ESPN.com - MLB/SPRING2007 - Stark: Tigers' 2006 season changed lives A great way to start the season. Overcoming the shock of last year's great season and drive to the yes, WORLD SERIES and based on the fact that I am ordering MLB season package, I plan to give some great insights to this Tiger season. My season review can found at this link:OLDSKOOL HQ'S NEWS AND VIEWS and i want to thank my sponsor's for assisting me this season on our run back to the WORLD SERIES: Stroh's Beer Hostess Twinkies Wonder Bread Better Made Potato Chips Faygo Red Pop Kellogg's Corn flakes Marathon Oil Vernor's Ginger ale M& M Shrimp Shack Top Hat Hamburgers Marygrove College The Lindell AC Windsor Strip clubs of Ontario Sir Graves Ghastly WGPR and the Electrifying Mojo show and The 4:30 Movie Here's to a great season and GOOOOOOOOOOOO Tiiiguhs!!!!
Opening Day is one of only three days during the year that I definetly wont work. The other two are my birthday and the Blue vs Buckeyes game. This will a fun year but baseball is a funny game. here's my predictions: AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST: 1. NEW YORK 100-62 2. BOSTON 91-71 3. TORONTO 84-78 4. BALTIMORE 77-85 5. TAMPA BAY 72-90 AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL: 1. DETROIT 94-68 2. CHICAGO 91-71 3. CLEVELAND 90-72 4. MINNESOTA 87-75 5. KANSAS CY 74-88 AL WEST: 1. CALIFORNIA 92-70 2. TEXAS 89-73 3. OAKLAND 81-81 4. SEATTLE 80-82 CHAMPS: NEW YORK OVER DETROIT NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST: 1. PHILADELPHIA 91-71 2. METS 90-72 3. ATLANTA 89-73 4. FLORIDA 82-80 5. WASHINGTON, DC 60-102 NL CENTRAL: 1. HOUSTON 90-72 2. ST LOUIS 88-74 3. CHICAGO 83-79 4. MILWAUKEE 81-81 5. CINCY 78-84 6. PITTSBURGH 70-92 NL WEST: 1. SAN FRANCISCO 86-76 2. LOS ANGELES 82-70 3. SAN DIEGO 82-70 4. COLORADO 79-83 5. ARIZONA 70-92 CHAMPS: METS OVER ASTROS WORLD SERIES...YANKS OVER METS.....rats
HQ do you think losing those 10-12 starts from The Gambler (due to his blood clot surgery) will affect the Tigers quest to get 90 victories?
Nahh! hes 43 yrs old. we have to start expecting that whatever he gives us is more important in the clubhouse than the dugout. Watch for durbin and Miller. And Nate Robertson will win 17 games at least. Im gonna enjoy this day!!! I ordered MLBTV. its only 14.95 a month and you get every game online Tv or radio. Im only paying month to month because baseball is so funny, but I think we will have a good year. For me, thats 90 wins or more..playoffs or not. Im just glad GOOD baseball is BACK!!!
Opening day had the Blue jays storming to a 3-0 lead and holding on for a 5-3 win in 10 innings. THE GOOD: Bonderman came back with 5 great innings after a terrible 1st. Sheffield showed he is the gangsta of MLB.What a rocket bat. Polanco and Granderson are going to be like the Brothers Johnson, Thunder Thumbs and Lightning Licks!!! Zoom and Doom(Zumaya and Jones) were very good. THE BAD: Rodney is still a crooked hat wearing FlipMurray of a pitcher. No homers. Thats a big part of our offense. Ordonez needs a big hit this year when we least expect it. Wont go 162-0!!!!!!!!!!!
AL WEST: 1. CALIFORNIA 92-70 2. TEXAS 89-73 3. OAKLAND 81-81 4. SEATTLE 80-82 ---------------- Looks good Skoo Just to fire back at ya. Cal...............85-77 Oak..............84-78 Tex..............83-79 Sea..............70-82 Giants over Dodgers? Yeah? NO! Zona............85-77 Yanks over Tigs ? you know better
SERIES: TIGERS AT ROYALS...3 GAMES Tigers start of 1-1 and 1(snow trumps all) and head to KC where it aint much better. Justin V goes Friday and a very important start for Maroth Saturday. Curtis Granderson looks like Lou Brock out there and Polanco leads the AL with a .600 BA. All the hoopla from the pennant ceremonies are done, so this 10 day roadie should actually be kind of relaxing. Look for a lot of runs by our boys this weekend. KC is young and spunky and arguably the best last place team in baseball. Should be a fun weekend. Also, great news that MLB can be scene on CATV this year through your IN DEMAND service,and its free this weekend.
