Sunday, August 19
Random
- Does anyone actually have an "SAP button?" I swear, I've never seen this mythical button. Do they make you prove you speak Spanish when you buy the TV in order to issue you one with an SAP button?
- Michael Kay informs us that Curtis Granderson and Grady Sizemore "strike out too much to be a leadoff hitter." You're right, Granderson (.347 OBP) and Sizemore (.382 OBP!) should try to be more like Johnny Damon (.353 OBP) or Melky Cabrera (.351 OBP).
- What road starts are to Ervin Santana, the first inning is to Jeremy Bonderman. He's got a 12+ ERA in the first inning! So far it looks like he's well on his way to upping that number...
- Michael Kay talks about Moneyball semi-intelligently. Astounding. Except for the obligatory "Billy Beane likes to draft college guys" talk.
- Does this blog consist of disseminating the accounts and descriptions of the game? Will I have the YES Network breathing down my neck?
- Oh my goodness gracious, of all the dramatic things I have ever seen! Yogi Berra is sitting in George Steinbrenner's box!
- The YES crew are talking about Curtis Granderson's 19 triples and are attributing it to Comerica Park. Too bad only 6 of the 19 triples were hit there. Don't let the fact stand in the way of your argument guys...
- How you can tell an idiot fan: If they boo an intentional walk. Granted there are exceptions (like Barry Bonds), but a real fan of the game will understand the strategy of the game and acknowledge the strategic usage of the intentional walk.
- Apparently, Joe Torre has two ways he can make relief pitchers cry. The first way is well known, run them out there mercilessly until their arm hurts. The second way was just reveal in an anecdote by Michael Kay. First you don't use a pitcher for 2 weeks because you don't trust them (Edwar Ramirez), then you run them out there and let them get pounded because their rusty (Ramirez again), then you send them down to the minors. Voila! tears. Man Torre is shaky with his bullpen usage...
Monday, June 25
Hotlanta! Saturday/Sunday Report
The game’s at
This room’s better than the Econo Lodge (in that it’s not 80+ degree), and it even has internet! ESPN’s showing some car auction or something, so there’s no reason to stick by the TV. I decided to make a driving tour of downtown
I decided to park in the same spot I had the previous night for this game, and once again walk it. The official box score says that the game temperature was 95 degrees. That was taken at
There was only standing room seats for the game, Justin Verlander, two starts removed from a no hitter, versus Kyle Davies. I made my way into a batch of open seats on the first base side, but was thwarted by bad luck, as the next people that came had those exact seats and I got booted. Thus, I spent the first several innings standing, which really wasn’t a bad thing, seeing as I was directly behind home plate.
Verlander was mowing them down. The Tigers scratched out a run in the 2nd, and another run in the 4th on a Carlos Guillen solo shot. Chipper Jones answered with a solo shot in the bottom of the 4th and the score sat at 2-1 frame after frame. Verlander ended up striking out 11 (which I didn’t realize until after the game, the Ted doesn’t give you a pitchers cumulative in-game stats besides pitch count).
It was a nailbiter, and the Tigers’ up and down bullpen certainly put a few men on base, but they got it to “Roller Coaster” himself, Todd Jones in the ninth. I got to see history, as Jones struck out Brian McCann to start the 9th. McCann argued the call, Bobby Cox came out as well and got thrown out for the 131st time in his career, tying the all time record for ejections. He locked it down and the Tigers were winners again, this time 2-1.
It was an uneventful night. Next day I got on the road early, making a brief stop in
On the return back I decided to skip the Biscuits game. I passed through
So I just headed back to
Sunday, June 24
Hotlanta! Friday Report
A few weeks back, after reading an article in which Chipper Jones bitched about the Braves’ tough schedule I decided to see if the Tigers played the Braves. Sure enough, they were scheduled to play in
Soon after I decided to extend the trip, taking in a Montgomery Biscuits (AA) game in
I bounced out of work on Friday at
The area around the ballpark left MUCH to be desired. Needless to say, there were areas one would be afraid to walk alone at night. Parking lots immediately near the stadium were all offering parking at the low-low price of $20. All the streets surrounding the park, if you dared to park and walk, had signs requiring resident parking passes. I eventually went down a major thoroughfare (not quite as sketchy, but still bad) and ultimately parking a good 10 blocks or so from the park in a decent residential area. 15 minutes of walking brought me to the park. It turns out scalping is outlawed within 2700 feet (half a mile!) of the park, so that was right out. So I was forced to shell out $12 (I was hoping to pay a scalper $7) for stratosphere seats.
