Aroldis Chapman is Jacked

Aroldis Chapman is best known for throwing baseballs very very fast. Over the last couple of seasons he has thrown baseballs less fast, but still heaves the spheroid at a ridiculous pace. He also just stands there and smiles at nothingness when Jose Altuve hits a premeditated dinger off of him to win the American League Pennant. But, rest assured, this season, you only make Aroldis Chapman look foolish at your own peril.

Weaver Loses Temper, Verlander Loses No-Hitter

Sunday's Angels-Tigers game lived up to its hype. Billed as a pitchers duel between two of the AL's best, it fell just shy of pistols from becoming an actual duel. Both Jered Weaver and Justin Verlander entered the day with a 5.1 fWAR, good for second in the American League. Weaver and Verlander were also in the top four in ERA, FIP and WPA. But those will all be topics for a future post, this is about one day game and what happened close to the chalk lines.

The excitement started in the bottom of the third inning. After Weaver managed to somehow put Don Kelly on base with a walk, Magglio Ordonez hit a hanging change-up 388 feet. Ordonez watched the ball stay fair for the two-run home run. Weaver took exception to the time it took Ordonez to leave the batter's box and shot him a combo stink/evil eye as he rounded the bases. Weaver shook it off and retired the next 12 Tigers he faced.

Fast forwarding to the bottom of the seventh inning, Weaver surrendered a solo home run to Carlos Guillen. Guillen, unlike Ordonez earlier, deliberately showed up the Angels ace by watching the homer, flipping his bat and turning toward Weaver during a sideways trot to first. Home Plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt went to the mound in an attempt to cool off the visibly upset Weaver and issued warnings to both benches. Cooler heads would prevail until Weaver's very next pitch.


Weaver threw over Mike Avila's head and began walking off the mound and yelling at Guillen in the dugout before Wendelstedt could make the ejection motion. I certainly don't condone a pitcher throwing at another player's head and I'm afraid a suspension is looming. Personally I choose to believe that pitch got away from Weaver and wasn't meant for Avila's head. I don't cheer for retaliation.


Oh, right.

In the meantime, Verlander was just tossing another no-hitter through seven innings. Still 3-0, Erick Aybar led of the eighth inning with a "violation of the unwritten rules of no-hitter decency" bunt. Verlander fielded it, threw it away and got the benefit of some home cooking from the scorer. Ruled an error, Verlander kept his no-hitter in tact. Mark Trumbo grounded Aybar to third and then Aybar would score on a bizarre fielder's choice/rundown between third and home. Howie Kendrick struck out before Maicer Izturis broke up the no-hitter with a liner into left field.

Verlander had some choice words for Aybar which seemed to indicate a fastball has Ayabar's name on it next time around. Jose Valverde closed the game to give the Tigers a 3-2 win. Now for some post game quotes courtesy of ESPN.com...

"I had a lot of respect for those guys, but then they stand at the plate and do something like that," Weaver said. "I'm not going to try to hit someone, but what Guillen did crossed the line."

See? Told you guys he wasn't trying to hit Avila.

"I don't hit many homers anymore, and I wanted to make sure that it stayed fair," Ordonez said. "After that, he was yelling at me to run faster, and I told him that I'm old -- that's as fast as I run.

"I'm not going to show anyone up. That's not me."

Funny and true.

"Magglio has 14 years in the major leagues," said Guillen, one of Ordonez's closest friends. "You don't tell him to run. I respect people when they respect us. If you don't respect us, you don't get it."

Guillen defending respect with one asshole action after another.

"I know it was only 3-0, so I can understand there are arguments on both sides. But as a pitcher, we call that bush league," he (Verlander) said. "I think he was trying to get his team back into the game, but I also think it was a response to things that had happened before."

Blame that respectmonger Guillen.

"That's my game -- I don't have power," he (Aybar) said. "(Verlander) told me he'd get me next year, and I said that was OK."

While true, Aybar has more home runs this season than Ordonez and Guillen combined. It was a little dick-ish. Awesome. And a little dick-ish.

And then Torii Hunter summed it all up.

"That was stupid -- it was all stupid. Everybody was stupid," he said. "That was unprofessional on both sides."

Maybe. Or best game of the season.

