Inge hobbled, Guillen at third

The Wings game is making me ill. Hopefully they can put a puck or 2 in the net in the second period and play some defense.
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I can't wait for these next two 10:00 starts to be over.. these west coast trips kill me.
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I hope Rogers brings his A game tonight like he did in his last start.

This is why is said "WHY CLETE?" the other day when the Joyce/Thomas switch was made..
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Brent Clevlen in his last 11 games
.462 6R 4HR 18RBI

Tll Sheff gets back in the DH spot, JL is going to try his best to keep the DH spot in a flux.
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Its a revolving door and i am sure Brent will replace Larish soon. That spot is currently used for minor league development :)

LETS GO WINGS!!!!! 2OT!!!! LETS GO TIGERS!!!! took the lead!!! keep it up tigers, put it away wings! bring happiness to the metro area!!
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mike

Well, atleast Larish got a hit when he needed to get one. Thats more than you can say for Pudge. I don't know how one person can choke so many times with runners on....

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Kenny scares me!!!!!!!

damn it!
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tied in the 7th. tigers need to shape up, hit the ball and score some effin' runs. sorry bout your lost win kenny
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mike

I think JL tries to use Kenny for too many innings. 5 or 6 innings seems to be enough for him.....................

Dolsi..............sure hope he has his stuff tonight......

horrible day for Detroit fans.
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Can't believe the Wings had another 30 second letdown.
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Can't believe JL keeps trotting in Seay and Cruceta.
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I thought Seay would surely lose the game and we lucked out, totally. Then JL has the stupidity to put in Cruceta who has shown he is eminently hittable in the 9th inning of a tie game???
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Wasn't it enough to get away with the way Seay pitched? I am actually blown away with the Cruceta move.
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Blame this loss on the hitters if you must but a whole heap of blame is directly attributable to the manager.
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Wake up Jim! Even after the Cruceta gaffe why did you even pitch to Crosby with 1st base open? Does it not make sense to create a DP situation? Brutal managing--go look in the mirror JL
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I

We need late inning relief help. If they can't see the sense in calling up Blaine Neal instead of Cruceta then they are denser than I think they are. We don't have a decent late inning reliever. That includes Todd Jones who must hold the record in 3 run saves.

Thank god I stayed up late tonight... ugh.
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I know it's easy to criticize JL but there did seem to be some obvious mistakes made by him tonight. I guess at the end of the day though if you don't hit the ball you don't win. Could not agree more with your points Dan so I will leave it at that.
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-- Eric

I wondered about pitching to Crosby with firstbase open, but I didn't know who Oakland would counter with, since Cust was out of the game. In any case, I put Crosby on and set up a doubleplay with a splitter pitcher on the mound. Confused again, I am.
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Other than Cruceta, who do we use? Miner pitched yesterday so I guess that makes him unavailable to JL's way of thinking. Lopez is in the Thames/Santiago club, so that leaves Cruceta. Nothing new, but still very strange managing.
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I'm not blaming the hitters. There won't be much hitting, the steroids era is over. We're back to real baseball now, and that's why I've been preaching pitching and defense for weeks now. We're getting good starts for the most part, so we'll need an effective Rodney Zumaya to win games. Too many tough pitchers out there, and we need to counter that. We need to manufacture runs and do the things necessary to win close ballgames.
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Mainly, I'll just be glad to have these west coast games over with. We have two more trips to the west yet to go this month. This is an absurd schedule. I'm fortunate that I don't have to get up early most days, but that doesn't mean I want to stay up into the wee hours watching baseball.
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--Rich

Who ya gonna put in when it's tied??? Definately not Jones. They really don't have the arms there. The pattern that everyone was worried about is happening now. Decent starting pitching, some hitting, and the relievers blow it. This is far from over. Rodney, for all his inconsistancy, would be a big help now. And Zoom, if he's got any zoom left, would be a blessing.
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It's becoming clearer and clearer that this is not the Tigers' year. Cabrera's not gonna have a monster year until next year. Think about Magglio's first year. He was pretty shaky, too, and then got it going his second year.
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Maybe they'll compete next year. They sure aren't this year.

So, fine, put Guillen at second next, lead of with Sheff, and get Grilli back to close games. Whatever experimentation you want to try, fine.
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Here's a prediction: JL is gone by next spring.

Can anyone recall a good outing with Cruceta besides the one where he came in, in the middle of an at bat for someone and through one pitch to get the out.
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I can't help but feel that he is overrated. Which is sad considering we waited through his visa problems, because he was supposed to be so good.
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I am almost looking forward to this big pitching shake-up that we keep hearing about. I say bring it on.

