Tigers’ Jacque Jones would like to head south

...much like his game.

Given the opportunity to decide, outfielder Jacque Jones’ first choice might be to join the Marlins. That’s what Jones, who the Tigers designated for assignment last week, told an associate.

For now, Jones has no control over his next destination. The Tigers have until Friday to trade or release him. Either way, they are on the hook for what’s left of his $5.5 million salary (about $4.05 million). Any team that acquires him would make the Tigers pay much of the remaining money.

Jones probably wouldn’t cost the Marlins much more than a low level minor-leaguer and/or the pro-rated major league minimum (about $290,000).

“It would probably be his top destination,” the associate said. “Last year he was really excited about the opportunity to go down there. It was something that almost came to fruition.”

MLB: Tigers waiting for Miquel Cabrera to bust out

Uhh...Not from that Gypsona-flaking full body cast he seems to be running in...Hghly unlikely!

So what does Tigers manager Jim Leyland think about Cabrera these days?

“I think he’s going to relax here shortly and go on a tear is what I think,” Leyland said. “I think he’s getting ready, close, and I don’t know if I’m right or not, but I just kind of smell like he’s getting close to going on a tear.”

“I’ve seen it happen before, where guys go to new teams and sign big contracts and they put a little pressure on themselves for a while,” Leyland said. “I can understand that. Cabrera wants to compete. He knows he was signed to be ‘the guy,’ but sometimes, you got to let that play out a little bit and not get too excited. Sometimes, guys want to live up to their entire contract in two weeks or one week, and that’s not going to happen.”

..."I think Miguel Cabrera will be the first baseman for the Tigers for a long time,” Leyland said. “I think he’ll be a great first baseman and very productive. If he’s not, that means everybody in baseball is wrong. Everybody in baseball that I’ve talked to says he’s one of the top five, premier offensive forces in baseball—not just people with the Tigers, everybody in baseball. It’s not like they’re speculating. They can read the numbers.

Newsday: Igawa’s ‘08 debut a failure; Yanks fall to Tigers

The Yankees did not have outrageous expectations for Kei Igawa in his first major-league start of the season.

General manager Brian Cashman said: “I hope he pitches into the seventh inning and gives us a chance to win a ballgame.” Manager Joe Girardi said he wanted Igawa “to compete, to be down in the zone, early strikes, ahead in the count, give us a chance to win.”

Igawa fell far, far short of even those modest aims, though, in the Yankees’ 6-5 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park Friday night. The Tigers crushed Igawa with hard-hit balls on nearly every at-bat. He gave up six earned runs on 11 hits in three innings plus four batters.
...
The Tigers batters didn’t miss much that Igawa threw. The lefthander failed to notch a single strikeout, and saw pitch after pitch launched deep into the outfield. By the fourth, after Igawa gave up four consecutive hits and three runs to start the inning, Girardi had seen enough.

Sun-Sentinel: Hyde: Miguel Cabrera misses ex-team and ex-teammates

And my plunging fantasy team misses Miquel Cabrera.

Don’t take this wrong. Cabrera likes Detroit. Likes his Tigers teammates. Thinks they’re going to be a good team. And, let’s be honest, this is the normal feeling-out process between a player and his new city, especially when the team is losing.

But, since he’s asked, yes, he misses the Marlins. And, since he’s asked, he never wanted to leave. And, since he’s asked, he still doesn’t believe they had to part with him.

“They called when they traded me and said, ‘We don’t have the money to pay you,’” he said. “...That’s the excuse they give. They have money.

“At first, I didn’t like [that] they traded me. But after a while you get used to it. It’s a business.”

Det News: Parker: Like him or not, Tigers need Bonds

Life with snarky Parker…

Bonds, baseball’s all-time home-run leader with 762, should pick the American League team he wants to be designated hitter for, give it a blank contract and have it fill in the numbers.

And that team could easily be the Tigers. They desperately need a left-handed bat in their inconsistent lineup, which has been shut out five times in the first 34 games. Last season, the Tigers were blanked three times.

The only thing Bonds—who earned $15.5 million last season with the San Francisco Giants—should ask for is an attendance clause. If he fills the seats, he should get a bonus. It would be hard for a team to pass up that offer, even with Bonds’ alleged-steroid-use baggage.

