08-04-12--DETROIT VS CLEVELAND--7:05 PM

[IdahoBert]

1962 Topps of Tiger great George Alusik




From Detroit, Michigan




It's the Detroit Tigers
vs
the Cleveland Indians









August 4, 2012 7:05 PM

[thefunk]

Can we show patience at the plate against Ubaldo 'gas can' Jiminez? Hope so. It's time to win a series against these racists.

[JayVee]

I just made a Twitter bet with Fox News' Red-Eye's Bill Schultz.



When the White Sox miss the playoffs, he's going to wear a Tigers shirt on the show.

[Yoda]

A bunch of Twitter/Facebook/etc. accounts were tampered with the other night. Funny stuff.

[sabretooth]

I also heard something about the Red Sox facebook page encouraging fans to "bring an idiot to Fenway"...missed the mark, though, far too believable.

[kdog]

Delmon will be back in the lineup I believe. Dirks will sit. Small sample size data vs. Ubaldo etc.

[IdahoBert]

That is brilliant stuff.

Jeter has sex change in Yankees Facebook page hack | Technically Incorrect - CNET News

[JAYB]

Delmon will be back in the lineup I believe. Dirks will sit. Small sample size data vs. Ubaldo etc.

Boooo!!!

Last night was so relaxing without that gut in the lineup.

[PuNk42AE]

Does everyone like Upper RF Boxes, or the Club Seats behind the plate in front of the 300's?

[Sports_Freak]

Does everyone like Upper RF Boxes, or the Club Seats behind the plate in front of the 300's?

I don't know about everyone else but I love those seats. 322, 323 and 324 are all really good seats, IMO. But I always try to get the first 5 rows or so, in front of the rail.

[drownwithyou]

I love that it was a MLB intern who did those facebook posts. We should give interns who don't make a livable wage access to every team page, what could go wrong?!

[RandyMarsh]

I love those seats, they're probably my favorite seats in the park(aside from the really expensive seats like the on deck cirlce or some tiger den seats of course), for one you get a great view of the game up there and for another it seems like the bathroom/beer lines aren't nearly as long up there.

[PuNk42AE]

So everyone would go with the 321-332 Club seats over the 215-219 RF Box seats? And right near the front row and rail. I got tickets right on the Rail during spring training at the Braves Complex, really awesome seats because of the view of everything.

[TigersSlappy]

Brian Britten ‏@BBritten_Tigers

Tonight's lineup: Jackson 8, Berry 7, Cabrera 5, Fielder 3, Boesch 9, Young dh, Avila 2, Peralta 6, Infante 4. Fister is starting.

[TigersSlappy]

A couple of tidbits from Jayson Stark for your pregame entertainment:

3 Speaking of goofy pitching feats, ESPN Stats & Information guru Mark Simon got a rush out of Jerome Williams' fascinating save Monday in Texas -- since the guy had to throw a mere 83 pitches to nail it down.

Yep, 83. (In case you missed it, Williams pitched the final four innings of a nutty 15-8 game.) So, how rare is an 83-pitch save? Way rarer than a cycle. We'll tell you that. It was just the second time any pitcher had thrown that many pitches in a save in the two decades since baseball officially started counting pitches. The other was an 87-pitch classic by Joaquin Benoit for Texas on Sept. 3, 2002, in which Rangers starter Aaron Myette got ejected after two pitches -- and Benoit wound up racking up the only seven-inning save in history.

5 Did you know that those Detroit Tigers have won a game on eight consecutive Sundays? Well, they have -- clearly a sign that their prayers have been answered, right?

So, when, you ask, is the last time the Detroit Lions -- a team that pretty much only works on Sundays -- won a game on eight straight Sundays in the same season? Believe it or not, that hasn't happened since (gulp) 1934, when Potsy Clark led them to wins on nine Sundays in a row (plus one on a Wednesday). Seriously.

ESPN MLB Everything's bigger in Texas

[RandyMarsh]

So everyone would go with the 321-332 Club seats over the 215-219 RF Box seats? And right near the front row and rail. I got tickets right on the Rail during spring training at the Braves Complex, really awesome seats because of the view of everything.

