While the Other System is down, here's an item to track progress
of the Detroit Tigers in their Season to Remember.

71 responses total.

Well, we'll see how they respond with Polanco out.  (I haven't heard how long
he'll be on the DL.)  I'm hoping that they win at least 100 games.  I
personally would like to see them win 105+ games, to overtake the 1984 team.
But I have doubts now that they can accomplish that.

Right now they are one game better, at this point in the season, than were
the 84 Tigers.

Polanco is the best contact hitter on the team, but he's hardly
unreplaceable.  Omar Infante is a very good young player.  He has more
power than Polanco, and in many ways is a better hitter.  I am looking
forward to seeing him get some more innings.  

All year, this team has responded well to their moments of adversity,
few though those have been.  I think they will do so again.  When Maroth
went down, Zach Miner stepped right in.  When Dmitri Young was on the DL
for several months, Chris Shelton started out with a superstar season. 
By the time he faded hopelesly, Young came back and has been strong. 
*And* Sean Casey has done well, too.  The Tigers got him for a not very
promising Double-A player.  

How about that homer that Brent Clevland hit in Fenway wednesday night?  Holy
cow that ball was hit a long way!

Tigers picked up a nice win tonight over the Rangers 4-2, with Kenny Rogers
getting the win.  Joel Zumaya walked a run in after Rogers loaded the bases
with nobody out, but then proceeded to mow down the Rangers and got 6 straight
outs (I think).  Numerous strikeouts.  I get giddy when he pitches, I may need
to seek help.

Jones actually looked really good tonight too.. for once he made it look easy.

Although Polanco was a great contact hitter, Sean Casey is also a great
contact hitter.  Polanco is an asset, but John is right, he's not
irreplaceable.  It's definately a loss - Infante simply doesn't hit as well
as Polanco does.

However, if you look at on base percentage:

Polanco - .325
Infante - .314

That's like getting on base one more time every 100 at bats.

--
Chicago won today so they keep pace at 6.5 games out.  Minnota lost and is
now 8.5 games back.  Boston was idle and sits 2 games behind Chicago.

--
Speaking of Boston, have you had enough hype about the Red Sox-Yankees series
yet?  5 games starting with a day night doubleheader tomorrow.  i think the
Yankees are LIKELY to win *at leat* 3 of these games, maybe 4.  

--
Finally, let's talk about "magic numbers".

Detroit's magic number for eliminating Kansas City from the central division
title, is 5. 

I was talking to someone from KC not too long ago and we reminisced about 
the 84 Tigers. Back then KC was about the only team that played the Tigers 
tough every game. Not like this year.

Don't underestimate the value of Polanco to the team!  At the same time, do
not underestimate the ability of the Tigers to compenstate for adversity.
I still haven't heard how bad Polanco's injury is, but with talk such as
"he may be back by the end of the season" it sounds like it's bad enough...

I've heard he'll be out 8 weeks probably, which would put him past the end
of the season, but I suppose he could return for the World Series. =)

All for falling the wrong way...  :-(

Caught a bit of the Thursday game on WXYT and the broadcaster was saying
that Zumaya's fastballs were measuring over 100 mph, which the broadcaster
was claiming was nearly impossible for anyone to hit.

It's not impossible to hit, but it is nearly impossible to hit WELL.

I've seen guys sitting on a 2-0 count *KNOWING* damn well they're gonna get
a fastball right down the middle, and they still can't catch up to it.  I've
seen him hit 102mph.

The he follows it up with an unhittable 85mph curveball.

Opponents are only batting like .160 against him.

Tigers wasted a good pitching performance tonight by failing to hit.  They
also wasted a leadoff triple in the 9th by Craig Monroe but couldn't score
him.  Young, Ordonez, and Guillen *ALL* grounded out. :(

2-1 Texas

Good outing by Miner.. he went 6 strong, gave up 2 runs, then the bullpen came
in and kept the rangers off the bases for the remaining 3 innings.

At least 3/4 of major league hitters can hit a fastball, thrown at any
speed, if they know a fastball is coming.  Geez, these guys are major
league hitters!  They didn't get there by random selection.

Verlander got beat two days ago because he couldn't throw curveballs and
changeups for strikes.  He threw several 100 mph fastballs that night.

Zumaya is going to kill himself as a major league pitcher if he keeps
throwing so many fastballs.  I think 20 of 26 of his pitches were 100
mph fastballs.  Anyone remember Matt Anderson?

I don't agree with you at all.  3/4 of major league hitters CANNOT hit a 100
mph fastball consistently, even if they know it's coming.

*MOST* of Verlander's fastballs run in the mid 90s.

