Tigers Weekly 2007 Season

Week 22: 9/24/07 - 9/30/07

The 2007 season has come to an end and, after a
magical 2006 season that saw the Tigers reach the
World Series, Tiger fans return to watching other
teams compete in the post-season.  Though falling
short of the playoffs, the Tigers had a list of
accomplishments that made the 2007 season a success. 

The club finished with 88 wins, for their second
consecutive winnning season.  

Magglio Ordonez became the first Tiger since Norm Cash
(in 1961) to win the American League batting title. 
In fact, Ordonez's .363 average was tops in all of
baseball.  It's gotta be the hair.  Placido Polanco
finished third in the American league, hitting .341.  

Curtis Granderson became just the third player in
history to compile at least twenty of the following:
homers, doubles, triples, and stolen bases.  As a side
note, on the final day of the season Jimmy Rollins of
the Phillies tripled to become the fourth person in
history to do this.   

Justin Verlander tossed a no-hitter against the
Brewers in June.  

More than 3,000,000 fans came out to see the Tigers in
2007, as the organization broke the attendance record
that was set in 1984.  

The Tigers came out flat after the All-Star break, but
made a charge in September to get back into the race. 
The last series in Cleveland, which was a Tribe sweep,
put the final nail in the coffin of the Tigers'
chances.  With three games to play, the Tigers were
officially eliminated from playoff contention.  

Looking ahead, the team should be strong in 2007. 
We'll briefly go through the stats of 2007 and the
outlook of the 2008 Detroit Tigers.

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Tiger of the Year...
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No doubt that Magglio Ordonez was the most consistent,
most productive, and most clutch Tiger in 2007.  His
batting average, by month, reads:

April: .344
May: .346
June:  .421
July:  .278  (the big slump...)
August:  .393
September:  .393

What a stud. Against the Central Division, Magglio hit no worse than .333 against any opponent. When signed by the Tigers, most experts said that Ordonez was being overpaid. Well, Maggs is turning out to be quite the investment, putting up near-A-Rod numbers for less than half the dough. After an injury-laden first season in Detroit, Ordonez has managed to stay healthy and productive. Magglio Ordonez; your Detroit Tiger of the Year, 2007.

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2007 Tigers Statistical Leaders...
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Hitting / Fielding Leaders...

Games:  Granderson 158
AB:  Granderson 612
Hits:  Ordonez 216
Runs:  Granderson 122
Doubles:  Ordonez 54
Triples:  Granderson 23
Home Runs:  Ordonez 28
Total Bases:  Ordonez 354
Stolen Bases:  Granderson 26
Walks:  Sheffield 84
Strike-outs:  Inge 150
Errors:  Guillen 24
Lasers Hit:  GARY 50

Minimum 250 AB...

AVG:  Ordonez .363
OBP: Ordonez .434
SLG: Ordonez .595
OPS: Ordonez 1.029

Pitching Leaders...

Appearances:  Jones 63
Starts:  Verlander 32
Wins:  Verlander 18
Losses:  Robertson 13
Saves:  Jones 38
ERA, Starters:  Verlander 3.66
ERA, Relievers:  Miner 3.02
WHIP:  Bazardo 1.01
WHIP, Minimum 40 innings:  Seay 1.14
Strikeouts:  Verlander 186
Walks:  Verlander 67
SO/9 innings:  Rodney 9.59
Holds:  Rodney 12
Quality Starts:  Verlander 21
HR Allowed:  Bonderman 23

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Toolie Visits U.S. Cellular Field...
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The last Saturday of the season, a select group of the
MSU Math Department found themselves in Chicago to
watch the Tigers take on the White Sox.  With both
teams out of the hunt the game took on a very relaxed
tone.  

With MSU playing Wisconsin, we left the bar late and
got of the train while the game was in the bottom of
the first inning.  Right when we got off the train, it
sounded like a cannon went off.  To our dismay, this
was the fireworks celebrating Jim Thome's two-run home
run.  We eventually found our way into the stadium,
which from the outside looks like a fortress.  It's
too bad the Americans didn't have this structure
instead of the Alamo, or Santa Anna would have never
found his way inside.  Once we did find the entrance,
I felt like we were entering the subway in New York. 
The turnstiles were old and plain.  

Now inside the stadium we rode some escalators to the
upper deck and found our seats, which were in the
equivalent of the Mezzanine in Comerica... only these
seats cost an extra eleven bucks.  God Bless Comerica.

