Detroit Tigers Freak Out!
Posted by basebal5 on Monday, May 5, 2008 at 9:06 pm
In freak out move #1
of the 2008 baseball season, Tigers
Manager Jim Leyland announced that the team will undergo ‘drastic’ lineup
changes for Monday May 5th, 2008. Of course, not one to go against
his word,
Tigers designated OBP machine Jacque
Jones for assignment. To take his spot on the roster, the Tigers called up
24 year old Matt
Joyce from
Fortunate for the Tigers brass, the
Cubs are on the hook for part of the $5 million contract Jones is owed for
the 2008. I am not sure this makes the major mistake of bringing Jones in any
less of one, but my glass is half full today.
It will be interesting to see what else the Tigers do
leading up to their game against the Yankees this evening. In 8 epic games
since returning from a recurring should injury, Gary
Sheffield has managed to decrease his numbers across the board, including a
strikeout rate that has dropped from 1 every 6.4 plate appearances to 1 every
4.3.
As a team, the aging Tigers are struggling. The
unsustainable statistics that carried the Tigers in 2007, such as Magglio
Ordonez’s +.110 OPS and Placido
Palanco’s +.038 OBP have been culprits offensively.
The pitching staff has also not been without blame for the
Tigers poor start. In 2007, Tiger’s starters had an ERA of 0.05 higher then the
American League average. This year the ERA sits at 1.11 higher then the
as most assumed, has struggled; however it has moved up the rankings in
comparison to their league mates despite being 0.06 worse then in 2007.
What is next for the Tigers? Our very own Bill Baer wrote
a series asking ‘what’s next?’ Baer
asserted that the Tigers needed to acquire bullpen help. However at this point,
it appears the Tigers need more then just some bullpen help, and would benefit
from inserting some young blood into an otherwise extremely old lineup.
is heading to the disabled list (which I am going to officially speculate
upon), could the Tigers be a nice fit for Barry
Bonds? If drastic changes are on
the agenda, there is reason to believe that a move such as signing the hated
Barry is in the horizon.
