Tigers, Tigers burning bright

The Tigers are the only remaining unbeaten in the AL. As I read in the Free Press, they haven't made an error yet, their starters have issued just one walk and they've hit a ML record 16 homers in their first four games.

Plus, Detroit is hitting .327 as a team. Baseball is a simple game. You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball.

Another note from the Free Press: The Tigers have ensured they will open the season with a winning mult-city road trip for the first time since -- 1984.

Cabrera the Embarassment

Daniel Cabrera has solved his problem of only throwing strikes to right handed hitters. Now he doesn't throw strikes to any hitters.

Cabrera's line in his start against the Red Sox last night reads 1 1/3 IP, 3H, 7 BB, 7 ER throwing 60 pitches- 22 for strikes. Several of those strikes were balls that Red Sox hitters helped him out on.

It is time for the Orioles to recognize that the American League is one of the two Major Leagues and that their pitchers must be Major League pitchers. Cabrera has not thrown strikes for a year and a half. Send Cabrera down now. Do not give him another start in the Majors until he proves he can throw strikes.

Hey!

Would someone please let the Phillies know the season has started?

I hate to be pessimistic so early, but the bugaboos of last season have returned. Namely, Lieberthal, Bell and bullpen. Oh well, at least there's Ryan Howard.

They did the mash

If the Tigers are going to blast seven homers a game and average 9 runs, Stanley and I might be able to form the back part of the rotation.

Nice to see Maggs go yard twice. Chris Shelton certainly looks good too. Shelton's OPS is a mere 2.406.

The Tigers 15 HR in their first three games is a ML record. No team has ever hit more than 10 in the first three games of a season. As one Detroit scribe wrote, “... at this rate, the Detroit Tigers will hit 810 home runs. And Chris Shelton will hit 216. And the Tigers will never lose.”

Jim Leyland believes a good lineup is one that can be effective 1-9 or if you flipped it 9-1. Detroit doesn’t have any top stud, but they’ve got guys that can hit 1-9 and a lineup that easily could be turned 9-1 and be just as good.

You wouldn’t think twice if you saw Inge, Guillen, Monroe hitting 1-2-3 or 9-8-7. Same thing with Granderson, Polanco and Pudge.

The Tigers blasted six homers off knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, tying a ML record. Don’t throw knucklers against the Tigers. They hit six off Tim Wakefield in 2004.

A Royal butt kicking

It won’t be long before they start construction on a Jim Leyland statue for Comerica. I’d say 162-0 is unrealistic, but maybe 120 wins are within reach.

OK, so that’s a little overboard. After pummeling the Royals, this is where we start to see what kind of season the Tigers could have. Rogers and Bonderman did what was expected/hoped. Now, it’s up to Robertson, Maroth and Verlander to give us an idea whether a winning season is a realistic goal.

Detroit needed to take two from KC. Good teams, playoff contenders, generally take care of business against the weaker squads. This is even more important with the unbalanced schedule. Last year, though, the Tigers were 10-9 against the Royals. Since the start of 2003, the Royals have a 34-23 edge. So this wasn’t a gimme.

Love the potential for the Granderson, Polanco, Pudge top of the order. Imagine if Maggs starts to hit like the old days. Could be lots o’ runs. Yesterday, the top three went 11-for-15 with 9 runs, 7 RBI and two dingers.

Now comes a four-game set in Texas. Kenny Rogers faces his old mates on Sunday. Two former Phils, Kevin Millwood and Vicente Padilla, will toss for the Rangers over the weekend.

O's take two

With a 16-6 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night in Camden Yards the Baltimore Orioles are 2-0 for the first time since 1997.

Team	Start	Finish
1997 Orioles	2-0	1st
2006 Orioles	2-0	4th

Opener in KC is OK

The Tigers couldn't have asked for a much better opener. Jim Leyland gets a win in his debut as manager and Kenny Rogers looks sharp in his debut as staff ace. Plus Chris Shelton blasts two homers to show why Carlos Pena is no longer around.

Detroit has now won three openers in a row, beating KC the last two.

I like Leyland's decision to bring in flamethrowing 21-year-old Joel Zumaya yesterday, even though it was a one-run game and Zumaya is untested. Leyland figured, correctly, that Zumaya's 100-mph heat combined with the late-afternoon shadows would create problems for the Royals. Zumaya tossed two innings of scoreless relief, striking out three.

Tigers play in KC again Wednesday. It's important for Bonderman to throw a good game and establish that the top of the rotation will be a tough 1-2 punch. Plus, the Tigers need to take advantage of weaker teams, like KC, if they want to contend for a playoff spot.

O's win opener (me so happy...)

Rodrigo Lopez collected an Opening Day victory over the Devil Rays yesterday. Lopez threw 7 innings giving up 7 hits, 6 runs (5 earned) and 1 walk on 90 pitches. It was by no measure a "good" start. It was, however, a good "bad start". Considering the number of bad starts the O's rotation might reasonably be expected to turn in, credit Lopez for showing the way to pitch poorly.

Yesterday was the first time I'd ever seen Ramon Hernandez (O's catcher acquired from San Diego via free agency in the offseason) play. He's been described as one of the "premiere" backstops in the Major Leagues. He looked it in yesterday's game. He has a cannon. An accurate cannon. Given the Orioles pitching staffs' weakness in holding runners close, he has a shot a the record for "runners caught stealing" in a season. I don't know if they even keep such a statistic (I couldn't find it).

The Orioles homered 4 times on Opening Day for the first time since 1982.

Team	W	L	Finish
1982 Orioles	94	68	2nd
2006 Orioles	1	0	4th

Luis Matos became the first Oriole since Frank Robinson ('69, '70) to homer on consecutive Opening Days.

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG
Robinson	2808	10006	1829	2943	528	72	586	1812	.294
Matos	440	1473	198	383	75	8	29	136	.260

Rodrigo can be proud! (Me so sad....)

Rodrigo Lopez has been named Orioles Opening Day starter for 2006. This is Rodrigo's 3rd Opening Day start for the O's in the last 4 years. With this start, Lopez will join exclusive company in Baltimore's record books. Just four other Orioles -- Steve Barber, Dave McNally, Jim Palmer and Mike Mussina -- have pitched as many as three Opening Day games for the O's. Palmer and Mussina are tied for the most with six each, and McNally worked five openers as Baltimore's ace.

Pitcher	W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	IP
Barber	121	106	3.36	466	272	59	21	1999
McNally	184	119	3.24	424	396	120	33	2730
Palmer	268	152	2.86	558	521	211	53	3948
Mussina	224	127	3.64	443	443	56	23	3013
Lopez	51	43	4.56	137	118	5	2	748.1

Now Available

The most prolific pinch hitter in the history of Major League Baseball.

Walk this way

At first glance, the Tigers seemed to have some pretty good offensive numbers last season. Especially in batting average, where their .272 mark was fourth best in the AL. They also led the league with 45 triples and were seventh in homers. They were fifth in hits and sixth in slugging.

Yet they ranked 11th in runs. The reason? Walks, or lack thereof. The Tigers walked just 384 times, worst in the AL. The Red Sox, who led the league in runs and bases on balls, drew 269 more freebies than Detroit.

That's 1.7 extra baserunners per game. Not to mention what it does to the opponent's pitch count and helping a team get into their foe's bullpen. And the Red Sox didn't do it at the expense of hitting their way on, either, leading the AL in that category, too. But that also makes sense -- work deeper into counts, see better pitches to hit.

If you looked at the top run-scoring teams in either league last season, most were among the leaders in walks, too. Oddly, strikeouts didn't seem to matter too much as the Red Sox were right up there as well. In the AL, the top six teams in runs were also among the top six in walks. And three of those squads struck out more than 1,000 times.

Much has been made of the Tigers needing to cut down on strikeouts, which would be nice, but they really need to make strides in walks.

If you're a Tigers fan, you have to believe the starting pitching will be good enough to be competitive. If the starters falter, there's no hope, anyway. If the pitching blossoms, then it will fall on the offense to score runs. That will be the key to the first winning season since 1993.

'Los is a loss

The Tigers released 1B/enigma Carlos Pena over the weekend. It's not much of a surprise given that Pena was batting .160 in the spring and Detroit will only have to pay a quarter of his $2.8 million salary by dumping him now.

I love the quote by Pena's agent, $cott Bora$:

"Jim Leyland is a pitching and defense guy. If Jim had managed the club last season and gotten to make an independent appraisal of Carlos, I think this might have gone differently."

Differently? Granted, Pena is a smooth fielder, but he hit .235-18-44 last year and was dropped to the minors during the middle of the season. Chris Shelton took over at first base and batted .299-18-59 with an .870 OPS (compared to Pena's .802). Plus, Dmitri Young can back up Shelton. He hit .271-21-72 last year and is a lifetime .291 hitter. Pena is a .243 career hitter.

Pena was one of the centerpieces in the trade that sent Jeff Weaver from Detroit. Good thing the Tigers also got Jeremy Bonderman in return. Pena seems like a classy guy, so we hope he can find himself somewhere else. But it wasn't going to happen in Motown.

O's to repeat

The Baltimore Orioles easily have the 4th best team in the AL East.




AL East finishes:

2006 - 4th <-bold prediction
2005 - 4th
2004 - 3rd
2003 - 4th
2002 - 4th
2001 - 4th
2000 - 4th
1999 - 4th
1998 - 4th

No more suspense

The curtain closed on whatever drama there was in Tigers camp when Jim Leyland named Justin Verlander the team's fifth starter. The rotation is set, as are the starting position players.

Kenny Rogers, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, Mike Maroth and Verlander will form the rotation. Verlander has a fastball in the high 90s and wicked breaking stuff. This has the makings of a solid group, but still needs to prove itself. There is no doubt a ton of potential.

Joel Zumaya, another top prospect who lost the No. 5 slot to Verlander, will begin the season in the bullpen with the Tigers. There is a report Detroit is interested in Phillies left-handed reliever Rheal Cormier. I guess they didn't see him pitch last season.

The batting order, particularly the top, remains unsettled. But you have to like a lineup of Pudge Rodriguez (C), Chris Shelton (1B), Placido Polanco (2B), Carlos Guillen (SS), Brandon Inge (3B), Craig Monroe (LF), Curtis Granderson (CF), Magglio Ordonez (RF) and Dmitri Young (DH). That looks like some runs.

Everyone better stay healthy, though, because depth is lacking.

Bud better than Bo?

The switch to Budweiser pays an early dividend.

Center of attention

Jim Leyland said that if the season started today, Curtis Granderson would be the Tigers’ center fielder. This is fine with me, and probably not much of a surprise. Nook Logan has tremendous speed and would be great in the leadoff spot for that reason, but hasn’t been able to reach base consistently.

Granderson, who just turned 25, batted .290-15-65 with 22 SB for Toledo last year before joining the big club. He hit .272-8-20 in 162 at-bats. He also smacked three triples.

He played college ball at Illinois-Chicago and was a Baseball America second-team All-American. He was the Tigers’ Minor League Player of the Year in 2004. That season, he played at Double-A Erie and batted .301-21-94 with 14 SB and 89 R before getting a September call-up.

This spring, Granderson is batting .395 with a .531 OBP. He’s got 5 homers and 8 RBI and is 5-for-5 in stolen bases. Logan is batting .188 and has a .291 OBP. He leads the team with 6 SB.

Tearing it up

Non-roster invitee Josh Phelps seems destined for Triple-A Toledo despite a solid spring so far. Phelps is batting .571 with 3 HR and 8 RBI in 28 AB for the Tigers. He’s also got 5 doubles and thinks he could thrive in Comerica by taking advantage of the spacious gaps.

Hard to say if he’ll get a chance to find out. But Phelps is only 27 years old and has shown flashes of being a good hitter. Lifetime, he’s got 57 HR and 212 RBI in 1,203 AB. He batted .309 with 15 HR and 58 RBI in less than half a season as a Blue Jays’ rookie in 2002. He’s got a .268 career average. Most encouraging is that he’s only struck out 4 times, and walked 4 times, this spring.

Phelps most likely would fill the DH role, and could also play first, but the Tigers have got too many players there already. His only hope is to see either Dmitri Young or Carlos Pena traded. Young hasn’t seen much action this spring because of a strained quad, but could be returning soon.

Young is the more versatile player and better hitter. I’m not sure what you could get for the once-highly-touted Pena at this point. Despite his power surges, this is a guy that’s batted .253, .248, .241, and .235 since becoming a Tiger. Notice that each year is worse than the previous season, too. He’s only 27, too, and looks like a hitter – except after he swings. Easily the most frustrating player to watch in recent memory.

Wanted: Tigers

Tigers manager Jim Leyland said yesterday that his squad lacked personality, swagger and meanness. He's not happy about it, either.

Leyland said the Tigers were a great bunch of guys, the best he's been around, but needed to show a little more edge on the field. I guess they need to be tigers, not just Tigers.

Pudge certainly is one guy who can play with a mean streak and attitude. So is Dmitri Young. Beyond that, maybe Jeremy Bonderman. Even so, that's a short list.

Maybe nice guys do finish last.

What are the odds?

According to Benjamin Lee Eckstein/America's Line

To win the World Series:
Yankees 5-2 (favorite)
Phillies 15-1
Mets 25-1
Orioles 50-1
Tigers 75-1
Royals 250-1 (last)

First AL manager fired/resign:
Showalter, Rangers, and Francona, Red Sox, 5-1 (co-favorites)
Perlozzo, Orioles, 12-1
Leyland, Tigers, 15-1
Torre, Yankees, 20-1 (last)

First NL manager fired/resign:
Melvin, D-Backs, and Hurdle, Rockies, 5-1 (co-favorites)
Manuel, Phillies, 6-1
Randolph, Mets, 15-1
Cox, Braves, and LaRussa, Cards, 25-1 (last)

Time to get started

There don't seem to be many questions in Tigers camp this spring. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

Only one spot in the starting rotation is up for grabs, and Justin Verlander appears to have the inside track. He will make his first spring outing today, so I'm sure all eyes will be upon him.

Otherwise, it's Kenny Rogers, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson and Mike Maroth in the rotation. Time for the latter three to take a big step forward this season.

The only other major question is what will happen with Dmitri Young and/or Carlos Pena. Chris Shelton will play first base, either Young or Pena will spot Shelton and DH. Young reported to camp in great shape. Pena has been enigmatic, to say the least, ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble every time our hopes soar over one of his hot streaks.

If Pudge is healthy and happy, that would be a plus. Ditto for Maggs. Hope springs eternal, but if all things fall into place, the Tigers are a playoff contender. Of course, all things MUST fall into place. There's no wiggle room.