...Whether you like or dislike Bonds, he hasn’t been convicted of anything. He should be allowed to play like everybody else who has been tarnished by this scandal.

If Bonds is unemployed because he wants too much money, that’s one thing. But if it’s not about that, it’s simply not fair.

Sheff stirs up changes for Tigers with request to play left

Actually, this appears to be the Manager’s idea, and Shef is going along with it.

Gary Sheffield—Team Player

Detroit Free Press: Jacque Jones released

If he doesn’t get an offer from San Diego, I’m sure the Streetwalkers have a roster spot open.

Det News: Ex-Tiger Jack Morris plays doctor

Dr. Jack presents his “I Know Better Thanatron” machine!

Former Tiger Jack Morris broadcasts 45 games on the radio for the Twins and still is an outspoken observer of the game—especially when it comes to pitching.

And when it comes to the Tigers, he believes he knows what’s wrong with Justin Verlander.

“His shoulder,” Morris said before Sunday’s 7-6 sweep-clinching victory by the Twins. “There’s something wrong with his shoulder. I know because I’ve been there with that bursitis I had. You can see it in the way he’s throwing. He’s over-compensating for not being able to extend his arm.”

Verlander is 1-5 in seven starts with a 6.28 ERA. His velocity possibly has dipped a notch or two, but nothing to be alarmed about—which is one of the reasons Verlander isn’t alarmed.

“My shoulder feels great, really good,” he said, when told of Morris’ on-the-record comments, “There’s nothing the matter at all. He’s wrong.”

AP: Dazed [Carlos] Gomez carted off field

A dazed Carlos Gomez was carted off the field in the fifth inning on Friday night after the Minnesota Twin took a throw from Ivan Rodriguez off the head while stealing second base.

Gomez got a good jump on the pitch by Armando Galarraga and slid headfirst into the bag just as Rodriguez’s throw got there. The ball hit off Gomez’s helmet and ricocheted well into left field. Gomez’s head then collided with second baseman Placido Polanco’s left knee and he lay motionless on the turf for several minutes while team doctors and Rodriguez rushed to check on him.
...
Gomez did not lose consciousness and was deemed OK by team physicians after being examined in the clubhouse, the Twins said.

Detroit Freep: Hard lemonade, hard price - Dad’s oversight at Tigers game lands son in foster care

A couple of lemons, a little sugar, a teaspoon of grain alcohol, a few state-appointed nuts, shake and pour.

The 47-year-old academic says he wasn’t even aware alcoholic lemonade existed when he and Leo stopped at a concession stand on the way to their seats in Section 114.

“I’d never drunk it, never purchased it, never heard of it,” Ratte of Ann Arbor told me sheepishly last week. “And it’s certainly not what I expected when I ordered a lemonade for my 7-year-old.”

But it wasn’t until the top of the ninth inning that a Comerica Park security guard noticed the bottle in young Leo’s hand. ...

BP Sports: Todd Jones maturing in faith in twilight of career

Not exactly the Save rules Jerome Holtzman had in mind…

But to peg Jones simply as a ninth-inning specialist is to completely overlook one of baseball’s most interesting characters. This is a man who believes that “humans are underneath a crotchet piece of cloth” (more on that later) and enjoys listening to music “that tells other people Christians can rock out, and we know a guitar riff when we see it, and we know a party and can get in a mosh pit and don’t have to drink.”

Mercy, there’s a lot of Dixie in that 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame. In his Georgia-bred drawl, Todd Barton Givin Jones will tell you about how the Christian faith is like taking a “Lipton Ice Tea plunge.” His brawny handlebar moustache screams “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” and he has an artistic rendering of John 20:29 – Jesus’ provoking post-resurrection encouragement to Doubting Thomas – tattooed on his hand.

You gotta love this guy.

TSN: Jones: Reflecting on more than 15 years in the majors

Todd Jones looks back...(wipes tear away with 60-grit sheet of sandpaper)

Then steroids hit, and I just need to say that if Jose Canseco had hit 38 more home runs—giving him 500 and maybe a ticket to the Hall of Fame—none of this would have happened the way it did. Canseco would have been content. There would have been no subcommittee meetings or Mitchell Report, and guys out of the game wouldn’t have been dragged through the mud.

