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Be sure to check out Billfer of Detroit Tigers Weblog fame on WDET 101.9 this morning.  He’ll be on around 11 am for a bloggers roundtable with a few other Detroit area bloggers you might recognize.

In game 15, the Tigers finally did what the fans thought would be a regular occurance this season.  The Tigers completely dismantled the Indians and that was with C.C. Sabathia on the mound.  The final was 13-2 and the big inning was the fifth in which the Tigers scored seven.  The Indians had a brief lead in the first inning, but this game was all Tigers after that point.

Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Renteria both drove in five runs and both homered in the win.  Cabrera was four for six and Magglio Ordonez did a nice Gary Sheffield imitation with three walks, a single and three runs.  Of the 12 Tigers who stepped up to the plate, only Ivan Rodriguez failed to get a hit.

Armando Galarraga also got the job done as well.  He gave up two runs but on just one hit in 6 1/3 innings.  Jason Grilli then had a nice outing with a 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief to close the game out.

The end result is the Tigers now have a three game winning streak and the offense really looks like it’s starting to click.  They can get out of the cellar tomorrow if the can beat the Indians and it’ll be Justin Verlander looking for his first win.  Fausto Carmona throws for the Indians.

Former Tigers radio broadcaster and Hall of Famer Ernie Harwell turned 90 today.  The last time I talked to Ernie was over the summer about a book project I was working on and he’s still sharp.  I still highly recommend his audio scrapbook.  You get four discs of baseball memories that at least I’ve listened to over and over and over again.

I’m a huge fan of live comedy and one of the best shows I ever went to was back in 2005 when we saw Mike Green at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Royal Oak.  Mike is from the Detroit area and he’s both a Tigerblog reader and a big Tiger fan (even though at the time, he made a point to poke fun at the Tigers.  It’ll be interesting to see what he does with them now or if he just replaces them with the Lions).  Anyway, Mike is going to be back in town performing at the Comedy Castle Thursday through Saturday.  I was really hoping to get out to catch his show but unfortunately we have plans every day this week.  Hopefully he’ll come back again soon so I can check out to see what how he’s perfected his act.

You can check out more on Mike at his website and his myspace page.

The Tigers scored five unanswered runs last night to come back from a 4-0 deficit to take care of the Royals.  Sean Casey belted a three run homer in the fifth inning to cut the Royals lead to a single run and then Brandon Inge came up huge with a two run single in the fifth for the game winner.  Magglio Ordonez picked up two hits he now leads Ichiro in the batting race .354 to .350.  Placido Polanco picked up hits number 190 and 191 and he’s at .344.

Jair Jurrjens had his first his first really poor start of the season but the bullpen really picked him up in this one.  Tim Byrdak picked up the win with two innings of shutout relief in which he struck out five and both Fernando Rodney and Todd Jones held the Royals scoreless in their stints.  For Jones, it’s his 38th save of the season.

The Tigers are sending three players to play in the Hawaiian Winter Baseball League this year.  Catcher Dusty Ryan, infielder Cale Iorg and outfielder Jeramy Laster will be their representatives.

The Yankees lost, so the Tigers now sit 4 1/2 back of them with eight games left.  The Indians won and their magic number to clinch the AL Central is down to two.  Tonight, it’ll be Kenny Rogers going up against Kyle Davies.

Ivan Rodriguez led the Tigers at the plate last night as they blew out the Mariners 12-6 for their fourth straight win.  It was Pudge’s third game in which he had four hits this season.  He homered, drove in two and scored twice.  Curtis Granderson picked up his 22nd triple and he scored three runs while Placido Polanco put himself in the batting title race with a three for four game in which he drove in four and scored two times and Timo Perez went three for four with a triple and two RBIs.  Finally, Brandon Inge was the other Tiger to go yard.  It was his fourteenth of the season.  So a lot of hitting highlights in this one and quite a few of them were off of former Tiger Jeff Weaver.

Nate Robertson had a rough start which forced the Tigers to once again go to the pen earlier then they would have liked.  Robertson gave up five runs in 4 2/3 innings.  Zach Miner picked up the win with 2 1/3 innings of relief in which he gave up one run and Fernando Rodney and Yorman Bazardo each threw a scoreless frame.

While the wins are nice, all they’ve done is match the Yankees, who have a four game winning streak of their own.  The good news is, with a win this afternoon, the Tigers can bury the Mariners and they’ll know they have to make up games on just one team.   It’ll be an interesting matchup of two solid young starters with Felix Hernandez pitching against Jeremy Bonderman.

