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I like to save my yearly retrospectives for February - January is too soon, I need a month to digest what happend in the previous year. So as I look back on 2009, it has become apparent to me that I just suffered through a terrible, terrible year. I am glad that godforsaken trip around the sun is over. To start off, the Lions went 2-14. On the bright side, I suppose that is infinity percent more games than they won last year; if they keep up that pace next year I think they'd set some type of record for number of games won in a season. I remain skeptical, but at least Barry thinks we can turn it around. I feel half like an idiot and half like a glutton for punishment for admitting what I am about to type, but I was actually mildly encouraged by what I saw last season. Stafford and Pettigrew were not the picks I would have made at the one and twenty slots, respectively, but both played fairly well, all things considered, before having their seasons ended by injuries. Some members of the peanut gallery questioned the severity of these injuries but it was without a doubt the correct decision to protect these young players since the team had nothing to play for anyway. Unfortunately, QBs not named Peyton Manning tend to have a regression in year two since the league now has so much extra film on him and it generally takes a few years for a QB to fully acclimate to the NFL (see: Ryan, Matt), so I think were are in store for another long 2010 season. I feel so dirty that this organization has reached the point that I am thinking "well, hopefully we can wins 9 games in 2011". Ugh. 2009 second round pick Louis Delmas really emerged as well this season and I think Kevin Smith is a solid RB but the O-line is still so terrible that he is regularly swallowed up in the backfield before he can do much.
I can't believe I think the Lions might be decent in a couple years. I am so fucking dumb.
My other football team, U of M, went 5-7, finished second to last in the Big 10 and missed a bowl game for the second straight year. I am much less concerned about Michigan football, however. Despite what a lot of snobby asshole alumni think, RichRod is a good coach, the team played significantly better this year and they are going to have a good season next year. Guaransheed. Forcier was even in the Heisman discussion midway through the season, although anyone who thought he had a shot to win it was certifiably insane... but it shows how well he was playing for a significant stretch of time. The only significant players we are losing to the draft are Brandon Graham (who is going to be absolutely awesome in the NFL FYI) and Donovan Warren. I suppose you can throw Zoltan, Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown in that discussion as well, but I am much less concerned about replacing those guys. Plus, RichRod managed to pull a top-20 recruiting class according to Rivals.com (although that's a discussion for another post). The future is bright for Michigan football.
The most heartbreaking season was the anal assault administered by the Tigers though. How do you spend 146 days in first place in the division and not make the playoffs? How do you become the first team in MLB history to lose a 3.0 game lead with 4 to play? *puke* Way too much of the blame was heaped on Miggy's shoulders however. Does it hurt when your anchor in the lineup goes 0/11 with 1 BB in the final series of the season? Sure. Should he have been out drinking at 4am the night before the final game of the season that we needed to win? No. There were so many other problems with the team though that it is unfair to point at Miggy and say "THERE is the problem". Edwin Jackson got blown up to the tune of 8 ER in 5 IP in game 1 of the final series against the ChiSox. Then in game 2 we trot out - wait a second lemme check the score card - Alfredo Figaro...? What. The. Fuck. Granderson forgot how to take a decent route to catch a fly ball, couldn't hit a lefty if he threw a beach ball and couldn't get on base. There was a giant black hole of no offense in the lineup in the form of whoever was playing SS that day and Laird. Magglio is just old and overpaid. As is often the case in baseball, the regression of playing ability hits quickly and there's no coming back from it.
They couldn't even just get blown out in the tie-breaking 163rd game of the year like respectable people. Noooo. Instead they have to lose in a nail-biting 12 inning slugfest just to make it all the more horrible when Alexi Casilla singles off Rodney to score Carlos Gomez to end the Tigers' season. We even had runners on first and third with no outs in the top of the 9th and can't score. Aaargh.
I'm not a hockey fan but didn't the Red Wings lose in Game 7 of the Finals at home or something too? How the hell does that happen? What a great year for Detroit sports.
