Tigers Weekly 2009 Season

WEEK 3: 4/20/09 - 4/26/09

For the third week in a row, the Tigers find
themselves either tied or in sole possession of
first place in the AL Central. After an down
and up week, the Tigers finished 3-3 and 5-4
on their first west coast road trip. I will take
both of those this early in the season. What I
will not take is having to play a night game in
Anaheim and then fly to a Kansas City for an
earlier game the next day. I guess it would
not have been so bad if they had not had to
face Zach "Where Did I Come From"
Greinke. That guy just gets better and better
every start.

Once again, the Tigers trip to Anaheim
proved once again that the Angels still own
the Tigers. Every year they head out west and
every year they come home with a losing
record against Anaheim. The 12-10 Tigers
win was just a poor game of batting practice.
And the 10-5 loss the next night against a guy
who just got called up from AAA and had an
11.38 ERA was just brutal. Well at least we
did not get swept.

This week we see the Yankees come to town.
Is this the year we finally dominate them?
After the Yankees, we enjoy some nice AL
Central company for quite awhile. The next
three weeks will show us if the Tigers are
really contenders or pretenders this season. 3-
2 record to start the season is a nice surprise
though. Let's hope they can keep it up and the
starting pitcher's arms do not fall off. Lots of
pitches are starting to be thrown to make it to
the 5th inning.

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4/20 - 4/26

RECORD: 3-3 -LWLLWW

UNDY-FIVE HUNDY: Week three brings us a
third straight NEGATIVE index. What a
difference a year makes. This week the
Tigers finished the week with a couple of
wins in Kansas City to pull even for the week
and leave the yearly index at negative two on
the season.

UP NEXT FOR THE TIGERS...

April 27 - 29   New York Yankees
April 30        No Game Scheduled...
May   1 - 3     Cleveland Indians

AL CENTRAL STANDINGS...

       W  L   GB
DET   10  8   -    
CHX    9  9   1.0
KC     9  9   1.0
MIN    9  10  1.5
CLE    7  12  3.5

TIGERS DIVISION...

      W   L   GB
STL   13  6   -
|
SD    10  7   2.0
PIT   10  7   2.0
DET   10  8   2.5
CIN   10  8   2.5
CHC    9  8   4.0

TIGERS NEWS AND NOTES: The season went
from no news is good news to all kinds of
news (both good and bad). The first official
injury of the season took place this week and
the news was not good. Down by one in the
top of the 9th, man on no one out you would
think Marcus Thames would take a bat. But
no, Adam Everett stepped in. Apparently
during batting practice Thames heard a pop,
lost his breathe and is now on the DL with a
strained muscle near the rib cage. Updated
report on Wednesday was even worse news.
Thames will miss a minimum of four weeks
before even attempting rehab stint with a
grade three strain of the intercostal muscle
and cartilage between his rib bones on his left
side. In his place, Ryan Raburn was called
up, who hit 5 HRs at (AAA) Toledo to start
the year (and boy did his first game not go so
well). Catch the fly balls Raburn!

Second roster move of the week brings Joel
Zumaya off the DL after rehabbing in the
minors. Zumaya's return means that Eddie
Bonine has been sent to (AAA) Toledo.
Zumaya had three good outings at Toledo and
said that his arm feels 100% again. We will
have to wait and see if his production can
back it up, but he did hit 100 mph on the radar
gun.

On Sunday, catcher Matt Treanor was placed
on the 15-day DL and Dane Sardina took his
roster spot. The unfortunate news here is that
Treanor has a torn labrum in the right hit and
is out for 2-3 months. The injury first was
noted in spring training and he attempted to
play through it, but being a catcher I think that
the pain was just too much. Based upon what
Treanor has done to start the year in limited
duty and what Sardina accomplished last
season (and at AAA .231 this year), neither of
these players will have much of an impact this
season anyway.

In other DL news, Dontrelle Willis has moved
from (A) ball to (AA) ball in his rehab stint.
Although Willis gave up 4 runs in 7 innings of
work in a recent rehab start, he DID NOT
WALK A BATTER. Are we sure that person
was really Willis pitching? Last on the DL is
Jeremy Bonderman, who is rehabbing in
Lakeland, FL and does not like how he is
gripping the ball, but is slowly progressing.

