Tigers Weekly 2008 Season

WEEK 1: 3/31/08 - 4/9/08

At last!  The losing streak has finally ended, and I
can now write the Weekly with some optimism.  It was a
difficult way to see the Tigers open the season; seven
straight losses and the distinction of being the last
team in the majors to earn a win.  The 0-7 start was
the worst since the infamous 2003 squad that opened
their season 0-9 (I was there for loss #9).  That year
the stopper in game #10 was Nate Cornejo, and the
Tigers would go on to win only 42 more games.  Jeremy
Bonderman was able to hold the Red Sox down Wednesday
evening, and these Tigers are expected to win a few
more than 43 games.  The road to recovery has begun. 
Let's hope this win gets the monkey off the Tigers'
backs and they begin to play like the team we all
expected to see.

New Subscribers...

Dan "Coach" Hanks
Brendan "B.J." Sirhal
Daniel Brady "Anderson"

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"Week" of 3/31 - 4/9

Record: 1-7  L-LLLLL-LW

Undy-Five-Hundy:  Yikes!  After a two-year absence the
UFH index makes a howling return with a big fat six. 
For those unacquainted with the index, it's simply the
number of games the Tigers are below an even record. 
In the past (that is, 2001-2005) the Undy-Five-Hundy
was a Tigers Weekly mainstay.  With any luck the index
will disappear sometime in the first couple of months
and the Tigers can get back to their winning ways of
the last couple of years.  Once this thing gets up to
ten it takes a big effort to wipe it out.  

Up Next for the Tigers...

April 10     @ Boston
April 11-13  @ Chicago White Sox
April 14-15  Minnesota

AL Central Standings...

KCR  6 2 -
CWS  5 3 1
MIN  4 5 2.5
CLE  4 5 2.5
DET  1 7 5

Tigers News and Notes:  The Tigers called up Francis
Beltran from Toledo while sending Ryan Raburn down to
take his place.  The Tigers bullpen certainly needed
someone who can throw, and Rayburn wasn't seeing any
action in Detroit.  Inge and Santiago are there to
cover the infield positions, so there's not really a
spot for him, even as a backup.  Even when you
consider the outfield, you can have either Jones or
Thames in left and then Inge or Thomas in center.  So
far Beltran has thrown 2.2 innings and surrendered one
run.  Also, keep the name Fancisco Cruceta in the back
of your mind.  The pitcher from the Dominican Republic
just had his visa approved, and the Tigers are likely
to call him up eventually to strengthen the bullpen. 
In milestone news, Pudge Rodriguez registered his
2500th hit Wednesday night.  Congrats Pudge!

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Tiger of the Week...
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The Tiger of the week is the new guy, Clete Thomas. With an injury to Curtis Granderson and a slight injury to Cabrera, the left-handed center fielder got some playing time and made the most of it. Thomas has eight hits in sixteen at-bats, yet has only scored one run and knocked in one (Thomas wasn't getting much help in his games). He has also stolen a base. Thomas went from a virtual unknown to making the Opening Day roster and gave Tiger fans something to feel good about in the midst of a long dry spell. Though it seems logical that Thomas will be sent down upon Curtis' return, he made a splash in a very Brent Clevlen kind of way. Congrats and good luck to Clete Thomas the rest of the way.

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New Faces in the Central...
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In the last issue we went through the new Tigers, but
there were plenty of moves made concerning the other
four clubs in the AL Central.  Here is a quick rundown
of who's new to those teams.  

Chicago...

Orlando Cabrera, SS 
Nick Swisher, OF 
Carlos Quentin, OF
Octavio Dotel, RP
Scott Linebrink, RP
Alexei Ramirez, Utility

Cleveland...

Jamey Carroll, IF
Masahide Kobayashi, RP
Jorge Julio, RP

Kansas City...

Jose Guillen, OF
Alberto Callaspo, IF
Miguel Olivo, C
Brett Tomko, SP
Hideo Nomo, P
Yasuhiko Yabuta, RP
Ron Mahay, RP

Minnesota...   

