Indians are under .500, if anyone cares.

 

Also, I'm in favor of the Twins trading Liriano in the next 24 hours.

 

Hypothetically, if there were a trade on the table where the Sox got Liriano, a 3rd team got Floyd, and the 3rd team sent prospects to the Twins, would you make the trade?

Hypothetically, if there were a trade on the table where the Sox got Liriano, a 3rd team got Floyd, and the 3rd team sent prospects to the Twins, would you make the trade?

 

 

Only if we could re-sign Liriano...

Hypothetically, if there were a trade on the table where the Sox got Liriano, a 3rd team got Floyd, and the 3rd team sent prospects to the Twins, would you make the trade?

 

I know Floyd's not the best, but Liriano is just so damn inconsistent he would worry me.

Lillibridge is on the Indians now. Red Sox traded him. Not unlike the tenure of Brian Anderson in Boston.

Verlander with 2 runs or less in 8 of last 9 starts, including tonight (hopefully this jinxes him)

Called an early win for DET so I jinxed Verlander this time, lol.

 

3-3....Santana and Hafner with consecutive homers in the bottom of the 7th.

 

Two out, 2 on for Asdrubal Cabrera. Verlander at 99 pitches and counting. Huge game for the Indians if they want to keep their hopes alive.

 

Santana has been a monster this month, rounding back into form. Somehow, Hafner's BA with RISP is .129 this season.

 

WOW. That hasn't happened in a while. Asdrubal Cabrera took Verlander to RF and ripped it for a RBI single.

 

Verlander is stunned.

 

98 MPH fastball turned around. Two more innings to go. Pestano and Perez looming. Great game.

 

Kipnis looping RBI single that Santiago subbing for Peralta couldn't field. 5-3 now. 3 straight 2 out hits. Big crowd in CLE going bonkers.

 

 

 

D. Young hit another homer, this time oppo.

Edited July 27, 201213 yr by caulfield12

Verlander implodes in 7th.

Pestano with a 1-2-3. Perez will have at least a 2 run lead.

35,000+ in CLE tonight. Good for them. Probably 10,000 Tiger fans.

 

CLE gets two shots to drive in the runner from 3rd to give Perez a 3 run leading heading to the top of the 9th.

 

Avila/Santiago/Infante due up, bottom third of the order.

 

 

Lillibridge THREE FOR 36 against LHP this season. Amazing.

 

He has a chance to put the dagger into DET.

 

Stealth Elf K's on 3 99 MPH fastballs from Villarreal. What new, Stone Pony?

Edited July 27, 201213 yr by caulfield12

Lilli's back to his pre 2011 self again. Can't hit anything, even fastballs.

Ump screwed up the call at 1B on a double play. Game still going.

 

If Berry somehow gets on, Cabrera will be up. This could be bad.

Edited July 27, 201213 yr by chw42

Tigers lose!

If you are the Royals, do you fire Yost?

If you are the Royals, do you fire Yost?

 

 

Probably not until you have one year with a healthy pitching staff.

Blue Jays lineup is just terrible right now with all these injuries. No Bautista, Arencibia, Lind or Escobar

Twins up 10-0 so far on the Tribe

 

Josh Tomlin was hit hard. Morneau hit a HR about 420 feet, and Willingham hit one about 415.

Tigers lose 5-1.

 

Sanchez takes the loss.

Blue Jays lineup is just terrible right now with all these injuries. No Bautista, Arencibia, Lind or Escobar

 

 

See, now you did it to the Tigers.

 

Alvarez just blew DET away today. 1-4 on their roadtrip, very similar to what happened with the Sox. Offense, similarly, has gone dormant and corpsy.

Still have to play in Boston next, where they've struggled recently.

 

Escobar had a homer, Rasmus 3 RBI's (HR) and hitting machine Encarnacion had yet another.

 

Tigers "flat" and "tired" and taking lazy swings. Maybe passing the White Sox and taking first last weekend caused them to relax.

See, now you did it to the Tigers.

 

Alvarez just blew DET away today. 1-4 on their roadtrip, very similar to what happened with the Sox. Offense, similarly, has gone dormant and corpsy.

Still have to play in Boston next, where they've struggled recently.

 

Escobar had a homer, Rasmus 3 RBI's (HR) and hitting machine Encarnacion had yet another.

