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At least one Tiger starter was able to hold the Mariners in check as the Tigers avoided a sweep this afternoon with a 4-2 win.  Scherzer pitched six strong innings in which he gave up just two runs on six hits and a walk with four strikeouts.  Ryan Perry pitched out of a self induced jam in the eighth inning before Jose Valverde came in for his third save of the season.

Miguel Cabrera had the big hit with a three run blast in the third inning.  He also doubled.  Austin Jackson had three hits including a triple (that should have been an in the park home run if it wasn’t called an error) and Johnny Damon is showing signs of life with two hits and a run.  Brandon Inge drew three walks and he now has eight walks to go with six strikeouts this season.  This is pretty much a shift in his career because he’s sitting on 981 career strikeouts with only 347 walks.

Next up are the Angels.  Dontrelle Willis gets another look in the opener tomorrow and the Tigers will take their chances against Joel Pineiro.  Joel is 6-2 with a 2.66 ERA in eleven starts against the Tigers in his career.

The Mariners have now scored almost as many runs in their first two games against the Tigers (15) as they did in their first ten games (16).  Still, Justin Verlander was solid, the Tigers just couldn’t get anything going against Ryan-Roland Smith and the Mariners.  Verlander gave up three runs on seven hits and a walk with six strikeouts in seven innings and he was pretty efficient (102) pitches. 

Joel Zumaya got two batters out and pitched to three batters in total to finish things up for the Tigers.  To Franklin Gutierrez, he threw four fastballs (99, 100, 101, 98 mph) where he gave up an inherited runner.  To the next batter, he finally went off-speed and started off with two curveballs before throwing  two 100 mph fastballs for the strikeout.  Then to Ken Griffey, Jr., he mixed it up again.  First he threw a 101 mph fastball before throwing two curveballs for balls.  Then he went back to the fastball for 101 mph.  His offspeed pitches were in the low to mid-80s, which is perfect if he can get it over for strikes.  He hasn’t given up a run himself yet, but I’ll have to go back and check to see how many inherited runners he’s given up. Still, so far, so good for Zumaya’s comeback.

At the plate, Scott Sizemore picked things up and he went two for four with a double and a run.  Magglio Ordonez drew a walk and belted his fourth home run of the season.  Through eleven games, he’s kept his OPS up above 1.000.  I’ve been very impressed with his eye at the plate.  He’s walked seven times already with just five strikeouts.  Ordonez is also coming up on a milestone and with four runs, he’ll be at 1,000 for his career.

The Tigers try to avoid the sweep this afternoon.  Max Scherzer goes for his first win as a Tiger and the Mariners throw Ian Snell.  Game time is 4:10.

Prior to last night’s game, the Seattle Mariners had scored 16 runs in their first ten games.  Last night, Jeremy Bonderman gave up 10 runs (and Brad Thomas one run) by the end of the fifth inning.  That’s not very encouraging after a solid first start for Bonderman.  Velocity was once again the problem.  By the second inning, some of his fastballs were clocking in at 86 mph.  He did dial it up against Milton Bradley in the second (92 mph then he punched him out with a called strike slider).  He touched the low 90s after that but rarely did he get above 90 mph.  This is a guy who, in 2006, had the sixth best average fastball for starters in the AL  (thank you Bill James Handbook) with 93.3 mph and in 2005, he was second in the AL with 03.2 mph.  Now he’s lucky to touch that in a game, much less average it for a start (or a season).  I’m going to write more about this and my thoughts on why Jeremy Bonderman is where he is (I’ll give you a hint, it has to do with 2003).

Miguel Cabrera doubled and drove in two to lead the Tigers at the plate.  The Tigers struck out ten times and nine of those were at the hands of Felix Hernandez.  The Tigers also made three errors and that brings their season total up to eleven and that’s the most in the American League. Scott Sizemore is already up to three errors and he’s struggled at the plate.  Just something to keep an eye on because that’s not helping out the pitching any.