Carlos Gomez, OF
Delmon Young, OF
Brendan Harris, 2B
Mike Lamb, 3B
Adam Everett, SS
Matt Tolbert, IF
Craig Monroe, OF   (C-MO!!!)
Livan Hernandez, SP
Nick Blackburn, SP
Brian Bass, RP

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Poll Question...
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After watching the Tigers go 1-7 to start the season,
what do you think is the biggest concern for this club
as it tries to turn things around?  Is it the anemic
offense?  the inconsistent starting pitching?  Carlos
Guillen's ability to play first base?  filling the
Granderson void?  the shaky bullpen?  Which one of
these issues (or another) will continue to plague this
team?

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Game Linescores...
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March 31:  Kansas City 5 - Detroit 4  F/11
Starters:  KCR: Meche 6IP
           DET: Verlander 6IP
KCR  000 002 200 01  5 10 0
DET  010 110 010 00  4 10 1
W: Nunez    (1-0)
L: Bautista (0-1)
S: Soria    (1)

April 1:  no game scheduled...

April 2:  Kansas City 4 - Detroit 0
Starters:  KCR: Bannister 7IP
           DET: Rogers 6IP 
KCR  000 002 020  4 8 0 
DET  000 000 000  0 3 0
W: Bannister (1-0)
L: Rogers    (0-1)

April 3:  Kansas City 4 - Detroit 1
Starters:  KCR: Greinke 7IP
           DET: Bonderman 6.1IP
KCR  000 201 100  4 11 0
DET  000 000 100  1  8 0
W: Greinke   (1-0)
L: Bonderman (0-1)
S: Soria     (2)

April 4:  Chicago White Sox 8 - Detroit 5
Starters:  CWS: Contreras 5IP
           DET: Robertson 5IP
CWS  023 000 300  8 13 1
DET  113 000 000  5 11 0
W: Logan  (1-0)
L: Grilli (0-1)
S: Jenks  (2)

April 5:  Chicago White Sox 5 - Detroit 3
Starters:  CWS: Floyd 6IP
           DET: Willis 5IP
CWS  000 004 010  5 3 0
DET  010 200 000  3 9 1
W: Floyd (1-0)
L: Miner (0-1)
S: Jenks (3)

April 6:  Chicago White Sox 13 - Detroit 2
Starters:  CWS: Buehrle 7IP
           DET: Verlander 5.2IP
CWS  100 026 004  13 12 3
DET  001 000 100   2  9 1
W: Buerhle   (1-0)
L: Verlander (0-1)

April 7:  no game scheduled...

April 8:  Detroit 0 - Boston 7
Starters:  DET: Rogers 4.2IP
           BOS: Matsuzaka 6.2IP
DET  000 000 000  0  5 2
BOS  011 102 00X  5 12 0
W: Matsuzaka (2-0)
L: Rogers    (0-2)

April 9:  Detroit 7 - Boston 2
Starters:  DET: Bonderman 5IP
           BOS: Lester 5.1IP
DET  000 400 021  7 10 2
BOS  020 000 000  2  9 0
W: Bonderman (1-1)
L: Lester    (1-2)

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Readers Write In...
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Peter "The King" Gregory  3/30

O'Toole,

I walked into the hopsital parents' lounge (my
daughter's in the neonatal intensive care unit, going
on nine weeks now) and thought "It's about time for
Tigers Weekly. There it was, in my e-mail--perfect
timing.

You mentioned that the Tigers had a great record in
spring training--15-4-3. Unless I'm mistaken, they
actually had an average spring, despite the Pudge
power surge. Their record was 15-14-3, although the
box score from the last spring training game
mistakenly had 15-4-3. Not that spring training
records matter, thankfully. I think they did far
better last spring.

Peter

Editor's Note:  Gadzooks!  What a blunder.  Indeed the
record was 15-14-3.  The mistake was corrected for the
website version.  My apologies for the sloppiness. 
-T. 

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Craig "Rocky &" Boezwinkle  3/31

Toolie

I'd like to make a suggestion that Chas "Grey Fox"
Claus officially be renamed Chas "Michael Michaels"
Claus.

Glad to see the first of many Tigers Weekly emails
show up in my inbox.  As an out of towner the local
insight is much appreciated.  When the Tigs travel to
Seattle I'll be sure to provide you with some field
reporting and photos.