Fuck 2009.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Verlander Has Been Extended
I'm sure Verlander's girlfriend enjoyed the extensionVerlander got paid. A lot... and deservedly so. He is only 26 years old and, after a tumultuous 2008 season, bounced back in 2009 to lead the league in innings pitched and compiled 269 Ks with a 3.45 ERA. Also, as Buster Olney points out, he is one of the best finishers in the league. This deal was a no-brainer and I am glad it gone done this early. Now go win a couple Cy Youngs and go into the Hall of Fame as a Tiger, Verlander!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Pitt to B10?
Blogs and message boards all around the internet were in a tizzy yesterday due to a report that it is basically a done deal that Pitt will be the 12th member of the Big Ten, possibly to be announced by the end of the week. Any report citing an unnamed source needs to be taken with a grain of salt, of course, and the Chicago-Tribune has even already released a conflicting report so the chances of this actually happening seem extremely diminished. If Ben Maller's "little birdy" really was just a couple Pitt football players tweeting (why the fuck is "tweeting" not capitalized BTW? Twitter is a proper noun but the act of Twittering isn't?) about some random meeting then that is fine investigative work there dude. *makes slow wanking gesture*
Huge tangent: can you imagine if they had Twitter in the 1920s? Ninety percent of professional athletes were drunk by noon, pounding every piece of kitty they could get their hands on and hated minorities. Scoops Callahan would have eaten that shit up. God damn that would have been amazing. I would pay $10 if someone would go back in time and give Ty Cobb access to Twitter.
So even though this internet rumor has fizzled faster than Agent Zero's career, I'll just go ahead and still speculate.
Mmm, mustache
The overall e-opinion on this move seemed to be fairly positive, but I remain relatively unconvinced. The main benefit would be that it would allow the B10 to realign into conferences and then have a conference championship game, which would be pure, unadulterated, nut-crunching awesomeness. I am sick of B10 teams being done a month before every other conference, plus a CCG would bring extra revenue for the conference and added excitement. Also, Pitt has very competitive football and basketball programs, fits well within the B10 geographically-speaking and is a good academic and research institution.
I don't think adding Pitt would be a terribly bad move, but there are also some negatives that aren't immediately apparent. The point to adding a 12th team would be to expand the conference - in every sense of the word. Pitt fails to do this. Pitt already falls into a TV market carried, some might say dominated, already by PSU. Adding Pitt doesn't get anyone new watching the Big Ten Network or really generate much extra excitement for games beyond the revival of the Pitt/PSU rivalry that died when PSU joined the B10 in 1990. The B10 needs to either expand westward or, ideally, tap into the huge East Coast market. I don't know if there is a perfect fit out there right now, but Rutgers comes fairly close. Their football program has been a respectable-but-not-amazing 25-14 (finishing 5th once and 4th twice in the Big East) since their breakout 2006 campaign, so they should be competitive in the conference. Plus, adding Rutgers would allow the B10 to seize the New Jersey/New York market that is largely devoid of competitive collegiate football. I think the fan turn out to an @Rutgers game would be huge for OSU or U of M since both colleges have so many graduates in the area.
Names being tossed around for the 12th spot in the conference include Mizzou, Iowa State and Nebraska, among others. I even read one rumor that Texas was being considered, but that is 100% ridiculous and would never, ever happen so I'll just ignore that one even if it would be amazing. I feel that Pitt and Rutgers are clearly the best two options and it seems as though conference expansion is less of an if and more of a when with every passing month so my money would be on one of those two schools.
Huge tangent: can you imagine if they had Twitter in the 1920s? Ninety percent of professional athletes were drunk by noon, pounding every piece of kitty they could get their hands on and hated minorities. Scoops Callahan would have eaten that shit up. God damn that would have been amazing. I would pay $10 if someone would go back in time and give Ty Cobb access to Twitter.
