The New Guys: Changes to the 40-Man Roster

Spring training is in full swing. That can only mean one thing: Tigers you have never heard of before. Luckily for you, I'm here to break down the new Tigers so that you don't feel stoopid.

New Tiger #1: Collin Balester
Acquired: From the Nationals via trade for Ryan Perry

The Info: Balester is basically a career AAA player. He has spent at least part of the past 5 seasons there. His fastball sits in the 91-94 range and he throws a curve. Over the past 3 seasons in the majors, he's gone 2-9 with a 4.86 ERA.


New Tiger #2: Octavio Dotel

Acquired: Via Free Agency


The Info: I remember Dotel from when he was the set-up man for Billy Wagner in Houston. This was when Houston was good. I can only assume that he still has a ridiculous frisbee slider. I could look it up but I choose not to.



New Tiger #3: Prince Fielder

Acquired: Via Free Agency

The Info: This is Cecil's son, but they aren't family (Cecil stole Prince's signing bonus or something like that). He's a 285-pound vegetarian who hits like a 285-pound carnivore. Over the past 365 days, he hit .299 with 38 home runs. He also had most errors in the majors for a first baseman, mostly because he's too cool to give a shit. He finished third in the NL MVP voting behind a cheater and Matt Kemp. He signed a contract that will give him more in a year than I will ever see in my life.

One of the top image results for Prince Fielder. I post it even though I hate Jennifer Aniston because I like bewbs.

New (Old) Tiger #4: Gerald Laird

Gerald Laird has played for the Tigers from 2009-2010. Last year he played for the World Series Champions. He does not get a picture because backup catchers are boring.

Feasting

The Tigers took care of the Royals, winning the opening series 2 games to 1 and began their series against the Indians with a win this afternoon to move into a tie for first in the AL Central (pending the Indians/ChiSox game tonight). It is going to be very key for the Tigers to eat up the lower-tier teams in the division now because in a week they begin a tough road trip through the West with 3 games in Seattle, 4 in Anaheim (or is it Los Angeles?) and a final 4 in Arlington. All 3 of these AL West teams have struggled so far this year with a combined 3-8 record, but the Angels are the reigning division champs and still have Mike Scioscia, the Mariners have fantastic pitching and the Rangers can absolutely rake even if Josh Hamilton isn't right. Rough starts or not, this is going to be a tough road trip early in the year.

The pitching has been a real strength for the team so far this year. The starters have posted a combined 3.27 ERA... and that's with Verlander having the roughest outing of the year among the starters which, obviously, is unlikely to continue so we can expect even more improvement there. Scherzer in particular carved up the Royals to the tune of a 6.0 IP 0 ER 1 H 2 BB 3 K gem. Unfortunately he didn't get the win due to an equally excellent outing from Luke Hochevar. The Tigers eventually lost when a Sizemore error on a relay throw from the outfield allowed the winning run to score in the 11th after Miggy tied the game with 2 outs in the 9th and then we took the lead in the top of the 11th. Exciting game, but all for nothing, unfortunately. The Tigers then bounced back behind an inspired performance by Dontrelle Willis the next day to pound the Royals and take the series. When Dontrelle walked the first batter he faced on four not-even-close balls, then immediately allowed a single I began to fear that this was going to be an ugly outing. To his credit though, Dontrelle kept the damage to a minimum and ended up with a respectable 6.0 IP 2 ER 6 H 2 BB 4 K line. Although control will seemingly always be an issue, Dontrelle had a few very efficient innings and was helped by 3 double plays that the Tigers managed to turn (including 2 hit into by Alberto Callaspo). Although it's easy to doubt Dontrelle's skills, his optimism cannot be doubted and even though he is terrible I find myself rooting for the guy to succeed. Kudos on a solid game, sir.

Speaking of the double play, the Tigers have been really feeling their groove defensively - they have turned 8 of them in the last 3 games. Offensively, a pair of Tigers in Maggz and Miggy have been feeling their groove as well. Miggy looks like he is poised to challenge for MVP this year (even though he went 0/3 with a BB today) and Maggz is carrying over his success at the end of last season and looking more like the 2006 version by hitting .500 with 1 HR and 2 RBI. If Ordonez remains productive for the entire season it will really, really help to jump start this offense that isn't projected to be that great.

Rookie Austin Jackson is showing glimpses of the special things he can do. He has been electric; hitting .333 with 4 of his 6 hits going for extra bases (3 2B, 1 3B) and also easily swiped his first bag of the year today. If he continues to bring speed and extra bases to the top of the order for Damon, Maggz and Miggy then he is going to score a lot of runs and have a great year. Ooooh it's exciting. The strikeouts are definitely troublesome (6 K to only 1 BB in 18 AB) and he needs to work on cutting back on those, but that is a problem a lot of young players have and continuing to put up a .368 OBP will make people forget about striking out a lot. The strikeouts have been Granderson-esque but the OBP certainly hasn't been.