Halladay got us 2 to 1. but came back the next day and clubbed them 10 to 7. 7 and 4 early with 5 road wins. Strong. Yankees suck.
The Jays got us today though, 2-1. Our offense really struggled. Hopefully the Kansas City series will get it going.
12 hits in yesterdays come from behind victory and 3 hits today? Still some work to go for consistency but the season is early. 7-5 season record, 3-3 with the Blue Jays, 2-1 over the Orioles and 2-1 over the Royals. Al lot of tight games so far. Tigers have 49 runs and the oppsition has 47. Maroth looks like a suitable replacement for the gambler, but not sure about Durbin yet.
Maroth was the real deal last year before he threw his shoulder to the plate. 2-1 = good pitching, game is under control.
SUNDAY REPORT: APR 22, 2007 TIGERS W-10 L-8 TEAM AVG: .235 (11TH) RUNS: 86(4TH) WALKS 62(5TH) AT-BATS(IST) ERA: 4.06 (6TH) tigers have all the stats of a 10-8 team. still, they have yet to be swept and avoided that with a 2 out HR by Thames and a GW single by MVP candidate Placido Polanco.The Official Site of The Detroit Tigers: News: Detroit Tigers News Polanco is off and flying after being the MVP of the AL Championship and THE MVG of the World Series. He is getting a Derek Jeter air about him , a look of doing whatever he wants when he's counted upon. Earlier, when attempting to hit behind the runner, he smashed a single down the first base line to score a run. Ozzie Guillen said he is the most feared hitter in our lineup. Overall, weve been terrible 'hitting' wise and with our bullpen , sans Todd Jones. Sheffield , Casey and Inge arent even hitting my weight in the army while Rodney looks like he just fell off the pipe, crack pipe , that is. he's has lost or been responsible for losing 5 of our 8 losses. This is still pretty typical for a team coming off a World Series. St louis is also hovering around .500. Tigers will be fine though as the weather warms up. PLAYER OF THE WEEK: PLACIDO POLANCO PITCHER OF THE WEEK: WIL LEDEZMA
The Tigers are struggling with the consistency. If the pitching is good - don't expect any runs, if they hit up a storm, don't expect pitching to hold it together. Durbin has been shaky, Rodney stunk up the MLB, and Sheffield is non-existent. If those guys get it together as long as Casey and Inge warming up, we should be fine. On another note, how about Pena for TB? 10 games - 3 homers and 9 rbi, but batting .209 with 1 bb and 9 K's.
Look at Chef's on base % of .326 vs. Granderson's .329. That's not so bad. He's getting walked on about 20% of hit trips to the plate. It also shows in his runs scored of 12 (highly correlated to OBP). He's tied for 36th in the league along side Barry Bonds. Mags and Granderson are the only 2 Tigers ahead of him. Also, our top 3 starting pitchers have been great. Robertson- 2.05 ERA Verlander- 2.08 Bonderman- 2.25 Then there is a drop off... Moroth- 5.05 If the Gambler was in there, we'd probably have 4 starting P's with ERA's < 3!
What's up with Bonderman and the first inning? Can he ever get through it without giving up at least a couple of runs? If he could do that - we are probalby talking Cy Young material. Well, maybe not that great, but he'd be a star in this league. Jones needs to get his cr.p together. You can't blow a save after team came back from being down 7-0. It has a huge psychological effect no matter how experienced your team is. Inge needs some more batting practice. Granderson struck out 3 more times today. Even though he homered, he is striking out way too much for a leadoff man. I know, he is still young and working on cutting down on strikes, but the results are simply not there. He maybe needs to be moved down in the lineup, but that couldn't happen since we don't have anyone else even resembling leadoff hitter who gets on base. Our pitching has been shaky. You can't rely on your offense to consistently score 10 runs each game to win. Rodney had good outing, maybe he's getting his act together. He'd be a great help. Is there a pitcher in our bullpen that hasn't blown a save this year? I am not sure, but seems like everyone did at least once. Anyhow, it is still early in the season, but things need some quick fixing or there will not be any playoffs this year.
Bondo has no decisions in 5 or 6 starts. What a messed up way to lose that 2sd Angel game. Clutch hitting is our only hope. The pitching is a null, especially in the Central. As the Tigers warm up so will other teams. Still I like our chances, hope we stay healthy.
Tough sleety [snow and rain] win for Tigers tonite. Beat the snot out of CWS 6 to 2. Durbin gets first win in 3 years. Zoom walked like 6 guys, so Jones had to come in and finish.
