Predicting the 2009 season with my crystal ball!

How about this? My very first article by the smart-assed blogger who has a vivid interest in the Detroit Tigers. It’s now spring training, I, for one, am excited to see the snow melt (it will come back to Michigan, it snows till April here) and see the tigers kick some tail in Florida (somewhere I wish I was at right now). So, for my first entry, this smart-ass blogger wanted to give an analysis for some of our players. Here goes:

Magglio Ordonez – He was the person who hit the ball out of the field against the Oakland A’s in 06 to lead us to the World Series. When we had our share of troubles after the 07 all-star break, Magglio remained supreme with the best batting average in the AL. Although the team dropped to the cellar in the AL Central last season, Maggs kept his Batting Average over .300, knocking over 21 homers, in which I expected more, and getting 103 RBIs. Maggs does have life in that Thirty-Six year-old body to hit good production numbers. You’ll see more of the same with Maggs in the batting average category, I’ll stand by that. Just don’t expect him to hit more than 23 home runs.

Pladico Polanco – Not the heavy hitter like Ordonez in 08, but like last year, he put his head above water in the batting average category. Polanco will improve that batting average. He will increase the home runs hit this year to 10 or 12, opposed to the eight last year.

Miguel Cabrera – When our 08 season went to hell, Cabrera brought us 37 Home Runs, 127 Runs Batted In, a .537 Slg. and a .292 Avg. He did play 160 games that season. If the Tigers can go over .500 after forty games this season and allow Brandon Inge to fulfill his wish to play almost the 162 games he plays, Mr. Cabrera won’t hit the same numbers of homers and RBI’s this season, due to which, we won’t see him play 160 games but more like 140 or a little less. Otherwise, he will be our go-to guy.

Carlos Guillen – Putting Carlos at Left Field is probably a big mistake, if so he has bad knees. If those fly balls hit the gaps in deep left field, it’s not going to be good for those knees. Don’t expect Guillen to play LF in the bulk load of the games. If Sheffield were to be traded, Carlos would do well as a Designated Hitter. Now speaking of his offense, Guillen, if he avoids injury trouble while running around in the outfield, he will be seeing 125 games, 11-13 HRs and about 60-80 RBIs. His bating average will be .275-.305. Don’t expect superior fielding from him, though.

Clete Thomas – His very first major league hit on opening day of 2008 (which was my birthday) against Kansas City in the bottom of the 9^th, had brought us some hope. That was until Teahaen kept the ball from going into the outfield and keeping the game from extra innings or heading to our direction and winning the game. That routine throw to first had ended our opening day in sad terms. However, Clete played 39 more games after that for the Tigers, hitting a homer and 9 RBIs. He batted .284 with a .405 Slugging to go along with it. That latter mention is good, but Clete needs to play more in Toledo before he could get 100+ games a season. He also could play Left Field when Guillen comes short. I’m rooting for dear ole’ Clete because he has my last name.

Curtis Granderson – I see our goodwill ambassador doing better than last year. He’ll gain over 25 HRs, grab at least 15 stolen bases. He will have to work hard to surpass a .300 Avg. With defense, he will continue to make spectacular plays in defense. Maybe he could use his goodwill to motivate the tigers to a better club winning percentage, but I don’t want to ask too much from the guy.

Jeff Larish – Well, he’s part of the Toledo system alright. If this infielder wants to gain more time in the MLB, he better show himself worthy for the future, or wait for an injury.

Marcus Thames – If they are going to toss Carlos Guillen in the outfield and he hurts himself, besides Clete, this man could be helpful when Guillen heals, or if the Tigers trade away Sheffield and leave the DH spot open for him. Thames did very good individually in 2008 with 25 HRs, but with a low 56 RBIs to go along with. It’s certain that he usually plays a role in the first three spots of the starting lineup, or he hits pretty good without the pressure with Runners In Scoring Position. Thames is a good backup outfielder who deserves more games than the 103 he played last year.

