear continued tonight with 3 more hits, another RBI, and has raised his average to .254.

There was a lot to like about tonight’s 8-5 win over the White Sox, not the least of which is the fact that all eight Tiger runs, were scored with two outs.

Ricky looked pretty good.  He went six innings, struck out six, walked none, and allowed three earned.  Ricky’s era is down to 4.80

Smyly and Benoit were good out of the pen.  The only rough spot was that Bruce Rondon got roughed up a bit in the 7th.

Here’s an observation, the next time you hear a Tiger broadcaster say, “Rondon has nothing left to prove in the minors.”, strap yourself in, he’s going to start getting shelled.  Tonight, on queue, after Rod Allen uttered those words, Gordon Beckham hit a home run.

A win tomorrow afternoon would be nice.

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