Justin Verlander goes for his first win tonight against Ryan Rowland-Smith.  Also look for some more original content this week.  Tax season is over with and I have the writing bug and I’ve had a couple of column ideas.

Jim Leyland’s lineup construction always baffles me.  Sometime’s it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  I’ve always been convinced he writes in the position first then fills in the person second which is why we have Ryan Raburn and his career .331 OBP leading off today.  He did go one for four with a run but why not put Carlos Guillen, who has a pretty good eye, up there when Austin Jackson has the day off.

Anyway, the Tigers lost this afternoon.  Rick Porcello pitched six rough innings in which he gave up ten hits before the pen had their struggles.  Ryan Perry gave up a pair of runs in one inning and he fell to 0-1 while Phil Coke also struggled when he gave up two runs.  Coke has the interesting distinction of having a higher WHIP (2.00) then he does ERA (1.50).  It’s a small sample size but you get those aberations early.

Johnny Damon doubled and singled in the 7-3 loss.  Magglio Ordonez hit his third home run of the season and he drew two walks.  Man, he and Cabrera have really raked in the first week and a half of the season.  Brandon Inge also had another nice game and he went one for two with two walks.

The Tigers get their first day off in over a week before they head out west (and south) to start a eleven game road trip.  First up are the Mariners, who don’t score too many runs so I like their chances.  This all leads into a three game home series in a week and a half against the Twins.  Oddly, their next day off isn’t until May 6 so they’re going to be playing 20 straight games.  Leyland’s going to have to get everyone a day off here and there to keep everyone fresh because that’s a long time especially this early in the season.

We’re only eight games into the season but the Tigers pulled off yet another spectacular comeback win as they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against the Royals this afternoon.  Down 5-0, the Tigers rallied for six runs in the bottom of the seventh as they improved on their already solid record.  The big hit was a two run double by Carlos Guillen that pushed across the tying and winning runs.  In fact the Tigers had four doubles in the game and all four came in that big seventh inning.

On the pitching side, Dontrelle Willis was shaky.  He got out of a bases loaded jam in the first, calmed down a little in the second but then got into trouble in the third where he gave up three runs.  He gave up nine hits and three walks in just five innings.  Joel Zumaya gave up an unearned run in two innings of relief and he improved to 2-0.  Ryan Perry and Jose Valverde then threw shutout innings to close out the game.  For Valverde, it was his second save of the season.

Gerald Laird and Scott Sizemore each had two this in the 6-5 win.  Austin Jackson doubled, drew a walk, scored a run and drove in one.

The rubber game is tomorrow afternoon.  Rick Porcello gets the start while Kyle Davies throws for the Royals.

Max Scherzer got off to a decent enough start yesterday by pitching three scoreless innings but four in the fourth and one in the fifth cut his start short in the Tigers second loss of the season.  It also didn’t help that the Tigers made four errors in this one which is part of the reason Scherzer only had two his runs come out earned.  Brad Thomas was also hit hard and he gave up four runs in 2 1/3 innings.

Carlos Guillen went two for three and he belted his first home run of the season.  Austin Jackson went two for five while Brandon Inge continued his hot hitting with two doubles and two RBIs.

The Tigers are playing the Royals again as I write this.  Dontrelle Willis is off to a rough start (bases loaded with two outs).  He walked two and gave up a single so we’ll see if he pitches out of it.  Brian Bannister gets the start for the Royals.

This is getting fun.  Down 8-3, the Tigers rallied for six runs in the final frames to finish up a sweep over the Cleveland Indians.  The Tigers finished with nine runs off of 18 hits and there were plenty of hitting stars.  How the Tigers got it done in the ninth was particularly interesting though because Miguel Carbera scored the tying run off of a Johnny Damon walk and then Carlos Guillen scored on a wild pitch to win it.   Scott Sizemore and Miguel Cabrera had three hits each.  Carbera, Carlos Guillen and Ramon Santiago all scored two runs and Magglio Ordonez drove in a pair.  16 of the Tigers 18 hits were singles and they also picked up nine walks in a game where they stranded 18 runners.

