Willis sent to 'pen

Dontrelle Willis is off the disabled list and in the bullpen.

Leyland audio

For anyone who hasn't heard, here is Jim Leyland's reaction to Jason Grilli's comment about the lack of clubhouse unity.

Tigers/Mariners: May 21st preview

Last night provided a darn good amount of positives. But the atrocious bullpen performance reminded the Tigers offense that they need to keep their foot on the accelerator at all times, because no lead is safe.

Tonight is more of a wild card. Kenny Rogers was completely destroyed in his last start against a lowly KC offense (who went on to struggle against a pair of Boston rookie starters this week). So it wouldn't be out of the question to wonder if he can get the job done against a Seattle offense that is dead last in the AL in OBP, in the lower half in SLG, and has struck out more than any AL team. Of course, all of those things give Rogers hope as well. The Mariners don't take a whole lot of walks (11th in the AL), so if he gets decent calls, gets ahead of batters, and keeps his walks under control he could be in good shape.

The positive for the Tigers (no matter how badly Kenny pitches) is that the Mariners are sending Jarrod Washburn out. He hasn't appeared in a game in a week, and that was a relief appearance against the Texas Rangers. The last time he started a game was on the 10th, and he was shelled by the White Sox. He only has 10 walks on the year, so the ball will be around the plate like last night. Statistically, just imagine Rogers with half the walks and that's what you'll have in Washburn.

And since Washburn is a lefty, we'll get to see some more Pudge Rodriguez: leadoff hitter. Maybe tonight Gary Sheffield won't go 0-5 and get his slugging percentage higher than Jose Vidro's. I don't really know the motive is behind hitting a guy with an OPS+ well under 100 (league average) in the three hole. I wish that Jim Leyland would indulge the rest of us with some sort of explanation as to why he won't move him further down in the order until he breaks out of this "slump" (or tears his labrum some more).

Game one vs. Mariners

A detailed trip report is coming in a little bit for game one vs. the Seattle Mariners. One thing I wanted to get off my chest right away though was how sickening it was to see Tigers fans booing Gary Sheffield. We can all concede Gary has been no angel himself during his major league tenure, but engaging in that kind of activity makes us no better than Yankees or Red Sox fans. If you are going to cheer when someone hits a home run, don't boo when they are struggling.

Weekly preview

Back from a weekend of shenanigans and general malarchy (OK, I was just being lazy and didn't feel like updating amid another losing series).

- Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya throwing batting practice.

- Lakeland pitcher almost throws a no-no.

- Jim Leyland meeting with Dave Dombrowski today to discuss "issues." The most glaring one seems to be the Dontrelle Willis debacle. His rehab starts have been mediocre at best (although to give him credit, his last start he allowed only one run), and Armando Galaragga has been Detroit's best pitcher 44 games in.

- What a difference 12 months can make. This time last year, the club was 26-16, batting .274 with a 4.40 team ERA. This year: 17-27, batting .254 with a 4.93 team ERA.

- Just semantics really, but sad to see Gibby switch allegiances. I would love to see him as a bench coach for the Tigers right now.

- Magglio's error-free streak ends.

Laying Eggs

A series that had so much promise for 6 innings on Friday night ended with a thud in the afternoon on Sunday.

The Tigers were shut out for the seventh time only a month and a half into the season by father time himself, Randy Johnson. The Big Unit was far from dominant, allowing seven baserunners in seven innings. He did strike out five, but the Tigers helped him along by stranding runner after runner (including a no out double by Miguel in the 4th).

Nate Robertson was hit around pretty well, giving up seven base hits and four walks in just 5.2 innings. He was having decent luck until he gave up a two-run double to Chris Young in the 5th. In the 6th Robertson loaded the bases full, with one of those being a walk to Randy Johnson after intentionally walking Miguel Montero. Freddy Dolsi came in to relieve him, and immediately walked Chris Young to bring in a run. The D-Backs tacked on another run off the Tigers bullpen before Zach Miner shut them down for the remainder.

In addition to the offensive ineptitude, Jim Leyland provided a nice head scratcher as well. He batted Pudge Rodriguez leadoff again because of the lefty on the mound (which he's done before, so it wasn't so surprising). But the problem was in the three-hole. Rather than just moving Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera up in the order, he hit Edgar Renteria third. Edgar has been good this season against lefties in a pretty small sample size at only 20 ABs. Over his career he slugs around .450 against southpaws, but with Cabrera and Ordonez around he shouldn't be hitting any higher than 5th.

Next on the agenda? A series with that other disappointing AL team, the Seattle Mariners.

