Yesterday, in my latest Motor City Bengals post, it was all talk about Justin Verlander and his quest for MVP. Today, I'll I'll try and reach back and crudely look back at a few offseason moves that have (or have not) shaped this season.
The easy winner here is Victor Martinez. Victor signed a 4-year, $50MM contract w/ the Tigers in the offseason, and has been worth every penny so far. The other "coveted" free agent bat of the offseason, Adam Dunn, signed a slightly larger contract with the Chicago White Sox (4 years, $56MM) was rumored to be on the Tigers radar, except word was he wasn't interested in being a full-time DH, so he was out of the Tigers plans then. Good for the Tigers too. In a tale of 2 seasons, V-Mart is batting .324, with 11 HRs and 94 RBIs (.385 with runners in scoring position), while Adam Dunn is batting a cool .165, with only 11 HRs, 41 RBIs, and 163 strikeouts. Not exactly a good return on the investment. The Tigers can only hope for this in all 4 years of this deal.
The easy loser here is Brad Penny. I actually liked this deal in the preseason when it was made. Not a ton of money invested (only $3MM for this season, incentives would have made it $6MM), and if he made it through the season healthy it would have been a good deal. Except he's had an awfully inconsistent season, and his gameday pace and lack of command haven't set well with Tigers fans this season (though I'll theorize that after only 9 starts last year he may not have had the endurance for a full season). It'll be over soon, as I'd be totally be shocked to see Dave Dombrowski re-sign him beyond this season - as Jacob Turner figures to battle for the last rotation spot next spring.
Two in-house moves I also moderately embraced in the offseason were the re-signings of Magglio Ordonez and Brandon Inge. In the beginning, the signing of Ordonez was great, in my opinon: Maggs was having a productive season last year when he was lost for the season with a broken ankle. This season, his bat swing is slower, and his batting average is remarkably lower as a result. The last couple of weeks for him have been better, as he's raised his batting average up to .252. As for Brandon Inge, it's been - for the most part - a season to forget. He signed a 2-year, $11MM contract just before the winter free agency period started, citing his desire to remain in Detroit. However, his putrid offense (.170 before being designated for assignment/sent to Toledo) and his declining defense have been a season-long problem for the Tigers. Fans were getting on his case, and his alleged stubborn attitude towards getting help for his hitting woes weren't helping his cause with the Tigers. They would trade for Wilson Betemit, and DFA Inge. Inge did accept his demotion to Toledo where he was a moderately productive hitter, and has since been back with the big club where he has raised his average to .200, while fielding his position well. He's not being thrown out there everyday, which is probably helping. My hope is he works on his offense in the offseason. Doing so and improving his batting average to .250 would even be relatively acceptable to me and a few legions of other Tigers fans who can't stand the strikeouts or the lazy pop ups.
Now, while I've appeared to be more negative than positive here, keep in mind that there's room for improvement here, and even winning the AL Central should be a great accomplishment in spite of some of the downfalls. I hope that they're aiming higher this postseason, because I'm going to assume that any failure in this playoff year will result in fans wanting more this offseason, and there isn't too much the Tigers can do to make any improvements.
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You can now read more of my Tigers musings on the Fansided Tigers blog, Motor City Bengals.
Showing posts with label Brad Penny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brad Penny. Show all posts
Monday, September 19, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
An Unexpected Win?
I viewed last night's game as a bit of a "throw away game," mostly because of lowering my expectations whenever one Brad Penny takes the mound for the Tigers.
Easy to think that, not just because of Penny's season-long inconsistencies, but add that the Tigers had made Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde, the back end of the bullpen, unavailable for last night's game. Also add Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price, young stud lefty who in his short career has dominated the Tigers.
Add in the cliche, "the games aren't played on paper" and we have ourselves the Tigers 5th straight win. I wouldn't call Penny dominant by any stretch either, as he missed the strike zone on his first pitch to almost everyone he faced. And with a few missed opportunities against Price early, it could have spelled doom for the winning streak. Instead, Penny gutted out 6 1/3 innings of work and only gave up 1 run. Remarkable, as he wasn't getting adequate run support, albeit vs a good young pitcher.
The bullpen did the rest, with Daniel Schlereth and Ryan Perry pitching the rest of what would be an interesting 7th inning, as Schlereth would allow the bases to load up with Rays before Perry was brought in to get the final out. Enter Phil Coke, who'd failed as a starting pitcher this season, to pitch what would end up being a 50 pitch, 2 inning save as the Tigers would win 2-1, also thanks in part to a 2-run seventh inning in which "Titanium Catcher" Alex Avila and Jhonny Peralta drove in runs for the Tigers. Coke struck out 5 batters, and ended the game with a 10-pitch battle against Ben Zobrist, with 2 runners on, by grounding out to Miguel Cabrera to end the game.
Nobody should expect to win every game, but in that same thinking, nobody should expect to lose what I just called a "throw away game" either. The Tigers beat Price for the first time in his career, and have given themselves a chance to win this 4-game series tonight with Max Scherzer on the mound. And thanks to that win, the Tigers own a 6 game lead over Cleveland (who split a doubleheader yesterday) and 6.5 over Chicago, who lost in walk-off fashion vs the Angels last night.
I myself will take victories like this all the time, even though those last 3 innings were gut-wrenching with the Tigers moderately erratic bullpen. A win's a win, and that's ultimately what matters.
Easy to think that, not just because of Penny's season-long inconsistencies, but add that the Tigers had made Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde, the back end of the bullpen, unavailable for last night's game. Also add Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price, young stud lefty who in his short career has dominated the Tigers.
Add in the cliche, "the games aren't played on paper" and we have ourselves the Tigers 5th straight win. I wouldn't call Penny dominant by any stretch either, as he missed the strike zone on his first pitch to almost everyone he faced. And with a few missed opportunities against Price early, it could have spelled doom for the winning streak. Instead, Penny gutted out 6 1/3 innings of work and only gave up 1 run. Remarkable, as he wasn't getting adequate run support, albeit vs a good young pitcher.
The bullpen did the rest, with Daniel Schlereth and Ryan Perry pitching the rest of what would be an interesting 7th inning, as Schlereth would allow the bases to load up with Rays before Perry was brought in to get the final out. Enter Phil Coke, who'd failed as a starting pitcher this season, to pitch what would end up being a 50 pitch, 2 inning save as the Tigers would win 2-1, also thanks in part to a 2-run seventh inning in which "Titanium Catcher" Alex Avila and Jhonny Peralta drove in runs for the Tigers. Coke struck out 5 batters, and ended the game with a 10-pitch battle against Ben Zobrist, with 2 runners on, by grounding out to Miguel Cabrera to end the game.
Nobody should expect to win every game, but in that same thinking, nobody should expect to lose what I just called a "throw away game" either. The Tigers beat Price for the first time in his career, and have given themselves a chance to win this 4-game series tonight with Max Scherzer on the mound. And thanks to that win, the Tigers own a 6 game lead over Cleveland (who split a doubleheader yesterday) and 6.5 over Chicago, who lost in walk-off fashion vs the Angels last night.
I myself will take victories like this all the time, even though those last 3 innings were gut-wrenching with the Tigers moderately erratic bullpen. A win's a win, and that's ultimately what matters.
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