Tigers Weekly 2005 Season

Week 4: 4/26/05 - 5/3/05

Without further delay, here is your Tigers Weekly for
the week.  I apologize for the tardiness, but I had a
final exam Tuesday and needed to put in a little study
time Monday night.  Finals behind me, it's full steam
ahead.
 
Not a terrible week for the Tigers.  They had a five
game winning streak going before dropping two straight
in Chicago and then split a pair with the Red Sox. 
Two more games remain in that series and then we'll
have to stay up past our bedtimes to see the Tigers as
they head out west for six games.  I'll be in
attendance for my first game this Thursday to see the
finale against the Sox.  My math friends and I will
try and bring Detroit some good luck.
 
New Subscribers...
Aaron "The Closure" Mosier
Adam "The Brain" Goyt

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"Week" of 4/26 - 5/3
 
Record:  4-3  -WWWLLWL
 
Undy-Five-Hundy:  Rats.  We were one Doug Mirabelli
grand slam away from vanquishing the UFH for the time
being.  Two of the three losses this week were close,
but the Tigers also won two one-run games and their
seemingly comfy victory over Boston on Monday was due
to some late game offense.  The schedule in the weeks
ahead is somewhat daunting.  Will the index grow?  I
say no, but I'm an optimist.  
 
Up Next for the Tigers...

May 4-5     Boston
May 6-8   @ Anaheim
May 9-11  @ Texas
 
AL Central Standings...

CWS  19 7  -
MIN  15 10 3.5
DET  12 13 6.5
CLE  10 15 8.5
KCR   7 19 12
 
Tigers News and Notes:  Ramon Martinez came off of the
DL this week, and that spelled Toledo for Andrew Good.
 
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Tiger of the Week...
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With two victories this week (one coming against the World Champion Red Sox) Jeremy Bonderman is the Tiger of the Week. Last Wednesday in Cleveland, Bonderman benefitted from good run support but made sure that the Tribe would not get back into the game. He gave up just three hits and a walk in eight innings in the third game of the Tigers' win streak. Against the Red Sox Bonderman was far less dominant, but he made up for this with some great situational pitching. Facing the 2-3-4 hitters of the Sox with bases loaded and nobody out Jeremy gave us a reason to believe he can be the ace we're hoping for. He induced a short fly ball from Trot Nixon, fanned Manny Ramirez on three straight pitches, and retired David Ortiz on a grounder to second. Carlos Pena's two-run blast in the 6th put Bondo on-line for the win and the bullpen made it stand up.

The Tigers traded Jeff Weaver for Bonderman, German,
and Pena.  It's looking like a sweet deal through the
eyes of a Tiger fan.  German has been pretty good and
Pena has been solid defensively and showed some life
with two HR's the other dayt.  Oakland and New York
got far less out of that deal (especially considering
that New York dealt Weaver to LA for Kevin Brown who
is doing terribly).  This was no Luis Gonzalez and
cash for Karim Garcia robbery. 

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XM (no static at all...)
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The following is a short treatise on MLB on XM radio. 
It was written by Dave Raglin as part of another
Tigers newsletter and was sent in by Deana "Joe"
Carter.  Thanks to both for helping respond to Berol's
query of a week ago.  
 
---
 
It's now a lot easier to keep in touch with our
favorite team because of XM satellite radio. XM
broadcasts every major league game and its signal
reaches the whole continental United States (and
probably part of Canada). I'm especially glad that it
was XM who bought the rights to major league baseball
since I have been a big XM fan ever since it went
national about 3.5 years ago. Here's the scoop on XM
-- the radios, the subscription plans, and the
programming.  So, what is this XM? XM is sort of like
cable TV for radio. You buy a special XM radio, you
subscribe to a plan, and you listen to the Tigers.
 

Radios: There are lots of radios -- I will focus on
three options. First, many cars have XM built into the
radio when you buy a new car; participating car
companies include GM, Toyota, Honda, Isuzu, Lexus and
VW, among others. The only problem with that being
your only XM option is that you have to sit in your
car to listen to Pudge band one off the left field
wall.
 
Two other radio options are more flexible. Both are
portable but don't have their own speakers; you either
listen with headphones or the XM radio broadcasts on
FM frequency, allowing you to use a regular radio to
listen.  The XM "My-Fi" is the newest and most
portable XM radio. It's about the size of an overgrown
iPod and can be taken anywhere. At home, you can just
set it next to a regular FM radio. In the car, it can
play through your car radio. It comes with a couple of
stands for the house and equipment to mount it in a
car. It can also record up to five hours of
programming, either manually or through a timer, so
you can record that game you have to miss and listen
to it later. It retails for about $300. The XM "Sky-Fi
2" is not much bigger than the My-Fi, but it has to
plug into a special stand, either in the car or at
home, to play. The Sky-Fi costs about $100, but you
have to also buy a kit to listen to it either in the
car or at home; each kit runs about $50.
 
