For Those Who Complained About Pudge

There were many, many Tigers fans in past few years that complained that their Catcher Ivan Rodriguez either struck out too much, or swung at too many bad pitches (high pitches usually), or what have you.

The thing was he still hit over .290 as a Tiger catcher. Well lets for comparison's sake look at the catchers of the Tigers now.


Starting Catcher Gerald Laird is 17-87 (.195)
Backup Dane Sardinha is 1-16 (.063)
Misty May Treanor went 0-13 (.000 lol)

That puts us at 18-116 for a mammoth average of .155 on the season at Catcher.

In the Month of May, Tigers catchers are 2-42 (.048), Laird is 1-28 and Sardinha is 1-14.

Just because it needs to be mentioned in this article Pudge is hitting .283 with 4 HR for the Houston Astros this season.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...PLEASE!

The Tigers would have to wait an hour before the game would start due to rain in the Detroit area. When the rain slowed the Tigers got off to a hot and fast start Friday night, it was just a matter of whether or not the game was even going to count.

Ryan Raburn (AKA the worst player in the majors this season) hit a Grand Slam on a 2-2 pitch in the 1st inning, as part of a 5 run first. Then they would score 2 runs in the third, and 2 runs in the 4th before the rain came again. In Major League Baseball you have to go 5 full innings to have a game count. The score was 9-1 and after an hour I was starting to wonder if this game was going to count. Luckily, it did about 80 minutes later.

Edwin Jackson, who has been unlucky in the W-L department this season came out, most thought to try and get 3 outs, get his W and go to the bench. He did well enough though in the 5th, and felt good enough to go 3 full. He went 7 innings, giving up 6 hits, 0 BB, and had 6 K's. His season ERA is now 2.42. How's Matt Joyce doing (in AAA)?

Brandon Inge would follow up Raburn's Slam with one of his own in the 6th. That would mark the first time since 1968 the Tigers would hit 2 Grand Slams in one game (Northrup hit 2 that day).

Tigers 14 A's 1
The race to 22-18 is still going strong, that would mark a good enough start not to firesale (I think)

Ouch Bullpen, Ouch

Verlander looks unhittable for 6 innings. Bullpen gives up 5 run lead.

Justin Verlander had 13 Ks in 6+, and the offense had scored 5 runs on Baker, who at times looked like he was also unhittable. Everything was pointing towards a Tigers win, and then came Bobby Seay. Seay had been great up to today, Today however, he got crushed.

Hit after hit, either to the wall, or Joe Crede's (the Tiger killer) broken bat GW blooper. It didn't matter, we just could not get an out.

What a waste of a great start by JV.

That hurt, and we just got swept by a divisional opponent. The final two, just crushing games back to back within 12 hours of each other.

We will need to rebound, and quickly. Oakland comes to town Friday.

AL Power Rankings

1. Toronto Blue Jays (21-12)
Right now, this team is the best team in the American League. Halladay is still Halladay (6 wins), but the hitting has been amazing. The Jays are tops in the AL in both Batting Average, and Batting Average against.



2. Kansas City Royals (18-13)
Every baseball fan knows about Greinke and his 0.51 ERA, but some may not realize the Royals are #1 in the A.L. in quality starts which means the other starters are also producing.



3. Los Angeles Angels (15-14)
The Angels have guys injured all over the place and are still in the AL West race. The Angels and manager Mike Scioscia just play Angels baseball, and that is good enough to win more than not. It looks like another good year out west for the LAA.


4. Boston Red Sox (19 -12)
The hitting has been as good as expected (outside of Papi). But the pitching has been dreadful. Josh Beckett has an ERA of almost 7, and the Sox are in the bottom half of the AL in almost every pitching category.


5. Detroit Tigers (16-13)
The Tigers have had better than expected results from their starting pitchers. Edwin Jackson, Armando Galarraga, and lately Justin Verlander have been outstanding. The hitting has been inconsistent, and Guillen is back on the DL, but if the SP keeps this up they will compete for a playoff spot.




6. Texas Rangers (16-14) need better pitching
7. Tampa Bay Rays (15-17) not quite the Rays from last season
8. NY Yankees (14-16) Going to get better, starting slow
9. Seattle (15-16) on a 6 game skid
10. Chi Sox (14-15) Typical hitting missing, 13th in AL AVG, 12th in runs.
11. Minnesota Twins (15-16) Need a better Liriano
12. Oakland A's (11-17) Not taking advantage of great pitching (2nd in AL in ERA)
13. Baltimore Orioles (13-18) Dreadful pitching (.296 BAA), team lead in Ws is 2.
14. Cleveland Indians (11-20) ERA of almost 6 (last in AL), not hitting well either (.266)