Rough Week for the Boys

Well boys, we had a rough week. We are now 5-13 since our 6 game winning streak. We’ve gone from a 3 game lead to a 4 game deficit. It’s not time to panic yet, but we need to right the ship soon. It is still May 27th right now - so there is a lot of baseball to be played. That being said, I’ve been really frustrated with the past week, especially our putrid offense.

So my favorite Royal Mike Aviles is on the Dayton Moore phantom DL. This is a 2 part dance: 1. Pick a player who is struggling in the big leagues. (This player must be either out of options or a player whose ego you want to protect) 2. Put his ass on the DL which allows you to rest him mentally and then give him a nice long minor league rehab to get his confidence back. I think its amazing how often Dayton gets away with this, I wonder if the league even cares. If you can work the system, then by all mean Dayton - work the system. Now that Aviles is gone for a while, we brought up Tug Hulett. Tug is more of a 2B, but he has dabbled at short (408 vs. 94 career minor league starts). He hit the ball very well in AAA last year for Seattle (.298/.380/.518). He is only 26 years old, but he is certainly blocked by Callaspo at this point. Don’t look for him to play much this season at all as we have Aviles, Bloomy, and Luis Hernandez. Hernandez is also on the squad right now and I was encouraged by his play over the last couple games. He is the no-hit, slick fielding SS that Dayton has been dreaming about for years. He play is equal to the peak of what Tony Pena Jr. can be. He is not a great SS - so please don’t get carried away - hell, he is not even that good. However, he can lay down a bunt and handle the bat at the plate. There is a better chance that Charlie Manson gets paroled in the next year than Tony Pena Jr. executing a sacrifice bunt this season. I really wish we would DFA Pena Jr. once he is healthy. Hernandez is certainly better than Pena and we can’t carry both. Why not just keep Hernandez up as the back up and say good-bye to TPJ? It really makes too much sense.

Another shrewd roster move by GMDM is putting Hooch back down in AAA while we have a couple off days coming up. We only need 4 starters for a couple weeks, so let Hooch go down there for a couple starts for a confidence boost. It lets us maximize the starts from our solid 3 of Greinke, Meche, and Banny. As long as he is back when we need 5 starters again I’m ok with this. He looked to put a little something together in his last start.

Raise your hand if getting worried about Kyle Davies. I’m really getting frustrated with his sloppiness. He wastes a TON of pitches. I thought he might have figured something out last September, but he is reverting back to his sloppy laboring ways at times. He is still young and shows flashes, but man - does he need some consistency or what?

Gil Meche looks like he has back issues again - I’m terrified that he has a DL stint coming up. At the least, I’m pretty confident that he is hiding an injury from the powers that be. Troubling…

OK, enough of the depressing pitching talk. Zack Greinke is a freak. I’ve been waiting for him to cool off from his ridic start, but now I’m wondering if it will happen. I honestly could see him having an ERA under 2.50 this year, maybe even 2.00 if things get crazy. His repertoire is filthy right now. He is throwing every pitch with great control and nasty movement - it isn’t fair really.

Mark Teahen has been really struggling lately. He just came off a 1-22 stretch and dropped his OPS back down to 2007-2008 Teahen range of .750. He did have a big game at the plate on Wednesday and got that number back up to .794 thanks to cracking his 6th HR. I hope he can get back on track (along with Crisp and Callaspo who are also slumping right now).

This week is huge. We have 3 at home against the Sox followed by 3 @ Tampa Bay and then 3 @ Toronto. That is a tough stretch, however the pitching match ups are decent. Chicago is gonna throw us 3 straight lefty’s in Richard, Buerhle, and Danks. Richard owned us out of the pen in Chicago opening week, but that was a 2 inning outing. Buerhle is always going to give us a challenge. I’m hopeful that we will be locked in against Danks as we’ll be seeing a lefty for the 3rd straight game. Billy Butler and Jose Guillen are the KEYS to the next three games. Olivo needs to be a factor as well. These three guys crush lefties and if they don’t pick up the slack of Jacobs, Teahen, and DeJesus it will be more ugly offense from the Kansas City Royals Baseball Club. We’re throwing Banny (whose been awesome), Meche, and Greinke against the three lefties so we really need to take two and honestly - I like match up in every game and think we could be due for a nice sweep. It all depends on the offense - it has to be said. Though I guess when you have the best ERA in baseball and have a 5-13 stretch, you are allowed to point fingers.

Exit Question: Detroit Rotation: Verlander, Jackson, Porcello, Gallaraga, and Willis. There are a couple "if's" in there and a couple guys over acheiving, but if they stay on, we are in BIG trouble. Is Detroit's rotation going to keep us from competing?