Posts tagged MiguelCabrera at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Just when you think things are starting to go right in Detroit, the Tigers take another big blow. Sure, the Kitties are two games over .500 now, have won their last six, and are only five games out of first place, but as I told you yesterday: not all is well in Tigerland.

Detroit had to place Magglio Ordonez on the disabled list on Sunday, and now 48 hours later, they may have to do the same thing with Miguel Cabrera.

Cabrera left in the third inning with a "tight left hip flexor," an injury that may or may not knock Cabrera from manager Jim Leyland's lineup. Cabrera had to leave the game after wobbling through some defensive maneuvers at first that appeared awkward and included one of Detroit's three errors.

"He's had this before," Leyland said of Cabrera, who was limping on and off the field in the early innings. The Tigers won't know until today if Cabrera will join Magglio Ordonez (disabled list, strained oblique muscle) as the latest middle-of-the-order bat to vacate the order.

Needless to say, if Cabrera has to join Maggs on the disabled list, it's probably going to temper any talk of the Tigers making a run at the White Sox for a while. The two of them have combined to hit 23 homers and drive in 98 runs in the first half of the season.

While the failures of Dontrelle Willis in 2008 have been well documented here at FanHouse the last couple of days, it turns out not everything is going horribly awry in Detroit for the Tigers. After all, Willis was basically just a throw-in (a $27 million throw-in, but a throw-in nonetheless) in the deal the Tigers made to bring in Miguel Cabrera, and after he got off to a slow start to the season, his bat has been catching fire as of late, as have been the other bats in Detroit's lineup.

Cabrera hit a walk-off home run in the ninth inning to give the Tigers a 2-1 win over the White Sox this afternoon, and help complete a sweep of the AL Central division leaders. The win was Detroit's fifth victory in their last six games, and they've crept to within striking distance of the White Sox, moving to within eight games.

Of course, even though the Tigers offense is starting to come to life now that the weather is warming up, the real key to whether or not the Tigers are going to make a run is still, and always will be, their pitching staff. Which is why they have to be happy with what they saw in their three games against the White Sox.

The trio of Nate Robertson, Justin Verlander, and Kenny Rogers combined to go 23.1 innings while allowing only five runs, 16 hits, and three walks (Verlander's performance being a work of art on Wednesday night). This against a team that had been averaging over eight runs a game during a seven-game win streak. It's only been six games, and the loss of Jeremy Bonderman isn't going to help, but if the Tigers pitching can keep this up, their offense will put runs on the board (it's just too talented not to) and Detroit may just get back into this thing after all.

When the Tigers traded for both Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis in the offseason my initial reaction to the deal was about the same as everybody else: holy crap this team is going to be unstoppable. That being said, my fear of the Tigers had a lot more to do with their offense once they placed Cabrera square in the middle of that lineup, and not so much to do with the addition of Willis.

After seeing the way Dontrelle had struggled his last two seasons in Miami, going 22-27 after a 22-10 campaign in 2005, I wasn't exactly convinced he was going to revert back to his old form in Detroit. The Marlins rode him like a horse while he was there, and I didn't think adjusting to the American League was going to be very easy for Dontrelle. Which made me think that the contract extension the Tigers soon signed him to was a mistake.

Well, the season didn't start off very well for the Tigers or Dontrelle (or Miguel either, but I have a lot more faith in him turning things around) as he walked seven batters in his first start of the season against the White Sox. Then in his next start, also against the Sox, Dontrelle hurt his knee delivering a pitch after walking the first two hitters of the game and was placed on the disabled list.

Then, after recovering and rehabbing in the minors, Detroit brought Dontrelle back as a expensive arm out of the bullpen, and in his only outing he walked two in one inning of work. It was such an improvement over his previous performances that it earned him a spot back in the rotation.

Remember when the Tigers made that huge trade for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, and Tigers fans everywhere began putting aside money for World Series tickets? Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? As we're all well aware of at this point, the Tigers kind of suck this season. Cabrera has switched positions due to his lack of mobility, and he's not exactly tearing the cover off the ball either. Dontrelle has been on the disabled list for a while now, and has struggled with his control in three minor league rehab starts.