So even though this internet rumor has fizzled faster than Agent Zero's career, I'll just go ahead and still speculate.
Mmm, mustacheThe overall e-opinion on this move seemed to be fairly positive, but I remain relatively unconvinced. The main benefit would be that it would allow the B10 to realign into conferences and then have a conference championship game, which would be pure, unadulterated, nut-crunching awesomeness. I am sick of B10 teams being done a month before every other conference, plus a CCG would bring extra revenue for the conference and added excitement. Also, Pitt has very competitive football and basketball programs, fits well within the B10 geographically-speaking and is a good academic and research institution.
I don't think adding Pitt would be a terribly bad move, but there are also some negatives that aren't immediately apparent. The point to adding a 12th team would be to expand the conference - in every sense of the word. Pitt fails to do this. Pitt already falls into a TV market carried, some might say dominated, already by PSU. Adding Pitt doesn't get anyone new watching the Big Ten Network or really generate much extra excitement for games beyond the revival of the Pitt/PSU rivalry that died when PSU joined the B10 in 1990. The B10 needs to either expand westward or, ideally, tap into the huge East Coast market. I don't know if there is a perfect fit out there right now, but Rutgers comes fairly close. Their football program has been a respectable-but-not-amazing 25-14 (finishing 5th once and 4th twice in the Big East) since their breakout 2006 campaign, so they should be competitive in the conference. Plus, adding Rutgers would allow the B10 to seize the New Jersey/New York market that is largely devoid of competitive collegiate football. I think the fan turn out to an @Rutgers game would be huge for OSU or U of M since both colleges have so many graduates in the area.
Names being tossed around for the 12th spot in the conference include Mizzou, Iowa State and Nebraska, among others. I even read one rumor that Texas was being considered, but that is 100% ridiculous and would never, ever happen so I'll just ignore that one even if it would be amazing. I feel that Pitt and Rutgers are clearly the best two options and it seems as though conference expansion is less of an if and more of a when with every passing month so my money would be on one of those two schools.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Aaand We're Back!
After a long layoff, we are tantalizingly close to the baseball season again. Sort of. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in three weeks - that's close enough... right? Well, that's close enough to do a pre-spring training Tigers preview I suppose.
Goodbye sweet prince... No, not you T.J. Duckett, get the fuck out of here.
The biggest move, by far, this offseason was the trade that sent Granderson to the Yankees, Edwin Jackson to the Dbacks and Austin Jackson, Phil Coke, Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth back to the Tigers. Granderson was, like many other Detroiters, one of my favorite players on the team and so it is unfortunate to see him go. That said, Granderson has some very real flaws in his game:
Granderson was miscast as the Tigers' leadoff hitter, although admittedly there weren't any other great alternatives for the team, which is why I kinda wonder if the Yankees really know what they're getting in this trade since they immediately announced to the media that he was their new leadoff hitter. Jeter had an amazing bounce back season last year - it's a real head-scratcher to me why they are in such a rush to push him out of that spot to insert a guy who just had an atrocious year in the one slot. Dombrowski clearly thinks that 2009 Granderson is the real Granderson (as opposed to 2008 Granderson) and wanted to cash in while he still could. I hope all the best for Curtis, but I feel sorry for him if he's still hitting sub-.190 off lefties midway through the season, the Yankees lose a few games in a row and the New York media decides to make Curtis the scapegoat. If there's one thing he has going for him next year however, it's that he loves to hit HRs to right field (25 of his 30 HR in 09) and so he should feast on that epically short right porch at the new Yankees Stadium. On an amusing side note, it appears as though Granderson will not be able to keep his number (28) because NYY manager Joe Girardi is planning on changing his own number to 28 this season since the Yankees are going for their 28th World Championship. Fucking Yankees.
