We’re about a week away from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training and since the Price Fielder signing, the Tigers have been pretty quiet. The team’s first full workout is February 24 and their first spring game is March 2, 2012 in their annual exhibition game against Florida Southern. Of course here in Detroit we got snow so it’s looking more like winter but it’s nice to see that we’re getting really close to being able to see some baseball.
Word on the street is that Miguel Cabrera has dropped weight. Alex Avila reported that he’s 20-25 lighter but of course we’ll see how he looks when camp starts up. If it’s true, that’s great and you figure it won’t sap his power too much but should help out his durability throughout the season, especially if he sticks at first base.
It’s also time to consider MLB.TV options. The past few years, I’ve gotten the full package, but last year I found myself listening to the Tigers on my phone so I’m wondering if it’s time to downgrade and just pay for the app on my iPhone. Then again, if I wanted to go all out, they’re also bundling the MiLB.TV package with MLB.TV. What I might do is start small and buy the app, then if I find the time to watch more baseball (my schedule may be changing sooner rather than later), I’ll pay for MLB.TV midseason.
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I’ve had quite a people asking me about the Price Fielder signing and my response has been consistent. I really like the fact we’ll have Prince on the team the next couple of years, but I don’t like the fact that we have locked up for nine years. Let’s break this down one at a time.
The Tigers were exposed in the playoffs. While they have some really great bats, they also have quite a few holes in their lineup. Then Victor Martinez went down with a knee injury and that left an even bigger hole. Their solution is Prince Fielder. He’s finished in the top three in the NL MVP three times already and his worst OPS+ in the past five years is 130. The last time he didn’t hit 30 home runs was 2006. This guy can mash and he’s also drawn more then 100 walks the past three seasons. He’s been durable and he’s missed just one game the past three seasons. This is a big league bat and he’s definitely going to help us. He also makes us the favorite in a weak AL Central. I still don’t think we’re as good as the Yankees, Rangers or Angels but once you get into the playoffs, all bets are off.
Now let’s look at the contract. Fielder turns 28 in May. That means we have him until 37. I’m interested to see how the contract was stacked but if it’s backloaded, that makes it even tougher. If he’s with the team for five years, his 10/5 no-trade kicks in so that means he’s going to be near impossible to trade. If you look at his similar batters, you see quite a few people who flamed out pretty quick but there’s also a couple of hall of famers if you just look at the “similar batters through age 27.”
Now the big question is, what happens next. You can never isolate one signing because it creates a domino effect of sorts. What happens when Victor Martinez comes back in 2013 (although the fact that they signed Fielder leads me to believe Martinez’s injury may be worse than advertised). Miguel Cabrera at third base would hurt the pitching staff even more then an already weak defense has the past couple of years. Also, what happens to Nick Castellanos, the Tigers top hitting prospect? Does he now become trade bait to pick up another pitcher?
Regardless, I’d like to welcome Prince to the team. I was a big fan of his dad’s and remember listening to a scratchy radio broadcast of him hitting his 50th home run when I was in college (WJR made it out to East Lansing back then). It’s been a while since anyone has hit 40 home runs in a Tigers uniform and I think Fielder has a great chance at being the first since his dad in 1991.
Spring training hasn’t even started and the Tigers have already been dealt a major blow. Victor Martinez was working out and it looks like he tore his ACL in his left knee. He’s getting a second opinion but if it holds, Victor Martinez will probably miss the entire 2012 season.
Martinez had an .850 OPS last season and that’s going to be tough to replace. It’ll be interesting to see what the Tigers do at this point but I guess on a good note, they only have to fill the designated hitter spot so they can just look for the best bat without regard for defense. Not good. It’s interesting that one of the names that’s being thrown around is former Tiger Carlos Pena.
In other news, the Tigers signed all of their arbitration eligible players. Phil Coke and Rick Porcello were signed yesterday and today, Max Scherzer, Delmon Young and Don Kelly all signed deals. Young is going to be paid $6.75 million which I think is a bit much but in light of the V-Mart injury, we need all of the just mediocre bats we can find.
This may have been my biggest drought yet. In my defense, the Tigers haven’t been doing much so my usual “I’m really busy” note can take a back seat to the fact that the Tigers have been so quiet. We have a little more then a month to go until pitchers and catchers report and the biggest move the Tigers have made was Octavio Dotel. Yawn (although any help to the pen is a good thing, it just doesn’t excite me).