Baseball is more uniform now. Umpires adhere to one governing body of accountability. Used to be, they could be fat, pompous pigs—routinely out of position—and eject you with no warning and hold a grudge. Now, they’re polite and treat you with respect, and we have a much better rapport with them.

We were all shook up by 9/11. I feel we—and the NFL—helped the country begin healing. I’ll never forget the first night back. They played Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American, “ and we all cried.

As an older player, you never know when your time is going to be up, so the grass is greener and the park is louder. You thank God for your good health and good luck. You’ve stuck around long enough to figure out that your career is not about you; it’s about your teammates and how you leave the game. If somehow you made it better for somebody, you’ve done your job.

MLB: Leyland goes to bat for slumping Sheff

And the Jim Rice Most-Feared Hitter Award© goes to…

“I think some pitchers pitch Sheffield tougher than anybody on our team,” Leyland said. “There was a time when Gary Sheffield and Barry Bonds were the two most-feared hitters in baseball. I’m not saying all the time, but there was a period of time when they were probably the two most-feared hitters in baseball—bar none. Trust me. He still sees tough pitching for it.

“It’s not like he’s getting balls blown by him. It’s not that his bat is slowing up, and they’re blowing balls by him. He’s hitting balls hard foul. His timing is definitely not right, but his bat isn’t slow. I’ve seen guys throwing 95-96 [mph], and he’s hitting it to left field foul.”

...However, Leyland said, based on his close relationship with the slugger, that Sheffield doesn’t play to pad statistics and certainly wouldn’t hold the team back for the sake of a milestone.

“Gary Sheffield would be the first guy in this office saying that he wasn’t helping the team,” Leyland said. “Trust me, he doesn’t play for his own stats. Believe me, he won’t do that. If he feels like he can’t be the Gary Sheffield he wants to be, he’ll tell me. I believe that. That hasn’t happened, and I don’t expect it to happen.

“Do I think he’ll hit? Yes I do. Do I think he’ll hit like the Gary Sheffield of old? I doubt it. But do I think he can hit enough to be a productive hitter in our lineup? Yes I do.”

FOX Sports: Perry: Tigers will score, but does it matter?

Dayn’s latest…

Baseball’s season is (blessedly) a long one, and anything can happen to any team over a span of, say, 10 or 12 games. Yes, the Tigers got off to a miserable start, but over the span of those seven consecutive losses the offense managed just 2.1 runs per game.

That’s plainly aberrant.

This is an offense capable of scoring 900 or more runs this season, and the struggles they were enduring in the early days of the season have no lasting meaning. They’ll hit. In fact, they are hitting, having touched home 37 times in their last three games.

...The Tigers, especially now that Granderson is back, are going to score lots of runs. On the other hand, they’re going to give up quite a few runs.

They’ll be a winning team, and they’ll be in the race in the Central. However, contrary to pre-season speculation, Detroit is not on the level of, say, the Red Sox and Diamondbacks. That is, they’re contenders, but they’re not among the power teams in baseball right now. For them to rise to that level, a few pitchers will need to step up and defy expectations.

Detroit News: ‘Freak of nature’ haunts Robertson, halts win streak

No, no...it’s not Daphne the intern. It’s Vladimir Guerrero that’s haunting Nate Robertson.

As Nate Robertson was reminded once again with a damaging home run on Friday night in the Tigers’ 4-3 loss to the Angels, inside, outside, up, down, anywhere he can get his bat on the ball, Guerrero can be dangerous.

“He’s a freak of nature,” Robertson said. “I don’t know what else to say. I threw him the kitchen sink in that at-bat. I threw everything I had. I went away from him, came back inside and he got me.”

He came back in on his hands, in fact and Guerrero still got him.

“It kind of reminds me of the other pitch he hit off me for a home run, about three years ago,” Robertson said. “It was going to bounce and he hit it out.”

What are you going to do?

Sporting Gurus: Zeth: Is Kenny Rogers Toast?

Skaboom! KaBlam! it’s over...Toasters is right!

