It has been quite awhile since I last wrote about the Tigers, and plenty of baseball has happened. The team has showed signs of busting out of their slump, but sits 4.5 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central. Stringing together both solid pitching and high octane offense in just one game remains to be a challenge. In the Wild Card, the Tigers are 3 games behind the Yankees, who are also trailed by the Mariners just a single game back. If the Tigers have any hopes of making the playoffs, they will have to awaken their inner beasts now that September has, for all intensive purposes, arrived.
- Gary Sheffield has been placed on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to August 22 due to shoulder pain. That means the Iron Sheff is good to play again come September 6th if his shoulder will cooperate. Timo Perez was called up from Toledo to take his place. In the meantime, the Tigers certainly have the ability to score runs without Chef cooking up more RBI’s of his own, but they definitely could use his veteran bat back in the lineup. [Beck's Blog]
- After calling up Cameron Maybin (6-for-27 with 1 HR, 2 RBI, and 12 K’s), the Tigers had to ship Craig Monroe off. C-Mo has made his way to Chicago via a trade for cash and a player to be named later. Monroe was batting just .222; though, the Cubs plan to use Craig against lefties, as the outfielder is hitting .302 with 5 HR and 22 RBI’s in just over 100 at-bats against left-handed pitchers. As they say, thanks for the memories. [Sports Illustrated]
- Speaking of PTBNL, the Tigers announced that they have acquired right-handed pitcher Chris Lambert from the St. Louis Cardinals as the player to complete the trade for left-hander Mike Maroth. Lambert heads to Triple-A Toledo. [Tigers.com]
- Andrew Miller was demoted from MLB to Single-A Lakeland. Now that’s an organizational smackdown! If he does happened to return to the Bigs this season, he will probably be coming out of the bullpen. The move makes room for Virgil Vasquez, who is starting tonight against Oakland. [Bless You Boys]
- Jair Jurrjens, who was in the rotation in place of Kenny Rogers, is on the disabled list with some kind of shoulder problem. [DTW]
- August 24th’s game against the Yankees was the third latest finish in MLB history. A huge bananas 4-hour rain delay caused the game to finish after 3am. Then the game went into extra innings only to be decided by a three-run walk-off homer by Carlos Guillen. [Game Recap | Delay Notes]
- Until his arm strength adjusts back to near-previous levels, Joel Zumaya is getting used to throwing a little softer. His fastballs that once regularly climbed above 100 mph are now usually in the mid-nineties, with top speeds around 97-98. Since returning from surgery to repair tendon damage, Zoom is 1-2 with a 4.22 ERA in 17 appearances. He has 19 strikeouts and 13 walks over 21 1/3 innings. [News]
- The Rangers scored 30 runs. I’ve done that before — in a videogame. Actually only once… That’s an amazing feat in the virtual world, let alone in the Major Leagues. With their 30-3 thrashing of the Orioles a week or so ago they became the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a single game. [Sports Illustrated]
- 51% of fans in New York are fans of the Yankees, 35% for the Mets, and 3% for *gasp* the Boston Red Sox. In a Subway series, fans support the Yankees by a margin of 55 to 44 percent. Of course it takes not even a casual fan or bandwagoner to just root for a team with a payroll in excess of $200 million, it’s taking the easy way out. Those damn Yankees… Now the Mets, they just seem like they would be more fun to watch — plus they made it to final innings of a game seven in the NLCS last year. [NYT]
Technorati Tags: Gary Sheffield, Cameron Maybin, Craig Monroe, Andrew Miller, Jair Jurrjens, Joel Zumaya, New York Yankees, New York Mets