Off course this all made up for a second rough start by Justin Verlander.  He gave up six runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts in five innings.  I was worried about all of the innings Verlander threw last season and how it would affect him.  He had plenty of heat early but by the fifth inning, he was in the low 90s.  The encouraging thing was that while he got shelled in the first inning, he pitched four scoreless frames before he gave up another run in the sixth inning so the Tigers got some innings out of him.

Eddie Bonine gave a pair of runs in three innings of relief.  Phil Coke pitched a scoreless ninth and he picked up his first Tiger win.

Next up are the Royals, again.  Max Scherzer gets the start in a rematch against Luke Hockevar.  The good news is that we won’t see Zach Greinke again.  Gametime is 1:05.

The Tigers top draft pick last year, Jacob Turner, had a really nice start last night in his pro debut. The Caps didn’t win but seven strikeouts in five shutout innings is a nice start. Wonder when we’ll be seeing him in Lakeland.

The Tigers have now gone through all five of their starters and it’s been so far, so good as all five have gone at least five innings. The latest was Jeremy Bonderman, who needed 92 pitches to get through five innings just five innings. Fortunately it was enough to get him his first win in almost two years. He gave up a run on one hit and two walks with five strikeouts. He was consistently in the low 90s for the first few innings with quite a few 93 mph fastballs. It’s not the Bonderman of old because he also mixed a lot of changeups in there but it’s nice to see him have some success. A big concern was by the fifth inning, Bonderman’s velocity was down and he was having a hard time even touching 90. Something to keep an eye on in future starts.

Brad Thomas gave up a run in two innings of relief. Fu-Ten Ni struck out one in two thirds of an inning while Ryan Perry got the final four batters out to pick up his first career save (first of many?).

Magglio Ordonez had the big hit with a first inning two run home run. It was his second long ball of the season and it’s half of his 2008 first half total (4). He and Miguel Cabrera have punished pitchers so far this season and hopefully they can keep it up. Brandon Inge also had a nice game and he went two for three with a walk and an RBI.

The Tigers go for the sweep this afternoon with Justin Verlander going for his first win of the season. Jake Westbrook throws for the Indians. The ESPN game tonight has the Cardinals against the Brewers and the Sunday afternoon game on TBS has the Yankees and Rays (unfortunately, it confilicts with the Tigers).

Mike Cassidy is covering the Tigers minor league system for the fourth straight year. The Tigers four full season affiliates kicked off their seasons yesterday. Unfortunately, all four lost.

The Tigers left Kansas City with a series win and a big reason behind it was Dontrelle Willis’ strong start in the Tigers 7-3 win. Willis pitched six strong innings in which he gave up two runs on seven hits and (most importantly) just two walks with four strikeouts. He didn’t get the win, but he kept the Tigers in the game. He walked the first batter of the game (David DeJesus) then calmed down and gave up just one walk the rest of the way. I checked out how he was throwing on Gameday and early in the game he’d touch 90 mph on occasion but he was mostly in the high 80s with his fastball. In the third inning, he began throwing more in the low 90s and he did touch 93 on the gun in the third inning and he hit 93 twice to his final batter, Rick Ankiel, in the sixth inning. It took a couple of innings, but his velocity eventually got there.

Eddie Bonine threw a shutout seventh and he picked up the win. Jose Valverde (is he going to pitch in every game) came out in the ninth in a non-save situation and got through the Royals 1-2-3.

Miguel Cabrera brought a big stick and he had the big hit with a three run blast in the eighth inning. Magglio Ordonez hit his first home run of the season and he finished three for four with three runs. Austin Jackson rounded things out with two doubles, a run and an RBI.

Rick Porcello gets the start today for the Tigers home opener. David Huff gets the nod for the Indians in a 1:05 start.

In Will Carroll’s latest Under the Knife, he touches on Max Scherzer’s throwing motion and how it may or may not be an injury waiting to happen. Good stuff as usual from Will.

