Tigers Weekly 2007 Season

Week 21: 9/14/07 - 9/23/07

What a year for Major League Baseball.  It's the final
week of the season, and most of the playoff spots are
still up for grabs.  Sadly, for Tiger fans, we are
experiencing a feeling not felt since 1992, where they
finished second in the division and missed the
playoffs.  Though not yet eliminated from contention,
Cleveland has clinched the division by virtue of their
season series win over the Tigers, and the Yankees
magic number for the Wild Card is just two.  Yogi says
"It ain't over 'til it's over," but it's over.  

Things were looking promising after last Sunday, as
the Tigers had swept the Twins in the Metrodome
(again) and trailed the Yanks by two-and-a-half.  The
real blow to their hopes came on Monday night as the
bullpen, specifically Joel Zumaya, blew a three-run
lead at Cleveland and the Tigers lost it in the
eleventh.  The Tigers would lead in the final two
games of that series, yet lose them both and were
swept out of Cleveland and effectively out of the
post-season.  

One week to go in the season.  If you still want to
catch a game, the last home series is against the
Twins, who the Tigers have handled this year (10-5). 
Or you can join me in Chicago this Saturday to see
them take on the White Sox.  All in all, the Tigers
were a good team in 2007 but not good enough.  The AL
is still the stronger league, and pretty good doesn't
cut it like it does in the National League.  Though we
learned last year that anything can happen in the
World Series.  

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"Week" of 9/14 - 9/23

Record:  5-4 WWWLLL-WLW

Up Last for the Tigers...

Sept. 24-26  Minnesota 
Sept. 27     no game scheduled...
Sept. 28-30  @ Chicago White Sox

AL Central Standings...

CLE  92 63 -
DET  85 71 7.5
MIN  76 79 16
CWS  68 88 24.5
KCR  67 88 25

Playoff Races... (as of 6:00PM)

AL East
BOS -   (Magic Number = 6)
NYY 1.5

AL Central
CLE  clinched 

AL West 
ANA  clinched   

AL Wild Card
NYY -   (Magic Number = 2) 
DET 5.5 

NL East
NYM -   (Magic Number = 5)
PHI 2.5
ATL 5.5

NL Central
CHC -   (Magic Number = 4)
MIL 3.5

NL West
ARI -  (Magic Number = 5)
SDP 2.5
COL 4

NL Wild Card
SDP -  
PHI 0.5
COL 1.5
ATL 3.5

Note:  Magic number is the combination of wins and
second-place team losses for the first-place team to
clinch.  

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Tiger of the Week...
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The Tiger of the Week is Ramon Santiago. It was a strange span of a year for Santiago. After being used rather often in the 2006 playoffs, he spent the majority of 2007 in the minors. Called up in August, Santiago has started a handful of games and has been used as part of the mid-game switch involving Sean Casey. When the Tigers were leading in the mid-late game, Leyland often pulled Casey, moved Guillen to first, and inserted Santiago at shortstop. This got another switch-hitter into the game and improved the overall infield defense (not Guillen's strong suit). Next season the Tigers may try to put Guillen permanently at first base, so this has been a good experiment. And Ramon hasn't been a burden on the offense while he's been in. A career .229 hitter, Santiago has hit close to .300 in just over fifty at-bats. He's not going to be the every-day shortstop, but he's been more than productive with the bat as a fill-in.

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Contract Issues...
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Here's a rundown of who's signed for 2008 and who
isn't.  

Found and sent in by Nic "Gilby" Gilbert...

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TIGERS' FUTURE: Who's signed and who isn't for 2008
September 23, 2007

By JON PAUL MOROSI

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

A look at the 2008 status of all players on the
Tigers' 40-man roster (plus three players who are on
the disabled list and INF Neifi Perez, who is on the
restricted list):

SIGNED PLAYERS

POS PLAYER SALARY (in mil.) 
RHP Jeremy Bonderman 8.5 
LHP Andrew Miller 2.025 
RHP Rick Porcello 1.8 
RHP Fernando Rodney 1.7 
RHP Justin Verlander 1.15 
C Vance Wilson 0.95 
SS Carlos Guillen 12 
3B Brandon Inge 6.2 
2B Placido Polanco 4.6 
RF Magglio Ordonez 15 
DH Gary Sheffield 14 
11 players 67.9 


FREE AGENTS

POS PLAYER 
RHP Todd Jones 
LHP Kenny Rogers 
1B Sean Casey 
INF Neifi Perez 


CLUB OPTION

The Tigers have until 15 days after the World Series
to decide the fate:

