Tigers Weekly 2007 Season

Week 13: 6/29/07 - 7/11/07

The longest day of the baseball season is over.  There
is no day I loathe more than the Wednesday after the
All-Star Break.  Between the start of April (March,
even) and the end of October you can always count on
baseball being there.  Sure, during the playoffs there
are off-days, but the hype that permeates the
post-season is enough to carry one through (as long as
playoff games are, you almost need a day off...
almost).  The Wednesday after the break there is
absolutely nothing baseball related going on. 

FSN tried to fix that this season.  Wednesday night
they replayed the Verlander no-hitter, giving Tiger
fans something to watch.  I, myself, was pacified 
with my first Weird Al concert.  He put on a good
show.  

Gratefully, though, we're back to baseball.  The race
in the Central is as hot as it gets.  The division
race might carry more weight this season, as two good
teams in the West are making the Wild Card race a
battle.  Will anybody step up and challenge Boston in
the East?  Will the Brewers make their first
post-season since the eighties?  Can we expect any big
moves at the trade deadline?  Please forgive any old
news.  I hope you're all ready for a spectacular
second half.

New Subscribers...

Maureen "Mo" Shields
Kevin Van "Slyke" Peteghem
Kevin Youngs "& the Restless"

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Period of 6/29 - 7/11

Record:  6-3  LWLLWWWWW---

Up Next for the Tigers...

July 12-15  @ Seattle
July 16     no game scheduled...
July 17-19  @ Minnesota


*** Standings as of Thursday 11PM ***

AL Central Standings...

DET  52 34 -
CLE  52 36 1
MIN  46 43 7.5
CWS  40 47 12.5
KCR  38 50 15

Tigers Division...

BOS  54 34 -
DET  52 34 1
ANA  53 35 1
CLE  52 36 2
SEA  49 36 3.5

Tigers News and Notes:  The Tigers continue to deal in
an effort to strengthen their bullpen.  They moved
minor leaguer Chris Cody to the Brewers in exchange
for the right-handed reliever Jose Capellan.  Upon the
suspension of Neifi Perez, the Tigers brought Ryan
Raburn up from Toledo.  More on this later.

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Tiger of the Fortnight...
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To the chagrin of his haters, I have to give love to Todd Jones for gently shutting this door down the stretch of the first half. He picked up four saves in five appearances, and the fifth appearance was two innings of shutout ball in the extra-inning win over the Red Sox. The good stretch has dropped his ERA over a full point to 5.20. Ugh. It would be nice if that was down a bit, but Jones has converted 22 of 26 saves. The bullpen as a whole was very good leading up to the break, and they will need to continue to get outs if the Tigers are to be a playoff contender.

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Perez Suspended 25 Games...
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Utility infielder Neifi Perez failed a second drug
test for a banned substance and was suspended 25 games
by the league.  Perez is the second Tiger to to be
suspended, as Alex Sanchez received a ban shortly
after leaving the organization two years ago.  The
loss leaves the Tigers with a little bit of a hole,
defensively (remember the spectacular double-play he
started in the eigth inning of Verlander's no-hitter),
but Perez's bat will certainly not be missed.  Ryan
Raburn was recalled from Toledo to take his place. 
Raburn has strictly played outfield at Toledo this
season, but has been working at second and third.  We
may see him get a chance or two in the infield.  

Other Tigers seemed to accept the suspension and feel
that Perez got what he deserved.  I don't expect this
to have too much of an effect on the Tigers' image. 
Last year the Tigers had to deal with the Kenny Rogers
incident in the World Series, but that has blown over.
 Perez is such a marginal player that this should be
nothing more than an afterthought for most people.  If
anything, it should be a good deterrent for other
players in the league.  For the integrity of the game,
illegal drug use needs to be stamped out.
 
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All-Star Festivities...
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No Game Linescores section this week, so we'll put the
All-Star information here.  

Home Run Derby...

