Posts Tagged ‘Detroit Tigers’

4 results.

Who Are You Rooting For?

by Kevin on September 30, 2011 at 12:01 am
Seriously, what's with all the Red in uniforms these days? I'm surprised the Marlins aren't switching to it.

And, if it weren’t the Cardinals and Rays, screw the Atlanta Braves for 1993, and screw the Boston Red Sox for being the new New York Yankees.

The 162nd games of the season were great (for fans of teams not named the Giants.  Oh, and also fans of teams not named Boston or Atlanta), but the playoffs aren’t all that exciting.  A lot of teams I just don’t like.  But that first round matchup between New York and Detroit should be interesting.  The Yanks just don’t have the pitching, to be honest.

Meanwhile, we get Brian Sabean telling us not to get our hopes up about….any free agents.  Except maybe Coco Crisp.  Thanks, Sabes.

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3 Things America Needs To Know About San Francisco

by Kevin on October 24, 2012 at 12:01 am
Also, don't waste time at Fisherman's Wharf

America is underrating the San Francisco Giants.  That’s fine.  They always do that.

But the Giants are not going to lay down for the Tigers, no matter what the analysts say.

Things start with Justin Verlander.  Verlander is the best pitcher in baseball today.  There is no disputing that.  But in 2010, Roy Halladay had thrown a no-hitter in the playoffs.  Cliff Lee had dominated in two seasons of playoffs.  Heck, the entire Phillies rotation was considered legendary.  The Giants beat them all.

For the past few years, the Giants have found a way to play up to, or down to, an opponent’s level.  They’ve been revved for the ace of their opponents.  It will be no different against Verlander.  The Giants will be prepared, and will grind things out against him.

The offense of the Giants is pretty putrid at times, but that doesn’t matter.  In the playoffs, anyone can get the big hit.  And so far this postseason, everyone has gotten one.  The Giants spent the last couple of games dominating the Cardinals, and they did it without Buster Posey getting the hits.  Don’t let the lack of big stars or fantasy output fool you.

The Giants pitching has been off most of the season.  Every starter has had a slump.  But every starter has the ability to dominate.  People are going to laugh about Barry Zito facing off against Verlander.  Go ahead.  Zito still has the ability to fool hitters.  These Detroit hitters are going to be amped up after so much time off.  This will be the first World Series for many of them, and for the big bopper Miguel Cabrera, it’s his first since he was a veritable kid.  They’ll be ready for heat, and ready to swing.  I’ll take a guy with a big curveball and a lot of junk to face off against that.

And the Giants having Tim Lincecum in the bullpen is going to be huge.  The Tigers don’t have a great bullpen.  The Giants can shut down the Tigers with their bullpen.  Lincecum could be starting.  If it were my choice, I’d probably have him in the rotation.  But the truth is, he got a shot to start in the playoffs.  He didn’t get the job done.  So the team has him where he has succeeded.

And that’s before you talk about playing in San Francisco, with the noise.

The Tigers aren’t ready for this.  That team hasn’t been in this position.  It’s going to be fun to watch them get overwhelmed tonight.

And, for the record, Giants in 7.

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Pre-Series Workouts

by Kevin on October 25, 2012 at 12:01 am
BEAT DETROIT!

Well, that was fun.  Detroit wasn’t prepared, and that was fun.

Hell, I wasn’t prepared, either.

I mean, not unprepared for a good game from Zito.  I had hopes from NLCS Game 5, compounded with statistical history from the Tigers not doing well against left-handers, and the common sense that an over-amped team coming off a layoff might be too eager to wait and square up against a junkballer.

I also was not unprepared for the Giants to take a win from Zerlander.  The Giants have historically done well with aces, especially in the postseason.

But this game.  This rout.  Not prepared, not at all.  Not that I miss it THAT much, but what happened to the torture?

Let’s be honest, there has been a nagging feeling at the back of my mind.  Ever since Game 3 of the NLDS, one thing I felt was that the Giants were getting a lot of breaks (like balls hitting bases or bats a few times), a couple of calls (or non-calls) from the umpires (like Crawford being way out of the baseline against the Cards), and mostly doing a great job of taking advantage of mistakes by their opponents.  I mean, taking advantage is not a very easy thing to do; it’s not automatic.  And some mistakes by the Cardinals came from having a lot of pressure being put on them by the Giants.

Tonight’s game wasn’t about mistakes by the Tigers.  There was a bobble in center, but that didn’t affect anything.  Delmon Young had a throw that will haunt him in gif form for years, but even a good throw wouldn’t have made a difference.  And it could be said that Detroit shortstop Jhonny Peralta wasn’t doing enough to backup the ball that Pagan hit off third base to hold Pagan to a single.  But none of those mistakes were glaring or game-changing.  Hell, the Tigers were the ones who to a two-run break when they got a home run on a ball that wouldn’t have gone out if Pagan hadn’t tipped it while trying to catch it.

When Sandoval was hitting home runs, they weren’t mistake pitches.  Hell, I expect most hitting coaches would have called them mistake swings until they saw the results.  Verlander was right to try and blow a fastball up out of the zone past a free-swinger.  On a 2-0 count with a runner on, painting the outside of the plate was a good idea.  And Al Albuquerque was throwing a pitch that was on it’s way into the dirt to knock Bugs Bunny into taking that “Left Turn at Albuquerque” he’s always complaining about, and Pablo gave it a right turn towards Alameda.