I personally would, especially if you could get section 326-329 since thsoe are the ones directly behind the plate. The RF Box seats aren't bad, but the problem with sitting on the rail at Comerica Park(It maybe like this at all parks too for all I know) is that they got the plexiglass, so depending on how you sit or your height, you find yourself watching the game through that. It's not a huge deal and I've personally haven't had a problem with it but I've been with people that have complained about it the times we've gone.

[dadair6]

If you go for 321-324 Club you'll want to sit in row C or higher. You'll have to look through the plexiglass in A and possibly B depending on your height.

If you're buying tickets within a day or two of the game call the ticket office and ask if they have any accessible seats available in those sections. The Tigers release them to the general public a couple days before the game. You won't have anybody in front or behind you and you'll have extra leg room. They're technically part of the Upper Box and not Club so you can save yourself a few bucks.

[sabretooth]

Last year, despite his complete lack of speed, Alex Avila had a .295 batting average on groundballs, which is 45 points higher than the league average, suggesting that he was overweight on groundball singles by about 7 in 2011, whereas this year he's at .165, suggesting that he's underweight on groundball singles by about the same amount. He was also quite "heavy" on flyballs dropping for hits in 2011 by about 3 singles and 5 doubles. Add it all up and he would have had a "normalized" line of .265/365/465, which is only different than his career norm (265/360/435) because he hit two more HRs on FB vs. normal.

This year, it's almost perfectly reversed, except that the flyball singles are still inflated. He's hit an unbelievably low number of flyballs (under 30%, vs. 40% for last year), and almost 50% groundballs (vs. 37% for last year). The extreme shift to groundball hitting has robbed him of two likely HRs. Net all that together and his "normal" for this year would have been 265/365/430, which is almost dead-on with his career norms.

Bottom line is that he was a little lucky last year, but his bad luck this year on groundballs is offset by the fact that he's suddenly hitting a ton of groundballs. This should be addressed IMHO by the coaching staff. Very few hitters hit fewer than 30% flyballs, especially very slow-footed and injury-prone power-hitters like Avila. It's a silly approach that is really killing him this year.

[Sting]

Delmon will be back in the lineup I believe. Dirks will sit. Small sample size data vs. Ubaldo etc.

Dammit! On JL's post game show last night, he did say that Deldumb was batting .450 against Jimenez.

[Sports_Freak]

Really, really nasty weather headed towards Detroit sometime tonight. Large hail and very strong winds. A radio station said after midnight but the TV guy said around 9:00 P.M.
Batten down the hatches and hope it's after the Tigers have a big lead.

[Just Some Dude]

Some cells have popped up SW of Detroit moving right towards downtown by 7:30. It might be a smart of them to hold off on starting this game. Wind gusts of 30mph+ and heavy down pours are expected.

[ToledoTigerFan]

Don't like the look of the local radar. It could get dicey shortly after the game starts. Final score tonight(assuming they play):

Tigers 4
Indians 3

[Just Some Dude]

The game has started, hope they didn't make a bad decision..

[jbhappy]

Assdribble getting called out on strikes is one of my favourite things ever.

[IdahoBert]

11-pitch first for Fister.

[IdahoBert]

[ToledoTigerFan]

Send Jackson!!

[Just Some Dude]

Send Jackson!!

Nah Jim would rather have Berry just GIDP

[IdahoBert]

Quick DP negates AJax lead off single.

[Just Some Dude]

Should see a torrential down pour in the next 10 minutes.

[Greenwit]

Jackson > CF

[Just Some Dude]

Looks like CoPa is only going to get clipped by this storm cell moving through which is great news!

[Just Some Dude]

I'm liking BB in the 5 spot. Now if Delmon can't get him home he should be DFA'd once he returns to the dugout :)

[TigersSlappy]

Prince had wings on his cleats.

[Just Some Dude]

Good job, DFA him anyways :)

[TigersSlappy]

Tarp on the field.

[Just Some Dude]

Should see a torrential down pour in the next 10 minutes.

Here comes the rain, this shouldn't last long but there is a lot more behind it and stuff is popping up cause of the heat today.

[waffel]

Slowest grounds crew ever.

[ToledoTigerFan]

Slowest grounds crew ever.

You didn't see Boston's, then.

[ToledoTigerFan]

This rain won't last long, but, the trouble is, there's a larger area of rain right behind this area. They might re-start, then end up stopping again. It might be wise to wait for the second area to blow through even though that might mean waiting in playable weather. Fans at the game might get confused.