Archive for the '2004 Tigers' Category

The Tigers headed out west nine games below .500. With a stop back in Chicago, they came home eight games below .500. I’ll take a 5-4 west coast swing any day. Then to top it off, the Tigers hammered the Mariners last night.

The Twins are now comfortably in front again by five games. It’s hardly a lock, but I think they have the horses to win the division. I think Cleveland doing as well as they’ve done is almost as surprising as the Tigers doing as well as they’re doing.

The most interesting race is definitely the AL West.1 1/2 games seperate three teams, and who doesn’t get the division will be right there for the wild card spot.

Barry Bonds amassed his 9,000 career at bat in last night’s game, going three for four. He’s now also a round error away from having a .300 career lifetime batting average. And his now career OBP of .440 would him up two places to number six all time.

Ichiro is now on pace to have a shot at breaking George Sisler’s single season hit record of 257. The bad news is, this is really all Mariner’s fans have to cheer about. I’ll get to see Ichiro play tomorrow. My wife, who graduated from the Detroit College of Law (now at MSU), is having her class’ five year reunion at Comerica Park. I’ll have a shot at meeting former Tigers Dave Rozema and Milt Wilcox, and then we have tickets to the game. Having the chance to meet either Rozema or Wilcox should make for the fact that I’m going to be hanging out watching a game with a bunch of lawyers.

I’m joking.

Sort of.

Have a great weekend.

The Tigers are up 4-0 early. Good to see Higginson finally producing, because he has a three run shot. Ooops, spoke to soon. It’s 4-1.

I’m what they call a purist. I long for the days before 1969, when there were no playoffs, just a World Series. Each pennant winner was decided based on who finished best during the regular season, and a best of five initial series, where really anything can happen, didn’t control your fate. A lot of people might point to the fact that the wild card race in both leagues are very tight, but if we went to the “old” format, we’d know the best teams would be making into the series.

Based on this year’s standings, the Yankees and Cardinals would pretty much have things wrapped up. Of course the unbalanced schedule might cause a little big of havoc in the way things happen now, both of these teams would be well on their way to a World Series appearance. And for those of you who think it would make for a boring September, I say this year it would, but you just have to look at the outstanding pennant race in the American League in 1967 to show how exciting things could get. I touch on it a little bit in my 1968 story, but the Bobby Thomson’s shot heard round the world in 1951 is another great example. But as always, that’s my two cents.

A few months back, I was a little disappointed in the change in format AM1270 was going through. Gone in the morning was Don Imus, who I’d listen to on occassion. In came S&L, Mark Spindler and John Lund. I have to admit at first, I couldn’t get into the program, but it’s definitely growing on me. Their Top 5 at 8 is something I really enjoy listening too, and Mark Spindler is really getting more comfortable in the job. He obviously provides top notch football analysis, but at times in the past I thought his commentary on other sports was a little, well, not quite there. But I don’t know if he’s just more comfortable now, or if he’s been doing his homework, but he’s really gotten much better. Very eloquent in his analysis, it’s always nice to get a real athlete’s opinion on sports.

John Lund is probably the perfect partner to Mark Spindler. He really knows his stuff, and he’s pretty hilarious. The banter between the two has me laughing in the car, but when he wants to get serious, he can provide some top notch analysis. So if you get a chance, turn the dial to AM1270 in the morning and check them out on your drive into work.

Now it’s 4-2, and the bases are loaded. Maroth actually walked in a guy, and now a sac fly has made it 4-3. Talk about a nice lead going away in a hurry.

I really thought the Tigers were going to come away with their second consecutive series, but a nice pitching performance by Jason Johnson went to waste this afternoon. They got to Troy Percival in the top of the ninth, but the couldn’t get the run across to tie things up.

In all, a 3-3 split on this final west coast swing wasn’t too bad, considering the competition they faced. Now they make a stop in Chi Town to see if they can play spoiler in their own division. With all of the games they have left against the White Sox, they could actually finish ahead of them.

I’m not sure if they just got old, or what, but what’s happened to Arizona is a little surprising. This is a team that won it three years ago, and has been in the playoff picture for at least the last five. They didn’t even pull a Marlins by disbanding their team either. At least Randy Johnson keeps plugging away, as he had another nice outing, and went over the 200 strikeout mark for the twelth time in his career. It will be interesting to see who finishes second, him or Roger Clemens.

