2006 ALCS - Detroit vs. Oakland

[Valadius]

Tiggers in front 7-4 now.

It is confirmed that there was a moment of silence for Cory Lidle before the game.

[TransMonk]

FOX is taking some liberties with their pitch speed graphics. Miller and Morgan on ESPN radio said last night that FOX's speed was 3-4 MPH more than what the stadium gun was showing. I don't care how young or good Verlander is...I just can't buy that he was repeatedly hitting triple digits after 90+ pitches.

FOX baseball sucks.

[Willets Point]

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Jeez. Jones in the 9th has a 3 run lead, 2 outs, 0 on and 2 strikes on Kendall. He singles, Melhuse walks, Bradley gets a crazy infield single to bring up Big Hurt as the winning run.

But as soon as you can say to yerself, this could be Game 6 all over again, Thomas pops out on a meatball down the chute.

Was rooting for a few A's runs at least, so that Jones comes to us a little damaged.

[Frayed Knot]

Detroit's Sean Casey out for this round and almost certainly the next with what seems to be the injury of the month; a tear in his calf muscle.
Too bad for him and the Tigers ... especially if it means repeated sightings of Neifi Perez.

[Willets Point]

Eh, just a higher pedestal to fall off of.

[MFS62]

="Frayed Knot"] Too bad for him and the Tigers ... especially if it means repeated sightings of Neifi Perez.

As seen on another board. Seems a Tiger fan shares your concern.
Later

] If your real-ball team suffered an injury during the postseason, and you found out that: 1) they didn't have a real backup player for that position on their playoff roster, having to switch another regular player to play out of position; 2) they did include on the roster 3 (count 'em, 3) other players who can reasonably play the position vacated by the regular player now playing out of position; and 3) of the 3 players available (let's call them Omar Infante, Ramon Santiago, and Neifi Fucking Perez) they were going to replace that player playing out of position with Neifi Fucking Perez... How pissed off would you be, on a scale of 1-10? As much as I want to say "In Leyland We Trust," I'm clearly developing a love-hate relationship with him. P.S. Corollary question: Just how bad is Neifi Perez? Count for us the ways...

[Guest Edgy DC]

"real-ball team"?

That's just so sad I might sit at my desk and cry all day.

[Guest cooby]

Double cheezit teeth

[MFS62]

Edgy DC wrote: "real-ball team"?

The page is mainly about strat, and the league in which most of the posters on that page participate. "Real ball" is how they describe the posters' MLB teams as opposed to their strat teams.

Later

[Willets Point]

MFS62 wrote: ="Edgy DC"]"real-ball team"? The page is mainly about strat, and the league in which most of the posters on that page participate. "Real ball" is how they describe the posters' MLB teams as opposed to their strat teams. Later

Edgy has a deep-seeded loathing of fantasy baseball. I think that's why this makes him want to weep.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Geez, 62, how many boards do you read?

[MFS62]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Geez, 62, how many boards do you read?

My wife says too many.

Anyhow, here's the answer to the Neifi Perez question posted by another Tigers' fan.
Enjoy,
Later