There were some rumors thrown around that the Tigers were looking at a trade for Matt Garza that would have included Jacob Turner. Jacob Turner has been showing up in the top ten of a lot of MLB prospect lists so you have to be careful but you don’t have to look too much further then Andrew Miller to realize that sometimes a known commodity is better then the potential prospect. Turner is a lot younger then Miller was back then and he’s shown his stuff in the minors so I don’t want to deal him out of hand but Matt Garza had a really nice year for the Cubs last year and he’ll really help shore up the pen. It’s the cost that’s the big factor though because Garza is getting close to free agency where as we’d have Turner locked up for three years before we even had to consider arbitration.
The Tigers also seem to be major players in the Yoenis Cespedes sweepstakes. The Marlins appear to be the front runner but it’s not that the Tigers aren’t trying and I’ve seen $50 million as a number that’s been thrown around. Right now Cespedes has been showing his stuff in the Dominican Winter League and it looks like he might be granted free agency at any time. I’ve talked about how I’m not really high on Delmon Young and if Cespedes lives up to his billing, he should be a nice upgrade.
Right now, I’m just excited for some baseball. Late February can’t get here fast enough.
The Tigers are wrapping a one year deal for right handed relief pitcher Octavio Dotel. Details (when we know) and analysis (when I have time) will be coming soon.
Outside of signing Ramon Santiago to a two-year deal, the Tigers have been fairly quiet this winter. I haven’t seen anything official but it looks like the Tigers aren’t going to be a mover or a shaker at this years winter meeting. Rather then signing a second baseman, it sounds like they’re going to go with a Ramon Santiago/Ryan Raburn platoon. Third base we’ll see Don Kelly/Brandon Inge. At times, especially late in the season, this looked like a good idea. You have your better hitters with their defensive replacements that can come in late to lock down the game. Still, we’ll see how this works for 162 games.
I’ve heard a lot of names that the Tigers are interested. Octavio Dotel, Aramis Ramirez and Mark Buehrle have all been mentioned. I like Buehrle and think he’d be a huge addition but it looks like the Tigers are looking for something different. Of course what the team says and what they do are two different things. For now, it sounds like Jacob Turner is going to head the list for that final rotation spot until or if the Tigers sign someone else.
The Tigers outrighted Ryan Strieby. This guy can mash but his wrists have been a problem. Now he’s 26 and he’s looking more like a career minor league hitter like Mike Hessman. This opens up a roster spot so if the Tigers decide to pull the trigger on a Rule 5 pick, they’ll have a spot open.
This was a pleasant surprise. Justin Verlander was very deserving and I think this was as much a symptom of the late season collapse by the Red Sox then anything with the voters penchant towards excluding pitchers. In a bizarre vote, Verlander took thirteen of the 28 first place votes but he also got an eighth place vote and wasn’t put on one person’s ballot at all. Jaboby Ellsbury came in second place and Jose Bautista came in third. Someone had Jose Bautista in ninth and that’s also a joke.
Other Tigers to get votes were Miguel Cabrera (fifth place, with two first place votes and he was actually named on all 28 ballots), Alex Avila (who was on six ballots with seventh his best showing) and Victor Martinez (four ballots, highest showing was eighth place). David Robertson actually picked up a tenth place vote and oddly, Jered Weaver, who came in second place in the Cy Young, wasn’t on a single ballot.
Former Tiger Curtis Granderson came in fourth place. Verlander is the first pitcher since Dennis Eckersley to win the win the award and the first starter since Roger Clemens in 1986. He’s the first Tiger to win the award since 1984 but the Tigers have had their share of second places finishers since then with Alan Trammell, Cecil Fielder, Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera all being the runner up at one point.
It’s been seventeen years, but the Tigers have a Cy Young winner. As expected, Justin Verlander was the unanimous choice for the award and he took every first place vote. Jered Weaver came in second place, James Shields came in third and CC Sabathia was in fourth place. The last award of the season is the AL MVP on November 22 and it’ll be interesting to see if Verlander takes that home as well.
One of the Tigers biggest needs this off season is to fill the hole at second base. Aaron Hill was one of the names thrown and he’s now re-signed with the Diamondbacks and Jamey Carroll signed with the Twins. So there’s little surprise that Jon Paul Morosi broke a story that the Tigers were looking to deal Delmon Young for a second baseman. The guy who’s name is being thrown around is Martin Prado.
