The Tigers suck.

I think someone posted this on another board after Farnsworth allowed a home run. The Tigers bullpen before the All-Star Break allowed 18 home runs. After the Farnsworth home run it was 14, of course by the end of the night it was 15...

I hate my life.

You Tigers fans think your life sucks? That ####### Swisher HR happened almost simultaneously as Jose Lopez's double in Seattle which meant the Twins had coughed up two ####### games in a row to the ####### Seattle ####### Mariners. There's no ####### way this team will make the postseason.

Brendan Harris allowed four ####### "hits" yesterday on balls the average shortstop turns into an out. FOUR! As in more than three. The Twins had to play more than an entire extra inning defensively because of him. In the 4-run third inning for Seattle, the Twins defense allowed SIX outs.

I'm so sick of hearing about how the Twins always do the little things right. It's like Gardy just wants to bury his ####### head in the sand and continue to believe he has a good defensive team when every other way of measuring it (statistics, scouts, or just your eyes) tells you that the entire team except for Mauer, Gomez and Span are atrocious in the field. #### me, what a ####### nightmare. I didn't fall asleep for an hour after the game ended last night I was so pissed off.

I think someone posted this on another board after Farnsworth allowed a home run. The Tigers bullpen before the All-Star Break allowed 18 home runs. After the Farnsworth home run it was 14, of course by the end of the night it was 15...

Farnsworth has just gone to pieces in Detroit, and I'm a little bit shocked. I didn't think he would keep up his previous level of performance necessarily, but he's raised his ERA half a run in 3 games. That takes some doing.

I'm so sick of hearing about how the Twins always do the little things right. It's like Gardy just wants to bury his ####### head in the sand and continue to believe he has a good defensive team when every other way of measuring it (statistics, scouts, or just your eyes) tells you that the entire team except for Mauer, Gomez and Span are atrocious in the field. #### me, what a ####### nightmare. I didn't fall asleep for an hour after the game ended last night I was so pissed off.

I thought Casilla and Punto looked pretty good. And Span and Gomez can cover whatever the third OF misses - they're awesome.

You're right, though, that Brendan Harris: Shortstop is a superhero of crap, able to ruin good defenses in a single game. I'm shocked that Garderhire would send him out there, really. Shouldn't the fact that the Rays have suddenly turned into a competent defensive team after his exit be a tip-off? Don't these people, like, watch baseball games occasionally? Harris isn't like Jeter, who can make some nice plays and does well coming in on soft grounders and going back on pop-ups. There is absolutely nothing that Brendan Harris does well in the field, nothing he looks smooth doing, there's no facade of any sort.

EDIT: Jeter has a good ZR these days, blahblahblah jackoffmotionwithrighthand

Shouldn't the fact that the Rays have suddenly turned into a competent defensive team after his exit be a tip-off?

What's hilarious is that the Twins ####### announcers (who ONLY repeat the party line and were still preaching the praises of Livan up until the day he got dumped when, lo and behold, he suddenly sucked) still think Jason Bartlett wasn't very good because he made a lot of throwing errors. I don't mind a throwing error a week if it comes with the ability to get to 5 extra balls (which is easily doable when you're just comparing yourself to Harris).

Punto looks good on defense because he loves to be flashy. He's a little better than average, IMHO. Casilla has a cannon for an arm and decent range to his left, but struggled going up the middle and seemed to have really hard hands. But holy #### does Brendan Harris (and Brian Buscher, for that matter) suck. The entire left side of the field with the Harris, Delmon Strosity and Buscher/Lamb might be the worst in the game defensively.

I was rooting for the ball that bounced off Buscher's wrist to land on top of his head, or perhaps go down the back of his shirt. The old hidden ball trick...

You Tigers fans think your life sucks? That ####### Swisher HR happened almost simultaneously as Jose Lopez's double in Seattle which meant the Twins had coughed up two ####### games in a row to the ####### Seattle ####### Mariners. There's no ####### way this team will make the postseason.

