Results tagged ‘ Max Scherzer ’
What are the Tigers hunting for this offseason?
A lot of people in Michigan got a chance to go hunting this weekend, but for the Detroit Tigers, the hunt began weeks ago.
After getting swept in the World Series in a horribly disappointing fashion, Tigers President Dave Dombrowski has the task of hunting for talent that will make Detroit a better team in 2013.
Of course you don’t always get everything that’s on your wish list, but Detroit acted quickly and signed Torii Hunter to a two-year deal for 26 million dollars. Overall, it’s a pretty perfect match, since Hunter can play an above-average defense while bringing a strong right-handed bat. Better yet, Hunter will get a chance to mentor young outfielders such as Austin Jackson, Andy Dirks, Avisail Garcia, Quintin Berry and Nick Castellanos.
Remember, Mike Trout of the Angels gave Hunter a lot of credit for his 2012 season, so hopefully he can do the same with our cast of young and talented outfielders. If so, the 26 million dollars will not only pay dividends now, but well after Hunter leaves Detroit.
So what else do the Tigers need to look for in the next few months? In my opinion, they should look at adding a right-handed hitting corner outfielder who can split playing time with Andy Dirks in left field. Someone like Scott Hairston would make a lot of sense, and wouldn’t cost a lot of money. Not only that, but he was someone who the Tigers were reported to have interest in last year.
Some people say the Tigers should make a hard push to sign Anibal Sanchez, but for the reported six years and 90 million dollars he’s asking for, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’m usually not an advocate for guaranteeing that much money to a starting pitcher, and it’s hard to convince me that Detroit should spend 15 million dollars on a guy who would be the number four pitcher in their rotation. If Detroit wants to sign a starting pitcher, I’d suggest offering someone like Edwin Jackson a three-year deal for 30 million dollars. If he turns it down, I’d simply stick with the current rotation of Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Doug Fister, Rick Porcello and Drew Smyly.
I think the best options to fill our closer vacancy are probably internally, such as giving Bruce Rondon a shot, or even Al Alburquerque. If they decide to sign a free agent, I’d suggest going after Ryan Madson, who missed all of 2012 with Tommy John Surgery.
Detroit will also likely consider adding a bullpen arm, and will need to figure out who is going to be their backup catcher. It’s unlikely that Victor Martinez will be able to catch, but with the added payroll, they might elect to give Bryan Holaday a chance.
It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the unseason unfolds, not only for the Tigers, but the rest of Major League Baseball. If the recent deals have been any indication of what to expect, this could be one of the most exciting offseasons in MLB history.
My 2012 World Series preview and prediction
Tomorrow marks the beginning of the end of the baseball season, as the San Francisco Giants will host the Detroit Tigers for the first game of the World Series. The Tigers will look to redeem themselves after their disappointing showing in the 2006 World Series, whereas the Giants are simply hoping to recapture the magic they had when they were world champions back in 2010.
So before the first pitch is thrown, I wanted to take a minute to give my official World Series thoughts and predictions. Being from Detroit, it’s not easy to be objective, but I’m going to give it my best shot.
There’s an old saying in baseball that pitching and defense wins championships. Of course if history has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is quite as simple as that. It’s an ironic adage, because the Tigers definitely have better pitching, but the Giants definitely have the superior defense. Does this mean there’s no clear favorite? Oh there is, and the advantage definitely goes to Detroit.
The Tigers have several things going for them, including the fact that all of their pitchers are rested, and they can line up their rotation however they like. Coming off a crucial game seven on Monday, the Giants do not have that luxury. The Giants are going to possibly have to face Justin Verlander, Doug Fister and Anibal Sanchez each two times. Throw in the Max Scherzer for at least one start, and things start to look promising for Detroit.
In case you’re not aware, in nine playoff games, Detroit’s starting pitchers have combined to go 5-1 with a 1.02 ERA. On the other hand, the bullpen hasn’t been nearly as good. Joaquin Benoit has had his struggles, and nobody is even sure if Jose Valverde will get a chance to save another game this postseason. If Detroit is going to win the World Series, the bullpen simply needs to be better.
Even if Detroit allows a few runs, there’s still no need to panic. When the heart of your lineup has Miguel Cabrera, (who just so happened to win the Triple Crown) Prince Fielder and Delmon Young, you can’t help but feel like your team is going to be able to score a few runs every night.
Regardless of how heavily their favored Detroit is, you still cannot count out the San Francisco Giants. They have two of the most dominant starting pitchers in recent years in Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, not to mention they do have home-field advantage for the series. Oh yeah, they also have the likely NL MVP in Buster Posey.