I know he had a decent post-season but I’ve never been high on Delmon Young. I think his stock is a little higher then when they picked him up and if he can be the cornerstone of a trade to get a good second baseman, I’d be all for it. Prado reminds me a little bit of Placido Polanco. Not a lot of strikeouts and while he has some extra base power, it’s mostly doubles. The downsides are, he’s coming off an off year and he’s probably due for a bigger pay check here soon because he’s entering his second year of arbitration.
Of course if the Tigers decide to stay with what they have, you’re probably looking at a Danny Worth/Wil Rhymes/Brandon Douglas/Ramon Santiago mish mash. Leyland already said that Ryan Raburn isn’t the answer at second base. Kelly Johnson is still out there though and if they wanted more of a bargain, there’s guys like Felipe Lopez, Aaron Miles, Adam Kennedy and Julio Lugo out there.
MiLB.com has kicked off their organizational All Stars series and the Tigers review went live over the weekend. The Tigers farm system is still pretty thin from all of the trades they’ve made since their last World Series appearance in 2006 but there’s still a few people to get excited about. I mentioned Brandon Douglas over the weekend at second base and he shows up here. A few people have also asked me if the Tigers might go after Aramis Ramirez but I think Nick Castellanos is a reason why the Tigers might hold off replacing Brandon Inge to see if he’s the third baseman of the future.
Of course then you have guys like Timo Perez, who had nice seasons in the minors but who are a decade past their prospect status. Anyway, it’s a good read but I didn’t recognize the author’s name. Then again, I haven’t stayed with a lot of this stuff so Ashley may have been with the team for a while now.
Alright, free agent season is upon us. The Tigers were a couple of wins away from a World Series appearance and most of their key players will be back this year. Still, Dave Dombrowski has some work to do because the Tigers had some serious holes come playoff time. Let’s take a look…..
Catcher – Alex Avila is the starter for sure as he should be after an awesome season but he just seemed to hit a wall. While his September wasn’t awful, he did have his second worst slugging month and then he laid an egg in the postseason. I think a big reason behind this is because he was catching every game down the stretch. One guy that comes to mind if we can get him for the right price is Ivan Rodriguez but there’s plenty of guys out there who could fill this role and not hit the pocket book to hard.
Second base – This one is going to be tricky. The Tigers will most likely bring back Ramon Santiago but he’ll be a utility infielder again. I’m not sure if they’re willing to give Wil Rhymes another go but he may not be a bad choice and I don’t think Ryan Raburn is the answer either. I’ve heard Aaron Hill’s name tossed around and that wouldn’t be bad if we again, get him at the right price. If they look within, there’s also Danny Worth and coming soon will be Brandon Douglas, who had a decent season at Erie.
Right Field – I haven’t heard much as to whether Brennan Boesch will be ready to play on opening day or not so this is a spot the Tigers have to think about. My guess is, this is one of the last spots they fill as they see how some of their farm hands do in spring training as well as monitoring Boesch’s progress. If they want to make a big splash, Carlos Beltran is out there and a second tier guy is Michael Cuddyer. If the Tigers wanted to go with a cheaper Free Agent option, David DeJesus might not be a bad guy to pick up if you assume 2011 was a blip. Jason Kubel was hurt last year but he may be another guy the Tigers look at although having him in right and Young in left would mean Austin Jackson would have his work cut out for him.
Fifth Starter – This may end up being Jacob Turner but the Tigers may sign another guy like Brad Penny (not him, but an older, veteran guy) to a one year deal. A guy who might make sense if you figure Turner is there to fill in would be Erik Bedard although he may be looking for a longer term deal.
Middle Relief – Lots of options here. Frank Francisco would make a nice addition but there’s plenty of guys the Tigers should be looking to fill in those spots where they didn’t have help in the post season.
So it should be a fun free agent season. Barring a big trade which I don’t see, the Tigers won’t be picking up any of the big guns but there should definitely be some activity.
The Silver Slugger awards were handed out last night the Tigers had just one winning. Alex Avila walked with his first (hopefully of many) with a surprisingly good year at the plate. He was ninth in the American League in WAR (5.4) and eighth in the American League in OPS (.895). The last time an everyday catcher had an OPS that high was back in the late 1930s when Rudy York was doing it consistently.