The Ted was a nice park. It didn’t really have any features that made it exceptional. It had statues of the franchise’s greats out front, but these can be found in most parks. Probably the most noteworthy aspect of the park is that the bullpens are open above. You can stand at a railing and look right down on the pitcher warming up (actually, he’s about 5 feet under the overhang for beer-poured-on-visiting-players-related-reasons). This was the first start of the season for the just-off-the-DL Kenny Rogers, and he was matched up against John Smoltz in a battle of the oldsters.
Being only one person, I was easily able to make my way into vastly superior seats probably 50 rows from the field. The Ted only had ushers from first base wrapped around to third base. If you were further down the line, they didn’t seem to be as aggressive in ticket checking. In any event I settled into the seat and only left once (the obligatory beer run).
The game itself went by pretty quick. Smoltz and Rogers matched zeros (although I had my doubts when Kenny beaned the first batter he faced) until the 6th inning. The Tigers exploded for 5 runs in the top of the 6th and that was it. I moved out to centerfield for the last half inning, to be closer to the exit, as well as to get a different vantage point.
It was a fireworks night at the park, which I didn’t stick around for. I hiked back to the car as quickly as possible. Much of the route was poorly lit, but the walk went by uneventfully. I was only scared for 9 ½ of the 10 block walk. Little did I know my adventure for the evening was far from being over.
I headed for my hotel. My first thought that I might have problems was that I was able to get a room through Travelocity for the obscene price of $30. I’d printed directions from the park to the hotel and had not trouble finding it. I rolled up at
Problem.
Bang on the door. Ring the bell. Walk around the perimeter, maybe they are making a tour of the grounds. Walk around the building and look in the windows. Bang on the door some more. Call the phone number, and get sent right to voicemail. Ring the bell some more. Contemplate all sorts of vandalism. Contemplate calling 911 so that the hotel owner is notified and shows up. Call Travelocity. After 20 minutes on the phone, Travelocity offers to book another hotel for the low cost of $90. Take out your anger on the guy on the phone, sarcastically citing Travelocity’s “we’ll make it right” guarantee. Wait on hold longer. Get Travelocity to eat the cost of another hotel. Depart the hotel you’ve already paid for at
So after that joyous ordeal I was at the Econo Lodge, all checked in. I was looking forward to some air conditioning, jumping online for a little bit (the sign out front advertised that they had wireless internet) and then some sleep. Up to the room I go, and man is it warm, probably 80 or 82. The Ec has a remote control style thermostat for adjusting the air conditioning. There’s a bracket on the wall to hold the remote. And that’s it. No remote, just the bracket to hold it. No way to turn the AC on. Nice.
Ok, I figure, let’s fire up the laptop and check the old fantasy team. The laptop can’t find a wireless network. After making the tour of the room with the laptop looking for a spot that works, and trying to using the power cord as a crude antenna, I call down to the front desk. I’m informed that they don’t have the internet yet. So THAT’S what the sign meant when it said “Free Wireless Internet.” Now it’s bedtime so I go to set the alarm, and in the final indignity, the clock is broken and doesn’t even display the time. So ends the Friday adventure.
Monday, June 18
Thank you Todd Jones
I unabashedly loved the 2006 Tigers. Baseball is my favorite sport, and I've stuck with the Tigers through a lot of losing. I watched them probably 120 times in 2006. I wept when they made it to the World Series. I wept even more when they got bounced. I am not ashamed to admit this. They brought me a lot of joy.
I hadn't become emotionally invested in the 2007 team. I've watched most of their games, but it hasn't been the same. Until tonight.
I have Todd Jones to thank.
Not 15 minutes after I posted about the Chinese Water Torture that has been the Tigers bullpen, Todd showed me real terror. That sickening feeling of dread/horror in my stomach as Todd gave up single, after single, after triple, after single, after double fully sucked me in to Tigers 2007. I'm finally emotionally invested.
He managed to somehow nail down an incredibly shaky 9th inning and preserve the win. For that, I suppose I should also thank him.
