Verlander To The Bullpen...Why?

     What was just a ridiculous suggestion from somewhere within the depths of Yahoo! contributors and MLive comment threads has now picked up far more attention than it deserves.

     I'm talking, of course, about the insane idea that Justin Verlander should be demoted to the bullpen for the playoffs, and that Rick Porcello -he of the 4.45 ERA and 2.7 WAR this year- should take his place.

     Let's be clear: Justin Verlander is having a down year... by the damn-near-superhuman standards which we've come to expect of him. For almost any other pitcher in Major League Baseball, JV's 2013 campaign would still qualify as exceptional. His 3.66 ERA (before tonight's start) is 18th in the American League. His 3.44 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) ranks 10th. His 4.7 WAR ranks 10th among all starters in baseball. And he's only allowed more than four runs in 6 of his starts this year. 

     "But he's 3-10 since the All-Star break," you say. Go play in traffic, I say. He also has a 3.65 ERA in that span of time, so if anything, his performance has been fairly consistent through most of this year, despite arguments about meaningless things like pitcher wins. He's also pitched 4 games this season in which the Tigers have been shut out; is this somehow his fault for not taking a bat into his own hands?

     This absurd theory was promoted by same hack writer at Yahoo! Spare yourself the torture of the actual article and read Scott Rogowski's excellent FJM-style takedown of said piece here. 

     If it had just ended there, it would have been all well and good. 

     Then, Brian Kenny had to get involved. Kenny, for those of you who are unaware, is MLB Network's resident sabermetrician and the guy who mostly fuels the hatred of the anti-stats crowd by being a smug, arrogant prick. He's also the guy responsible for the #KillTheWin campaign on Twitter, which is his ongoing tirade that pitching wins are a completely useless stat. Which, indeed, they are, even if CBS' Jon Heyman half-heartedly disagrees. But the way he keeps relentlessly beating the drum about this almost does the impossible and makes one sympathize with White Sox announcer, and noted moron, Hawk "The Will To Win" Harrelson, whom Kenny took to task over his 19th-century views on statistics. And I'm sorry, anyone who refers to his followers as "The Intelligentsia" clearly has the kind of inflated ego that would make even Keith Olbermann jealous.

     Kenny took to Twitter with the idea of Verlander being this season's Tim Lincecum. Only, y'know, without the 5.18 ERA, -2 WAR, and general ineffectiveness. So, pretty much nothing like last year's Tim Lincecum. There really is no comparison between the Giants' 2012 rotation and the Tigers' 2013 one; Barry Zito pitched his ass off in his last five starts, allowing a total of 8 runs. Porcello, by comparison, has let off 15 runs in that same time frame. (Verlander has given up 10 runs in his last 5 starts.) 

     Of course, all of this is probably a moot point anyway, as the Tigers have two potential Cy Young candidates in Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez who, along with Verlander and Doug Fister, can reasonably be expected to pitch 7, sometimes 8 innings deep into games, rendering this whole debate entirely pointless. And Porcello has filled the late-inning relief role capably in the playoffs over the last few years. Why mess with what works, simply because Verlander is merely having a good year, as opposed to an exceptional one? Besides, as much as many Tiger fans bitch about how Jim Leyland manages his bullpen, why throw a guy who's never pitched in relief into that clusterfuck?

     Sometimes I think having as formidable a rotation as the Tigers do has spoiled us somewhat. Hell, there are 22 teams in Major League Baseball that don't have one starter who's performed as well as Justin Verlander this year, much less two guys who are pitching even better than him. I realize expectations are high when you possess the level of talent this team has. But when you're talking about taking the 10th most valuable starter in the game and putting him in the bullpen, then maybe it's time to temper our expectations a bit and appreciate just what an amazing thing we've got here.

One More Thing About Peralta, Then I Promise I'll Move On!

     I hadn't planned on spending any more time on Jhonny Peralta, I swear. I said my piece about it the other day, and that was going to be it. Then I saw this, and I knew I wasn't done yet. Now, as much sports talk as I take in on a daily basis, I'd forgotten that Dan Leach is, in fact, a guy with an actual show on 97.1 The Ticket, partly because he's buried late into the night where only severe gluttons for punishment would dare to listen (myself included), and partly because he's usually paired up with either Pat "um, ah, ya know... and stuff" Caputo, who doesn't let anybody, co-host or caller, get a word in edgewise; or Dennis Fithian, whose next original thought will be his first. And with this bit of self-righteous treacle, Dan "The Man" proves he might be just more brain-dead than anyone at that station, and that's why I feel the need to give him the time-honored "Fire Joe Morgan" treatment...