A really nice start by Max Scherzer went to waste as the Tigers dropped their first game of the season in an eleven inning loss to the Royals. He pitched six innings of one hit ball in which he struck out three and walked two. Overall, the pen did a nice job with the exception of Jose Valverde who’s now had his second straight shaky appearance. Phil Coke shined and he pitched two shutout innings before Valverde came in, gave a pair of runs in the bottom of the eleventh and both blew the save and took the loss.

Of course the Tiger hitters made Luke Hochevar look like a Cy Young contender and that didn’t help. The Tigers didn’t get on the board until the ninth when Miguel Cabrera belted a solo shot with two outs to send the game into extra frames. Carlos Guillen singled home a run in the top of the eleventh and that was really it. I didn’t get to see the game but I want to go back and check and see what happened in the eleventh because it looks like there was some weird baserunning play that turned into a double play of sorts.

The Tigers did pick up eleven hits but outside of Cabrera’s solo home run, the only other extra base hit was a triple by Austin Jackson. Jackson, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen all had two hits while Scott Sizemore drew a pair of walks.

The rubber game is this afternoon and all eyes will be on Dontrelle Willis to see if his spring season was for real. Brian Bannister gets the start for the Royals in a 2:10 start.

It wasn’t the pitcher’s duel that everyone thought and while Justin Verlander didn’t have his best stuff, the Tigers still walked away with an 8-4 win over the Royals this afternoon. The Tigers were down most of the game but then they rallied for six runs in the seventh inning (once Greinke was out of there) to pull away with the win. Johnny Damon made a pretty big impact in his first game as a Tiger and his two run double drove home the tying and go ahead runs in this one.

Austin Jackson picked up his first major league hit. He doubled and drove in a run in the big seventh inning and he later scored on Damon’s double. Miguel Cabrera singled twice and drove in a pair while Damon also finished with two runs in the contest.

On the pitching side, Verlander needed 93 pitches to get through five inings. He gave up four runs on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts. Joel Zumaya struck out one and gave up a hit in a shutout sixth inning and he picked up the win. Phil Coke (2/3 of an inning), Ryan Perry (1 1/3 innings) and Jose Valverde all pitched in to shutout the Royals in the final four frames. Valverde got into trouble in the ninth when he walked Jason Kendall and then had a second runner get on after Ramon Santiago’s fielding error but he pitched out of it in the non-save situation.

I was hoping to dig into the Gameday data but it looks like MLB.com is bogged down (too many people stopping by?). The WPA graph on this is pretty interesting so I’ll touch on that. Things peaked for the Royals after Billy Butler made it 4-1 (giving the Royals a 87.6% chance of winning). Austin Jackson’s RBI double was actually worth more (.189) then Damon’s two run double (.175). It was actually Cabrera who led the team in WPA (.206) and Ryan Perry led the pitchers (.067).

The Tigers are off tomorrow and then it’s Max Scherzer against Luke Hochevar in the Tigers first night game of the season. Scherzer makes his Tigers debut in a battle of 2006 first round draft picks.

Well, the wait is over and the 2010 has begun.  The Tigers kick things off today with a battle of Cy Young contenders.  Game time is 4:10.  There’s going to be a live chat amongst Tiger bloggers that I may or may not be able to make but I’ll post the link in a little bit.  Justin Verlander throws against Zach Greinke in what should be a good one.  Baseball is on all day so life is good.

Curtis Granderson just went yard with a solo shot in the second inning against Josh Beckett.  It was a no doubter too.

The Tigers dropped their spring finale yesterday to the Brewers 13-12.  Magglio Ordonez, Austin Jackson, Ryan Rayburn, Danny Worth and Jeff Larish all belted home runs in this one.  Rick Porcello threw 4 1/3 shutout frams while Dontrelle Willis gave up a run in three innings.  Joel Zumaya was hit hard (five runs, never got an out) and Jeff Coke was bounced around as well.  The real stuff starts tomorrow at 4 pm against the Royals.  It’ll be Justin Verlander against Zach Greinke.