Another surprise prospect

Rule fiver turned prospect this season blowing up Toledo.

Eddie Bonine: 8-0, 2.80 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 4.8 K / BB

Clubhouse pow-wow

A players-only meeting was called before the Royals game yesterday. It didn't get them a win in the series finale, although anything to stir the pot has to be a good thing at this point.

"It's like rehab. You acknowledge the problem. That's the first step, and you go from there, I guess. We just have to figure it out." - Todd Jones

Inter-league play starts tonight. Perhaps a change of scenery will do some good.

Brooms Ahoy

Confidence isn't a word I would really use too often when talking about the 2008 Detroit Tigers. But going into Thursday's finale in KC, it was pretty safe to assume that the Tigers were probably pretty confident in their chances. They wouldn't be swept by the lowly Kansas City Royals. Kenny Rogers was taking the hill, on a roll with three consecutive quality starts. And they were facing a starter that they victimized in the season opener.

All that came to a screeching halt as the Gambler fell victim to a three run first inning, and a two run second shortly thereafter. By the time he'd exited after the fourth inning, KC had a seven-spot on the board, and fourteen men had reached base.

Gil Meche gave one back in the second inning, but looked nothing like the man Detroit had seen the first go round. It was just another day at the office for a Kansas City pitcher, going seven strong and keeping the foot on the Tigers' throat all day.

You know there is something seriously wrong when Matt Joyce (not really trying to slight the man too hard here) is seemingly the entire offense. Another home run was crushed to the right field grass, and he also added a sac fly.

The AL Central is still a jumbled mess, with first place and fourth place only 2.5 games apart. But the Tigers aren't even in that discussion because they're sitting in dead last, 3.5 games away from the nearest team (the Royals). The Indians have claimed first place, already have a six game cushion to work with, and all of their pitchers throwing zeros.

If Detroit doesn't make some sort of adjustment soon (cough, Gary Sheffield DL, cough), they could be in severe trouble. A visit to arguably the best team in the NL (the Snakes) is not going to help matters at all, and interleague play as a whole is not going to be a laugher for the AL this season.

Behind the plate

How much affect does a catcher have on a given game? It's tough to say from an objective point of view, but there is a reason clubs dish out a lot of cash for guys like Ivan Rodriguez and Jason Varitek...

Runs allowed per game with (Ivan Rodriguez): 5.05
Runs allowed per game (Brandon Inge): 6.43

Keep in mind, Inge's sample size is only seven games. Having Pudge behind the plate doesn't help Justin Verlander throw any harder or Jeremy Bonderman's slider cut any sharper. The killer instinct and intuition, gained only from years of experience behind the plate, need to call a successful game is something Pudge has and, at this point, Inge certainly does not.

A quick minute

Well, that didn't last too long. Gary Sheffield back in the designated hitter slot.

Yahoo!

Falling Down

After a heartbreaking loss on Tuesday, the Tigers absolutely needed a good start from Justin Verlander. Only one of his starts has been quality, and the rest (seven of them) have been at least four earned runs or more. He was not the problem today.

The offense, on the other hand, was.

Kansas City rookie pitcher Luke Hochevar pitched six very strong innings of shutout ball. He threw less strikes than Verlander on a comparable amount of pitches, but was bailed out routinely by the Tigers thin bats. He walked three batters, but only allowed four base hits (none for extra bases), and struck out five. Detroit's bats looked, for the lack of a better word (by my choice), pathetic. In the season series so far against the Royals, the Tigers are 3-36 with runners in scoring position.

The Tigers young ace looked good, but not quite as good as his counterpart. The only real mistake came on a two RBI single by Joey Gathright in the second inning. It wasn't really a mistake as much as it was a decent piece of hitting on a very low breaking ball by the KC speedster. After that blip, he didn't allow another run to score in his 6+ innings of work. It really was just what the Tigers needed from him. It would be nice to see him throw more first pitch strikes, and not get behind on hitters that he should be challenging, but this start was very encouraging nevertheless.

Down 2-0 in the top of the 8th inning, Placido Polanco and Carlos Guillen both got on with singles. On the first pitch of the next at bat, Magglio Ordonez grounded into a double play. A Miguel Cabrera ground out later, and the mild crisis was averted. After that poor showing by the heart of the order, it was left up to six, seven, and eight hitters in the 9th to salvage something. That was put to rest before anyone could blink. Joakim Soria struck out the first two batters he faced, and got a groundout to record his 10th save of the season.


That, my friends, is how you completely waste two quality starts from a couple of struggling starting pitchers.