Detroit Tigers News: A farewell to Victor Martinez

Hello and welcome to Monday. It was a weekend of history in the sporting world. Tiger Woods won the Tour Championship, ending a five-year drought, and the Detroit Tigers took one game from the Royals in the last homestand of the season. That might not seem historic, and is certainly not impressive, but it did ensure that the Tigers won’t reach 100 losses for the first time since their historically bad 2003 season. Silver linings and stuff like that.

Saying Goodbye

As the season wraps up, the inevitability of the end of things becomes more apparent. This year we not only see the end of a season, but the end of more than one career with the organization. Of course, everyone is aware that Victor Martinez played his final game on Saturday. It was a fitting send-off with a pre-game ceremony that showed an exceptionally emotional Martinez. His final hit being an infield single was an especially amusing finish.

In addition to Martinez, Tigers public address announcer Bobb Vergiels is also hanging ‘em up. After 15 seasons holding down the job, he decided recently that he was done. If you find yourself missing his voice at Comerica Park, you can still head down to Lakeland where he will continue to be the organization’s voice of spring training.

I also can’t talk about careers ending without mentioning Hawk Harrelson. Harrelson called his final game for the Chicago White Sox on Sunday. No more will anyone who is forced to listen to the White Sox broadcast have to hear Harrelson proclaim “he gone.” I will, however, miss the priceless reactions to late inning losses suffered at the hands of our Tigers.

A look at Rick Anderson

It has been an interesting season in Detroit for pitching coaches. The team started off the year with Chris Bosio, who was fired midseason. After Bosio’s early and unexpected exit, manager Ron Gardenhire looked to his long-time friend and pitching coach with the Minnesota Twins, Rick Anderson, to fill the job.

Anthony Fenech of The Detroit Free Press has an in-depth look at the man and his philosophy that is worth checking out. The pitching staff has responded well to Anderson’s presence, and finds his coaching very valuable. Anderson seems to have been pigeonholed as a man with a singular philosophy from his time in Minnesota, but he maintains that he doesn’t hold one sole belief when it comes to pitching. One thing he does know is that he is having a lot of fun this year and is looking forward to 2019.

Stewart’s power shows up

Christin Stewart showed up in Detroit in early September. It took a little while for his power to show up too, but when it did it showed up big with a two-home-run Friday night. This came as no surprise to his teammates, who are all well aware of what he’s capable of with the bat. With the way that he has been conducting himself in his short time with the big club, everyone is expecting to see more of what was on display Friday night.

Tinkering with Lugo

Here’s a quick look at Dawel Lugo and some things hitting coach Lloyd McClendon is working with him on to help his success at the plate. Lugo was previously in an open stance that pitchers were starting to take advantage of it. McClendon has been working with him to close up the stance in hopes that it improves his results.

Around the horn

When it comes to free agency, it’s time for a change. RIP Don Welke. Play like a girl. Could expanding the postseason fix baseball?