RINGOLSBY: Tigers' plight quite believable

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Jim Rogash / Getty Images

Miguel Cabrera was a good offseason addition for Detroit, but the Tigers tripped out of the gates to start the season.

Chalk up Detroit as the least surprising of the early-season surprises.

Sure, with the Tigers' lineup, it's difficult to believe they lost their first seven games. But talk about the Tigers winning a championship seems a bit far-fetched this year, even with their high-priced payroll and fancy lineup.

For all the money general manager Dave Dombrowski has been allowed to spend, the question that hangs over the team is why it didn't make more of an offseason effort to address major needs on the pitching staff.

This is a team that opened the season with Denny Bautista, the man who gets managers fired and keeps scouts employed, as the eighth-inning setup man.

This is a team that was willing to cross its fingers that Dontrelle Willis suddenly would move from the National League to a more hitter-deep American League and find happiness, even though scouts have been concerned since the start of last season the 200-plus-inning seasons at a young age have taken a toll on his arm.

It's great to add third baseman Miguel Cabrera and then get ownership to step up and hand him a seven-year, $141 million deal. He is a definite upgrade over Brandon Inge. Inge, however, is a solid third baseman, and considering he already is signed for two years, the question is why the Tigers didn't put their resources into reinforcing their pitching staff.

On the field, they lost seven of their first eight games and were on the verge of challenging history: No team has opened a season 1-9 and made it to the postseason. Nine teams have rebounded from a 2-8 start to reach the postseason - the 1914 Boston Braves, 1935 Detroit Tigers, 1951 New York Giants, 1974 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1977 New York Yankees, 1991 Minnesota Twins, 1995 Cincinnati Reds, 2001 Oakland Athletics and 2007 Philadelphia Phillies.

Rays injury riddled

Tampa Bay is facing a painful reality. After a spring spent believing they could be at least on the edges of the AL East race, the Rays were broadsided with injuries. Not only do they have eight players on the disabled list - that's one behind major league-leading St. Louis - but the injured include their No. 1 starter (Scott Kazmir), No. 3 starter (Matt Garza), starting catcher (Dioner Navarro), starting designated hitter (Cliff Floyd) and starting right fielder (Rocco Baldelli).

Of St. Louis' nine players on the DL, four are possible rotation members - Mark Mulder, Chris Carpenter, Matt Clement and Joel Pineiro.

The Marlins and Mets have eight players on the disabled list, but they're not of the same magnitude. Sergio Mitre would have been in the Marlins' rotation, and the Mets are missing starting pitchers Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez and left fielder Moises Alou. An argument can be made the Mets are better off with Mike Pelfry and Hernandez, anyway.

Infield chatter

* Left-hander Francisco Liriano, recovering from elbow surgery he had in November 2006, is going to make at least one more minor league start before he is called up by Minnesota. In his first two starts - one for High-A Fort Myers (Fla.) and one for Triple-A Rochester (N.Y.) - Liriano has a 7.56 ERA. He needed 88 pitches to get through four innings against Baltimore's Triple-A Norfolk (Va.) affiliate Tuesday.

* Houston right-hander Roy Oswalt likes to work with catcher Brad Ausmus, but after Oswalt lost his first two starts, manager Cecil Cooper told J.R. Towles to be ready to get behind the plate when Oswalt is working.

The rotation

The five biggest disappointments of the spring:

* Eric Chavez, Oakland third baseman. He underwent three offseason surgeries, including one to his lower back, and had to be shut down in the final week of spring training. Even when he returns he doesn't figure to be 100 percent, which affects the A's chances of dealing him.

* Rocco Baldelli, Tampa Bay outfielder. For all his talent, injuries have sidetracked Baldelli, and this spring he was diagnosed with a fatigue problem that could be career-ending.

* Troy Patton, Baltimore left-hander. The key pitcher in the deal that sent Miguel Tejada to Houston, Patton was diagnosed with a torn labrum and will miss the season.

* John Patterson, Washington right-hander. The Nationals' Opening Day starter two years ago, he was supposed to be healthy. But with a fastball that was regularly at 86 mph, he didn't fit in Washington, so after being released, he signed a minor league deal with Texas.

* Andy Marte, Cleveland third baseman. He was supposed to be the game's hottest prospect a couple of years ago when he went from Atlanta to Boston in the Edgar Renteria deal, then from Boston to Cleveland in the Coco Crisp swap. But Marte has fizzled. He hit .204 and had six errors in the spring.

Closing statement

The Nationals aren't finding their new ballpark to be the attendance booster they had hoped for. They sold out (39,389) their March 30 opener against Atlanta, but in returning to Nationals Park this week, they drew only 20,487 for Monday's game with Florida and, after having Tuesday off, sold only 23,340 for Wednesday's game.

More concerning is that, despite the new ballpark, the Nationals, in their third season in the nation's capital, sold about 18,000 season tickets. Two years ago, the first year after its move from Montreal, the team sold 22,000 season tickets.

NUMBERS GAME

7 current managers did not play in the big leagues - Dave Trembley (Baltimore), Joe Maddon (Tampa Bay), Jim Leyland (Detroit), Trey Hillman (Kansas City), John McLaren (Seattle), Fredi Gonzalez (Florida) and Manny Acta (Washington).

METHUSELAH MOYER?

Left-handed pitcher Jamie Moyer, at 45 years, 133 days on Opening Day, is not only the oldest active player this year but one of 29 players who have appeared in the big leagues at 45 or older. He is one of 15 elder-statesmen pitchers, including Satchel Paige, who was believed to be 59 when he last pitched in 1965. The only other pitchers who were 50 or older were Jack Quinn, 50, and Nick Altrock, 55, both in 1933.

HE SAID IT

"We thought that we had the best team, but we didn't win as a team. . . . (Manager) John McNamara has taken a lot of heat. I don't think that's deserved. . . . I don't feel that I deserved (the blame). And if I felt like it was my fault, I'd step up to the plate and say, 'Hey, if I wasn't here, the Red Sox would have won this thing.' But I really can't do that."

An emotional Billy Buckner, whose error in the 1986 World Series is part of Red Sox folklore, after throwing out the first pitch at this year's home opener.

MILE HIGH WATCH

* Besides installing a humidor to keep baseballs at recommended specifications, a few years ago the Rockies began growing ivy on the Coors Field hitter backdrop in center field.

Reader Dan Marcucci wondered if the ivy might have played a role in "normalized" games being played at Coors Field.

"That's a good question, but no," Rockies first baseman Todd Helton said. "In fact, the ivy actually improves the hitting background because it eliminates some of the shine."

* Coors Field opened 13 years ago this month. The amazing thing is 14 major league parks have opened since then - not counting the one for the Tampa Bay Rays. That one was built long before Coors Field, even though the Rays didn't come into existence until 1998 - and 11 of those parks are in the National League.

The only NL parks that existed before Coors Field are Dolphin Stadium, Shea Stadium, Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium. Shea Stadium will be replaced next year and the Marlins have plans to build a new stadium at the site of the Orange Bowl, leaving Coors Field as the third-oldest park in the NL.

* Right-handed reliever Casey Weathers, the Rockies' first-round draft choice in June out of Vanderbilt University, is on the fast track to the big leagues.

He opened the season with Double-A Tulsa, and in the opening week of the season, scouts were recording his fastball at 98 mph.

It's not out of the question Weathers could be a second-half addition if the Rockies have a bullpen need.

* The Rockies gave every member of the organization who received an NL championship ring the same quality piece of jewelry.

But several teams in recent years have had a tiered system in which the quality of ring was related to the prominence of the person in the organization's structure.