Morning Prowl: Porcello's Pitches, That Bullpen, Liking Nate, and String Music

  How about a closer analysis of Rick Porcello's performance yesterday?  Doug Gray at Minor League Notebook looked at the Pitch F/X data from the game and broke down what Porcello threw, how often he threw it, and what was really working for him yesterday. 

One interesting observation is that Porcello had difficulty locating his off-speed pitches, which may have been one reason the Toronto hitters seemed to catch up with him as the game went on. 

  Jon Paul Morosi looks at how many runs the Tigers have given up in their first four games and is reminded of 2008.  And he's concerned about that Detroit bullpen.

  Tom Gage notes that Brandon Lyon threw more pitches in his appearance on Tuesday than in any he'd made since 2003.  Did that play a role in the final outcome of the game?

  One more Gage item: How could he write this column on Dave Dombrowski's demeanor in the press box at Toronto and not mention the awful sweaters that the Tigers' GM was wearing? 

  Sorry, Nate.  Ken Rosenthal points out that the number of free agents still available will make it more difficult for a player like Nate Robertson to be traded.

  And right here is where Mike McClary would like to remind me of a moment of weakness I had during yesterday's game.  Unfortunately for my reputation, he saved a screen capture of it.

In my defense, Mike asked me if I thought the Tigers should put Robertson or Juan Rincon in for relief.  But I know - it looks bad.

  Murray Chass sticks up for Gary Sheffield, saying he should be a good influence in the New York Mets' clubhouse (contrary to his reputation, which didn't really apply in Detroit, either).

  You don't care that the Cincinnati Reds released Jacque Jones, do you?  Okay, just checking.  But if you were wondering, there you go.

  And maybe you've seen the mentions in the comments over the past couple of days, but SB Nation now has a Detroit Pistons blog.  Brian Packey will be running Motown String Music, and that completes the four corners of the Detroit sports fortress here at SBN.  Stop over and say hello.

You can find SBN's Detroit sports blogs (in addition to our Michigan Wolverines blog, Maize n Brew) now listed in our left-hand sidebar (it's there somewhere), under the heading "SBN Detroit."