So the question is, now that Dontrelle is just about ready to rejoin the Tigers, what the hell are they going to do with him? Willis' agent thinks that Dontrelle will be taking his old spot in the rotation.

"I'd imagine that he's going back into the rotation, but I haven't heard anything definitive," said Willis' agent, Matt Sosnick. "He felt like he threw the ball well and that his body felt good."

Yes, well, I don't care how well he thinks he threw down in Toledo, he didn't throw as well as the kid who replaced him in the rotation, Armando Galarraga. In a season that's been filled with nothing but frustration and disappointment for the Tigers, Galarraga has been a lone bright spot.

Armando has started six games for Willis, and he's 3-1 with a 3.06 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in those starts. In other words, he's been the best starter Detroit has had. Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland aren't saying what their plans are for Willis when he returns, but if they include taking Galarraga out of the rotation, they deserve a swift kick in the nuts.

Like many White Sox fans this past offseason, I wasn't very happy with the moves the White Sox did/didn't make. They missed out on Torii Hunter. They missed out on Miguel Cabrera. They missed out on Aaron Rowand, Kosuke Fukudome, and just about anybody else who they thought they were going to get.

It was during this time that I would often make the joke with my friends or other Sox fans, "But we got Carlos Quentin! Get your World Series tickets now!" Yes, I spent a lot of time this winter making jokes at Carlos Quentin's expense, but now over a quarter of the way through the season, the only one laughing is Quentin.

He's been carrying the White Sox. Just ask his manager.

"Oh, he has carried this ballclub,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said. ''A kid without that much experience in the big leagues batting third and having the kind of two months he has had, I never thought that was going to happen. I didn't expect this kid to be carrying the ballclub. We needed help, and he gave us help.

''We hit the lottery with him.''

After hitting his eleventh home run of the season on Sunday afternoon, Quentin is now hitting .301/.415/.589 and trails only the juggernaut that is Josh Hamilton for the AL lead in RBI's with 37. Those are better numbers than any of the other players the Sox had targeted.

And to think, he wasn't even supposed to be on the team.

When Jim Leyland announced a few weeks ago that he would be moving Miguel Cabrera from third to first base, not too many people were surprised. It's not exactly breaking news that Miguel isn't that good of a third baseman, and is probably better suited for first base.

Still, that doesn't mean the transition has been easy on Cabrera, so that's why Leyland was out there with him before yesterday's game helping him get acclimated to the new position. Leyland was out on the field with Miguel for about 10 minutes yesterday, firing balls at him out of a machine from second base.

"I want to make sure that he (Cabrera) knows that I'm aware we're trying to help him," Leyland said. "I think it's important sometimes when the manager shows up.

"There is no way, shape or form that I will ever back down -- ever -- from moving Cabrera to first base. That is Cabrera's position. There is no doubt in the history of baseball that is his position. I will argue it with anybody. That is where he needs to play, and he should be outstanding.

"No. 1, he's got great hands -- he digs the balls out of the dirt and he shouldn't drop throws. No. 2, he's a perfect huge target for someone to throw to. (And) you don't quite need the quickness there you do somewhere else."

In other words, Miguel is kinda big and slow.

The Tigers and Leyland have to try anything at this point, because pitching and offense haven't been the team's only problems this season. They're not exactly dazzling anybody with their defense at this point either, which certainly doesn't help matters, as they've committed 23 errors and have a fielding percentage of .981. And that's just on the balls they've been able to get to.

While coming into the 2008 season, the lineup in the AL Central that everybody seemed to be falling in love with was the Detroit Tigers, and it was hard to blame anybody for doing so. I mean, Magglio Ordonez, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Guillen, Gary Sheffield, and they added Miguel Cabrera? Damn. While I was interested in seeing what kind of astronomical numbers Detroit's lineup could produce, I was also pretty interested to see what the Cleveland Indians could do.

After all, this was a lineup that scored 811 runs last season, and did so without any real help from their big masher, Travis Hafner. I figured that Pronk had just had a down year in 2007, and that this year he would return to the form that saw him get MVP consideration in 2006.