Analyzing statistics after only 4 games in a game like baseball where sample size is extremely important may seem silly, but the Tigers are on pace for 121 wins so who fucking cares wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!

It Begins!

The Tigers opened the season on Monday with an 8-4 win over Greinke's Royals. Greinke himself was excellent (6.0 IP 6H 1 ER 1 BB 4 K) but lost his chance at a decision when KC's beleaguered bullpen surrendered 6 runs in the 7th. The bullpen blowing the lead for Greinke is going to be a common theme throughout the season. They are so bad that he could post a sub 2.20 ERA again and possibly finish with even less than 16 wins.

Whenever I watch the Royals play I am utterly flummoxed that everyone on the team minus Soria, Butler and Greinke even plays major league baseball. It is going to be an ugly, ugly year for them.

On the Tigers side of things, Verlander didn't pitch great (5.0 IP 6 H 4 ER 1 BB 6 K) but kept the Tigers in the game. Not a whole lot for me to comment on there - I'm not worried about Verlander at all (he started his eventual 3rd place in AL Cy Young voting campaign last year kinda shaky as well) and he'll be fine. When Verlander handed the ball off to the bullpen they responded well and mostly cruised until a little bit of trouble in the 9th that Valverde was able to battle out of. Zumaya was back to his fireballing self and said after the game that he felt great and Ryan Perry, Phil Coke and brand new closer Jose Valverde all performed admirably. I'm still kinda dubious about surrendering a first round pick for Valverde... but we'll see.

Besides the bullpen, the other positive notes for the team were how two of the new guys played. Johnny Damon went 2/5 with a double, 2 RBI and 2 runs scored while Austin Jackson had a double, an RBI and gunned down Jason Kendall at home to save a run in the 7th. Leyland called Jackson's outfield assist the "play of the game". It is nice to see two new guys who will play key roles at the top of the order for the Tigers perform well in the season opener and hopefully it is a forecast for things to come. The only issue I have is that Jackson struck out twice, which he really needs to avoid to keep his OBP up. We don't need Granderson 2.0 in the leadoff slot.

The Tigers resume their series against the Royals tonight with newly acquired SP Max Scherzer taking the mound against former first-overall pick (and perennial disappointment) Luke Hochevar. I'd like to see Miggy blast this chump and begin his ascent towards 2010 AL MVP. Then on Thursday the D-Train takes the mound in what should be an... interesting... start. The countdown timer to Galarraga getting recalled from Toledo is going to begin at approximately 2:10 Eastern on Thursday afternoon. BTW why the fuck is Porcello behind Willis in the rotation? I can understand trying to protect the youngest guy on the staff, but do we really need extra starts for Dontrelle? Seriously, a good spring training notwithstanding, Dontrelle blows.

You Know What To Get Me For My Birthday

Doug Baker's 1984 World Series ring is on eBay for a cool $7100 and there's only 46 min left so you better hurry the fuck up if you want to buy this for me.

Baseball Offseason: Injuries, Injuries and More Injuries

From Brandon Webb to Jose Reyes (and Carlos Beltran) to Ben Sheets to lesser known guys like Russel Branyan and Cameron Maybin, injuries have certainly been the story of spring training so far this year. The most devastating injury of all will end up being the right elbow of Joe Nathan however. The Twins were favored by basically everyone on the planet to win the AL Central this year, including me, after winning it last year and then adding 2B Orlando Hudson and SS JJ Hardy and the potential bounce back of Francisco Liriano... but this injury changes everything.

Joe Nathan's statistics in a Twins uniform have been impressive, to say the least. The last six years he has posted a 1.87 ERA .934 WHIP 11.1 K/9 and averaged 41 saves/year. The only closer on Nathan's level over the past six years? Mariano Rivera (1.90 ERA .936 WHIP 8.7 K/9 40.5 saves/year) of course. Nathan's ability is, to put it simply, irreplaceable and the Twins are scattering likes cockroaches when the lights go on trying to find his replacement. Jon Rauch, Matt Guerrier, Pat Neshek, Jose Mijares and Franciso Liriano have all been mentioned as possibly the new Twins closer but the only thing we really know at this point is that no one knows who it will end up being. My money would be that Gardenhire eventually choose Rauch to be his man just because he has the most experience and performed admirably last time he was closing (2.98 ERA 1.01 WHIP 17 SV for the Nationals in 2008). Closing in what will assuredly be a hotly contested AL Central is going to be a much different beast than closing for the low-pressure/low-expectation Nationals though.