Of course the point is obvious. Kenny Rogers is older than dirt, and when he goes out and gets lit up like a Christmas tree his first few starts, it automatically makes us think he may now be officially washed up, but the fact is, we don’t have enough information yet. It’s too early. The Tigers are going to keep running him out there for another two months at least (unless he hits the DL first, of course), because

1. They’re paying him $8 million, after all, and
2. A scenario involving the Tigers clearing 90 wins probably has to involve Kenny Rogers giving them at least something like average pitching. They don’t have much in the way of rotation depth.

...So, is Kenny Rogers toast? I think it’s better than 50/50 that he is, but I don’t see how Jim Leyland has any choice but to keep running him out there until he proves to everybody’s satisfaction that he’s finished. That’s another one of the reasons I’m not optimistic about the Tigers.

Tigers Ticket Auction

Tigers auction off tickets to Angels, Yanks, and Sox homestand.

Surprised we have not seen more of this. If they can sell old urinals through an auction, why not tickets?

AP: Tigers use 11-run inning to beat Rangers 19-6

Granted, it was against the Rangers, but still impressive.

Miguel Cabrera hit a three-run homer and Carlos Guillen had three of his five RBIs in an 11-run sixth inning, and the Detroit Tigers routed the Texas Rangers 19-6 Wednesday night.

Jacque Jones also homered as Detroit scored its most runs this season and handed Texas its sixth straight loss.

The Tigers led 7-6 going into the sixth, when they had their biggest inning since scoring 11 in the sixth inning on April 23, 2004, against the Cleveland Indians.

Rosenthal: Flip-flopping Cabrera’s position is problematic

meep-meep...some afternoon Robothal for ya’ll.

“You can see that he’s a tremendous player, but he’s still young — he has a lot of exuberance, a lot of vim,” Dombrowski says. “Once in a while at third base, maybe his concentration wanes a bit. But at first base, it appeared that didn’t happen at all. It can’t — you’re involved all the time.”

The difficulty of playing first base is consistently underestimated, but Cabrera has a good arm and good hands. He once was a shortstop, and began his major-league career as a left fielder with the Marlins in ‘03.

Perhaps Cabrera will follow the example of the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols, who moved to first base full-time in 2004 due to his elbow condition, only to evolve from a below-average defender into a Gold Glove winner through hard work and determination.

Then again, when Cabrera trimmed down for his first spring training with the Tigers, he seemed committed to improving his defense at third; his biggest problem last season was that he was overweight, limiting his ability to field slow rollers.

Turns out he was not much better than before.

He’s only 25. And he’s already restricted to first base.

Detroit News: Bid to save parts of Tiger Stadium falters

Sometimes I think this whole world
Is one big ballyard.
Some of us are customers
The rest of us are guards.
Lord, Lord,
They let George Jackson tear it down.

The clock is ticking once again on the destruction of old Tiger Stadium, with a nonprofit group racing to raise $15 million to save part of the vacant ballpark before demolition begins in a matter of weeks. Work to tear down most of the historic stadium and sell it for scrap is slated to begin as soon as private contractors can get started.

...The demolition agreement also gives the nonprofit Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy a number of deadlines—starting with June 1—to come up with the money to preserve the dugouts and home plate area of the stadium.

City officials have extended previous deadlines several times, but Tuesday the development agency made it clear that time is up.

“We’ve given a grace period that no other city in the history of this country has given,” said George Jackson, president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the quasi-public agency that oversees the development corporation.

SportsTicker: Tigers’ Guillen, Cabrera to switch positions

Detroit manager Jim Leyland announced after Tuesday’s 10-2 victory over the Rangers that Miguel Cabrera will be moving from third base to first, with Carlos Guillen moving to third from first.
...
Leyland did not take any questions on the move but did address the situation after Tuesday’s win.

“I’m going to make a major announcement and I’m not going to answer questions about it,” Leyland said. “I’m going to make a statement and I’m going to leave it at that. We will now be moving Miguel Cabrera to first base and Carlos Guillen to third base. The reason is, we think at this particular time, it gives us a better team. So that’s what we’re doing.