As to the other parts of the trade, the Tigers picked up a decent left-handed setup arm in Phil Coke, a young SP I really like in Max Scherzer and a hard-throwing left-handed reliever in Schlereth. I have already read some people proclaiming Schlereth the possible "closer of the future" for the Tigers. I thought Ryan Perry was the "closer of the future"? Or is he the "Zumaya of the future" now?
In any case, I think that Scherzer is the real gem of these three; I am really excited to see what Rick Knapp can do with him. He posts big strikeout numbers (9.2 K/9IP last season) and doesn't have too many major league innings on his arm (226.1 career IP). Control is a an issue, but he should also benefit from moving from Chase Field to the wide-open confines of Comerica Park. He is expected to immediately jump into the rotation with Verlander and Porcello.
The other two members of the rotation are unclear at this moment; the names Miner, Galarraga, Bonderman, Robertson and even Dontrelle Willis are all being bounced around. Can we please stop talking about Willis? I'm sure he's a nice kid (am I allowed to call people older than me "kid"?) and everything, but the guy is done-zo. Stick a fork in him. It would be a pleasant surprise to see Bonderman and Galarraga have bounce back seasons since I believe we can also say with a good amount of confidence that we know who Miner and Robertson are by this point in their careers too. They're shitty middle relievers. There, I said it.
Other than the final two spots in the rotation, the only other spot that really needs to be nailed down is LF since the organization seems to be all-in supporting Scott Sizemore as Polanco's replacement at 2B and Magglio - with his ginormous contract - unfortunately didn't die this offseason. I am personally kinda pulling for Wilkin Ramirez to win the LF job just because I like his power/speed combo and Raburn and Thomas rub me the wrong way. I still can't believe Clete fucking Thomas was batting cleanup for the Tigers at one point last season. Ugh.
See ya in Lakeland everyone!
Goodbye sweet prince... No, not you T.J. Duckett, get the fuck out of here.The biggest move, by far, this offseason was the trade that sent Granderson to the Yankees, Edwin Jackson to the Dbacks and Austin Jackson, Phil Coke, Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth back to the Tigers. Granderson was, like many other Detroiters, one of my favorite players on the team and so it is unfortunate to see him go. That said, Granderson has some very real flaws in his game:
- He can't hit LHPs and scouts don't seem to think that the problem is easily fixable. Last year he hit .183 off lefties, in 08 .259 and in 07 .160. Two of those years are, obviously, utterly abysmal. Poor pitch recognition seems to be the culprit. His .183 average against lefties last year caused his BA to plummet to .249 and he lost 78 points in OPS.
- His OBP last year (.327) took a complete nosedive from the previous two years (.361 in 07 and .365 in 08). That's not good for a guy who is supposed to hit leadoff since the most important stat for a leadoff hitter is OBP. In fact, his .319 OBP as a leadoff hitter was second worst in the league to B.J. Upton... who eventually lost his leadoff job. Oops.
- Defensively, he wasn't reading the ball off the bat very well last year. Although I think a lot of people will remember the awesome catch he made near the end of the 162nd game of the year in 09, he didn't react very well initially and only his plus speed saved him. Although this is just one example, there was a definite puzzling trend of him misplaying fly balls towards the end of the year.
Granderson was miscast as the Tigers' leadoff hitter, although admittedly there weren't any other great alternatives for the team, which is why I kinda wonder if the Yankees really know what they're getting in this trade since they immediately announced to the media that he was their new leadoff hitter. Jeter had an amazing bounce back season last year - it's a real head-scratcher to me why they are in such a rush to push him out of that spot to insert a guy who just had an atrocious year in the one slot. Dombrowski clearly thinks that 2009 Granderson is the real Granderson (as opposed to 2008 Granderson) and wanted to cash in while he still could. I hope all the best for Curtis, but I feel sorry for him if he's still hitting sub-.190 off lefties midway through the season, the Yankees lose a few games in a row and the New York media decides to make Curtis the scapegoat. If there's one thing he has going for him next year however, it's that he loves to hit HRs to right field (25 of his 30 HR in 09) and so he should feast on that epically short right porch at the new Yankees Stadium. On an amusing side note, it appears as though Granderson will not be able to keep his number (28) because NYY manager Joe Girardi is planning on changing his own number to 28 this season since the Yankees are going for their 28th World Championship. Fucking Yankees.