Miggy Cabrera Has A Drinking Problem, Man

Miguel Cabrera drank his way into the news again after getting arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of driving under the influence. The news is especially disconcerting considering Cabrera admitted to having a drinking problem just last season and had been undergoing counseling. It didn't seem to take though as Cabrera was taken into custody in spectacular fashion...

According to police report, a deputy spotted a car Cabrera was driving, smoking on the side of Okeechobee Road in Ft. Pierce, about 100 miles southeast of spring training in Lakeland. Cabrera had an odor of alcohol coming from his breath and his eyes were bloodshot and watery and his speech heavily slurred, according to the report.

In an arrest affidavit, deputies said Cabrera repeated “Do you know who I am, you don’t know anything about my problems.” Cabrera then picked up a bottle of James Buchanan’s Scotch whiskey and started drinking, according to the report.

That was followed by some resisting arrest and several police kicks to the thigh. Jeez man, pulling the "do you know who I am?" line and swigging scotch out of a bottle seems like it's straight out of a Will Farrell movie. And what exactly are his problems (aside from booze)? Is it still too cold to go swimming in that pool of cash? That's why you should always build your cash pool indoors.

Athletes getting DUIs is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I understand the desire to go out and have some (blindingly too many) drinks. But damn, these guys are making a good living and can afford to call an effing cab. I'm even willing to go get hammered with you and be your personal cab caller. You just have to pay for my drinks (I assume it's bottle service anyway) and let me live in your guest house.

I'm not making light of Cabrera's drinking problem because it does sound serious. At just 27-years-old, Cabrera already has 247 home runs, a .313/.388/.552 line and 37.3 WAR. He's on the path to derail a Hall of Fame career. Admittedly, I'm a big fan of the hooch. But it only hurts my performance if I write a dick joke that doesn't make any sense the next morning. I hope Cabrera gets the help he needs for his own sake, the Tigers sake and potentially the sake of my fantasy baseball team.

His mug shot is a better picture than every one I've ever had on a drivers license.

V-Mart Rides In Style

Victor Martinez was the lucky recipient of a large 4-year, $50 million contract from the Tigers this offseason and it looks like he treated himself to a nice automobile. But Martinez didn't exactly give back to the Detroit economy by buying a Ford Mustang. Instead, he reached out to Zee Germans and laid out somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter mil for a Rolls-Royce Ghost.

All of a sudden my 1999 Honda CRV doesn't seem that impressive. It is blue. Does that do anything for you, ladies? The 32-year-old "catcher" was coming off of a 20 home run, .302/.351/.493 season with the Red Sox before signing with Detroit where he will "catch" and DH.

You might be wondering why I wrote this post. I'll let you inside of my award winning (by my mom) journalism thought process. Sometimes I'll write an entire post based around one sentence or quote. In this case, Tom Gage of the Detroit Press did all of the heavy lifting for me...

Just for fun, let's ask the next Tiger who walks past it his opinion of it.

"Awesome," said pitcher Robbie Weinhardt, "My signing bonus ($15,000) probably pays for nothing on that car. Maybe the air freshener."

And this, dear readers, is why I'm making nickels hand over fist.

We'll Always Have June 2nd, Armando

On June 2, 2010, Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce became famous. It was probably the seventh post I had written here when Joyce famously blew a call preventing Galarraga from a perfect game. For Galarraga, it appears it was all down hill from there. He was very forgiving of Joyce and took the blown call like a champ. Soon after, he was sent down for a minor league stint and finished the season with a 4.49 ERA and a 5.09 FIP (fielding independent pitching) in 144.1 innings.

2011 is has started out just as turbulent for the freshly turned 29-year-old Tiger pitcher. From MLB Trade Rumors...

One day after agreeing to terms with him on a $2.3MM contract for 2011, the Tigers have designated Armando Galarraga for assignment. The team announced the move on Twitter, while making its deal with Brad Penny official.

Galarraga's contract is non-guaranteed, though the Tigers would owe him termination pay if they were to release him.

That's a pretty severe two-day rollercoaster of emotion. I hope Galarraga didn't spend that money opening a Five Guys franchise in Detroit yesterday.

Galarraga is a fringy starter anyway posting career bests in 2008 with 178.2 innings and a 3.73 ERA. But you still have to feel for the guy. He might have millions of dollars snatched away from him in just a day or, even worse, get sent to Toledo.