“I just wanted everybody to know so that when you came in tomorrow and saw Guillen playing third and Cabrera playing first, you already know it from me so you’re not shocked and everybody panicking, running around, acting crazy.”
...
“I feel good over there,” Cabrera said. “They asked me if it was OK and it was cool with me.”

Porcello likely won’t suit up in Whitecaps uniform

Even with his marginal success in terms of winning games? Outrageous!

Detroit Tigers roving pitcher instructor Jon Matlack won’t say if the ball club made the right decision in skipping No. 1 draft choice Rick Porcello past West Michigan this spring.

But even with Porcello, the organization’s 19-year-old phenom pitcher, having marginal success at high Class A Lakeland at least in terms of winning games, don’t look for the Tigers to send him to the Whitecaps even if he struggles.

Matlack said the roof would have to collapse on Porcello’s development for that to happen. And he said even with Porcello’s 1-3 start to the season, a collapse is such a long shot that he hasn’t considered it.

Matlack, who was at Fifth Third Ballpark for the Whitecaps’ weekend series against Burlington, said Porcello, who signed a major league contract worth $7 million, has done well in the Florida State League.

“He’s the real deal,” Matlack said.

Det News: Tigers’ Sheffield not in lineup; wants doctors to look at shoulder

It’s all in the timing...as Dr. Frank Thomas has made himself available.

Tigers’ designated hitter Gary Sheffield wants team doctors to check out his sore right shoulder.

Not in Sunday’s starting lineup against the Toronto Blue Jays, Sheffield said “when you have the surgery I had, you’re going to have your good days and bad days. I kind of rushed it. I have work to do. I’m just trying to get it stronger.

“It was major surgery, and I have to get it to a point where I’m comfortable. Obviously I’m not,” he said.

“I want to get it looked at. I want to know what’s really going on, like exactly how much scar tissue I really need to break up --because it feels strange playing baseball when you can’t do what you’re capable of doing.

“It doesn’t hurt as much as it did, but it still doesn’t give me the range of motion that I need. When I try to swing harder, it slows it down even more. I didn’t know it was going to be this tight.”

Star-Tribune: ‘Bitter’ Monroe back in Motown

Twins outfielder Craig Monroe used the word “bitter” to describe his sentiment toward the Tigers on Monday, so it’s fair to say he will be especiall y motivated if manager Ron Gardenhire sticks with his plan to play Monroe tonight.

“I’m excited to see those guys and talk to them,” Monroe said. “I’m also excited to get a chance to do some damage and beat them, too.”

..."I’m bitter,” Monroe said before the Twins lost 11-9 Monday. “I’m disappointed when I think about the situation.

“I think as players we’re forced into—even when you’re not on a good team, like ‘03, losing 119 games—still being motivated.

“And to do some of the things I’ve done, I felt like I would like to have some of it back, when I scuffled the first half. I think I struggled every first half, but when you look up at the end, every September, my numbers are right there.”

Yep...a .300 OBP like clockwork.

AP: Tigers show signs of life: Rodriguez-led rally helps beat Twins 11-9

TIGERS WIN!  TIGERS WIN!

Ivan Rodriguez hit a tying two-run triple in the eighth then scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly to lift the high-priced Detroit Tigers to their first win at home this season, 11-9 over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night.

The Tigers won for the first time in seven games at home and improved to 3-10 overall, still the worst record in baseball.
...
Trailing 9-5, the Tigers scored six runs in the eighth inning… Matt Guerrier didn’t take the loss, but he made Detroit’s comeback possible by giving up five runs—four earned—and five hits in just 1 1-3 innings. Pat Neshek (0-1) allowed two runs in the eighth.

Kenny Rogers: Everyone shares in the blame

This Tiger team is looking like the biggest mess to come out of Detroit...since Margaret Whiting hooked up with Jack Wrangler!

“They were diving out over the plate more than I need to let them do,” Rogers said of the White Sox. “Bad sinker, hanging changeups, there were not a whole lot of good pitches I made out there. Disappointing, without a doubt not a recipe for success. We needed more and I didn’t give to us.”

But the hitters, in turn, aren’t doing much for the Tigers pitchers, either—what with being blanked four times in the first 12 games, one more than all of last season, and not scoring a run in the last 20 innings of the White Sox series.