1st Round (Top Four Advance)
Vladimir Guerrero 5
Alex Rios         5
Matt Holliday     5
Albert Pujols     4   *** advances via a "swing-off"
Justin Morneau    4
Prince Fielder    3
Ryan Howard       3
Magglio Ordonez   2

2nd Round (Top Two Advance: 2 round total used)
Alex Rios         12 (17)
Vladimir Guerrero 9  (14)
Albert Pujols     9  (13)
Matt Holliday     8  (13)

Finals  (Head to Head)
Vladimir Guerrero 3 (in 7 outs)
Alex Rios         2

My question:  why use the running total to see who
makes the finals and then just the final round to
determine the final winner?  Vlad may have passed
Rios' total, but we'll never know.

AL/NL All-Star Game

American League 5 - National League 4
Starters:  AL: Haren 2IP - NL: Peavy 1IP
AL  000 021 020  5 10 0
NL  100 001 002  4  9 1
W: Josh Beckett
L: Chris Young
S: Francisco Rodriguez
MVP:  Ichiro Suzuki

Quick Recap:  Ichiro earned the MVP going 3 for 3 with
the first inside the park homer in All-Star Game
history.  The Tigers had little effect in the outcome
of the game.  They combined to go 1 for 7 at the plate
and Justin Verlander gave up a run on two hits in his
one inning of work.  Not a great performance, but the
American League was still able to get the job done. 
It got really interesting in the ninth as Alfonso
Soriano blasted a two-run homer to close the gap to
one.  J.J. Putz of the Mariners and Francisco
Rodriguez then teamed up to load the bases before
K-Rod got a fly ball to end it.  Where ever Todd Jones
was, I'm sure he was saying "Now THAT'S how you close
out a ball game!"  The American League gets home-field
in the World Series once again.

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Poll Question...
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While dining on delicious chili dogs from G&L and
watching the Tigers at the Knights of Columbus I had a
discussion with my Uncle John about the Tigers radio
announcers.  I am a big fan of Jim and Dan, but my
uncle is of the opinion that they (especially Jim
Price) should be more Tiger-friendly.  They do, for
the most part, call the game down the middle.  

Which kind of announcer would you rather have; one
that is a Tiger homer or one that calls the game more
down the middle and doesn't get so emotional when big
plays happen?  

Personally, I think having a homer announcer is
dangerous.  You might wind up with jokers like D.J.
and Hawk of the White Sox television crew.  I've also
heard some really biased Indians announcers that just
sounded unprofessional.  However, Dan Dickerson does
go nuts when something big happens and it can be a
rush to hear the big call.  What do you think?  And if
you are in another market, how would you rate your
announcers (as far as being down the middle or
biased)?  

I'd rate the Tiger announcers like so:

Mario Impemba:  Moderate/Big Homer (TAKE THAT CABRERA)
Rod Allen:  BIG Homer (and Gary hits lasers...)
Dan Dickerson: Slight Homer  (SWING and a miss)
Jim Price:  Down the Middle  (Oh those base on balls)

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Readers Write In...
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Mike "The Doctor" Claus

"So far the Rocket is looking like The Challenger"

Your best line of the year--had me laughing out loud
in the office. Keep up the good work!

On a seperate note, I seem to remember that you were
once a big Chris Benoit fan? Am I off on that?

MC

TOOLIE:  I was a big Benoit fan when I was into
wrestling (1998-2000).

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Adam "Doc" Goyt

Hey Matt, 

I was at the Texas game on Tuesday.  It was not only
an embarassment for the tigers relief pitching, but an
embarassment for the human race. 

The gentleman in a row behind me proceded to curse out
a young woman in front of many small children. 
Calling her "permiscuous" and "a female dog". Then two
(gentle)men in nearby rows nearly got into a
fist-fight and were escorted out of the ball park. 
Hopefully, never to return! 

Attending a baseball game should be about community
and having a good time.  Not a festival of insults and
a barrage of foul language directed toward fellow
fans. 

Peace,
Adam 

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Derek "The Clone" Muller

Dear Tool,

I COMPLETELY understand what's going through Mike
Hargrove's mind.