For the second straight season, it looks like nobody is going to hit fifty homers. A couple of players have outside chances, but we’ll see. Whoever does top it, won’t top it by much. Of course if Barry Bonds actually got pitched to, he’d be hitting .400 and would probably have 55 already.

The hard part about picking the guy who will come in second place to Bonds in the MVP balloting is which Cardinal to pick. Scott Rolen might get the voters nod, but at this point, Jim Edmonds gets my vote. All I have to say is, he has a better OPS then Albert Pujols, which is incredible based on how good Pujols is. But overall, the Cards have three players (Edmonds, Rolen and Pujols) with an OPS above 1.000.

The Wildcard races are going to be very interesting as going into today, you had two three way ties. It’ll also be interesting to see who comes out on top in the AL Central as Cleveland is making things very interesting.

Well, the season has definitely been interesting. Being an MSU grad, I should be used to the up/down, lose when you’re supposed to win, and win when you’re supposed to lose, but you can never quite shake the annoyance. The Tigers have looked great at times. And they’ve looked downright bad. Robert Louis Stevenson could have wrote the book on this season (yes, Jeckyl and Hyde, not Treasure Island).

And this week………it was Dr. Jeckyl as the Tigers took a series in Oakland for the first time in a long, long time. And they did it by beating last year’s should have been Cy Young, Tim Hudson. Not to be confused with future Cy Young Mark Mulder or past Cy Young Barry Zito. And speaking of Cy Young’s, Steve has a nice little analysis on the current year’s race below. Definitely worth a read. He’ll be happy to see that Johan Santana won his start this afternoon, and I totally agree with his column.

And I guess the Tigers technically didn’t beat Hudson, but Hudson didn’t beat them. Craig Monroe had a nice day, going three for four, with a homerun and three RBIs. Rondell White also went yard.

So now the Tigers stand eight games back of .500. Not insurmountable, but they’d need a couple of five game runs down the stretch to get there. And they face a tough Anaheim team that’s won 7 of their last 10.

For the thirteenth consecutive season, Barry Bonds has hit 30 homeruns. He just drove in his 70th run a few minutes ago, and he stands 12 homeruns shy of 700. Simply incredible. And he’s done it with a 23/160 strikeout to walk ratio, and he’s now four at bats shy of 9,000. Looking at his career stats are something to behold as he should also break his single season OBP mark this year.

I’m a little disappointed in all the talk of Edgar Martinez getting into the Hall of Fame. Edgar is a top notch player, but in my eyes, he’s nowhere near a Hall of Fame player. He had a hard enough time getting through a season with landing on the DL, and without playing on the field. Yes, he’s a career .312 hitter, but 2,200 hits and 300 career homers doesn’t quite cut it these days. Check out Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker and compare the numbers and you won’t even be saying Edgar and Hall in the same breath.

I’m actually in town this weekend, which will be nice. I’ve been anxiously awaiting a package that should start me off on my next big Tigerblog project. Until it comes, I’m hesitant to say what it is, but soon enough.

Well, another weekend, and another losing series. The Tigers haven’t won a grand total of one series since the All Star Break, which was last weekends three consecutive one run wins against the White Sox. They’ve dropped to fifth in the AL in runs scored, which is impressive compared to last year, but not so because it wasn’t that long ago that we were on top. Throw in a 4.90 ERA, and that doesn’t make for many wins.

And it’s showing in the standings. Despite only being nine games below .500, and on pace to win 74 games, the Tigers have the 11th best record out of 14 teams. As much as I hate to say it, the odds of them making the playoffs are pretty much zero. The odds of finishing .500 are slowly becoming zero as well.

But, the Tigers did manage to club Tim Wakefield for a record tying six homeruns on Sunday. Nate Robertson got hit even harder though, not even making it through the fourth inning.

The Tigers have their final west coast run this week, as they head to Oakland, then Anaheim. They stop back at Chicago next week before coming home to face the Mariners for the final time. Once again, the Tigers could potentially play spoiler, as they face a series of teams in serious playoff contention. At least it makes for fun baseball.

I’m still hoping to get out to the park for one more game. Getting tickets in September usually isn’t too tough, but I’m happy to say that the Tigers are averaging a little over 25,000 fans a game. That’s good for 23rd in baseball, but they’ve already topped last year’s attendance, so Mr. Illitch has to be happy. At the current pace, 2,000,000 fans isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

About the only thing I can say about this past weekend is, I got through the ASL Starter Pack rules twice. Watching your kid while at a wedding shower is pretty much an recipe for boredom. I set the bar pretty low, and the bar was met.

