The title for this blog entry kind of sounds like I'm upset with the moves the Tigers made yesterday afternoon. But to be honest I'm far from upset. Giving Jacque Jones his outright release was a great move. It probably should've happened in Spring Training, to tell you the truth, because Jones didn't hit then either. Why not call up Matt Joyce? He was hitting .299 with 5 homers in 29 games in Toledo. Joyce becomes the 38th former West Michigan Whitecap player to put on a Tigers' uniform. He was 0-2 with a walk last night but it was his first big league game. I'll bet he plays again tonight because you can't call a guy up from the minors, who's playing as well as Joyce was, and sit him at the end of the bench. He's a lefty stick, just like Jones was, and he's a home-grown comodity. Might as well see if this kid has the chops to succeed in the Majors.
I know a few weeks back I used a blog entry to rip into Gary Sheffield. I still think he's trying to play through a considerable amount of shoulder pain. Sheff said soon after he was traded to the Tigers last year that if he ever had to spend an extended amount of time on the disabled list again in his career he'd probably retire. Well, I think Sheff is doing everything he can to avoid a trip to the DL, but in the process he's been a major offensive liability this season.
So, Leyland decides to see if playing defense might help his offense. Gary Sheffield requested to play in the outfield so Leyland made it happen. I think this is a good move. I never thought of the Tigers doing this before with Sheffield because they've been against it since the start. Sheffield played 13 games for the Tigers in the outfield last season. He was 16-for-44 in those games with a .364 batting average. In his 213 career games as a DH, Sheff was just a .264 hitter. So, this is a brilliant move and, in my opinion, should've happened last year when the team gave up on Craig Monroe. Being a DH isn't easy. If you fail in a plate appearance, you then have to sit and simply watch the game for 2 or 3 more innings before you can get a chance at redeeming yourself. At least Sheff can feel like he's contributing in other ways now and maybe this will jump-start him. Who knows. It can't hurt to try this experiment and see if it works.
As for the team, they're back to playing like they did in early April. Not hitting and no scoring. Tigers were issued 10 walks last night and left a grand total of 15 men on base. With a lineup full of sluggers, they should've won this game 12-6!
It was the first time in 10 years the Tigers lost a game in which they walked 10 or more times.
Here's the stat that really kills me. The Tigers are 0-16 this season when they score less than 5 runs in a game. They are an all-or-nothing team and you can't win that way. Now they've ruined all their hard work which allowed them to pull to within a game of .500 last Thursday.
I like the moves. It shows me that Leyland and Dombrowski are no longer going to hang onto the phrase "it's early". That's because it isn't early anymore. The baseball season is now 7 weeks old, and Memorial Day is the first mile marker on the road, during a season, where teams find out if they're contenders or pretenders. The Tigers still aren't sure about that, and they only have 3 weeks to right the ship again. They've been fortunate up to this point that no other team in the AL Central has played well. If the Tigers were in the NL West, they'd be 10 games behind the Diamondback and left for dead. At some point either the Twins, White Sox or Indians will string together 8 straight wins and if the Tigers continue to play like they have in the past week, any chance of turning things around and making a legitimate playoff run this season will end.
Again, I like the moves. Now, get some winning results with them!