Seven years ago today, I started this site.  What a wild ride since. I’ve talked to legends, been in over a dozen books and had a lot of fun along the way.  Also wanted to throw out a happy birthday to my brother in law (today), and my older sister (tomorrow).

The Tigers wrap up their spring season this afternoon in an encore against the Brewers at Miller Park.  It’ll be a fun day because you’ll get the Tigers at 2 pm then shortly thereafter, MSU plays for a chance to be in National Championship game.  My son has a birthday party to go to so I’ll be working while I watch/listen.   Dontrelle Willis and Rick Porcello get their final tune up games today and Dave Bush will throw for the Brewers.  Overall, it wasn’t a bad spring and the Tigers sit at 18-11 near the top of the Grapefruit League standings.  Hopefully some of that translates into some success when the games really counts.

And if you’re on the fence about MLB.TV, you can watch/listen to everything for free this weekend.  Unfortunately, the Tigers aren’t on but there’s several other games at each of the time slots. 

Max Scherzer had a rough second inning in which he gave up three runs but overall it wasn’t too shabby of a start.  He threw six and he struck out four and walked two.  Brad Thomas and Jose Valverde each threw a shutout inning each.  The Tigers scored both of their runs on solo shots.  Austin Jackson went yard in the first and then Brandon Inge hit his third of the spring in the second frame.  Both Jackson and Inge had two hits a piece and Jackson finished with an impressive .353 spring batting average.

I was surprised to see the Tigers game isn’t on until 4 pm on Monday.  I’m not complaining because I have some things to do early in the afternoon.  Opening day is always fun because you can start watching baseball at 1 pm and it usually doesn’t stop until late into the night.  At least I’ll have the games to keep me company because it’s probably going to be a late night working.

I never got back to the Robertson trade either.  It looks like the Tigers are paying at least some (probably most) of Robertson’s 2010 salary.  I’ve always liked Robertson. He’s one of the few (if not only) Tigers who lived in the area during the offseason and I’ve always had a thing for mediocre lefties on the Tigers being a southpaw myself.  Plus he’s been with the team since the dog days.  He came over to Detroit in the Mike Redman trade in 2002 and he’s one of the few Tigers left from that infamous 2003 team.  The only guys left now are Brandon Inge, Jeremy Bonderman and Ramon Santiago and even Santiago was gone for a couple of years.

In return, the Tigers got a decent left hander but Voss is already 23 so we’ll see.  Last year he struck out 46 in 49 2/3 innings  He was picked in the eighth round of the 2007 draft and ironically, the only player in the eighth round of that draft to see major league action is another Tiger, Dan Schlereth.  He turned down his chance to play for the A”s that year and he went back into the 2008 draft where he was picked in the first round by the Diamondbacks. 

Anyway, the real games start soon. Have a nice Easter everyone.

I didn’t have a lot of time to go back and see if this has ever happened before, but the Tigers, Yankees and Diamondbacks rosters got turned on their heads this morning when it was announced that the Winter Meetings deal that sent Curtis Granderson to the Yankees and Edwin Jackson to the Diamondbacks was reversed because of tampering.  They’re not saying which team did the tampering but it looks like at least one of the players in the trade may have had some contact with their prospective team well before the deal went through.  How the league kept the claim under wraps for so long is a big surprise but an even bigger one is how this move will affect each of the three teams.

For the Tigers, I think it’s good short term.  Austin Jackson showed some promise, but having Granderson back out there (along with Damon and Ordonez) helps the lineup.  Short term I think Max Scherzer for Edwin Jackson is a wash (although I would have rather had Scherzer going forward).  It does ding up the bullpen though.  Phil Coke is gone so the Tigers are short one lefty out of the pen and while Dan Schlereth didn’t make the team, I think the Tigers were hoping he’d contribute with some seasoning down in the minors.

I’ll provide more details as they develop but this should make for an very ODD DAY.

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