David Price, Alfredo Simon lead Detroit Tigers revival

During the recent eight-game losing streak of the Detroit Tigers, one thing was standard, the Tigers’ starting pitching was really, really bad.

In seven games prior to the Tigers’ weekend series against the Chicago White Sox, the starting staff had just one quality start, posted a 7.38 earned run average and averaged pitching 5 1/3 innings per start.

In five of the seven losses, the opposing team scored first, putting extra pressure on an offense that was struggling to get hits in key situations and score runs. (The Tigers scored just 19 runs as they were swept in back-to-back series).

Yet things seem to get back on track as the Tigers arrived in Chicago and the starting pitchers started doing their part and waited for the bats to wake up.

It was started by an unlikely player, who ended up setting the tone for the rest of the series.

Making just his second career start and having not pitched in nine days, rookie left-hander Kyle Ryan stepped up and gave the best performance of his life. Ryan surrendered just two runs and three hits, while striking out four and walking one in seven innings. A rare blown save from Joakim Soria cost Ryan the win. His success against Chicago should not be unexpected, Ryan’s only other career start was in Chicago against the White Sox in 2014 in his major league debut, where he pitched six shutout innings.

The Tigers still lost the game in extra innings on the rare “walk-off hit by pitch.”

As the Tigers had fallen back to .500 on the season and with the possibility they might end up in fourth place by the end of Saturday night, David Price stepped up and show why he’s one of the top starting pitchers in the game.

Price pitched his 13th career complete game and second of the season, striking out 11, including a stretch where he struck out seven straight White Sox.

After giving up a scoring double to Alexei Ramirez in the third inning, Price retired 18 of the final 20 hitters he faced, with no member of the White Sox reaching second base after Ramirez’s double. Price’s dominant performance helped snap the Tigers’ longest losing streak in almost 10 years.

Things did not get off to the best start for Alfredo Simon as he took the mound in the series finale.

An error charged to Miguel Cabrera in the first inning on an Adam LaRoche ground ball extended the inning and allowed former Tiger Avisail Garcia to hit a three-run home run (his fourth against his former team). Following a scoring triple by Adam Eaton in the second inning to give the White Sox a 4-1 lead, a different Simon showed up.

Simon retired 19 of the final 22 batters he faced, with just one runner reaching second base after the second inning, For the game, Simon gave up one earned run (four runs total), while striking out seven, giving up five hits in eight innings. Soria closed the door in the ninth and the Tigers won consecutive games for the first time in almost two weeks.

While the offense did finally show up (scoring 16 runs in the three games against the White Sox after scoring 19 runs in the previous seven games), the starting pitching is what kept the team in all three games. Ryan, Price and Simon gave up only four earned runs in 24 combined innings after the starting pitchers had given up 32 earned runs over the previous 39 innings.

Despite a horrendous stretch of baseball, the Tigers are just four games back of first place and with Justin Verlander and Victor Martinez scheduled to return soon, the Tigers might be poised to make a run.

The Doug Fister trade just got even worse for Detroit Tigers fans

Two separate trades involving Doug Fister are maybe the best and the worst trades made by Detroit Tigers‘ President, CEO and General Manager Dave Dombrowski.

The first one involved acquiring Fister from the Seattle Mariners in July 2011 for pitchers Chance Ruffin and Charlie Furbush, third baseman Francisco Martinez and outfielder Casper Wells.

Fister was the Tigers best trade deadline acquisition since Doyle Alexander in 1987. He went 8-1 with the Tigers down the stretch with a 1.79 earned run average and 0.89 walks plus hits per innings to help the Tigers win their first division championship since 1987 (just like Alexander did in 1987, who went 9-0).

Furbush is the only player left with the Mariners and has turned into a decent reliever. Ruffin retired from baseball at the age of 25 last summer, Martinez was reacquired by the Tigers in 2013 and Wells has played with just about every organization in baseball and spent this past Spring Training with the Tigers before being released in April.

Then, Dombrowski inexplicably traded Fister to Washington Nationals in December 2013, amidst of rumors that he was ordered to slash payroll by Chris Ilitch, the son of Tigers’ owner Mike Ilitich.

At the time of the trade, Dombrowski said that Robbie Ray was the key to the trade and that Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo almost did not make the trade because he did not want to give up Ray. Everyone called the trade stupid back then and it’s even stupider now because according to Barry Svrluga’s upcoming book, The Grind: Inside Baseball’s Endless Season, Rizzo threatened to resign in protest if team ownership did not approve the trade.

The Tigers wanted to include reliever Phil Coke and make it a four-for-two swap in which they would have received pitching prospects Robbie Ray, Taylor Jordan, and Ian Krol along with utility man Steve Lombardozzi. The Nationals didn’t want Coke and his 5.40 ERA, and Rizzo didn’t feel like he could part with both Ray and Jordan, a pair of promising young starters. When they finally settled on a three-for-one trade — Ray, Krol, and Lombardozzi for Fister — the Lerner family, which owns the Nationals, killed the deal, wary of parting with Ray.