The Tigers are just starting up, and Mike Maroth got Kevin Youkilis to ground into a double play. Nice start, but they have some making up to do after the three game sweep by Texas. The only thing good you can say is they kept it close in two of the three, but the Tigers now sit eight games below .500. To get their, they’ll have to go 31-23.

Pat Caputo broke a story on AM1270 that the Tigers were set to trade Ugueth Urbina for Jerome Williams at the trading deadline. Williams came down with the sore elbow, so the deal got nixed. Talk about dodging a bullet, as Williams has recently had surgery on that right elbow.

And as we head into the final two months of the season, the playoff races are really heating up. It looks like the Yankees and Cardinals will cruise along, but the other four divisions, along with the Wild Cards, are still wide open.

And once again, the Oakland A’s are doing it. I know Billy Beane is considered the genius among the blogging community, and it’s simply hard to argue that point. Yes, he still has the big three, but with Miguel Tejada gone and Barry Zito looking mortal, this team is still heavily in the playoff picture. In fact, the Tigers can help out the A’s by beating the Red Sox this weekend, who a game and half back of the A’s for the Wild Card spot.

I’m off to Toronto again this weekend. No baseball unfortunately. I also got some good news for next years big project. I’m even more jacked up about this then I was about doing the 1984 diary, I just have to think hard about how I’m going to roll this out. Good stuff.

Have a great weekend.

First off, there’s no doubt that the Tigers as a team should be considered comeback team of the year. Basically little more then a AAA team, the Tigers nearly set the mark last year for futility. You had some players have some prett miserable years. The one shining star was Dmitri Young, who I thought should have gotten a little MVP consideration for the good season that he had despite having little around him.

The question is, who’s brought their game up to the next level? Two people, above all else, have come out of basically nowhere, and put together modest seasons. Omar Infante is the first of these players. Touted as a major prospect a couple of years ago, Omar fell flat on his face last year as the double play partner of Ramon Santiago. By the end of the season, he’d have a .222 batting average and a .536 OPS in 277 at bats and was eventually sent down to AAA in favor of Warren Morris.

This year, Omar is playing solid second base in place of an injured Fernando Vina. He has 10 homeruns, and a .806 OPS. In addition to his regular spot at second, he’s also played short, third and centerfield.

The second player is Brandon Inge. After never having a season batting average above .203, Brandon was basically without a job when the Tigers signed Pudge. Now, he’s turned into the basically the starting third basemen, and he’s played well in all three outfield spots. And honestly, at this point in the season, Brandon looks like the better defensive catcher. Pudge is dinged up, and it’s showing.

And the bat has shown a dramatic improvement. He’s hitting .282 with an .823 OPS. He hit his 10th homer last week and has stuck out only 43 times, while walking 20.

Tough call? My sentimental favorite is Inge. just because of the story. When told he was being replaced, he basically said F You, and proved he was valuable to the team and made his own place.

The trade deadline has come and gone, and in my mind, there really was only one blockbuster. The Cubs getting Nomar is very big, and now more then ever, I’ll be rooting for the Cubs down the stretch. They have a long way to go to catch the Cardinals, but they’re only one game back of San Diego for the Wild Card. I think a Cubs/Yankees series would be a huge draw.

Hee Sop Choi also found a new home. I like this guy, and think he’ll be a great talent, but like Bobby Kielty, hasn’t quite found his place yet. Touted as having 50 homer potential, he’ll be hard pressed to do that in Los Angeles.

I was at the game on Saturday. Great pitching matchup between Mike Maroth and Mark Buerhle. Of course the ending was kind of anti-climactic, because Carlos Guillen drew a bases loaded walk to win it in the bottom of the tenth. So is that considered a walk off walk? Bobby Higginson gets an assist on this because he made an awesome throw from deep in right to throw Paul Konerko out at the plate. Almost 41,000 people made it out to the park last night, so the Tigers are still getting great crowds on the weekend.

And speaking of trade deadlines, the Tigers stood pat. I would have liked to have seen them shop Urbina, but I’m glad Dombrowski stuck to his guns and didn’t deal him for just anyone. Deals can still go through if the players clear waivers, so you could still some activity, but I’m not holding my breath.

Today is the 25th anniversary of Thurman Munson’s tragic death. Munson was one of the best throughout the 70s, and won the MVP in 1976. Munson put up Pudge Rogriguez type of numbers before Pudge, and had he been allowed to play out his entire career, probably could have been a hall of famer.