I know that Willis is an investment, and he needs to pitch. I also know that Galaragga was voted as the pitcher of the month among Tigers. He has pitched better than any of our 4 starters and we had a chance to win every game he started.
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So the more I think of the pitching setup today, the more sick I feel. JL is essentially saying throw winning out the window. Throw performance out along with it. I would have a major cow if I was Galaragga.
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Inge's situation is nothing compared to this, as Inge doesn't hit as well, and he does not represent the first 15 to 21 outs of the game, all by himself. But a starting pitcher does.
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My point is either go to a 6 Starter setup, to protect your investment in willis, or piggyback him with someone else. Don't send this kind of message to someone who was and still is one of the few bright spots of the team until now. How did Galaragga's last start go?

The club needs to find out if Willis can be effective, and it needs to do it before division rivals Cleveland and Chicago come to town. Due to injuries, Oakland is forced to send up a lot of LH hitters, so this series is a good time to send Dontrelle out there. As far as who piggybacks (what a dumb term) with him, there is no good answer to that one. I suppose it could have been Robertson tomorrow, but I think Galarraga's is the slot Willis would take if he's successful tonight.
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It's all a temporary thing anyway, seeing as how somebody needs to help out in the bullpen for the next two weeks or so. Why not Galarraga? At this point, I'd rather see Armando coming out of the pen than Cruceta. When Rodney Zumaya returns, everything will change again.
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What intrigues me is how the club will react if Dontrelle falls flat on his face tonight. Then what? Hey, at least it adds some interest to the entire situation.
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--Rich

Rich,
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I want Willis to succeed. But i would prefer that he start Robertson's game. I agree with what you said, except the fact that Galaragga has proved to be our best starter in June. So he should be rewarded, or at the least not penalized.
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As far as bullpen goes, he is better than Cruceta. But then again, I would prefer that he start games and give us a quality start. The way he is pitching currently, he would be wasted in the pen.
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We also don't know how he will respond in the pen. It's not fair to assume that we will get this performance from him, when he is pitching almost an inning a day, compared to a start every 5 days.
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JL can try fix stuff that needs fixing, but messing with a pitcher who is doing good is scary. Especially considering our situation.

And Willis will get a couple of starts at least, i think. If he doesn't do well.. he might be going back to the DL to fix his issues. I don't think Tigers have any other option for Willis other than this.
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I don't know if JL is trying to balance this year's needs and also our future at the same time. But that's what it seems like. In the process, we might end up sacrificing both. We are only 6.5 games out, and we are not trying aggressively to win this year.

Hey, I'm with ya. I'm not comfortable with this either. There is a group of us on here who have wanted Robertson in the pen for nearly a year now. Nate's effective against RH hitters while still being a LH pitcher.
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I sometimes get resigned to trying to look at it through Leyland's eyes. We don't call him the "stubborn ol' coot" for nothing. To JL, Nate is an innings eater. Santiago and Thames are bench players. Lopez isn't an effective reliever. And on and on. It's dern near impossible to change the man's mind on some of this stuff. I think Jim has only one negative as a manager, and this is it.
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Now what would be really funny is if Dontrelle was twirling a no-hitter when it was time to make the switch. JL's head would explode. :-)
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--Rich

Don't look for Oakland to be swinging at a lot of first pitches from Dontrelle. I'm pretty sure they know the scouting report and are going to make Willis throw strikes. We should know early on whether he's got it or not. I don't feel real confident about this game tonight. Could get ugly quick. Hope I'm wrong, but got a feeling Armando better start warming up about the time Willis takes the mound.

--Ed--

Cruceta is gone. Fossum looks like he has thrown well and though I was very curious about what Neal might bea ble to do, it is prudent to bring the lefty up. Seay has lost confidence and is very unreliable.
Cruceta was a pretty major disapointment. Too bad he couldn't throw strikes, because his splitter is wicked.
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What a blessing it would be if Willis can throw well. I would expect that would mean that Nate would be either dealt or placed in the bullpen.
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Brent Clevlen just poinded his 11th HR today A 3 run shot and he is now hitting .328.
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Nice to have that down on the farm.

Why dont the Tigers make Carlos Guillen the dh?He is way past his prime as a fielder.Its true that he may have a great baseball mind(as JL has indicated in the past)But, with 3 lefty starters in the rotation,he has proven to be a disaster anywhere on the left side of the field.No range,poor glove and a high school arm.I wonder how the pitchers feel about him being at 3rd.JL has shown that he doesnt care about his errors.But how many balls get past him that Inge gobbles up on a regular basis.How much damage to an already damaged pitching staff can the Tigers endure.I fear that if JL doesnt make the connection soon,that,the next call-up from Toledo will be Jim Leylands brother to administer last rights to the Tigers year,which at its current pace,should come right around the all-star break.Does anyone out there think his bat compensates for lack of fielding.About the only thing we have left to cheer for are hemmoroids.