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It was a great day to go to the game yesterday, just not a great game to watch if you’re a Tigers fan.  Shelton’s homerun was impressive though.  He was down 0-2 in the count, then ripped a line shot that looked like it never rose more then 15 feet above the ground.  It was definitely a bullet and I see now how he’s getting his triples.  Just about everything he’s hitting is hard.

Unfortunately, outside of a Carlos Guillen homerun, that was the only real Tigers’ highlight.  I saw more weak popups in this game then I’ve ever seen and it looks like Jim Leyland didn’t like it one bit.  He was pretty short at his press conference and laid down the law.  It’ll be really interesting to see how the Tigers respond, through their actions, tonight against the A’s.

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of Mark Fidrych’s debut.  I had planned on doing a game by game diary of each of his starts when I found out Tiger Tales was doing their own tribute of Fidrych’s phenomonal 1976 season.  Below is what would have been my first entry in the tribute.  Now it’s my last as I’ll enjoy Lee’s take on how Mark “the Bird” Fidrych took the world by storm in 1976.

Thirty years ago today, on April 20, 1976, the Tigers took a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning against the Oakland A’s (in Oakland).  Willie Horton, in what was essentially his final season in a Tigers’ uniform (he played in one game for the Tigers in 1977 before being traded to the Texas Rangers) had homered and drove in three runs.  Tom Veryzer had a two run single in the second inning, and Ron LeFlore had scored twice.

Starter Joe Coleman had thrown eight solid innings but he gave up a single to lead off hitter Bert Campaneris and then walked Phil Garner.  Tiger’s manager Ralph Houk went to the pen and brought in Jim Crawford.  Campaneris and Garner executed a double steal, but then he got Bill North to line out to left field for the first out.  Claudell Washington drew a walk to load the bases up and then Joe Rudi singled and drove in two runs to tie the game.  Ralph Houk had seen enough, so for the second time in the inning, he went to the pen.

The move seemed innocent enough.  In came a curly haired 21 year old that would eventually take the baseball world by storm.  The Tigers were coming off of 102 losses in 1975, the second most in franchise history.  And that was only three years after winning the division in 1972.  Tiger’s fans didn’t have a lot to cheer about. 

That reliever was Mark Fidrych, who would go on to have a rookie season for the ages.  Unfortunately, his debut doesn’t have a happy ending.  Don Baylor was the first batter he faced, and Baylor singled to drive home the winning run.  Fidrych’s box score line was pretty much a big nothing.  He wasn’t credited with any innings because he didn’t get anybody out, and the run he gave was up was inherited from Crawford.  All that showed up was the hit.

Little did fans know what was in store with this youngster.

Not too bad for a guy with a bum elbow.  Mike Maroth had his start bumped earlier in the week and it looks like the extra rest did him some good.  Maroth threw 99 pitches and went seven shutout innings.  He walked two, gave up three hits and he struck out five.  The Indians threatened a couple of times on him with runners on second with less then two outs, but both times Mike Maroth was able to get out of the jams.

Joel Zumaya got into trouble in the eighth, but he too was able to get out of the inning unscathed.  He struck Jason Michaels out with a high 99 mph fastball to end the inning.  Fernando Rodney threw a perfect ninth and to finish the shutout and he earned his third save of the season.

Probably the most disappointing part of the game was the bottom of the eighth.  The Tigers got runners on first and third with one out, and Magglio Ordonez, the $15 million man (or is it $18 million, it’s hard to remember even though the numbers are so obscene) struck out.  Craig Monroe followed that up with a strikeout to end the inning and the Tigers didn’t get any insurance.  I can live with Monroe not being clutch, but this is what we’re paying Ordonez to do and he didn’t come through.

The only run of the game came from a Chris Shelton homerun.  It was his eighth of the season, and he continues to lead the league.  You figure at this point, even if he calms down and hits at a pace most people thought (.280/25 homeruns) for the rest of the season, he could still easily hit .300 and be the first player since Bobby Higginson in 2000 to hit 30 homeruns for the Tigers.

The Tigers finish their series against the Indians tomorrow afternoon before heading out west.  It’ll be the first game I’ll be attending this season and I’m looking forward to it.

John Brattain has penned a fantastic column on the emminent demise of Tiger Stadium over at the Hardball Times.  This is some hard hitting stuff from John, who never pulls his punches.

And to keep track of Tiger Stadium news, check out Stranded at the Corner and Corner Chatter.  Stranded at the Corner is an upcoming documentary coming out on April 24, 2006 on the battle to save historic Tiger Stadium.

