Saturday: Tigers at Padres

Anybody out there heard anything about Tiger management contacting Freddy Garcia about possible contract negotiations.I just read that at Mlb.live.com

they mentioned it on the radio a little this week but no real information is out there i don't think.
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hope the tigers can put some hits together tonight and score a couple runs. Need to bounce back after last nights debacle.. don't wanna be going into the game tomorrow facing a sweep.
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it's a little annoying that this game couldnt have been scheduled a little earlier on a saturday.. this 10pm stuff is way past old. I think tonight is the last night for awhile though.

Yeah, these late nights are killing me too.I see Marcus is riding the pine again tonight.I guess 1 double is a slump.Theyhave Thomas in left.Wish they would rest Maggs and put Thomas in right,Inge is catching tonight.I think Nate prefers him to Pudge so I`m hoping for a well pitched game tonight

It's the last 10 PM start for a whole 12 days, Chad. Back to Seattle on the 3rd. I hate it too.
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Haven't heard anything about Garcia, but I don't really do rumors. What is this Mlb.live.com?
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Thomas in, Thames out, Ordonez in. Hmmmmmmm...........
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After tonight's episode of "Apocalypse Now" (or the Tigers game as it's usually called) I'll be on the road. The road that heads up to Detroit for Tuesday's 1968 celebration and game with the Cardinals. The '68 squad was and will always be My Boys, and I couldn't pass this up. I'm also visiting family and ex-teammates, but I chose this week for the trip because of the 1968 Night. I'll be in section 131, between home and the Tiger dugout, if anyone wants to say hi.
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--Rich

As we all know, Thomas is a part of the Jim Leyland club .. his favourite. Sheff is President :)
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But seriously, I hate it that a manager plays favorites. JL is losing all the respect that he amassed in 2006, and then some.

Freddy Garcia is Carlos Guillen best friend. So it might be a distinct possibility. Easy to send out feelers and get it done. One more tiger from Venezuela?
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Rich,I think I saw it at Mlive.com Tigers Blog.But I accessed it off of this blog(to the right of my screen under additional Tiger Blogs.I`m jealous,68 Tigers forever will be my team also.I got to go to about 10 games that year at old Tiger Stadium.Got to meet Al Kalines wife and kids in stands between dugout and home plate 15 rows up or so.I loved that team and learned a lot about catching from studying Bill Freehan(my favorite catcher)

Just saw the posts on MLive.com and most people are saying the same thing we are saying. It's like the whole town understands except JL.
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Mr. Illitch probably gives his Front office a free hand, might not interfere but DD should know by now, what the whole world knows - JL has lost it

Rich,if you go to that site cick on detroit tigers home....then sroll down a little...on the left it will say tiger blogs,and 3 story titles...the bottom one is the Freddy Garcia story...it also says something was written about it in the Free Press on the 18th of June

We are mild in our discussions concerning JL in comparison to that blog.He is really getting hammered over there.Rich, Have fun at the reunion and be sure to take a video camera.

Anything with Freddy Garcia is preliminary at the moment. He's coming off surgery and isn't scheduled to throw at full strength for another few weeks. He'll throw a mound session for scouts at that time, and basically what teams are doing now is letting his agent know they're interested. With a case like that, though, teams are going to want to watch him throw first.

JL is, after all, a stubborn old coot. We once loved him for it and now we blame (and rightly so) him for it.
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I figured we would see Thomas tonight. I also knew, deep down, that it would Thames that would give up the game and not Ordonez.. JL has a tough time doing anything with Ordonez other than trot him out to right and bat him cleanup. Which is fine if he is hitting and playing well. He is not playing well and I suspect, especially after hering it corroborate here, that he is playing injured. I think it would be wise to sit Ordonez tonight and tomorrow and give him 3 days off before deciding if he should play or possibly DH.
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JL feels that Thames will happily do what he is told and knows he wont' get any argument from him since he has no star power. I don't mean to imply that I would choose Thames over Ordonez. I most definitely would not. But that is if they are both healthy and playing up to par. JL is losing a chance to get Ordonez a little coanvalescence time here IMO.
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It is a pretty important game tonight. I do hope Thomas can inject a little life into the party and same with Inge.
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I think the risk/reward ratio on Freddie Garcia is not particularly attractive. If they are gonna bother looking at a starter then I hope they have the sense to look at a young proven arm. If Bonine doesn't cut it they will likely call Vasquez up.

I know we are mild, and we should be ... a calm discussion is more logical and fruitful. It's a testament to the guys here.
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Either way, i was trying to say the points raised are the same detailed ones.
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We probably won't get a starter unless it's only for this year. Expect Bondo and Willis next year. I see DD trading for bullpen help.

