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[kalinecountry]

For Leyland, lefty-righty pairs a no-go in September.
Manager Jim Leyland is known for playing lefty-against-righty matchups, and vice versa, to try to leverage a situation, sometimes over a hitter on a hot streak or cold spell. For the first five months, it was usually a trademark of his bench usage and lineups.

At this point, he admitted, it's just about impossible. With expanded rosters in September -- notably, bigger bullpens -- teams have too many relievers available. The way White Sox manager Robin Ventura has used his bullpen over the last four meetings between the two clubs has been an excellent example.

When Leyland used Andy Dirks to bunt two runners over in the seventh inning of a 3-2 game on Tuesday, he knew that by opening first base, he was setting up the White Sox to intentionally walk Miguel Cabrera and load the bases, then bring in Donnie Veal to face Prince Fielder. Veal has yet to allow a base hit to a left-handed hitter in the big leagues this year, and he didn't on Tuesday, getting Fielder to line out before Brett Myers retired Delmon Young to end the threat.

The White Sox used six relievers on Tuesday, four of them for one out apiece after Jake Peavy left with two outs in the sixth. They used three relievers for the final four outs on Monday, and seven on Sept. 1 at Comerica Park.

"One of the biggest things about September baseball," Leyland said, "is that a left-handed hitter had better be able to get a hit off a left-handed pitcher, and a right-handed hitter off a right-handed pitcher."

Leyland is on record as supporting a change to expanded September rosters that would have teams designate a certain number of available players each night. Team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said on Wednesday that such restrictions have been discussed for more than a decade.

"I think a lot of people share that feeling," Dombrowski said. "For whatever reason, it's never been passed, and I'm not privy to those final conversations. I think a lot of it had to deal with, you have to negotiate, [and] you have to be in a position where the Players Association has to favor it."
from the Tigers official site

 

[kalinecountry]

Raburn's status for rest of season unknown.
Ryan Raburn's spot starts appear to be done for this season, though it's not clear whether he's completely done for the year.

When manager Jim Leyland made out his lineup against White Sox righty and Tigers nemesis Gavin Floyd, he went against the batter-versus-pitcher numbers and opted for Brennan Boesch, who is 0-for-17 off Floyd, over Raburn, who's 12-for-37.
More than anything, Leyland wanted to give Boesch a chance to hit one out against a pitcher who has struggled mightily against left-handed batters this season, giving up a .314 average and .936 OPS in 271 at-bats from the left side. He also doesn't believe that Raburn is healthy.

Even if Leyland wanted to play Raburn at this point, he probably wouldn't because of his sore quadriceps, which he injured at the end of his rehab assignment at Triple-A Toledo at the end of August.
"He's getting treated all the time. He's not moving around real good," Leyland said. "He obviously wasn't moving very good in the outfield [on Monday]. He wasn't running very good on the ball Miguel [Cabrera] hit. I think he's still pretty sore. It's still there."

Asked if Raburn could be limited to bench play, Leyland said, "That might be accurate, but I don't want to put the cart before the horse. You don't know."
Raburn's evaluation seemed to suggest that his quad isn't close to improving. It's bad enough, he said, that he's feeling issues in his hamstring and back trying to compensate.

"I think it's probably about as good as it's going to get until an extended period of rest," Raburn said. "It's not absolutely terrible, but I just can't go. I just can't run all the way out. It's just another obstacle I have to try to overcome.
"It's a matter of trying to battle through it and hope it doesn't get any worse. I'll just do what I can do."
If he can't, he'll finish the year with a .171 average, one home run, 14 doubles, 12 RBIs, 53 strikeouts and a .480 OPS. But even if he does get more time, it isn't going to improve the numbers much.

Raburn brushed off the "what now?" mentality, saying that a lot of people have it far worse than he does. But he acknowledged that this year has been a massive disappointment.
His hot Spring Training, he admitted, feels like years ago.
"It seems like this year has been really long," he said, "probably the longest year of my career. But people go through it. It's just a matter of how you deal with it and bounce back. I know there's a lot of good things to come. It's just this year was one of those years. It just never panned out."
from the Tigers official site

 

[kalinecountry]

Leyland explains rationale behind pulling Fister.
Manager Jim Leyland faced the questions after Tuesday's win, asked why he pulled starter Doug Fister when he did. His answer had a lot more to do with setup man Joaquin Benoit.