C Pudge Rodriguez ($13 million or $3-million buyout)

ARBITRATION ELIGIBLE

These players have more than three but less than six
years of major league service time. The Tigers must
decide whether the players are valuable enough to
justify the higher salaries that accompany the
arbitration process. Detroit must offer these players
a contract before the Dec. 12 deadline, in order to
retain their rights:

POS PLAYER
LHP Tim Byrdak 
RHP Chad Durbin 
LHP Nate Robertson 
LHP Bobby Seay 
INF Omar Infante 
SS Ramon Santiago 
OF Marcus Thames 
OF Timo Perez 

CLUB CONTROL

These players have less than three years of major
league service time, and generally earn close to the
major league minimum of $390,000. They have very
little say in how much money they earn:

POS PLAYER
RHP Yorman Bazardo 
LHP Edward Campusano 
RHP Jose Capellan 
RHP Eulogio De La Cruz 
RHP Jason Grilli 
RHP Jair Jurrjens 
LHP Macay McBride 
RHP Zach Miner 
LHP Clay Rapada 
RHP Jordan Tata 
RHP Virgil Vasquez 
RHP Joel Zumaya 
C Mike Rabelo 
INF Tony Giarratano 
INF Mike Hessman 
1B Chris Shelton 
OF Brent Clevlen 
OF Curtis Granderson 
OF Cameron Maybin 
OF Ryan Raburn

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Tigers Nicknames...
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This page on Wikipedia chronicles a lot of the
nicknames that have been given to Detroit Tigers over
the years.  From "The Georgia Peach" to "The Big
Wheel" to "Da Meat Hook," they're all on there.
(sent in by Derek Muller)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Tigers_Nicknames
 
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Question Answered...
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Earlier in the year I commented on how the Tigers had
to play a night game in their series finale in Texas. 
I lamented the fact that the Tigers would have to
travel and not get much rest for their upcoming
series.  Tuesday that situation was cleared up for me,
as a friend from Texas told me that since it's so
blazing hot in Texas in the summer, they never
schedule home day games (I believe the time-frame was
between Memorial Day and Labor Day).  His specific
comment was that there would need to be twenty to
thirty ambulances on hand if there was a day game in
those conditions.  That makes a lot of sense and gets
the Rangers off of my list.  It seems like it would
make sense to build a stadium with a roof, but since
the BallPark at Arlington (or whatever it is called
now) is relatively new, I don't see this happening
anytime soon.  

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Poll Question...
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Two Questions...

It's time to assess the 2007 season.  A lot of good
things happened this year, but the sting of not making
the playoffs after the magical 2006 campaign lingers. 
What is it that you will remember about this year, and
do you consider it a successful season?  What do you
think will change in the offseason?

What are your predictions for the postseason?  Right
now, many of the matchups are not determined, but that
should change over the course of this next week, so go
ahead and sit on this question until later in the
week.  

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Game Linescores...
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September 14:  Detroit 4 - Minnesota 2
Starters:  DET: Robertson 7IP - MIN: Garza 5.2IP
DET  010 003 000  4 6 0
MIN  000 200 000  2 5 0
W: Robertson (8-11)
L: Garza     (3-6)
S: Jones     (35)

September 15:  Detroit 4 - Minnesota 3
Starters:  DET: Bazardo 4.2IP - MIN: Santana 8IP
DET  400 000 000  4 6 1
MIN  001 010 100  3 6 0
W: Zumaya  (2-3)
L: Santana (15-12)
S: Jones   (36)

September 16:  Detroit 6 - Minnesota 4
Starters:  DET: Jurrjens 5.1IP - MIN: Baker 7IP
DET  121 000 020  6 11 2
MIN  000 001 111  4  7 2
W: Jurrjens (3-1)
L: Baker    (9-8)
S: Jones    (37)

September 17:  Detroit 5 - Cleveland 6   F/11
Starters:  DET: Rogers 7IP - CLE: Byrd 7.1IP
DET  011 300 000 00  5 12 0
CLE  100 100 030 01  6  9 2
W: Betancourt (5-1)
L: Miner      (3-4)

September 18:  Detroit 4 - Cleveland 7
Starters:  DET: Verlander 5.2IP - CLE: Westbrook 5IP
DET  013 000 000  4 12 0
CLE  013 003 00X  7  6 1
W: Lewis     (1-1)
L: Verlander (17-6)
S: Borowski  (41)

September 19:  Detroit 2 - Cleveland 4
Starters:  DET: Robertson 7IP - CLE: Sabathia 7IP
DET  002 000 000  2 7 0
CLE  001 030 00X  4 6 0
W: Sabathia  (18-7)
L: Robertson (8-12)
S: Borowski  (42)

September 20:  no game scheduled...

