Detroit Tigers News: Francisco Liriano continues to improve his trade value

The only good things to ever come out of Seattle are grunge music and coffee. The Tigers are on the way to Minnesota after giving away what was a very winnable series in the Pacific Northwest over the weekend. After an opening win on Thursday, Detroit gave the Friday game away in the 7th, got rightly trounced on Saturday and had Sunday’s game all wrapped up until Shane Greene hung a slider that Mitch Haniger hit for a long hard foul. Greene, ever the nice guy, decided to give Haniger another chance as he threw yet one more hanging slider that Haniger parked deep in the recesses of Safeco field. The Mariners would eventually go on to win. If I ever see Mitch Haniger again it will be too soon.

Target rich environment

Jon Heyman of FRS Baseball has provided us with his list of needs and possible targets for contending teams and Francisco Liriano is all over that thing. If he continues to pitch anywhere close to what he’s done so far this season — especially Sunday where he went eight innings for the first time since the invention of electricity only to watch the bullpen fart it away -- he’s going to bring a worthwhile return. It will be nice to see at least one player do that.

It’s still Mize

As we inch closer to draft day, Casey Mize remains the consensus number one pick, and it’s so overwhelmingly obvious that scouts are saying things about the Tigers front office like “If they don’t take (Mize) they should be fired.” All this leads me to believe there is a very real possibility the organization picks someone else, because that’s the kind of thing the Tigers would do.

Atta Boyd

If anyone was sleeping on Matt Boyd, it’s pretty safe to say they aren’t any longer. Through eight starts he is proving himself to be quite the asset. George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press has a nice profile on the young pitcher and how his faith and his recent fatherhood have changed him for the better.

The Cabrera situation

It’s been a weird week or so when it comes to Miguel Cabrera. It seems he was feeling a little underappreciated and voiced that opinion which seemed to snowball into something more than it should have been. Lynn Henning has a pretty thorough take on the situation from a variety of angles, although I maintain that the only reason he wrote the article was for an excuse to use the word churlish. It’s hard to tell if there was anything at all to any of it beyond misunderstandings and sarcasm. All I know is in a month or so when we’re watching a healthy Cabrera mash baseballs, we probably won’t be worrying too much about this.

Feeling Minnesota

The final series of the road trip is against the Minnesota Twins, and it’s a homecoming of sorts for Manager Ron Gardenhire as well as Niko Goodrum. While we all know Gardenhire was the manager for the Twins for some time, you may not be aware that Goodrum got his start as a second round pick in the Twins system. George Sipple gets their thoughts on their return in an article that also touches on the recovery of Miguel Cabrera and Jordan Zimmermann. It seems both players are feeling better. Zimmermann reports no pain in his shoulder and Cabrera is taking batting practice. Hopefully we see them both back soon.

At least we aren’t the Marlins

Derek Jeter and his Miami Marlins keep updating the syllabus in what is becoming a master class on how not to run a team. The latest incident sees the organization revoking the press credentials of a reporter because they didn’t like the fact that he was doing his job. Not a good look, Jeter.

Some Toledo Treasure

The fact that I live in Philadelphia and therefore won’t be able to attend the Mudhens game that would make me the owner of a Jim Leyland bobblehead I could hand craft a tiny Marlboro to wedge snugly between the thumb and forefinger of it’s right hand pains me to a point a can’t put words to. I guess I’ll have to hope a few of these pop up on eBay for a price that isn’t too exorbitant.

Around the horn

Hitters who can’t beat the heat are getting left behind. An interesting interview with new WCL baseball commissioner, Rob Neyer. Baseball on Cheers 25 years later. Justin Verlander finds another gear. Sigh.

Baseball is awesome