jung

I think the fact that he is so slow is indicative that he really does not want to go!

I have no idea why Farrell has picked out Workman for this duty all the time...then he brings him into some really hairy situations....I get the hairy situations deal but why the f*** does he bring him in for this s***?

While the Tigers solved their SS problem with Iggy, I don't remember any big deals at the deadline that resolved their pen issues. Leyland is obviously so reluctant to go to the pen....in fact scared shitless to go to the pen. Granted the pen can be overrated in post season play. So if you get there, probably not that big a deal. But you can tell Leyland would rather walk the plank than walk out to the mound to pull a starter.

Lackey is off looking for a bar at this point.

Good example of why Leyland does not want to bring anybody in for anybody.

Correctamento! That one is almost more unbelievable than Scherzer leaving that middle middle slider up to WMB after blowing Ross away with 97 mph heat. I am actually OK with WMB taking care of business on inside FB's as I think that is what he was born to do....some of the fans here don't like it and apparently the Sox themselves don't like it. I just don't see WMB making a career out of hitting sliders low and away. If anything that pitch may cost him a career before it is all done.

Ya' gotta' believe that relief is the real achilles heel of this Tigers team. Leyland is sooooo reluctant to bring anybody in for anybody....It is not like Porcello is the ace of the staff or anything.

Wakefield never made more than $2M per season and I think that is what irks people some. Now in retrospect, Dempster does look like a huge overpay cause I don't think he is better than a 5 on a lotta staffs, not just this one. Then there was the Aroid mess and he lost me completely with that one...I know a lotta' people love him for it but it was just dumb as dirt....and as we eventually found out...not even done with the support of his teammates.

Imagine what a mess the post season is going to be if the Spanks get in with Aroid? The thing is already a laughing stock with the way MLB is scheduling it.... (Networks should just buy MLB...pretty clear who runs the show in baseball anyway)....and now we might have the Spanks with Aroid post season....what a f***ing embarrassment that will be.

Can't blame people really..we got Lackey who can't buy a run.....probably begs the baseball gods to just be allowed to buy a run and can't do it. Shut out six times in one season for one pitcher...I just don't think I ever heard of that!!!! And then there is Dempster who just gets runs thrown at him and just goes right out there and gives them right back.... usually immediately!!!

Tigers probably getting used to seeing Iggy out there. Santiago looked like he was glued to the ground on that.

Over the course of the year I have gotten a lotta' respect for Jenny Dell. The NESN production crew is so screwed up and they send her off to do just wacko stuff half the time....she carries it all off pretty well I think and a bunch of it is stuff that is just not that easy to do.

Can't believe I defended Dempster earlier in the year. Just did not think he could get worse than he was at the time and since then he has just gone straight into the toilet....do not pass go...do not collect $200.00.....straight into the toilet!

Boy Demps is ugly up in the zone

Was bound to happen sooner or later. Guys don't become switch hitters for no reason. I should know. Switch hitting is not as easy as it might look. When a batter commits to it usually it is with much consternation and certainty that like handed pitchers are going to eat him up. The usual approach to the hitter that is really in trouble with the like handed pitcher is to throw breaking stuff inside which gets him looking there and gas on the outer black or even off the plate. Usually a guy decides to become a switch hitter because he has a real hard time recognizing the breaking ball inside and he too often either flinches or freezes. At any rate he (meaning I could not hit the thing with a boat oar) and he also is left vulnerable to being set up for the pitch on the outer black or even off the plate outside. I did not see Vic's first at bat tonight but last night and the night before Fister and Scherzer both pitched Vic exactly that way and just murdered him so bad that eventually Vic tried one from the left side against Scherzer. Did not do well with that either and I can tell you that once Vic decides to move back over there, it will likely take him some time to get used to it again. He probably should make up his mind pretty soon so that he is not left trying to deal with it as the post season starts.