The Tigers finished their road trip with a whimper and for a team that had the best road record, a 3-8 road trip was pretty uncharacteristic of the team.  It’s unfortunate too because Nate Robertson, while not great, threw a decent enough game.  He gave up just three runs on nine hits and a walk with two strikeouts in six innings.  Bobby Seay got into trouble in the eighth but he got some help from Jason Grilli.  That just stopped the game from getting out of hand though.

Once again, the Tigers bats were held in check and they managd just seven hits.  Placido Polanco went two for three with a walk, a double and a run to lead the way for the Tigers.  Magglio Ordonez singled, drew two walks, drove in a run and scored.

Now Gary Sheffield is complaing of a sore shoulder and to round out the bad news, as I speculated, the potential trade for Jack Wilson is alive and well.  The Tigers open up a three game series against the White Sox at home beginning tomorrow.  Andrew Miller gets the ball and he’ll face Mark Buehrle so we’ll have a battle of the left handers.

It’s nice seeing these kind of games once in a while.  Those “no doubt about it” kind of games where you can sit back and relax by the fifth inning.  Even better, the Tigers dismantled the Indians’ ace, C.C. Sabathia.

Carlos Guillen led the way with a team high four RBIs while Gary Sheffield drove three and he belted his 20th homerun of the season.  Magglio Ordonez has another three hit game and Placido Polanco crossed the plate three times.  Even Craig Monroe picked up a hit.

Justin Verlander picked up his tenth win of the season with seven solid innings.  He gave up three runs (two earned) on six hits with seven strikeouts.  Bobby Seay and then Jose Capellan each threw a scoreless inning to close the game out.

With the two straight wins, the Tigers now sit just a single game back of the Indians.  It doesn’t get any easier though because the Red Sox roll into town to wrap things up before the All Star Break.  Andrew Miller will take on Julian Tavarez in the opener tomorrow night.

I’m having problems with my internet connection so I’m hoping to squeak this in.  Justin Verlander threw a no hitter tonight over the Brewers and it’s the first no hitter by a Tiger since Jack Morris did it back in the 1984.

Of course I was stuck in a car somewhere that I couldn’t even listen to the game so I missed a small slice of history.

Ian at Bless You Boys has a brief chat with Chris from Amazin’ Avenue about the Mets and the Tigers’ upcoming series.  Good stuff.  I had given up Damian Easley for dead but like Tony Clark, he’s hung around and put together a solid season.

It looks like another quality blogger has called it quits.  Batgirl was one of the funniest blogs out there and you couldn’t help but chuckle whenever you stopped by to read something.  The stuff with the Legos were pricesless as well.  Whenever I watch the White Sox, I’ll always think of them as the bitch sox and think of her site.

Denny McLain made some very well thought out and interesting comments on his blog about alcohol in the clubhouse and Josh Hancock’s premature passing. 

We all know I have a pretty keen interest in the business of baseball so that’s why I was excited when Baseball America started a blog related to the business aspects of the minor leagues.  Josh Leventhal has done a very nice job in his first few posts and I’m definitely going to make this a regular stop.

I know this isn’t the Tigers, but former centerfielder Nook Logan, much to the dismay of many Nationals fans, looked to be the lock for the starting centerfield job there.  I’ve always enjoyed watching Logan but I also felt his value was more in line with an Alex Sanchez type of player with a better feel for centerfield.  He’ll end up with a hollow .280 batting average and because he can run, he’ll probably misused as a lead off hitter.

Anyway, Logan strained his groin yesterday and the team should know more tomorrow about his status.  Anything that slows Logan down though severely diminishes his value though, because that’s about all he has.

I know this isn’t about the Tigers but it’s great to see bloggers doing this kind of stuff.  One of my favorite Padres blogger, Geoff Young at Ducksnorts, recently published the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual.  I bought the download and there’s a ton of stuff in here.  You get both a look back at the 2006 season and a ton of historical information.  These things are hard enough to do when it’s a collaborative effort and it’s doubly impressive that Geoff was able to pull this off by himself.  There’s also a foreward by Padres CEO Sandy Alderson.  Great job, Geoff.

I know this isn’t Tigers related, but for the third straight time, the Veteran’s Committee has failed to elect anyone to the Hall of Fame.  While that by itself isn’t a huge problem, it becomes one when you have a guy like Ron Santo waiting in the wings.  At least he got closer and hopefully in two years the third baseman will find his way in.

Aaron hasn’t gotten to the commentary on this over at Wrigley Field Curse but he told me that he plans on doing a quick highlight of Santo’s career for those of you who aren’t familiar with him.