Miguel Cabrera fell short and it looks like for the second time in as many days, a Tiger fell short because of east coast bias. Adrian Gonzalez had a good year but it appears to be good enough to top Cabrera because he was the one who walked away with the award. Of course many people still think RBIs are a relevant stat to value a player and the fact the Gonzalez had the RBI title probably helped him out.
Former Tiger Curtis Granderson walked away with his first award. Congratulations to him.
Alright, baseball ended last week but I want to try to keep it alive. If you’re a fan on my Facebook page, you’ve probably seen the trivia questions I’ve been posting. Well, now it’s time to get serious. Beginning Monday, November 7, I’m going to kick off an off-season long trivia contest that will include mostly Tigers trivia but potentially some “Tiger related” trivia as well. Even better, I have some stuff to give away to the winner and some consolation prizes to those that take part in the contest and do well. First, let’s talk rules. I’m hoping to get through everything here but if I miss something, I’ll be sure to update this page.
1) On the morning of November 7, I’ll post the first question on the Tigerblog Facebook page. If someone answers it by the next morning, then I’ll have a new question that day. If nobody answers it, I’ll post a hint. The next day, the same thing will happen until the question is answered. After a few days, I’ll probably be getting pretty specific with the hints just to keep things going. Be sure to read the question closely. I don’t have data for every year so a lot of times you’ll find if it relates to a certain game, it only goes back to 1919. You don’t want to guess wrong just because you didn’t read the question closely.
2) One answer per question per person. If you guess early and get it wrong, you get to watch everyone else whittle it down. There’s some strategy here because if you’re on the fence on an answer, you have to weigh waiting for the next hint versus getting in early to get the point.
3) Speaking of points, you get one point for each question you get correct. Whoever has the most points when the Tigers open up their season on April 5th gets the top prize. Nine others will get something as well.
4) We’ll be taking the weekends off. So if nobody answers Friday’s question (or carryover question), there won’t be a new question or hint until Monday. That doesn’t stop you from guessing the answer to the question on a Saturday or Sunday, just everything else will be on hold. There will also be some periodic breaks which I’ll announce. Namely Thanksgiving weekend.
5)Â I’m not going to commit to a time in the morning when the question or hint will be put up so be sure to check in from time to time.
6) I think I covered most of what I needed to but in the event something comes up (someone finds a loophole somehow that I want to close or there’s just a hole I’m missing), I’m going to tweak the rules as neccesary. Hopefully this doesn’t happen but I thought I’d throw it out there.
Alright, let’s talk about prizes…..
1st Prize – A copy of every Hardball Times Baseball Annual from 2006 through 2012 as well as your choice of either the Detroit Tigers Vintage World Series Films DVD or The Essential Games of the Detroit Tigers DVD.
2nd place through tenth place all sort of get the same prize with a twist. They get their choice of the above DVD, availability permitting. I have five of each and the higher place gets first choice and so on so if you’re at the bottom, you get what’s left. I’ve watched the World Series DVD and it’s very cool (it has footage from 1945) and you just have to check out the details for the other DVD to see how great some of those games are.
So good luck and if you have any questions, post them in the comments.
No Tigers won a gold glove this year despite the fact that one was very deserving and another you could have made a major argument for. Matt Wieters won at catcher and while I can live with that I do think Alex Avila has a great season behind the plate. WAR doesn’t really spell it out (Avila has a -0.1 Defensive WAR in 2011 versus Wieters 1.0) but it just seemed at times that Avila was rock solid both blocking balls and throwing runners out. Maybe next year Alex.
Austin Jackson is an entirely different story. Yes, Jacoby Ellsbury had a great season and he probably got a bump because of his offense and because he plays in Boston but Jackson’s Defensive WAR 0.7 was better then Ellsbury 0.4 I know WAR isn’t the be all end of defensive stats and there’s usually not a year that goes that someone (or two or three) gets a gold glove they don’t deserve but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
The list of Type A and Type B free agents was put out today and while this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, there’s not many Tigers on the list. The Tigers have no Type A free agents and the lone Type B free agents are Wilson Betemit and Magglio Ordonez. I highly doubt Magglio Ordonez gets offered arbitration and I’m guessing with Brandon Inge already locked up for another year and guys like Don Kelly who can fill in when Inge is hurt (or bad) that Betemit isn’t offered it either.
Of course the Tigers should be buyers this off season so this list is important for a different reason. Namely, the Tigers could potentially lose a pick or two depending on what they end up doing and who they pick up.