I remember Matt Anderson, who was all hype but *NEVER* did anything really
worthwhile in the majors.  With the exception of 2001, his strikeouts to walks
ratio was never great, and batters pretty close to one hit per inning off him.
Zumaya is having a better year this year than Matt Anderson *EVER* did.

Anderson was also a reliever for his entire minor league career.  HE was
fragile to start with.  Zumaya is much more durable, and was a starter for
all but one game in his minor league career, starting 77 of 78 appearances.

Zumaya's fastball has more LIFE than Anderson's fastball, and Zumaya has at
least some confidence in his curve ball.  But he knows where his bread and
butter is.

You say 3/4 of major league hitters can hit a fastball - that's true.  But
3/4 of them can't hit a 100mph fastball with life consistently - or even some
of the time.  "occassionally" maybe.  The other 1/4 can't hit him at all.

Zumaya threw that 2-0 pitch and everyone in the ballpark - including the
batter - knew it was gonna be a fastball.  They just can't get the wood on
it.

There's a reason batters are only hitting .165 against him.

Zumaya is not getting hit because he has other pitches besides his fastball.

No one can get a hit from any pitch 100% of the time, but major league
hitters can usually get their bat on the baseball if they know a
fastball is coming.  If they can get their bat on the ball, they have a
much better chance of getting a hit.

He has other pitches which he only used 6 out of 26 times the other night as
you said :)

I'll concede that 3/4 of major league hitters can get their bat on a 100mph
fastball - even if they know it's coming.

I'm just arguing that MOST of the time when facing Zumaya, those bat-on-ball
scenarios are simply *NOT* hits.

--
Tigers lost a tough one last night, in which an error by Infante led to two
unearned runs, giving Texas the 3-1 win 

Texas scored 3 runs on only 2 hits.  That's right, Robertson allows only 2
hits through 8 innings, and that's all the hits they got.  Painful.

They'd better win today.  Chicago won yesterday and is back to 5.5 games
behind.  Detroit is only 3-7 in their last 10.

Another close game loss today :(  That's 3 in a row, and only 3 wins in their
last 12 games.  STop the bleeding!

Now we've got a HUGE 4 game series against the White Sox.  We're still gonna
be in first place when it's done but I'd prefer to be in better shape than
we are now, and not worse shape.

I looked up the word "fading" in the dictionary today and saw that it's
actually a synonym for "Boston Red Sox"

The Red Sox are on the verge of being swept in a 5 game series, and could fall
to 7 games back in the loss column if they lose again Today, or move up to
5 games back in the loss column if they win.  Either way the prospects aren't
good for the Red Sox.

They're also 4 games behind Chicago and games behind Minnesota in the wild
card race.

Tigers sucked big time on Sunday - built a 6-0 lead with 6 runs in the 2nd
inning, but then couldn't score a signle damn run the rest of the game.
On a day where he actually got great run support, Bonderman stank up the place
by giving all 6 runs back.  Then in came Grilli, and that's a sign that all
hope is lost.  :-(

The Yankees completed a 5 game sweep of Boston today, beating the Red
Sox 2-1.

The Yankees are now the #2 team in the American League; 3.5 games in
back of Detroit.  

Make that 4 games, the Tigers just soundly trounced the White Sox 7-1.

We improve to a 6.5 game lead (6 games in the loss column)

It hasn't been mentioned yet but the Tigers acquired Neifi Perez from the Cubs
in exchange for Lakeland catcher Chris Robinson, whom the Cubs GM referred
to as an "oustanding defensive catcher".
--
Andrew Miller made his professional debut at Class A Lakeland the other day.
He pitched one inning, gave up no hits, no walks, struck out two, and hit a
batter.

The ball game yesterday was wonderful.  It's just what the Tigers
needed; a relatively easy win, with good hitting and good pitching. 
They solidly beat the White Sox and their best pitcher, Jose Contreras.

The Tigers are 4-9 now against Chicago.  They have 6 more games to play,
so they could possibly finish with a season-long winning record.  That
would be wonderful.  Detroit has had an inferiority complex against the
White Sox all year because they're the World Series champs and because
they've won most of the games.  It's unlikely, though.  But everything
this team has accomplished this year has been unlikely.  I kind of
expect 6 straight wins at this point.

The Tigers won't beat the White Sox the last 6 games of their head to head.
If they can play the even at this point, that would be satisfactory for me.
This 4-game series at home, if they come out of it 2-2, that would be
satisfactory.  3-1 would be better, of course, and 4-0 would be delightful
but highly unlikely.

With a record of 80-45 at this point, all the Tigers need to do to reach 100
wins is go 20-17, which is just a bit over .500, and entirely achieveable.