That's not the case so far. After Cleveland's extra-inning victory over the Mariners on Thursday night, Hafner finds himself hitting .221/.314/.365. Those numbers are well below his career averages of .287/.394/.544. He's still driving in runs, as he does have 17 RBI already, but his lack of hitting has caused manager Eric Wedge to drop Pronk from the third spot in the order to the sixth.

"I feel like this young man is going to get back to where he needs to get to," Wedge said. "It's going to take a little bit of time and a lot of work. [Hitting coach] Derek Shelton and I have spent a lot of time together, and Derek has spent a lot of time with Travis talking about this. We're going to get him there and he's going to get himself there. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups

Los Angeles Angels (12-9) at Boston Red Sox (15-7)- 7:05 PM ET
I swear these teams have met like 100 years in a row in the playoffs (OK, it's like twice, or three times, I can't remember), which makes this regular season match up all the more interesting. Well, that and most of the other games tonight are crap.

Tonight's game is interesting because of the pitching matchup between Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jon Garland. Dice-K's cruising so far at 4-0 with 28 strikeouts in 28 and 2/3 innings and a 3.14 ERA. It makes me wish I told more people about my pre-season premonition that he was going to break out and challenge for the Cy Young this year, but what can I say, I don't like it when people laugh at me. Garland was the Angels big off-season acquisition and with all eyes turned towards him in hopes that he could step up in the absence of Kelvim Escobar and John Lackey, he's been pretty bad, turning in a 4.81 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. The Angels will need him to step it up if they want to avoid the ignominy of losing the division to a team that traded away it's best hitter and pitcher in the off-season.

Miguel Cabrera may have a shiny, new contract, but that doesn't mean he's the Tigers' third basemen of the future. In fact, if you believe Jim Leyland, Cabrera doesn't have any future at third base: the skipper announced after Tuesday's win that Cabrera was switching positions with Carlos Guillen, who was just getting comfortable at first base after playing shortstop his entire career.

The decision is a bit of a shock, but it makes perfect sense: Cabrera's fielding (specifically his range) has always been suspect, especially as his waistband has grown tighter the last few years. It's possible the Tigers always contemplated a change but wanted to give Cabrera an honest chance to prove himself. After five committing five errors at the position, he failed to do so. Guillen should be better, even if he sometimes struggles with his throws to first.

Cabrera has previously stated that he'd prefer to stay at third base, but that may have just been because that's where he'd be able to command the most dollars as a free agent. Perhaps because his future (and his children's future, and his children's children's future ...) is secure with an eight-year $153 million contract, he seems to be fine with the move.

I dislike it when people given the privilege to write about fantasy sports discuss their own leagues, but I'm guilty of sometimes myself. Now is one of those times. But I have a good reason. In a league with a bunch of my close friends, one of our owners took David Ortiz in the first round. Nothing shocking there, really, especially when you consider the depleted player pool that results from it being a keeper league.

But this week, Papi is on his bench. WTF, brah? Buried jersey or not, four for 44 slump be damned, you don't bench Big Papi. Awkwardly, it's working out for him because Casey Kotchman is outhitting the big guy. But this owner's team still struggles, because his pitching -- self-admittedly -- is horrible. This is where you pounce in.

David Ortiz
Specs: .104/.246/.167, 1HR, 3RBI, 9BB, 6.2%HR/F, .114 BABIP
The first two sets of stats -- the averages and the homers -- are what people look at. The last three -- the walks, percentage of fly balls that go for home runs and batting average on balls in play -- are what you should look at. The walks say he's being patient and the last two, well, "Look ma! Bad luck!" Or something like that. Either way, I can absolutely, 100% guarantee you that Ortiz will not continue to suffer through either of those low numbers. In fact, you could Spackler his back right hammy and I still think you'd see them both rise. But for the last few years, people keep wondering when age/weight/DH-type skills will catch up. Those people want the new hotness too. Johnny Cueto + the hot hitting Raul Ibanez seems like a decent starting offer.