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"The Tigers are the best-hitting team in the world
right now." - Texas pitcher Kevin Millwood.
Welcome to the 2006 Season of Major League Baseball!
The Tigers rocketed out of the gate like a torpedo,
riding hot bats to a 5-0 start. A couple of close
losses to the Rangers and White Sox have brought
Detroit back down to earth a little, but the spirits
of Tiger fans are high as the Leyland era began with
good signs. Despite their hot start, the Tigers find
themselves looking up at Cleveland. The Tribe and the
White Sox should both be quite good again this year,
so we should hold off on any dreams of competing until
we see what this team is all about. For now let's be
happy that the D is getting a lot of positive press
out of this. Surprisingly the Tigers and the Brewers
were the last two teams in the majors to lose. I
can't think of a better time for a five-game winning
streak.
New Subscribers...
Micah "Who's On" Fuerst
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"Week" of 4/3-4/11
Record: 5-2 W-WWWWLL-
Undy Five Hundy: Round one of this 26-week fight goes
to the Tigers as they get the drop on the UFH index.
For those unfamiliar, the Undy-Five-Hundy is simply
the number of games that the Tigers find themselves
below an even record. Right now, then, the number is
-3. Beautiful!
Up Next for the Tigers...
April 12-13 Chicago White Sox
April 14-17 Cleveland
April 18-20 @ Oakland
AL Central Standings...
CLE 6 1 -
DET 5 2 1
CWS 3 4 3
KCR 2 4 3.5
MIN 2 5 4
Tigers News and Notes: No news as of yet except for a
little honor that was bestowed on one of the newer
Tigers. Read on...
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Tiger of the Week...
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It was nice of Chris Shelton to start me off with a
no-brainer when it comes to giving out this award.
Little-Shel and his $365K salary roared loudest of all
Tigers in the first week. By the end of the Tigers'
fourth game Shelton had amassed five home-runs and
that mark still leads the league. Shelton hit a
ridiculous .700 during the winning streak but after
cooling off he saw his average fall to a modest .536.
The Pirates can only say "Yarrrrrr" for letting the
Tigers take Shelton in the Rule 5 draft three seasons
ago. But I don't think you can blame the Pirates.
Baseball is full of stories of players who come from
nowhere to be stars (David Eckstein) and those that
fail to meet high expectations (Drew Henson). Here's
a case where the Tigers took a chance on the right
guy. Way to go Chris!
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Verlander vs. Bonderman...
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Justin Verlander won a spot in the rotation this
spring and has received a lot of hype, much like
Jeremy Bonderman did three seasons ago. Both pitchers
are now 23. Bonderman's first year was rough. He
lost 19 games (he would have lost 20 with Maroth if
Trammell had decided to keep running him out there)
and had an ERA of 5.56. There are some differences
between these two pitchers which should contribute to
Verlander seeing more success than Jeremy had in his
first season.
For starters, Verlander gets to pitch from the #5 spot
in his rookie season, Bonderman pitched from the #2
spot (2003). However, due to Texas playing a
three-game series before facing the Tigers, Verlander
was matched against Rangers' ace Kevin Millwood.
Verlander has a MUCH better lineup hitting behind him
than Jeremy did in 2003. Try and imagine going into
this year with the following supporting cast:
Eugene Kingsale
Omar Infante
Dmitri Young
Bobby Higginson
Dean Palmer
Carlos Pena
Eric Munson
Brandon Inge
Ramon Santiago
...with a special guest appearance every once in a
while by Craig Paquette. Ugly. Verlander should be a
little more comfortable with v2006 backing him up.
Bonderman was a great talent when he made his debut in
2003 but he was undoubtedly rushed into the majors.
Bondo carried a 10.22 ERA after his first three starts
and never went more than four innings without giving
up an earned run. Verlander has spent a good amount
of time in the minors and opened his rookie season
with seven innings of scoreless work on the road in a
hitters park against a good hitting team.
While Verlander will most certainly have difficult
moments the conditions are much nicer for him than
they were for Bonderman. If JV develops into a solid
pitcher then this rotation will begin to earn some
respect around the American League.
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Free Baseball...
