Baseball

As of now, if Rick Porcello stays in the majors and keeps getting the workload he has been lately, he's on pace for 180+ innings as a 21 yr old rookie.  Now i know all the old sentiment of when pitchers pitched 20 complete games a year and never had issues, but this is just a different time.  Innings and pitch counts are monitored more closely than a guys heart rate or blood tests and may have helped prolong some careers.  The point is still, can he hold up and if not, what can the Tigers do?

Continue reading "The Rookie"

To compete, a baseball team needs pitching and defense. An old adage maybe, but it exists for a reason. A team that continuously gives up runs ends up yanking their starters early in games and taxes their bullpen, lessening their effectiveness over time and thereby compounding the problem over the season. Ironically, trying to keep games close hurts the team in the long run. But with one of the best fielding percentages and team ERA’s in the league, the Toronto Blue Jays are competing.

Continue reading "Why the Jays won't compete: the importance ..."

Just picture it: it’s the top of the ninth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays are holding a slim 2-1 lead over the New York Yankees. Up to bat is Derek Jeter with Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez on deck. Cito Gaston, in order to shut the door on the game and the series gets on the phone and brings in the big gun, Pedro Luis Lazo, winner of two Olympic Gold medals with Cuba and current closer of the Blue Jays. And even if he gives up a run its okay, because leading off the bottom of the ninth for the Jays is Alexei Bell, who hit 30 HR with 100 RBI with Santiago del Cuba last year.

Continue reading "Part Time Jays: How to add a little ..."

I call it "Baseball Heroin," as it's all too easy to sit for hours flipping between games, immobile, helpless to the draw of constant, and constantly changing, baseball.

This year has the added bonus of being able to watch either the home or away feed for a game, so I can tailor my watching to the team I like, or switch between the two to get a different perspective on a game. This somewhat ameliorates some of the problems DirecTV has been having this year with feeds--I'm one of the many, many people who woke up at 3AM on Opening Day in Japan . . . only to find that DirecTV's satellite problems were blacking out the broadcast. A handful of games later on in the season experienced this same problem, but these problems have been by and large small ones.

Continue reading "Saturday: The Black Hole of Baseball"

Bring back day games for the World Series. Baseball's being lost to other sports, in part because kids don't watch the games (live or in person) the way they could when the games were in the daytime. Sure, ratings are higher at night, but how much does this affect ad revenue, really? And even if it does, sometimes you've gotta sacrifice the present for the future, instead of the other way around.

Continue reading "How I'd Change Baseball"

 
    GS IP HR BB SO AVG VORP
Verlander (DET) 4 24.1 4 12 14 0.234 -9.2

Padilla (TEX) 4 26 2 9 15 0.292 5

Obviously, Verlander has not been good in his 4 starts thus far.  Padilla, however, has not been much better, despite his overrated 3.12 ERA.  Hitters have batted almost .300 against him, and his strikeout rate has been underwhelming.  The Tigers should be able to get some good hits off of him tonight.

Continue reading "Tonight's Starting Pitcher Matchup: ..."

The Tigers will face off against the Texas Rangers at Comerica Park tonight. Both teams come in with a 7-13 record. Texas, however, was not expected to be good. The Tigers, by contrast, have been incredibly disappointing so far.

Continue reading "Tuesday Preview: Tigers vs. Rangers"

Hello fellow sports fans!

My name is Craig.  I was born and raised in Michigan (although I left the state for 7 years while I was in the Navy) and am a rabid Tigers fan.  I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be blogging about my beloved Tigers.

Continue reading "Intro Blog"

The 2008 season for the Tigers doesn't start officially until March 31st when they take on the Kansas City Royals in the Home and Season Opener, but Pitchers and Catchers have already reported with the rest of the position players reporting for full squad workouts Feb 20th.    The off-season moves made by Dave Dombrowski have put the Tigers in a position to get over the hump and make a return to the World Series.   Its a long way off, especially with all the uncertainty surrounding middle relief, but as Jim Leyland and the rest of the veterans on the squad say, "We have to do the little things".   Miguel Cabrera ON HIS FIRST DAY reiterated the same statement.  It may be something in the water down in Lakeland, but this team is already talking the same way.  If you read any articles the players and coaches all say the same thing, which is good, a team working as a team on the little things has historically won ball games. It doesn't even matter if the 2008 Tigers score 1,000 runs, you must be able to field slow rollers to the pitchers mound!!  I.E. The 2006 World Series. 

Continue reading "2008 Spring Training Has Arrived!!"