XM has about 130 channels, but I'm going to focus on
the baseball offerings (since this is, after all, a
baseball newsletter). Channel 175 is MLB Home Plate,
at 24/7/365 baseball talk channel. The hosts are
pretty good; the best are the morning guys (Mark
Patrick, Larry Bowa and Buck Martinez). A lot of the
shows are call-in shows, but they're doing a better
job getting interesting guests now that the season has
started.  Overnight, they replay radio broadcasts of
classic games.
 
Channels 176-189 broadcast the play-by-play of every
major league game. For now, they only get the home
team's feed, so -- unfortunately -- you can't hear Dan
Dickerson and Jim Price every game. However, it's
interesting at times to hear the other team's
broadcasters take on the Tigers. They also broadcast
the pregame shows; however,
 
for the most part, they aren't doing the postgame
shows yet. This year, they also broadcast many spring
training games.
 
The cost of the service is $12.95 a month for the
first radio in a household, $6.95 for each additional
radio.  The baseball package is part of that basic
subscription rate. If you have any questions about XM
radio or the baseball package, e-mail me at
dar6884@earthlink.net.

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Poll Question...
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Bobby Higginson makes more money than other player on
the Tigers.  This fact is downright naughty.  Like it
or not (how could one like it?) the Tigers are stuck
with him for the year.  What do you think is the best
thing the Tigers can do with Higginson?  What move
would benefit the club the most?  Do you think they
could get anyone to take on his monstrous salary or to
offer any kind of prospect in return?  Is it possible
that Bobby contributes significantly to the 2005
Tigers?  Go.

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Game Linescores...
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April 26:  game postponed due to rain...
 
April 27:  Detroit 10 - Cleveland 3
Starters:  DET: Bonderman 8IP - CLE: Westbrook 2.1IP
DET  036 100 000  10 12 0
CLE  001 001 001   3  4 0
W: Bonderman (3-2)
L: Westbrook (0-5)
 
April 28:  Detroit 3 - Cleveland 2
Starters:  DET: Maroth 6IP - CLE: Millwood 7IP
DET  300 000 000  3 7 0
CLE  000 020 000  2 7 0
W: Maroth   (2-1)
L: Millwood (0-3)
S: Percival (2)
 
April 29:  Detroit 3 - Chicago White Sox 2  F/11
Starters:  DET: Robertson 6IP - CWS: Contreras 6IP
DET  000 001 100 01  3 8 2
CWS  000 010 001 00  2 7 0
W: Walker  (1-0)
L: Takatsu (0-1)
S: German  (1)
 
April 30:  Detroit 3 - Chicago White Sox 4
Starters:  DET: Johnson 6.2IP - CWS: Hernandez 7IP
DET  110 010 000  3 9 0
CWS  001 000 30X  4 6 0
W: Hernandez (3-1)
L: Johnson   (2-2)
S: Hermanson (3)
 
May 1:  Detroit 0 - Chicago White Sox 8
Starters:  DET: Ledezma 5IP - CWS: Garland 9IP
DET  000 000 000  0 4 2
CWS  011 202 20X  8 9 0
W: Garland (5-0)
L: Ledezma (1-2)
 
May 2:  Boston 3 - Detroit 8
Starters:  BOS: Gonzalez 5IP - DET: Bonderman 6IP
BOS  003 000 000  3 11 0
DET  201 002 03X  8 12 2
W: Bonderman (4-2)
L: Neal      (0-1)
S: Urbina    (1)
 
May 3:  Boston 5 - Detroit 3
Starters:  BOS: Halama 5IP - DET: Maroth 6IP
BOS  100 040 000  5 6 2
DET  100 100 001  3 6 0
W: Halama (1-0)
L: Maroth (2-2)
S: Foulke (5)

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Readers Write In...
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Matt "Chip" Stevens
 
This time I will have a answer that is comprehendable,
not the Icehouse induced predictions of my last poll
question answer.  My secondary MLB team is the St.
Louis Cards.  As a kid, baseball was still the "cool"
sport and I played SS for my 
little league team.  Obviously a player like Ozzie
Smith drew my attention.  Although, I am too
unathletic to do cartwheels and backflips, I did 
manage to have a very low error rate and adequate
batting average, just like the wizard.  No special
story or anything, just love for a team and player
that kept a kid like me spending his early youth with
a leather mitt on his hand.

