Well a very good week as we swept Cavs.., I mean, Indians to cap a 4-1 week. Defensively, they have been as good as I've seen in years. the starters are uniquely consistent with Rogers continuing to stablize the staff. Not a good week offensively, but clutch hits from Monroe, Inge, Ordonez and Shelton.

I'm kinda following baseball this year, the Tigers pitching has been great.

I'm happy to see Fernando Rodney getting the chance to close.

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To all of my friends, comrades and companions at PF.com

Thank you for another great season!

Somethings unnatural here. A .550 winning % might be expected. But .600 is too high. Keeping one eye on the standings.

Good idea HQ starting a weekly thread on the Tigers... nice having a Swiss army knife forum.

I'll have to agree with Thee about there being some fools gold... I thought it might be interesting to get folks take on how these players will improve/decline moving forward... here's my guesstimates:

C Monroe -

C Granderson +

I Rodriguez +

C Shelton -

C Guillen +

P Polanco +

B Inge -

M Thames -

J Bonderman -

K Rogers even

J Verlander -

M Maroth -

N Robertson -

J Zumaya +

N Robertson -

F Rodney -

T Jones -

J Walker -

I don't have much confidence in Todd Jones or Maroth... but this Zumaya kid could be special

Any other predictions?

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With politicians the future lies ahead

Nice quotes on the + and -. The way i see it, there's always a team that sneaks up on somebody for a season. I dont want that. All I want to see is a team that can guarantee us 85-77 in a 'bad' year.

Don't look now but we are tied for the best record in the MLB! Add to that our best in the league road record, and we'll be sitting pretty once we get to play more home games.

Zumaya got out of a hell of a bind Robertson put us in today in the 7th. Polanco is an amazing fielder. Robertson has been the least impressive of our starters. He only gave up 3+1 he gave to zumaya, but last year he was great, he just never got any offensive support, this year he seems to be doing just a hair worse. Everyone else has stepped up exponentially though.

Zumaya can get out of control at times, but overall he's been good with that rocket he calls an arm. The sky's the limit for him. I disagree with giving all of our pitchers except z - marks though. They've been a little shaky after that insane 15 of 16 good starts, but the last 4 games have been solid. #1 or #2 bullpen in the league? I'll take it.

Skluck,
Which pitchers do you think will improve from their current winning (or save) % ?

i think having rogers is a big reason why we're doing so well. bonderman no longer has to be the #1 guy, especially being so young he now has pressure taken off of him, and he doesn't have to face so many ace pitchers like rogers is used to. this trickles down to the rest of the pitching staff.

The thing is, guys, we will have our stretches during the year, because our 5 starters arent the Pistons 5. We have no depth at that postition and we still have to spot start Zumaya and Grilli a few times. I dont want Tigertown to expect a title or wild card but the media is gonna eat this up. Leyland was on Mike and Mike this morn and I love how he "POO-POO"s everything. we aint no where near Chicago, and may not be 'better' than Cleveland . Lets enjoy the year and what happens, happens and let's enjoy the sunshine. Great win last night. This team reminds me of the 87 Tigers. Good defense and good starters. Timely hitting. Did u know that only 6 Tigers have made at least 1 error all year? Go Bengals!

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The thing that continues to blow me away is how efficient the pitching staff has been. Best in the majors right now. Check the stats. Maroth is a huge surprise. Bonderman has been a little disappointing, actually. Verlander has been decent. Rogers has been AWESOME. What the guy lacks in power, he makes up in experience. Robertson is still trade bait, I think, but we'll see. I think Jones should be traded to a contender, as well, as the trade deadline nears. Rodney can be the closer for this team. We can get a third-baseman prospect out of it perhaps. Does Inge even have a backup? I'm enjoying the ride but I still don't think this team gets 90 wins. I'm hoping for 87 or so. That would be great. Chisox probably still win the division, but can Tigers sneak into the wild card? The problem there is the Indians haven't kicked it into high gear and neither have the BoSox or Yanks. The season is a marathon, not a sprint. Let's see what kind of endurance these Tigers have. Leyland has made a huge difference over Tram. There was a situation a few weeks ago when Bonderman had lost focus out on the mound and instead of the pitching coach coming out, Leyland went out there and basically got in Bondy's face and told him to pull his head outta his azz. I didn't see it, but it was explained on the radio. Tram never woulda done that.

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"I don't believe there's any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is, that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can't completely ignore. - George Carlin