MVN - Most Valuable Network

pug marks, 8/4/08

Offday, offday, hooray. THE BULLPEN CAN’T HURT US WHEN THEY AREN’T PLAYING.

We haven’t had a pug marks post in a while, have we? I guess things have just been THAT EXCITING in the world of the Detroit Tigers.

pug mark 1
Leyland ripped into the team before Sunday’s game.

He is “ashamed,” “[taking] it personally,” “more than disappointed– probably shocked,” and “embarrassed,” by the team’s performance of late. Surprise! so are we. Maybe a little less with the ‘taking it personally,’ but everything else, spot on for the fans as well.

It remains highly puzzling to me that the Tigers can have the players they have, can have the alleged talent they have, and play like this. I know a lot of it’s down to injuries and a lot of it’s down to the bullpen and some of it’s down to (perhaps under)performance from the starting pitchers. I was worried about the season before it began, for a variety of reasons, but I still didn’t expect THIS. We may safely assume that it’s much the same for Leyland.

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Why wasn’t Farnsworth with the Tigers the game after the trade was made?

Because cats forbid he fly down to join the team and deal with moving his stuff and family and such later, like every other suddenly traded ballplayer in the history of modern baseball.

Two hours after Farnsworth got home, he and his wife and their 5-year-old son had packed their belongings, closed up their apartment, and were headed down the Interstate for Florida in the family truck.
…
The right-handed reliever drove until 1 a.m. Then the family stopped at a motel in Virginia. Or was it North Carolina? “It was so late, and we were so tired, I’m not really sure,” the 32-year-old journeyman said.

Less than seven hours later, they were on the road again, driving nearly 13 hours, straight through to Orlando, where Farnsworth resides during the offseason.

“Driving down, I kept thinking, ‘Did it really happen?’ ” Farnsworth admitted.
Jim Hawkins/Oakland Press article

He really couldn’t get a flight out of New York? Not to be all ‘oh, Kyle‘ about this, but really: oh, Kyle. Seriously?

In the same article we learn that he’s going to be renting Jamie Walker’s house in Livonia. I love that a) Jamie Walker still HAS a house in Livonia and b) The Farns at some point thought to get in touch with him.

Also:

“I told (Jim Leyland) I’ll pitch whenever he needs me to pitch,” Farnsworth said after meeting with the Tigers’ manager on Friday. “I’ll even go back to being a starting pitcher, if that’s what he wants me to do.”
Jim Hawkins/Oakland Press article

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha NO.

I’m starting to think that the best thing about the Farnsworth trade is the fact that I already had a tag for him and didn’t have to bother making a new one.

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Curtis Granderson is excited about how popular the Rays have become.

He also still had mad crazy respect for Pudge:

He is one of the best to ever play his position and was a great teammate. Now, years down the road, I can say I played with possibly the best catcher ever.
Curtis Granderson/ESPN.com

This pug mark really has no substance, I just like Curtis Granderson.

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The Onion has been on a Tigerlicious roll lately.

Placido Polanco chokes up all the way.

Angry Jim Leyland’s mustache keeps falling off while yelling at team.

This Brewers article has nothing to do with the Tigers (unless you count anything about Prince Fielder as vaguely Tigers-related), but it delighted me nonetheless.

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Joel Zumaya: still broken.

Leyland noticed something in Zumaya’s mechanics on Friday night and although the Tigers’ medical staff did not find anything serious after the game, the club will continue to err on the cautious side.

“Seems like he gets to a certain point where he doesn’t finish pitches,” Leyland said.

The hard-throwing Zumaya left the game on July 27 with tightness in his right triceps, and cited throwing too many curveballs as part of the problem.

Zumaya worked through the initial tightness and was slotted back into the ‘pen on Tuesday, as the Tigers didn’t expect the minor condition to linger.

Unfortunately, Friday’s outing brought back the same familiar tightness, although it is now slightly above Zumaya’s triceps. The right-hander reported no problems throwing any breaking balls and only felt tightness on a portion of the fastballs he threw to six Rays batters.
Brittany Ghiroli/MLB.com article

“Slightly above the triceps” is an exceedingly diplomatic way of saying “shoulder”.

It is also my understanding that breaking pitches are more immediately dangerous for a pitcher’s elbow (at least partly due to arm rotation) while power stuff is more immediately shoulder-related (of course a pitcher can bollocks up any part of his arm with pretty much any pitch: pitching ain’t good for human arms, period). So that last sentence, where Zoom “reported no problems throwing any breaking balls and only felt tightness on a portion of fastballs,” is not in the least tiniest way reassuring, because if he IS having shoulder problems again, I would EXPECT him to feel it on his fastballs and maybe not necessarily on his softer stuff.

At least it’s not his oblique?

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Have you heard the new Lions slogan?

I’m pug marking myself… can I do that? Of course I can, it’s my friggin’ blog.

The beginning of the post is about Manny Ramirez, because I had to write SOMETHING about that trade, but the rest of it is a philosophical examination of the possible meanings and ramifications of the Detroit Lions new slogan, as heard in ads on FSND. They really make you THINK, those Lions do.

…………..

Tomorrow’s game is at 8:11 pm EDT (not 8 pm, not 8:10 pm… 8:11), in Chicago. Nate Robertson takes on Gavin Floyd. It’s a very important series, so I fully expect to see Tiger relievers vomiting copiously onto the pitching rubber before each and every batter they face. Failing that, I expect to learn that at least two of our players have injured their obliques. Go Tigers!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 5:21 pm and is filed under The Farns, injury, Granderson, Zoom, Jim freakin' Leyland, pug marks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.