But at the end of the day, I just don’t see either team scoring a lot of runs, and Detroit’s starting pitchers have been lights out for the postseason, and I don’t see that stopping now. I’ll take the Tigers to defeat the Giants in five games.
Damn Yankees
Tonight marks the beginning of the 2012 American League Championship Series, as the Detroit Tigers will square off in a best-of-seven series against those damn Yankees.
Conveniently enough, my brother happened to receive Damn Yankees in the mail from his Netflix just a few days ago, so it seemed appropriate to watch it before the game begins. It’s no surprise that the Yankees are by far the most loved team in all of baseball. It seems that everyone you talk to either loves the Yankees, or loves to hate them.
According to Las Vegas, the Tigers are considered slight underdogs in the ALCS, but only by a very small margin. If the Tigers want to win, I think it’s going to come down to just one thing, and that’s whether or not they can find a way to score runs.
When your rotation includes Justin Verlander, Doug Fister, Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez, you would expect to see a lot of low scoring games. My concern isn’t with whether or not the Yankees bats will be quieted, but even if they’re held to two or three runs a game, the Tigers still have to score more.
For what it’s worth, I’m picking the Tigers to win in six games. Just trust me when I say that the only feeling better than beating the Yankees would be the Tigers winning the World Series.
Tigers take it to Texas
After splitting a four-game series with the New York Yankees, the Tigers headed to Texas for another tough series. The first round went to the Tigers, as they won by a final score of 6-2.
It was by no means a perfect game for Detroit, but it was a well-earned victory. Max Scherzer started for Detroit tonight, and despite some struggles with his control, he held a very potent lineup in check for six innings. Scherzer allowed two runs and eight hits, while striking out eight.
With those eight strikeouts, Scherzer once again took the lead the American League in strikeouts with 168. Trailing closely behind is Justin Verlander (166 strikeouts), who will be taking the mound for the Tigers tomorrow night, in game two of the series.
The Tigers were led offensively by Prince Fielder, who hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning to put Detroit ahead for good. My favorite highlight was another home run hit by a Tiger, but this one didn’t go nearly as far. It was an inside-the-park home run by Austin Jackson, which was the first of his career. Strangely enough, he still trails Fielder, who has two inside-the-park home runs in his career.
Game two will start at 8:05 EST, and will continue to preview what could very well be a playoff preview later this year.
Overcoming adversity
When Max Scherzer takes the mound for the Tigers this afternoon, he’ll do so with high expectations and a heavy heart.
It was reported earlier today that Scherzer’s brother passed away just three days ago. I couldn’t imagine being able to bring myself to work, let alone be able to focus at a high enough level to do my job.
What Scherzer is doing today, shows how strong of an individual he really is. I’m sure there will be some who say that he shouldn’t be playing today, but even though I understand the argument, I don’t necessarily agree.
It reminds me a lot of when Brett Favre’s dad passed away, and he still started at quarterback the next day for the Green Bay Packers. Everyone has a way to pay tribute to a loved one who passed away, and I don’t think there’s anything more fitting for Max, than going out there and doing what he loves.
Can’t touch this
Max Scherzer struck out 15 Pittsburgh Pirates today, the most by any Tiger in 40 years. The best part about it was that they all came via a swing and miss.
Everyone in baseball knows that Scherzer has good enough stuff to be a dominant pitcher in the major leagues, but he’s struggled with his consistency. If today is the first step in turning it around, the Tigers could finally solidify one of the best rotations in all of baseball.
It was good to see Scherzer working ahead in the count constantly all day, so it wasn’t entirely shocking that he was able to strike out as many Pirates as he did. Strikeouts are nothing new to Scherzer, who was actually 15th in the American League last year in punch outs.
But I’m not going to allow myself to be sold on the fact that Scherzer has finally turned the corner, although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t optimistic.
We’re not crazy, we’re baseball players
While getting ready for my last baseball game, I was thinking about all of the little things that I do out of habit. I’m no different than most baseball players, we’re all a little bit superstitious.
I’d like to think that mine aren’t nearly as exciting as some of the others I’ve read about through the years. For instance, when I’m pitching, I’ll always make sure that the last person who touches the ball smiles. The list for me goes on: I will only listen to music in my car on an odd-numbered volume in my car when I drive to a game and I always touch the plate with my bat before getting ready to bat. When I’m running on the bases, I always go back and touch the bases in between every pitch. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s a good enough start for now. But without further ado, I present to you some of baseball’s more famous and obscure superstitions in baseball history.
To put it nicely, Larry Walker had an obsession with the number 3. I’m not sure where it came from, but he always wore the number 33, he never set him alarm for an exact hour but always 33 minutes past it, he also got married at 3:33 on November 3rd. Go figure that he ended up hitting .313 for his career.