What’s his Grade – I give Austin Jackson a “C.” This is probably higher then most people might have thought but buried in Jackson’s low batting average were some optimistic signs. Yes, he only hit .249 (I wonder who could have predicted that) but he turned some of those doubles into home runs a little earlier then I would have expected from him (keep in mind, Jackson won’t turn 25 until February. Through August, Jackson looked like he was going to end up with more walks then in 2010 (which he did) and less strikeouts (which he didn’t) but a horrible September in which he struck out 42 times set him back. While you just can’t eliminate an entire month, you can explain some of this away as fatigue and it’s no surprise that Jackson struggled in the playoffs this year.
Better or Worse? – Jackson was a little worse in 2011 then he was in 2010 but like I talk about above, it’s not as much as you might think. If you’re a fan of WAR (I’m using Baseball-Reference’s), Jackson had a 2.4 WAR in 2011 versus 2.8 in 2010. A lot of this was because his shortcomings at the plate were made up for by a better season out in the field. He walked nine more times in about the same number of plate appearances so in short, he wasn’t as good as he was in 2010 but I like the development. If Jackson is the lead off hitter of the future, he took a small step in the right direction this year.
MIP (Most Important Statistic) – 10 home runs. At just 24, Jackson showed some increased pop at the plate. If this is a trend, a 25 home run/25 stolen base season in the future isn’t out of the question. Of course if he’s leading off, his primary job should be to get on base but it’s nice knowing we could have one more potential power bat in waiting. The only other season Jackson hit more home runs in a season was 2007 when he split time with three different affiliates (he hit most of those home runs with Tampa).
Fun with Splits – In the first inning, Austin Jackson hit .220/.275/.326. Jackson’s best inning was the sixth inning. When he hit in that inning, he belted .379/.429/.655. With two outs in the inning, Jackson hit just .159/.257/.298. He was best with one out when he hit .308/.358/.404. Jackson also loved the White Sox. In 15 games, he hit .391/.443/.625.
Conclusion – A lot was made of Jackson’s .396 BABIP last year. This year, he hit .340 which is still well above average. Many people think that it means Jackson has more room to drop in 2012 but I think with Jackson’s speed, he should be able to stay above the average .300 until he begins to slow down. My guess is that we see a slightly better Austin Jackson in 2013 and I hope some of these nice bumps he had (home runs, defense) are trends and not one time occurrences.
This week I plan on doing a review of each of the Tigers. I’m going to take a little bit of a different approach so be sure to give me some feedback on what you like and don’t like. First up will be Austin Jackson. Look for him tomorrow or Tuesday.
Also, I’m doing some Tiger trivia over at the Tigerblog Facebook page. At some point, I’m going to put together some prizes so look at this as the exhibition season. I’m not sure if my latest one is just tough, or if it’s Sunday and people aren’t on Facebook or people just aren’t trying so stop by and give me a guess.
Not to get too personal, but I went through a divorce late 2010/early 2011 (this is a segue so bear with me). In the divorce, I got to keep the house. While there were some personal reasons I wanted to keep it (I like it and it’s the only house my son has ever lived in and he went through enough stuff), there was also one selfish reason. Namely, the thought of packing up and moving seemed like such an utter pain that it influenced my decision. In a lot of ways, I liken this to the Tigers picking up Jose Valverde. While I haven’t gone out and checked which closers are going to be on the market, I’m pretty sure the Tigers could have gotten someone better for $9 million. It’s just they’d have to take their chances that Valverde wouldn’t take arbitration and then go out and spend their energy on picking up a new guy. Instead, they took the easy (and popular) choice and just overpaid for Valverde.
I like Jose Valverde. He’s entertaining and he does his job. He’s also a solid pitcher who had a decent, if fluky season. The fact that he might get Cy Young votes though is laughable. Strip away the saves (I’ll get to that in a minute) and Valverde’s numbers are good but definitely not elite. If you look at the closers behind him in saves, you could argue that Mariano Rivera was way better then Valverde this year and you could also argue that Valverde wasn’t even the best reliever on his team. Joaquin Benoit and for a while Al Alburquerque were both more effective.
While there’s a lot of stats out there that are deceiving (and I’ve made this rant before), the save has to be the least useful. I mean, Todd Jones has led the league in saves before. And while it still irks me that managers work their bullpen around this stupid statistic, the fact that many base the effectiveness of a closer on it is equally annoying.
