Well, the season has definitely been interesting. Being an MSU grad, I should be used to the up/down, lose when you’re supposed to win, and win when you’re supposed to lose, but you can never quite shake the annoyance. The Tigers have looked great at times. And they’ve looked downright bad. Robert Louis Stevenson could have wrote the book on this season (yes, Jeckyl and Hyde, not Treasure Island).

And this week………it was Dr. Jeckyl as the Tigers took a series in Oakland for the first time in a long, long time. And they did it by beating last year’s should have been Cy Young, Tim Hudson. Not to be confused with future Cy Young Mark Mulder or past Cy Young Barry Zito. And speaking of Cy Young’s, Steve has a nice little analysis on the current year’s race below. Definitely worth a read. He’ll be happy to see that Johan Santana won his start this afternoon, and I totally agree with his column.

And I guess the Tigers technically didn’t beat Hudson, but Hudson didn’t beat them. Craig Monroe had a nice day, going three for four, with a homerun and three RBIs. Rondell White also went yard.

So now the Tigers stand eight games back of .500. Not insurmountable, but they’d need a couple of five game runs down the stretch to get there. And they face a tough Anaheim team that’s won 7 of their last 10.

For the thirteenth consecutive season, Barry Bonds has hit 30 homeruns. He just drove in his 70th run a few minutes ago, and he stands 12 homeruns shy of 700. Simply incredible. And he’s done it with a 23/160 strikeout to walk ratio, and he’s now four at bats shy of 9,000. Looking at his career stats are something to behold as he should also break his single season OBP mark this year.

I’m a little disappointed in all the talk of Edgar Martinez getting into the Hall of Fame. Edgar is a top notch player, but in my eyes, he’s nowhere near a Hall of Fame player. He had a hard enough time getting through a season with landing on the DL, and without playing on the field. Yes, he’s a career .312 hitter, but 2,200 hits and 300 career homers doesn’t quite cut it these days. Check out Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker and compare the numbers and you won’t even be saying Edgar and Hall in the same breath.

I’m actually in town this weekend, which will be nice. I’ve been anxiously awaiting a package that should start me off on my next big Tigerblog project. Until it comes, I’m hesitant to say what it is, but soon enough.

Permalink | Posted in 2004 Tigers