Well looking at the proposed schedule for post season play including play-in games, MLB has managed to make a total farce of what was already something of one to begin with. We all knew this whole idea that the two WC team format with play in was a fallacy and now MLB has proved it. The way the schedule has been designed an AL WC team will be able to use their #1 rotation guy in the play in game AND use him in the first game of the Division series. So much for making winning the division mean something. It also looks like most if not the entire League Championship Series will be alternating days AL and NL making it more likely that we will see a top rotation guy pitch game 1 and game 4. MLB IMO had a perfect system or as close to perfect as it was going to get in the 1 WC system. Now it has a mess. At best if it insists on continuing the two WC system it has to find a way to fit a three game series in. As it stands now they are actually doing themselves more damage than good. Why should casual fans care about the 162? No reason in the world. They have turned the 162, long considered sacrosanct in baseball into ....yup you guessed it...a farce. No wonder ratings and attendance are down across baseball. Catering to the Networks only works if the Networks know what the f*** they are doing long term with regard to baseball. What Network would care about baseball farther out than the length of its contract with baseball? Answer....none.

Seems to me that they are already hackin' at 0-0. So I think if anything hitters are already swinging almost as much as they can swing at Ueh. Up is the one thing Ueh has not been all season which is why I suspect the one thing left to try is to see if they can get him to give in a little and get that thing up in the zone a bit more. Not only may it not work...Ueh may not even give in. But truthfully I think that is all that there is left to try against him.

Ueh with another terrific performance last night. At some point this season, opponents are going to change the script on Ueh. He is just enjoying too much success and I would be surprised if teams are just going to allow him to put them to sleep every 9th inning once we get to post season play...maybe sooner. Ueh does not throw as many pitches in the zone as he is getting guys to swing and miss. At some point, managers are going to look at the likely percentage of pitches that would not really be called strikes and force their hitters to take. If they force Ueh to come up in the zone, that might really be his Achilles heel. Nobody has forced him to pitch up all season. Many of his pitches are borderline for sure and such a strategy may not work. His control may well be good enough that he can keep away from the belt line. Hitters starting to take may get them ahead in counts as a result. Nothing else opponents have used has worked and that is why I suspect we will see teams starting to take on him to see if they can force him to try to work up in the zone. 89 mph may well look a heck of a lot easier to hit at the belt line especially if Ueh is forced away from the splitter. The last thing I expect, especially in post season play will be for teams to say "well Ueh just makes us hack away at pitches that are borderline strikes or would just plain be balls if we did not swing....So lets just keep hackin' away". Don't think that is going to happen.

I don't even want to think about that cutter being something special. That is probably what happens to Lester. He thinks he can beat the world with it and before you know it that is all he is throwing. I simply don't buy the biggest dif in him is the quality of the cutter. The biggest difference in him is he gets addicted to it and uses it too much or he is not addicted to it and he mixes his other pitches. Last night it happened in the space of the actual game itself. First two innings....too many cutters...rough going. Third inning on, mixed his pitches....buried one of the best hitting teams in baseball. The only guy that he could truly just throw cutters to successfully, even as good as it was..... Tuiasasopo. He could not even see the pitch, let alone hit it. When he throws it too much, hitters expect it and lay off of it. That leaves Lester in the hands of the ump and umps have a hard time calling it a strike. That leads to Lester fuming and stomping around the mound and walking hitters and it just gets worse from there. The whole thing is a bad movie that keeps repeating itself.....unless....he mixes his pitches.

What he found is that he can't throw it all the time. He has to mix in other pitches to make that cutter effective. When his location is really good with that cutter it is either not a strike at all or is just barely within the ump's ability to call it a strike. So he has to set that pitch up and he has to get guys to swing at it. If he just throws it constantly it simply helps get him behind in counts even if he is throwing it good. He got it going last night the minute he started mixing pitches...the very second he started mixing pitches for that matter. He has been terrific since he started mixing pitches a few games ago and is average at best when he doesn't...average....like he was for the first two innings last night.

What a fantastic game to watch.....maybe not the most important game of the year but the most enjoyable for me. Great ballgame...great pitching performance by Jon. Another night when Ueh is just unhittable. He never leaves the ball in a place where he can get hurt....NEVER....I don't think I have ever seen that before from a closer.

The one thing that you can always say about Ueh is that he is never ever up in the zone AND he never ever has the ball in that low and inside sweet spot to the LH hitter.

Who the f*** are you kidding Pena

Out comes the pitching coach. "Son...we need you to get an out here son". Why are there such knuckleheads running such a beautiful game.

Why is Leyland leaving Scherzer out there?