The game was pretty quiet for the first half that we
saw.  Then Carlos Guillen got the Tigers on the board
with a homer to left.  In the eighth, Marcus Thames
pinch-hit for Ramon Santiago and went deep on the
first pitch of the inning.  That set the stage for an
electric bottom of the ninth.  

Fernando Rodney, who pitched very well in the eighth,
walked the lead-off hitter in the ninth.  Scott
Podsednik layed a bunt down, but Pudge was able to get
to the ball and fire down to second.  Omar Infante
made a great stretch to seemingly record the out, but
the second-base umpire ruled that he was off the bag. 

Now, earlier in the game, the same umpire had gotten
in the path of a White Sox runner and gave the runner
the base after he was tagged out.  Leyland came out to
argue and gave a pretty good arguement, but kept his
cool and Verlander was able to pitch out of the
inning.  This would be different.  

Leyland came out and gave the ump a piece of his mind
and, when it looked like he had said enough, u-turned
back to really lay into the guy.  Well, the ump ran
Leyland and the stadium went nuts.  Everyone there
seemed to be enjoying the game and, even though there
were a good number of Tiger and White Sox fans in our
section, there didn't seem to be any bad blood.  The
whole crowd was just loving the arguement and seeing
the normally level-headed Leyland blasting off.  The
next batter would single (after failing to put down a
sacrifice) and that was that.  There were fireworks
after the game, but we decided to bolt for the train.

The main perk of the stadium, this according to Lia
"Cuervo" Bottinelli, is the vendor who tromps around
with a margarita backpack, serving cocktails.  While
Comerica does have frozen drinks (those whale-bone
glasses come to mind) there is only one section of the
stadium where they can be purchased.  For the non-beer
drinker, the margarita vendor is a definite plus. 
Other than that, however, Comerica smokes "The Cell." 
Also, the vendors were out of Ice Cream Cookie
Sandwiches.  To borrow from Hook: "Bad Form!"

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Toolie's Playoff Predictions...
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I wasn't going to do this this year, but a friend sent
a mass e-mail to a few people and I responded with the
following guesses...

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Tribe in 5
Sox in 4

Sox in 6

Rockies in 4
D-Backs in 4

D-Backs in 7

Red Sox in 5 

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Uncharacteristically good so far.  I still have faith
in these picks, though the Rockies sure are hot.  I'm
pulling for the Rockies and Indians... and then I
think I would pull for the Rockies (sorry, Indians
fans).  Having the Tribe drop two World Series to
expansion teams would satisfy this itch I have that's
been bugging me as I pull for Cleveland in the
playoffs.  

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Final Thoughts...

A couple of things to mention...

Gary Sheffield had shoulder surgery and should be back
for spring training.  

Jim Leyland's contract was extended through 2009.  

Todd Jones, Ivan Rodriguez, and Kenny Rogers are big
question-marks for 2008.  Sean Casey will not be
re-signed, and Carlos Guillen will make the move to
first base.  

I ended up 2-4 for the year, which sounds pretty bad. 
But consider the record of Chas "Grey Fox" Claus. 
Nobody should have the luck that Claus had this
season, as he compiled a 2-9 record (or worse... it
may have been worse) in 2007.  But I can't feel too
badly for Chas; he did see the big playoff wins last
year and attended a World Series Game.  It's a trade I
would be willing to make.

Next year the Tigers need to address the following
positions...

Shortstop:  We won't get A-Rod, but we could use a
solid glove over there.  Ramon Santiago hit very well,
average-wise, but I don't expect that kind of success
from Ramon over the course of a full season.  

Left Field:  Another September stud was Timo Perez,
who hit near .400 for the Tigers in limited at-bats. 
Will he play left field next season?  Who could the
Tigers get to play that position?  

Left-handed Bat:  Lefties (including switch-hitters)
in the current lineup consist of Granderson, Guillen,
Rabelo, Perez, and Santiago.  They sure could use a
left-handed hitter.  That's something to consider when
looking for that left-fielder and/or shortstop.  

Closer:  Will the Tigers bring back Todd Jones? 
Zumaya hasn't really shown himself to be ready, so if
the Tigers wait to hand the reins to the oung
fireballer, will it be the roller-coaster back for
another ride?   

Over the next five and a half months these questions
will be answered.  Someone will win the World Series,
and tons of players will be signed, traded, have
salaries determined through arbitration, and selected
in the Rule-5 draft.  I'll be loving every minute of
the off-season updates in anticipation of a return to
the post-season in 2008.  

Bless You Boys.
 





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