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Detroit Tigers: Holaday injured, Ausmus’ job, young Cubs

By Dave Holcomb |

The Detroit Tigers have gone through their fair share of injuries this season, and now Triple-A Toledo, the Tigers minor-league affiliate, will as well.

Catcher Bryan Holaday injured his thumb on a home plate collision on Monday night playing for the Mud Hens. Triple-A Toldeo manager Larry Parrish told The Detroit News that Holaday either dislocated or fractured his thumb, which would end Holaday’s season.

That’s too bad because the catcher was expected to be one of the Tigers’ September call-ups in two weeks.

Maybe Ausmus could put on the gear one more time if Detroit needs a third catcher in September. The general feeling that Ausmus will no longer be manager after the season continues to grow around Tigers land. Perhaps it would be best to move on before the season and give another coach an opportunity to manage.

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The media loves comparisons, so with the Tigers in Chicago for a two-game series with the Cubs, the Detroit Free Press is comparing this season’s Chicago Cubs with the 2006 Detroit Tigers. Although there are some similarities in the sense that both teams were surprising in the first year with their respective new managers, but the similarities pretty much end their.

As bad as the Cubs have been lately, the Tigers were much worse, setting a record for losses just three years prior to 2006. Furthermore, Joe Maddon and the Cubs are in a unique situation in that they have the longest championship drought of any professional sports team in the United States.

Tigers catcher Bryan Holady’s season likely over injured thumb in home-plate collision – James Schmehl, MLive.com

It’s an unfortunate break for Holaday, who was expected to serve as the Tigers’ third-string catcher when active rosters expand to 40 players on Sept. 1.Holaday spent all last season as the backup catcher behind starter Alex Avila, and served as the backup behind rookie catcher James McCann earlier this season when Avila was forced to miss nearly two months with loose body in his left knee.Holaday hit .271 with three doubles and 12 RBIs in 48 at-bats for the Tigers before being optioned to Toledo to clear a spot for Avila in early July.

Ausmus hasn’t shown any reason to keep him on – John Niyo, The Detroit News

The decision to pitch to Jose Altuve with first base open and a runner on third with two outs in the ninth didn’t make much sense. Starting the inning with lefty Tom Gorzelanny facing three right-handed hitters — a move that backfired when Jake Marisnick drilled a two-out triple — made even less sense.Then came the explanation that righty Alex Wilson, who relieved Gorzelanny, was supposed to pitch “carefully” to Altuve, the reigning AL batting champ, and that all of this was done to avoid pinch hitter Preston Tucker, “a guy that has killed us,” Ausmus noted.Indeed, three of Tucker’s 12 homers this season, including game-tying, ninth-inning shots off Joakim Soria in May and Bruce Rondon on Saturday, have come against the Tigers. But the rookie also was 4-for-32 in August before the previous night’s bomb that had Ausmus so spooked.Whatever the reasoning, it failed — miserably — because as Wilson told reporters after the game, he was trying to “attack” and “get ahead” of Altuve, which is sort of the opposite of pitching “carefully.” And just one more example of the kind of muddled mess this team has become, with good intentions undone by poor execution and bad ideas ruining good efforts.

Young, surprising Cubs remind some of ’06 Tigers – Anthony Fenech, Detroit Free Press

They’ve come quick and they’ve come with the confidence of Maddon, who assumed the challenge of a career when he took over the Cubs job before the season: winning the team’s first World Series in 106 years, the longest championship drought of any major sports team in the country.It’s a different situation, former Tigers manager Jim Leyland said recently, but at the core of the Cubs’ comeback story is Maddon, who has changed the culture of the clubhouse, much in the same way Leyland did with the 2006 Tigers.“I think the biggest thing you have to do is you gotta get everybody on the same page,” Leyland said. “Understand the importance of the team concept. His team is very talented. The team I took over was very talented. It’s just a matter of getting everybody on the same page, to understand how good and talented they are.”

Next: Detroit Tigers: 5 Worst Moves in Dave Dombrowski Era

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