About a year ago at this time, I started tracking my traffic on sitemeter. During that time, over 15,000 have stopped by. I want to thank everyone who’s stopped by and read all of my ramblings. I hope there’s a little bit here for every Tiger fan.

After a lot of press about the Tigers ineffectiveness in one run games, the Tigers go out and win two in a row. Go figure. Urbina has had two nice outings in a row, so hopefully this will boost his trade value a little. Even with this little mini-streak, I think it’s safe to say the Tigers playoffs chances are slim. This shouldn’t diminish the credit they deserve for the turnaround from last year. Regardless of what happens the rest of year, I’m happy with what the Tigers accomplished.

Speaking of credit, what about Atlanta. When we played them, they were around .500. A top notch franchise, they turned things around, and now have a modest 4 1/2 game lead as they go for like the thirtieth division title in a row. I know I’m old, because I remember when Atlanta was bad. Real bad. So bad they ended up with Taylor native Steve Avery with the third pick in the draft back in 1988.

And I know this is so obvious, it’s almost not worth mentioning, but what about another incredible year by Barry Bonds. As it stands, he’s six ticks ahead of his record setting 2002 season with a 1.387 OPS. He stands 15 homers from 700. And he’s a few hits away from getting his lifetime batting average up above .300. And unless something happens and he has a serious drop off, he’ll end up in the top 10 best OPS seasons again. He’ll have four of the top ten spots, while the other six spots are held by only Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Not to shabby company.

I’m going to the game tonight. It’s Negro League weekend, so that’s always fun to check out. I’ve been meaning to go back and reread Bill James Historical Baseball Abstact and his chapter on the Negro Leagues. Very interesting stuff.

Have a great weekend.

I always fine this first trade deadline as one of the most interesting times of year. Rarely do they live up to expectations, but teams make their last ditch effort to pick up that one last piece for the home stretch. In 1987, the Tigers dealt for Doyle Alexander as they were trying to catch the Blue Jays. And it worked out that season, as he went 9-0 with a 1.54 ERA, helping the Tigers beat the Blue Jays in a division race that went down to the end.

The Twins ended up beating the Tigers in the AL Championship, but the trade helped create my favorite final two months of the season. Of course now, the trade is condemned because as we all know, the guy we traded away was John Smoltz, a perenial all star.

So I pose this question. Had the Tigers won the World Series back in 1987, would this trade be considered a good one?

Which leads us to this years trade deadline. Other teams have to make similar decisions, sacraficing a potential future star for a shot at a World Championship. The Tigers find themselves on the other side of the fence now. Since the All Star Break, the Tigers have been unable to win a series, and now find themselves still in fourth place, and ten games back. They’re almost as many games back of the third place Indians now as they were out of first place at the break.

So, in the course of two weeks, the Tigers have gone from potential buyers, to sellers. Word on the street says that Urbina’s stock is way down. At this point though, trading him for anything with potential would be worthwhile. Mike Maroth is a more interesting play though. Everyone could use a left handed starter. As much as I like Maroth, he doesn’t throw hard, so if we got a nice deal, I’m all for it. I’d be looking to shop Alex Sanchez with the emergence of Nook Logan, but his injury could prevent that.

So as always, over the course of the next couple of days, we’ll see. I doubt if there will be wholesale changes in the team, but I’d be upset if Dave Dombrowski sat pat.

My annual baseball trip was definitely a fun one. We checked into the Rennaisance Hotel right around the start of the evening game on Friday. I thought the view would be pretty distant, but I have to admit, I had a nice view. In addition, there’s something to be said about being able to sit and watch the game in a nice reclining chair, while feeding my six week old son Devin.

Saturday I also got to sit and watch batting practice, a treat I hadn’t done in quite a while. I remember going to Tiger Stadium with my dad and making sure we were there at 11 am for the 1 pm game so I could watch the players practice. We sat about 30 rows up near first base, and the Jays won for the second time in a row while I viewed them. I also got to watch batting practice on Sunday shortly before checking out.

What I also found interesting was no matter when I looked out on the field, someone was out there working on it. Even at 5 am.

Anyway, definitely a fun time in Toronto. I also played Settlers of Catan for the first time, and had a blast. I made a point to add it to my Amazon.com Wish List.

To top off the weekend, I got to listen to the Tigers beat the White Sox on the way home. Looks like they’ll make it two in a row as they’re safely in front of the Indians tonight. Mike Maroth is throwing a nice game.

