Ok, it's already game 3 of 3 for the series, but there's some stuff we could rehash and other stuff we could discuss.

As for rehash - Todd Jones sucks.
Our offense is capable of going nuts at any time.

This leads me to tonight's game. Apparently a 15-1 thrashing one night means we feel good enough to sit Sheffield and Polanco the next night. When I saw that Monroe was batting second and Thames third, I crapped myself a little. Interesting lineup. Not sure that's how I would have done it. I think I would have put Pudge in one of those spots instead. We lead 1-0 through 2, and Bonderman is looking good, so who knows.

Ok, here's the good news. Infante just fouled off 8 pitches with the bases loaded and no outs before hitting a single on the 12th pitch. Bonderman was up next and they pinch hit Sheffield for him.

Now for the bad news. Sheff popped out to third and now we'll have to rely on our bullpen for the next 4 innings with what is currently a 2 run lead.

8-3 lead.

More good news. Granderson and Monroe helped by adding 3 more runs making it a 5 run lead.

More bad news. It's Grilli that's replacing Bonderman.

Has Mags made an out once this season? I'm having trouble thinking of an at bat where he didn't make it on base...

Has Mags made an out once this season? I'm having trouble thinking of an at bat where he didn't make it on base...

He's up to .383 now. Insane. You have to wonder when/if he's going to slow down. I believe he's 30 for 61 in the month of June.

Holy crap! TJ with a 9 pitch 1-2-3 9th inning! So THAT'S what it feels like to have a 4 run lead hold up.

Nice sweep fellas. Someone find the graphic.

http://wtfdetroit.com/miscpics/tigerssweep.jpg

There seriously need to be a 'Lloyd McClendon(sp?) Appreciation Thread'. The turnaround our support players have made has been amazing. Every time a player steps up to the plate I don't think at bats are being wasted as much anymore, especially with two strikes. Even Neifi looks good from time to time. And props for teaching some of the pullers to at least attempt to go the other way.

Lloyd for MVP!

You know what Lloyd's philosophy is (per Mario and Rod)?

Swing the bat, don't think about mechanics.

Must have an easy job.

I love this team!

Any chance Lloyd could figure out Chris Shelton? By the way, call me greedy, but why can't he get Craig Monroe over the hump? .238 is just not good. Yeah, when Craig hits the ball it's big, but let's try to hit it more often. He and Inge both have more strikeouts than hits. That's not going to cut it.

Craig's just waiting til the second half of the season as usual, but he's been pissing me off as of late.

Craig hitting better in the 2nd half of the season is a bit of a misnomer.

True, April has been his worst month (2004-2006 stats here) at .253.
May is bad as well at .262.
But then June, July and August are "strong" by his standards at .288, .318, and .284 respectively.
But then in September and October he's .256 and .211.
Yes, he's at .282 after the All-Star break and .267 before, so there is a difference, but that's basically because more of July is after the break than before. He's really only "hot" during the middle of summer.
But so far this season it's been really bad. April was worse than normal at .193. May was actually good at .280, but then he's going backward with a .237 average in June so far. So much for heating up. People have talked about Hank Blalock getting worse, well check out Craig.
His batting average by season -
2003: .240
2004: .293
2005: .277
2006: .255
2007: .238
Yes, he took an impressive jump from 2003-2004, but has gotten worse every year since by close to .20 points. His power numbers have improved, which leads me to think he's too focussed on the big hit. With this offense he and Inge would be so much more productive if they just got the base hits and occasionally knocked one out. If they were doing that and hitting what they're capable of (.293 for Monroe, .287 for Inge - used those and multiplied them by their respective number of AB so far this season) that would have led to a combined 20 more hits. Could you imagine if they had been on base 20 more times when the top of the order came back around? Maybe it would mean their combined 20 HR was only 12 HR, but I think the team would have ultimately scored more runs.

Well, July-August anyway :P

I like Craig, but I'd be happy to package him with Maroth and a prospect for something better.

I like Craig, but I'd be happy to package him with Maroth and a prospect for something better.

If we were able to do such a thing for a guy like Gagne, I'd platoon Marcus and Sheff in left while also platooning Marcus at the 1B. He deserves some time, I think. If it nets us a no doubt closer, why not.