–snip–

… Rizzo had called the Tigers’ Dombrowski to tell him he couldn’t do the deal. But he did something else, too: He threatened to quit. Ownership eventually relented. The deal was back on. Ray, Krol, and Lombardozzi went to Detroit, and Fister became a National.

It sounds like Rizzo was ready to give away his first born just to get Fister to the District.

Since then, Fister has been outstanding with the Nats. He’s 18-8 in 32 starts with a 2.79 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. The Nats’ rotation is so stacked that Fister started the season as the Nationals’ fifth starter. With Max Scherzer now also in Washington, they somehow have as many of the pitchers that started games for the Tigers in the 2012 World Series as the Tigers have currently.

The return for the Tigers has not turned so well. Ray went 1-4 in nine games (six starts) with the Tigers in 2014 with an 8.16 ERA and 1.89 WHIP. The Tigers loved Ray so much that traded him last December in a three-team trade to Arizona Diamondbacks to acquire Shane Greene.

With the inconsistent starting pitching the Tigers have gotten from anybody other David Price or Alfredo Simon, wouldn’t Fister look good pitching every five days instead of Greene?

Detroit Tigers’ Justin Verlander sharp in rehab start

Even on “Jurassic Park” night, Justin Verlander was the biggest attraction in Toledo Saturday.

Pitching for the first time ever at Fifth Third Field, Verlander showed flashes of the stuff that won him the American League Cy Young and MVP awards in 2011.

He allowed four hits and one unearned run, while striking out nine for the Toledo Mud Hens, the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, against the Columbus Clippers. He threw 93 pitches, 69 for strikes.

Reports indicate that Verlander’s fastball touched 94 miles per hour and Tony Paul of the Detroit News graded Verlander’s curveball as an “A+”.

Saturday’s start was much better than his first rehab start on May 31, where his command and control were all over the place. In that start against the Louisville Bats, Verlander allowed three runs on six hits in 2 2/3 innings, while walking two and striking out three; he threw 79 pitches, with 50 being strikes.

Tigers’ manager Brad Ausmus said that if all went well, Verlander could rejoin the starting rotation next week. He’s been on the disabled list the entire season with a triceps injury and suffered a few setbacks along the way.

If given at least his normal four days rest, Verlander could start as early as Friday against the Cleveland Indians to open a three-game weekend series at Comerica Park. David Price, Anibal Sanchez and Shane Greene are scheduled to start against the Indians.

The Tigers will need to make a roster move to clear space for Verlander on the 25-man roster. Given Greene’s inconsistent season, he could be a candidate to be sent down to the minors to work out his struggles. Other options could include sending Kyle Ryan back to Toledo or moving Ryan to the bullpen and releasing Tom Gorzelanny, who has given up six earned runs on five hits and four walks in his last 2 2/3 innings.

Verlander was not the only Tiger making a rehab assignment Saturday. Reliever Bruce Rondon, who has not pitched at the major league level since 2013, made his seventh outing for the Mud Hens and things did not go as smoothly as they did for Verlander.

Rondon gave up four runs on four hits, while walking three and striking out one in one inning. He also gave up a home run and took the loss in the Mud Hens’ 6-1 loss.

In 6 2/3 innings with Toledo, Rondon has 12.15 ERA, 2.40 walks plus hits per inning and has averaged 5.4 walks per nine innings. The Tigers had originally planned on activating Rondon from the disabled list and having him join the team in time for the series opener against the Chicago White Sox Friday, but Saturday’s appearance was added to his rehab stint. A pitcher can spend a maximum of 30 days on a rehab stint in the minors, meaning the Tigers will have to activate Rondon by June 20 or extend his time on the disabled list.

It is time for the Detroit Tigers to shake things up

This is what the Detroit Tigers are going through at the moment.

The Tigers have plummeted to third place in the American League Central division (five games back and just one game up on the Cleveland Indians for fourth place) and their current seven-game losing streak is their longest since they lost seven straight in 2011.

Despite a great offensive start to the season, the offense has completely fallen flat, scoring just 23 runs in the past 10 games.

They are missing Victor Martinez and Alex Avila, but the guys who are currently playing still have to step up in their places. One stat can really pinpoint why the Tigers are struggling.

The Tigers offense is powered by Miguel Cabrera, when he is hitting, the team runs smoothly. For him to do his job most effectively, he needs guys on base and that has not been happening lately. He has 156 at-bats when he has not led off an inning, of those 156, 70 of them have been with no runners on base. That means that Anthony Gose and Ian Kinsler have not been getting on base in front of him. Plus, due to the struggles the Tigers have suffered from the cleanup spot in 2015, he is often getting pitched around and cannot do any damage.

It is easy to second guess the coaching staff and play arm chair manager, especially when everybody knows that baseball is the sport where players have the most responsibility for their play, but it is obvious some kind a shakeup is needed.