The rest of the squad weren’t bad either, except maybe Pence.  Scutaro and a lot of other Giants batters were fouling off pitches, and not allowing themselves to strike out against Verlander.  They piled on Valverde when the opportunity arose.  And they ran hard, and played hard.

And, just a moment to point out that Tim McCarver had a rare moment of lucidity, and rightfully praised Roberto Kelly for making a difference as a first-base coach, alerting Pagan to take second.  First base coach is often a role that, at least during a game, is almost as ceremonial as the first pitch.  Both on Fox and on MLB network, good on them for taking a moment to point out a difference-making call.

And then there was the pitching.  Zito was exactly what he needed to be.  He wouldn’t let Detroit amp up, even with a breaking ball he couldn’t control early.  He kept them off-balance, and as Detroit has often done against left-handers, they faltered.  And then came Lincecum.

Following Barry Zito with Tim Lincecum is like chasing a fine Scotch with a shot of Jägermeister.

This was domination.  It was a domination that even those who picked the Giants to win the series did not see coming.  It was great.

Welcome to the World Series in San Francisco, world.  We’re loud, we’re proud, and you should never, EVER, expect anything normal out of it.

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This Feels Like A Trap

by Kevin on October 26, 2012 at 12:01 am
Who needs a DH?

People are saying the Giants are getting all the breaks.

In this World Series, I have to disagree.  Big time.

So far, the Giants have outplayed and outperformed the Tigers.  And it’s not even close.

Game 2 fell because of two coaching decisions on the Detroit side, and only one was really a Jim Leyland call.  You know what they are.

Prince Fielder Going Home

This will be the most dissected call of this game, so I won’t dissect it for you.  I’ve seen some pretty convincing cases about why third base coach Gene Lamont waved in Fielder, in that it would take a perfect play by at least three players to get an out (and they were perfect).  If there were two outs, I’d completely agree.  But with no outs, a caller to KNBR described my feelings perfectly: If he can’t score standing up, don’t send him.  Be conservative, and trust that your offense can get at least an outfield fly ball.

But lost in the rush was a different coaching decision…or the decision not the be one.  Jhonny Peralta was in the on-deck circle when Delmon Young hit that double.  The problem was…he was still there as Fielder headed home.  If he had done what many players do, he would’ve been in Fielder’s field of vision and telling him to slide outside to avoid the tag coming in.  Sure, Fielder should’ve realized that a tag was coming from where Posey was, but just another visual reinforcement to do that would’ve made that a run.

Peralta really failed his teammates there.

Giving Up By Getting Two Outs

This is a call more open to interpretation.  With the bases loaded, Leyland had his team play back, he seemed to be effectively giving up a run in a scoreless game to get two outs.

I get this play.

Maybe Drew Smyly isn’t a strikeout pitcher, but a strikeout or a fly out are two likely ways to get an out with Crawford.  And, frankly, the Cardinals kept trying to play in against the Giants, and it kept burning them by putting pressure on the defense that the defense couldn’t handle.

The Tigers have a defense that’s five steps down from St. Louis.

So Leyland decided to play it conservative.  If he got an out without a run, great, but if he couldn’t get at least one out, the Giants could have had a major rally going.

So I get the decision.  It was a risk, but frankly, there wasn’t a not-risk decision there.

But how they got there, is something that’s being called a break.  Gregor Blanco’s bunt.

Sorry, that’s not a break.  Sure, it’s impossible for any player to lay down a bunt that perfectly finds a hole between the third baseman, the catcher, the pitcher and all of foul ground.  But the same could be said of a home run.  Is every home run a break?  No, a player works hard to get in the right position to hit one.  The same thing is true of Blanco’s bunt.  He’s a good bunter, and today, he had a home run bunt.

And, on that note, that was the greatest fair ball call I’ve ever seen.  The crowd around the ball, including umpire Dan Iossanga.  And everyone knows what’s happening.  Hell, the ball outright stopped, and the ump was thinking “Wait, I think I see a centipede there, we need to see what happens.”  Miguel Cabrera was halfway to cursing the baseball gods, and the ump was still waiting to see if @ATTSeagull was going to knock the ball foul with a well-aimed bomb.  And finally, he decided the ball was indeed fair, and unleashed a fair call that made a lot of strikeout calls look tame.

Seriously, Iossanga acted like that was the hardest thing to decide that it wasn’t a foul since the Platypus.

The only break in this game went to the Tigers, when Scutaro’s headfirst slid into first base was called out, when he was safe.  Otherwise, this was a game that went the Giants’ way, and a game decided by two great pitching performances.

Madison Bumgarner needed this.  I wasn’t so sure that the statement that the coaches magically ‘fixed’ his mechanical issues wasn’t the kind of gamesmanship that the NFL’s injury report has become.  It seemed unlikely.  I felt a little more sure when the Giants burned Tim Lincecum in Game 1, but still, I wasn’t sure.  That was Bumgarner’s comeback moment.  It was amazing.

By the same token, I have nothing but respect for Doug Fister.  I don’t think anyone in the Bay Area didn’t think of Brandon McCarthy when that happened.  No one wants to see an injury happen, especially that one.  And it didn’t hurt that he’s a local kid and was a Giants fan growing up.  I’ve got to root for him.  And he took that ball to the head, he stayed in, and he pitched a fantastic game.

From a Giants fan, Doug, great job.  Nothing but respect.

I can’t believe there’s a day off tomorrow.  I’m so ready for Game 3.

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