Bless You Boys: All Posts by Kurt Mensching

Game thread 38: Astros at Tigers, 1 p.m.

2013-05-15T14:34:52Z

Bare bones because they're trying to fix a few issues going with Vox sites right now.

Tigers lineup: Infante 4, Hunter 9, Cabrera 5, Fielder 3, Martinez DH, Peralta 6, Tuiasosopo 7, Peña 2, Garcia 8.

Astros lineup:

#Astros lineup for the finale of their 3-game series at Detroit. @kidkeuchy gets the start for Houston. twitter.com/astros/status/…
— Houston Astros (@astros) May 15, 2013

Bare bones because they're trying to fix a few issues going with Vox sites right now.

Tigers lineup: Infante 4, Hunter 9, Cabrera 5, Fielder 3, Martinez DH, Peralta 6, Tuiasosopo 7, Peña 2, Garcia 8.

Astros lineup:

#Astros lineup for the finale of their 3-game series at Detroit. @kidkeuchy gets the start for Houston. twitter.com/astros/status/…
— Houston Astros (@astros) May 15, 2013

Everybody say 'aww!'

2013-05-15T01:04:43Z

Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu plays catch with a young fan. (ht DodgerFilms)

Drew Smyly misused in current bullpen rule

2013-05-14T16:29:52Z

What if I told you one of the Tigers' most-effective pitchers this year was in the bullpen rather than his old home in the rotation? What if I then told you his role in the bullpen was relegated to mop-up duty?

Sounds far from ideal, doesn't it? That's just the case with Drew Smyly, though.

Smyly's 1.73 FIP is the second-best on the team, behind only Anibal Sanchez. He strikes more than a batter per inning, doesn't walk many, has a .276 OPS-against vs. left-handers and .628 OPS-against vs. right-handers. Early in the second, you could proclaim him a key component of the late-innings bullpen. He was handed a lead and asked with pitching in multiple innings to protect it.

More recently, he's been tasked with pitching in lost causes and low-leverage situations.

Even Jim Leyland knows this isn't right, as he recently told reporters/MLB.com's Jason Beck:

"We really have to get a situation ironed out as far as Smyly is concerned," Leyland said. "He's doing a fantastic job, obviously. If you can have two of those lefties available each night, it's a good thing, but I also want him to pitch. So it's a little tricky."

You want your best pitchers in the right places. If the Tigers truly were trying to put the best rotation together, Smyly would be in it. If the Tigers were trying protect a lead, Smyly'd be the one with the ball. Not Darin Downs or Phil Coke, much as I like the former and acknowledge the Tigers are stuck with the latter.

Truly, it seems like such a waste.

Austin Jackson injury: Tigers CF placed on DL with hamstring pain

2013-05-13T18:19:43Z

Austin Jackson was placed on the 15-day disabled list Monday with hamstring pain. Avisail Garcia was called up in his place.

The Detroit Tigers announced Austin Jackson has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a pulled right hamstring, retroactive to Sunday, May 12. Called up from Triple-A Toledo to take his place on the roster is outfielder Avisail Garcia.

Turns out the reason Jackson sat out Sunday's game with the Cleveland Indians was not to just get a day of rest. The Tigers' center fielder and lead off man had been nursing a hamstring issue for since mid-April which the Tigers have deemed a serious enough injury to require a stint on the disabled list.

Read more: TPR Scouting Report: OF Avisail Garcia

This will be Garcia's second go-round with the Tigers after being called up on August 31 of last season. The 21 year old right-hand hitting outfielder received a significant amount of playing time in a right field platoon role during last season's playoff run. Garcia hit .319/.373/.319 with three RBI in 23 regular season games and .261/.320/.304 with four RBI in 12 post season appearances.

After missing the early weeks of the 2013 season due to a right heel contusion suffered during Grapefruit League play, Garcia is off to an excellent start with the Mud Hens. He's hitting .447/.541/.432 (16-for-37) with one home run and four RBI in eight games in Toledo.

Jackson (.272/ .333/.371, 2 HR, 11 RBI, 34 G) has been slumping since his hamstring became an issue on the west coast swing, and is hitting only .231/ .268/.308 with one RBI in the month of May.

As to who will replace Jackson in center field, Andy Dirks, Don Kelly, Torii Hunter (though he's only played one game in center since 2011) and Garcia (44 games with Double-A Erie) all have experience playing the position. Dirks has been batting lead off when Jackson was out of the lineup.

Geese invade Sawgrass

2013-05-11T22:58:16Z

Everything's fine until one of their cell phones goes off. (ht @shanebacon)

NBA Playoffs schedule 2013: Grizzlies, Pacers win at home

2013-05-11T17:16:52Z

The Grizzlies scored the game's final six points to earn a win at home against the OKC Thunder. The Pacers and Knicks are struggling to get anything going in their game. Later, Indiana beat the Knicks in a low-scoring affair.

The New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers are tied at 1-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals as the series heads to Indiana for Game 3 Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. During each team's victory in Madison Square Garden — the Pacers' dominant interior defensive performance in Game 1 and the Knicks' red-hot shooting and ball movement in Game 2 — we caught a glimpse of why there is no favorite yet in this series, just two teams very capable of beating each other on any night.

Here are three key questions facing these teams that could determine this series:

Which team can translate on-paper strengths to on-court success?

The Pacers had one of the best defenses in the NBA during the regular season, and they have pretty much the ideal defensive team on paper. Roy Hibbert is a 7'2 center who can protect the rim without fouling and is capable at defending a high pick-and-roll. David West is an absolute bruiser of a power forward. Paul George is among the five-best perimeter defenders in the NBA already, Lance Stephenson is certifiably insane and can wreak havoc in the passing lanes and George Hill is quick and tough with surprising length for his height.