As to the other parts of the trade, the Tigers picked up a decent left-handed setup arm in Phil Coke, a young SP I really like in Max Scherzer and a hard-throwing left-handed reliever in Schlereth. I have already read some people proclaiming Schlereth the possible "closer of the future" for the Tigers. I thought Ryan Perry was the "closer of the future"? Or is he the "Zumaya of the future" now?
In any case, I think that Scherzer is the real gem of these three; I am really excited to see what Rick Knapp can do with him. He posts big strikeout numbers (9.2 K/9IP last season) and doesn't have too many major league innings on his arm (226.1 career IP). Control is a an issue, but he should also benefit from moving from Chase Field to the wide-open confines of Comerica Park. He is expected to immediately jump into the rotation with Verlander and Porcello.
The other two members of the rotation are unclear at this moment; the names Miner, Galarraga, Bonderman, Robertson and even Dontrelle Willis are all being bounced around. Can we please stop talking about Willis? I'm sure he's a nice kid (am I allowed to call people older than me "kid"?) and everything, but the guy is done-zo. Stick a fork in him. It would be a pleasant surprise to see Bonderman and Galarraga have bounce back seasons since I believe we can also say with a good amount of confidence that we know who Miner and Robertson are by this point in their careers too. They're shitty middle relievers. There, I said it.
Other than the final two spots in the rotation, the only other spot that really needs to be nailed down is LF since the organization seems to be all-in supporting Scott Sizemore as Polanco's replacement at 2B and Magglio - with his ginormous contract - unfortunately didn't die this offseason. I am personally kinda pulling for Wilkin Ramirez to win the LF job just because I like his power/speed combo and Raburn and Thomas rub me the wrong way. I still can't believe Clete fucking Thomas was batting cleanup for the Tigers at one point last season. Ugh.
See ya in Lakeland everyone!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Welcome Back Carlos
The Tigers went into the first game of their doubleheader against the division rival White Sox in a battle for first place in the Central. The two teams couldn't have come into the series going in any more different directions. The ChiSox had won 5 of their last 7 and were fresh off Mark Buehrle throwing the 18th perfect game in MLB history against Tampa Bay, one of the top offenses in the league (3rd in the AL in runs scored with 501). The Tigers, on the other hand, are 1-5 since the All Star break and have only scored a single run in 4 of their last 5 games. Offensive struggles are nothing new for the Tigers this year - they have been maddeningly inconsistent, showing both excellence and frustrating droughts at various points in the year. This has manifested itself in the team scoring 4.67 runs per game, slightly below the league average of 4.78.
Enough of the bad though, because after this game there's a completely different buzz and I am looking forward to the Tigers wrecking that fatass Bartolo Colon (who some would be shocked to know was at one point traded for Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore and Brandon Philips) in the second game of the doubleheader later today. Umm, knock on wood... or something. The feeling around the city was that the Tigers were perhaps on the cusp of a free fall, but Verlander came in and did exactly what the team ace is supposed to do - he pitched an excellent complete game, surrendering only 1 run on 6 hits and 4 walks. JV wasn't totally dominant, wracking up only 4 strikeouts, and got into trouble at some points (including a bases loaded, no outs jam in the top of the 9th from which he escaped unscathed) but he was good enough to take sole possession of first place in the Central... for a few hours at least.
Verlander himself admitted in the post-game interview that he got out of rhythm in the early innings, before mostly cruising through the mid-to-late innings until the scary 9th. He was clearly amped up and I'm sure he could feel the pressure of pitching with first place on the line the day after a ChiSox pitcher threw a perfect game. Although it may have been a little bumpy at times, the finals numbers and, more importantly, the win, look pretty damn nice right now.