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The Tigers failed to work out a deal with TV20, at the
beginning of the season, to broadcast a package of
games on free TV. This weekend the two sides managed
to come to an agreement that will have at least 16
games broadcast in this fashion. It's not much but
it's a good start to putting more Tiger games back on
television. I'm not sure if TV20 is broadcast
throughout the state. You'll have to check your local
channels when FSN is not providing coverage. I will
try and alert you when the games are televised in this
fashion. I heard something about these broadcasts not
happening until June (though Opening Day was shown on
TV20 as well, I think). Mario and Rod will call these
games as well.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article
.jsp?ymd=20060407&content_id=1388558&vkey=news_det&fext
=.jsp&c_id=det
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Spring Baseball Game...
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Mike "Ilitch" Dabkowski and I have been kicking around
the possibility of putting together a spring game of
ball. Last year we played one game in early July
under the hot hot sun. It was a blast. We were
thinking a game somewhere near the Lansing area the
first weekend in May (6th-7th). If you are interested
in playing then let me know as soon as possible.
Thanks.
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Poll Question...
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Now that you've had a week to see the Tigers in action
(well, not really seeing that they've only been on TV
four times), what do you think of them? Which players
do you think will have good seasons and which players
will have trouble pulling their weight? Where will
the team need to improve?
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Game Linescores...
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April 3: Detroit 3 - Kansas City 1
Starters: DET: Rogers 6IP - KCR: Elarton 5.2IP
DET 000 101 010 3 9 0
KCR 000 100 000 1 4 0
W: Rogers (1-0)
L: Elarton (0-1)
S: Rodney (1)
April 4: no game scheduled...
April 5: Detroit 14 - Kansas City 3
Starters: DET: Bonderman 6.2IP - KCR: Mays 4.1IP
DET 300 030 413 14 19 0
KCR 000 000 201 3 6 1
W: Bonderman (1-0)
L: Mays (0-1)
April 6: Detroit 10 - Texas 6
Starters: DET: Robertson 5.1IP - TEX: Dickey 3.1IP
DET 210 500 101 10 12 0
TEX 000 120 003 6 11 2
W: Robertson (1-0)
L: Dickey (0-1)
April 7: Detroit 5 - Texas 2
Startes: DET: Maroth 5.1IP - TEX: Koronka 5IP
DET 020 201 000 5 10 0
TEX 100 000 100 2 11 1
W: Maroth (1-0)
L: Koronka (0-1)
S: Rodney (2)
April 8: Detroit 7 - Texas 0
Startesr: DET: Verlander 7IP - TEX: Millwood 6IP
DET 401 000 200 7 11 0
TEX 000 000 000 0 2 1
W: Verlander (1-0)
L: Millwood (0-2)
April 9: Detroit 3 - Texas 5
Starters: DET: Rogers 5.1IP - TEX: Padilla 6IP
DET 110 100 000 3 8 0
TEX 003 002 00X 5 12 1
W: Padilla (2-0)
L: Rogers (1-1)
S: Cordero (1)
April 10: Chicago White Sox 5 - Detroit 3
Starters: CWS: Garcia 6IP - DET: Bonderman 7IP
CWS 002 002 010 5 7 1
DET 020 001 000 3 7 0
W: Garcia (1-1)
L: Bonderman (1-1)
S: Jenks (2)
Toolie Sees a Ball Game: Opening Day at Comerica and
I attended my second ever. I last made it to Opening
Day in 2004 (also not a true Opening Day) and again
the Tigers came into the game with a winning record.
I got a friend to cover my morning class and got an
early start. By 11:00AM I was downtown and had
overpaid to park. I met up with Dan Stevens (also
attending the game) and Matt Brady (who was on his
lunch break) at Hockeytown Cafe and we had some beers
and brats before heading over to Comerica. Hockeytown
was absolutely packed and Stevens informend me that
many of the people there would not be going to the
game. I'm sure they got blasted...er...had a blast.
Walking into the stadium was like being reborn. It
was a fabulous day to watch a baseball game. The
weather was warm, the crowd was large, and the
pre-game festivities were in full swing. Kwame
Kirkpatrick was booed louder than any White Sox team
member as The Bus (Jerome Bettis) threw out the first
pitch. The Contours (singers of Do Ya Love Me?) did a
fine rendition of the Star Spangled Banner and a
couple of jets provided a fly-by (negative
ghost-rider, the pattern is full).
