Tag Archives: Tigers

Asshole of the Month: Jered Weaver

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Jered Weaver: You are an asshole.

Valid arguments can be made on each side of the stupidity that happend during Sunday’s Tigers/Angels game, but Jered Weaver gets the Asshole of the Month award for throwing at Detroit catcher, Alex Avila’s head.

Say what you will about the showboating by the Tigers’ Carlos Guillen (and allegedly Magglio Ordonez), but there is simply no excuse for throwing at anyone’s head.  There is no rule, written or unwritten,  that can justify any action that could end someone’s career or even their life.

It’s difficult to know what started the whole brouhaha but it appears Weaver got pissed at Maggs’ marveling over his 2-run bomb in the 3rd.  Perhaps sensing the Cy Young award slipping away to his counterpart on the mound, Justin Verlander, Weaver’s 10¢ brain couldn’t figure out that Ordonez wasn’t sure if the ball was going to be fair or foul immediately as the ball missed the foul pole by mere inches. He was simply following the trajectory of the ball for a moment to confirm it was a home run before putting his head down and trotting around the bases as the “unwritten rulebook” mandates. Later in the game, Weaver jawed at Magglio after a fly out as he passed the mound on his way back to the dugout, presumably about his perceived slight.

Admittedly, Carlos Guillen acted like a clown with his subsequent stare down and waltz around the diamond after his 7th inning solo shot, but Weaver’s overreaction was borderline criminal.  After screaming at Guillen and receiving a warning from home plate umpire, Hunter Wendelstedt, Weaver promptly fired his first pitch directly at Avila’s head.  Luckily, he was able to barely duck under the missile, otherwise, the unthinkable may have happened and I might be writing about a tragedy while Weaver sits in a jail cell.  If he wanted to retaliate, hit him in the backside or—here’s a novel idea—strike the guy out!

Baseball’s “unwritten rulebook” is a very tedious and often childish text authored by thin-skinned players and coaches who can’t handle the slightest assault on their enormous, yet incredibly fragile egos. Justin Verlander was even guilty of referencing it’s stupidity when he stared down the LA’s Erick Aybar after he attempted to break up Verlander’s no-hit bid with a bunt to lead off the 8th.  In a 3-0 game Aybar has every right to do whatever he can to get on base, no matter what historical feat the opposing pitcher is about to achieve.  To quote former NY Jets’ coach, Herman Edwards: “You PLAY to WIN the GAME! HELLO?“ Fortunately, Verlander decided to simply glare at Aybar and not jeopardize the Angels’ next batter’s career and life by hurling a 100 mph projectile at his head to retaliate.

After the game, Angels center fielder, Torii Hunter put it best when he said “I thought that was all stupid. Everybody was stupid.”  I couldn’t agree more, but Weaver’s dangerous, idiotic and disproportionate reaction is what sets him apart to make him the Asshole of the Month. Congrats.

Ballpark Beer Shots

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Beer &  Baseball – is there a better combination in the world? Send us your ballpark beer shots thru Facebook and Twitter and we’ll post them on the blog. Our goal is to get one from every ballpark in the Majors. We’re off to a great start!

Wrigley Field — Rockies @ Cubs 06/27/11 by Peter Ribolzi

Dodger Stadium — Angets @ Dodgers 06/26/11 by Nick Kavalauskas

Coors Field — Tigers @ Rockies 06/18/11 by Ryan Smith

U.S. Cellular Field — Tigers @ White Sox 06/04/11 by Ryah Smith

Yankee Stadium — 09/04/10 Blue Jays @ Yankees by Sean Frangella

BOOM! Thanks Tigers!

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So I shut the Tigers/Twins game off when the Twins stretched their lead to 6-3 last night. I went to bed thinking the Sox would be 4-1/2 games back going into the Red Sox series beginning this evening at Fenway Park. Instead the Tigers represented the grit and toughness of their manager, Jim Leyland, and won 10-9 in extra innings.

What’s even better the Twins were forced to use their starter for tonight’s game against the Texas Rangers, Nick Blackburn, so the Twins have no scheduled starter for this evening.

Thanks Tigers for helping out the Sox last night, now White Sox… carpe diem!

