2009 Detroit Tigers

**smogboy** · April-15-09, 11:40 PM

It's about time I chime in on Detroit's Boys of Summer. Now since being seriously singed and torched for their debacle last season, my emotional roller coaster has finally eased up and I can finally look at them somewhat objectively again [[although there will always be the distraction of the Lions, Pistons and impending Stanly Cup title defense by the Wings).

I really didn't follow Dombrowski's wheeling & dealing over the summer mainly because I had lost a fair amount of faith in the man [[again, see last season). Leyland seemed like a man who was tossed an anvil in the churning seas as well. The team that had brought us so much joy by getting to the World Series had lost me for awhile.

But since watching peripherally a few games, this doesn't look like the same team on several fronts and yet still has some very good points to observe. Offensively we've still got some solid weapons in Cabrera, a faltering Guillen, Ordonez, Granderson, and hopefully a much needed slap hit from Polanco from time to time. Defensively we seem a bit stronger in the infield [[Inge at 3B has always seem like a good fit to me) although Everett & Laird are unknowns to me so far. Anything straight away centerfield I have no problem but on either side of Granderson, I will have to question their range and strength of their arms. Pitching will always be a conundrum here.

I totally expected Bonderman, Verlander, Galarraga and had high hopes for Miner, Robertson and Willis to regain some form to be the back bone of this team. It seems as though Edwin Jackson has stepped in place of Bonderman and while I'm still not a firm believer that Porcello is the next coming of Nolan Ryan, I really had hopes that he'd still be in the minors honing his craft at the beginning of this season. The relievers were going to be a total disaster based upon what I saw last season but looking at the numbers, Rodney seems to have accepted the role pretty well and seems to be throwing worthy heat. I just hope he doesn't give us all clumps of gray hair like Todd Jones did the last few years- very serviceable but scary to watch as a fan.

And after just checking, the lads are tied for first in their division. Woo hoo. Whether that will last for the next 170+ games will be a trick. They surprised me a few years back getting so close and they did it with very little hype or fanfare prior to. I will always be cautiously optimistic about this team- they are OUR Detroit Tigers- our hometown team. I will bleed blue and orange for them because they are the locals and in a way, represent our fair city. I hope they do better than .500 and will continue to improve. They shocked us all once and just maybe they can do it again. A little bit of confidence, some timely hitting, a few well placed strikes, and a lack of injury to the big guns... and who knows?

**Johnlodge** · April-16-09, 08:10 AM

Anything straight away centerfield I have no problem but on either side of Granderson, I will have to question their range and strength of their arms

I never thought OrdoÃ±ez was a problem. His leg still wasn't 100% when we made it to the World Series, but he still seemed to get the job done. Guillen, on the other hand, I haven't seen him tested enough to form an opinion. I don't see him running up a wall any time soon, though.

cheddar bob · April-16-09, 01:17 PM

While his range may be a bit limited, I've always found Ordonez to be a very under rated right fielder. He's has a respectable lifetime fielding percentage and had several seasons with less than two errors.

Guillen is getting pretty old and his range is also limited, but from what I've seen so far, he has done a very good job and has been more than servicable.

Ramon Santiago, aside from his first couple of years, has shown that he is very solid palyer. I think he compares favorably to Everett defensively and is miles ahead of him at the plate. Evertt should probably just be sat down. I'd give Santiago a shot if I were the manager.

Ravine · April-17-09, 07:47 PM

Nice to see Ordonez receiving a little support from some of you. I think what happened is that a couple of the schmoes on local radio started calling him a lousy rightfielder and the label stuck, because thinking for oneself requires effort, and why go through all that when you can just have Mike Valenti decide what you should think.
I'm not saying he's dazzling, out there, but I don't think he deserves the panning he gets.
Sometimes I wonder if he may be partly victimized by the Kirk Gibson Effect: He's good-looking, the girls love him, so the guys look for bad things to say about him.