Stevens and I were seated just a section apart, so
after a few innings he came and joined me in my
section. We had seats in left field almost right down
the line. The crowd in our area was pretty mild, but
they would mark out for the bullpen pitchers
occasionally and try and get Craig Monroe to toss them
a warm-up ball. These two goons sitting about five
rows in front of us repeatedly stood up and blocked
our view to try and get Joel Zumaya to wave (I think)
as they essentially proclaimed their love for him. It
was pretty pathetic.
Around the third inning I had to use the bathroom and
got in line...a HUGE line! It was about thirty people
outside the restroom and then, once inside, there were
individual lines for each urinal. Some guy snuck in
the exit and proceeded to relieve himself in the
baby-changing station. Disgusting. While I was there
Craig Monroe put the Tigers up 2-0 with a homer.
I got back in time to see Thome's bomb. He killed
that thing. Shelton blew a chance to add a run as he
fanned with a man on 3rd and one out, but he made up
for it in the 6th with a two-out RBI double. Other
than that there weren't too many exciting moments.
Zumaya pitched the last 1.2 innings. He started by
serving up a long-ball to Paul Konerko (a tough
insurance run to give up) but did nicely after that.
The velocity was near 100mph. Can you say Matt
Anderson??? Let's hope this kid stays healthy.
My ticket is good for a free donut as Cuppy Coffee won
the first Dunkin' Donuts Base Race of the year. I
think I'll hold on to the stub. It was nice to be at
Opening Day but I start the season 0-1. I'll be back
no later than the first Thursday in May when the
Angels come to town. Pictures from the game will soon
be up on the website.
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Readers Write In...
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"Dig" Dug Senters
Greetings, Mr. O'Toole.
To be frank, I care very little about what the Tigers
do in the off-season. I never cared for Trammel and
Pena (I wish I knew how to make the 'n' en espanol.)
was my favorite Tiger. However, since my girlfriend
has moved to Detroit and literally lives next to the
park, I may have win to visit some sunny afternoon.
While I'd rather see Kenny Rogers in concert than on
the mound, I think he'll be okay if he learns how to
play nice with others.
As for my predictions about the season:
Your AL Central winner will be, and I'm sorry to say,
the White Sox. However, Cleveland will earn the Wild
Card spot. The Yankees will win the East, and my
Athletics will again reign supreme in the West, led by
what is still one of the best rotations in baseball.
And Frank Thomas, for once, will not live up to his
nickname.
The NL is a bunch of garbage, but I think I will
predict the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Braves to win
their respective divisions, and the Phillies will be
the Wild Card club.
World Series: Tribe beats Atlanta in 6
Jimmy Rollins' hit streak ends at 42.
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Johnny "Damon" Strawser
First off, thank you so much for running something
like this. Major Tiger fans like myself have always
thirsted for entertaining and informative opinions and
facts on our favorite team! I hope you continue to
keep up the good work because I am a lifetime
subscriber. I think it is great the Pistons and
Wings are doing well now, but it's now time for
Detroit's real team to start its season. This is my
third year subscribing, but my first time writing. I
think it's more fun this way.
As for my division picks for the season, they are, as
follows:
NL West - San Diego
NL Central - St. Louis
NL East - Atlanta
AL West - Los Angeles
AL Central - Chicago
AL East - NY Yankees
NL Wildcard - NY Mets
AL Wildcard - Cleveland
World Series - St. Louis vs. Chicago
World Champions - St. Louis Cardinals
Major Storyline - San Francisco looks poised to win
the division in mid-summer until MLB finds serious and
likely allegations (proof) that Barry Bonds was, in
fact, juicing and is suspended for 50 games, which
includes the remainder of the season. He retires
shortly after.
Tigers success - In the toughest division in baseball,
Detroit's bats hold the team in contention for the
first couple of months; but then youthful
pitching and injuries to some key players do not allow
the Tigers to get hot and go on a big winning streak.
All the great pitching staffs in the
Central catch up with the Tigers and they win 85 games
and finish 3rd. Verlander wins AL Rookie of the Year,
Brent Clevlen makes his Tigers debut and is here to
stay, and fans finish the season excited and looking
forward to 2007.
