According to Tigers radio voice Dan Dickerson, the Tigers have only had a winning record through the first six games THREE times in the last 25 seasons. He didn't say how the Tigers finished in those seasons, but it sure makes April fun. Now, I realize that these wins have come against the Royals and the Indians, but it will at least give us a nice cushion for when we actually have to play real baseball teams (the Royals will win today because I said that).
In what must be a shock to most Tigers fans, we managed to pull off this excellent start without Curtis Granderson. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Granderson fan. I even have a jersey with his name on it. He was "my Tiger". However, I think we can win without him. I think Austin Jackson will be very valuable. He's very young but he's already thrown out a man at home (sort of) and is hitting .296. He real value, though, is in his legs. In the home opener, when Magglio's ground ball got bobbled and then thrown away by Johnny Peralta, Jackson scored from first. He scored from first on an error. By the time I realized what had happened, this kid was half-way down the third base line. His speed is already making opposing pitchers nervous and distracted. It's nice to have a legitimate base-running threat that really annoys the pitchers.
I'm liking the other new additions we have, as well. Actually, I like the way things are going, in general. Scott Sizemore is turning DP's like an old pro. In fact, the Tigers are getting double plays like crazy, it seems. There have been some real defensive gems. The bullpen is doing really well, despite the fact that Valverde blew a save already. Our big boys are hitting and hitting well. I'm not worried about Verlander; he didn't turn it on last year until May, at which point he became inhuman. It's still too early to say how the season will go, but it's started well. I think it's gonna be a good summer.
Oh, I couldn't afford a ticket package this year, but I'm still going to as many games as I can. I will be going to Elvis Night.
So, I got fed up with MLBlogs finicky site, so I basically gave up on my blog. Then my friend suggested that I make I use blogger for my baseball blogging, so here I am. I've imported all my old posts and will be posting on this feed exclusively from now on. I'm not quite ready to discuss the way the Tigers season ended, I have a lot of thoughts about it, not all bad, but it's gonna be a long post. For now, though, I'm just going to enjoy playoff baseball.
Two of Baseball's great personalities passed today. Harry Kalas, who made baseball seem all the more magical with his wonderful voice, and Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, who is a legend despite the fact that he only had five short years due to injury in the Majors. Thank you to both of these men who made our National Pastime that much better.
Some personal sadness, too, today. A friend of the family passed early this morning. All three too sudden and too soon.
After seven games, the Tigers are 4-3. If the Twins lose today, they'll stand alone in first place in the Central. That's a stark difference from last year, when they were 0-7 at this same point facing a mountain climb out of the cellar. They never really made it.
This year is different. You can tell that already. I'm not saying that they'll go the the World Series or anything, but it is different. After losing the opening series in Toronto 3-1, the Tigers came home and swept the Rangers out of town. Last year negative momentum would have followed them for two weeks. This year, they came out swinging.
On Opening Day, I was there. It was a blast! I saw my first live Grand Slam. Miguel Cabrera had 6 RBI. Galarraga was fantastic. The Tigers won 15-2. It was very, very exciting.
Game 2 of the series saw Verlander improve dramatically over his first start. He allowed only two hits and one earned run while striking out 8. His ERA dropped by 10. A pair of errors, by Brandon Inge and Adam Everett, brought in two more runs to give Texas the lead, but Everett made up for it by going 2-3 with 2 RBI's and scoring the winning run. Robertson pitched two hitless innings and Rodney struck out the side in the 9th inning for his first save. Robertson may just be a reliever, after all.
So, the Tigers went into the Easter Sunday game with their first series win of the season and a chance to sweep. Jackson pitched very well, despite giving up two home runs. He held the lead to four long enough for the other pitcher, Kevin Milwood, to be knocked out of the game. Once he was gone, the Tigers took over. Inge hit a home run, his AL leading 4th of the year, and they sent all 9 men to the plate. Another clutch hit by Inge put the Tigers ahead 6-4. Lyon and Rodney combined for three perfect innings for the win and the save, respectively.
Does anyone else notice a pattern here? The Texas Rangers lineup is filled with some of the most feared hitters in the game. Last year, they scored more runs than anyone else in the American League. Yet the Tigers held them to only 9 runs over three games. The Detroit bullpen, one of the worst last year, has a streak going of 24 retired batters. If you remove the meltdown in the first game in Toronto, the staff has an ERA under three. Even when those runs are factored in, they're below the league average. This from a team for which pitching was it's biggest concern?