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Mike "Rolls Hard" Claus  4/2

You know, sometimes I am amazed at how
ahead-of-the-curve I am on almost every issue. When
people were freaking out at the Duke Lacrosse team, I
maintained that something was fishy. People told me I
should hate Barry Bonds because he did steroids. I
calmly responded that everyone was doing them, and
I'm not going to pretend the rest of the league is
righteous. And when people complained about how
unfair it was that the Red Sox and Yankees have
enormous payrolls, I argued that a good owner SHOULD
doeverything in his power to build a winner. Now it
comes out that the Tigers have the second highest
payroll in baseball this year, and this should somehow
make me uncomfortable.  Rubbish! As I always say in
regards to MLB economics-there is no salary cap, and
it's not my money. I don't feel bad for a second that
the Tigers are now big spenders; I couldn't be more
pleased.

addendum, 4/7...

I guess my email looks pretty dumb right now. I'll
just add that this pathetic excuse for a baseball
season is 100% the fault of the players. Poor
approaches at the plate, lazy fielding, atrocious
baserunning...its an embarassment.

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Derek "The Clone" Muller  4/3

Dear Toolie,

As a lifelong Tigers fan, opening the season being
swept at home, by the Royals, including a shutout,
ordinarily wouldn't even make me bat an eye.  "Another
100 loss season?  Eh, at least the tickets are cheap!"
It's the kind of mentality that lets you ride through
the rought times.

But this season's a little different.  It's like that
girl in high school who's moderately attractive, but
she spends the summer doing daily pilates workouts,
letting her hair grow out and getting it highlighted,
working as a lifeguard and getting a great tan,
picking up a few new outfits from Banana Republic,
donning a pair of four-inch heels, picking up some
teeth whitening strips, finding the perfect
not-too-dry acne medication, trading in her dad's '96
Escort for an '06 300M, working on routines to make
the varsity cheerleading squad, and taking a deep
breath before entering the doors of the high school
the day after Labor Day.  Confident, classy, gorgeous.
Only the first two kids to see her, a couple of 5'3"
geeks from the AV club wearing Lord of the Rings movie
pins and swapping Magic the Gathering cards, see her
and snicker, pointing at a few hairs that didn't quite
meet the curling iron's demands that morning.

Embarrassing?  Yes.  With expectations from a
gussied-up Tigers crew, it's hard to watch the AL's
now-resident basement-dwellers point and laugh at the
hottest girl in the school.

Warmly,

D

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Toolie's Trasktalk...

What a way to start a season.  If I didn't know any
better I'd be throwing in the towel, thinking about
who we could deal at the trade deadline to stock the
farm system.  I think most Detroit fans still have
faith that this team can bounce back and contend in
2008.  There are still 154 games to go!  

Though it may have been a blessing in disguise, I have
been steamed about how few of these games I've been
able to watch.  I finally got to see the majority of a
game on Saturday.  The Tigers opened the year with
four consecutive 1PM start times, Tuesday through
Friday.  Tuesday was Boston's home opener, so that
game was also in the afternoon.  Then I got home for a
couple of hours tonight to find that the game was on
FSN+ (which I do not get) due to FSN's coverage of the
Pistons' meaningless game against the 76ers.  Luckily
the coverage came on after the Pistons game ended, and
I got my first taste of Rod and Mario.  

One concern of mine is that there is only one
left-handed pitcher in the bullpen: Bobby "A-B-" Seay.
Tim Byrdak absolutely imploded in Spring Training,
causing the Tigers to release the southpaw.  The
difficulty here is that you only get to play that
lefty-lefty card once per game.  If there are several
left-handers to come, then Seay will have to deal with
any righties in order to face the others.  Having
another left-handed reliever would be a real luxury. 
I wonder if we can get Jamie Walker back?  

Not sure which days is going to be the day The Weekly
normally comes out.  I've been really busy this last
week, and I think Monday or Sunday night would be
doable.  We'll see how things shake out.  

That's it for this week.  The best thing to do is to
forget that any of this has ever happened.  Wait a
second... what was I supposed to forget?  Weird.  

Here's to glad tidings next week!  

I'm out.
 





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Play Ball!

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