September 21:  Kansas City 4 - Detroit 5
Starters:  KCR: Buckner 5IP - DET: Jurrjens 2.1IP
KCR  121 000 000  4  7 1
DET  000 032 00X  5 11 1
W: Byrdak (2-0)
L: Nunez  (2-4)
S: Jones  (38)

September 22:  Kansas City 7 - Detroit 4
Starters: KCR: Davies 5.1IP - DET: Rogers 6IP
KCR  320 000 110  7 13 2
DET  100 200 001  4 15 1
W: Davies (7-14)
L: Rogers (3-3)

September 23:  Kansas City 

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Readers Write In...
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Anthony "Ferny" Morano

Thanks again Matt for taking time out of your
schedule this year, and sending the weekly out
like clockwork every week. 

Another fun Year. I never thought I'd say 
congrats  to cleveland but going 19-5 down the stretch
and sweeping the -D- was impressive. 

? for weekly. Does anyone know the tigers
record the last 2 years after the all star 
break. I know it's sub .500 I hope this is
something they talk about in the offseason.

Some observations from this past yr:
Curtis Granderson became a star, Magglio 
was not human, JJ (Jair Jurrjans) was impressive,
and they have a nice bench with Raburn, Timo,
Santiago,thames in the mix next year.

This year they just made too many stupid errors,
stranded too many runners in scoring position,&
how many times did pitchers pitch count reach
in the 90's by 5th inning.

Look forward to many more important September's
for yrs to come!

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Toolie's Trashtalk...

Well the season is now almost over and we have to deal
with a little disappointment.  After the long slump
after the All-Star Break, the Tigers finally turned
things up, but got no help from Cleveland or New York.
The last chance for a surge came with the series in
Cleveland, but we all know how that turned out. 
Looking back on the season, there were three games
that I can think of that could have turned the tide of
the season.  All of them came against the Tribe.  

1.  The game where Todd Jones gave up five runs in the
ninth.

2.  The game where Nate Robertson pitched spectacular,
but the Tigers scored no runs for him.

3.  Monday night, where the Tigers blew a three-run
lead in the eighth and lost in extras.  

If the Tigers had won those games, that would have
been a six-game swing in the division, and things may
have been very different.  It highlights that each
game during the season is of utmost importance, even
though there are a whopping 162 of them.  Whether
games are in April or September, each one counts the
same and deserves to be played with the greatest of
urgency.  

That said, I'll be rooting for Cleveland in the
American League.  The choice is obvious over New York
and Boston, and I'd rather see a Central team go to
the Series for the third year in a row.  The National
League is still very up in the air, so I'll pledge my
allegiance in the season wrap-up.  

Back to the Tigers:  six games to go and I'll be at
the Saturday contest in Chicago.  I've never been to
"New Comiskey" but I haven't heard great things about
it.  I think the plan is to make some Rod and Mario
signs.  Being a road game, we should have a good
chance of getting on TV.  Maybe, just maybe, we can
make sure the Sox finish the season in the cellar.  Go
Royals!

To answer Ferny's question, here is the W-L record for
the Tigers post-All-Star Break.  These records were
gleaned from espn.com.  As you can see, the Tigers
don't finish strongly.

2004:  30-45
2005:  29-47
2006:  35-39
2007:  33-37 (six games to go)

The recap of the season will be next Sunday(ish).  As
far as Tiger of the Year goes, it will be down to
Granderson, Verlander, or Ordonez.  You can make your
case to me on who it should be this week.  

I'm going to miss coming home and being able to turn
on Rod and Mario (just today I had to laugh at one of
Rod's favorite terms, "Buggy-Whipped").  My AM radio
will be much less utilized, as Jim and Dan get to take
a few months off.  October won't be the same this
season, but I really believe the Tigers are in good
shape for next year due to the young pitching.  Even
if Magglio and Granderson don't have the years that
they had this year, if the pitching improves the wins
will come.  They could also use more production from
the 7-9 spots.  Winning the World Series ain't easy,
but the Tigers are built for many successful seasons. 


Enjoy the final week!
 





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