Lastly, the April 14th rainout against the
White Sox has been rescheduled as part of a
day-night double header on Friday, July 24th.
Game time is 1:05 for the first game and
7:05pm for the second.

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Tiger of the Week...
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This week had a few nominations for the weekly award, but in the end the nod goes to Curtis Granderson who broke out of his early slump in a big way. For the week Curtis batted .333 with 7 runs scored, 6 RBI, 1 stolen base, and 4 monster homeruns. His four home runs this week give him six on the season, second on the team only to Brandon Inge's 7 shots. In fact he hit 2 of this homeruns this week in the same game (a game they would lose in traditional Tigers fashion 4-3 in Anaheim). It always seems that when the Tigers can get Granderson going, good things come their way. Putting Curtis on base at the top on the lineup and Josh Anderson at the bottom creates real speed problems for opposing teams. Speed this year will really bring a new element to the Tiger's game that we have not seen in quite some time. Congratulations Curtis Granderson on being named Tigers Weekly "Tiger of the Week".

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Tiger Homerun Kings of the Week...
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           Season   Weekly   Weekly
Player     Total    Total    No(s)        

Pena (TB)    8        2      (7, 8)
|
Inge         7        3      (5, 6, 7)
Granderson   6        4      (3, 4, 5, 6)
Laird        1        1      (1)
Ordonez      1        1      (1)
|
Cabrera      4
Larish       1
Santiago     1

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Poll Question...
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With the first month of the season almost in
the books, it's time to start predicting some
more. Who will be the AL and NL Cy
Young, MVPs, ROY, and manager of the
year? After month one, it appears the AL Cy
Young is Zach Greinke's to lose. He still has
not allowed an earned run this season
(although the Tigers were the ones to stop his
scoreless streak). Who else do you think will
be in the running? The only Tiger to have a
chance at anything this year is probably
Cabrera, as long as he heats up again in June
like last season.

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Arby's Feeds Detroit...
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For those keeping the Arby's score, Saturday's
game was the second game of the season in
which the Tigers fed Detroit Arby's roast beef
sandwiches. Arby's is doing an advertising
campaign with the Tigers this season on Fox
Sports Detroit in which if the Tiger's hit 3 or
more homeruns in a single game, you can
bring a copy of the box score into any
participating Arby's the next day for your free
sandwich. On Saturday, Laird, Granderson,
and Ordonez all homered in the Tigers 9-1
victory in Kansas City. This season we will
follow the Arby Index progression to see how
many sandwiches can be won. What do you
think the final index will finish at?

For now the Arby's Index is at 2

(April 8, April 25)

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No Hit Wonder...
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Patrick Schuster, a high school pitcher at
Mitchell High in Trinity Florida, has started
off his senior year with a bang. The kid has a
90+ mph fastball and a nasty slide, so nasty in
fact that he has thrown a no-hitter. So you say
that is not a big deal, especially in high school
ball. You get a good pitch and some nights
teams just will not be able to hit it. Well in
Patrick's last four starts he has not allowed a
run. In fact, he has not even allowed a single
hit in the last four games. He needs two more
no-hitters this season to tie the national high
school record. As each no-no comes by you
can see more and more of him on the likes of
ESPN and Sportscenter. What a spotlight for
just being a kid in high school.

CLICK HERE for article from Sports Illustrated

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Magglio Breaks Through...
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On Saturday evening in Kansas City, Magglio
Ordonez finally hit his first extra base hit of
the season. That hit was good for a solo
homerun in the Tigers 9-1 victory in Kansas
City. Before the homerun, Magglio had hit 17
straight singles to start the season in 65 at-bats
(also had 10 walks in the time period).
Magglio has been off to slower start this
season, but if his career numbers tell us
anything, he should pick up the pace and
finish above .300 with 20-30 HRs and 100+
RBI. At least his lower production has not
really cost the Tigers and games. If the
season started like last year, I think we would
hear more grumblings and blame. But with
the decent start they have had and being in
first place, the slow start has been pushed
aside.

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Tiger Trivia...
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Make sure you visit www.Tigersweekly.com
and visit the weekly trivia question. Play each
week and see if you can beat Toolie! Reader
responses will be posted each week, so play
away.