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Andy "Kin Korn" Karnitz
 
My #2 team has been the Cubs, dating back to the late
'70's. We'd get home from school
in the middle of the 3rd inning and watch the Reuschel
brothers pitch, while the stellar Ivan DeJesus played
2nd......okay, these 3 were no hall of famers but they
were the best the north side had at the time! There
was one HOFer- Jack Brickhouse called the games("Hey
hey, Cubs fans!"), and we got to watch all that ivy
passed by opposition homers into almost empty
bleachers(Wrigley didn't start selling out weekday
games until '82 or '83). I suppose I took on the
Cubbies because my other faves at the time(Tigers,
Packers) were equally pathetic.

Kemp- I've got Sirius, not XM, but I've gotta
think they only play the broadcast from one team. If
they played both broadcasts they'd take away too much
of the other programming each day. Sirius only doubles
up on the NFL games. For the NHL and NBA games there's
only 1 team's broadcast. You rarely hear the Pistons'
or Wings' broadcasts on Sirius because(IMHO) the feeds
from AM 1230 sound so crappy! If anyone out there gets
Sirius, do yourself a favor and check out the Steelers
broadcasts. Myron Cope and Tunch Ilkin are
HILARIOUS!!!!
                                                    
later,
                                                      
Andy
 
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Dan "Berol" Kemp
 
I don't have a secondary team but I am intrigued by
the Nationals this season.  It's amazing to see this 
team competing as well as they do.  I wish them well,
and I hope that they can take away the Division 
championship from the Braves.  
 
Last year's most-hated-figure tournament was a riot. 
You should consider starting something else this 
year.  Maybe the best mascot?  Or you could broaden it
to the most enjoyable aspect of attending the 
game, including mascots.  Hopefully voter
participation would be better this year.  Just
something I thought I'd throw in for discussion.
 
Later,
 
Dan

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Dallas "Big D" Senters
 
I am a cincinnati reds fan.  i love the reds.  they
are the one team i would most like to see win the
world series (sweet 1990).  the pitching staff
continues to scare me and griffey likes to swing and 
miss.  adam dunn...also fond of the whiff.  otherwise
they look like a decent blend of veteran leadership
and young talent that should be respectable.  that
makes my secondary choice really easy, because in the
american league i am all about my other ohio team, the
indians.  they really need to get it in gear and smoke
the ball like they seem to be capable of.
i started pulling for the expos when the indians sent
bartolo colon that way.  i have continued to pull for
them as the nationals, and now they are playing like a
major league team, instead of the team from the 
movie major league (go tribe)
 
Dallas

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Derek "Bell" Muller
 
A few stats of the good, and not-so-good, from this
year's Tigers.
 
-The infield has not been nearly as error-prone as
feared.  Yes, every IF starter has committed at least
one error, but the only one who looks like he doesn't
belong is Inge, who's got 4.  It could be worse - the
Tigers could be sporting a SS like Soriano, already
with a whopping 6 Es.
 
-The hitting has been unstoppable, even without
steroid-plagued, errr, hernia-plagued Maggs.  We have
a majority of our starters batting over .300,
Guillen's consistently .400 for those nay-sayers who
called last year a fluke, and Nook Logan is at .400
with a few dozen ABs.
 
-Pudge has put out 9 of 16 stolen base attempts in 16
games.  How sick is that?  Last season, he put out 19
of 59.  He's almost halfway to last year's total in
April.  As a comparison, the vaunted Jason
Kendall is a mere 3-for-25 in cutting down SBs, while
Michael Barrett is 11-for-19 in cutting 'em down, but
has the baggage of a BA that would make Higgy blush.
 
-Also on Pudge, it looks like his lost weight wasn't
simply steroid withdrawal, but, *gasp* good training
in the off-season.  Eat it, Rome.
 
-Finally, we've heard that pitching is our weakness,
but I really didn't have any idea of how weak that
weakness was until I looked at the RS-RA stats.  The
Tigers are outscoring their opponents by about 20 runs
so far this season, but they're still floating under
.500.  Compare that to the Yankees, who have
comparable losses to the Tigers, but have been
outscored by their opponents.  In fact, as of this
writing, the red-hot Orioles have outscored opponents
by FEWER RUNS than the Tigers, yet boast a .667
record.  We're winning the blowouts and losing the
close games, something that should NOT happen with
Farnsworth-Ugie-Gas Can in the 'pen.
 
WAR 1984.
RUN Gary Bettman.
 
I'm out.

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Matt "Baxter" Weiland
 
I used to get a bunch of crap from O'toole, Claus, and
Dagget for being a fairweather fan with the Tigers. 
Truth is I did it on purpose.  The Tigers are king on
my list, growing up I never wanted to be anyone else
than Matt Nokes and/or Alan Trammel.
 