This weekend is our third annual baseball trip. For the past three years, we’ve gone out of town to a different ball park to check out a game. The first time, and probably the most memorable, was when I got to see the Tigers play the Red Sox at Fenway. It was supposed to be a great pitching match up as Pedro Martinez was set to pitch against Tiger’s ace Jeff Weaver, but the day we flew in was the day he got traded to the Yankees. Instead, I got to see the Red Sox roll over then rookie Mike Maroth, and watch Pedro pretty much dominate the Tigers.

Last year we went to see the Red Sox play the Yankees at Yankees Stadium. Possibly the biggest rivalry in baseball, we had upper deck tickets, and the stadium was packed. I saw Roger Clemens lose to his former team as the Red Sox won once again.

This year, we’re going to Toronto. My wife has a friend who’s getting married in the fall who lives in the Toronto area, so she’ll probably be involved in that stuff, but we’re staying in the hotel that looks out over the field, so Friday I’ll get to watch the game from our room, and Saturday, we have tickets to the game. It will be my six week old son’s first baseball game, and first long road trip.

So I’ll be out of town and probably unable to post. I’ll get tomorrow’s 1984 diary entry up, and then I’ll catch everything up when I get back. Have a great weekend.

These are the kind of days where it’s tough being a Tiger fans. Coming off of the heels of a dramatic four game series with the Yankees, the Tigers then drop two straight games to the Twins. The good news is we were in both games up until the very end. The bad news is, the Twins sent up two of their more ineffective starters, and the Tigers couldn’t get the job done.

The job done by Ugueth Urbina last was particularly disturbing. Way back when they signed him I had my misgivings because of his track record. And as I go back into the game log, I feel a little vindicated. Urbina has a lost four games and blown two saves. The net effect of that is five games where he entered the game to close it out, and didn’t, and we ended up losing. He also has a whopping three one run saves.

With that said, Urbina is, without a doubt, our best reliever. But, we need him to pitch like it.

Jeremy Bonderman’s numbers are going from bad to very bad. His ERA is now a run or two away from six. I still think he’s under a “trial by fire” scenario though, because he’s still only 21. But to do anything down the stretch, we need Jeremy to be effective. He looks great at times, but similar to Jeff Weaver when he pitched here, he’ll follow up the good innings with a bad inning that costs him the game.

With that, the Tigers are now six games back of the Twins. They’re two games back of the Indians. They now face the hapless Royals, but we’ve had our problems against them. I know these next two games mean as much as any other, and to call them “must win” would be an exageration, but, if they can’t do their job against the poorer teams, then they’ll have a problem against the White Sox and Indians, who are ahead of them.

The Tigers just evened up the homestand series against the Yankees, and took the season series, winning four and losing three. Taking three of four would have been nice, but I’d definitely say this was a success. They really got some outstanding starting pitching, topping the list being the one hit shutout by Maroth.

Now the Tigers have a nice little two game series agains the Twins. They’re going to facing Mulholland and Lohse, so the Tigers really have a shot at taking both games. Then they have another little two game series against the Royals, also a couple of games they should take.

Then, following week and a half could determine whether they contend for the AL Central or not. Next weekend they sqaure off agains the White Sox for the first time this season, then a three game series against the Indians who are right there with them, and then, a big four game series at home against the White Sox again.

It’s been a while since I’ve been truly excited about the Tigers, and it’s a great feeling. I was actually watching the clock leading up to the game. Mike Ilitch also has to be happy, as 160,000+ fans showed up for the series. The Tigers topped the 1,000,000 mark yesterday, and are averaging well over 23,000 fans a game. Last year’s mark was a touch over 17,000. 6,000 people at $20 a seat over 81 games is almost $10,000,000 (not to mention concessions), basically paying for Ivan Rodriguez.

Also want to send out a quick congratulations to the Detroit Demolition. The two time National Women’s Football Association made it to the championship team again. The Detroit team has won the championship the last two years (impressive seeing as how the league’s only been around for three years), and goes to Atlanta to defend their title in Atlanta. I listened to an interview of the teams running back (Heather Alexander) on Drew and Mike and she seemed pretty cool.

There’s not too much more to say then that. This wasn’t the Royals, or the Orioles, or the Mariners. Mike Maroth went out in front of nearly 41,000 fans and threw a one hitter against the best team in baseball. It was his first career shutout, and only his second career complete game.

Gary Sheffield got the only hit in the fourth inning. A-Rod walked, but then Maroth got Jason Giambi to ground out.