Oh yeah, and some dude named Carlos Guillen was activated today and went 1/4 while DHing. The one single came off a shattered bat and barely made it through the infield, his shoulder is still too sore to bat from the right side and at one point he appeared to misread the signs coming in from the dugout, so color me unimpressed. I hope he does well, but my hopes just aren't very high at the moment. Unfortunately, news has also hit the web that the biggest bat available on the market, Matt Holliday, has been officially dealt to the Cards for Brett Wallace and two other minor leaguers. Good for my fantasy team, I guess, but I wanted him on the Tigers. Dombrowski never really seemed to have the team in the Holliday hunt, so this is not unexpected however.
Enough of the bad though, because after this game there's a completely different buzz and I am looking forward to the Tigers wrecking that fatass Bartolo Colon (who some would be shocked to know was at one point traded for Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore and Brandon Philips) in the second game of the doubleheader later today. Umm, knock on wood... or something. The feeling around the city was that the Tigers were perhaps on the cusp of a free fall, but Verlander came in and did exactly what the team ace is supposed to do - he pitched an excellent complete game, surrendering only 1 run on 6 hits and 4 walks. JV wasn't totally dominant, wracking up only 4 strikeouts, and got into trouble at some points (including a bases loaded, no outs jam in the top of the 9th from which he escaped unscathed) but he was good enough to take sole possession of first place in the Central... for a few hours at least.
Verlander himself admitted in the post-game interview that he got out of rhythm in the early innings, before mostly cruising through the mid-to-late innings until the scary 9th. He was clearly amped up and I'm sure he could feel the pressure of pitching with first place on the line the day after a ChiSox pitcher threw a perfect game. Although it may have been a little bumpy at times, the finals numbers and, more importantly, the win, look pretty damn nice right now.
Oh yeah, and some dude named Carlos Guillen was activated today and went 1/4 while DHing. The one single came off a shattered bat and barely made it through the infield, his shoulder is still too sore to bat from the right side and at one point he appeared to misread the signs coming in from the dugout, so color me unimpressed. I hope he does well, but my hopes just aren't very high at the moment. Unfortunately, news has also hit the web that the biggest bat available on the market, Matt Holliday, has been officially dealt to the Cards for Brett Wallace and two other minor leaguers. Good for my fantasy team, I guess, but I wanted him on the Tigers. Dombrowski never really seemed to have the team in the Holliday hunt, so this is not unexpected however.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
HAHA Suck It Twins
He's... umm... out?As the AL Central race heats up a bit (White Sox 1 GB/Twins 2.5 GB) the Twins suffered an embarrassing defeat last night, allowing the Athletics to rally from a 10 run deficit to win 14-13 behind Matt Holliday's 2 blasts, including a game-tying grand slam in the seventh. Even though Mourneau, Holliday and Jason Kubel combined for 17 RBI in this ridiculous slugfest (39 hits to only 7 strikeouts between the two teams), the story of the night was a blatant botched call at home plate to end the game instead of tying it in the top of the ninth. Actually, perhaps the call wasn't botched, but rather Michael Wuertz's tag is so devastating that it travels both through space and time, thus explaining how Cuddyer was out despite the fact that approximately 50% of his body had touched the plate by the time Wuertz appeared to lay his tag down.
The take home message from this game is not that baseball needs replay, but rather that God hates the Twins because they are perenially the most boring team in the league.
I Am Going to Freak Out
Some people seem to believe that the Tigers don't need to make a move prior to the passing of the trade deadline in 10 days... because Carlos Guillen is coming back. Don't get me wrong, I like Carlos, but this Tigers team has serious offensive issues and Carlos is coming off a relatively pedestrian .286/.376/.436 line with 10 HR and 54 RBI in 420 AB last year. I really doubt how much of an impact that his return will make. In fact, the guy who Carlos would be taking playing time from has already matched Guillen's HR total from last year in 1/3rd the ABs and his only hitting 9 points below Guillen's 2008 season total.
