He had 2ks tonight which is pretty par for the course but I was definitely proved wrong and dumbfounded when he hit that walk off tonight. Happy to see he is finally earning a little bit of that ridiculous contract
Looks like J-up has made a few adjustments at the plate that are helping. Need a big home stand over these next 8 games.
Over the last 21 days Upton is .289/.365/.592. That's an OPS of .957. Over the last 14 days Upton is .298/.375/.632. That's an OPS of 1.007. Over the last 7 days Upton is .333/.394/.833. That's an OPS of 1.227. I think it is safe to say Upton is heating up. Hopefully it lasts for a couple months.
Winning that Pelfrey start to get to .500 is nice, because means the next 4 games are at home and will be started by guys named Verlander, Fulmer, Norris (I'm assuming) and Zimmerman. Pitchers with actual talent. JV pitches against James Paxton, who has been pretty good, but is left-handed; Fulmer gets Iwakuma, who has been okay; and Norris gets a soft tossing rookie making his second career start and whose ceiling is probably 5th starter/long reliver swingman. Zimmerman gets Danny Salazar on Friday, and Salazar has been lights out. Would be nice to beat Salazar and win 3 of the next 4 with Pelfrey vs Carrasco on Saturday. They might want to consider Anibal over Pelfrey on Saturday.
He Struggled his last five or so starts before his past outing. Yes know he was injured for a period of time. Need him to step it up if we any chance at winning division. Btw: Lowe sucks. Not sure if I mentioned it before
And I had no idea Upton was such a shitty fielder. Maybe I was fooled by the fact that he is black and fast
#Tigers have signed fourth-round pick Kyle Funkhouser to over-slot money. Draft bosses considered him a first-round talent.
Freep Sports @freepsports Anibal Sanchez will return to the #Tigers rotation Saturday against the Indians.
Sheldon's fireballing righthander Matt Manning will sign a professional baseball contract with the Detroit Tigers Thursday, his father told to the Citizen Tuesday. The 6-foot, 6-inch high school graduate who was the ninth overall selection in the June 9 Major League Baseball Draft will leave Elk Grove Wednesday, bound for Lakeland, Fla., the spring training home of the American League club. Manning's father, Rich, said Tuesday that his son will travel all day and will likely take a full physical on Thursday and then sign a contract that will earn him a bonus of $3,505,800. The elder Manning says his son's signing bonus will be more much more than the total amount he earned playing eight years of professional basketball, three of that in the NBA with the Grizzlies and the Clippers. "The total money I earned in eight years of playing professional basketball is one-third of what his signing bonus is," Manning remarked. Manning said there are some similarities to what his son has experienced the past few days and what he went through in 1989 when he was drafted in the 2nd round by the Atlanta Hawks. "At his age I was getting ready to go to college," Manning said. "Prior to going to Syracuse I went to work at a basketball camp for a month before school. I was preparing for that environment. But, what Matt is going through now is even a bigger level than when I was drafted myself. And, I was four years older than what he is right now. I was 22 when I was drafted. He is only 18." Manning spent two seasons at Syracuse before he transferred to the University of Washington. He says there is a part of him that wishes Matt would have experienced college before going pro. "My wife and I have talked about this because going to college there is an experience you'll never have again in your life," Manning said. "It is amazing and I have a lot of good memories. But, when you go to college, and I've told my boys this, your sport is a business and it is no longer for fun. And, what (Matt) is doing is the same thing - he's just going to the professional ranks right away." Manning thinks having his son go right to a professional coaching situation while his arm is still young will be the best for him, especially because he's a pitcher that can consistently throw in the mid-90's. "He'll have four extra years at playing at his career," Manning said. But, he added that being a first-round draft pick - and the ninth overall selection - makes the decision to forego playing baseball and basketball at Loyola-Marymount much easier. This experience not only has be one-of-a-kind for the younger Manning, but Rich says for he and his wife, Kristen, they have been pinching themselves in recent days. "We've been asking, 'Is this really real?'" he observed. "We've always believed all our kids are going to do something special in this world, but we've believed Matt has always had a path that was different and different than others just by the way he acted, the way he watched sports and how he intereacted. My wife has always had the guy instinct he was going to play baseball. That mothers' intuition and look was is happening." Matt will be playing for the Gulf Coast League (GCL) Tigers and likely will face Elk Grove High School's Dylan Carlson who will play in the same league this summer for the St. Louis Cardinals' franchise. Carlson, also a number-one draft choice, signed his pro contract last Wednesday. The elder Manning says Tigers' officials have told him that Matt will go through about ten to 14 days of workouts and then begin pitching in GCL games around July 4. The Tigers have said Matt will pitching two to three innings about every five days the rest of the summer.
So those rumors of Manning having crazy bonus demands were either false, or a play by his family to steer him away from certain teams if he's signing for slot tomorrow.
Tidy win tonight. They did the goal is around 160 innings for Fulmer and he's at 80 now. They'll skip his next turn for Crapfrey. Probably have to skip him a couple more times this season. To keep him available for the postseason.
We got Andrew Romine batting with 1 out and the bases loaded in the 9, because Ausmus pinch ran Maybin for Moya in this inning, then pinch ran Aviles for VMart despite VMart's run not mattering and VMart already pinch-hitting for McCann. Romine K'd. Then we win on a wild pitch, so all is well.
Bob Wojnowski @bobwojnowski 42s42 seconds ago Long wait to get in Tigers clubhouse. Really long. Hmm
Won't be the worst thing to have another fire sale. Who could we get rid of that has value? F-Rod, maybe Kinsler? Wonder if an AL team would take V-Mart?
I have no idea why Derek Hill was playing RF instead of CF, but he made another great catch tonight. He's also hitting much better of late, with a .305/.356/.389 line in June after a .519 OPS in May.
I think they're rotating him and that other dude they really l like between CF and RF. Jose somebody.
Zimmerman blows. Avila may not make it through season. None of his free agent signings have panned out through the first half of season (Zimm had good April, that's it)
July 2 International signing stuff happening this weekend. The two biggest names I've seen that we're about to sign are SS Wencel Perez (DR) - #23 on Baseball America's list of top guys OF Jhon Sandoval (Venezuala) - rumor I saw was for about $500k Mark Anderson had this on those two:
I would love to see the 2 wildcard teams play a 3 game series instead of the crap shoot of a 1 game series.
I think Brad needs to consider pulling Pelfrey after the best 4 innings of his career to start this game. It can only go downhill from here.