Sunday, February 25
Redux
So, anyway, here's a roundup of some of the stories I've been following lately. A disclaimer is that most of these stories are either about the Tigers, or about players I happen to have on my team.
The stars of Detroit Tigers camp so far have been Curtis Granderson, Jeremy Bonderman, Gary Sheffield, and Kyle Sleeth. Apparently Grandy has been hitting rockets all over the yard, and seems poised to have a big year. Jeremy Bonderman has apparently been impressing with his newfound (again) changeup. I tell you, if he gets that changeup working, he's going to be Dominant. Don't sleep on Bondo this year. Sheffield has been impressing everyone with that waggling bat.
The most intriguing guy could possibly be Kyle Sleeth. Sleeth is a deep, deep, deep sleeper, not likely to contribute any sooner than next year, if ever. Sleeth was the Tigers' first pick in the 2003 draft. He went third overall behind Delmon Young and Rickie Weekes, and ahead of fellow first rounders like Nick Markakis and Chad Cordero. At draft time John Sickels summed him up like this:
" Likely the best raw arm in the college ranks, although not as polished as Tim Stauffer (see below). Sleeth will probably be the first college hurler drafted. He is big, throws hard, and has pitched well in college. Hard to go wrong with that package."

He made his debut in 2004 in single A Lakeland and performed pretty well (5-4 with a 3.31 ERA, 60 hits, 65/18 K/BB in 68 innings). After that he was promoted to Double A and struggled the rest of the year. 2005 he missed the first few months before finally having Tommy John surgery in June. He came back late last season to single A, but basically got his brains beaten in.
It appears Kyle is feeling better and starting to make big strides on his way back to prospect status. So, if he's getting his career back, how does he project? Going back to Baseball America again, here was the scouting report of Sleeth from 2003:
"Sleeth has far and away the highest ceiling among Tigers farmhands. He had one of the best fastballs available in the 2003 draft, both in terms of velocity and life. He usually pitches between 92-94 mph and touches 96. His fastball seems even firmer, however, because of its movement. It bores down and in on righthanders. It’s a heavy ball. Sleeth throws both a power curveball and a low-80s slider. The curveball is the better breaking pitch, as he throws it in the high 70s, and it features a lot of depth and bite. His slider improved last spring, though some scouts say it’s a bit slurvy. His changeup has the potential to be an average major league pitch. Sleeth has a strong, projectable frame and was durable at Wake Forest. He’s quiet and confident. When the Demon Deacons struggled behind him last spring, he remained poised. Though not demonstrative, Sleeth exudes competitiveness."
Well, all of a sudden the Tigers have a packed young rotation. Bonderman and Verlander figure to be rotation fixtures for the forseeable future. Andrew Miller is likely to join them, barring injury, next year. Nate Robertson and Mike Maroth are both very serviceable starters, and are in their prime years. Kenny Rogers is still pitching well, but is likely to move on in the next few year or two.
In the short term, I don't know how the Tigers are going to sort out their pitching depth. It's an enviable problem to have too much young pitching, but Jordan Tata, Andrew Miller, Jair Jurjjens, Eulogio de la Cruz, Virgil Vazquez, Wil Ledezma and maybe Kyle Sleeth are all pitching prospects that may be pushing for a rotation spot. Given his draft pedigree, if Sleeth can resurrect his career, and it's not uncommon for a pitcher to have Tommy John before making it to the majors, he'll likely get one of the first cracks at any open rotation spots.
To sum up, keep an eye of Kyle Sleeth, he was the #3 pick only a few years ago and appears to be making a strong comeback from Tommy John surgery. He may be a name to know in the future.
Saturday, February 24
Essential Reading
But don't think for a second my mind hasn't been on baseball, quite the opposite. I've been spending a lot of time working on a system to rank players for the purposes of a keeper league (perhaps I'll try to put that up at some point). I've also been busily putting a bunch of irons in the fire for our upcoming draft (still a few weeks out).
So, in lieu of writing anything constructive, I figure I'll distract you all with links to other good places to read about baseball (and other things sports related).
Baseball Prospectus is obviously the daddy. I must admit, part of me pines for the early days of our league when I was the only person in possession of BP's 2002 Prospectus. Others quickly caught on and now it's become a staple. These guys charge in order to be able to view all the content, but believe me, you can get your moneys worth. There's some great info on there.