Ravine · April-17-09, 08:56 PM

By the way & for the record, I like Mike Valenti. He's very entertaining, and he usually has at least half of a clue as to what the hell he is talking about. It's not his fault if folks are unwilling to think for themselves and rely on his assessments.
And, what the hell. If you're going to absorb someone's opinion and use it as your own, better to use his than that of Jeff "Let's Talk About Hot Chicks" Riger.
I spent about twenty minutes, the other night, textually harassing him for spouting off about what happens when you play Marcus Thames for a long stretch of time. No one has seen Thames play for a long stretch of time. But again, there we have another case of folks saying stuff just because they heard someone else say it.
It's one thing if it's a couple of dopes on bar-stools. Not so good when it's coming from a talk-show host.

**smogboy** · April-28-09, 12:32 AM

By no means have I plotted and planned the Woodward parade route for the men of the old English D but they looked pretty good for a good chunk of tonight taking on the dreaded Yankees.

It truly was an epic duel between guns like Verlander and Sabbathia with Verlander pitching some of his best stuff since the shut out [[which seemed like another lifetime ago). JV really had some great stuff going scoreless for as long as he has. Bobby Seay has really impressed me as well. Rodney had a bout of Todd Jones there nearly blowing it in the 9th inning.

Great game. Seriously for anyone who missed it, this was a great game AND the team's actually on a roll of sorts. Let's hope it continues off of the woes of the Yankees.

**softailrider** · April-28-09, 01:20 AM

Originally Posted by cheddar bob

While his range may be a bit limited, I've always found Ordonez to be a very under rated right fielder. He's has a respectable lifetime fielding percentage and had several seasons with less than two errors.

Guillen is getting pretty old and his range is also limited, but from what I've seen so far, he has done a very good job and has been more than servicable.

Ramon Santiago, aside from his first couple of years, has shown that he is very solid palyer. I think he compares favorably to Everett defensively and is miles ahead of him at the plate. Evertt should probably just be sat down. I'd give Santiago a shot if I were the manager.

I don't think he's that bad either, I'd say he's solid in right field. He's no Al Kaline but there will never be another Al Kaline.

**Flanders** · April-28-09, 08:43 AM

Loogie DFAed:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...tnerId=rss_mlb

With Miller/Maybin struggling, it makes the trade for Cabrera and so far worthless Willis even more one-sided. After all, Willis did not come here with more than one year left on his contract, his extension was DD's doing.

**Flanders** · April-28-09, 09:57 PM

Well now that 7th inning was UGLY!!!

Anderson badly botched a catch in LF, and Perry is a rookie, but still, the pitching by Robertson and Lyon was pathetic.

Thankfully the 6 innings of shutout ball vs the Yankees pitched by EJax won't be anything worse than a ND, but the Tigers didn't give him any run support by getting to Hughes who pitched great as well.

**Lombaowski** · May-02-09, 02:25 AM

Getting way behind then scoring a bunch of runs to make the score close is good schtick.

**rjk** · May-13-09, 04:45 PM

How come there's no sports super thread? These individual threads get pushed down and it's out of sight out of mind.

Willis is pitching tonight. I can't remember a game that I was so excited about, but so afraid to watch. Hopefully he doesn't get shelled.

cheddar bob · May-13-09, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by rjk

How come there's no sports super thread? These individual threads get pushed down and it's out of sight out of mind.

Willis is pitching tonight. I can't remember a game that I was so excited about, but so afraid to watch. Hopefully he doesn't get shelled.

There's probably a better than 50% chance of that happening.

Brandon Lyon ERA: 4.85. I don't think I'll be writting him a personal apology.

cheddar bob · May-14-09, 01:10 PM

Lyon's ERA went up a little last night. How in the fuck do you give up a grand slam on a 1-2 count and 2 outs? I was pretty sure the Tigers were going to lose the game just because Lyon was in the game [[I would have put Robertson in). I have absolutely no confidence in him and hope they could trade him to another Central Division team.

