caulfield12

Nice to have left-handed 6th starter with 87 K's in 89 IP. Thankfully, the A's didn't trade Gio for Smyly and Jacob Turner. Or they would be leading the division, in all likelihood. Same with the Alburquerque and Victor Martinez injuries, we've had a lot of breaks go our way. Maybe the luckiest break for us was Morel getting hurt when he did, forcing the YOUK trade before other teams were serious about adding a 3B, or in need of one. And the timing with Middlebrooks and Valentine, they pretty much had to dump him when they did.

Great recovery after a Viciedo-esque swing for strike 2. That's the difference with a more experienced hitter. Tigers announcers mentioning he hasn't swung at a first pitch all day long after being extremely impatient the first two games. Cabrera can't tie the game unless 2 runners are on base, nice to have a little cushion. Dotel and Benoit have been up and down all season. Smyly entering the game...interesting. He's theoretically the starter on Sunday.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Sep 20, 2012 -> 02:46 PM) Kind of interesting for Oak to use a lefty in the 8th when Dirks is only lefty hitter in the sequence...they must not have a good righty option besides closer? Good relievers can be trusted to get both righties and lefties. A novel idea, with how so many bullpens are getting overmanaged these days...and with the expanded September rosters.

A's with a very impressive, albeit unknown to most fans, bullpen. Doolittle following in the footsteps of Sergio Santos, converted position player with a big arm mows down the side. Laird, Jackson and Infante for the 9th, will be at least a 2 run lead. Don't want to give Cabrera a chance to tie it. Possibility we see Avila for Laird, but it seems he's going to get the start tmrw. Tigers still leaning towards using Smyly Sunday against the Twins, as they haven't used him out of the bullpen against the A's lefties.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 20, 2012 -> 02:34 PM) Don't know who that Cook guy is but he just pitched one hell of an inning. Has 14 saves. Nasty stuff. Came over from the D-Backs.

It sucks, but this might be the only game in my lifetime that I cheer for Grant Balfour in any way, shape or form.

Dirks have a great rookie season, homer into RF bleachers off a previously untouched (at least in SEPT) Blevins. 6-4. Also made a nifty defensive play in LF, great jump. Of course, the Tigers have given up 3 basically unearned runs, should be leading this game 4-3, instead. Alburquerque is just nasty. No surprise he only gave up a .164 BAA as a rookie last year. Devastating slider and 95 MPH heater. Probably if they had him all season long, the Tigers are leading the division or tied with us. Let's hope Cabrera and Fielder don't both end up getting 2 more AB's. Miggy leading off the bottom of the 7th here... Cook, nice arm, K's him with a nasty splitter/forkball. Cabrera was easily pulling a 96-97 MPH fastball. His bat speed has picked up over the course of the season instead of slowing down.

Is that a Grady Sizemore play for 2012? Should have been an easy out, but 2 runs score instead. Probably would have been an inside the parker if not for Kottaras being a catcher.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 20, 2012 -> 01:52 PM) More amazing baseball-throwing by Tigers fielders. That's the downside to AA outfielders learning in the heat of a pennant race.

Donaldson rips the hanger to LF after Carter had K'd and Smith was intentionally walked. 1st and 2nd, 2 outs, reliever into the game to replace Sanchez.

More sloppy play by Tigers' defense. A's with a chance to take the lead with 1 out, runner on 3rd.

Thanks for nothing, Josh Reddick. Had Fielder down 0-2 and still managed to place a double in the RCF gap. Need to prevent a 4th run from scoring here, might be too much for the OAK offense to overcome. Strange coincidence, Todd Helton backed up Peyton Manning at Tennessee, Eli Manning's backup at Ole Miss was Seth Smith.

Pitching to Cabrera here instead of walking him and facing Fielder with one out. Guess it wouldn't have made any difference...single on a hanging breaking ball to LF. Increasing his BA lead over Trout by the day. Cabrera .395 ba with RISP since AUG 1.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 20, 2012 -> 12:54 PM) Omar Infante-the gift that keeps on giving. He did have a huge hit last night though to give them an early 2-0 lead with Verlander on the bump. That was basically game, scoring 3 runs in that inning.

Tough vote for AL Manager of the Year. One amazing stat is that Baltimore's negative in runs scored/runs against but 20 games over .500. That's extremely hard to pull off.

Tigers 8/20 with RISP this series. Ouch! Laird has really been playing well, after being a horrible hitter last year. It's like he has switched roles with Avila this year. Meanwhile, A's are 4/18. 2-0 DET. Tigers are just almost impossible to beat at home. This is setting up perfectly for the Angels to make one final run to catch the A's from behind.

The bad at the major league level Chris Carter is back again...although his overall numbers still look decent.

Cabrera is hitting .371 with 21 RBI's in 17 SEPT games, before today. Delmon Young doing his best Viciedo impression, pretty similar players at similar ages...although it seems like Young has been around forever. Sanibal, to quote Rod Allen, pitching as well as he has all season for the Tigers/Marlins....Fister 2.0 down the stretch? How much would you give him as a FA contract per year and how many years? Worth it?

Essentially, the White Sox are basically .500 against the Tigers/Royals/Twins. and 13-14 games over .500 against the rest of baseball. Another way of looking at it. The problem is that we're facing a hot and desperate Angels team, on the road, with two of their better pitchers going. Meanwhile, the Tigers face the absymal Royals at home. Best case scenario, we're looking at probably losing another game in the standings there. And we've got the pesky Rays still, with Price still possibly in their rotation down the stretch to clinch the Cy Young. DET has 8 more home games in a row, where they're almost impossible to beat. And they've survived the injury to Max Scherzer and still ended up winning that game

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Sep 19, 2012 -> 09:44 PM) I really was counting on A's to do some damage. Thankfully Tigers are mediocre on the road. Hopefully KC will be to them what they are to us. The problem is they have a 10 game homestand and we go to LA. At the end of the season, they're not playing good teams on the road, either. I don't trust the Twins, but maybe the Royals can beat them. As far as benching Viciedo goes, what happens when Wise inevitably cools off and Dayan's rusty and cold from not playing enough? Who do we have that can hit then?

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 19, 2012 -> 09:42 PM) Do you trust him to hit Guthrie, Santana, Haren, Weaver, McAllister, Kluber and Masterson? Kluber and McAllister, definitely. Guthrie isn't really overpowering, but his control has been so good, he's been unhittable for the Sox. The problem is how long can Wise continue to sustain this level before getting overexposed and regressing to AAAA/journeyman/waiver wire status?

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 19, 2012 -> 09:39 PM) Alexei and Viciedo just flat out sucked tonight. Manto has some work to do with both guys, as there were obvious mechanical flaws with each tonight. Facing Chen is kind of like going up against a knuckleballer. He will take you completely out of your offensive game if you let him. With Dayan, he's young, although he has seen him multiple times and enjoyed success. With Alexei, veteran players should have learned by now, but he's always been a fastball first hitter and always will be.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 19, 2012 -> 09:35 PM) De Aza had a nice game offensively. Except for getting thrown out stealing in the 1st when it would have been a huge confidence boost to score an early run and take the lead against Cy Chen.

Maybe Olmedo should start tomorrow if Alexei makes an out here. 1/11 with RISP. Must be the worst in the majors or at least the AL the last 3 weeks or so.

Other than Alex Rios, who showed up to play tonight? And Chris Sale.