Another favorite of mine, which for some inexplicable reason others in my league haven't gotten hip to is The Hardball Times. These guys are a bit like Prospectus, but have their own unique spin on things.
Now a few biased ones: The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, and the official Detroit Tigers website.
I also am a big fan of Deadspin. It's not purely baseball, it covers all sports, but it is always good for a laugh.
Lastly, I also like to go over to check out the guys at Fire Joe Morgan. If you hear Tim McCarver "announcing" and grit your teeth, you'll appreciate the way these guys lampoon announcers.
Anyway, once I my head back in the game, the frequency of these posts should pick back up....
Thursday, February 15
A Grand Sophomore Season?
Doesn't that just warm your heart? Alas, I won't be seeing that sign in person this year, but just you wait, I'll be there next year.Anyway, let's continue our haphazard look at the upcoming year to talk about one of my personal favorites, Curtis Granderson.

Grandy had a pretty good rookie season, all things considered. Hitting leadoff on a 95 win, World Series team, and playing centerfield in Comerica National Park is a lot to ask of a rookie. Granderson definitely was guilty at times of making it easy on the pitcher, as is easily evidenced by his 174 strikeouts.
While I would love for him to have only struck out 74 times, rather than 174, that in and of itself is not the only stat one should look at when evaluating Grandy. He'll be turning 26 in March, so while he's not young, there is still some room and time for him to improve. A quick look at his PECOTA card over at baseball prospectus shows him with a nearly 60% chance of performing at star level in the next few years. It's 5 year forecast shows him in the low 20's in VORP for the next several years. All the fun sabermetric numbers aside, what's he likely to do in the next few seasons?
Well, on the unscientific side of things, I can recall one of the Tigers' coaches saying something to the effect that Curtis Granderson will get every bit out of the talent he has. He has been praised up and down the Tigers organization for his work ethic and dedication, which is certainly not a bad thing to keep in mind when trying to project his future performance. None of that has any tangible effect when he's in the batters box, but we can rest assured that he'll be as prepared as possible for that confrontation.
Last year Curtis ended up with a line of .260/.335/.438. He hit 19 HRs, stole 8 bases, had 59 extra base hits (31 doubles, 9 triples, 19 dingers) and drove in 68.
There are some questions about whether Curtis will stay at the top of the batting order. While batting order isn't terribly important, staying at the top of the lineup may improve his potential to pick up a few steals. He stole 22 bases in Toledo in 2005, so he's not hopeless on the basepath, and double digit steals is probably likely for the upcoming season. The Tigers sent him 13 times last season, and he was only successful 8 of those times. 5 of those stolen base attempts happened in the seasons first month, and he was 3/5. After that, the Tigers were much more cautious about sending Curtis, and his last 3 steal attempts came on July 7, August 2nd, and August 17th. Basically, they stopped sending him.
One of the most vexing thing about Curtis last year was that he seemed to swing through a lot of pitches. His strikeouts were not necessarily a by-product of poor pitch recognition (he did walk 66 times, which isn't terrible) as much as they were an inability to make contact with good pitches he chose to swing at. I'm not sure what that portends for the future.
PECOTA's diagnostics give Grandy a 20% breakout rate, and a 47% improve rate, so better days are likely ahead. It forecasts a drop in strikeouts to the 130 range, which will subsequently likely result an an increase in OBP. Personally, I think with Granderson's work ethic, and room to grow, PECOTA's 75th percentile projection for Curtis sounds about right:
.283 average, 91 runs, 24 HR, 76 RBI, 11 steals.
However, I think he's likely to beat the steals projection easily, as I expect the small ball inclined Jim Leyland to make base stealing a point of emphasis with one of his quicker players. The Tigers basically gave up on sending Curtis last season due to a poor success rate, and I think they'll try to fix that this spring. I think he'll end up with 20 steals when all is said and done. If he achieves 20/20 status, he'll be worthy of having on your team, even in a mixed league format.
Friday, February 9
One day closer

Man that makes me smile. No, that pasty white fellow is not Casper the friendly ghost, it's Jeremy Bonderman. They seem to have gotten right down to business, as here you can see them practicing how to walk off a killer throwing error.