Keep up the good work, look to talking to you again
soon!
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Ch"Aase" Claus
A big complaint to open the season: following ESPN's
MLB Gamecast, the pictures on the screen when KC
pitcher Scott Elarton facing Detroit's Placido Polanco
had the former in his Indians uniform and the latter
in his Phillies uniform. It's not like these trades
went down yesterday, people. Polanco played most of
last season with the Tigers... and what was ESPN doing
over the winter break?
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Andy "Kin Korn" Karnitz
Hey all!
Here's a few Opening Day thoughts:
Chris Shelton is a sweeeet hitter. Doesn't he look
like he should be managing a Subway, though! Maybe
Carlos Guillen should be the lead-off hitter. Not the
greatest speed(w/those suspect knees, anyhow) but I
think the guy can get on more than Granderson.
I can't wait to see Joel Zumaya break into the
starting rotation. Not a knock on Bonderman or
Verlander, but I think JZ will be the #1 pitcher on
this staff in 5 years.
DYK?: John McGraw is third on the list of career
OBP?He trails only Ted Williams and Babe Ruth.
Matt, I know how his name is pronounced, but by the
way it appears on the page leads me to nickname him
Jordan "Bodacious" Tata.
R-RATED MATERIAL BELOW
Here's a non-baseball thought(inspired by the
Bodacious one): Steve Martin did a bit on his second
album. Said bit concered Mr. Martin's recent visit(in
1978) to a Vegas show.
"Wow!" exclaimed Mr. Martin,"Look at all the tits up
there. There must be...."(he pauses to do the
cyphering) "FIFTY SEVEN tits up there!"
Yours(Bodaciously), Andy
ps- Sometimes, right after I hit "send", I feel like
a real boob.
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Adam "The Brain" Goyt
Hey Matt,
I have this calendar of Zen quotes and thoughts. This
one is from Kirby Puckett and showed up yesterday. I
thought it would be appropriate to share with everyone
considering this years loss of one of baseball's
greats. The quote is:
You see the ball, you hit the ball. They hit the
ball, you catch the ball. You catch the ball, you
throw the ball. That's it.
Best Wishes and Go Tigers,
Adam Goyt
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Dallas "Big D" Senters
baseball season is here, and for the first time in 3
years i don't have espn on my tv. that should change
before too long, but right now the computer is my
lifeline to reds/indians and all things baseball. the
reds got worked opening day by chicago and then came
back to win the next game. repeat that sentence
replacing the reds with the indians. clearly i
preferred day 2 of the mlb action.
poll answers: the tigers figure to be a scarier team
to face. i keep hearing stuff about granderson being
a break-out star. we'll see about that. i expect
them to continue to dominate the terrible royals. i
want them to struggle against the indians. i would
also like to see them work the chisox and twinkies
over. tigers fans would take a solid 2nd place finish
in the central, right? and i would take seeing the
world champs lose.
predictions (as mike & mike would say) sure to go
wrong:
al east - yankees
al central - indians
al west - a's
al wild card - whitesox
nl east - braves
nl central - cardinals
nl west - dodgers
nl wild card - phillies
cardinals beat roger clemens and the yankees in 6 in
the world series. i hope that's not the ending
scenario, but that's the prediction.
my glove and spikes are in my car, so if there's a
game to be played i am ready.
dallas
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Brian "Clarence Carter" Vessel
Hey Toolie - good to see the Weekly back in action.
Here are my predictions for the 2006 season.
I think the D may get up to 85 wins this season, but
81 is a good goal I think.
American League
EAST - NY, TOR, BOS, BAL, TB
CENTRAL - CLE, CHI, DET, MIN, KC
WEST - OAK, LAA*, TEX, SEA
National League
EAST - NYM, ATL*, PHI, FLA, WAS
CENTRAL - STL, HOU, MIL, CIN, CHI, PIT,
WEST - SD, LAD, SF, ARI, COL
* - Wild Card
NYY over Oak in ALCS
StL over NYM in NLCS
StL over NYY in World Series
Brian "Clarence Carter" Vessell
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Steve "Stone" Sprague
Here we go. Time for my division picks, with the
benefit of almost an entire week of games, that will
surely be wrong in the end.