I find myself pulling for Oakland more times than not.
Reason:  Dave Stewart's "I'm gonna kill you" glare
from the mound is etched into my brain.  Watching him
pitch was great, a boy could never forget.  Although
my memory is a little foggy I think I might have been
a bit of a Canseco fan (I can't believe I just said
that).

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Toolie's Trashtalk...
 
The Tigers' theme song for this week should be "Walk
Like a Man."  The pitchers have been very generous
with the free passes lately.  Starting on Friday, the
Tigers allowed (by game) 11, 4, 5, 5, and 6 walks. 
Those per-game numbers are large as far as walks are
considered.  Nothing is worse than having to listen to
Jim Price say "Oh those base on balls" as opposing
players cross home plate.  The Tigers were 2-3 over
that span, and they even managed to win the game where
they walked 11 (that was an 11 inning game, by the
way).  Similar numbers in the future are sure to bring
worse results.  Let's shoot the mitt!
 
I continue to be encouraged with the team.  There are
many good hitters on the club and each player brings
something unique to the table, be it offensively or
defensively.  I love it when Nook Logan is in the
lineup as he brings speed to the team (where they were
projected to be very slow on the bases).  Brandon Inge
has been excelling in the leadoff spot, Carlos Guillen
continues to dominate his position, and Pudge is the
player that Ilitch is paying him to be.  We should see
more winning streaks like this current one througout
the rest of the season and fewer losing streaks.  One
area that is shaky is the back end of the rotation. 
If Ledezma and/or Robertson struggle I wouldn't mind
seeing some of the young prospects (Justin Verlander
looked very impressive when I saw him pitch in
Sarasota) get some time in the rotation.  
 
I am not a fan of this Trifecta crap that ESPN is
trying to run.  Twenty minutes of Baseball Tonight
isn't enough time to do anything.  You're basically
getting the Sportscenter baseball highlights condensed
into twenty minutes.  Then if they do anything special
it cuts into some teams' highlights.  Just this past
Thursday there were six (6) games played in MLB.  One
of them was the Tigers/Indians game (a great victory
behind good pitching by Mike Maroth).  The only
MENTION of this game was a clip of Carlos Guillen on
Web Gems.  NOT EVEN A MENTION OF THE SCORE!!!  How do
you have twenty minutes to talk about six baseball
games and totally omit one?  For starters, you burn
25% of the show analyzing the Angels/Yankees game
pitch by pitch.  I was not happy.  Come on, at least
mention that Mike Maroth had a career-high eight
strikeouts or that the bullpen pitched three innings
of scoreless relief, or that the game actually
happened.  This show is supposed to be for baseball
fans.  Leave the Yankee bias to Sportscenter please.  
 
If I had to do childhood all over again I'd spend
every ounce of free time playing baseball.  There's
nothing like a summer afternoon in the hot sun playing
ball with a few friends.  Heck, I can remember often
playing with kids I didn't really know.  But it didn't
matter; we all knew baseball.  For how much I did
play, I could have played and I should have played a
lot more.  These days I get pretty excited just to
play catch.  Hopefully someday I have kids who are
into the game.  I can only imagine how fun it would be
to teach the game to an enthusiastic son or daughter
of mine.  
 
Weiland, I also used to be a Canseco fan when I was
younger, but we can't be blamed for that.  He was a
big star and we were too young and naive to know any
better.  I used to idolize Rob Deer before I knew how
much he actually struck out.  All I ever remembered
were the home runs he would hit.  
 
It looks like the Tigers have also changed the
out-of-town scoreboard.  I didn't get a great look at
it, but there are permanent signs out there that say
"American" and "National" League.  Through last year,
the scoreboard would go back and forth from one league
to another.  This change would be an improvement.  I
like manual scoreboards, but those seem to be going
out of style.  
 
Juan Rincon gets ten games for violating the substance
abuse policy.  He is on a couple of my fantasy teams,
so I am feeling the burn as well.  With guys like
Rincon and Alex Sanchez testing positive, this make me
think that just about everyone is on some sort of
juice.  When you consider that steroids give a person
energy and help them recover quicker you start to
realize that anyone is a steroid candidate.  Will the
long arm of suspensions reach the Tigers?  Feel free
to respond to that (who do you think is most likely to
test positive?).
 
Thanks for your patience this week (though some of you
gave me a hard time).  The Weekly is now up to 150
recipients.  Whether you read the column every week or
just every once in a while I say thank you.  I know
there are good Tiger (and baseball) fans out there
besides me and it feels good to reach them and spread
the Tigers love.  
 
Time to get my sleep on.
 
I'm out.
 





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