Ryan Raburn – I remember the game on July 25, 2007 where he knocked in seven RBIs. That alone probably earned him the spot to being a backup right fielder. If Ordonez is traded or injured, he will probably be seeing more games. I wouldn’t expect repeat performances of July 25, 2007. In fact, I do remember that error he made in 2008 when he threw the ball way far away from home plate against the White Sox that constituted them to tie the game up (we later won at the bottom of the 9^th when we had the bases loaded and they threw a ball four). Everyone makes mistakes, though. Raburn may need to stay ‘part-time’ with the Tigers and play some games in Toledo before he can get the hang of things.

Gary Sheffield – Alas, one of my favorite players. Sadly, it seems that his batting average has been falling down from 2007 to 2008. He is one of my favorites, but I don’t see him with a batting average past .260. He’d be lucky to go past 25 homers.

Brandon Inge – My favorite over Sheffield. According to Jim Leyland (via Wikipedia, a bad place to go for info…argh!), Mr. Inge will be back to Third Base full time. Last year, Inge got his 113 games. Not good for a guy who insists on playing all 162 games. You have to admire the heart this little guy has. He’s willing to play all 162 games, he’s an exceptional utility player that can play any position in the field (minus pitcher, but hey, he may be able to do that!). If Leyland is true to his word (and Wikipedia is true to it’s word), and Inge does play a good amount of games, such as 140+, that will be essential for the Tigers chances to reach past .500. For offense, don’t expect Inge to go past .250 in the batting average. If he does get his 140+ games, we will see 15 homers and about 70 RBIs. I can be confident in the idea that he will reach past .400 in the Slugging category.

Mike Hessman – Hessman is a Triple-A all-star and once the MVP of the International league. When he appeared for the Tigers in 2007 to give Brandon Inge a break, he did kick some ass (I know that sounds unprofessional, like my writing here, BUT IT’S TRUE!). But why only twelve games last season? Chances are good that Toledo had the upper hand on keeping him there more than here. Unless Toledo can grab them some other talent and not require Hessman as much as last season, it’s safe to say that we will not be seeing much of Hessman this season. Also, that may contribute to Inge’s willingness to take a break from Third Base or from the game all together to let Hessman play Third Base for the Tigers.

TIGERS PITCHING: Instead of making a paragraph or a two-sentence smart-assed review on each player from the pitching staff, let’s start with a sentence instead: In order to have a competitive Major League Club, you need to have a strong starting rotation. What would also help big time is some good relief pitching. After the 2007 All-Star break, the club fell apart. No more words to explain that, but we missed the playoffs. Last season, the club’s starting pitching was poor. Verlander went 11-17, Bonderman had troubles, Rodgers isn’t as good as he once was, and Dontelle Willis didn’t perform to standard.

With that in mind, something is going wrong with the starting pitching and the relief pitching, something probably beyond the game itself. Whatever it is, they should very well consider taking their minds off of what is going down in their personal time and keep their minds on the game. I don’t want to recall Bull Durham. For those of you who remember the movie, you can grin now.

But, it is at least interesting to me that how Verlander could bring 17-9 in 2006, 18-6 in 2007. But in 2008, he brought 11-17. He did bring home Eleven wins, but with Seventeen losses, it’s not quite Verlander. Bonderman has been getting into trouble with some injuries. With that, I think Bonderman should seek a rehab assignment. That, or find the confidence he once had. I like Kenny Rodgers a lot, but he should, A – Consider Retirement or B – Downgrade to relief pitching. I don’t think the Gambler will take option B. Dontrelle Willis had a 9.38 ERA last season. –INSERT BAD COMMENT HERE-

If Verlander goes good, as well as the rest of the rotation, he can feed off that to the rest of the pitchers and bring more Ws than Ls. It may bring some of that good pitching back to Bonderman, Robertson and Willis. Galarraga did bring the team some Ws and brought home more Ws than Ls, 13 Wins and 7 Losses to be exact. He’ll do the same this year. And we have Edwin Jackson coming in from the underdogs turn tough dogs Tampa Bay Rays to take a role in the rotation (it’s too bad we had to trade Joyce away, but Tampa Bay wasn’t going to hand us a free ride). Although, what I am about to mention is not the same sport, but let’s hope that Mr. Jackson doesn’t pull a Mr. Iverson.