Also, can we talk about how happy I am that Inge is back at third base? He's made two or three spectacular plays in this series alone and he's currently hitting .304. Obviously I don't expect him to hit like that for the whole season, but he was so happy to be playing everyday at third that he's working extrememly hard to keep his job there. Last year, he would have been unwilling to work on his stance the way he did this past offseason and the dividends that it's already paying will no doubt keep him going for most of the season.
Monday they get their first taste of divisional play when the White Sox come to town. This will be the real test, since the Tigers were 27-45 against the Central. That's .375. Still, they have momentum on their side, a couple of white hot hitters, they're pitching well, they're perfect at home, and when it comes right down to it, they're looking down instead of up. That's a good place to be.
Well, the first series of the year is in the books. And you know what? I'm pretty happy. I think that there are more positives than negatives, despite the fact that we lost the series.
Things that make me happy:
1. Miguel Cabrera: He's looking to have a stellar year. As it stands, his batting average is .615 and his OBP is like, .800. He's hit two home runs, one of them landed in Germany. He's yet to play outside in the cold weather, but something tells me his start last year had more to do with pressure than weather. This year he's relaxed and boy, is he swinging.
2. Brandon Inge: No, Brandon Inge will not break the home run record. He probably won't be as hot for the whole season as he is right now. The fact that he seems to have found a swing that works makes me happy, but the fact that he'll be standing on third all season makes me very happy. He made an absolutely spectacular play the other day; throwing a strike while he was basically falling down to start a double play. I can't even fathom how many runs he'll save and right now, it looks like he might add some, too.
3. Starting Pitching: Edwin Jackson and Zach Miner were very good. Edwin Jackson, in fact, was very, very, very good. Rick Porcello was doing very well until a couple of homers spoiled it. He worked efficiently and most of the outs came from ground balls. He's very promising and for a first start in the majors, it wasn't bad at all.
4. Fernando Rodney, Bobby Seay, and Ryan Perry: Fernando Rodney actually looked like a closer last night. He got three quick outs and his pitches just...looked different. His fastball seemed to glide over the plate and he didn't seem to be throwing himself into a tailspin. More importantly, he was throwing strikes. In fact, he threw a first-pitch strike to all three batters. Ryan Perry went 1-2-3 in his major league debut. Bobby Seay came out twice and quietly did his job. On Wedensday, these three men not only held the lead, but didn't give up a hit or a walk. Not sure that happened at all last year.
Things that may seem bad, but that I'm not worried about:
1. Defense: Four errors in four games doesn't seem good, but I think the defense will be much better this year. I think that the turf is responsible for all but one of those errors, and once the Tigers get back on the grass and into the groove, watch out.
2. Verlander: I may be the only person on the planet who's not worried about Justin Verlander. I'm just not. I think that he just needs to calm down. This is a man who won rookie of the year, started a World Series game, threw a no-hitter, and started an all star game in the first two years of his career. Then he had a bad year. Then he gets to start the season as staff Ace and hears everyone talking about how he needs to get back on track, or the Tigers won't go anywhere. He was pitching Opening Day, too. He lets his excitement/anixeity get to him a lot. That could continue and mess him up for the rest of the season, but I don't think it will. I guess you can just call it a feeling, but I still think it'll be a bounce back year for Verlander.
My only major concern is the bullpen. Besides the three mentioned above, everyone else has been pretty horrible. Juan Rincon, after burning through Spring Training, has a 5.40 ERA. Every pitcher except Seay who was given runners let them score. That's not good. Brandon Lyon ruined a nearly perfect start by Jackson. It was painful to watch and even worse to watch Jackson watching it from the dugout. I'm guessing that DD and Leyland are trying to figure out what to do about him at this point. He was unimpressive (at best) in Spring Training and he blew the first save of the season. They gambled on him, and it doesn't seem like it's gonna pay off. Of course, if Rodney keeps pitching like he did last night, it won't be an issue. I'm not sure when or if Zumaya may be able to come back. Every time I read about him I think about Mark Fydrich. Mega talented but too fragile to make it. We'll see.