**cloud_wall** · May-14-09, 01:29 PM

Turns out Robertson has been hurt. They put him on the DL after last night's game retroactive to May 6.

cheddar bob · May-14-09, 05:59 PM

Yeah, I found out Robertson was hurt after my post. I guess I wouldn't have put him in.

Ravine · May-15-09, 08:42 PM

Yeah, hurt. Probably hurt like "we need to get his now-useless ass out of the way so we can bring up somebody who might be able to get a few outs" hurt.

**Flanders** · May-16-09, 12:24 AM

Inge and Raburn grand slams between the raindrops tonight, the first time since Jim Northrup hit a pair in 1968 [[I listened to that game on the radio) and the first time that two Tigers did so since Al Kaline and Ray Boone in '54.

Inge has 10 homers to lead the team, and is on pace to hit 48...

Inge, Verlander and Jackson's performances have been the pleasant surprises so far this season, and Josh Anderson is hitting around .300, while the old guard of Polanco, Ordonez and Guillen's offense have been disappointing. although Maggs appears to be snapping out of it lately, and Carlos has been on the DL.

Tigers' catching trio of Treanor [[DL for the rest of the season), Laird, and Sardinha have been good defensively but absolutely horrible offensively. Laird is like 1 for 40 and Sardinha is hitting as well as can be expected, which is about twice as often as Laird has lately.

**Detroitej72** · May-18-09, 09:19 PM

Weird season so far. We sweep the Tribe with some great pitching. Then, we get swept by the Twinkies, then come back home and sweep the A's in dramatic fashion.

Still, its good to see our Tigers in first place.

**Flanders** · May-19-09, 09:34 PM

This Tigers' thread is lame so far, compared to last years' but Dontrelle's start tonight was anything but!!

Willis held the good-hitting Rangers to just ONE hit in 6.1 innings and also walking only two and striking out eight, including the side in the second inning..

Tigers with a SHO win 4-0, and remain alone in first, putting a stop to the Rangers 7 game winning streak. Very encouraging outing by the D-Train!!

**Whaler** · May-19-09, 11:04 PM

I was working tonight..Dontrell a 1 Hitter????... I saw him pitch in Miami 3 or 4 years ago a 3 hitter..He was really throwing Strikes and Ground Balls..

**rajdet** · May-20-09, 07:09 AM

Very impressive outing for the D-Train, not only the retiring 17 in a row but the fact that he only had two walks. I hope he can keep it up!

**smogboy** · May-21-09, 11:50 PM

OMG... we're slowly coming up on that magical 40 game mark that Sparky Anderson had once suggested as a barometer to how good a baseball team CAN be. Wouldn't you know it? Our lads are quietly pulling away from the pack at this very moment. They've got a good healthy 3.0 game lead over the Royals and are winning games in a myriad of ways. Whether it's been stellar starting pitching, clutch grabs in the OF, timely double plays, effective base running, the occasional long ball [[Lord, let's not totally rely on those), or some other aspect of the game... the Tigers are doing it!

Sure there are plenty more games to be played this season but I'm taking a slow Leyland-esque walk out to the mound at the moment, look skyward and marvel at our good fortune so far.

All I can do is hope they'll continue this good fortune. It's what we fans can do.

**Flanders** · May-22-09, 03:44 PM

Tigers are in a good position to add to their 3 game lead in the CD, playing the last place Rockies @ CoPa this weekend. Royals @ Cardinals, Indians @ Reds, Pirates @ White Sox, and Brewers @ Twins.

Will Jason Grilli pitch in relief for Colorado this weekend?

And what kind of reception would he receive from the fans, after his dissing of the team?

**smogboy** · May-26-09, 01:27 AM

Originally Posted by Flanders

Will Jason Grilli pitch in relief for Colorado this weekend?

And what kind of reception would he receive from the fans, after his dissing of the team?

Wasn't it something like two batters and he was yanked?