This was a nice way to end a four game losing streak.  Brandon Inge went deep twice and drove in three of the Tigers’s five runs.  And the Tigers didn’t waste much time getting on the board either.  They scored all five of their runs by the fourth inning.  Chris Shelton tripled again and drove in a run, and Curtis Granderson hit his third homerun of the season.

Kenny Rogers had his best start so far.  One run on seven hits in eighth innings.  Fernando Rodney gave up a single in the ninth, but the Indians never really threatened.

A solid win against a solid team.  Bonderman throws this afternoon against Fausto Carmona.  Carmona will be making his major league debut, so hopefully we’ll be able to jump all over the rookie.

If you would have asked me before opening day whether I’d be happy with a 5-4 start, I would have said I’d take it.  That kind of puts the whole thing in perspective for me.  I’m not going to change my opinion of this team based on their first five games, or for that matter, their last four.

The defending World champs came into town, and despite the fact that they were struggling, they left with three wins (and they’re no longer struggling).  The Tigers offense pretty much went away in the first two games of the series, and by the time they got it back, their pitching wasn’t there.

The Tigers had 21 hits today, yet they still lost.  In fact every Tiger except for Curtis Granderson had at least two hits.  I didn’t expect Justin Verlander to throw like he did in Texas, and nobody else should have either and the seven early runs he gave up ended up being the difference.  The pen wasn’t there either, and three different relievers gave up runs and cost the Tigers a comeback win.  The 23 year old took his lumps today, and hopefully he’ll bounce back when he pitches again (most likely on Tuesday against the A’s in Oakland).  With all three games being afternoon games, I only got to keep track of the Tigers home opener so I can’t really say what might have gotten Verlander into trouble.

Chris Shelton continues to hit the ball extremely well.  He hit his seventh homerun of the season and now has 14 RBIs.

A topic of conversation, both here in the comments by Dan and on sports talk radio, was Leyland sticking with Omar Infante late in the game yesterday with Dmitri Young and Marcus Thames on the bench.  Young’s been good as a pinch hitter in the past and Thames has had a nice start.  I heard a two pronged excuse.  That Leyland was playing the percentages (which percentages?) and that he wanted everyone in the lineup to be tested in key moments.  I’m also not quite sure why Infante would ever be a viable option at DH, although he had four hits today (his first four hits of the season) when he gave Brandon Inge a break at third base.

The Tigers host the Cleveland Indians in a four game weekend series.  The Indians are off to a very good start, and if the Tigers leave for the west coast with a split in this series, I’d be pretty happy.

The White Sox tagged Tiger’s pitching for three homeruns today and the Tiger’s offense was quiet for the second straight game in the Tigers’ loss.  Craig Monroe got things started with a two run shot in the second inning, but then Jim Thome answered in the top of the third with a two run shot of his own.  The White Sox then took the lead when Joe Crede hit a two run homerun in the top of the sixth.  Chris Shelton doubled home a run in the sixth, but that was the closest the Tigers got the rest of the game.  Joel Zumaya relieved Bonderman and Paul Konerko took him deep in the eighth inning.

Jeremy Bonderman struck out eight in seven innings, but he gave up the two homeruns.

So the Tigers drop to 5-2.  Still not bad.  They have the day off tomorrow, and then they have afternoon games against the White Sox on Wednesday and Thursday.

It had to end.  A five game winning streak is something to be proud of, but this is a very long season.  In 2004, the Tigers won their first four, and by the end of the month, they were hovering just a game above .500.  So while I “want” the Tigers to win 90 games, I’m just not sure yet whether this is the team.  I spoke of Sparky Anderson’s rule in a previous post, and that’s to wait 40 games so I’m biding my time.

Chris Shelton had his worst game of the season by far.  He went hitless and struck out three times.  Curtis Granderson had a nice game though.  He went two for two with two walks and a double.

I listened to the game on the radio, and it’s hard to question Jim Leyland’s decision to keep Kenny Rogers in there to face Brad Wilkerson.  He had struck him out three times previously and Jamie Walker struck him out in the ninth inning.  It was just that one fluke at bat, the two run double, that ended up making the difference.

The home opener is tomorrow.  I don’t have tickets so I’ll be keeping an eye on things at work.  Hopefully the Tigers can get back on track against the struggling White Sox.

In the top of the eighth inning, Chris Shelton struck out.  I know it’s hard to believe that Chris Shelton actually made an out, but I have a feeling he might make a few more this season.  All kidding aside, what a start for Shelton.  He’s hitting an even .700 with nine extra base hits.  Nine RBIs and even runs in five games.  Simply awesome.