Say what you will about Jim Leyland, but his teams never had these stretches where they just put forth little to no effort for long stretches like they have under Brad Ausmus.

The manager is always the last to go and Dave Dombrowski is the not type of a general manager that will make a managerial change in season (he’s only changed managers three times in season in over 25 years as a GM), but he has shown that he will shake up a coaching staff in season.

Should it be hitting coach Wally Joyner? Pitching coach Jeff Jones? That’s not my call, but it is obvious that this team needs a shakeup. As the late, great Owen Hart once said; “enough is enough and it’s time for a change.

Three Up, Three Down: May 3rd

By Joe Martinez
@JoeM3120

The Tigers are in the midst of 19 straight games against Central Division rivals and beating up on their Central Division foes is something the Tigers have plenty experience with. During their four straight Central Division championships, the Tigers are 183-113 against the rest of the Central. Since 2006, the Tigers have had a losing record against the Central just once.

After losing the first two games against the Royals and falling more than one full game out of first place for the first time in 2015, they were able to bounce back after two strong starts from David Price and Anibal Sanchez to win the final two games of the series and re-take a half-game lead over the Royals.

Weekly Record: 4-3 (2-1 vs. Twins, 2-2 vs. Royals)
Season Record: 17-9 (First place in American League Central)
2015 Division Record: 14-5 (5-1 vs. Twins, 5-1 vs. Indians, 2-1 vs. White Sox, 2-2 vs. Royals)

Three Up, Three Down: April 27th

By Joe Martinez
@JoeM3120

The Tigers faced their first bit of adversity in the 2015 season; losing their first series of the season, getting completely outplayed in losing three out of four games to the New York Yankees. Not much worked in the Yankees series. David Price was shelled, the bullpen was awful and they only scored nine runs in the four games. They righted the ship against the Cleveland Indians over the weekend with two strong performances from Alfredo Simon and Kyle Lobstein and scored more runs in the final two games (12) then they had in the previous five (10). They have won all four series against Central Division opponents.

Not using the DH is really, really stupid

By Joe Martinez
@JoeM3120

The Lions open the 2015 regular season against the San Diego Chargers, a team that is in the opposite conference. Imagine the Lions now have to play this game without Calvin Johnson because the AFC has a rule that prohibits wide receivers from playing in the AFC. The AFC teams play 12 games a year like this so they have obviously adjusted to the rule and have specialized personnel.

The Lions would obviously be at a distinct disadvantage because their personnel is completely tailored to the other set of rules, especially considering that Johnson is the Lions best player.

Victor Martinez will most likely not start 10 games in NL parks because he’s a DH

It would seem stupid and impractical for one professional sporting league to have two completely different sets of rules, especially when those rules would completely benefit one team over the other. Yet, that is the situation that has existed in Major League Baseball since the American League introduced the designated hitter in 1973.

The rule came about because pitching was dominating and the National League was the clear dominant league. In 1968, Denny McLain won 31 games for the World Series Champion Tigers and Bob Gibson won 22 games, had 13 shutouts and a 1.12 ERA on his way to the National League Cy Young. In response to those numbers, baseball lowered the height of the pitcher’s mound from 15 to 10 inches.

To increase scoring, the American League eventually implemented the DH and the rest as they say is history.

Three Up, Three Three Down: April 20th

By Joe Martinez
@JoeM3120

There is not much that’s not going right with the Tigers thus far. They are tied for in the American League in runs scored with 68, are third in total hits with 128, first in total bases with 204, second in batting average at .305 and first in team OPS at .855. The pitching staff is first in the AL with a 2.61 ERA, first with a .212 opponents batting average and second with four team shutouts. The Tigers have baseball’s best record at 10-2, the team’s best start by any measure since 1984 (we all know what happened then).

The Tigers have an awful bench…again

By Joe Martinez
@JoeM3120

Let’s jump in the way back machine and head back to the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 3 of the American League Division Series at Comerica Park.

The Tigers trail the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 and are two outs away from elimination.

Bryan Holaday

The inning had started with back-to-back doubles from Victor and J.D. Martinez off Orioles closer Zach Britton, just the Tigers third and fourth hits of the day, as the Tigers cut the deficit to one run.

The Tigers needed just one base-hit to extend the game at least one more inning and possibly to continue the rally and win the game to extend the season one more day.

That is situation and the Tigers lone option at the plate is Bryan Holaday.

Tigers make many moves, what do they mean?

By Joe Martinez
@JoeM3120

It seems like forever since Hernan Perez grounded into a double-play with Victor Martinez on second base and the Tigers were swept in the ALDS by the Baltimore Orioles, marking the first time since 2010 that the Tigers did not make the American League Championship Series, doesn’t it?

With those extra few weeks of offseason, the Tigers have had plenty of time to ponder roster moves to get ready for 2015 season. They mad a myriad of moves that will be largely ignored because today is Friday, it’s Halloween and the University of Michigan gave Dave Brandon $3 million to go away.