Thursday, February 8
SABR Toothed Tiger
I've been pondering what direction to take this thing, but I'm just gonna start heading off in any direction and see where I end up. So in no particular order:
I liked the Gil Meche signing by the Royals this offseason. Being a Tigers fan (see, the title IS funny) I can sympathize with being so deeply buried in terrible-ocrity (like mediocrity, but more terrible) that you can't bribe people to sign at any price. I can remember Miggy Tejada telling the Tigers he would return their calls if they started their bidding at something like 126 mill. Of course he ended up signing for about 90, so that gives you an idea how much extra he wanted. Anyway, if Jason Marquis can get 8 mill a year, I don't think Gil Meche making 11 mill to eventually be a decnt #3 is the end of the world. Too much money for him? Yes, but it's symbolic of the Royals finally deciding to try to compete.
I think Daisuke is in for a big year. And that's all I've got to say about that.
I blame the Red Sox for diminishing my hatred of the Yankees. Growing up in Red Sox country, I tend to pull for them when the Tigers aren't involved (which has been from April 15th on every year until last year). Well I can't be hating on the Yanks for being bad for the game when the Sox are spending just as much.
My stat of the moment is BABIP. For those who aren't savvy on the SABR tip, that stands for something like Batting Average on Balls In Play. I've been turning it over in my mind for a few days, but I'll eventually make a full blown posting about this.
I think the Tigers are winning the World Series this year.
My wife is watching Ace of Cakes on the Food Network right now and they are making a rat shaped cake for two woman's commitment ceremony. That is supremely weird on so many levels.

You know when the hat stretchers head south to Florida, baseball is right around the corner... Until next time...
Wednesday, February 7
What's it all about?
Anyway, I've recently become fascinated with several sports themed websites and blogs, and I have decided to start my own. I won't list them right now, they'll trickle out over time. Basically, baseball has been a growing sickness on my mind. I guess that baseball was my first sports love, the only sports I ever really played as a kid (you can't call my endeavors on the basketball court "playing"). As I grew, baseball dropped down the priority list.
The biggest reason baseball took a backseat was my Darwinist approach to sports fandom. Don't get me wrong, I'm no bandwagon jumper, per se. I grew up in Eastern Connecticut (pre-casinos). This is traditionally Boston sports territory, but is far enough removed that you can fool yourself if you try. Also, in those days we had the Whale (Hartford Whalers), so it was an interesting sports dynamic. Anyway, I had no push to be a fan of one team or the other. I started watching baseball around the time I started playing little league. Cecil Fielder hit a bunch of HRs for the Detroit Tigers, and voila, I became a Tigers fan. Little did I know how much suffering this childhood attachment to a fat man hitting moon shots would cause. Anyway, I've been a Tigers fan since the late 80's. Back in those days they were in the AL East and were on TV quite a bit in CT, playing the Yanks and the Sawx.
The point of this digression is that baseball was my first love. Continued losing by the Tigers, as well as success by some of my other sports teams (Washington Redskins, New Jersey Devils) pushed baseball down the list. However, when I got to college, baseball started to stage a comeback.
My full blown baseball obsession began around 2000. By this time I was in college enjoying the fraternity life (better and different than you think it was). In that fraternity I made friends with a gang of guys you'll no doubt be hearing a lot about as time goes by. Every year we did all the fantasy sports, starting my freshman year, 1998, the dawn of fantasy sports (for me). I won the fantasy (roto) baseball league going away (nobody even bothered to check it the last month, I was so dominant) and that was it. My senior year, I got the notion of keeper league into my head, and founded a keeper league along with another 7 guys. My co-conspirators in founding the league were Chuck and Dan.
Anyway, this backstory is overblown, uninteresting, and will dribble out over time, the point is that for the past 5 years we've been running a very competitive fantasy baseball keeper league. The league is American League only, hence the blog name. I currently am the defending champ of this league (although, in the interest of full disclosure, I missed the playoff my first 4 years) and have a full blown obsession with this league.
This blog is an extension of that obsession. This keeper league never strays far from my sporting thoughts, and I wanted to launch a blog to chronicle the experience of obsessing over one half of a league of grown men attempting to hit a ball. What will the blog become? I don't know. For now, it will contain musing about baseball (as well as other sports occasionally), and specifically American League keeper league concerns. It is my hope that this will be an interesting blog, even for those who have no interest in baseball. I hope it's a glimpse into a little world, one where everyone cares far too much about the outcome of a fantasy game.
Coming soon... a picture of me holding the pimping league trophy!!!