While I think that might be a decent idea I don't think they are likely to do that. I think they figure Zoom and Rodney will straighten themselves out. They already feel they have the closer they need.
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"IF" they do make a trade or an addition I think it will be a starter.
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Cubs beat the White Sox again today. Be nice to gain a game!

I think the club must have a "gag order" on any Dontrelle Willis information!

MOST teams would want to see Garcia throw first, Jason. :-) Sorry, couldn't resist. That's my cheap shot for the day.
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Thanks Bruce. I'll take stills and shoot some video with my camera, like I did at spring training. I know Bob Feller is a million years old now, but it's cool having a picture of him in Winter Haven. There will also be autograph tables, but of course I don't want any. I already got 'em. In 1965. :-)
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I also see pretty much the same thoughts being forwarded on all the various blog and discussion sites, in widely varying tones, of course.
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I have one insight on Leyland, if insight is the proper term. Impression, maybe. Anyway, early in his first season of 2006, folks starting wanting him to change the lineup. I believe it was Craig Monroe who got off to a hot start and people thought he should be elevated from the 7 hole. Leyland's response was that he liked to keep the same lineup day in and day out so that everyone would be familiar with those hitting around them. It wasn't long before he threw that seemingly entrenched practice of his out the window, as we all saw. Just another blown off question, I guess.
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We fans have long memories.
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--Rich

Sox lost, but Indians won and Minn is in a position to win. So if we don't win tonight, we fall behind Cleveland and Minnesota increases it's lead on us.

At least we won't see Rodney tonight, will we? He blew the first game at SanFran and now the first one at SanDiego. Just when can they use him? When the Tigers get a 10-run lead? The Padres are only 8-16 against LH starters so if Robertson has some decent stuff, maybe they can take this one. Dolsi and Jones should be ready. What does the bullpen have now, seven pitchers? How long can JL keep using the same ones before they wear out? He is almost forced to use Rodney in some game. And if he doesn't, why are they wasting a roster spot? How soon will they give up on Rodney? I agree with another fan who said there are maybe 3 better pitchers not on the roster.....Rapada, Lopez, and Bautista.

We have a guy in Toledo who throws left-handed. Ian Oslund. More strike outs than innings. 6 bbs in 33 innings less than 30 hits, good ERA 1.12 WHIP.
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Sounds good to me. Far superior than Fossum/Seay/Rapada

I mean 6 walks in 33 IP!!

All right boys,were on the board in the 1st and Baek threw 26 pitches,keep working those counts and we might get to him early

I feel compelled to complain about our power/run production guys.
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Our 3-4-5 hitters are really not producing like we need them to.
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Guillen, Ordonez and Cabrera are our Venezuelan Vigilante Veterans. None of them leads the team in Homers. None of them are hitting .300. That simply has to change.
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Lately they are collectively not doing very well.
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Sure would like to see Robertson be able to do something with an 0-2 count!
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No bad innings tonight Nate! Get us a DP here in the first.

He did!!!!!

Nates faced 5 batters and 5 ground balls.Keep it up.Youre right Dan all of our offense last night came from the 1 and 2 hole

Kahlil Greene likes our pitchers. Ordonez cost us a runa and an out. Nice move JL

Of course--get a couple of strikes on him and give up a tater to a .160 hitter with the 8 & 9 hitters coming up.
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There's the bad inning. Hope that's the only one.
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Sure don't like what I'm seeing from these guys today.

So much for Robertson having some decent stuff. Now the hitters have their work cut out for them.

The dude (Barrett) homered on a pitch two inches off the ground. Give me a break! How does that happen?
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--Rich

After all the leather they have been flashing we get a break!!
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Go with it guys. Take advantage. Do not give it back.

Complain and ye shall receive. :-) Also caught a break to even up Barrett hitting that golf shot.
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--Rich

Heads up play by Curtis,I take it back about Maggs,2 for 2 big clutch HR.Come on Nate,keep it low except that 160 hitter.He needs one up and in tight get him off that plate.

Good 1-2-3 inning after taking the lead. Good job Nate.

Granderson is showing his cleats on the basepaths! Yahoo!!
So, Where are the hits coming from Cabbie and Edgar?
one pitch, one out..come on guys!!

Bout Rodney pitching tonight, JL said the whole Pen is available. These are ML pitchers and they have to be able to go back to back games.
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Who is taking Bets ? :)

Afflack Question --answer: Table leg.

Norm Cash carried one of these to the plate.
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You must have the SD feed, Dan. I'm on Detroit tonight, different question.
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--Rich

I am the SD feed too. Wish i could choose the det feed..