AL East: Yankees
AL Central: White Sox
AL West: Angels
AL Wild Card: Cleveland
NL East: Braves
NL Central: Cardinals
NL West: Giants
NL Wild Card: Mets
NLCS: Cardinals over Giants
ALCS: Angels over White Sox
World Series: Angels over Cardinals.
Please note that my methods are entirely
un-scientific. Also note that this is the first time
in three years that I am not predicting a World Series
win for the Cubs. I am cautiously optimistic about
the team despite both ESPN and SI picking them to
finish fourth in their division. Remember though,
the NL is definitely the Jayvee league and if the Cubs
could win the Wild Card, probably need 90 wins to do
that, only 11 more than last year and one
more than '04, they could do some damage in the
playoffs. Dempster should be a good closer, Wood
could move to the bullpen for the playoffs as a
middle reliever, and Prior (IF healthy), Zambrano and
Maddux are all very good starters. Glendon Rusch has
looked good in the past. So what I'm saying is the
Cub's kool aid was once again delicious.
Steve Sprague
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John "Flaherty" Klozik
Hey there Tiger Cub!
Just sending along a little note to let you know that
the Tigers looked pretty powerful in their second game
of the regular season. I took the kids out to the "K",
as we call our stadium here in Kansas City, and was
the proud witness to a home run fest (5 for the Tig's
and 2 for thr Royals) that put the Tigers out front by
10 before the little kings of the midwest knew what
hit them! Me and my three kids sat in the upper deck
1st base seats and reveled in the thrashing that was
handed out by our Boys of Summer.
Unfortunately we missed the first inning outburst due
to a new ticket vendor at the window. I nearly missed
the two home run fourth as the kids were being
entertained at the kid's entertainment pavillion they
have out here. But the rest of the show was enjoyed
as we all rooted for the Tigers with much gusto and to
the dismay of many of the surrounding fans. OK there
were only about 30 within earshot of a shrill scream,
but we had fun none the less. After the Royals tagged
a home run on Spurling in the bottom of
the seventh, a disengaged group of twenty-somethings
let out the victory cry of, "Well Detroit, you didn't
shut us out!" and promptly left the stadium.
The only unfortunate thing was that 'ol Pudge was held
a triple shy of a cycle. We were all rooting for him
with his fifth at bat to go for the three bagger but
were proud of him none the less for going 5 for 5 on
the day! My son Nicholas was really interested in our
catcher because he is the proud holder of one of his
baseball cards!!
As I am writing this the Tigers are still tearing up
opponents and I am looking forward to an
Over-Five-Hundy year!
I am out!
John Klozik
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Toolie's Trashtalk...
OK, it's late so this is going to be quick.
The Tigers hot streak to start was wonderful. At
first we were cautious since the first two wins came
at the expense of the Royals. Kansas City is holding
their own, though. They took two of three from the
White Sox and held a late lead today before succumbing
to the Yankees. What I think we can gather from this
week is that the Tigers will be a competitive club,
though in the end they may not compete for a playoff
spot. Their two losses have been close and the
pitching has been impressive. Amazingly the team has
yet to commit an error, though Carlos Guillen was
shown leniency on one play on Sunday.
Here are my crappy predictions for the year...
AL Division Winners: Yanks, Cleveland, Anaheim
Wild Card: White Sox
NL Division Winners: Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers
Wild Card: Mets
Tribe over Mets in the Series.
I know I'm foolish to pick the Indians, but they look
strong this season. They make a move or two at the
trade deadline for a starting pitcher and a 3B and
they'll beat up on anyone they face in the playoffs.
I actually think the Mets will win the NL East but I
have sworn to ride the Braves until somebody beats
them. Their streak of division crowns is simply
unfathomable.
My thanks to all that have written in this week.
John, the report from KC was great. I encourage
anyone who attends a game to submit their story.
I must get some sleep, so I'm cutting the Trashtalk
short this week. Let's keep our fingers crossed that
the Tigers can get some wins agains the Sox and
Indians this week.
I'm (yawn) out.
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Tigers Weekly is in no way affiliated with the Detroit
Tigers or Major League Baseball.
If you know anyone that would like a subscription to TW,
send an email to editor@tigersweekly.com and give their
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Play Ball!
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