Tigers Weekly 2004 Season

Season Preview Issue

We have been counting the days.  We have been tracking
our teams.  We have been keeping an eye on the spring
training progression of the athletes.  We have read
the stories.  We have heard the hype.  We have seen
the wheelings and dealings of the offseason.  We have
not found a better way to start a sentence.  And now
it's here: Baseball Season.  For most of the league,
season play will begin on April 5th.  For our boys, it
starts north of the border at Skydome.  Tigers vs.
Blue Jays.  The time is drawing nigh...
 
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LET'S PLAY BALL...
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...o'er the land of the free, and the home of the
brave.
 
Chills, my friends, chills.  Though it has been an
offseason of just five months, it seems like it's been
a full year since the Tigers last played ball.  It was
a frantic finish, as the Tigers went 5-1 in their last
week to avoid tying the loss record.  After the
disastrous "rebuilding" year, owner Mike Ilitch felt
the need to do a little team reconstruction.  Most of
the stuff I have already discussed in the off-season
update issue, but there are these guys that the Tigers
got that might help the ball club.  
 
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Tigers Get Pudgy and Ugee...
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No, the team hasn't put on weight.  Well, maybe you
can say that they've got a heavier lineup.  The Tigers
trade in the bat and skills of Brandon Inge for all
star and World Series Champion Ivan Rodriguez.  Inge
remains on the team as a utility player, but Pudge
will assume the regular catching duties.  Rodriguez
signed a four year, 40 million dollar deal with the
Tigers.  I believe the deal has a club option for a
fifth year.  Mike DiFelice was cut, so Inge will serve
as the backup.  Rule 5 pick Chris Shelton also has
experience at catcher.  So much for my statement last
time that the DiFelice signing signaled the end of the
run at Pudge.
 
And along with Rodriguez came relief pitcher Ugueth
Urbina.  Urbina had been holding out for a requested
contract of 4.5 million bucks, but no teams were
biting at the offer.  Partially influenced by
Rodriguez, Urbina signed for 3.5 million with a club
option for the 2005 year.
 
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1768000
 
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Projected Lineups and Rotation...
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1. Alex Sanchez    CF
2. Fernando Vina   2B
3. Ivan Rodriguez  C
4. Dmitri Young    DH
5. Rondell White   LF
6. Bobby Higginson RF
7. Eric Munson     3B
8. Carlos Pena     1B
9. Carlos Guillen  SS
 
Bench
Brandon Inge   (Utility/C)
Omar Infante   (Middle Infield)
Craig Monroe   (Outfield)
Greg Norton    (Corner Infield)
Chris Shelton  (wherever they want him)  (rule 5 pick)
 
Rotation
1. Jason Johnson
2. Mike Maroth      (lefty)
3. Nate Cornejo
4. Jeremy Bonderman
5. Nate Robertson   (lefty) 
   / Gary Knotts
 
Relievers
Ugueth Urbina    (closer)       (DL)
Jamie Walker     (lefty)
Fernando Rodney                 (DL)
Danny Patterson
Al Levine
Robertson/Knotts
Esteban Yan
Steve Colyer     (lefty)
Lino Urdaneta    (rule 5 pick)  (DL)
 
After these clowns come off the DL (they are all 15
day DLers) we'll have a better picture of who's here
to stay.  The bullpen actually looks pretty good. 
Colyer was acquired from the Dodgers in exchange for
Cody Ross, and Chris Spurling is out for the year so
he can have Tommy John surgery.  
 
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Up First for the Tigers...
 
April 5-7   @Toronto
April 8     Minnesota (home opener)
April 9     no game scheduled
April 10-11 Minnesota
April 12    no game scheduled
 
Undy Five Hundy:  The index is at zero.  Soak it up.
 