 

Tigers "flat" and "tired" and taking lazy swings. Maybe passing the White Sox and taking first last weekend caused them to relax.

 

I honestly thought about that last night. They were going by the usual Sox script of give them any adversity they fold like a card table... but somehow it actually WOKE the Sox up and now they're playing better, while Detroit sputters. They took their foot off the gas after that sweep, and the Sox jumped in the car...

Don't think we'll get so lucky with the Tigers against Cecil today.

 

Already rocked for 3 runs and staggering.

 

Cecil, Romero, Marcum....all Jays/former Jays on the market. Although I think AA knows he needs to turn around Romero if they want to compete. Cecil just has nothing and has no prayer against RHBers.

 

After this year's Rios performance and Santos/Molina, I don't think AA will be handing us Romero as well.

 

Cecil recovered, but Fister pitched a great game.

 

4-1 going into the bottom of the 9th, we'll see if Papa Grande can blow or human rain delay this game to death.

Peralta has 2 dingers.

Edited July 29, 201213 yr by caulfield12

Indians about to be swept in Minnesota just in time to realize they should sell.

 

I'd rather go out that way than to do something stupid that would hurt the team in the long run.

Edited July 29, 201213 yr by flavum

Indians about to be swept in Minnesota just in time to realize they should sell.

 

I'd rather go out that way than to do something stupid that would hurt the team in the long run.

 

Like that Ubaldo Jimenez trade last year.

Twins outscored Cleveland 28-6

Twins outscored Cleveland 28-6

 

Does this mean they won't score as many in the next 3?

Edited July 29, 201213 yr by chw42

Second base never was the Tigers' most pressing concern this season. But Detroit is a town that feeds off obsession more than it does reality.

 

If the Tigers don't make the postseason for the second straight year -- the last time they went back-to-back was consecutive American League pennants in 1934-35 -- it won't be due to getting next to nothing offensively out of second base.

 

It'll be the lack of a dominating No. 2 starter and the inability to get sustained RBI production out of the middle of the batting order that brings them down. It's about Doug Fister, Delmon Young and Brennan Boesch delivering the numbers expected from them at season's dawn.

 

It's why -- though the Tigers did nothing further as the trading deadline passed Tuesday -- they aren't done making moves. Big bats and arms, with even bigger contracts, will be available once they clear waivers in August. The Tigers will act then because they'll have no alternative.

 

The biggest hole in the batting order is the fifth spot. Young has wasted three of the American League's top 10 in on-base percentage hitting ahead of him in the lineup -- Austin Jackson, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder.

 

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Young is 0-for-8 when batting with the bases loaded.

 

That's inexcusable.

 

The Tigers aren't getting the big, explosive innings they should. And it's not because of the bottom of the batting order.

 

The Tigers rank 12th in the American League in RBI production from the five-hole in the batting order, but they fall to last place from the No. 6 spot in the batting order.

 

Those are RBI positions, and Young and Boesch aren't getting the job done consistently enough for anyone to believe they can be trusted in what promises to be a tight divisional race in September.

 

General manager Dave Dombrowski didn't specifically mention them by name when he addressed reporters in Boston on Tuesday after the 4 p.m. trading deadline passed. But he clearly meant Young and Boesch, among others, when he said, "Some of the guys that are on our club have to pick it up themselves. We've got guys who have to do that."

 

But I still think Alfonso Soriano winds up in a Tiger uniform in another two weeks. Dombrowski insisted he never had one discussion with the Cubs regarding Soriano.

 

Soriano is owed $38 million over the next two years. Do the Tigers want four $20 million-a-year players on the roster? The Cubs can wait a little longer to get exactly what they want for Soriano -- a team to take his entire salary -- because the new wild-card playoff arrangement has made the summer a seller's market. They're no longer forced to accept a deal simply because the calendar says July 31.

 

The pressure rests squarely on the buyers now.

 

The Tigers are reasonably confident Fister is gradually returning to his dominance of September 2011, when he outperformed eventual MVP and Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. They had better be right, because they can no longer afford the luxury of waiting much longer for the middle of the batting order.

 

They have to make another move.

 

It's obvious now that the Tigers didn't solve their primary problems when they acquired middle-of-the-rotation starter Anibal Sanchez and everyday second baseman Omar Infante last week.

 

www.freep.com/sports (Drew Sharp)