The Knicks have the capability of being the best offensive team in the league. They were for the first month of the season and were close during the stretch run in April. They have a star in Carmelo Anthony who can shoot threes at a high percentage, score off the dribble and post up effectively. They have a center in Tyson Chandler who sets excellent screens and is even better at rolling and finishing around the rim. Raymond Felton can shoot sometimes, but is a wizard at teaming with Chandler for lobs off the pick and roll. Jason Kidd and Iman Shumpert team with Felton and 'Melo as the best four players, sometimes, at making the extra pass around the perimeter.

Ultimately, what this series appears to boil down to is who can play to their capabilities for longer. As a defensive team, the Pacers seem better equipped to do so, but their gravest weakness is an abject lack of a bench. In their win in Game 1, D.J. Augustin was raining threes from the Madison Square Garden arc like Allan Houston. Chances are, that's not happening again, or at least not three more times. Tyler Hansbrough, Jeff Pendergraph and Ian Mahinmi are the other bench players who get in the mix, but with them on the floor life is a whole lot easier for Carmelo Anthony.

Can J.R. Smith and Amar'e Stoudemire contribute?

The J.R. Smith that carried the Knicks to the No. 2 seed and won Sixth Man of the Year has been invisible since he was ejected from Game 3 of the first round after elbowing Jason Terry in the head. In this series' first two games, he has shot 7-30. In Game 2, he was just 1-7 from three-point range, scored just eight points and committed three turnovers.

J.R. Smith showed maturation on the court this season, and he has not played stupidly the past few games. He has simply been ice cold. Whether the suspension in Game 3 last series got into his head or simply threw him out of rhythm, we'll never know. The Knicks haven't played since Tuesday, so he should have had plenty of time in the gym to work on things. If he can be a plus contributor off the bench, this series is wildly different.

Amar'e Stoudemire is the big X-factor for Game 3. The Knicks' big man hasn't played since March 7, before which he was starting to look like his old self, with eight-straight games of 12 points. Head coach Mike Woodson said he would only play 10-15 minutes, but if his offense can outweigh his undoubtedly atrocious defense for that time on the floor, his presence could swing the series decisively in the Knicks' favor, thanks to the Pacers' aforementioned bench issues.

Will anyone besides Paul George step up on offense?

Paul George has been terrific in the playoffs, but he's not Carmelo Anthony. He can't carry the team's offensive burden alone. In Game 2, he scored 20 points. The Pacers' next-leading scorer, David West, took just seven shots.

More offense has to come from West, Hibbert and George Hill. All three are capable of exploiting their matchups. Chandler is responsible for so many different moving parts on defense, Hibbert should be able to find space for his 12-footers and hook shots. West can bully Carmelo Anthony and should be shooting far more than seven times.

Hill could really turn the series. Raymond Felton has stepped up his defensive energy, but he's still Raymond Felton. Hill has had stretches in his career where he has put together outside shooting and off-the-bounce creativity. The Pacers need him to start doing it in Game 3, because as great as Paul George has been, he needs help. Lots of it.

Game time: 8 p.m. ET

TV: ABC

Odds: The Pacers are four-point favorites, according to Odds Shark

More from SB Nation:

• Kevin Durant vs. the world

• Damian Lillard was more than ready for NBA

• Why Len is a better prospect than Noel

• Joakim Noah: Flicked off, flirting with death

• Rose might be scared, and that's OK

• Living and working with anxiety disorder

Richard Sherman jet skied past the Seahawks training camp

2013-05-10T21:57:39Z

Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman decided to do just that, just as he said he would:

Watching the rooks from the Lake twitter.com/RSherman_25/st…
— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) May 10, 2013

Oh, and here's what the rookies may have seen between wind sprints.

(ht Bob Condotta)

Tigers rotation: Better than expected

2013-05-06T20:56:57Z

The question of just how good the Detroit Tigers' rotation is came up frequently this offseason. Pretty great, we all agreed. Among the best in the game, most said. The best, others ventured. A month into the season, early returns have been good.

Of 30 teams in the MLB, the Tigers rank:

1st in strikeouts (310)
4th in ERA (3.36)
1st in FIP (2.66) -- Detroit is the only team under 3.
1st in xFIP (3.11)
1st in SIERA (3.08)
2nd in quality start percentage (73)
3rd in innings/start (6.3)

The individual starters rank:

3rd, Justin Verlander, 1.55, in ERA
12th, Anibal Sanchez, 1.82, in ERA
21st, Doug Fister, 2.18, in ERA
50th, Max Scherzer, 3.43, in ERA
1st (Sanchez, 1.33), 4th (Verlander, 1.98), 5th (Scherzer, 2.02) and 24th (Fister, 3.09) in FIP
3rd (Scherzer, 57) and 7th (Verlander, Sanchez, 50) in strikeouts.

Sanchez threw a franchise-record 17 strikeouts in a nine-inning game.

The Tigers hold the AL-record for striking out 10-batters-or-more in seven consecutive games. They failed to tie the Brewers' MLB-record of eight on Friday. They'll try again though, as they struck out 10 Saturday and 13 Sunday.

Well, you get the point.

We thought the Tigers would be good, but short of those few with the loftiest of imaginations, it would be hard to say the rotation isn't doing even more than expected.

Detroit definitely has the best 1-4 in the league. Do they have the best 1-5? That might depend on how much credit you give to ERA and how much credit you give to Fielding Independent Pitching -- or some out there may be more industrious than I am and look to opponents faced.

There is one thing we should be able to agree on though: The Tigers have the kind of rotation built for the postseason. There's no weakness to be found among the top four.

It's really something to behold.