Justin Verlander was no slouch yesterday either.  He threw seven shutout innings and gave up only two hits with seven strikeouts.  He got into trouble in the fourth but he pitched his way out of it.

The last time the Tigers had a start this good was 1985 when they started 6-0.  If they surpass that, then we’re getting into franchise record territory.  In 1984, the Tigers won their first nine games.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Tigers do once they get back to Comerica Park.  While the Tigers have gotten some good pitching, it’s been their offense that’s really opened some eyes.  But they played Kansas City with bad pitching and now at Texas in a hitters park.  Regardless, I’ll be enjoying it all while I can.

It’s the bottom of the fourth inning and Justin Verlander is getting into trouble for the first time.

Chris Shelton has tripled twice already today.  His batting average is now .722 and his slugging is now 1.889.  Simply incredible.  And he’s still only struck out once.  I remember talking to a friend of mine prior to the season about Shelton and I said he’d be good for like .280 with 25 homeruns and you see what you get.  I figured he’d be reliable without any real chance of breaking out, but he’s proving me wrong (not that it’s the first time) at least early here in the season.

Verlander had runners at first and second with one out and struck out the last two guys to get out of the inning.  Tigers 5, Rangers 0.

Chris Shelton just hit his fifth homerun of the season.  Man this guys on a tear.  I expected him to be a decent .280/25 homerun guy but with this start, he could easily top the 25 homeruns.  The Tigers are up 4-1 heading into the fifth inning.

Brian A., who’s a frequent comment at Detroit Tigers Weblog has started a blog where he hopes to track the Tigers via Win Probablity Added (WPA).  WPA has it’s flaws, but the one thing I like it about is, when you get a close game or a back and forth game, it’s fun to see the swings.  Tigers WPA is where he’s posting his results and he started with yesterday’s win over the Rangers.

Tomorrow, I start my only “diary” of the year.  Over at Reds Cutting Edge, I continue the exploits of the Big Red Machine and track the 1976 Reds from beginning to end.  Another blogger, Jon Earving at the Tom Seaver Fan Club, will be doing the same thing with the 1986 Mets.

Minor League Baseball kicked off their season today and the Toledo Mudhens lost their home opener to the Charlotte Knights 1-0.  Wil Ledezma took the loss but he had a pretty impressive start.  He gave up only a single run on three hits in 4 2/3 innings.  He struck out nine and walked two.  I’m still pretty high on Ledezma and people tend to forget that people were talking about him last year the same way people are talking about Justin Verlander this year.

The Erie Seawolves lost their first game 2-1 in ten innings.  Lakeland lost 6-1 and Cameron Maybin went two for four with a triple and a run in West Michigan’s 5-3 loss to Fort Wayne.  Four minor league games, four losses.

It looks like the Tigers are going to start 3-0.  It’s 9-3 in the bottom of the seventh and the Tigers have hit six homeruns.  Chris Shelton went yard twice and now has four and Brandon Inge and Marcus Thames both hit their second of the season.  Magglio Ordonez and Craig Monroe both hit their first homerun of the season.

I love it whenever the Tigers win.  And with the last few years, I’ll take all of the wins I can get so don’t take this the wrong way.  Driving home I listened to our local sports radio station (AM 1270) and you would have thought the Tigers won the World Series or something.  Ninety wins seemed almost a foregone conclusion to some of the people calling in.  And what do these people have to base this all on?

Two wins over one of the worst teams in baseball.  Today the Tigers manhandled the Royals.  Ivan Rodriguez had a stat line that looked like something out of a video game.  Five for five with a homerun and five RBIs, and he was a triple short of the cycle.  In all, five Tigers homered.  And Jeremy Bonderman looked good.  Eight strikeouts and only three hits in 6 2/3 innings.  Chris Spurling struck out one and Jamie Walker struck out two.

All good stuff, but we’re two games into the season.  I’m a huge proponent of what Sparky Anderson used to say.  Give me 40 games.  Then you’ll know who’s for real and who’s not.

The Tigers head to Texas so in my opinion, this will be their first true test.  This is a stacked lineup in a hitters park.  If the Tigers split the four game series and head into opening day with a 4-2 record, I’d be pretty happy.  More then that, and then I’ll get a little excited.

What a game for Chris Shelton today.  Single, Home Run, Home Run, Line Out.  And the line out was a shot that was speared by Mark Grudzielanek that could have easily been a single.  So four at bats and four well hit balls.  He won the game and Carlos Guillen gave the Tigers some insurance with a solo shot in the eighth to make it 3-1.