An eighth-inning lead, Leyland said, is what Benoit is there to hold.
"I've got all the confidence in the world in Benoit," Leyland said. "I think he's one of the best setup guys in all of baseball. That's what he's down there for. After 95, 100 pitches [from the starter], that's what they're down there for. Bring in somebody fresh. You're going to leave yourself open for second-guessing, but you have to make decisions."

Benoit gave up a run -- his first run allowed in four weeks -- on three consecutive singles to make it a 5-3 game, then sent down the White Sox in order, including back-to-back three-pitch strikeouts of Kevin Youkilis and Dewayne Wise.
"Every out was important," Benoit said. "The first three hitters got on base -- makes it a little bit tough to start an inning -- and cut the lead to two runs instead of three. The strikeouts mean a lot. The ground ball would have been a double play."

Once Paul Konerko grounded out, Benoit had his 29th hold of the year, third most among Major League relievers.
Benoit's statistics entering Wednesday were almost identical to those of his 2011 season. His 61 innings matched last season's total, with 21 earned runs instead of 20, and 72 strikeouts (compared with 63 last year). The one major downside are his 11 home runs, more than double his 2011 total.
from the Tigers official site

 

[kalinecountry]

Dombrowski holding out hope for Tigers.
President/general manager Dave Dombrowski didn't downplay what's at stake over the next few weeks as the Tigers try to come back in the American League Central, but he also didn't give up hope.

"We've been very inconsistent so far," Dombrowski said. "But as I've said before, we have the chance to make this a very good year or a very disappointing year. It's not over yet. We'll see which way it goes. I'm still hopeful and think -- and think -- it can be a very good year."
Dombrowski called his team's offensive inconsistencies "bewildering" and "streaky" but said it's a team that has shown it can hit for stretches.

"Just when you think it's at its lowest moment, all of a sudden, we start to swing the bats," he said. "And hopefully, that will be the case. I know they continue to work at it. [Hitting coach] Lloyd McLendon continues to work at it with the guys on a daily basis. And the one thing we have done, we have pitched very well.
"Usually, when you pitch very well, it usually ends up being good for you. So let's hope that it ends up being good for you, because we've got a lot of guys who are throwing the ball really well right now -- starters and bullpen."

Dombrowski did not talk about potential changes for next year.
"That's a story for another day," he said.
from the Tigers official site

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2012/09/detroit_tigers_dave_dombrowski_15.html
Detroit Tigers' Dave Dombrowski remains hopeful despite offense that has been 'very inconsistent'.
from Mlive

 

[kalinecountry]

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/schedu...lendar=DEFAULT
Tigers 2013 Regular Season Schedule.
from the Tigers official site

Tigers open on the road vs. the twins Monday April 1st.
Tigers Home Opener is vs. the yankees Friday April 5th.

Tigers finish with 6 on the road. 3 with the twins, and 3 with the marlins.

Interesting with inter-league year round.



http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/83...rleague-opener
2013 MLB Schedule out with season long interleague.
from espn

Because there will be 15 teams in each major league for the first time, interleague play is necessary nearly every day. Since its inception in 1997, interleague play had been concentrated mostly during periods in late May and June.



http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ss...l_unveils.html
Detroit Tigers open 2013 season in Minnesota; play New York Yankees in home opener.
from Mlive



http://www.freep.com/article/2012091...s|text|Detroit Tigers
Tigers release 2013 schedule; home opener vs. Yankees.
from the freep



http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...-schedule-here
Tigers' 2013 home opener is against Yankees; complete schedule here.
from the detnews



http://www.blessyouboys.com/2012/9/1...edule-released
Detroit Tigers' 2013 schedule released.
from blessyouboystigersblog


http://beck.mlblogs.com/2012/09/12/s...ble-next-year/
Strasburg-Verlander? It’s possible next year.
from Jason Beck's Tigers blog

Washington is one of two National League teams the Tigers fill face for four games. They’ll have a home-and-home set of two-game series against Pittsburgh starting Memorial Day — May 27-28 at Comerica Park, May 29-30 at PNC Park. The rest of the Tigers’ Interleague slate consists of three-game series, including a visit from the Phillies July 26-28 and a trip to Citi Field to face the Mets August 23-25.