Sincerely,

Ozzie Guillen

WAR Sports Radio 1130 WDFN The Fan

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Dallas "Big D" Senters

hey matt
 
the all-star game is tonight.  i probably won't watch
it, but only because i have other things going on. 
the change i would make would be to let players back
into the game, so the fans' choices could play the end
game.  i don't like that vlad had fewer total homeruns
than the runner up, rios.
 
the indians sit a game behind the tigers in the
central.  my postseason hopes rest entirely on them,
because the reds are really not good this year.  their
bullpen is particularly terrible.
 
dallas goes to a ballgame:  on the fourth of july a
group of seven went to comerica to watch the
tigers/indians game.  my brother purchased the
tickets.  jennifer and i drove to toledo to meet up
with dug and his wife as well as my friend scott (from
highlands party fame) and his wife and dug's
sister-in-law.  after eating at bd's in dearborn we
went to the park early to watch some bp.  my indians
hat and ohio state t-shirt made me a target for some
quality (and some poor effort) heckling.  the fourth
of july festivities included an F16 fly over.  the
position of our seats were good for watching baseball,
but deprived me of seeing the jets.  the only other
bad things about my particular seat was the level of
foot traffic from people that flooded to concourse as
soon as the tigers at-bats were done and the way the
extreme corner in right field was not visible.  
 
to the game - sizemore walked to start the game, but
was promptly wiped out by a nice pick-off from kenny
rogers.  the tigers drew first blood in the bottom of
the first, guillen singling in sheffield.  in the
third inge was charged with an error that i thought
should have been a hit, but the scorers made inge take
one for rogers.  the non-hit didn't matter, since the
tribe got another couple of hits that inning,
resulting in the indians' first run.  the home team
succeeded on the squeeze play in the fourth.  pudge
scored, helping my fantasy team and hurting "my"
team's chances to win the game.  in the fifth ordonez
made a great running catch in right, and the indians
turned in the defensive play of the game with a great
double play.  hafner brought the indians within 1 run
with 2-run homer in the seventh.  the tigers fans
didn't appreciate my declarations of a comeback.  they
were much happier in the bottom of the inning when a
back to back triples pushed the lead back to 2.  i
busted out the rally cap as todd jones came in for the
ninth.  i thought i would at least get some excitement
from the rollercoaster, but he tidily sat the indians
down 1-2-3.  my two primary hecklers bid me adieu with
a taunt of the buckeyes.
 
other notes from the game:
cc sabathia is a big man.
kenny rogers and pudge throw the ball a long way
during pre-game warm-ups.
the hebrew national hot dogs were not impressive. 
i missed the donut race.  i feel like i have failed
the weekly by not having a report on this important
event.  my apologies.
my boss is a big tigers fan, and sent money to
retrieve tigers apparel.
the post game fireworks were very good - worthy of
independence day.

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Josh "Jenks" Bilsborrow

Willie Mays had a golden opportunity to assassinate
Barry Bonds in the outfield at the All-Star game last
night in order to preserve the dignity of Hank Aaron's
home run record, but he didn't. It was a sad night. 

 -Josh "You Blew My Save" Bilsborrow 

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Toolie's Trashtalk...

It's good to be back.  My week of vacation was
phenomenal, but I did miss writing the Weekly.  Every
time something big happened I felt like I was napping
on the job.  

The Tigers pulled off an amazing feat Sunday.  They
beat the Red Sox despite committing five (5) errors. 
That's about as crazy as when Tim Wakefield served up
six homers to the Tigers... and Boston won the game...
and Wakefield got the win!  As Rod Allen said tonight;
"stick around this game long enough and you'll see
something you've never seen before."  

I'm looking to catch one of the games in two weekends,
against the Royals.  If I am to stick to my
game-a-month schedule, this is my only remaning chance
to cash in in July.  The three-game set with KC is
sandwiched between the current seven-game road trip
and a ten-game trip that takes the Tigers into August.
Given the Tigers road record this season, they could
be sitting pretty at the trade deadline.  

The Weekly may be moving to Thursday nights as the
summer schedule continues to change.  Whatever the
case, we're back in business.

I'm out.
 





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Play Ball!

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