Nate's dealing now. Actually, that homer shouldn't have even happened. Two inches off the ground..........
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So far so good.
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--Rich

ok .. 2 more scoreless innings from Nate, .. Then Dolsi, Zumaya and TJ. Leyland's preconceived plan? Although i would prefer Dolsi in the 8th and Zumaya in the 7th.
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This guy is not that good. Don't let them climb back in Nate.

Nate walks a pitcher!! .. in 5 pitches

Oh Nate---Cardinal sin, walking the pitcher. Man!

Anybody see JL warming up a pitcher? .. Nate is throwing all over. Lost his command ?

sure wish he wouldnt walk the pitcher to start the inning and again Cab went out of position on that grounder.2nd time this week.who is working with him at first,just shouldnt happen

Cabrera has to learn that Polanco has those balls. That was dumb and he has been consistently doing this lately.

So what we see 10 pitches early, JL misses it ?

For cryin' out loud. Bad pitch on top of a bad play. Cab should be be spanked for costing us those runs and the final out of the inning. Especially against a LHB --what is he thinking?

Cab screwed up big timje but Nate is to blame to for losing the pitcher and putting that runner on.

Anybody feel that Nate pitches real quick .. i mean time between pitches. I know thats his rythm. But after walking a pitcher, he should have taken it slow. Slow the game down a bit?
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JL should go to the pen, regardless if the Pitcher spot comes up this inning or not.

This poor play is dangerous. Really don't want to see them start this stuff all over again.

Firstbase ain't as easy as it looks. That cost us. But Nate should have been to the bag. Automatic on anything to the right side. Bad plays by both guys. Now we got pitch count up and we need some offense.
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--Rich

I agree Rich it isn't easy but I am positive that he has been spoken to about leaving those balls alone. A LHB with speed on a high bouncer with Polanco pulled over to first. No brainer--leave it alone.

That play takes more experience at 1st .. Cabby needs more reps there .. So I wouldn't blame him. He will develop instincts with experience. Nate dug his grave walking a pitcher, bad pitching after that, a bit wild, and didn't reach 1st base

What did the Tiger announcers say about that play? The SD guys didn't comment much on it.
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Even if Cab gets that ball what is he gonna do with it? His momentum is hard toward the middle of the diamond and very difficult to spin and get a good throw to the pitcher.
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As you can tell I am really ticked with the way that play was handlled. It changed the game and may have lost it.

These outfielders are having a day!
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This one smells bad my friends.

Rod and Mario commented on it extensively. Pretty much a play you pick up with experience, becomes instinctive. And that Nate should have been there to take the throw from Polanco.
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And yeah, the initial problem was walking the freakin' pitcher.
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--Rich

Those are good comments .. I wish i had the detroit feed. I don't like listening to History. Thats all these guys talk bout.

How much more experieince do you need? That was a situation and a play that needed to be identified even before the bal lwas hit. As I say, I'm sure they have gone over this with Cab a number of times.
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You can see JL was reluctant to take Nate out of the game since his spot was coming up in the next inning. He would have a shorter leash if this was a game with DH. The same stratergy doomed us a few days back.

Now Inge and CG collide on foul pop up to the on deck circle and the hitter then walks.Is there a little league coach out there somewhere to teach these guys fundamentals.Nice sac by Brandon.Gotta pinch hit here.Heres Larishs chance

Larish PH? Man--he strikes out a lot.
Tough break on the bunt.

Leyland IS a genius.!

Larish did a good job, got the run in. JL went with the LB - RHP matchup. I would have gone with Thames since we needed a deep fly ball, and Thames is good agnst RHP

Can't we find a spot for Thames ????

I shouldn't get so excited. after all we now have to go to the bullpen. I would expect it would be Miner or maybe Dolsi. Whatever they do it will be agonizing.
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I must admit I thought it was a bad move to PH for Curtis.
Now JL thinks he is a genius too!
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Put Marcus in LF and leave him there Jim.

Marcus crushes another one! Wasn't sure if I liked that move by JL to pinch hit for Curtis but I guess I kind of like it now........

C'mon Dan,
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You can't switch so quick. JL is not a genius :) Among the rare instances that his gambles didn't backfire ... they actually worked

I have been known to be sarcastic at times.

Didn't catch ur sarcasm, Dan .. sorry .. I am too much into the game.

Maybe Marcus got his job in left back.I hope we can finish this game with good defense and in pitching,come on Zach makes us look good

If you ask Leyland, he will say Thames is our starting LF. He hits the ball right in the middle. He has an impact on the game. He has done nothing to lose his job. Just trying to find some AB's for Thomas...
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what BS

We got away with things in the 7th. Miner pitching behind in the count to the first 3 guys.
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I would not be surprised to see JL bring Zumaya in. He'll probably be OK if he doesn't walk anybody.
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If he brings in Rodney, I quit.

Who's been warming up?

