LH vs RH
I had to look it up to verify which hand Art Houtteman pitched with, by the 1954 Indians (111-43) had an all right handed staff.
Moe Yale
Thanks....I'm still thinkin' on it. One of our greatest teams, too! Very interesting.
LH vs RH
Brian D4: There are several examples of an all RH-pitching rotation. Most notably for Tiger fans was the '84 team of Morris, Petry, Wilcox, Rozema and Berenguer. Add to that Doug Bair, Randy O'Neal, Glenn Abbott, Roger Mason and Carl Willis and there were no starts that year by a lefty.
4 years earlier the Oakland A's ran out Mike Norris, Rick Langford, Matt Keough, Steve McCatty and Brian Kingman who started all but one game. Lefty Bob Lacey made 1 start.
Pitching in 2009
Verlander, Bonderman, Galarraga, Miner & Garcia
Trot 'em out every day. Get a SS or play Ramon every day.
Use Dusty as a backup with OJT. He'll improve.
Buy some relievers.
Nuff said....I'm done. That Robertson contract is a lot for a bullpen lefty....that's where he belongs. Trade him.
Willis is becoming a lifetime AAA ballplayer.
What a shame!
PITCHING IS THE NAME OF THE GAME IN 2009! GIT 'ER DONE. GO GIT 'EM TIGERS. MINER TONIGHT! HOPE HE DOESN'T DIG HIMSELF A HOLE EARLY.
Pitching...
will look a lot better with Inge at 3rd, Eckstein (or Santiago) at SS, and Guillen, Granderson, and Joyce in the outfield.
LH vs RH
Maybe this is a stupid question: Should we be concerned at having no LH'ed starters? I've given some thought to that and I've concluded that although having a mix in the rotation would show opposing hitters a different image on successive nights, these guys are professional hitters. Over the long haul of a season, it would appear to me that the RH'ed pitchers would be more effective, especially against teams like Detroit featuring a predominantly RH'ed power hitting line-up. I don't feel the loss of a very hittable Rogers, Robertson and Willis would handicap the team very much at all. Sending a righty out there night after night might be a better idea than overpaying for another ineffective LH'er just to show a different face. Hell, let the Twins dominate our weak RH'ers with their LH'ed power. Hah. I believe the Tiger pitchers developed a bit of arrogance and simply were put in their place this season.....this dose of humility might get some of the boys thinking about improvement in their overall approach?
Question is: Has any team ever trotted out all RH'ed pitchers in their rotation? Does anyone know the answer to that?
Why pay for a FA left-handed pitcher who can't throw through paper?
If ya gotta have lefties, then I suppose Robertson is as good as any other one at his price?
Personally, I'm tired of how ineffective he is. And Willis has been the biggest joke so far. I want to see what Herkimer-Jerk has done to alter his muppet-like pitching. I think he's best at jerking the Tigers around.
Starting Pitching
Of the 75 ML pitchers with at least 150 IP, the 7 lowest VORPs belong to Verlander, Daniel Cabrera, Backe, Rogers, Bannister, Zito, and Robertson.
Ha!
I was just peeking at Rogers' 2008 splits. Man he's had a terrible year. Good starts against SF and KC helped him, too. Hitters love to see him on the mound.
Tiger-dog
Good thoughts on the free agent LHSP's. Now you got me excited. Someone might offer us a PTBNL for Nate. Hopefully Dave doesn't reject it.
Ha!
Just how many arms does Kenny Rogers have? Meant to infer, of course, that most pitchers' arms in September must be feeling a bit fatigued.
typo
When a longtime veteran pitcher can't get a win anymore, blame his troubles on a body part -- even though nothing is probably wrong with Kenny..... or Todd Jones either.
Tigerdog
Just saw that about Kenny's hip, but I agree - his arm has to be somewhat fatigued - all of them have to be somewhat tired at this point, I would think. Don't you think a lot of it (pitching into 'late' age) also has to do with pitching smarts and the mental aspect? Granted, staying fit and healthy has oodles to do with it, but the successful older finesse players just seem to be on top of their game as far as knowing what and how and where and when to throw what pitch to what batter.
All I know is that the PPP mantra lives - Pi$$ Poor Pitching gets a team nowhere.
typo
sore hip
Gayle
Just for the record- Leyland says that Kenny's turn is being skipped because he has a sore him and nothing is wrong with his arm. I still think he's fatigued.
Kenny being able to pitch as effectively as he did in 2006 and at times earlier this year is quite amazing. It's a big risk to give him $ 8 million at his age, especially coming off surgery last year, but pitching is hard to come by. He's still in the top dozen or so free agent pitchers this winter. He's always been a breaking ball pitcher with great location. Santana's best stuff is his slider, like Bonderman, and that puts more strain in his arm, IMO. Frank Tanana is a guy who went from being a flamethrower to being a finesse pitcher after he got injured. Tough to do, but almost necessary for a pitcher to pitch into his forties.
Tigerdog
Thanks for the reply. I did get to see a bit of the 2nd Mets/Phillies game tonight - just to watch Santana. He, despite being a Twinkie for so long, is still one of my favorite pitchers. I heard it said that he consistently throws harder in the 2nd half of the season than he does in the first. In the third inning tonight, Johan faced four batters - struck out two (Utley and Werth), gave up a lone homerun on a single pitch thrown to Ryan Howard, and then struck out the third (Burrell). He threw 116 pitches tonight. He's 29. Let's see what Johan's throwing in 14 more years when he's Rogers' age.