     There is little argument that Peralta makes the Tigers better when he is in the lineup.

     Okay, then. Glad we could come to an agreement. I assume, then, that we're done here...

     The bigger question is, at what price?

     ...A roster spot that would probably otherwise go to a AAAA player who can't hit above the Mendoza line?

     The PED issue in baseball is one that has rocked the integrity of the game to its core and must be cleaned up NOW; not a year from now, four years from now, or as MLB has operated in the past, when it felt like it was ready… which was never.

     And that's kinda what they did in suspending Jhonny for 50 games. Punishment accepted, time served, so we can all move on, right? No? Of course not.

     It was interesting to see Jhonny shag balls in left field before the game in Chicago Wednesday night and might have given fans false hope that Peralta, who has never played left field at any point in his career, could be platooned there in the postseason. That is just not likely to happen.

     Don't tell that to the Tigers or Jim Leyland. Per the Freep's John Lowe: 

     Based on today’s developments, the Detroit Tigers are continuing to decide whether to use Matt Tuiasosopo or Jhonny Peralta as their leftfielder when they face left-handed starting pitchers in the playoffs.

     So, yeah. Clearly that's not gonna happen.

      That makes even less sense to me to take a roster spot away from someone like Tuiasosopo, who has been with the club all year and made good contributions.

     Have you even watched a single game since the All-Star break? What "good contributions" has Tuiasosopo made since then, other than a line of .185/.264/.231 and no power whatsoever, with not a single extra-base hit, save for one home run back in July? And the strikeouts. My God, the strikeouts. He's done it in nearly a third of all his plate appearances in that time. Peralta, by comparison, did so in 22% of his at-bats this year before his suspension. And this year, Tui's worth a whopping -0.3 defensive WAR, so can you really make the argument that Peralta can do worse?

     How can you explain to someone who is playing baseball the right way that if you cheat, let your team down, force a trade, you can just come ridin’ on back on a proverbial white horse, just in time to play the final three games in Miami, ironically miles away from the where all the Biogenesis issues began, then play in the postseason like nothing had happened.

     Easily. "Sorry, Matt, but we want a right-handed hitter who can actually hit."

     I understand many Tigers fans “win at all costs” mentality as this city, this franchise, the Ilitch family, these amazing fans deserve a World Series title for the first time in 29 years, but it must be done the right way.

     Exactly. Which is why every game Peralta played in this season should be forfeited. I mean, we can't have a tainted season now, can we? He then goes on to play the Melky Cabrera card again, which I really have no interest in re-hashing here.

     What about his teammates like Max Scherzer, who have been adamant about how cheating must be taken out of the game?

     Now, I can't speak for the Detroit Tigers, but most reports suggest that Peralta was well-liked by his teammates, and they're not foolish enough to believe that he's the only one among them who's taken steroids, as opposed to being the only one to get caught. Let's be honest here: if Jhonny gives them the best shot to win a World Series, he'll be welcomed back with open arms.

     What about Jose Iglesias who has become a mainstay at short since Peralta’s suspension and seems to truly be in a groove with his new team? 

     What about him? Nobody is suggesting that Iglesias be move from shortstop for any reason short of injury, so your point is as irrelevant as your radio show.

     What about all the Tigers that might not say it out loud to the media, but feel Peralta abandoned the team by not appealing his suspensions cause of his looming free agency in 2014? 

     Yeah, he should have lied further about using PED's! Way to let your team down by actually being honest, as opposed to appealing and having no shot of helping them in the playoffs! Yeah, I'm pretty sure 9 out of 10 players would rather have him in the playoffs than not at all, and the 10th is probably the guy that would lose his roster spot to Peralta anyway.

     How do you explain to a youngster that it is ok to cheat and yes, you will pay a price, but not a really big one and can come back and go from being suspended for the most important part of the season and then jump right onto a playoff run? 

     ...Really, Leach? We're playing the "won't somebody please think of the children" card? And for the record, I don't really care what you have to tell your hypothetical kids. Hey, life's not fair, and sometimes cheaters win. Welcome to the real world; deal with it.

