Tigers over Mocs 17-5

JP already broke down the game with great detail in his earlier post. Rather than regurgitate the box score, let me touch on a few things and share a few photos. Nothing too in depth, it’s been a long day.

Enrique Gonzalez tossed two solid innings of work, striking out three. The non-roster invitee might be a dark horse candidate to assume the vacant long relief role in the bullpen. While I realize that they would prefer to use Brad Thomas in that role, hell, I’d rather see Lester Oliveros in that spot. In case you missed that subliminal hit, I am not a big fan of the Brad Thomas’ batting practice fastball. As for Oliveros, he was beaten like a pinata by the college kids today. I realize it was just the first game of spring but damn, I am sure that wasn’t the results that he was looking for.

Daniel Schlereth was quite impressive in his quick inning of work. Despite the walk, a strikeout and double play ended the threat. Phil Coke moving to the rotation has opened the door for Schlereth. We have all heard a great deal about his potential to be a lock down late inning reliever. Hopefully days like this become a regular occurrence.

I was very impressed with Ryan Perry today. He tormented the poor college kids with the hard stuff, striking out two. His inning of work was over with in the blink of an eye. Similar to Schlereth, this season provides a big opportunity for Perry to take a big step forward.

While Andy Oliver put up solid numbers in the box-score, I feel he struggled out there a bit today. He seemed to provide a steady diet of fastballs to Florida Southern hitters. Although it didn’t show in the box-score, batters saw fastball and hit fastball. He surrendered several deep foul-balls. No real reason to get concerned, I just felt that it needed to be addressed.

To state that outfielder Brennan Boesch hit a bomb to center field is a severe understatement.  Jon Parent said it best when he stated,

Anything that travels that far, that fast aughtta have a stewardess and an in-flight movie.

Yes I just quoted John Parent, deal with it people. His thoughts were the general consensus of all of us in attendance.

One game certainly doesn’t give Boesch the advantage over Casper Wells or Clete Thomas. However, the long ball is a big reason why I would rather see a guy like Boesch on the bench. Our defense is pretty much already terrible. Having slap hitters like Thomas or Wells on the bench provides less of a threat in my opinion.

I will return to Joker Marchant Stadium on Sunday as we battle the Blue Jays at 1:05pm. Thanks to all of my new followers on twitter. I hope I was able to paint a decent picture of the game for you.

-stay classy Tigers fans

JAYRC

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