“I just don’t think we’re a very good team right now,” Rogers said. “We may expect things to come our way, but they’re not. We’re as bad a team as there is right now in every facet. But that means myself as much as anyone. I’m supposed to be consistent, and to know what I’m doing, but I was very uncomfortable out there and inconsistent. So that makes it even more frustrating.

“Do we all think we’re better? Yes, but there’s not even been a glimmer of showing it.”

Passan: Leyland lets loose on underperforming Tigers

Sucking, Screaming, and Cigarettes...no, no, it’s not the latest Beasts of Bourbon CD...it’s the weirdness that is Tigerland.

What happened was another shutout, the second blanking in a row and fourth the mighty Tigers have suffered this season, and the establishment, too, of Leyland’s official breaking point. Off he went following the 11-0 loss that dropped the Tigers to 2-10, his voice permeating the brick walls at U.S. Cellular Field and ricocheting off the doors that tried their best to insulate Detroit’s clubhouse from the rest of the world.

Actually, it was quite like a fallout shelter, the Tigers trying to isolate themselves from Leyland’s nuclear meltdown. No one dared explain how a lineup that threatened to cross the 1,000-run barrier has been shut out four times, just as no one could answer how a team with a $138.7 million payroll could start 0-7, just as no one knew what to say when Leyland yelled and screamed and refused any longer to watch his team potentially send its season sewer-bound in the first month.

...“That’s what I love about my skip, man,” Tigers DH Gary Sheffield said before Sunday’s game. “He’ll tell you that you suck. That’s what I appreciate him for. I know I suck. We know we suck. But I don’t see nobody in there hanging their head and feeling sorry for themselves. Yeah, we suck. But we’ll see who sucks at the end.”

AP: Crede, Konerko hit grand slams to lead White Sox past Tigers 11-0

Joe Crede and Paul Konerko each hit grand slams to back Javier Vazquez’s strong start, and the red-hot White Sox pounded the struggling Detroit Tigers 11-0 on Sunday.

Konerko’s homer came in the third off Kenny Rogers and Crede’s grand slam, his second this season, came in the fifth against Zach Miner as the White Sox won for the fifth time in six games over Detroit, the preseason favorite to win the AL Central.

It was the third time the White Sox have hit two grand slams in one game. The last time Chicago did it was May 19, 1996, when Darren Lewis and Robin Ventura homered at Detroit. The first time was Sept. 4, 1995, when Ventura hit two grand slams in a game at Texas.

AP: Tigers pitcher Dontrelle Willis placed on 15-day disabled list because of hyperextended knee

Detroit Tigers left-hander Dontrelle Willis was placed on the 15-day disabled list Saturday after an MRI confirmed that he has a hyperextended right knee. Willis injured the knee while delivering a pitch in the first inning Friday night against the Chicago White Sox and minutes later was taken out of the game.

“We know he’s going to miss at least one start and we don’t want to take any chances with it,” Detroit general manager Dave Dombrowski said after a 7-0 loss to the White Sox on Saturday. “Really at this point, we can’t. It is a hyperextension, so hopefully after the 15 days he’ll be ready. But we’ll see.”
...
The Tigers will recall outfielder Ryan Raburn from Triple-A Toledo to fill the roster spot and later will bring up right-hander Armando Galarraga, also from Triple-A, to take Willis’ slot in the rotation.

MLB.com: [Dontrelle] Willis leaves with hyperextended knee

Tigers starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis left his start Friday night against the White Sox with a hyperextended right knee after slipping off the mound.
...
The game started on schedule in light showers after heavier rains passed through prior to the game. Grounds crew workers applied drying compound to the mound after taking off the tarp just before game time.

Willis walked leadoff man Carlos Quentin before he slipped off the mound while trying to deliver his first pitch to Orlando Cabrera. Willis stretched out on the mound and grabbed the back of his right knee as manager Jim Leyland and head athletic trainer Kevin Rand came out of the dugout.

Willis stayed in the game after some warmup pitches, but he proceeded to walk Cabrera. With two on and no outs, Willis fell behind Jim Thome, including a wild pitch in the dirt that advanced both runners and put Thome in a 2-1 count.

That’s when Rand and Leyland came to the mound again.