The Thursday Grind: French, All-Star Thoughts and Second Half Hopes

I have to admit, that if I could ever love a man, Luke French has all of the qualities that could pull my heartstrings. In his first win at the Major League level, he showed off all of those characteristics that I ever so love in a man. Especially one in the bottom of the rotation for the Detroit Tigers. Mr. French was consistent, in the zone, and the Royals couldn’t hit on my main man on Wednesday night. (Yes, I do demand all of the attention in this 5th starter/fan relationship). Six innings pitched, only six hits given up, while throwing nearly 65% of his pitches for strikes.  You can’t ask for much more.  Just ask the skip:

"“I thought he pitched pretty good,” Leyland said. “His control probably wasn’t quite as good as he expected, or we expected. I think the other thing is there [was] definitely a couple times tonight where the fact that they hadn’t seen him before, he got by with a couple pitches.”"

The same goes for the Tigers offense on Wednesday, who scored three runs on the one and only Zack Greinke. Curtis Granderson drew a walk after an 0-2 count for only the fourth time all season (a good sign of things to come, beyond the homer). Clete Thomas dug in with an RBI single, fresh off his trip to Toledo.

Fernando (Oh Fernando) Rodney look like a man possessed on the mounds. This time though, the demons were on his side.  His fastball sailed a 97 M.P.H as he captured another save for the Detroit Tigers. Let’s keep em perfect sir.

—Tiger Notes:

With the All-Star break right around the corner, Brandon Inge is leading going into the last day of voting (WOOT my 250 plus votes matter!) Manager Jim Leyland is Johnny on the spot with his opinion on the whole voter a player in system.

“One thing I like about it,” Leyland said, “I think that it’s given the city something happy going on, something a little bit different for a few days. I think it’s good for the city. I think it’s good for the area. I think they’re into it, and I think they’re laughing. They’re forgetting about their problems, maybe, for a little bit. I think that’s the best part about it, myself.”

Justin Verlander, who will pitch two days before the all-star break, will be searching for win number 10 in his last start. Interestingly Verlander has never won that many in the first half in his first four years in the big leagues.

Coming up this Weekend:

Friday- This Week In Detroit Tigers Baseball: Greg Eno, J. Ellet Lambie and John Brunn will join me to discuss the week of games. We will also be joined by Matt Wallace to talk about some of your prospects on the prowl.

Saturday- Trade Wishes: I’ll document my trade wishes for the upcoming trade deadline. the post will the be FTPed to Dave Dombrowski’s laptop.

Sunday- The Sunday Recap: We will take a look at the upcoming all-star game and more.