But what did you you think of Kingman's performance?

Kyle Farnsworth. I could never have foreseen THAT acquisition not working out...

Kyle Farnsworth. I could never have foreseen THAT acquisition not working out...

You've forgotten 2003 already, Retro?

There's no ####### way this team will make the postseason.

Well, ONE of the White Sox, Twins, and Tigers has to make the playoffs. And they all suck in some ways. White Sox pitching (especially starting pitching) has fallen apart. It does, however, appear that Paul Konerko is starting to hit. Which makes the acquisition of Griffey even more meaningless.

You've forgotten 2003 already, Retro?

No indeed. Having attended the infamous Bartman game, I remember his allowing a bases-clearing double to Mike Friggin' Mordecai in "relief" of Prior very clearly. (To be fair, he was one of about 17 goats in that inning.)

Farnsworth is one of my least favorite Cubs of all time. Sure, he had a couple of good regular seasons; he also had a couple that were unimaginably awful, and you never knew what you were getting from one year (hell, one day) to the next, in no small part due to his spending his postgames at Hi-Tops hitting on 19 year olds while getting plastered. Not exactly conducive to success in day games.

And he was the darling of the Lincoln Park Trixie set, which is another strike against him in my book. Allow me to repeat the greatest Farnsworth story ever, which I've posted before. Cubs/Giants night game, 2 Trixies sitting in front of me. Bonds steps to the plate against Farnsworth. (Yes, Dusty Baker's an idiot.) Flash bulbs go off all over the ballpark. Trixie #1, to her friend: "Why's everybody taking pictures?" Trixie #2, in total seriousness: "Because people think Kyle Farnsworth's really hot."

Farnsworth is the ultimate Million-dollar Arm/Ten-cent head pitcher. And even that million dollar arm has never been able to generate much movement on that 98-MPH fastball.

"Edgar Renteria can not be feeling too good right now."

You don't know that. Maybe he's snorting a line off a hooker's ass, even as we speak.

You don't know that. Maybe he's snorting a line off a hooker's ass, even as we speak.

Taking a break from his military service? Oh wait, that's not Renteria. ;)

and you never knew what you were getting from one year (hell, one day) to the next

it's even more starker when you look at the numbers:

ERA+ by year, starting with 2000:

71, 151, 55, 131, 93, 195, 104

so he only does good in odd-numbered years

(he's the Bret Saberhagen of relievers)

You don't know that. Maybe he's snorting a line off a hooker's ass, even as we speak.

Well, it is his birthday tommmorrow.

Worst. season. ever.

I swear this is about the 18th loss in this fashion. ####.

Brendan Harris allowed four ####### "hits" yesterday on balls the average shortstop turns into an out. FOUR! As in more than three. The Twins had to play more than an entire extra inning defensively because of him.

As someone who watched him play 2B/SS for the Nationals, I am very sympathetic. He's marginally better at 2B than SS, but only marginally.

The Rays have made so many additions & changes between '07 and '08 (Garza, Wheeler, Balfour, Percival, Longoria) but I think that one of the most important and least remarked-upon is the strengthening of their infield defense. They're now strong at every position (Longoria and Pena are both quality defenders), and my god: the shift from the twin butchery of Wigginton/Harris to Iwamura/Bartlett has to be saving a ridiculous number of runs.

Worst. season. ever.

Is it? What's worse: 2003, when they were expected to be awful and turned out to be unvbelievably horrid; or this year, when they were supposed to be in the World Series and are mediocre? Discuss.

And Verlander's problems against the White Sox continue:

Career record and ERA vs. White Sox: 2-8, 6.03 ERA (71-2/3 innings)

Career record and ERA vs. Cleveland: 4-8, 6.51 ERA (76 innings)

Career record and ERA vs. everyone else: 37-13, 3.13 ERA