Joel Zumaya also had a nice couple of innings.  He got into a jam in the seventh but got out of it, and he struck out three in two innings.  Not that he’ll throw like this every day, but between his two innings and Fernando Rodney throwing a perfect ninth, it kind of makes the Todd Jones signing look more and more pointless.  Zumaya even touched 100 on the gun.

I was a little surprised that Kenny Rogers was this good.  Granted it’s the Royals but he threw six innings and gave up only a single run on three hits.  He struck out five and didn’t walk a batter.  And he did it all with only 81 pitches.  A great start as a Tiger.

This was the Tigers’ third straight opening day win.  On Wednesday, Jeremy Bonderman will throw against Joe Mays.  We know the Flint native well after seeing him more then enough when he played for Minnesota.

Alright, this is the time of year where I usually make a fool out of myself by making predictions that ultimately look, well, foolish.  Last year I predicted the Tigers would win 84 games.  Enough said.

In my Tiger preview over at the Hardball Times, I already laid out where I think the Tigers will end up.  I see them finishing in fourth place with 79 wins.  Here’s a few additional Tiger predictions……

This is a repeat prediction, and I probably would have nailed it had Jeremy Bonderman not gotten shut down last September.  The last time the Tigers had a 15 game winner was 1997.  Meaning if they don’t do it this year, the franchise will have had a decade long drought.  The last guys to do it are Willie Blair, who’s been out of the league since 2001, and Justin Thompson, who got hurt, was traded to Texas, and made the news by actually coming back and throwing in some games for the Rangers last year.  Last year, Mike Maroth and Jeremy Bonderman both won 14 games, and this year I think Bonderman will finally get over the hump.  I’m predicting Bonderman to have a 17-9 record.

Whenever I bring up Brandon Inge’s fielding prowess to, how’s the nice way to put it, a less informed person, the subject always gets back to Inge’s 23 errors last year.  What people fail to point is, he started 42 double plays and he finished the season with 14 fielding runs above average.  Eric Chavez, who won the gold glove last season, made only 15 errors, but he had only 9 fielding runs above average.  Inge at third base was worth half a win more on the field then Chavez at third base according to Baseball Prospectus.

Hot off the press is John Dewan’s Fielding Bible.  In the book, a +/- forumla is used to rank fielders by position.  Of course I’m not going to tell you how it’s calculated, because you should buy this great book (and I couldn’t do it justice).  Eric Chavez finished with a +15 and was the third best third baseman in MLB.  His figure was tops in the American Leauge.  Just behind him, at +12 and fifth in MLB, was Brandon Inge. Inge came out slightly ahead in range, but Chavez blew him away on fielding bunts (Chavez had an A+ rating).

So say Chavez was better.  The point is, he was barely better, and this was Inge’s first full season at third base.  I’m going to predict that Inge brings his errors down into the high teens and gets the recognition he deserves by bringing home a gold glove.

Finally, Chris Shelton will lead the team in RBIS and Curtiz Granderson will lead the team in both runs and batting average.  Magglio Ordonez will lead the team in homeruns, but it’ll be another unspectacular season for the Tigers in that category, so I’m thinking around 25.

Here’s how I think things will turn out around the rest of the league:

AL East – New York Yankees

AL Central – Cleveland Indians

AL West – Oakland A’s

NL East – New York Mets

NL Central – St. Louis Cardinals

NL West – San Francisco Giants

AL Wild Card – Toronto Blue Jays

NL Wild Card – Philadelphia Phillies

AL MVP – Gary Sheffield

NL MVP – Albert Pujols

AL Cy Young – Johan Santana

NL Cy Young – Jake Peavy

AL ROY – Justin Verlander

NL ROY – Josh Willingham

AL Pennant – New York Yankees

NL Pennant – New York Mets

World Series Champs – New York Mets

Needless to say, this took my by surprise when I saw it this morning.  Everyone’s read about the Yankee’s pitching woes.  At one point heading into the spring, they had seven possible starters.  Two of those are starting the season on the DL and two others are dinged up.  Their ace is 42 years old and had a bad back.  So I’m not completely surprised they pulled the trigger on a deal to get them some more pitching.

I am a little surprised that the Tigers would take on this much payroll, unless there’s some cash involved in the deal that I don’t know about.  I also wonder whether Mike Ilitich believes that the star power of A-Rod will put fans in the seats and that the two time MVP will pay for himself.

I’m also a little bummed because I always liked Brandon Inge.  He was a great story in 2004, when after being given up for dead after the Pudge signing, he turned himself into a Tony Phillips esque utility and finally settled in at third base, where I project he’ll win his first gold glove.  He didn’t hit nearly as well in 2005, but at least his numbers were respectable.

