Tagged: Detroit Tigers
10/2 MLB Tonight – Crucial Weekend Matchups
The thing that interests me tonight is the matchups. We have Royals-Twins, White Sox-Tigers, and Rockies-Dodgers. 2 division titles are still up for grabs.
We’ll start with the Royals-Twins and if the Twins are to have any chance of winning the AL Central they’ll need to sweep the Royals this weekend. The tough part comes tomorrow when they face Zack Greinke. He’ll be looking to make his case for the AL Cy Young Award with a 17th win. Let’s not forget his ERA is only 2.06.
Let’s discuss the White Sox-Tigers next. Jake Peavy goes tonight for Chicago. This may or may not be good for the Tigers. Peavy hasn’t had a lot of work this year, but he threw 7 shutout innings his last time out against Detroit on 9/25. The Tigers are throwing Edwin Jackson. He’s been good all year, but he’s had a tough stretch over his last 7 starts. Detroit will need him to come up big tonight. The Tigers are hoping not to pitch Justin Verlander on Sunday so he can throw game 1 for them against the Yankees.
Rockies-Dodgers is interesting too. It’s amazing that the Rockies still have a shot at the NL West crown. If they sweep this weekend they are division champs. The Dodgers have lost 4 in a row and are looking for a win. They don’t want to lose this division. They want to have some positive momentum heading into the postseason.
Finally, there are a couple of postseason pitchers going for 20 wins tonight. The Cardinals Adam Wainwright and the Yankees CC Sabathia both have a shot at it. 20 wins is the magic number for a pitcher. We’ll have to see what happens.
Watch MLB Tonight beginning at 6.-Tony Clark
9/30 MLB Tonight – Twins-Tigers Preview
One of our main storylines this evening will be game 3 of the Twins-Tigers series. It’s a must win for Minnesota tonight and they have the right guy on the mound.
The Twins brought in Carl Pavano for this game. He’s 4-0 against the Tigers this season and if you look at the pitching matchups the next 2 nights they favor Minnesota. It’s Pavano vs. Bonine tonight and Baker vs. Robertson tomorrow night. There’s a good chance the AL Central will be tied heading into Friday night. I honestly think that this race will come down to the final day and may even need an extra day.
Another thing we’re going to discuss is this year’s possible award winners. I like Joe Mauer for the AL MVP and Albert Pujols for the NL MVP. I still haven’t decided on the AL Cy Young award winner. I want to see how Zack Greinke and Felix Hernandez do in their last start. The NL Cy Young race will be close too, but right now I’m leaning towards Adam Wainwright. As far as my Rookie of the Year choices you’ll have to tune in tonight at 6 to find out. There are a lot of good ones to choose from.
Don’t forget we’re on an hour early tonight with Path to the Pennant at 5 followed by MLB Tonight at 6.-Dave Valle
9/29 MLB Tonight – Musings of a Play by Play Guy
So I’m sitting here watching the 1990 World Series highlights on MLB Network as my Oakland A’s eventually get swept by the Cincinnati Reds. There’s no way that should have happened, which brings me to the point of today’s blog. It’s not always the best team that wins it’s the hottest and you have to be in it to win it.
Let’s start with the Atlanta Braves who heading into tonight have won 15 of their last 17 and are only 2 games back of the NL Wild Card. On September 12th they were 6.5 games behind the Rockies. This is an interesting spot for Colorado as just 2 years ago they were the hunter and now they are the hunted. They won 14 of their last 15 games to make the playoffs and went onto to win 21 of 22 overall and now the Braves are trying to do the same. I think the announcement of Bobby Cox retiring after next season has made this even more interesting for the Braves. We’ll see this week if they can pull this off and make the postseason.
The other great race is in the AL Central and the Twins pulled to within a game of the Tigers after their 3-2 win in 10 innings today. They’ll try and draw even with them tonight in game 2 of their DH that can be seen on MLB Network. The Twins are another hot team as they have now won 12 of their last 14 as they are trying to chase down the Tigers. As we saw with the Angels in 2002 and then the Marlins the following year it’s not always the team that was good all year that wins it all. Sometimes it’s the team that got hot at the right time. The key of course is to get in.