So in short, I think the Tigers could have saved some money (or gotten a better pitcher for their money) by going to the market but I’m also not going to get all worked up about it because it’s probably not that big of a difference if they had and I can sympathize with why they did what they did.
Man, it’s been a while since I wrote. Sadly, I really have no excuse other then I’ve gotten out of the habit. Work has slowed down a bit this past month and it almost seemed like I was more busy enjoying the season then I felt like writing about it. This year I went to six Tiger games (a record for me, I live 45 minutes away from the park so it’s not easy especially with having my son half the time) and I went to four other ballparks (three Minor League parks and I went to White Sox game) so I got my share of baseball. I’m happy about that but I also want to keep this site going so bear with me.
2011 was a good year for Tiger fans and I definitely enjoyed it. The second crash never happened and the team thrived in the final couple of months. Of course that appeared to take a toll and the Tigers looked spent going into the playoffs. I felt tired just watching Alex Avila up there swinging. The playoffs also pointed to some fundamental flaws that the Tigers had. I also wasn’t happy about some of Jim Leyland’s stategies but that’s nothing new. We will always agree to disagree there.
At this point, I’m just riding out the season taking in as much baseball as I can that’s left. I’m glad this series will go at least six games. I’m also looking forward to an off-season that should see the Tigers make some plays in the free agent market once again. Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez’s contracts come off the books and that should free up enough money for the Tigers to make some moves. They also had five home playoffs games so hopefully some of that money will be put back into the team. i don’t think the Tigers will make a big splash with another big name but they definitely need to fill in some of the gaps that exist in some of the more unglamorous parts of the roster. I know a backup catcher and middle relief doesn’t get a lot of attention but if we had some both this year we might be playing in the World Series right now.
I’ve talked about him before, and while I know he had a good post-season, but I hope the Tigers don’t sign Delmon Young to a long term deal. He has one more year of arbitration eligibility and while I wouldn’t mind seeing him roaming left field next year, I don’t see him as a long term solution. In fact it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s the one guy that actually ends up at the arbitration table during Dave Dombrowski’s tenure but we’ll have to wait and see there.
It feels like yesterday that the Tigers were opening their season. Yes, I’m getting old and that changes your perspective on time but it just seemed like this season flew by. Lets hope that the offseason goes by just as fast. It’s already weird not having the Tigers around and it’ll feel equally weird not having baseball in general to listen to. I do have some things planned for the offseason so I do hope you stop by or at least subscribe to my feed. Or you can find on Facebook (and yes, I plan on doing more with that as well).
Well, the playoffs are finally set.. The Rangers won six straight to match the Tigers four straight wins down the stretch and they get home field so the Tigers get the Yankees in the first round beginning Friday. The Rays completed their incredible comeback and they’ll face the Rangers in the first round Friday afternoon. If you’re a half glass full kind of guy, I’d say facing the Yankees isn’t a horrible thing because I think the Tigers match up better against the Yankees in the shorter series then they might in a seven game series.
The Yankees finished with the best record in the American League in the best division in baseball and that’s no small task. While they’re starting pitching once you get past CC Sabathia is a little spotty (I’m still not sold on Ivan Nova), they have some very solid middle relief and of course the top of the line offense. Game one is going to be pretty important with Verlander on the mound. For those of you who want to continue with the Doug Fister/Doyle Alexander comparisons, Alexander was horrible come playoff time in 1987 but Fister pitched pretty well in Yankee Stadium in one his start against them this year.
In looking at the pitching matchups, I think the Tigers have a slight edge in each of them but the Yankees make up for it at the plate. While it’s easy to look at the fact that the Yankees had the second best offense (runs scored) and the Tigers the fourth, there were 80 runs between the two of them. Only the Red Sox scored more runs then the Yankees did.
Game one, while big in a lot of five game series, is going to be extra important in this series. Whichever ace can win will get their team sitting pretty. And we’ll see if Jim Leyland sticks with his “no Verlander on three days rest” if the Tigers backs are against the wall. I still think one of his big mistakes in 2006 was not pitching Kenny Rogers over Nate Robertson in game five of the World Series that year (and that wasn’t even a rest issue because they had the rain out).
I’m going to go with he happy prediction. Tigers take game one and two at Yankee Stadium, Yankees survive by taking game three and then the Tigers wrap it up in four a la 2006. I’d be interested to see who outside of Detroit makes a similar prediction though. Now I just have to work on getting my Tiger playoff tickets.
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