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Rule 5 Draft...
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For those unfamiliar with the workings of the rule 5
draft, follow the link for a short synopsis.  
 
http://www.strikethree.com/99/11/29/jason.shtml
 
Last year the Tigers took three players:  Wil Ledezma,
Matt "Big Head" Roney, and Travis Chapman.  You may
recognize the first two names, as they were on the
roster for the entire season.  This year, they will
probably be in the minors.  Chapman was not carried by
the team.  
 
This winter, the Tigers selected three picks in the
draft; Lino Urdaneta, Chris Shelton, and Mike Bumatay.
Recently, Bumatay was sent back to the Rockies. 
Shelton has made the team, and Urdaneta starts the
season on the DL.  I'm not sure if that means that he
will be with the team all year or if the Tigers can
put off making the decision.  If you see Urdaneta in a
uniform at all this season, then he's here to stay. 
 
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"The Most Dispicable Baseball Figure" Tournament...
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So this year, in addition to weekly poll questions,
there will be a tournament running to determine the
most dispicable baseball figure of all time.  For the
first couple of weeks I will accept your nominations
and narrow the field to 16 or 32 (I can easily come up
with 16 on my own).  When submitting a proposal,
please provide a short description for each
nomination, highlighting the finer points of their
dispicable nature.  Any criteria for nomination is ok,
as long as it's a negative criteria.  For instance,
Steinbrenner will be in the tournament since everyone
that's not a Yankee fan despises him.  Mo Vaughn makes
the list because I hate him and he wears elbow
armor... and he sucks.  By the end of the season, we
will have determined the worst person that MLB has
efer produced.  
 
When submitting proposals (and votes in the future)
please include the word "dispicable" in the subject. 
I've got a filter set up so that all those e-mails
will go directly to a special folder, so that will
make my job quite a bit easier.  
 
Please nominate someone.  Here's a list of people that
will be in that don't need to be nominated.
 
George Steinbrenner
Bud Selig
Marge Schott
Donald Fehr
Barry Bonds
Albert Belle
Ty Cobb
Paul O'Neill
Pete Rose
Mo Vaughn
Roberto Alomar
Sammy Sosa
Gaylord Perry
Billy Martin
Rickey Henderson
Bobby Valentine
 
OK, there's a list to get you started.  If there's
anyone you want to add to the list, send the
suggestion along with the word "dispicable" in the
subject.  You may nominate as many people as you want.
 
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Poll Question...
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Predictions.  I want them.  Division Winners, AL and
NL Champions, World Series.  Where do you think the
Tigers will finish?
 
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The Weekly on the Web...
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Two of my buddies, Jason Boddu and Nic Gilbert, are
putting the Weekly up on their websites.  At Boddu's
website,
http://theorigin8or.tripod.com/tigersweekly.htm, one
can view all the issues from last year.  If you want
to deal with less pop-ups, take a look at
(Link Removed: The webpage no longer exists), 
Gilbert's page.  As long as Western continues to give
the man web space, that page should be up and running.
Big thanks to both of these guys for pimping the Weekly.  
 
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Readers Write In...
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Sara Jo "Carter" Pietraszewski
 
Great to hear from you and to see that you have kept
the faith and are ready to fight the fight again! 
Love it and we can't wait until the first 
pitch....it has been a LONG winter without baseball.
 
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Nick "the Commissioner" Ciofani
 
Mark my words the Tigers will be in contention for the
division well past the All Star game.  
 
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Andy "G.M." Karnitz
 
so pedro martinez and nomar will both be free agents
at the end of the season, huh?
 
i don't think mr. i could afford both, but either of
the 2 could both help and draw crowds to the park.
 
perhaps i'm one hot stove season early, but it's
something a guy can keep on a low boil for quite some
time.......
 
-andy 
 
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Toolie's Trashtalk...
 
And we're off, like a dirty shirt.  Holy crap, do I
really have another year of this in me?  You bet I do.
There have been a lot of moves this year, and I expect
significant improvement from this club.  Us Tiger fans
are going to be easy to please, so an average of 3
wins a week will probably pacify me.  ESPN has los
Tigres ranked 24th out of the 30 teams.  I expect them
to do a little better than that, but 24th is actually
pretty generous.
 