This time it’s the Dodgers.  If you liked the coverage so far over at Detroit Minors, a similar website has started that will cover the Dodgers’ minor league affiliates.  Whether it’s keeping track of a great farm system or if you just want to keep tabs on the Dodgers new minor league affiliate in Midland, MI, you can do all this and more at the Dodgers Minor League Baseball Blog.  I’m hoping to check out the Great Lakes Loons in their new digs in Midland this year, especially when the Whitecaps roll into town.

It’s hard to argue that Jeremy Bonderman hasn’t gotten better in each of his four major league seasons.  He nearly doubled his 2003 strikout total (108) in his 2006 campaign (202) and the number of innings he’s logged has gone up in each of the four years while his ERA has come down in all four.  He still hasn’t broken through the 15 win barrier, but his 14-8 record in 2006 doesn’t do him justice.  Jeremy Bonderman is the best pitcher on the Tigers right now.  At some point, Justin Verlander and maybe even Andrew Miller could pass him, but Bonderman’s the ace and he showed flashes of being one in 2006.

So the question is, if he’s so good, when will we see that season where he finishes near, or even at, the top of the Cy Young voting?   I personally think that season could be 2007 and in a lot of ways, so does Baseball Prospectus.

Baseball Prospectus recently published their PECOTA cards for the 2007 season.  You can check out Bonderman’s card but here’s a quick run down.

The first thing that was noteworthy was that they put Jeremy Bonderman sixth in all of baseball and third in the American League in weighted mean VORP (44.7).  The guys in front of him are Pedro Martinez, Brandon Webb, Roy Halladay, Jake Peavy and of course the front runner, Johan Santana.  So if the projections end up being correct and he finishes as the sixth best pitcher to that group, I wouldn’t see a whole lot of shame in that.

The one thing I did find odd is even Bonderman’s 90 percentile doesn’t have him at 200 strikeouts.  It does have him at 16-6 with a 1.13 WHIP and a 2.62 ERA.  Although I have a feeling if he has a 2.62 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP, that we’ll see closer to 20 wins with the lineup that the Tigers will be bringing in 2007.

Probably the most impressive part of the card was that BP gives Bonderman a 45% breakout rate and an 88% improve rate.  So they’re basically saying that in all likely hood, Bonderman should top that mean weighted average and then have a 50% of coming out close to the top.  I like those numbers especially when you combine them with only a 4% attrition and a 4% collages rating. 

Also impressive is Bonderman’s comparable pitchers.  He has a 42 similarity index which is okay for making comparisons and his most comparable pitcher is Larry Dierker who had a pretty solid career before flaming out. He won 22 games as a 22 year old but he was done by age 30.  Second is Bill Gullickson, who also had an early start and had a breakout season at the age of 24.  I thought the most optimistic one was Bert Blyleven, who is Bonderman’s fifth most comparable pitcher. 

The cards are a lot of fun to check out.  Sheffield’s card doesn’t look too hot but his 2006 injury plays a big factor in that.  They expect a pretty steep decline from Kenny Rogers and they have a pretty wide range for what Justin Verlander might do. 

The Tigers won three “This Year in Baseball” awards this season.  Recently unveiled by MLB.com, Joel Zumaya won setup man of the year, Jim Leyland won manager of the year, and Sean Casey won blooper of the year for the 5-7-3 put out in which he didn’t run on the play.

Congrats to Leyland and Zumaya.  For Casey, I feel bad because I thought that gaffe was beaten to death and a lot of the criticism was unwarranted.

John Sickels broke down the Tigers top 20 prospects today.  The good news is, they have two very good prospects in Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller.  The bad news is, nobody else even warranted a better then a B- rating so the farm system is still pretty thin. 

The wild card will probably be Brent Clevlen.  He had a rough season Double A, but actually hit the ball pretty well when he got called up.  He’ll probably start the season in Triple A because there’s really no spot for him right now with the Tigers surplus of outfielders.  Jair Jurjjens is a name that’s being thrown around as being on the back end of the Tigers pen but Sickels indicates he should get more time in the minors.

One thing I’m hoping to expand next year is my coverage of the minor leagues.  I don’t know if it’ll be on Tigerblog or another site because I’m going to have some help (okay, I’m going to have someone do it for me).  It’s always been something I’ve followed on the peripherary but never close enough to warrant talking about it too much.

For a ton of great prospect information, I highly recommend John Sickels book.  I highlighted it in my five must reads a week or so ago.

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