]No one really took up the corollary question, but I will: Between the Tigers and Cubs, Neifi Perez somehow blackmailed his managers into 316 plate appearances in 2006. Now, thanks to the miracle that is espn.com sortable stats, I can tell you with confidence that, among all batters with 250 plate appearances or more, Neifi ranked thusly: 5th worst on-base percentage, having a mere one-point advantage at each step on Angel Berroa, Vinny Castilla, and Juan Uribe, but a 35 point advantage over the hideous Tomas Perez. 4th worst walk rate (BB/PA), just points ahead of baseball luminaries such as Shane Costa, Miguel Olivo and the hideous Tomas Perez. But what�s that you say? Those items up above can be made up for with a high batting average, a la Tony Gwynn, Sr.? Well, Neifi Perez is no Tony Gwynn, let me assure you. He�s better than he is in the other categories, having merely the 44th worst batting average, and a full 50 points better than Mark Bellhorn�s, but let�s remember that we�re talking about 267th place out of 310 players with 250 or more PA. Now, last night, the A�s threw Esteban Loaiza on the mound, and Jim Leyland played a hunch in starting the left-handed batting Alexis Gomez over the right-handed batting Marcus Thames at DH, and that worked out pretty well... So, what about Neifi? Despite getting only about 1/3 of his at-bats against lefties, Neifi had well over half of his extra base hits � and both of his home runs � against lefties. Read �em and weep: .265/.275/.408, 683 OPS v L; .232/.252/.271, 523 OPS v R. What about Leyland�s other options? If Loaiza is so weak against lefty batters (and he is � allowing 891 OPS v L, 685 OPS v R), then what about the other switch-hitter on the bench, the admittedly useless Ramon Santiago? Well, in a much smaller sample size (24 AB v L, 56 AB v R), he has batted: .208/.208/.250, 458 OPS v L, .232/.259/.268, 527 OPS v R. And Omar Infante, who admittedly would bat right-handed against Loaiza, who is tough on righties? .286/.333/.414, 748 v L, .273/.321/.416, 737 OPS v R. So, by not starting Infante, we�re just going to give away 200 points of OPS in production out of the shortstop position, although I must admit that we�ve gained 200 points of OPS in production out of 1st base by putting Carlos Guillen there over Sean Casey. On the other hand, we could have gained 100 points of OPS at the 1st base position by putting Chris Shelton in, and kept our advantage by having a great-hitting SS. So, wait, I�ve distracted myself from the task at hand... How bad is Neifi Perez? Well, maybe it was just a bad year for him, eh? Nope... In 2005, when he used photos of Dusty Baker raping babies to garner 572 at-bats (and, naturally, just 18 walks), he finished the season with the 5th-worst OBP among qualifying full-timers, just 8 points ahead of dead-last Adam Everett and Ivan Rodriguez. Of course, included in that was the 4th-worst walk rate, barely ahead of Robinson Cano and Angel Berroa, but comfortably ahead of Ivan Rodriguez�s divorce-induced hideous year. Again, he could have ameliorated this with a good batting average, and he did hit for average that year better than any other since he left Colorado. But that .274 average still ranked him 84th in MLB, out of 148 players qualifying. And in 2004? Well, he managed to steal a little over 400 plate appearances from other more worthy players, and again managed to stink out loud with the bat. Among those with 300 or more plate appearances, Neifi�s .296 OBP found him 24th-worst in MLB, but if you went with just his performance with the Giants (he hit .371 with a .400 OBP after being picked up by the Cubs � the Giants released him), it would have been the 8th-worst. By some miracle, his walk rate was merely 44th-worst. And that batting average, at .255, it was merely 59th-worst, but still, 218th out of 276 is nothing to write home about. Pardon my review of his 2003 numbers, but I�ll go over them quickly, because 2002 deserves special mention. In 2003, the Giants lost their minds and gave Neifi a touch over 350 plate appearances, and among those with 300 or more, he finished: 10th-worst in OBP, 11th-worst in walk rate, and in batting average, he was merely 78th-worst, or 194th out of 271. Now, in 2002, Neifi spent his entire season with the Royals for the first time after a trade-deadline deal the prior year that you just won�t believe: July 25, 2001, Neifi Perez traded by the Colorado Rockies to the Kansas City Royals for Jermaine Dye. Yeah, straight-up. If Allard Baird is wondering why he is sitting home unemployed (well, he�s probably a scout for somebody somewhere, I�d imagine), this is one of the best reasons out there. So, in 2002, the Royals were pretty much forced by the circumstance of what was traded away for him to give Neifi a full season to suck. And suck he did, for nearly 600 plate appearances. In the same year when Barry Bonds was re-writing the record books at the top of the OBP charts, Neifi occupied the bottom... .260. The same could be said for Bonds� other-worldly walk rate of .324 BB/PA, while Neifi finished 5th-worst at .034, with only Alfonso Soriano, Corey Patterson, Cristian Guzman and Randall Simon behind him. And his batting average was 6th-worst, ahead of only Aramis Ramirez, Melvin Mora, Vinny Castilla, Raul Mondesi, and Jeromy Burnitz. So, in sum, then, aside from a brief period of �blind squirrel finding a nut� immediately upon joining the Cubs, Neifi has stunk out loud for 5 straight years. Five. Yet, we keep him and the utterly useless Ramon Santiago on the roster, and leave Chris Shelton to rot on the bench. I�m sorry, but I don�t care how good Neifi�s defense is at shortstop, he ain�t worth it.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Ballgame going on. Kenny Rogers getting it done again so far, holding Oakland to only one hit as they bat in the fifth.

Tigers are up 2-0.

[Zvon]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Ballgame going on. Kenny Rogers getting it done again so far, holding Oakland to only one hit as they bat in the fifth. Tigers are up 2-0.

Rogers--I figured he'd give it his best and all, but-
This is rediculous.