Joel Zumaya Might Be Looking For A New Career

The occasionally healthy, rocket-armed Joel Zumaya appears to be growing weary of all of his disabled list stints. The Tiger's 26-year-old reliever hasn't thrown over 40 innings since he tossed 83.1 in his rookie season in 2006. The amount of rehab Zumaya has worked through over the past couple of years rivals only that of Lindsey Lohan. And she ain't looking that great at 24-years-old. Well, Zumaya might be done with baseball if he suffers another injury...

"If I get hurt again," Zumaya told mlb.com, "I'm basically going to be done with baseball. I'm going to have to find another job. This is going to be my make-it-or-break-it year." Zumaya, who is coming off surgery for a broken bone in his right elbow, is expected to be offered a contract by the Tigers by Thursday's deadline.

Not all relief pitchers can bow out gracefully at 40-years-old and fall into an admirable career of turning vodka into urine like Kent Mercker. I'd like to help Joel out with some post baseball professions he should avoid after he sustains his next injury falling down a flight of stairs carrying deer meat. Pay close attention Joel, I'm here to help...

1. Professional Guitar Hero Player
Whilst Joel should already be aware of this one, it's worth noting. Zumaya was held out of the 2006 ALCS after his crazy 1.94 ERA, 10.48 K/9 ratio rookie season. The injury? Eric Clapton's work on Cream's Crossroads proved to be too stressful for Zumaya's right wrist. Zumaya fell victim to the one documented case of Guitar Hero-itis.

Alternative: Can you make money playing Angry Birds?

2. Two Men And A Truck Mover
Zumaya suffered another setback in 2007 when he injured his shoulder while moving some boxes out of his dad's attic. I don't remember this story but if Wikipedia says it's only lacking a citation, it's gotta be true. Also true, Scarlett Johansson is leaving Ryan Reynolds for me.[citation needed]

Alternative: Gift wrapping purchases at Macy's for the holidays. It's timely, provided his wrist can hold up with all of the bow tying.

3. Professional Beard Grower
I assume this is a real profession because I don't know what else ZZ Top is famous for. Unfortunately, Billy Mays willed his insane black beard to Brian Wilson and Zumaya can't even sport the blackest beard of an MLB reliever.

Alternative: Grow a curlier mustache than Rollie Fingers could ever imagine. Join a circus and learn to juggle.

The honorable mentions for careers to avoid: skee ball tournaments, kite flying championships, the Whack-A-Mole 5000, extreme knitting, midget juggling, giraffe wrangling, double dutch rope swinger.

Hope that helps, Joel. But if you do become an extreme knitter, I'll expect the usual 34% finders fee. It's a cutthroat industry.

BBA AL Willie Mays Award Ballot

Baseball's award season is upon us and we finally have a vote that counts for something this year. We're proud members of the Baseball Blogger Alliance and they've been kind enough to give us ballots. The only thing the BBWAA ever gave us was a stick of bubble gum from a pack of 1952 Topps baseball cards. It was stale. Today we'll be unveiling our AL Willie Mays ballot for rookie of the year.

1. Austin Jackson
The 2010 AL rookie class pales in comparison to that of the senior circuit. The Tigers' center fielder gets my top spot even though a ridiculous .396 BABIP inflated his stats. He hit .293/.345/.400 for the season while playing a respectable center field (4.2 UZR) good for 3.6 WAR. The BABIP can't be sustainable so the batting average and on base percentage will certainly take a dip in the future but he looks like an everyday center fielder. Which is a lot more than I can say about the rest of the Tigers' lineup aside from Miggy Carbrera.

2. Brian Matusz
Baltimore's rookie left hander pitched well down the stretch and looks like a future front of the rotation starter. He finished the season with a respectable 4.30/4.05/4.51 line (ERA/FIP/xFIP) considering he pitches in baseball's toughest division and is just 23-years-old. The 175.2 innings he pitched was good enough for a 2.7 WAR and will probably anchor a promising young Orioles rotation. But Baltimore players continue to disappoint me, I'm looking at you Adam Jones.