The Peavy Effect

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It took until now but the White Sox are finally feeling the effects on losing Jake Peavy for the year as I’m officially saying that starter, Freddy Garcia, is out of gas. A lot of people probably are thinking that the Sox would not have gotten Edwin Jackson if Peavy was still in the rotation, but don’t be so sure about that. The idea at the trading deadline is to make your team better, and if Peavy did not go down to injury and the Sox had the opportunity to add Jackson to one of the best pitching staffs in baseball then they would have.

Garcia has not pitched that well since Jackson has shown-up, and has even commented that he’s the odd man out going into next season. That’s obvious since Jackson is as good of a pitcher as Garcia was in his prime, if not better. Jackson continues his domination of offenses since coming to the White Sox with 11 strike outs against the Tigers on Saturday. Since arriving Jackson has compiled some pretty impressive stats over a three-game span; 24 strikeouts, three earned runs, only four walks, and a 1.35 ERA over 20-innings pitched. His one blemish would be he has let up 20 hits, but he’s certainly gotten out of whatever jams he’s gotten into.

As Sox fans you can only imagine the rotation in 2010 with Peavy pitching down the stretch, but we’ll have to wait until 2011 to see that rotation. Instead, the Sox now sit three games back of the Twins since J.J. Putz has had one really bad pitch in each of his last two appearances that helped the Tigers win. You can blame Putz, but the lack of offense on Saturday that had many opportunities again, and another poor outing by Garcia put the Sox in a bad position. They did battle back and took a lead, but a poor bullpen outing and bad fielding lead to their demise on Sunday.

Hopefully the White Sox will show-up with clear heads to Target Field on Tuesday evening as they send their top three pitchers against the Twins, and let’s hope the Sox hitters don’t let the Twins’ pitchers off the hook like they did on their last home stand.

A little revenge

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Avila celebrates what would be the game winner.

I’m sure the Tigers wouldn’t mind spoiling the White Sox postseason hopes at all this season, especially since many of players on the 2010 Tigers were part of last years team. The Sox basically took it to the Tigers in the last few weeks of the season aiding in their demise into a one-game playoff against the Twins. UGH… the Twins. The Twins won that and the Tigers went home. I believe a team should compete until the end of the season no matter what their situation (don’t watch the Cubs,) and the top three AL Central teams do just that.

Jim Leyland is a hard-ass and would never settle for a team that just sits back and coasts in any situation, he expects that everyday and the Tigers are a mirror image of that attitude. Last night is a perfect example of how they scraped out a victory from the Sox pushing the Sox two games behind the Twins. Edwin Jackson struck out 11 and newly ordained closer, J.J. Putz struck out three, but not before he let a man on and gave up a go-ahead, two-run shot to Alex Avila. Another blown save for the White Sox bullpen, not good.

I really thought this season it was going to be the White Sox and the Tigers battling for first with the Twins looking in, but that’s not the case, again. Instead, it’s the Twins leading the division looking to win the AL Central, AGAIN! The sad part about that is the White Sox and Tigers are the only AL Central teams to get out of the first round, the Twins get there and choke every year they make the playoff, what a waste.

Welcome Back Mark!

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Beckham and Teahen go yard!

The other night I text my good friend John, “Viciedo has to go. He’s a fastball hitter and he can’t hit a fastball.” John replied, “Teahen will be back soon.” Soon meant Friday night and the Sox may have gotten the left-handed power hitter they wanted without giving Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez, and young arms.

This team was built with Teahen as a starter for the White Sox under the guise that he had the ability to hit 30 home runs since he would have many warm home games at US Cellular Field. Unfortunately Teahen went down with a broken finger before the weather warmed-up in Chicago. He benefited from the steamy weather on Friday night as his return to the Sox included a 2-run homer and a base hit helping the Sox to an 8-4 victory.

The Sox have scored a total of 21 runs in four games on this home stand and those numbers should only increase in the next few days. They also have 35 hits over the four game span with five homers. Not too shabby, but they are only 2-2 at the moment on this home stand and still trail the Twins by a game, as they held on for a 4-3 win last night over Oakland.

The Sox used the Tigers as a springboard to a 25-5 run that began on June 9 and hopefully they will use them again for a similar run. I like our chances in the series with Edwin Jackson going today followed by Tiger tamer, Freddy Garcia, on Sunday.