I hope he brings Zu with a clean inning to start,if not him please let it be Dolsi

Renteria up. Should be bunting.

Bobby Seay. Oh. I forgot about Ol' Bobby

Good job JL .. he is getting Dolsi...

The key here is no more walks. We saw what they did to us yesterday.
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Good to seay exhibit some confidence too bad he couldn't nail Greene though. That would have been big for him.

Maggs got his Gun serviced ? Loll

Oh My! That was a nice throw and a very nice tag. This bullpen is a shaky one though isn't it?
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Sure would be nice to punctuate this game was a couple of exclamation points.

Not sure what anyone is talking about in seeing problem with Ordonez. One crushed HR and one BB thrown to the plate for out 3. He looks healthy to me.

maggs is picking things up tonightHe saved arun therenow if Todd can close we pick up a game on Chicago.Come on Todd

Marty he has had a better game but he had been "scuffling" a bit and looked like he might be hurting.
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Well here comes Jones. Wonder what we get tonight.
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Maggs does seem to have a problem, even though he looks ok tonight. His avg. has been dropping and the pitches that he normally avoids, he keeps hacking at them. Maybe he is feeling better.

Go Tigers ... 6 Games to make up. Wish the Twins get in a slump. They seem more dangerous, all of a sudden.

That was a very important victory. That is one they can feel good about as they overcame some poor play and got some contributions from non starters and "scrubs".
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Larish had a big hit with 2 strikes on him and Thomas came back from a bad aB to get the key hit that brought them back into the game.
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I have to give JL credit too. Not for the pinch-hitters but for not putting Rodney or Zumaya in under the recent circumstances.. I thought he might be stubborn enough to just do again.
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Granderson is coming on and he adds a dimension on the bases that we don't see enough of from his mates.
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Robertson needs to pitch better than he did tonight. I didn't think much of his stuff. I know he is a lunc pail kinda guy but he would benefit from a little more intensity out there.
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Belliard will be out there with Cabrera tomorrow.
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As far as Marcus goes. All I can say, is "Thanks". I hope he actually is the regular Left Fielder for the rest of the year. Because that would mena he is producing like mad. It is clear that he needs to be absolutely bashing the ball in order to get the starting role.
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Ordonez was reported to have some kind of injury. I read that somewhere, so I reported it here.
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Okay, good gutty win there. Team win, lots of heroes. Nate was good, and I'm discounting that Barrett homer. Nate's only problem was walking the pitcher and not covering first. Thomas had a big double, Larish did the job, and Marcus made Leyland look like a genius. :-) I thought it a strange move myself, but it worked this time. JL, just keep Marcus out there and get your 40 homers and be happy. Maggs threw a seed to the plate and good catch and tag by Inge. Miner, good again.
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Since some of you didn't get the Detroit feed, I'll pass on something that was reported there. Leyland is starting a practice for Rodney that was used by Jim Kaat. Rodney throws a five minute bullpen every other day, from a mound and to a catcher, all fastballs, with the goal being strikes. According to Rod Allen, the Japanese pitchers do this every single day. I'm just reporting what was said here, so don't kill the messenger. I have no idea if something like that would help. It can't hurt.
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Gotta go. Keep 'em coming.
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--Rich

strange game for our defese,,but the bats are pickin up.Starting pitchin was preety decent,Nate got hurt a little with poor defense and the walk, but but he chewed up some innings.Relievers came through through to hold them.Can things forthe Tigers be looking up?Keep it going guys, we piked up a game on Chicago,Lets do it tommorrow

I'll second that "thanks Marcus", Dan. How many game winning, game tying hits does he have now?
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Great game tonight. They simply willed this victory. They were just not going to give in. They showed a lot of character tonight. Now a win tomorrow would give them a 4-2 road trip which is what I thought was a reasonable goal when they headed out to California.

On JL, here's the deal. Mistakes are part of the game, so that's not the problem. It's very easy after the fact to find fault, but that doesn't mean a manager is bad. The thing that concerns me is that he says one thing and then does another. Starting Thames, Using Rodney, etc. Also he apparently forgot to cancel the steal sign in a game a few days ago.
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This kind of reminds me of when we first realized that our mother had dementia. I have no idea if age has anything to do with it, but there really seems to be something wrong with JL, bless his heart.

The club need cabrera to get going. Here's a novel idea:

............................B-A-T C-A-B-R-E-R-A T-H-I-R-D...................

Ordonez being hobbled has been speculated about, but Ordonez and Leyland have both said there's nothing wrong. If you're going to say something is reported, though, you need to point out where it's coming from. That's happened a couple times this week, and I don't want that to become a habit. This is not going to become a wild rumor mill.

Can we talk about Willis? What is the plan for him?