WE'VE GOT 81 WINS!

That means the Tigers will *NOT* have a losing season this year.  HOORAY! 

Tigers played a great game tonight, with superb pitching from Kenny Rogers,
who went 7 innings, allowing 4 hits and a walk.  Fernando Rodney pitched 2
innings to complete the shutout.

Here's the story of the offense yesterday:

DETROIT            AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG
M. Thames, dh      2  1 2 3    7  1 0 .270 .345 .582

Rogers' shutout was the 14th for the team this year.  That leads the
majors but the Tigers lead the majors in a lot of pitching stats.

The Tigers have announced playoff ticket sales.  They'll go on sale
September 19, and you have to buy tickets for all of the games through
the entire playoffs in order to get them, including a potential game for
tie-breaking for the wild card spot.  Division championship tickets will
cost $35-110.  The entire series will cost $770-$1990 per seat, which
puts it well out of the realm of possibility for me.

My Stanley Cup Playoff tickets cost me about $1000 for 16 games and 2 seats.

$1600 for 11 potential home games for a pair of cheap seats seems pretty
reasonable, and $4000 for a pair of the best seats to every game seems
exceptionally reasonable, compared to the price you'd pay for a pair of
stanley cup playoffs seats at center ice in Detroit =)

I'm merely commenting on the relative price of tickets here, not your ability
to buy them (or lack thereof).  

$1600 is out of range for a lot of people.  If I lived in the area still, I'd
try to buy a pair with someone else and split them, so I could go to half the
games and the other person could go to half.  Then I'd be looking at only $800
which I could probably find a way to pay for.

There are 6 members of my family these days.  If I could lay out
$200-300 and get us to a playoff game, I would do that.  I am not going
to buy thousands of dollars worth of tickets, though.

I don't in any way blame the team for getting the loot it can get. 
They'd be idiots not to.  Idiots don't have World Series teams.

re #26
That's how they keep it white.  Kinda like UofM football.

The Rich Whitey Parade on football Saturdays is one of the few downsides to
Ann Arbor living.

re #30
It's not quite Devil's Night in Detroit but it certainly ranks up there.

I'd rather have my streets clogged by the Woodward Dream Cruise than a bunch
of SUVs with maize and blue crap stuck on the them, blocking the intersections
when the lights change.

re 30 - hey my wife and I had season tickets to Michigan football, and we were
not rich!  whitey, yes... definately not rich!

I used to go to michigan football games prior to being a season ticket holder
with tickets I got from where I worked sometimes, and I was even further from
rich then.  Making $22k doesn't qualify as rich I don't think, not in A2.

Obviously, not all fans are rich; just a large number of them. When I was a
waiter I'd get to see first hand the drunk alums returning to relive their
past. I sometimes wondered if UM's secret marketing plan was "get drunk on
your ass while earning a prestigious degree so you can earn enough money to
return to campus and relive your drunken life every fall."

The Tigers took a loss last night, 7-5.  It was a rough outing for Zach
Miner, his 3rd straight loss.  He gave up 3 in the 1st inning and 3 more
in the 2nd.  The Tigers almost came back; they caught up to 6-5 and had
opportunities in the 8th and 9th, but didn't pull off the win.

They play today at 1:05.

Not if this rain continues.

re #34
I decided long ago that Ann Arbor was a place where most stayed to live
because they enjoyed high school or college life too much.  (Read as: Arrested
Development)

The Tigers' magic number is 30.  That's the number of wins they need,
combined with losses for the #2 team, in order to ensure they win their
division.  That is, if Detroit wins 30 more, they'll certainly win the
division.  If Chicago (the current #2) loses 30, the Tigers will finish
ahead of them.  Or 15 Tigers wins and 15 Chicago losses will do the job.

The "magic number" is a little misleading in this case.  Normally it's
not brought up until there are only two teams with a chance to win the
division.

Minnesota is only 1/2 game behind Chicago, so there's a magic number
between Detroit and Minnesota as well, which is 29.

There's one for Cleveland, too, with their 58-68 record.  Since the
Tigers have a record of 81-47, if they have a perfect remainder of the
season, we'd have to ensure we don't lose 68 games or that they don't
win 81.  Thye've got 26 games left, we've got 24, so if they win out,
they'd finish with 94 wins.  If we lose out, we'd finish with 81 losses.
 So our magic number with Cleveland is 13.

It has been 20 years since I've written about magic numbers.  (-:

Tiges have to go 19-15 or better to reach 100 wins.  That will almost
certainly put them into the post season.  It's not that far above .500 to
achieve.  But lately, except for the Boston series, they have not been
distinguishing themselves - too inconsistent.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss