Detroit Tigers Preview

Mr Baseball

Mr Baseball

Pretty much a regular
On to another really tough team to pin down, the Detroit Tigers.

Who's In: RHP Brandon Lyon, RHP Edwin Jackson, SS Adam Everett, C Gerald Laird.

Who's Out: SS Edgar Renteria, RHP Todd Jones, LHP Kenny Rogers.

Offseason Summary:

After making some huge offseason splashes last year, the Tigers layed low this year. They landed veteran reliever Brandon Lyon to go with ever-improving Edwin Jackson. Everett will be looked on as a defense-first SS and Laird will help out behind the dish. The Tigers waived good-bye to age as Renteria, Rogers, and Jones were shown the door. The Tigers were favorites to win the AL, and now the enter the new season with nearly the same team that was one of the MLB's biggest busts last year.

Bettor's Edge: To be honest, I really don't know how to view the Tigers this year. The books could look at them as a team that will contend for the AL title again or just an underachieving overpaid team. The Tigers have a strong and deep rotation. They will need Verlander and Bonderman to make comebacks in 2009, but young guns Galarraga and Miner will help out (and also have the BEST value). The lineup is not as strong as the supposed 1000 run group last year. They will have a solid defense yet, and still plenty of pop. They will need to stay healthy (Mags, Sheffield, Guillen), but they can mash with the best of them.

Fade Situation:

Road Rival matchups: The Tigers really struggled in the division last year, and even more so on the road. Although they might have some tasty lines, the Tigers on the road in their division don't have much growl.

Play Situation:

Young Pitchers at >+130: Gallarraga, Jackson, and Miner could see some very tasty lines, especially early on. They are solid young pitchers who have a potent offense backing them. Could be some very good value here.

Projected Lineup:

Granderson (CF)
Palanco
Ordonez (RF)
Cabrera (1B)
Sheffield (DH)
Guillen (LF)
Inge (3B)
Laird (C)
Everett (SS)

Projected Rotation:

Verlander (Right)
Galarraga (Right)
Bonderman (Right)
Jackson (Right)
Miner (Right)

Projected Finish:

85-77 5th 2nd AL Central, +$100 Money, O/U 84-78. The Tigers have the pop, defense, rotation, and pen that could lead them deep into October. Then again, they were the AL faves last year and we all know how that turned out. The Tigers look to be a "stay tuned" type of team for bettors, but feel free to take some shots on their young guns early on.
 
Assume Robertson is the end of the rotation at this point. Just a vastly superior pictcher to Willis and you have to assume that they want atleast one lefthander in the rotation. kind of hardluck though.

On a side note .... what a waste to have willis on an american league team.

This teams lineup is sick even without the roids that made them great. Pitching staff is solid. If last year is any indication , finding spots where they arent overpriced is going to be difficult.

Clear favorite to win that division in my opinion.

nice preview mr baseball.
 
Agreed with kyle...I think the twins give em a late sweat, but the tigers win the division in the end
 
I hope so Hile. We could use that kind of distraction around here this summer.
 
hile75 said:
Agreed mr baseball, these are great for talking about teams and sharing the ideas. I'm looking forward to more of these to come out
Click to expand...

I appreciate it fellas. Always fun to expand the knowledge for everyone.

Also, I enjoy the critique. I am not Superman and nor is everyone else. People know more about certain teams, so I appreciate the input (like Miner for the Tigers for example) The more info the merrier, I am just providing a starting point for conversation.

(however, don't talk me down about the Brew Crew, I know them inside and out, this I promise haha. But I do bet with my head and not my heart)

We are going to make some money this year fellas. The key with baseball is to remember that it's a long season, money management is key!
 
Tigers' Joel Zumaya 'dominating' in session

by Steve Kornacki Tuesday February 24, 2009, 12:10 AM


small_zumaya_mug.jpg
Joel Zumaya

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Joel Zumaya jogged off the mound here Monday morning after throwing a 12-minute batting practice session and hugged his catcher, Dane Sardinha. It was a feel-good moment for the Detroit Tigers reliever coming back from yet another setback.

"He was pretty dominating, including his curveball," said third baseman Brandon Inge, estimating that Zumaya might have reached 100 mph.
Asked why he didn't swing at a good number of Zumaya's offerings, Inge said, "I wanted to save my bats."

Zumaya said it felt good to hear about how much life his fastball had and how much break his curve had.

"My last two outings were great," Zumaya said, "and last year at this time, I was throwing on the back fields."

Recovering from reconstructive surgery on the AC joint in his right shoulder last spring, he spent this winter recovering from a non-displaced right shoulder fracture.

"They don't want me to do too much," Zumaya said, "but I'm trying to get game-ready."

He is expected to pitch Thursday in Viera against the Washington Nationals.

Zumaya said he's more comfortable carrying the 250 pounds he has now rather than the 230 he weighed last year. It's close to his playing weight in 2006, when he burst on the scene and was a key to the bullpen of a World Series team.

"I'm Mexican and we eat," Zumaya said, noting that he favors his mother's tamales. "But I also hit the weights more and feel as strong as I can be."
Bench coach Gene Lamont, subbing for manager Jim Leyland, who was attending the funeral of his nephew in Perrysburg, Ohio, said Zumaya "has a real good look in his eye" and "realizes what an important year this is for him."


Rotation set for start of spring
Detroit's starting pitching has been set for the first three exhibition games.

Justin Verlander and Zach Miner will split the first four innings here Wednesday against the Atlanta Braves.

Edwin Jackson will start Thursday against the Nationals and be followed by Nate Robertson and Rick Porcello.

Armando Galarraga starts Friday at Dunedin against the Toronto Blue Jays, and Dontrelle Willis follows.

Tigers pitching coach Rick Knapp said Jeremy Bonderman likely will start Saturday against the New York Mets.

"If anyone gets extra days off down here, it's him," Knapp said.

Leyland said Bonderman, Zumaya and reliever Macay McBride will occasionally get extra rest because they are coming off surgeries or injuries.
 
Tigers' Dontrelle Willis trying to find groove again

by Steve Kornacki Sunday February 22, 2009, 1:00 AM


medium_dontrelle22.jpg
AP PhotoDetroit's Dontrelle Willis pitches during batting practice Saturday.


LAKELAND, Fla. -- Dontrelle Willis threw strikes. He went through his delivery nice and easy, with good velocity and command, in his first pitching against batters in months on Saturday.

"That was the best groove I've seen him in since we've had him," said Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland. "His delivery was good, he was around the plate, and he had depth on his curve ball.

"That was the best stuff he's had since we acquired him (before the 2008 season). We'll see how that translates when the other guys (opponents) show up."

Willis came off the mound with a hop in his step.

"It was good, man, and I got good feedback," Willis said. "I let everything come to me. I wanted to throw everything in the zone and make them hit everything. With the defense we have here, that's to my advantage."

Willis was 0-2 with a 9.38 ERA for the Tigers in eight games last year, and was sent to the minors to rediscover how to throw strikes. But he didn't look much better in his September return to Detroit and walked 35 in 24 total innings with the Tigers.

"I'm not even thinking about last year," Willis said. "It's today."
His delivery is slightly modified, sans the high leg kick, and being able to consistently repeat that delivery was a positive sign. So was the fact that one mistake did not lead to another.

"When I did miss, I was able to adjust accordingly," Willis said. "I hung a slider to (Jeff) Larish and he hit it hard. But I knew what I did wrong."
So, he nodded to himself and went back to work.

"I work with a purpose, work hard and work smart," Willis said.

Willis is competing with Nate Robertson, Zach Miner and now possibly Rick Porcello for the fifth and final spot in the rotation.

"I like this," Willis said. "I like playing baseball and seeing everybody. And I got my payback today on someone."

He said third baseman Mike Hessman once hit five home runs off him in a batting practice session, but he tamed him this time.

"He walked off the field today feeling good about himself," Leyland said.
 
I think this will be one heck of a competitive division this year. I mean, really competitive with at least 3 or 4 of the teams having a chance come September.

As for the home team, no idea. I think the pitching will be better. Last year was an abberration for Justin I think. Bondy should be good to go and then however the rest of the rotation shapes out. Some big money down there and hopefully they can find some consistency. Bottom of the lineup scares the shit outta me. Some poor hitters at 8-9.
 
i actually think miner will get the last spot unless willis proves he is worthy. good read. I also think guillen bats behind cabrera. Better hitter than sheff who just goes up an hacks, and guillen bats switch for some good protection.
 
orangemonk said:
i actually think miner will get the last spot unless willis proves he is worthy. good read. I also think guillen bats behind cabrera. Better hitter than sheff who just goes up an hacks, and guillen bats switch for some good protection.
Click to expand...

I kinda disagree with that. His value as a Tiger to me was how he could work the count and get walks even when he was hiting like shit last year. Granted, at times he was trying to force it but he still has a great eye and can work counts pretty well.

I just fear watching Brandon hit .218 all year and giving those lazy ass swings.
 
Another thing to watch with Detroit this year is Leyland. One, he is a lame duck this year contract wise. That doesn't bother me unless they get off to a bad start. Things could spiral from there. My big thing was his managerial decisions the past few years. He really cost Detroit a lot of games imo.
 
B.A.R. said:
I kinda disagree with that. His value as a Tiger to me was how he could work the count and get walks even when he was hiting like shit last year. Granted, at times he was trying to force it but he still has a great eye and can work counts pretty well.

I just fear watching Brandon hit .218 all year and giving those lazy ass swings.
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yeah the guy has a great eye but always swinging for the fences is what i meant... inge is a straight up hacker. just another year of an older sheff who has already lost a lot of bat speed i dont see him being that valuable right behind cabrera. I could see sheff 3 cabrera 4 mags 5, lettin sheff work a pitcher a bit, grab a walk, and have the two big boys behind him but i dont think that happens. i dunno another big ? on this team full of them
 
I like that setup personally.

I do like this team coming in under the radar though without the expectations. Health will be big as well as having some above average years from the pitching. The defense should be the best we have seen here in some time. It cannot get any worse. I wonder how they will get Marcus AB's though. I forsee some sort of trade before camp is done though. Just a feeling. Nothing big, but something.
 
orangemonk said:
i actually think miner will get the last spot unless willis proves he is worthy. good read. I also think guillen bats behind cabrera. Better hitter than sheff who just goes up an hacks, and guillen bats switch for some good protection.
Click to expand...

if you want to bet on this let me know... no way the rotation is 5 rightys
 
Great point. It wont be and cannot be.

My guess if it's Nate is that he teases us for a month or two into having a great year then burns out.
 
The exciting part is to see what the kid Porcello can do. I figure he'll mix in the 2nd half of the season.
 
yeh porcello sounds like the real deal.. one of better pitchers in the camp... mlive had lil story on him a few days ago...

http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2009/02/tigers_rick_porcello_shows_off.html


"It looks like he has electric stuff," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "He's definitely one of the most talented pitchers in camp. Yeah, I'm really excited. But I've got to be careful."


Leyland is not ruling out Porcello breaking camp with his team.
"
If he makes it, fine," Leyland said. "If he doesn't, he's not very far away."
 
Only 5 spring training games on FSN. None till March 16th.

To another topic: Interleague

We host Colorado, Milwaukee and Chicago.

We travel to Pittsburgh, St Louis and Houston.
 
BossUp said:
if you want to bet on this let me know... no way the rotation is 5 rightys
Click to expand...

I dont know man, nate has been really bad as has willis, if miner has a sub 4.5 era and willis and roberton are both above 6 i dont think you throw the lefty in just because its a lefty. Robertson was just so bad last year, looking at game logs he never even put two solid games back to back. And you know from watching him that his ERA could have been even worse, given the volume of hits he game up (11 hits in 6 innings vs. STL stands out even though he didn't give up an earned run). Ideally though we don't have to worry about robertson/miner debate at all and willis wins his job back in spring training.

I don't know how much this means right now but the depth chart on detroittigers.com has willis 5, miner 6, robertson 7, porcello 8.
 
Question - is anyone up there concerned about the economy just killing this team?

I think theres gonna be a point in mid june where the owner realizes hes paying a shitload of salary for some decent but not great talent and he cant afford to keep them when theyre not drawing like they were in better economic times...

If theyre sitting there in 3rd place having a ho-hum season in middle of June, is there a chance they unload someone like Cabrera for 50 cents on the dollar just because they cant afford to keep him?
 
Smokedawg said:
Question - is anyone up there concerned about the economy just killing this team?

I think theres gonna be a point in mid june where the owner realizes hes paying a shitload of salary for some decent but not great talent and he cant afford to keep them when theyre not drawing like they were in better economic times...

If theyre sitting there in 3rd place having a ho-hum season in middle of June, is there a chance they unload someone like Cabrera for 50 cents on the dollar just because they cant afford to keep him?
Click to expand...

Someone watched SC last night.

I am interested to see how CoPa fills up this year. They had outstanding sales last few years and especially last year where so many games sold out before they came back north. The economy here was already starting the downward turn so we'll see. I expect that attendance will be way down in all honesty if the Wings and 'Stons are any indication. If they start solid, I expect full parks though come June. This twon still gratify's towards it baseball.

Carbrera isn't going nowhere. The kid is too young and to special a talent to give away. That would be the last piece moved imo. I don't think it comes to that anyway. Illitch has never spent money on this team till this decade. Even then, you had Gonzo for a little bit then he rejected the big offer. The first real signing Illitch ever made was Pudge. He preferred to use his money on his hockey team. Now with a NHL salary cap, he does give more to the Tigs it seems. Coincidence? Perhaps. Old man is getting up there in age. He wants a baseball winner badly so don't expect him to let this team start a rebuilding cycle to early if he can prevent it. As long as you guys keep buying those 5 dollar hot and ready's, then they can afford Cabrera's contract.:36_11_6:
 
yeah illitch is so rich i don't think theres anyway he gives up any big contract except MAYBE ordonez if the tigers are just completely blowing in last place in beginning of june with no one going to the games.. really can't see it happening though. I think sportscenter/gammons were way off last night with that and creating a bit of false drama
 
i didnt see sportscenter...just read/heard Simmons talk about it a couple times in the past few weeks...he was basically saying detroit is one of the hardest hit areas from all this and their payroll is disproportianately big compared to their market/economy size

whatd they say on sc?
 
Basically Tim Kurkijan said 2-3 GM's have told him to watch in mid-May for teams with slow starts to unload heavy contracts cheap. This spot was ran after a Detroit spring training update by Gammons so they tied the two together.
 
orangemonk said:
I dont know man, nate has been really bad as has willis, if miner has a sub 4.5 era and willis and roberton are both above 6 i dont think you throw the lefty in just because its a lefty. Robertson was just so bad last year, looking at game logs he never even put two solid games back to back. And you know from watching him that his ERA could have been even worse, given the volume of hits he game up (11 hits in 6 innings vs. STL stands out even though he didn't give up an earned run). Ideally though we don't have to worry about robertson/miner debate at all and willis wins his job back in spring training.

I don't know how much this means right now but the depth chart on detroittigers.com has willis 5, miner 6, robertson 7, porcello 8.
Click to expand...


give u 3 to 1 on miner not being #5
 
you know willis will get an oppurtunity as long as he can come near the strike zone... too much money not to
 
B.A.R. said:
Someone watched SC last night.

I am interested to see how CoPa fills up this year. They had outstanding sales last few years and especially last year where so many games sold out before they came back north. The economy here was already starting the downward turn so we'll see. I expect that attendance will be way down in all honesty if the Wings and 'Stons are any indication. If they start solid, I expect full parks though come June. This twon still gratify's towards it baseball.

Carbrera isn't going nowhere. The kid is too young and to special a talent to give away. That would be the last piece moved imo. I don't think it comes to that anyway. Illitch has never spent money on this team till this decade. Even then, you had Gonzo for a little bit then he rejected the big offer. The first real signing Illitch ever made was Pudge. He preferred to use his money on his hockey team. Now with a NHL salary cap, he does give more to the Tigs it seems. Coincidence? Perhaps. Old man is getting up there in age. He wants a baseball winner badly so don't expect him to let this team start a rebuilding cycle to early if he can prevent it. As long as you guys keep buying those 5 dollar hot and ready's, then they can afford Cabrera's contract.:36_11_6:
Click to expand...

hope it is less full than last year... loved it b4 the place was jammed packed every night
 
i think willis will obviously get the first look.. and come opening day he might be #5 but for the majority of the season I think miner has a good chance at being that guy, especially over robertson
 
bondermans first start was changed to a simulated game... now that was canceled due to shoulder stiffness.. fuckkkkkkk
 
looks like it'll be robertson grabbing that 5th spot. had a good outing the other day and like it has been discussed earlier in this thread hes a lefty. Willis sounds like he's doing awful after this quote "We're at the point where we're trying pretty much anything," manager Jim Leyland said. "I think that's pretty simple."
Which makes me wonder... has any non steroid user had such a steep fall from grace like willis has had? This guy was on the top of the world a few years ago but everyday that passes it seems more unlikely he makes it back to the majors
 
How about Willis being put on the DL for Anxiety disorder?

that's something else. He's finished.

and Zumaya? he's probably done too.


side note: could some mod please spell 'Preview' correctly in this title.
 
The Tigers acquired Josh Anderson to the Tigers from the Braves for Minor League pitching prospect Rudy Darrow on Monday. Darrow will be assigned to Atlanta's Double-A affiliate in Mississippi. Anderson was in the running for the Braves' starting center-field job, which appears to have now gone to rookie Jordan Schafer.


The 26-year-old Anderson batted .294 in 40 games for the Braves in 2008 and was acquired from the Astros in November 2007.
Darrow, 25, has allowed just one home run and has limited opponents to a .220 batting average with 101 strikeouts and 37 walks in 103 2/3 innings over the past three seasons.
Last season, the hard-throwing, sidearm right-hander went a combined 5-3 with a 2.02 ERA in 47 games between Class A West Michigan and Double-A Erie.
 
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