You know what makes me have trouble working up the energy to write a blog post? Seeing the Tigers lineup versus the RedSox tonight. Heck, if Jim Leyland isn’t going to try, then why should I?

Then again, with the cast of MudHens on his roster right now, this might just be the best he can do. That’s not his fault, it’s just the way it is (Oh gawd, now I’m starting to sound like Leyland).

The Tigers have dropped 10 consecutive road games and have managed victory in just three games since the break. This team, that looked so promising and exciting just weeks ago, is not very good right now. Which is to say, the offense is not good. The starting pitching has actually been pretty good, but this lineup is just brutal.

So tonight they’ll face one of the top left handers in the league. That means no Brennan Boesch, buth that could be a good thing considering his prolonged slump. I haven’t given up on Boesch, he was too good for too long for this to be anything but a slump. He’ll be fine. I hope.

Rest assured though that Miguel Cabrera won’t be seeing anything to hit from Lester,  not with Ryan Raburn batting behind him. Jhonny Peralta makes his Tigers debut in the six hole, playing third base. The lineup also includes the MLB debut of Jeff Frazier as well as the presence of Gerald Laird and Danny Worth. The Tigers will be lucky to scratch out two runs tonight.

Armando Galarraga had better throw a shutout.

Just moments after the Tigers latest loss– a 4-2 decision in Tampa, completing a four game sweep for the Rays– the team announced via their twitter account that first baseman Jeff Larish will be DFA’s tomorrow in order to make room on the 40-man (and active) roster for Outfielder Jeff Frazier, who will have his contract purchased from AAA Toledo.

Larish was DFA’d by the Tigers once before, this past offseason, and cleared waivers at that time. If he does so again, he will be returned to the MudHens, from which he came just days ago.

Larish has raw pwer, but hasn’t been productive when given major league opportunities for the Tigers in the past. He was brought back to Detroit on Sunday, theoretically thanks to his ability to play third base, but with the addition of Jhonny Peralta, Larish is no longer necessary.

Frazier will likely get a chance to play right away, as the Tigers would like to give the struggling Brennan Boesch some time off before the pressure of his extended slump grows to be too much for the psyche of the rookie.

Frazier, a former third round draft pick of the Tigers, has seen extensive time at first base for Toledo this season, but is an outfielder by trade. He has clubbed 23 home runs for Toledo this year. His previous career high was 13, which he accomplished for Lakeland in 2006.

At 27, Frazier isn’t much of a prospect and until this season had given no indication he ever would become one. His breakout campaign, along with a rash of Tigers injuries, has given him an opportunity and the Tigers are likely hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, the same way they did with Boesch early in the year. There isn’t much hitting these days in the Tigers lineup, so I’ll bet that Frazier will get more than a handful of at bats to try to provide a much-needed spark to the Tigers order.

Toledo Mud Hens (53-52)
July 26 vs. Buffalo, W 5-1 (WP: S. Drucker; LP: R. Igarashi)
July 27 vs. Pawtucket, L 6-10 (WP: R. Ramirez; LP: C. Furbush)
July 28 vs. Pawtucket, W 8-5 (WP: A. Oliver; LP: R. Coello; SV: J. Sborz)

Justin Henry has hit .483 in his first ten games with the Mud Hens since joining the club after hitting .260 with Erie. Charlie Furbush took his second straight loss to Pawtucket since his promotion. Furbush gave up seven hits, including four home runs, that lead to seven earned runs in his four innings of work. He was followed by Josh Rainwater who put together three solid innings before giving way to two more horrible innings from Fu-Te Ni. Toledo used the longball for their 8-5 over Pawtucket on July 28. Casper Wells went deep in the second inning and Jeff Frazier hit homers in the third and fifth. Andy Oliver wasn’t sharp but picked up the win.

Erie SeaWolves (43-63)
July 26 vs. Altoona, L 2-11 (WP: R. Aguero; LP: B. Brown)
July 27 vs. Altoona, W 2-0 (WP: C. Hamilton; LP: D. Hankins)
July 28 vs. Altoona, L 3-6 (WP: J. Wilson; LP: T. Weber; SV: T. Boleska)

Erie Pitching was cruising along on July 26 until Altoona put up a nine spot in the eighth inning. Starter Brooks Brown and reliever Luis Marte were tagged for all nine. Pitching was on display a day later as a scoreless game entered the bottom of the 13th inning. One swing of the bat from the mighty Cale Iorg sent the Erie fans home happy with a long 2-0 victory. Brayan Villarreal was impressive in his second start since a promotion from Lakeland. Altoona hitters managed just four hits and struck out eight times during Villarreal’s seven and two thirds innings.

(more after the jump)

No one seems to be exceptionally excited about the Jhonny Peralta acquisition. Responses seem to vary from “I hate it” to “it’s okay.” But what if it had been Stephen Drew that the Tigers had traded for? I’m confident that there would have been a near unanimous response of “LOVE IT!” So what is it that separates Stephen Drew from Jhonny Peralta (besides ten months in age)?

I’m going to look at this question from a purely statistical standpoint. I’ll use wOBA and UZR to assess their offensive and defensive abilities and then combine the numbers into runs for a single number comparison (this will be similar to the other shortstop posts I’ve done). When assessing defense, I’ll only consider Peralta’s numbers from his seasons at the shortstop position, hopefully this will give us an “apples to apples” comparison.

I’ll start with their respective career numbers. Stephen Drew has been pretty much league average at the plate for his career with a .331 wOBA. Jhonny Peralta has been a shade worse at .326. The difference in offensive potential between these two numbers is 2.8 runs in 650 plate appearances (approximately one season).  On the defensive side, Drew has been about 7.2 runs below average (per 1300 innings) according to UZR. Peralta has been about 6.1 runs below average for his career. Obviously, this difference is about 1.1 runs in favor of Jhonny. So, according to their career offensive and defensive metrics, Drew would add about 1.8 runs of value more than Peralta would over the course of the season. Whoop-de-doo. (More after the jump)

Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski has decided against standing pat at the trade deadline this year. He made a relatively minor move by trading for Indians third baseman Jhonny Peralta late this afternoon.

Peralta comes over with seven home runs and 43 RBI in 93 games with Cleveland. Prior to the 2009 season, Peralta was the Indians shortstop, but has played almost exclusively at third for the past year and a half. He will slot into the lineup at third for the Tigers, at least until Brandon Inge comes back from injury. Once Inge is healthy, Peralta will be in the mix for time at short.

In the short term this is a solid move for Detroit. Peralta bring a much-needed veteran bat to a decidedly inexperienced lineup. Cleveland is paying a good chunk of the remaining salary for Peralta this year, and the Tigers will hold a $7 million option for 2011 that can be bought out for $250 thousand.

As always, however, the Tigers did in fact have to give something up to get their man. Southpaw starting pitcher Giovanni Soto was the man headed to Cleveland. He has spent the season thus far with Low-A West Michigan, where he had a 6-6 record and 2.61 ERA in 18 starts. He’s just 19 and he has a fairly high ceiling, but he’s not one of the top prospects in the Tigers chain. (more after the jump)

Jeremy Bonderman will ponder his future this off-season (Source: YardBarker.com)

What figured to be an interesting off-season may have just gotten a little more interesting.

The expiration of Jeremy Bonderman’s contract is one of the reasons the Tigers will have some cash to spend heading into 2011. Whether or not the Tigers 2011 roster will include Bonderman is already up for debate but now there are doubts that Bonderman will play at all next season.

In a Detroit Free Press article, Bondo acknowledged that he thought about retiring because of his previous injuries and that the option will be on the table this off-season. His other options? Hoping the Tigers offer a contract and re-signing or signing with another team closer to his home in Washington.

Hoping the Tigers offer him a contract? Apparently the Tigers organization hasn’t tipped their hand to even their own free agents to be. Bonderman’s words indicate a lack of leverage in contract negotiations. Beyond that, they indicate a half-hearted desire for a new contract.

Jeremy’s on-field performance may be enough to warrant a return to the Tigers (at a reduced price, of course) but is it wise to invest in a man that is on the fence about playing? Major League Baseball’s 162 game schedule is a mental and physical grind that requires every player to be fully on board. If Bondo has one foot out then the Tigers need to look elsewhere to fill the bottom of their rotation.

You can bet that Dave Dombrowski will be cautious if he decides to proceed with a contract Jeremy Bonderman, a player for which he has already given one contract that received major scrutiny. Dombrowski can’t afford to get burned again.

Detroit 2, Tampa Bay 3 (box)

For the second straight game, the Tigers lost when their pitching was good enough to win. A night after falling victim to Matt Garza’s no-hitter, Detroit batters recorded 12 hits against the Rays, including nine against starter James Shields. In the end, however, they were never able to get the big hit when they needed it.

Justin Verlander allowed a two-run homer to Carlos Pena in the first inning, but just like his last outing, he settled in and worked eight strong innings. The Rays added a run in the sixth when Matt Joyce’s broken bat flair landed just inches inside the foul line and drove home a run.

The Rays managed just five hits versus Verlander after getting just three hits against the Tigers on Monday. Despite totaling only eight hits in two games, the Rays have taken the first two of this four game series.

The Tigers runs both came on a ground ball from Ryan Raburn. Shortstop Jason Bartlett got to the ball (ruled an infield hit), but rushed his throw and allowed two runners to score. That tied the game at 2-2. It was the last time the Tigers would score, but certainly not their last chance. (more after the jump)

Back in April, Matt Klaassen of FanGraphs, proposed a simple ranking of no-hitters based on the opponent’s wOBA. The idea is simple enough: which pitcher pitched his no-hitter against the toughest lineup? It would be interesting to apply this method to compare the relative difficulty of the no-hitter (perfect game, actually) that was thrown by the Tigers with the one that was thrown against them this season.

I’m going to differ from Mr. Klaassen’s methodology a little bit. He didn’t consider each game’s specific lineup, but instead looked at the team’s offense as a whole. I’m going to consider only the starting lineups of last night’s Tigers, and the June 2 Indians.

Armando Galarraga went up against an Indians lineup consisting of Trevor Crowe, Shin-Soo Choo, Austin Kearns, Travis Hafner, Jhonny Peralta, Russell Branyan, Mark Grudzielanek, Mike Redmond, and Jason Donald. This last-place crew boasts an average wOBA of 0.321 (boosted by one felonious Jason Donald single). That’s actually six point higher than their team average for the season, but it would still rank in the bottom third of the American League. We never thought that Armando’s gem was pitched against a great team, but were last night’s Tigers any better? (answer after the jump)