3. Danny Valencia
I imagine that most ballots will include Rangers' closer Neftali Feliz and his saves record for rookies. Danny Valencia probably played over his head at third base for the Twins but he had a big impact with his 322 plate appearances. Valencia hit .311/.351/.448 with 7 home runs. Hey look, his OBP matched his wOBA at .351! What, I like wOBA. The .345 BABIP is wildly lucky but his numbers will most likely come down a little over a full season. Plus his 2.6 WAR trumps that of a relief pitcher (Feliz's 1.8).

Austin Jackson's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Austin Jackson is having a much better season than most people expected out of him and he's probably your 2010 AL Rookie of the Year. While his strikeout (149) to walk (43) ratio is fantastic for all the wrong reasons, this is actually Jackson's first Golden Sombrero of the season. The Yankees fliped the young outfielder to the Tigers for Curtis Granderson's inability to hit lefties and the Tigers are winning the trade this year. Jackson is hitting .303/.359/.411 while being dirt cheap and UZR seems to think he at least plays a capable center field. His production should tumble some next season as his .415 BABIP isn't sustainable. Granderson, meanwhile, couldn't hit your mom if you could get her off the couch and teach her to throw lefty.

But on Thursday, Jackson didn't have much to offer at the plate going 0-4 with a walk and four strikeouts. So before we all go patting the Tigers on the back, let's take a look at how the rookie padded his strikeout totals...

Bottom 2nd: Jackson struck out swinging against Gavin Floyd. He did draw a lead-off walk in the 1st inning so I'm willing to cut him a little slack on this one.

Bottom 4th: Jackson struck out swinging against Floyd. He saw 5 pitches and they were all strikes. He used all of his patience on that 1st inning walk.

Bottom 6th: Jackson struck out looking against Gavin. I stand corrected. He took 3 balls before watching strike 3.

Bottom 8th: Jackson struck out swinging against Sergio Santos.

In comparison, Granderson: DNP.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Last night's shot of the night was a Tiger Jack: 1/2 shot grenadine syrup, 2 shots Jack Daniel's® Tennessee whiskey, 1 shot triple sec, orange juice. Apparently, SotN's posting time is directly related to where I find my keys in the morning. Yesterday I posted this segment at 5-ish and my keys were in the bathroom. Today, we're up and at 'em before noon and my keys were merely on my bedroom floor by the door. If I ever miss a SotN, feel free to assume my keys were on the roof and I was in the hospital. Where were we? Oh yeah, the shot of the night was in honor of Miguel Cabrera.

Miggy went 3-6 with 2 homers and 3 RBI while the Tigers took an 8-6 loss to the Rangers in 14 innings. If I was a betting man (and I am, I think I bet on a Saved By The Bell movie being made last night, original cast), Miguel Cabrera would be my choice for 40+ home runs this season. In fact, Miggy might have a real shot at the Triple Crown which Derwood pointed out earlier. Cabrera now has 24 home runs and 82 RBI to go along with a .340/.418/.645 slash line. The scary part is that Cabrera is just 27-years-old and probably just reaching his peak years.

Honorable Mention: Albert Pujols
For a point of reference, let's take a look at Albert Pujols. Widely believed to be the best hitter in baseball, Pujols went 2-4 with a homer and 3 RBI last night. Pujols has 22 home runs and 67 RBI to go with a .310/.413/.578 slash line. Miguel Cabrera (3.8 WAR) is basically a younger Pujols (3.6 WAR) right now.

A War Of Words

Sometimes baseball players don't like each other. Sometimes they attack each other through the media. Other times, Pedro Martinez shoves an old bench coach to the ground. This is one of those former times. Miguel Montero used to catch for Jose Valverde in 2007 and that was a long time ago. After Valverde struck out Montero Friday night, he did a leap of joy off of the mound. That sparked these words from Montero...

"He's a (bleeping) (bleep)," Montero told the Arizona Republic. "The way he acts, it's not right, you know"[Ed. - Pretty sure they were supposed to go question mark there, but what do I know"] You've got to be professional. I've always felt that way. And I've always told him. That's the way he is. I guess he thinks it's right. But I don't care."

It didn't take long for Valverde, ever the gentleman, to retort...

“Tell Montero he’s a freaking rookie and I can do whatever I want to,” Valverde said Sunday morning. “Tell him that. Put it in the papers. If he wants to do something, tell him to come to my locker and let me know.

“I never liked Montero,” he continued. “He’s a (bleeping) piece of (bleep).

“Tell Montero he has two years (in the majors) and I have eight.”