It’s going to be a fun week as we have 2 races coming down to the wire. It all starts tonight with Path to the Pennant at 5, the MLB Tonight at 6, and the Twins and Tigers at 7.-Matt Vasgersian
9/28 Path to the Pennant Debut
We’re debuting a new show today called “Path to Pennant.” It will air all this week from 5-6 as a lead-in to MLB Tonight. This is where our network is different from everyone else. We can bring you baseball in a variety of ways.
We’re going to begin the show tonight discussing the 10 teams that have a shot at the winning the World Series. I know there are only 8 playoff spots, but the Braves and Twins still have a great shot at making it with one week to go. Atlanta is 2.5 back in the NL Wild Card race and Minnesota is only 2 back in the AL Central and they begin a 4-game set in Detroit tonight. We are carrying this game on MLB Network.
The Twins-Tigers series is going to be fun to watch this week. We’ll be breaking it down from every angle. Tonight Harold Reynolds will be talking about Nick Blackburn, Tom Verducci will discuss Rick Porcello and our John Hart will break down the pitching matchups in all 4 games.
The other big topic tonight will be on the Yankees and Cardinals since they both clinched their divisions over the weekend. Harold’s going to break down the seasons of Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, and Johnny Damon and how they’ve benefited from the short porch in right field at the new Yankee Stadium. He’s also going to look at facing the Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright back to back and whether that’s good or bad.
Make sure you tune in to all of it tonight. Path to the Pennant at 5, MLB Tonight at 6, Twins-Tigers at 7 and then MLB Tonight after the game.-Greg Amsinger
9/24 MLB Tonight – Hart of the Matter
We’re coming on after the World Cup game between USA and Cuba so make sure you tune it a little earlier tonight.
We’ll begin with the Cardinals who can clinch a playoff spot with a loss by the Cubs this evening. It’s amazing the job Tony LaRussa has done. At the beginning of the year he didn’t know what to expect from Chris Carpenter and he didn’t have a closer. Carpenter is back to being his ace and Ryan Franklin has stepped up to be his closer. Also, remember he didn’t have anyone to protect Pujols to start the season, but he had his team in good shape until they got Matt Holliday and we all know how that trade has worked out. Let’s not also forget the moves to bring in DeRosa, Lugo, and Smoltz. The Cardinals know how to stay in the race year in and year out and a lot of the credit has to go to their manager.
Another team that’s interesting is the Twins. This is a team that is always in the mix year in and year out and they have to do it with a low payroll. They lose players like Johan Santana and Torii Hunter, but can replace them with a Joe Mauer and Justin Morneuau. Even with Morneau out for the season they are right there with the Tigers with players like Michael Cuddyer stepping up. Their race with the Tigers down the stretch will be fun to watch.
Speaking of the Tigers they are playing in our Thursday night game tonight against the Indians. They have had a great turnaround from a year ago with letting players go like Gary Sheffield and Edgar Renteria and allowing young players to flourish like Rick Porcello. With Justin Verlander, Edwin Jackson, and Porcello at the top of that rotation the Tigers could be a tough out in the playoffs.-John Hart
9/21 MLB Tonight Pre-Show Meeting
We’re coming on a little early tonight due to the firing of Astros manager Cecil Cooper. I’m a little surprised by this one. Houston is 16.5 games out with 2 weeks to go. Sometimes I understand these moves late in the season, but not this one. Last year, the Brewers fired Ned Yost with 2 weeks to go in the season, but they were still alive in the playoff hunt and this move worked as they won the wild card. We’ll learn over the course of the night if he completely lost the clubhouse.
We’ll also discuss Milton Bradley tonight. The question here is what were the Cubs thinking? Everyone saw disaster coming here except the Cubs and now they’re on the hook with him for another 2 years. Bradley was advised to take the money when he could have stayed in Texas for a little less and with much less scrutiny and a better fit on the field.
I was in San Francisco last week calling the Giants-Rockies game and I got to see Barry Zito pitch like he did back in 2002 with the A’s. His curveball was nasty. Our Dan Plesac is going to breakdown his 2nd half resurgance.
Finally, the last piece of Tiger Stadium will be down by October 1st. I’ve loved this place. The broadcast booth was unique is that it was so close to the field. You had a good chance to get hit by a foul ball if you didn’t use the netting, which we didn’t do one time when I was with the Brewers. My partner Bill Schroeder took it right in the chest. If I were sitting where he was sitting I would have taken it right in the face.
I can’t believe USC lost to Washington on Saturday. Their annual upset by a Pac-10 team on the road happened much earlier this season. -Matt Vasgersian
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