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Fan Ballpark Photo Board...
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Developing at Tigers Weekly is the fan photo
section. We are asking all baseball fans to
send in their pictures from stadiums across
America and to write about their experiences
at the park. Pictures and memories do not
need to be of Comerica Park. All stadiums
are welcome. Please take a look at
http://www.tigersweekly.com/Photos/TWReader.htm 
to see all of the pictures our viewers
have already sent in.

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Game Lines of the Week...
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Monday, April 20th
--- NO GAME SCHEDULED ---

Tuesday, April 21st         10:05 pm    
Starters:  DET - Galarraga  5.0 IP
           LAA - Weaver     7.0 IP  
                       R  H  E  (W-L)
Detroit   111 000 00x  3  8  0  (7-6)
Anaheim   011 010 01x  4  10 1  (5-8)
  W    Arredondo  (1-0)
  L    Lyon       (1-2)
  S    Fuentes    (3)

Wednesday, April 22nd       10:05 pm    
Starters:  DET - Verlander  5.0 IP
           LAA - Saunders   5.0 IP
                       R  H  E  (W-L)
Detroit   202 011 501  12 18 0  (8-6)
Anaheim   310 031 002  10 16 1  (5-9)
  W    Rincon     (1-0)
  L    Shields    (0-2)
  S    ---

Thursday, April 23rd        10:05 pm    
Starters:  DET - Jackson    5.0 IP
           LAA - Palmer     6.0 IP
                       R  H  E  (W-L)
Detroit   110 000 300  5  7  4  (8-7)
Anaheim   000 213 40x  10 14 1  (6-9)
  W    Palmer     (1-0)
  L    Jackson    (1-1)
  S    ---

Friday, April 24th          8:10 pm     
Starters:  DET - Porcello   6.0 IP
           KC  - Greinke    9.0 IP - Complete Game
                          R  H  E  (W-L)
Detroit      000 010 000  1  3  1  (8-8)
Kansas City  210 020 10x  6  8  1  (9-7)
  W    Greinke   (4-0)
  L    Porcello  (1-2)
  S    ---

Saturday, April 25th        7:10 pm
Starters:  DET - Miner      5.0 IP
           KC  - Davies     5.1 IP
                          R  H  E  (W-L)
Detroit      022 004 001  9  11 0  (9-8)
Kansas City  000 001 000  1  6  0  (9-8)
  W    Miner     (2-1)
  L    Davies    (1-1)
  S    ---

Sunday, April 26th          2:10 pm
Starters:  DET - Galarraga  6.0 IP
           KC  - Ponson     8.0 IP
                          R  H  E  (W-L)
Detroit      020 010 000  3  6  0  (10-8)
Kansas City  001 000 001  2  4  0  (9-9)
  W    Galarraga  (3-0)
  L    Ponson     (0-3)
  S    Rodney     (4)

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Reader Write In...
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Unfortunately, no one decided to write to us
this week and express their thoughts. We at
Tigers Weekly encourage everyone to write in
their thoughts on the Tigers, responses to poll
questions, or just talk baseball to us. We rely
on you the reader to keep this an interactive
venue to promote the Tiger excitement across
America. So I challenge each and every one
of you to write in to us, tell us a Tiger story,
and give us the good Tiger news from afar.

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Toolie's Trashtalk...
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So the Tigers go 3-3 this week to finish the
road trip 5-4. Not bad! They say that the key
is to go about .500 on the road and then do
your damage at home. This trip brings the
Tigers to 6-7 on the road for the season, while
they are 4-1 at home. Thank goodness for this
eight-game homestand coming up.

Zack Greinke carved up the Tigers on Friday
night, going the distance in a 6-1 Royals win.
While Greinke was light-out for the fourth
straight start to open the season, he can give
an assist to the management in Anaheim. The
Tigers were forced to play a night game in
Anaheim on Thursday and then fly to Kansas
City for a game the next day. This resulted in
the Tigers getting to their hotel in Kansas City
around 6 in the morning! I know I ranted
about this last season, but there is no reason to
have a night game for a series finale if your
opponent has a game the next night. If the
team has an off-day, fine. But shouldn't it be
common courtesy to give your opponent a
decent amount of time to travel? The only
exception would be if a Sunday game gets
featured on ESPN and is thus bumped to
Sunday night. Otherwise it's just bad form.
Good job by the Tigs in bouncing back to win
the series from the Royals.