Those are some pretty bold words, sir. I'm also pretty sure Bud Selig disagrees with your opinion that you can do whatever you want. Go try to post some MLB clips on YouTube and see how far you get. And does Jose know what rookie means? This is Montero's fourth year in the majors or third full season. Let's see if Montero is any better with math...

“It doesn’t matter if he’s got eight years,” Montero said. “I don’t think he’s got eight years because he got sent down seven or eight times. That really doesn’t count. When you get sent down your major league service stops counting. He got called up in ’02 and he got sent down in ’02 and ’03 and ’04 and ’05 and ’06. I guess this year he was a free agent so that let me know he got six years. In four out of six years he’s given up 100 runs a year. He’s only had two good years in his career. So what? He’s still a (bleep) to me.”

I think someone spent a little time on Baseball-Reference before making that statement. Or Jose might want to look into a restraining order. I'm just sayin. Surely this wouldn't have been a problem if the Diamonbacks had signed him this offseason, right Miguel?

“I wouldn’t mind having him on my team, I’d just keep telling him he’s dumb,” Montero said.

Oh, you can work around that. I tell Derwood that almost on a daily basis.

Strasburg Back In World Dominant Form

If you really want to nitpick, Strasburg's last start in Cleveland was less than stellar. He walked five (5) batters, people! He still struck out 7 and gave up only one earned in 5.1 innings. His return to the friendly confines of Nationals Park would go much better than his Cleveland trip. Even President Obama made it out to watch him pitch because, you know, there's not too much going on right now.

When I previewed this game earlier, I was pretty stunned to learn the White Sox had struck out the fewest times as a team in MLB. But strange things happen when a 21-year-old kid takes the mound and throws a 100 MPH fastball and a 91 MPH change up. Strasburg gave up a swinging bunt, infield single to Juan Pierre and a bloop single to Omar Vizquel to open the game. Then he retired 15 straight while striking out 9. He didn't get a decision but a 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K stat line is pretty solid world domination. Let's take a look at those K's in tonight's strikeout rewind.

Top 1st:
Strasburg struck out Paul Konerko swinging. Get used to the word "swinging." You might see it a couple more times.

Strasburg struck out Carlos Quentin swinging. See, I wasn't kidding.

Top 2nd:
Strasburg struck out Gordon Beckham swinging. Tonight won't be the night Beckham breaks out of his slump.

Top 3rd:
Strasburg struck out Gavin Floyd looking. The reason Floyd struck out looking is because he was about 5 feet away from the plate. If he did swing, the ump didn't see it.

Strasburg struck out Juan Pierre swinging. 3 pitches.

Top 4th:
Strasburg struck out Alex Rios swinging. 3 pitches.

Strasburg struck out Quentin swinging again.

Top 5th:
Strasburg struck out Alexie Ramirez swinging. Who didn't see that coming?

Strasburg struck out Beckham swinging again.

Top 6th:
No strikeouts this inning but I thought it was funny that Gavin Floyd would be the one to break up Strasburg's streak of 15 straight retired batters. An AL pitcher, sure, why not?

Top 7th:
Strasburg struck out Ramirez swinging again. 3 pitches.

Strasburg threw an efficient 85 pitches, 59 for strikes, over 7 innings. He also now owns the record for most strikeouts (32) for a pitcher in his first 3 games. Let's recap.

Strasburg's first 3 starts: 19.1 IP, 2-0, 1.86 ERA, 32 strikeouts, 5 walks.

For comparison, Mark Prior's first 3 starts: 15.2 IP, 1-2, 5.74 ERA, 22 strikeouts, 7 walks.

How about another one? Dwight Gooden's first 3 starts: 13.1 IP, 1-1, 4.73 ERA, 16 strikeouts, 9 walks.

This next one is pretty crazy, ready? Nineteen-year-old Felix Hernandez's first 3 starts: 21 IP, 2-1, 0.86 ERA, 21 strikeouts, 3 walks. Yikes.

I could do this all night. Damn you, Baseball-Reference. My point, I think, is that we're entering into one of those special breakout seasons that only come along every so often. So take off work on days that Strasburg pitches (I suggest calling in with the plague, do you know how contagious that is?). If he's coming to your city, get your tickets now. But most importantly, read all of my Strasburg posts.