Ill forever see him throwing that 4th ball and marching off the mound at the end of a former Met post season run.

[Valadius]

Piniella again sounds like a ranting drunkard today.

[Zvon]

Zvon wrote: Ill forever see him throwing that 4th ball and marching off the mound at the end of a former Met post season run.

.....he may as well have been carrying a suitcase and walkin to catch a bus, the way he marched off that mound.

But this Tiger post season.
The guys been so intense its sick.

I think I hat him.
(Im debating this with myself)

[Zvon]

Tiggers win!
One more and they go to THE SHOW!

Rogers--unbelieveable.
Never would have bet he could do that once, no less twice.

[Valadius]

It is now ridiculously likely that the Tigers are going to the World Series.

[Frayed Knot]

Kenny Rogers -- Superstar
Are you the same pitcher that we thought you were?



Oakland just used some infielder in a late-inning switch who was making his ML debut. First time ever that an ML debut came in a post-season game.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

="Frayed Knot"]Oakland just used some infielder in a late-inning switch who was making his ML debut. First time ever that an ML debut came in a post-season game.

Huh? How'd that happen?

[Frayed Knot]

I didn't catch the details but he was probably the injury replacement when 2B Mark Ellis broke his finger during the first round of play. Because of the injury, any position player on the team's 40-man can be called up for the new round.
(Say Cliff had been DL'd between rounds. We could then call up Milledge to replace him even if he had never had his in-season call-up)

[Willets Point]

[Willets Point]

It was so cold in Detroit Marcus Scutaro was wearing a knit cap over his baseball cap while on the playing field. Oddly, several other players on both teams were wearing shorts sleeves.

Also, watching Kenny Rogers tonight, I notice he bears a passing resemblance to Edgy.

[Valadius]

Steve Lyons was just fired for "making a racially insensitive comment on the air about Lou Piniella's Hispanic heritage."

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Really?

What did he say?

And Piniella's Hispanic? I always assumed that he was Italian.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

I found the story. It seems like they just could have fired him for morbid banality -

]APNewsBreak: Fox fires Lyons after insensitive comment JANIE McCAULEY Associated Press DETROIT - Fox baseball broadcaster Steve Lyons has been fired for making a racially insensitive comment directed at colleague Lou Piniella's Hispanic heritage on the air during Game 3 of the American League championship series. The network confirmed Saturday that Lyons was dismissed after Friday's comments. He has been replaced for the remainder of the series by Los Angeles Angels announcer Jose Mota. "Steve Lyons has been relieved of his Fox Sports duties for making comments on air that the company found inappropriate," network spokesman Dan Bell said. Lyons had been working in the booth for the ALCS alongside Thom Brennaman and Piniella. A call to Lyons' cell phone was not immediately returned Saturday. In the second inning of Friday's game between Detroit and Oakland, Piniella talked about the success light-hitting A's infielder Marco Scutaro had in the first round of the playoffs. Piniella said that slugger Frank Thomas and Eric Chavez needed to contribute, comparing Scutaro's production to finding a "wallet on Friday" and hoping it happened again the next week. Later, Piniella said the A's needed Thomas to get "en fuego" - hot in Spanish - because he was currently "frio" - or cold. After Brennaman praised Piniella for being bilingual, Lyons spoke up. Lyons said that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" - butchering the conjugation for the word "to speak" - and added, "I still can't find my wallet." "I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit too close to him now," Lyons continued. Fox executives told Lyons after the game he had been fired. Piniella, approached before Saturday's Game 4, declined to comment on the situation except to say: "No, he's not here today." This was not a first-time offense for Lyons, nicknamed "Psycho" during his nine-year big league career as a utilityman that ended in 1993 with the Boston Red Sox. Hired when Fox began broadcasting baseball in 1996, Lyons was suspended without pay in late September 2004 after his remarks about Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Green is Jewish and elected not to play one of the two games at San Francisco that took place during the Yom Kippur holiday. The network apologized for Lyons' remarks at the time. Lyons, 46, was a career .252 hitter with 19 home runs and 196 RBIs for Boston, the Chicago White Sox, Atlanta and Montreal. He was a first-round draft pick by the Red Sox, 19th overall, in 1981. --- AP Baseball Writer Ben Walker contributed to this story.

[Valadius]

You know, I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, even though I was watching the game. If anything, it just sounded dumb when he said it.

[Willets Point]

A's take a 2-0 lead in the first inning of game 4.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Now I want to know what Lyons said about Shawn Green in 2004.