Tigers Go Down in Series Opener

The Baltimore Orioles may be a last place team, but they have some talent. Their lineup is tough from top to bottom, and has a lot of speed and power. The one problem is their pitching staff, but in the last week they have had 3 youngsters come up from AAA and show they have some real good young talent coming up. They will also call up the #1 prospect in baseball (according to some) on Friday (catcher Matt Wieters).

The Tigers were bad today.

The offense stunk, they left guys stranded on 3rd in back to back innings with less than 1 out.

Galarraga was definitely better, but still made too many bad pitches. The Orioles made sure that they capitalized on those mistakes.

The Tigers send Dontrelle to the mound Friday night, and they will need a better overall team performance.

Orioles 5 Tigers 1

First Place Tigers Win Series

The Tigers behind their Rookie Starting Pitcher Rick Porcello beat the Royals today. Josh Anderson led off for Detroit, and started 4 for 4 from the plate and stole another base. Miguel Cabrera hit his 10th Home Run in the 2nd inning, and the Tigers rolled from there.

Porcello threw another quality start, 6 innings and only 2 earned runs. This was his 6th win in the young season, and he looks to a very promising future.

The Tigers move to 5 games up in the loss column and have a nice hold on top of the Central.

The Pitching was strong all series, and only the all mighty Zach Greinke could slow down the Tigers.

Rubber Game Wednesday

Long day for BL, so I will make this short.

Both team's Aces got the job done, Game 3 decides the series between the 1st place Tigers an the 2nd place Royals.

The Tigers Through the 40 Game Mark

Sparky Anderson seems to get credit for it around here, maybe because he had a team go 35-5 through 40 games, but the 40 game mark is where MLB Managers say they can tell you about their team. By the 40 game mark a fan, a coach, a team should all know what they got.

Going into the season I thought the Tigers would be in trouble. This was because of 2 major problems.

1. Starting Pitching
2. Bottom 4 Hitters

Both have been great. The Starting Pitching has been as good or better than any team in the MLB. The bottom 4 led by Brandon Inge and the SS combo of Santiago/Everett has also played well above expectations.

Through 40 game the Tigers sit at 24-16, 8 games above .500, the only team in the Central Division with a winning record. 4.5 games ahead of the second place Royals.

Even better their is a multitude of positives.

- Joel Zumaya looks to have his arm from a couple years ago, and has walked 1 batter all year
- Fernando Rodney is yet to blow a save
- Justin Verlander is the hottest pitcher in the AL not named Greinke
- Edwin Jackson has a stud arm, can go deep into games
- Brandon Inge's off-season adjustments have proven to be amazing
- There actually is a chance that Dontrelle and Bondo will contribute
- Perry and Porcello both actually look to belong in the Majors
- The Central Division has proven to be weak, and the White Sox lost out on SP Peavy
- Granderson and Cabrera are studs, Cabrera MVP Caliber
- Zach Miner has done a ton to help this team
- The players who have been called up have been awesome
- After a slow start the defense has picked up
- The Tigers actually have some speed

Even with all that, there still are some question marks

- Armando Galarraga, what is he? Lately terrible
- Will Dontrelle continue to Win games, or be back in Toledo?
- How many games will Leyland allow Brandon Lyon to lose?
- Maggs and Guillen look old and slow, not hitting either, will they return to form?
- Will the division leader stay near .500?
- Our Catchers are hitting under .200, will they get to a reasonable .240?
- Can Big Marcus Thames contribute, DH versus LHP?


The Tigers have put themselves into tremendous shape. They are miles ahead of the other teams in the Central. There still is a lot to prove even with what we have done so far. We need to show that we can beat the best teams in the AL, the Boston, NYY, LAA, Tampa Bays and Torontos of the world.

The Tigers were able to pretty much avoid the cold weather this year which I believe is an underrated part of our start. The past two seasons the Tigers have started very poorly, and have played terrible when the temperature was below 50 degrees. This season we played in a grand total of 2 cold weather baseball games, and those were two of our worst games of the season. I know we live in Michigan, but I believe the 40 degree days are behind us.

Some Tigers grades through 40

Verlander: B+, A+ as of late
Edwin Jackson: A-, an absolute steal for Matt Joyce
Rick Porcello: B, if he keeps this up it will be an A+ considering he is 20
Armando Galarraga: C, great start, terrible lately.
Dontrelle Willis: N/A, last game was best game of Tigers season in my books

Brandon Lyon: D, terrible. I feel uncomfortable every time he is on the mound.
Ryan Perry: B, too many walks. His 2-seamer is almost unhittable.
Bobby Seay: B, I know he has been bad as of late. But for a month he was A+.
Fernando Rodney: A+, I know he has given up runs at times, but he is 8/8.

Granderson: A-, average low, every other part of game amazing
Polanco: C, still good, needs to get average above .300
Magglio: D+, I feel his hitting coming. June will be good month for Ordonez
Cabrera: A++, MVP candidate. Big hits, tremendous average, good power numbers.
Guillen: F, Cannot find a spot for him in the field, and wasn't hitting before DL stint.
Inge: A-, been the biggest shocker for me on team, Great D and power hitting.
Laird: B+, I know he hasn't been hitting, but Catchers get credit for Pitching too.
Santiago/Everett: A++, after first week being bad for AE, rest has been near perfect for combo.
Anderson/Thomas/Raburn: A, can't expect anymore from young gun OF.

It's amazing how much this team has proved they are not what people thought before the season. Comerica Park is going to have a lot of people there come summer time. The Wings are almost done, and then the FIRST PLACE TIGERS will be the only show in town.

Setting up a great summer in the D, and a playoff run again.

GO TIGERS!!!

What a Series

Come in facing off against a Rangers team that had won 7 straight.

3 days in a row, 3 dominating Starting Pitching performances.

Clutch plays on defense i.e. the double play to end the game to save it for Rodney

Clutch hits i.e. Granderson's HR, or Cabrera's 2 out single to get the lead back for the Tigs.

This team is playing hell of good ball right now, and we are going into a series now versus a National League team that is really down on themselves right now.

best things from the Rangers series

5. 3 straight against #2 team on BL's Power Rankings

4. Granderson and Inge displaying their power some more

3. Wilkin Ramirez adding to the list of Mudhens that have contributed.

2. Justin Verlander showing he is an ace, maybe even a top end Ace.

1. DONTRELLE M_______ F_________ Willis!!!!!!!!!!

This Team Might Just Be.....

Pretty Damn Good

That's right. I am going back on my prediction already. Sorry guys, I am not one to FLIP FLOP. But I am one to admit when I was wrong, and at this point I think I was wrong.

Too much pitching right now for the Tigers not to be good.

Verlander goes out again and dominates. His 8 Ks from today seems like nothing, that's a heck of a total.

Cabrera is still hitting at a ridiculous pace, and the offense is producing with a bunch of Mudhens in the lineup.

5 in a row.

Damn great day to be a Tigers' fan.

Tigers 5 Rangers 3

*thats 10 losses in a row for the Rangers at Comerica Park.

That a Boy Dontrelle!!!!!

What a day for the Tigers.

What an even better day for Dontrelle Willis.

The hottest team in baseball comes to town, and 5 pitchers combine to 1 Hit them. Wow.

Dontrelle Willis gets his first W as a Detroit Tiger.

6 and 1/3 inning pitched for Dontrelle only giving up 1 hit, and 2 BB. ZERO Runs against.

Please take this into your next start. Lets GO TIGERS!!!.

TIGERS 4 RANGERS 0