My only other concern is that my television won't survive until May, because Fox Sports Detroit might make me throw things at it. See, they held a song contest called "April in the D". April is usually a pretty exciting month in Detroit, sportswise, since the Pistons and the Red Wings are perennial playoff contenders and the Tigers are starting a new season. So they said, "Write a song about it!" The winner, a song called April in the D by a band called the Goodluck Joes is being played EVERY TIME the station goes to commercial. It's going to drive me insane.
It's not a bad song. I just don't need to hear it every half inning, as well as two or three times during the pre and post game shows.
I know this has been a novel, but I would like to close by extending my condolences to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Organization as well as the family and friends of Nick Adenhart, who died this morning just hours after pitching his Major League debut. He was 22. It's a tragic and senseless death that could have been prevented. Just another in a string of constant reminders that drinking and driving is wrong.
Andsoitbegins. The Tigers lose one game (Opening Freakin' Day, no less) and every starts acting like it's game 6 of the World Series. One blogger even started a countdown of losses before the Tigers pass their losing streak of seven games at the beginning of last season. That's bad sportsmanship and poor fandom. It was ONE GAME, people. There's always tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and then 158 days after that. Given that only ONE AL Central will have recorded a win come tomorrow, I don't think that the loss tonight automatically disqualifies us from the playoffs.
Now, I don't enjoy watching my team get beat 12-5, but let's be honest here, did anyone really think that they were going to win tonight? Verlander was more wound up from all the hype of a fast start that you could probably spin him like a top. Roy Halladay has dominated the Tigers for his entire career. The fact that they even got the five runs off of him was pretty remarkable.
What I also don't enjoy seeing is things being thrown at my players. That is totally unacceptable. I'm not going to blame Blue Jay fans, because for all I know, it was a Tigers fan. Still, totally juvenile and a display of the worst sportsmanship possible.
Here's a fun fact for all the negative nancies: the only time the Tigers have given up more runs on Opening Day was in 1908, when they gave up 14 to the White Sox.
Hey, remember when I wrote about MLB Network's predictions for the Tigers this season and the analysts thought they were going to finish in every position except fourth? Well, guess where Sports Illustrated is predicting they'll finish?
So, basically no one knows what the hell is going to happen. That includes me. The only certainty at the moment is that the Tigers will finish.
Here are some other certainties:
Going, Gary, Gone
Gary Sheffield is no longer a Tiger (as if you didn't know). A very large part of me jumps for joy at this concept; I don't mind someone being a total ******* as long as he's good. Gary just wasn't good as a Tiger. It would have been nice to see him hit his 500th in the D, but I'm sure someone else will get there (Cabrera perhaps? Has eight years). The fact is, this guy had become a black hole and he was the DH. A DH that can't hit has to go, especially on a team with five or six DH's. I literally screamed "YES!" when I read it in the car and nearly made my friend swerve off the road. His departure gives a real chance to some of our younger players (by the way, I'm very happy that they decided to take Porcello and Perry north). Not only is he gone, but he's left us with one of the best things he's ever said, and this is a man who says a lot:
"Jim (Leyland) said, 'We're going to go with versatility.' When he said that word I thought to myself, 'I'm probably the most athletic guy on this team.' But they're entitled to their opinion"
Yeah, sure, Gary; and I'm an Olympic gymnast.
I Will Be Stylin'.
I bought myself a new hat. I decided that my white hat with pink D, though still beloved, is not a game hat. Oh, sure, I might whip it out now and then and wear one of my girly Tigers shirts, but I've bought several things in team colors that I'm very excited about. Including this to wear to "80's Night" at the Ballpark. As a side note, I was not originally going to go to the May 4th game; that was one of my "sell" tickets. However, upon discovering that the DeLorean, the Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles, and Darth Vader were all going to be at the game, I couldn't resist. As a second side note, this is the second time that I've bought said hat; the first one was ruined by a fluffy tornado.
Well, that's not many certainties at all. No matter. I have my tickets in hand, my new hat, and the roster is set. If the season weren't starting this weekend, I would probably explode or something. I don't plan on missing a second of a single game this season, and modern technology means I don't have to. I'll be at 15-16 games (including Opening Day), we have a great local sports station that will broadcast every game that isn't being broadcast nationally, in the car I can listen to the radio, and if I'm neither at the game, at home, or in the car (read: school) I can use this absolutely fabulous app for the iPhone to distract me thouroughly (seriously, if you have an iPhone and are a true baseball fan, you need this app).
Oh, one more certainty: It's gonna be a great summer.