Yankees coming to town tomorrow, and they
are playing in the Sunday night game right
now against Boston. I shouldn't even need to
tell you this, because your life this weekend
has probably revolved around the Yankees-
Red Sox series, as it always does. I mean,
what could be more important to the game of
baseball than a series in April? They should
just dedicate all of Baseball Tonight to the
rivalry (as opposed to the 66% they devote to
it now). I think the only thing I dislike more
than the Yankees and the Red Sox is
Yankees-Red Sox. If I didn't have fantasy
players involved in this one I would rather be
watching Golden Girls (R.I.P. Bea Arthur).
Dear ESPN: I DON'T CARE! And a 4 hour+,
16-11 game is not "compelling." It's called
terrible pitching. The Tigers' 12-10 win in
Anaheim was brutal (I fell asleep in the 8th).

Inge continues to tear it up (7 home runs
now). Today I learned that he has reached
base in all 18 games thus far, collecting hits in
14 of them. His OBP is a lofty .432 (last year
- .303). One positive that came out of the
Angels series was the awakening of Curtis
Granderson. He had a monster series there (7
for 12 with 3HR) but cooled off in Kansas
City (1 for 12 with a homer). He's up to a .250
average after entering the week at .212. Curtis
definitely needs to pick things up at the top of
the order.

Nice to be sitting atop the division, early in
the season as it is. One sign that the success
could last: the Tigers have outscored their
opponents by 18 (the Twins, a game under
five-hundy, have been outscored by 23). At
least the Tigers have been out-producing their
opposition. Also, they have been able to
protect late leads. The second game of the
season was a nightmare, but there haven't
been any collapses since then. Fernando
Rodney finally surrendered a run, but he did
so in the right circumstances (solo home-run
with a two-run lead).

Joel Zumaya came back on Saturday night.
He gave up a couple of hits, but got a doubleplay
ball and pitched a scoreless inning. It was
a good game to get him his first action, as the
Tigers were up 9-1. While some people think
that Zumaya is highly overrated, the bullpen
is much better off with him there. If Joel is
effective and stays healthy, then combined
with Bobby Seay (0 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 5.1IP)
and Fernando Rodney (2ER, 4H, 1BB, 6IP)
they can make up a dynamite back of the
bullpen.

You ever have one of those days where you
just push all the wrong buttons? Like, every
decision you make is the wrong one? Jim
Leyland had a ninth inning like that in
Anaheim. Trailing 4-3 in the ninth, Josh
Anderson led things off with a single. Jeff
Larish was due up next, and Leyland pinch hit
with... Adam Everett. Everett was up there to
sacrifice, but he failed to get it down. Then,
with two strikes, Anderson broke for second
and got picked off. Everett grounded out,
leaving the Tigers with two out and nobody
on. They would get the next two hitters on
base, but the rally would fizzle there. Not
really criticizing Leyland; the onus here was
on Everett to get the bunt down. When the
players don't do their job, however, it reflects
poorly on the manager (fair or not).

The Tigers do steal and sacrifice a lot more
than in previous years, and I like seeing it. It
puts a lot more pressure on the pitcher when
he has to worry about the man on first, or
having to field his position on bunts. Much
more enjoyable than waiting on someone to
crank out an extra-base hit.

The rest of the Central is looking rather
unimpressive. The Tigers have a nice chance
to build a lead, here, with 13 straight division
games after this set with the Yankees.
Winning in division is SOOO important.
Here's the Tigers' division record for the last
five seasons (final division rank in
parentheses).

2004: 36-40 (4th)
2005: 29-46 (4th)
2006: 45-30 (2nd)
2007: 36-36 (2nd)
2008: 27-45 (5th)

As you can see, it's tough to succeed if you're
getting beat up in your own division. And you
don't need to totally dominate, either. 45-30 is
only three wins out of every five games.

OK, time to welcome the Yankees, who were
just swept in Boston. Then we get our first
cracks at Cleveland and Minnesota. It will be
nice to finally see the rest of the Central... and
whoop 'em!

I'm out.






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