     I do have hope that one day soon baseball, a game that many of us grew up falling in love with, can once again be pure. It is going to take some tough decisions and actions to make that happen and one of those is disciplining players that cheated and hurt their team immensely by doing so. In this case the discipline as far as the Tigers are concerned must be to keep Jhonny Peralta away from a team that he does love, that he absolutely can help, but that he truly hurt with his suspension.

     And this is probably what annoys me the most about all this sanctimonious nonsense regarding PED's: The over-romanticizing of an era that never actually was. What these delusional "purists" fail to remember is that cheating in baseball, particularly performance-enhancing drugs, has been going on since at least the 60's, if not earlier. This fairy-tale past where every baseball player was clean and nobody ever cheated is a figment of their imagination, and I find it rather disingenuous to suggest otherwise. 

     Look, as much as we'd all like to see the game cleaned up, the truth is, players will always find a way to get an edge. That's the way it's always been, and always will be. And if someone slips up and gets caught, take whatever action needs to be taken. But once they've served the punishment agreed on by the players and league, that should be the end of it. Period. None of this "we should kick him off the team because we can't support a cheater" bullshit. Don't bring him back next year, fine. But there is not a legitimate baseball reason to not bring Peralta back for the playoffs if he can be of some value to this team.

Jhonny Peralta, The Playoffs, And Righteous Indignation...

     ...And so it begins. Yet again.

     It was announced this week that Jhonny Peralta would begin working out with the Tigers in advance of his potential return on September 27th from the 50-game suspension handed down by Major League Baseball for his role in the Biogenesis scandal earlier this year. Now, given the Tigers' recent struggles, going 3-6 so far this month, Miguel Cabrera's nagging injuries, Jose Iglesias still battling shin splints, and a first baseman who hasn't been hitting like himself this year, the Tigers could benefit greatly from Peralta's comeback.

     Dave Dombrowski has already alluded to Peralta being used in the role of super-utility guy (think Don Kelly with an actual bat); he'll be taking grounders at third, short, and second base; and fly balls in the outfield. A sensible move, given the many concerns facing this team's lineup right now. Jose Iglesias has been a revelation defensively at short, and he's put up surprisingly good offensive numbers as well, but there's a definite drop-off in power when compared to Peralta. Cabrera's health is still such that Jim Leyland has said he'd even consider putting Victor Martinez at the hot corner to give Miggy a rest, and Martinez has never played a single inning at third base at any level of professional baseball. If the thought of VMart starting at third base isn't enough to scare you into welcoming Jhonny back to the Tigers with open arms, then I can't help you.

     Not to mention, the left field platoon of Andy Dirks, Matt Tuiasosopo, and Don Kelly has been beyond awful this year. Dirks' OPS is down 200 points from last year, Tuiasosopo has had a drop-off in the second half that's been all too reminiscent of Brennan Boesch's rookie season, and there is no reason that Don Kelly should ever start a Major League Baseball game, ever. And at this point, even if you discard the idea of Jhonny starting for the Tigers at any position again, there is absolutely nobody to come off their bench that can hit worth a damn. Given all that, you'd think the addition of a potent offensive weapon like Peralta, assuming he can get back to pre-suspension form, would be a no-brainer. The man's done the crime and served his time, and that should be the end of it.

     And in a perfect world, it probably would be.

      Unfortunately, all too many baseball fans and lazy sportswriters seem to feel the need to continuously get on their moral high horses and rain down judgement on a seemingly arbitrary scale. As if somehow, a Tigers World Series victory would be 'tainted' if Peralta were allowed to play. As if Peralta playing at an All-Star level before his suspension didn't already do so. As if Melky Cabrera's own All-Star caliber first half last year, and his performance in the All-Star game that gave San Francisco home-field advantage, didn't do the same to the Giants' World Series win. As if damn near every World Series that has been played since about 1990 or so can't be considered 'tainted,' if we apply that same ridiculous standard.

     Already, there's been much screaming about the precedent set by the Giants last year with Cabrera, and how they didn't bring back their steroid user for the playoffs, therefore the Tigers should abide by the same standard. Here's the difference though, apart from an actual failed drug test: The Giants didn't need Melky come playoff time. If anything, the Giants went on a tear late in the year after Melky was suspended. Meanwhile, the Tigers haven't exactly been setting the world on fire since Peralta's departure, and they absolutely need his bat, be it on the bench or in Jim Leyland's starting lineup, if they want any shot of winning a World Series this year.

