Saturday, April 01, 2006

Jones Injured, Opening Day Line-up Set Again

Todd Jones pulled his hamstring during the ninth inning of today's game and he's now headed for the disabled list. There is no word on how long he'll be out or who will take his place on the roster. Fernando Rodney will almost certainly be the closer in his absence. Jones could be replaced on the roster by Franklin German if he clears waiver. Other possibilities include Roman Colon and Mark Woodyard.

I was not expecting a great year out of Todd Jones, certainly not close to what he did last year. I'm not too concerned with Rodney assuming the closer role. However, the Tigers bullpen is thin and losing Jones hurts their bullpen depth even more. I would imagine that Jones will miss most of April and maybe more.

Opening Day Line-up

Jim Leyland has tweaked the starting line-up again switching Craig Monroe and Chris Shelton so that Shelton now bats 6th and Monroe eighth. This is the likely opening day line-up:

Curtis Granderson CF
Placido Polanco 2B
Ivan Rodriguez C
Magglio Ordonez RF
Dmitri Young DH
Chris Shelton 1B
Carlos Guillen SS
Craig Monroe LF
Brandon Inge 3B

Since Shelton is a better hitter than Monroe, I like this new line-up better. I'd still like to see Shelton and Guillen bat a little higher though. Most people think that Rodriguez is batting third because Leyland wants to keep him happy by showing him he is an important player in the line-up. If massaging Pudge's ego helps him be more productive, then I'm all for it. However, I hope Leyland takes him out of that spot pretty quickly if he starts hitting like he did last year.

4 comments:

  1. Is this an april fools day joke? Why is there no link on the tigers home page? The injury is not listed on ESPN YAHOO or CBS sportsline. But people who heard the braodcast say that Jones did walk off the field with some pain.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is this an april fools day joke? Why is there no link on the tigers home page? The injury is not listed on ESPN YAHOO or CBS sportsline. But people who heard the braodcast say that Jones did walk off the field with some pain.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joe, I was thinking April Fool's Joke when I first heard it. Danny Knobler is reliable though. Other sites are just slow to report things on the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was listening to the game today and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. last game, two outs-- Could only happen to us--

    I agree along with what Lee was saying. I wasn't expecting what he did last year either,but, like you said this now makes the thin part of this team even thinner--

    Having someone like Rodney makes me feel a little more at ease and then again it doesn't--

    we shall see how this plays out-- I guess we'll just have to score ten runs a night till he comes back-:)

    ReplyDelete

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