The twist, however, comes with three games in Miami Sept. 27-29, part of a season-ending road trip that begins in Minnesota.

Add up the Mets and Marlins series, and the Tigers will have two three-game series in the heart of a potential division chase which they’ll have to have their pitchers bat. It’ll be vastly different than past seasons, when they could get most of their pitchers batting practice out of the way in one June stretch with maybe a stray three-game series in May.

http://www.detroittigertales.com/2012/09/tigers-2013-schedule-is-released.html
Tigers 2013 Schedule is Released.
from DetroitTigerTales

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.freep.com/article/201209...013-schedule?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Detroit Tigers
Tigers' Dave Dombrowski 'taken aback' by home opener vs. Yankees in 2013.
from the freep

"I was sort of taken aback, only because we opened this year with the Red Sox,? said Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski. ?You open up against a couple big teams right off the bat, that means they?re not coming back. That?s the only negative part of it.

?We end up getting the Phillies in, Washington in. We get the Braves coming in. It?s changed, everyone?s coming in once and you?re going everywhere else going once.?

The Tigers do enjoy having just one West Coast trip all season, three games each against the A?s, Mariners and Angels spanning April 12-21.

Dombrowski said ideally an American League club would prefer to play a National League team early in the year, prior to rosters expanding from 25 to 40 in September.

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/...rowski-agree-Stop-excessive-September-callups
Jim Leyland, Dave Dombrowski agree: Stop excessive September callups.
from the detnews

 

[kalinecountry]

http://tinyurl.com/8cscchx
Free Agent leaderboard.
from fangraphs

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2012/09/detroit_tigers_play_third_game.html
Prince Fielder, Max Scherzer lead Detroit Tigers to within one game of first-place White Sox.
from Mlive

With seven strikeouts in the game, Scherzer now has 220 for the season. That's eight more than Justin Verlander, who will start Thursday for the Tigers in the series finale against the White Sox.

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.freep.com/article/201209...oit-tigers-chicago-white-sox?odyssey=nav|head
Detroit Tigers 8 - Chicago 6: AL Central lead down to one game.
from the freep

 

[kalinecountry]

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_09_12_detmlb_chamlb_1
Detroit 8 - chicago 6 : Tigers one win from tying Central after topping Sox.

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/mlb/g...mlb_1#gid=2012_09_12_detmlb_chamlb_1&mode=box
Boxscore.

from the Tigers official site

 

[kalinecountry]

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/mlb/g...mlb_1#gid=2012_09_12_detmlb_chamlb_1&mode=box
Webvideo Jackson's rbi single.

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=24716841&c_id=mlb
Webvideo Miggy's rbi single.

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=24721233&c_id=mlb
Webvideo Prince's three-run clout.
Prince Fielder gets all of Septimo's offering, drilling a three-run homer deep to right to put the Tigers on top 6-1.

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=24722275&c_id=mlb
Webvideo Avila's rbi double.

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=24722851&c_id=mlb
Webvideo Jackson's rbi double.

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=24724227&c_id=mlb
Webvideo Scherzer wins No. 16.
Max Scherzer turns in six solid innings against the White Sox, striking out seven and allowing four hits to earn his 16th victory.

from the Tigers official site

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.blessyouboys.com/2012/9/...cherzer-fielder-power-tigers-to-within-1-game
Tigers 8 - White Sox 6: Scherzer, Fielder power Tigers to within 1 game of White Sox.
from blessyouboystigersblog

http://www.foxsportsdetroit.com/09/...anding_tigers.html?blockID=789525&feedID=3701
Scherzer, Fielder pace Tigers' 8 - 6 win over ChiSox.
from DetroitFox

http://www.thedetroitsportssite.com...it-tigers-close-in-on-chicago-white-sox/23884
Max Scherzer Dominant Again as Detroit Tigers Close In on Chicago White Sox.
from the detroitsportssite

http://walkoffwoodward.com/?p=5551
After Miraculous Uprising, Team Finds Itself Only One Game Behind Division Leading Sox.
from WalkoffWoodwardTigersblog