I think it's apparent that the lineup is going to be
much stronger.  Assuming everyone stays healthy (kind
of a big assumption with Vina, Higginson, and Vina)
the offense should function pretty well.  The middle
of the order being Dmitri, Rodriguez, and White should
scare more than a few pitchers.  Four runs a game,
here we come (last year, 3.6 per game).  
 
As far as the format this year, I will be putting out
the issues on Monday nights until my summer teaching
begins.  Then it will most likely switch over to
Tuesday like it did last summer.  No issue this
Monday. 
 
So I already have my first game booked, thanks to
faithful reader and long time friend, Matt "Double
Zero" Brady.  Matty got a pair of tickets, online, for
the home opener against the Twins.  This will be my
first opening day experience, so I thank the man for
that.  It looks like we'll be seeing Nate Cornejo on
the mound.  I've been saying that as long as the team
has a win by then, I'll be in a good mood.  These last
few years, though, that's been a lot to ask.  
 
OK, so how are the Tigers going to improve?  I've
already stated their improved lineup.  Offense should
see a nice boost.  That will get the Tigers back to
respectability.  In order for the team to have any
sort of chance to compete, they'll need their pitchers
to improve from last year.  They will definitely need
better numbers from Bonderman (6-19, 5.56 ERA, 108K),
Cornejo (6-17, 4.67, 46), and Maroth (9-21, 5.73, 87).
They should have a better defense behind them.  Last
year's team committed 138 miscues in the field. 
That's only three less than the league worst Reds, and
more than double the league leading Mariners (65). 
But drastic improvement doesn't seem likely.  The team
already has plenty of errors.  
 
For my moment of outrage, the Sunday Night Baseball
opener tomorrow is scheduled for 8PM...on ESPN2!  How
is this not on the main network?  Oh, that's right,
they've got to put the spotlight on the NCAA Final
Four...the women's final four.  In a recent ESPN poll
asking which event you're most looking forward to, the
results came:
Mens Final Four:   45.9%
Opening Day:       26.2%
Masters Golf:      12.6%
NHL Playoffs       12.3%
and coming in dog ass last is
Women's Final Four 2.7%
 
Amazing.  Now I don't mind watching women's
basketball, seeing that I sat through four years of it
at the Dale and enjoyed those games.  But watching it
on TV?  No thanks.  Give me billiards at four in the
afternoon.  Give me the world series of poker.  Give
me Sunday Night Baseball.  Spare me the women's final
four.  And look, it's Tennessee and UCONN there,just
like every year!  A slap in the face to baseball,
indeed.  I hope that Karl Ravech and Peter Gammons put
a whooping on the programmers.  
 
Well that's going to do it from me for now.  I'll let
the games do the talking.  Attached is my current
computer wallpaper.  It's a reminder so that I don't
get my hopes up too much.
 
As I normally do, here's the old school fight song.
(fanfare...)
We're all behind our baseball team,
Go get 'em, Tigers!
World Series bound and picking up steam,
Go get 'em Tigers!
There'll be joy in Tiger Town
We'll sing new songs
When the Bengals bring the pennant home
Where it belongs.
We're all behind our baseball team.
Go get 'em...Detroit Tigers...
Go get 'em, Tigers!
 
My crappy predictions...
NL Division Champs:  Braves, Cubs, D-Backs
Wild Card:  Phillies
 
AL Division Champs:  Yanks, Royals, Seattle
AL Wild Card:  Boston
 
Cubs over D-Backs in the NLCS, Yanks over Seattle in
the ALCS.  Yankees win it all.  I hope I'm wrong. 
 
I'll say the Tigers finish third.  I expect them to
finish fourth, and best case they finish second.  
 
162 games in front of us and nowhere to go but up. 
Enjoy the ride.
 
I'm out.
 





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