     And it's not as though the Tigers would be doing anything that just about every other team in the playoff hunt this year isn't: the Yankees, Pirates, Dodgers, Braves, Orioles, Indians, and Royals all have at least one player that has been busted for PED's at some point in their career, and the Rangers have indicated that they're more than happy to have Nelson Cruz back for this postseason, as well they should be. So why should the Tigers put themselves at a needless competitive disadvantage when none of the teams above have any intention of doing so?

     At the end of the day, as has been the case for so many greats of the game over the years, a lot can be washed away and overlooked about a man's character, if he happens to excel at hitting a baseball.

      And I've got a feeling that if Jhonny Peralta should happen to come through with some clutch hits this October, history and the Tigers' fanbase will look far more kindly on his transgressions.

     I suppose, though, if you're fine with cutting off your bench to spite a "cheater," then you're certainly entitled to your opinion. But come October, when the Tigers are in the unenviable position of depending on Ramon Santiago, who is hitting at about the same level as the singing hot-dog guy at Comerica Park, I doubt you'll be singing the same tune.

On Lapeer Days, One-Hit Wonders, And The Fallacy Of "No Publicity Is Bad Publicity"...

     I'm well aware that damn near everyone who has stumbled onto this blog has already read this piece of mine, hence the reason you knew this blog even exists, but in the interest of at least having something up here until I get off my lazy ass and start putting new content up, you'll get this again and you'll damn well like it...

     (Originally posted August 21st, 2013)

Welcome to Lapeer, where at this point, no publicity would be the best publicity one could hope for.

     So, unless you've been living under a rock for the last 48 hours, you've no doubt heard about the incident involving the singer of Default... er, Lifehouse... Train? No... uh... the Calling! Yeah, that's it. You know, that band that had that song ten years ago. The one that someone once called "Song Of The Decade." (Although, if that song is the best the entire planet could do in a ten-year period, then clearly the 2000's were "The Decade When Absolutely Nobody Was Even Fucking Trying.")

     Anyway, their lead singer, Alex Band, claimed to have been "abducted" around 4 in the morning on Sunday, then beaten and "left for dead" on the train tracks at M-24. Several theories have been thrown about as to what went down that night, as one has to question: if he was just walking down M24 to find a store at 4 in the morning, why not just walk right behind your damn hotel to the Meijer that's open 24/7/365? At any rate, here's what we know to be the facts:

     - Band was found outside of Buffalo Wild Wings, per 911. Now, never mind that he claimed to have been kicked out of the van on the tracks on M24, where there is a gas station open 24/7, usually with a state cop or two in the parking lot, which makes me question not only how nobody saw this occur, but also why he didn't simply walk into the Clark station 100 feet away from said tracks and ask for assistance there. And if he were "left for dead" with a fractured spine as he claims, how in the fuck did he manage to walk a good mile and a half to Buffalo Wild Wings? I'm no doctor, nor have I ever damaged my spine in any way, but I don't think I'm overstepping my bounds in saying that I'm pretty sure there is no way in hell I'd be able to walk any further than the Clark parking lot without falling over in severe pain.

     - According to eyewitnesses, Band was at Fatboy's Bar and Grill (the dive bar in Lapeer, for those who don't know) around last call, asking patrons where he could score cocaine. He found a guy there who was willing to supply, and they exchanged numbers at the bar that night. It should also be noted that Band has something of a history with substance abuse, and it's believed to be part of the cause for the band's breakup in 2005.

     - The "reunited" Calling (of which Band is the only remaining original member) is preparing to release a new album, and the band's manager had sent a press release to CNN stating as such just before the "incident" occurred. Now, maybe I'm being overly cynical here, as happens from time to time, but the timing on this all seems suspect, to say the least. At the very least, I'm thinking Band and/or his manager changed the actual story a bit to put Band in the most favorable light and get the band the most publicity out of the whole thing.

     If you've heard the 911 tape, which was released by the band's manager, you're probably struck at how calm, almost lifeless, the band's manager sounds while on the phone with the authorities, and how he appears at first to be making assumptions on his own about what happened; he wasn't at the hotel and he's been found bleeding all over, so obviously he *must* have been kidnapped! Note that while the 911 call was released by the band's manager, no medical information has been released proving the injuries supposedly suffered by Band. I'd be rather curious, myself, to see the toxicology report from his ER visit; I'd be shocked if they hadn't drawn blood from him that night, nor were there any illicit drugs in his system.