Where exactly is this offensive explosion supposed to come from again?
"But he made the All Star game last year!" people cry. So? The All Star selection process is a joke - the fact that you played in the All Star game last year means absolutely nothing to me. For fucks sake, Tim fucking Wakefield made the All Star game this year and guys who actually deserved it such as Mark Reynolds, Miggy and *shudder* Chone Figgins get blackballed.
Also, Guillen is 33 and there is no guarantee at all that he stays healthy and contributes to the team for the entire rest of the year. Although DHing will certainly help, Guillen has never been the healthiest player - he has only played 150+ games in a season twice in his career - and so I just don't "get" gambling the team's playoff hopes on an old, injury-risk type player who isn't even coming off a good year. The Tigers are probably good enough (or the rest of the division is terrible enough, depending on your outlook) to reach the postseason without acquiring another player, but I just really feel that we need one more bat to ignite the offense. *cough*MattHolliday*cough*
Although Holliday's first season away from the snug confines of Coors Field hasn't gone well, he has been positively on fire since after the All Star break - batting .400 with 3 HR, 10 RBI and 2 SB in 5 games. Small sample size? Sure. Slight overreaction on my part? You betcha. Although guys don't always immediately produce for their new team when traded (I am looking at you, Mark DeRosa, and your .105 BA + 2 weeks on the DL since going to the Cards), Holliday is exactly the kind of hot bat the Tigers need to blow them out of their general malaise. Holliday's skills are legit and he is not as bad as his numbers in Oakland make him out to be - time to go get him Dombrowski. Magglio has been reduced to a platoon with Clete Thomas, Miggy has been good but not what everyone was expecting, Granderson is on pace for a 30/30 season and made the All Star team but is batting a painful-to-see .254 (22 points below his career average), the offensive production from the SS position has been anemic, etc. I feel that just standing pat on the season would be a mistake and that something needs to be done.
Where exactly is this offensive explosion supposed to come from again?
"But he made the All Star game last year!" people cry. So? The All Star selection process is a joke - the fact that you played in the All Star game last year means absolutely nothing to me. For fucks sake, Tim fucking Wakefield made the All Star game this year and guys who actually deserved it such as Mark Reynolds, Miggy and *shudder* Chone Figgins get blackballed.
Also, Guillen is 33 and there is no guarantee at all that he stays healthy and contributes to the team for the entire rest of the year. Although DHing will certainly help, Guillen has never been the healthiest player - he has only played 150+ games in a season twice in his career - and so I just don't "get" gambling the team's playoff hopes on an old, injury-risk type player who isn't even coming off a good year. The Tigers are probably good enough (or the rest of the division is terrible enough, depending on your outlook) to reach the postseason without acquiring another player, but I just really feel that we need one more bat to ignite the offense. *cough*MattHolliday*cough*
Although Holliday's first season away from the snug confines of Coors Field hasn't gone well, he has been positively on fire since after the All Star break - batting .400 with 3 HR, 10 RBI and 2 SB in 5 games. Small sample size? Sure. Slight overreaction on my part? You betcha. Although guys don't always immediately produce for their new team when traded (I am looking at you, Mark DeRosa, and your .105 BA + 2 weeks on the DL since going to the Cards), Holliday is exactly the kind of hot bat the Tigers need to blow them out of their general malaise. Holliday's skills are legit and he is not as bad as his numbers in Oakland make him out to be - time to go get him Dombrowski. Magglio has been reduced to a platoon with Clete Thomas, Miggy has been good but not what everyone was expecting, Granderson is on pace for a 30/30 season and made the All Star team but is batting a painful-to-see .254 (22 points below his career average), the offensive production from the SS position has been anemic, etc. I feel that just standing pat on the season would be a mistake and that something needs to be done.
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