If I had to guess, Joel Zumaya will now move into the rotation.  The Tigers don’t need a fifth starter until mid-April, and they’re probably hoping Aaron Small is ready by then.  Small had an interesting season last year.  He came out of nowhere and finished 10-0 witha 3.20 ERA, but many feel he’s set to come back down to earth.  He doesn’t strike out many guys and his walk rate isn’t all that great either, but as a back of the rotation starter, he’s not that bad.

Sounds like physicals are being done today so the trade can be finalized before each team opens up the season.

And if you made it this far, check your calendar, because it’s April Fools Day.

And then there was one.  Jeremy Bonderman is now the sole remaining player that the Tigers got from the Athletics when they traded Jeff Weaver.  Makes you wonder if they’re shopping him right now.  Although there’s also the chance that he clears waivers and we keep him.

No big surprise here.  German didn’t do much this spring, and he was out of options.

UPDATE

Alright, the radio story I got this from said that German was cut, which I guess wasn’t completely false.  It looks more like we’re waiting for him to clear waivers to we can send him down to Triple A Toledo.  So if looks like German isn’t gone.

Dem Bums, a solid Dodgers blog that started recently and who I’m helping with a Don Drysdale diary set to launch in April, has a solid column on the Kirk Gibson’s clutch homeruns.  Good stuff.

Alright, the site has now been moved over to WordPress, for the better in my opinion.  I’m now hoping to get the site cleaned up.  Links have been ignored and I have a ton of comment spam I need to clean up.  I even have some drafts of writing that I never posted that I wasn’t aware of.

One minor snag, and you should be reading this if you’re coming from an outside link to a specific post, is we never figured out how to match up those links so every single link I got from someone who sent you to specific story is going to come up with a 404 error and you’re probably reading this right now.  The only thing I can say is, if it’s subject related, do a search.  If you have approximate date, check the archives.  I apologize for that but it was an unfortunate part of the process.

My site is going to move over to new hosting sometime today so if you stopped by now and check in later, the site might not be up. Please be patient as I’ll most likely be up and running by tomorrow morning.

I was in Boston when the Tigers traded Jeff Weaver in 2002. In fact, Weaver was set to throw that day at the game I was attending at Fenway Park. At the time, it was Weaver for Carlos Pena, Franklyn German and a player to be named later. I hadn’t heard of German at the time nor had I heard of Jeremy Bonderman (who ended up being the PTBNL). I had heard of Carlos Pena though.

Earlier that year, Pena had opened the season for the A’s on a solid note. He hit seven homeruns in 87 at bats but his strikeouts were also pretty high (27). His May ended up being horrible though. He went four for 37 and struck out eleven times. By the end of the month, he was back in the minors.

In July, he was dealt to the Tigers and he had a solid second half. He hit twelve homeruns and finished with a .253/.321/.462 line for the Tigers. He was touted as being a gold glove fielder at first base and most expected that Pena would be the Tigers’ first baseman of the future.

In 2003 and 2004, Pena was the starter at first base. He showed some plate discipline in 2004 (70 walks) but his strikeouts continued to rise as well (146 in 2004). And the gold glove and smooth hands never really materialized. In all four seasons with the Tigers, he finished with a negative fielding runs above average. He did show some promise by hitting a team high 27 homeruns in 2004 but he was criticized for hitting .241.

2005 looked a lot like 2002 for Pena, except for the solid April. Pena spent more time below the .200 mark then he did above it and hit only three homeruns (two of those were in one game). By the end of May, he was playing for Toledo and he lost his starting first base job to the emerging Chris Shelton.

Pena found his swing in the minors and was called back up to play for the Tigers on August 19. He proceeded to six homeruns and had 12 RBIs in his next five games, four of which the Tigers won. He hit nine more homeruns the rest of the season and brought his batting average “up” to .235. His late season flurry was an encouraging sign and the only thing stopping him from reclaiming the starting job was an outstanding season by Chris Shelton.

In 2006, Pena had a horrible spring. He went eight for 50 with only one homerun and four RBIs and he was cut this morning. While I’m not completely surprised, I think the Tigers may have given up on him a season too soon. While he is 27, I would have liked to have seen him get one more season with the team and I think he’ll find time somewhere else. And I know there were money considerations, but I thought Pena had a better chance of having a solid season then Dmitri Young does.

Now we get to see where he ends up. The Yankees could use some help at first base. The Red Sox won’t be in the market because they just picked up Hee Sop Choi. The Reds could be an option and you could also possibly see him go back to Oakland.

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