Two thrashings and a no-no

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The AL Central elite were all in action on Monday night, but while the Twins and White Sox both had double-digit hits and easy wins the Tigers had no hits in a 5 – 0 loss to the Rays. That’s right, the big news of the night is not another dominate performance by John Danks going eight strong innings with one run or Joe Mauer going 5-for-5 with a home run, a double, seven RBI’s and three runs, no it’s Matt Garza becoming the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in Tampa Bay Rays history and it will be in the books against the Tigers!

Not only did Garza throw a no-hitter but he faced the minimum after the Tigers grounded into a double play after a walk. It was the fifth no-hitter of the season and it helped the White Sox take a three game lead over the Tigers in the AL Central. The Sox will only hold on to a one game lead over the Twins as the Twins are currently beating the Royals 19-0 in the bottom of the eight inning.

Danks and the White Sox bested King Felix and the Mariners 6 -1 at US Cellular Field this evening with timely hitting and great pitching. Felix Hernandez did not have his best stuff this evening and the Sox were able to take advantage by scoring four runs including Paul Konerko’s 22nd home run of the season. The score would have been even worse if Ichiro Suzuki had not jumped over the wall to rob Mark Kotsay of his seventh home run of the season. It didn’t matter and the Sox were able to gain some ground on at least one of their main adversaries this evening.

What’s hiding in that ‘stache?

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Nice mustache!

It seemed Carl Pavano’s ball was making some funny movement against the White Sox on Saturday night to the point that maybe there was something a little extra on the ball? The radio crew of Ed Farmer and Darrin Jackson certainly thought so, in fact Farmer, ex-Sox pitcher seemed pretty positive.

“Darrin with the way Pavano’s ball is moving it looks like he’s throwing spit balls out there,” exclaimed Farmer, adding.” if I were Ozzie [Gullien] I would ask the ump to check him.”

Farmer continued to these accusations for the next few innings to the point that I was convinced that Pavano was definitely up to something. It kind of reminder me of the movie Major League, maybe Pavano was putting “snot on the ball.” It’s hard to trust a guy with an 80′s Tom Selleck mustache, but if he is cheating shame on Ozzie for not having him checked.

Which leads me to the next possibility and back to Pavano’s ’stache. What if he had something in the ‘stache, how would the umpire been able to check something like that? How bizarre and uncomfortable would it have been if the umpire was out on the mound asking Pavano to touch his ‘stache? Probably a little too much David Lynch for baseball.

I saw some video replay this morning of Pavano’s pitches and while he did have some unique movement on his ball I’m pretty sure, just like Mike Mussina did a few years ago with the Yankees, he’s figured out how to pitch again with the addition of a knuckle-type change.

The best news is that somehow the White Sox have lost two in a row and have increased their lead over the second place Tigers by one, 1/2 game to 1-1/2 games going into Sundays game. As I’ve been typing this story Jhonny Peralta just hit an inside the park home run for the Indians to take a three nothing lead over the Tigers.

Rivarly Week: The tide has turned

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As Smitty and I were walking into US Cellular Field on Wednesday evening he spoke of having a 3-0 lead going into the Cubs series today, but that’s not how it turned out. The Sox unleashed dominate pitching and hitting on the Tigers smacking them around 15-3 on Wednesday and 3-0 yesterday afternoon. The Sox have outscored the Tigers this season 26-14 and with a series win against the Cubs this weekend the Sox would be righting the ship.

No matter what happens this afternoon at Wrigley Smitty will be having a good laugh, since I’ll be wearing a Cubs jersey and hat because of the Starling Castro meathead comment that I made. I knew when I accepted the bet based on my comment that “Castro would be hitting .250 after his first full week in the Majors,” I was doomed. He only needed to get three hits since he had so few at bats. Oh well, I stick to my word even when it’s done in full meathead mode.

There’s a good opportunity that we’ll be at the game for six hours as Jake Peavy will be facing Randy Wells. Neither has pitched all that well of late, but Wells has been more consistent this season. I’m pretty confident the Sox will be getting their third straight win this afternoon at Wrigley. GO SOX GO!!!!