     Now, watch the video of Band's recollection of the ordeal. I'll wait.

     A couple of things strike me as odd here: 

     - The fact that he can't even keep a straight face while telling the reporter that this was not a hoax, and he keeps looking away while trying to recall the details of his story. 

     - For his eye supposedly being so swollen he couldn't see out of it that night, you can barely tell here that there's anything wrong with it less than two days later. 

     - In fact, the only major physical ailments appear to be a cut on his chin, and a bandage over his nose. There's a faint trace of a black eye, and the pictures released to TMZ indicate no broken teeth or major cut inside his mouth, as was claimed by Band. 

     - As an aside, his half-assed description of his captors is almost laughable. One of them is described only as being 6'4 and... apologetic? How in the hell is that supposed to help in finding him in any way? "Be on the lookout for a kinda tall, really polite guy!" Another is described as a white male armed with a gun (no shit), wearing a camo cap, with a scruffy beard (Yeah, this doesn't describe about half of Lapeer County or anything...)

     So, it seems fairly obvious that we're not being told the whole story, or the story we're being told is a total fabrication. The most popular story circulating is that he was beaten by his own bandmates, and there's a certain bit of plausibility in that. Yet at the same time, this guy's their meal ticket, and they're just hired guns at this point. Why would they go and try to fuck that up for themselves? Another suggests that since the band were tremendous assholes to the Lapeer Days staff, started almost an hour late, playing a shortened show and demanding full payment, that might be a motive for someone to cause him bodily harm. My theory? Dude went to try and score some drugs, got high and passed out somewhere, explaining how he fucked his face up, then he or his manager came up with this "kidnapping" story to make it look like he wasn't a total junkhead, but rather an innocent victim of a senseless crime.

     And if that's the case, then maybe we'd have all been better off if the bastard would have just OD'd. Seriously, Lapeer has received so much bad press over the last few years for the actual stupid things we've done, the last thing we need is some has-been one-hit-wonder junkie trying to use us again to try and jump-start a career that's long past it's expiration date. Sure, we've made national news several times of late, but it's rarely, if ever, for anything positive going on here, and stories like these only serve to reinforce the stereotype about Lapeer being a ghetto-hick shitpile. You don't think that this incident isn't going to make it that much harder to attract name acts to Lapeer from here on out? I mean, if you want nothing but warmed over 60's acts with maybe a roadie at most from the original band, that's great, but good luck getting anything other than one step closer to Lapeer's complete and utter irrelevance.

     At the same time, it looks like this warmed-over Eddie Vedder ripoff's attempt to revive his career might just end up backfiring on him after all; even the national media is calling him out for, at the very least, embellishing his story, and if a poll on TMZ's site is to be believed, the majority of the public see through the facade as well. Now, I'm not much a schadenfreude kinda guy, but... who the hell am I kidding, I absolutely am! And it would give me no small amount of pleasure to watch this guy's comeback attempt crash and burn, and for him to slink back off into obscurity, where he's been for the last decade. Y'know, after everyone forgot about that "Wasting My Time" song that was such a big hit for them...

I Suppose You're Wondering Why I've Gathered You All Here...

     Well, it's finally happened. After years of being told by everyone and anyone that "you need to start a blog!" or "how are you not writing professionally somewhere?" or "for fuck's sake, would you just go rant on the internet or something so I don't have to hear it anymore?!", I've finally succumbed to peer pressure and done just that.

     All I have to say is: be careful what you wish for.

     While I'm not exactly sure what in the hell I'm going to end up posting here, or if anyone will ever actually read it, I promise to at least attempt to entertain the probably tens of people who will read this blog, by ranting about sports, music, politics, and whatever else should draw my ire and/or wrath, and not bore you with the minutiae of my everyday life. Besides, everyone and their brother's dog has a blog these days, so why shouldn't somebody like me, whose opinion is always the right one? (And humble, too!) All I ask is, don't take this thing too seriously, because God knows I don't plan to.

     And because I'm sure some smartass is gonna ask: No, I don't actually hate everyone. Only, y'know, 90% of everyone. Besides, it sounds infinitely more interesting than "I Love Everything (And Here's Why)," doesn't it?