Many publications had the ChiSox finishing second in the division but I just don't see it that way at all. Gordon Beckham was great last year and is an emerging star, but Alexei Ramirez was exceptionally inconsistent and spent most of the season in Ozzie's doghouse, Alex Rios was mediocre, Bobby Jenks is on the downslope of his career and won't finish the season as the closer and their lineup and pitching staff are just generally "blah". Lots of people are raving about Jake Peavy but let's have a quick sanity check people:

1. It was only three starts and they were against the Royals (1x) and a debatably-sober Tigers team (2x).
2. He is moving out of the NL into the Real Man's League and out of the vast confines of PETCO (dead last in park factor in 2009) into the much more snug U.S. Cellular (9th overall PF). Linky
3. People also seem to forget that Peavy doesn't even really want to play for the ChiSox. Ken Williams tried to trade for him multiple times midway through the 09 season and Peavy himself personally nixed the deal that was approved by both the Padres and ChiSox. Only after it became clear that no other team cared at all about the injury-plagued starter did Peavy finally reluctantly agree to waive his no-trade clause and go to the south side of Chicago.

... so shut the fuck up ChiSox fans/analysts. I am going to laugh at everyone when the White Sox finish 7+ games out of first.

I am unsure how exactly the Nathan injury will affect the final 2010 division standings, but one thing is definitely clear: the Tigers are a whole lot closer without the Twins closer (pun definitely intended).

Aside from injuries, most of the buzz coming out of spring training is about Braves RF Jason Heyward (who looks amazing and blasted one against the Tigers) and Stephen Strasburg. The Tigers got "lucky" enough to face both of these potential perennial All Stars on successive days and it appeared as though both deserve every bit of the hype. Heyward's performance in spring training is going to force the Braves to start him in RF Opening Day in Bobby Cox's last year with the team, but the Nationals are being more cautious with Strasburg (rightly so) and it seems unlikely that he will be called up before midway through the season. Other buzz around the league includes Marlins OF prospect Mike Stanton possibly making the Opening Day roster (helped by Maybin's injury), the continued drama of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's messy, messy divorce, Giants SP prospect Madison Bumgarner getting blown the fuck up and Mauer's contract talks with the Twins (which is total non-news, he is re-signing with Minnesota guaransheed).

Only 24 days until Opening Day!

The Lions Are Possibly Doing Something Right...?

With the signings of Vanden Bosch (4 years/$26 million) and Burleson (5 years/$25 million) in addition to the trade for Corey Williams for a mere 5th round pick I think that the Lions have, in a shocking turn of events compared to the past, actually improved their team so far this offseason. We probably slightly overpaid for both Vanden Bosch and Burleson, but a team that has won a grand total of 2 games the last season needs to pay a bit extra in order to attract decent free agents so I have no problem with the money given to either of these guys.

I think Burleson has an especially good chance of making a big contribution to the team in 2011 and beyond. Burleson has always been intriguing skills-wise and has a 1000-yard receiving season under his belt, his problem has just always been consistency and health (missed 18 games in 08/09). I think he has a chance to really thrive on the opposite side of Calvin.

Vanden Bosch fills a huge hole for the team at DE and will hopefully also thrive once he gets back into Schwartz's defensive scheme that he is so familiar with from his days in Tennessee. The rebuilding project is in full swing in Detroit and Vanden Bosch should serve as a solid transition player for a few years. With Vanden Bosch, Corey Williams and with either Suh or Gerald McCoy from the draft, the 2010 Lions D-line is going to look waaay different than last year. Hopefully it will play way differently too.

Johnny Just Wants To Be Loved

After signing a ho-hum 1 year/$8 million deal with the Tigers, Mr. Damon apparently has a giant boner for the organization that saved him from complete embarrassment after his agent hilariously botched the negotiations with the Yankees. I find it really, really awesome that the Yankees were willing to say "Fuck you, we're signing Randy Winn. Ha! Take that bitch!"

Boras screwing the pooch is the Tigers' gain though. We managed to pull a solid #2 hitter (.365 OBP last year), a left-handed bat to break up the righty-dominated lineup and a reliable left-fielder who is solid defensively and should play pretty much every day. Granted he has an overcooked piece of macaroni for a left arm, but it's better than Guillen on two bum knees manning left... right? There's no way he is going to hit 24 HR again this year - I'd personally be pretty darn happy with 16-18 - and his SB total dropped pretty sharply to 12 last year after averaging 27.3 SB/year since 1996. But color me intrigued that Damon has a career .363/.550/.961 line at CoPa in a respectable sample size. Damon is no spring chicken, for sure, but provides nice value and comes with no risk since it is only a one year contract. The Tigers are just plain a better team with him in the lineup. Now I can only hope that he'll grow out his hair to pre-Yankee length...

I don't understand why he is going out of his way to act so enthused to be a part of the organization though. You want to finish your career in Detroit? Umm, you realize you signed just a one-year contract right? If you had been smart you would have signed for cheaper than the $13 million you originally wanted from the Yankees, finished your career in New York and made it into the HOF. Now you are part of a significantly weaker offense in a less hitter-friendly park, calling into question whether in these last few years you have left you can hit the statistical milestones you need to to make it into the HOF. Maybe Johnny will be able to rack up the doubles at CoPa, but it's not looking good. You need to fire that assclown Boras dude.