04-25-12--DETROIT VS SEATTLE--7:05 PM

[IdahoBert]

Billy Martin's famous 1972 Topps baseball card giving the finger



From Detroit, Michigan




It's the Detroit Tigers
vs
the Seattle Mariners









April 25, 2012 7:05 PM







Brought to you by:

[sabretooth]

King F. vs. Wilk.

Welp

[thefunk]

sometimes you just wonder how we've ever won a game.

[FloridaTigers]

MUST WIN!
MUST WIN!
MUST WIN!
MUST WIN!
MUST WIN!
MUST WIN!

No, seriously, we need to win.

[IdahoBert]

sometimes you just wonder how we've ever won a game.

I feel the same way, I know it's irrational, but this is what it feels like. Fortunately, as the saying goes, it's a long season. Before long, when things are going much better, this episode of misery will feel like a dream.

[alwaysthrowheat]

Our bats have been quiet, and Felix is a bad matchup. Luckily for the Tigs though, Seattle isn't very good, and of Felix's 4 starts, 3 have been vs. Oakland, and 1 vs. Cleveland.

[Dawgs]

L

[Statik]

sometimes you just wonder how we've ever won a game.

I think we are 'officially' feeling the loss of Fister now. If he is healthy, I'd wager 75% of our pitching woes atm never would have happened, or at least would not have been as exposed as they are now.

[ROMAD1]

I wonder if Brandon Inge is the anchor that will drag down our championship hopes

[T&P_Fan]

Not optimistic, the tigers have looked incredibly uninspired this season.

[Casimir]

Win. Completely unexpected given the pitching matchup, but sometimes that's just how baseball works.

[roarintiger1]

2008...no
2008...no
2008...no
2008...maybe
2008...maybe
The fear of history repeating itself has crept in..................

[Shelton]

Yeah, I think this one is a win also. Seattle is not a good offense despite what they did last night. Wilk hasn't done much to inspire confidence, but it's still Seattle.

Now, Felix is a very good pitcher, but the tigers offense is good enough to get to him. I think something like 4-3 is in the cards.

[Shelton]

2008...no
2008...no
2008...no
2008...maybe
2008...maybe
The fear of history repeating itself has crept in..................

If verlander starts pitching like a high 4s era pitcher and the rest of the rotation also sucks for the rest of the season, then I will start worrying.

2008 was a disaster because the vaunted tigers rotation of verlander Rogers Robertson bonderman and Willis turned out to be terrible.

That team did not reach .500 until June 28 after starting the year 0-8. After the 0-8 start they went 42-32.

The team era was 4.9. Bonderman was shut down on June 1. Robertson was terrible. Rogers was terrible. Willis was terrible.

That 2008 team scored runs. It was the inability to prevent runs that cost them. Sure, you could point to scherzer's struggles and porcello's blow up last game and think they are going to struggle all year. I highly doubt that.

[John_Brian_K]

Anyone else notice how they struggle against the soft tossing crafty type pitchers and mash against fastball throwers? They started squaring the ball up real well when that reliever came in trying to throw 97MPH gas by them.

So far this year we have lost to:

Shields
Peavy
Floyd
Darvish
Harrison
Ross
Vargas

Shields WHIP is just over 1 at 1.09
Peaveys WHIP is UNDER 1 at .73
Floyds is 1.04
Darvish ERA is 2.42
Harrisons WHIP is at .97 with a sub 2.00 ERA
Ross' WHIP is 1.02

Maybe we have just seen some REALLY good pitching so far this year?

[alwaysthrowheat]

Felix Hernandez' FB Velo: career avg 94.4 MPH (95.8 MPH in 2005) 91.4 MPH in 2012. Something to watch.

[Yoda]

Felix Hernandez' FB Velo: career avg 94.4 MPH (95.8 MPH in 2005) 91.4 MPH in 2012. Something to watch.

I can't wait for Rod and Mario to tell us it's because he's learning how to pitch.

[John_Brian_K]

Anyone else notice how they struggle against the soft tossing crafty type pitchers and mash against fastball throwers? They started squaring the ball up real well when that reliever came in trying to throw 97MPH gas by them.

So far this year we have lost to:

Shields
Peavy
Floyd
Darvish
Harrison
Ross
Vargas

Shields WHIP is just over 1 at 1.09
Peaveys WHIP is UNDER 1 at .73
Floyds is 1.04
Darvish ERA is 2.42
Harrisons WHIP is at .97 with a sub 2.00 ERA
Ross' WHIP is 1.02

Maybe we have just seen some REALLY good pitching so far this year?

After re reading my post I let out a nice sigh of relief...we have just faced some real good pitching so far and have lost a couple real close games with a piece meal starting rotation because of Fister and a couple bad outings by the bullpen...added to that the fact Scherzer is no longer on the roster to drop gas cans makes me sigh and smile for better things to come.

We have had a couple stinkers for sure...yesterday may have been the worst this year along with that first game against the best team in the majors right now. The loss to the Rays and the last game of the Texas series have been tight games.

[pyrotigers]

It's great how within a week I go from the crazy pessimist who doesn't think the Tigers will start 50-3 or whatever, to the deranged optimist, but relax people. The only problem with the offense is that 2B/SS/LF/RF have basically been horrifically bad overall, Peralta seems OK and I expect him to improve some, 2nd base is bad but probably not 20 OPS+ bad, Boesch and Young are also most likely not that great, but still not as horrible as they've been.