Reggie Jackson wore the same batting helmet for the duration of his professional career. Jackson played for several teams during his career, and would simply just paint over his helmet every time he switched teams.
‘Pebbly Jack’ Glasscock was considered to be one of the best hitting shortstops in the late 1800s, and earned his nick name from picking up pebbles and rocks he found in the infield, and placing them in his pocket. I bet you he didn’t get off to too many rocky starts in his career.
Willie Stargell had a hall of fame career for the Pirates, hitting 475 home runs before retiring. The best part about it was that he never once used a bat with his name on it, as he used to always order his bats with the name of one of his teammates on it, never his.
Wade Boggs had all kinds of superstitions, such as fielding exactly 150 ground balls every practice, but that’s not the one he’s most famous for. Before every single game, Boggs would eat chicken before every single game.
My beloved Tigers have a few players with superstitions, such as Max Scherzer eating the biggest roast beef sandwich he can find before games that he starts, Justin Verlander eats Taco Bell the night before he pitches and Jose Valverde…well, he’s got a bunch.
He always has three pieces of gum in his right pocket, he has three gloves in his locker, he has three cars in the United States and three back in the Dominican Republic, and if he goes out to have a few drinks with his teammates, he will only have exactly three beers.
Maybe all baseball players are crazy, but if they’re producing, I doubt you’ll hear anyone complain. As for my favorite, I got to go with Babe Ruth. When asked if he had any superstitions, he said he only had one.
Babe Ruth-Superstition by Marvin Terry
How the Tigers won despite losing
Yesterday I got a chance to watch the Tigers play. Even thought they didn’t come away with a win, I did leave there feeling good about what I saw.
The biggest question I had about the Tigers going into the game was what kind of performance Max Scherzer was going to give. Scherzer looked dominant throughout the game, allowing only one run in seven innings while striking out nine.
My view for the game
I know I’ve mentioned it before in my blog, but if Max Scherzer doesn’t get it going, the Tigers are going to have trouble making any sort of a deep run in the playoffs. If yesterday was an example of things to come, then Detroit fans should be quite excited about things to come. No, Scherzer and the Tigers didn’t get the win, but they still were able to come away with a very big positive.
Even from right field you’ll have no trouble seeing the new scoreboard
Unfortunately I was not able to sample any of the fine cuisine at Comerica Park, since a stop at MGM Grand Detroit depleted me of my lunch money. Oh well, I’ll be sure to enjoy something at the ballpark next time.
Doug Fister will make his return from the disabled list for the Tigers tomorrow, so hopefully we can get a winning streak going. You know I’ll be watching.
Jhonny be good!
Thanks to a walk off home run by Jhonny Peralta, the Tigers beat the White Sox by a final score of 5-4.
Drew Smyly looked excellent again, striking out seven and allowing only two runs in six innings pitched. I know a lot of people are saying there’s no way he can continue to pitch this well, but I’m not sure of that. No, I’m not saying he’s going to have an ERA of 2.00 for the year, but if he keeps locating his pitches well and changing speeds, then he should be able to have success for quite a while.
Tonight’s win was huge for the Tigers, as they’ve been struggling the last week. Let’s hope that they can build some momentum from this game, and sweep the White Sox right out of Detroit.
I’ll be at tomorrow’s game and I’m anxious to watch Max Scherzer pitch. You can expect to find a full recap of the game, plus my review on some of the new food items now available at Comerica Park. Until next time, go Tigers!
Quick strikes
Strike 1. There’s a lot of people in Detroit wondering what is going on with Max Scherzer. It seems that he’s struggling with an issue that sent him to Toledo a few years ago. The good news is that it appears to be an issue with his mechanics and not his health. The reason I feel confident saying that is because there’s no apparent decline in his velocity, but it’s more of an issue of him commanding his pitches consistently. I’m not pushing the panic button yet, but Scherzer definitely needs to show some improvements soon.
Strike 2. Bryce Harper has not been a disappointment since he was called up to the Nationals. I’m still very intrigued on how he’s going to be able to handle being in the Major Leagues. I don’t think there’s many people that are going to question his athletic ability, but he hasn’t exactly shown a great deal of maturity in his professional career. If his teammates can keep him grounded, Harper could be a very good player for years to come.
Strike 3. Jered Weaver threw a no hitter against the Twins last night, making it the second no hitter thrown so far this year. It really makes you wonder if this is going to be another season where good pitching dominates baseball. Of course pitchers haven’t been keeping all hitters in check, as Matt Kemp already has 12 home runs in just 27 games. I still think he’ll come short of 50 for the year, but at this rate, I might be wrong.
Brad Jeffers
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