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.foxsportsdetroit.com/09/...anding_tigers.html?blockID=788193&feedID=3593
The Rod Allen Soundboard.
from DetroitFox

 

[kalinecountry]

September 13 in Tigers and mlb history:

1909 - Ty Cobb clinches the American League home run title with his 9th round-tripper. It is an inside-the-park drive against the Browns. In fact, all his nine home runs this season are inside-the-park, including two on July 15th. Only Sam Crawford (12 in 1901) has hit more inside-the-park homers in a year than Cobb.

1934: With his fiancee, Edna Mae Skinner of Oklahoma, watching, Schoolboy Rowe halts the Tiger skid with a 2 - 0 win over Washington. He asks in a radio interview: "How'm I doing, Edna?"

1934: Judge Landis sells the World Series broadcast rights to the Ford Motor Company for $100,000. Previously no fee had been charged.

1938 - A special committee names Alexander Cartwright to Baseball's Hall of Fame for originating the sport's basic concepts. Henry Chadwick, inventor of the box score and the first baseball writer, is also honored.

1951: Yankees leadoff hitter Mickey Mantle drives a Virgil Trucks pitch deep into the RF upper deck to start the Yankee scoring. Witnesses say that if Mantle had hit it more to CF, the ball would have traveled 600 feet. Mantle then K's three times, as Trucks drives over New York for a 9 - 2 Detroit win. Trucks adds a pair of RBIs.

1971 - Frank Robinson of the Orioles homers in each game of a doubleheader split with Detroit, The O's win the opener, 9 - 1, behind Dave McNally's 13th consecutive win. The Tigers use 17 hits to win the nitecap, 10 - 5, for Fred Scherman, who pitches 8 2/3 innings in relief of Joe Niekro.

1972: Frank Howard, who is not playing regularly for the Tigers, hits a 3-run homer off Dave McNally of the Orioles for a Detroit victory. It is his 13th career four-bagger off his favorite pitcher.

1995 - Tigers Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell set a new American League record for joint appearances - 1,915 games.

2001: Due the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Major League Baseball postpones all games through September 17th. The 91 missed games, the most regular-season contests not played since World War I forced the cancellation of the final month of the 1918 season, are re-scheduled for the week after the regular season was supposed to end, meaning the World Series is likely to extend into November for the first time in history.

2002: The U.S. Senate passes a resolution honoring beloved Tiger broadcaster Ernie Harwell who is retiring at the end of the season. The 84-year-old has been a major league baseball announcer for 55 years.

2011: Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers continue to steamroll over opponents. Verlander picks up his 23rd win - the first pitcher to reach that total since Barry Zito in 2002 - when he pitches 7 shutout innings over the White Sox for a 5 - 0 win. Verlander has won his last 11 starts, something no one has done for the Bengals since Hal Newhouser in 1946. The win is also Detroit's 11th straight this month.

Tigers players birthdays:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/George_Susce_(suscege02)
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/suscege02.shtml
George Susce 1958-1959.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/frenclu01.shtml
Luke French 2009.

from baseball reference

 

[kalinecountry]

http://seamheads.com/2012/09/12/which-mlb-franchise-do-you-most-respect/
Which MLB franchise do you most respect?
from Seamheads

 

[kalinecountry]

http://beck.mlblogs.com/2012/09/13/dombrowski-holds-out-hope-for-tigers/
Dombrowski holds out hope for Tigers.
from Jason Beck's Tigers blog

long + must read.

 

[kalinecountry]

Tickets for potential ALDS and Wild Card games go on sale at 10 a.m. by calling 866-66-TIGER or visiting http://tigers.com.

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/...ing-slump-pitching-is-what-theyre-counting-on
Forget Tigers' recent Batting slump; Pitching is what they're counting on.
from cbssports