As far as the pitching goes, when I can look at the peripherals and see this:



I tend to think they're not pitching as bad as it may seem

If Scherzer stays healthy the entire year, and has a K-BB anything like that, he will probably have an ERA around 3. Find me a pitcher who put up a 14 hit/9 over a season while striking out a ton of guys and I will show you the unluckiest guy to ever step foot on a baseball diamond

edit: I do think the defense is a legit concern though, they might need to do something about that. Having poor range at 3rd, SS, 2nd, AND 1B is not going to be good for the pitchers, especially when the outfield is bad in the corners as well.

[clark1mt]

Possibility of a rain delay tonight. Shouldn't be enough to postpone, just enough to be annoying.

NWS Enhanced Radar Mosaic: Central Great Lakes Sector Loop

[Casimir]

All of this pitch speed chatter makes me think that I wasn't really "rag armed" in little league, I was merely crafty and just didn't know it. Sure sounds better than saying I flat out sucked as a pitcher.

[alwaysthrowheat]

I can't wait for Rod and Mario to tell us it's because he's learning how to pitch.

They won't acknowledge that type of information. As you can see here: Felix Hernandez » PitchFx » Velocity Graphs » FA | FanGraphs Baseball his fastball isn't even getting up to 95 MPH. It's not like he's Verlander (whose velocity is down 1 MPH overall, but he's just throwing slower in the first few innings, and is hitting 97-100 in the later innings), Felix's velocity is down overall.

[DontGotSheed]

Hopefully this is the wrost rough patch of the year.

[T&P_Fan]

Get a W tonight, that's all I care about.

[CapitalTigers]

Detroit Tigers ‏ @tigers


Tonight's lineup vs SEA: Jackson CF, Boesch RF, Cabrera 3B, Fielder 1B, Young DH, Avila C, Peralta SS, Santiago 2B, Kelly LF. Wilk P

[CapitalTigers]

Mike Valenti ‏ @MikeValenti971

Firmly believe its upstairs asking for Inge AB's, remember Mr. I reached out to Inge and convinced him to stick it out, return.

[kdog]

Mike Valenti ‏ @MikeValenti971

Firmly believe its upstairs asking for Inge AB's, remember Mr. I reached out to Inge and convinced him to stick it out, return.

Well if Valenti says it, then it must not be true.

[kdog]

Cabrera will be off tomorrow afternoon.

[Gehringer_2]

They won't acknowledge that type of information. As you can see here: Felix Hernandez » PitchFx » Velocity Graphs » FA | FanGraphs Baseball his fastball isn't even getting up to 95 MPH. It's not like he's Verlander (whose velocity is down 1 MPH overall, but he's just throwing slower in the first few innings, and is hitting 97-100 in the later innings), Felix's velocity is down overall.

It's even more than that though. Check the pitch proportion table. He has turned into a totally different pitcher since '09. He now throws a sinker more (and maybe harder) than the FB and has gone to a high proportion of change-ups and curves.

Season	FA%	SI%	SL%	CH%	CU%	FS%	FC%	UN%	PO%	IN%	Pace	Pitches

2007	58.2 %	1.2 %	20.9 %	4.8 %	10.4 %	4.2 %	0.0 %	0.2 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	20.8	2250
2008	69.2 %	2.2 %	10.9 %	5.1 %	8.1 %	4.0 %	0.0 %	0.3 %	0.1 %	0.1 %	20.9	3041
2009	66.0 %	5.6 %	11.1 %	5.3 %	12.0 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	20.2	3604
2010	25.5 %	35.2 %	13.6 %	16.2 %	9.3 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	0.2 %	0.0 %	20.4	3716
2011	17.0 %	31.1 %	10.3 %	22.0 %	15.7 %	0.0 %	3.9 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	21.6	3597
2012	15.8 %	12.8 %	10.7 %	35.8 %	19.7 %	0.0 %	5.1 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	0.0 %	23.0	335
Total   44.8 %  16.7 %  12.8 %  11.9 %  11.4 %  1.3 %   0.9 %   0.1 %   0.1 %   0.0 %   20.8    16543

[jackson_cannery]

Win.

(an order, not a prediction)

[1776]

I wonder if Brandon Inge is the anchor that will drag down our championship hopes

If so, this team didn't have much to begin with.

[John_Brian_K]

Well if Valenti says it, then it must not be true.

He is such a boob.

[RedRamage]

2008...no
2008...no
2008...no
2008...maybe
2008...maybe
The fear of history repeating itself has crept in..................

I'm afraid that this fear is also starting to creep into me. But we're still 10-7 right now so... at least that's better than '08.

[CapitalTigers]

He is such a boob.

Valenti is very shticky, but the dude knows his stuff.

[kdog]

Valenti is very shticky, but the dude knows his stuff.

Was that before or after he called Verlander a #3starter on a good team before last year?

[CapitalTigers]

Was that before or after he called Verlander a #3starter on a good team before last year?

Hence the shtick and getting rise out of people... I'm just saying, read between the lines of his b.s. He's a knowledeable guy.

[Antrat]

After they finally release Inge, I hope the local stations have a helicopter follow his car to the airport.

[John_Brian_K]

Valenti is very shticky, but the dude knows his stuff.

He knows college football, but he most certainly does not know his 'stuff'.

[The Truman Show]

Valenti is not terribly knowledgeable about baseball. He knows what's going on around the league and all, but I don't think he has unique insight or access by any means. Certainly not so much that I'd believe his conjecture about management/FO opinions that I didn't otherwise think were true.

[alwaysthrowheat]

Hence the shtick and getting rise out of people... I'm just saying, read between the lines of his b.s. He's a knowledeable guy.

Not really.