I'm digging the small ball to start the first again...
1-0 Detroit.
and Cabrera extends it to seventeen!
Multi-tasking like a champ. Kudos, sir.
I liked the first inning as well, but I'd prefer NOT to see Austin Jackson take another ball to the head, whether it's from a pitcher at home plate or sliding into second on a steal.
I'd prefer to see Austin Jackson do anything to get us our first division title in forever and a half, but hey...
You didn't like the bunt in the top of the 2nd? I'm confused...
yes, you clearly are.
I don't know if you're addressing me, but I wasn't too comfortable seeing him get thwacked in the head with the ball when he was stealing 2nd in the 1st inning, earpiece or otherwise. Once per year is enough, and I think we got more than our fill the night he got smoked in Dodger Stadium.
Cabrera's running so smooth, he's driving in runs on foul balls. :D
is getting smacked around. Me likey.
Triple by Guillen, 7-0 Good Guys.
UPDATE: Mercifully, Liriano finally gets the hook. Nice to get into the bullpen so early in the series.
Gordie, how many Drunken Elvises are in the bleachers?
Hopefully we have enough now, and we can save some for the rest of the weekend. I don't want a 13-4 laugher followed by a pair of 3-1 losses where we all take turns looking like Gump Laird at the plate.
If we can make their bullpen throw 150 pitches, it'll make the rest of the series that much easier.
Not to mention that the Twins have more lives than Dracula. You get up 10-0 on them and the next thing you know, it's 11-11 in extra innings.
manboeschpig will not be denied.
It's nice to have a guy hitting .343 protecting your .349 hitter.
Scoring lots of runs on Liriano early in our last two starts against him is impressive, especially the way he's pitched against us historically. Makes me wonder if one the Tiger's scouts found something about him that is helping the Tiger's tee off.
after 5 1/3 innings. Left the bases loaded with 1 out in a 7-2 game. Please hold on...
And he gets the double play ball.
Sweet Jebus, does Jim Leyland look like a genius sometimes...
FIRE LEYL....oh wait what?
formerly anonymous would be proud.
Is it possible that the Pale Stockings might actually make a run in the Central?
Losing Peavy is going to sting for them. Maybe they will rob the farm system for Oswalt?
a half game back and had a 9 or 10 game winning streak about a week ago so I'm assuming they already have made a run.
Oswalt has already said he would not waive his no trade clause to pitch for the White Sox (or Detroit FWIW). They might be out of luck as far as acquiring an ace-level pitcher via trade.
Okay, boys, I've seen just about enough of this 9th inning episode here. We can put an end to this anytime now.
Papa Grande will make it all go away.
with a terrific catch! 2 more outs to go.
There. That's better. Thank you.
3 up on the Twinkies, 0.5 up on the ChiSox (assuming they hold their 4 run lead).
Here I am in Chicago being forced to miss the Detroit game and watch the White Sox dominate. But still good to see the Twins get wrecked.
I guess I can be happy I'm not watching the Cubs.
One in the right direction. Two to go to finish the first half strong.
absolutely perfect baseball for the first two innings. I mean, perfect. Perfect hits. Perfect Bunts. Perfect Running. Perfect Defense (that pick-off was beautiful). If they could play like that every inning for the rest of the season, they'd never lose another game. That is the way baseball was meant to be played, HR's be damned.
Ok so the Tigers have 2 new middle infielders from what they started the season, also 2 rookies starting on an everyday basis in the outfield, 2 starting pitchers have spent time the minors and another started the season in the minors.
09' was pretty impressive year for the Tigers if you can forget about the colossal and infamously hideous end of the season, now Leyland is poised to outdo himself in 10'. Yay, go Tigers!
My friend and I had been talking during the game tonite and we came to the conclusion that Boesch has effectively surpassed the "Shelton Phenomenon". Meaning that he has reached the point where we are safe in assuming that Boesch will continue to have a decent, maybe not spectacular, but decent rest of the season. Possibly being named the A.L. ROY. The "Shelton Phenomenon" obviously is a reference to Chris Shelton, who hit 9 homers in his first 13 games, but lost the power after April, ultimately leading to being demoted in July of that year ('06). Since Boesch was called up near the end of April and he still is playing at an unexpected but awesome level two months later, he has beat the "Shelton Phenomenon".
Interesting sidenote: there is a sports store that I visit that still has some Shelton #26 home Tiger jerseys. They are going for like, 15 bucks or something.
But sadly, he is nowhere near past the threshold for the Shelton Phenomenon.
Link to science.
That is a shortened version of another article, which appears to be a dead link now, about when different statistics in baseball will stabilize. Stabilize meaning some math that is briefly explained in the link, and in layman's terms means that one can expect the player to continue putting up those statistics in any kind of consistent manner.
Boesch currently sits at 255 PA. According to linked article, that means the statistics that are likely to have stabilized are Swing %, Contact Rate, Strikeout Rate, Line Drive Rate, Pitches / PA, BB Rate, GB Rate, GB/FB, and Flyball rate.
He isn't doing amazing in any of those statistics, he's not doing awful, in fact he's doing better than most would have thought in K rate. He's got 45 more PA until his HR/FB rate becomes reliable, and 245 until the big slash stats, OBP and SLG, become reliable. Now, he's not going to fall off the face of the earth like Shelton did, he makes more contact and is just a more naturally gifted athlete, but I wouldn't expect him to keep up this pace. Thats not to say he won't be useful, I think it's certainly within the realm of plausibility that he becomes a 270 hitter with 25 homer power, and anyone will take that out of a lefty who plays an above average corner outfield spot.
.....my only issue with the assumptions made about being a .270 hitter etc. is that he's hitting behind Cabrera who is arguably the best hitter in baseball. You can't underestimate the effect that can have on how teams will pitch to a certain guy. He's likely to see solid pitches to hit as long as he's in that five slot.
I read somewhere that, if Boesch had gotten 4 at-bats tonight (Friday), he'd "qualify" to be among the league leaders. Unfortunately, he went 2 for 3, so he's still on the outside looking in.
The best info I've dug up on the internet is that a hitter qualifies if he has 3.1 AB's for every game his team has played. At the end of the season, he should have at least 502. If he falls short of that, but has enough 0-fer's (i.e., walks, sacrifices), he can still win the batting title, as long as the requisite number of 0-fer's are added only to the denominator to bring the total to 502. (For example, he gets 200 hits in 500 AB's. His total becomes 200/502, or .398, and voila.)
I'm curious because I'd like to see Boesch among the league leaders at the All Star break. But if he needs 3.1 AB's for each of the Tigers' games played, he would need 261 (260.4), not the 232 he has as of Friday post-game.
And why is Troy Tulowitzki of Colorado considered "qualified" when he has 235 AB's, and Colorado has played 86 games?
You need 3.1 plate appearances per game, not actual ABs. Walks, sacrifices, and HBP count.
He has 259 plate appearances and the Tigers have played 84 games, so Boesch is looking at 3.0833 PA/game. 5 plate appearances tonight would do it, or 8 in the next 2 days.
The Elvis impersonators were horrible, especially the black leather-clad one. One of them sang the national anthem and it was . . . less than satisfactory.
It was fun to watch Verlander pitch. He seemed to do well out of the windup, but got flustered when he pitched out of the stretch. He picked off 2 runners (Span, Hudson) at first base, but it's almost like he concentrates TOO much on runners when they're on.
I'm not sure how far this team can go with some of their personnel (Laird, Worth, Santiago, etc.) but they sure were fun to watch last night.
Also . . . the women last night were awesome. No other sporting events bring out attractive, scantily clad women like summer baseball games.