There were also some fine defensive plays in this one. Brandon Inge made a nice falling catch at the wall in deep centerfield. Eric Munson, Omar Infante, and Carlos Pena also combined on a nice double play.

Kansas City is crushing the Twins, and the White Sox are down 3-1 early against Oakland. If both of those teams lose out, the Tigers will 4 1/2 back.

I actually saw someone today looking for Tiger tickets. I know it’s the Yankees, but it’s been a few years since I saw someone actually soliciting for Tiger tickets, with little luck.

So the Tigers go tomorrow night to see who can take the lead in this series. One advantage of having a crying hungry baby is get you watch a lot of TV (what else can you do when he’s in your arms), so I’ve got to watch a lot of Tiger baseball. And it’s a good time to be a fan.

I’ll write a more detailed report later, but you have to feel for Wil Ledezma. After mopping up in AA, he gets to face Alex Rodriguez as his first hitter in yesterday’s game. A-Rod took him deep, but then calmed down and got through the rest of the inning nicely.

Each of the four games looks like it’s going to be a sell out when the Yankees square off against the Tigers in this four game series. The buzz in the air, and a lot of people are talking about the Tigers. How they do in the next couple of weeks will determine whether we’re buyers or sellers at the trade deadline, and a good series here against New York would go a long way towards giving the Tigers some credibilty.

I also have a gripe. I normally don’t take shots at other writers, but this is just plain bad journalism that I have to at least comment on it. I’ve never cared for Jack McDowell’s, former White Sox pitcher, column on Yahoo. In fact, I normally skip them. But this time I got suckered into clicking on it because it was in the main story. Basically it was about surprise teams and who has a shot down the stretch.

Click HERE and go read it. Then come back. You really only have to read the first paragraph.

The freaking Indians? Yeah, I’d say they’re a surprise, but they didn’t lose 119 games last year. We’re tied with the Indians, and in my opinion, have just as good of a shot to make a move then they do. He even mentions the Devil Rays, who have no shot at division title. They can only bank on the Wild Card.

Anyway, it pissed me off. The Tigers aren’t perfect, but they’re right there with all the other teams in contention in the division. They deserve some respect.

Game starts in 15 minutes. I’m waiting for the boy to get home so we can watch it. I also got my 2004 Topps Factory Set in the mail. I think I’m going to wait until my son Devin gets older before we open it up and go through the cards. I bought the set from Bruce Harris Cards. The service was great, and I got my cards pretty quickly at a reasonable price. He’s a got a nice site, so be sure to check it out if cards are your thing.

It’s a very rare occurance when you get to see the greatest pitcher of our generation throw the baseball to the greatest hitting catcher of all time. Possibly almost as rare as seeing Barry Bonds get a pitch to hit with a man on second and first base open. But that’s the kind of game you’ll get when you watch the All Star Game.

I loved watching this game as a kid, always rooting for the American League (who lost most years during that stretch). I know the game doesn’t have the same luster that it once had, but it’s still a blast to watch. From the opening pitch with Muhammed Ali, to Roger Clemens getting the snot hit out of, and even to the Homerun Derby, which I view as more of gimmick then anything.

Ivan Rodriguez, one of the Tiger’s representatives, had a triple and single, driving in one and scoring once. Probably my biggest complaint of the game was Carlos Guillen didn’t get a chance to play.

And now the second half begins. For the first time in a long time, the Tigers are in the thick of things. I was surprised to hear with the Yankees coming into town, most of all four games have been sold out. Attendance usually rises during the Yankees games, but it’s been a while since a Tiger game sold out for no other reason then they’re playing good baseball and going up against one of the better teams.

I just got done watching the Tiger game this afternoon, and at this point, Jason Johnson has to be thrown into the long list of surprises this year. He threw a five hit shutout today, and in four of his last five starts, he’s given up one earned run or less, and he’s 3-0 during that same stretch (which included the one hitter against the D-Backs. If the White Sox lose (they’re down 3-1), then the Tigers will be five games back heading into the break.

I heard some great commentary this morning by Pat Caputo, who I consider the Detroit area’s media expert on baseball. He also said, despite the logic of a 43 win team bouncing back and making the playoffs the next year, that the Tigers should be considered contenders and they should make a deal to improve their team without mortgaging their future.

I now have the Futures Game on the TV, which is always a fun game to watch. The Tigers send Kyle Sleeth and Will Ledezma to the game, so they’re well represented. Prince Fielder, son of former Tiger Cecil Fielder, is up to bat and roped an opposite field single.

White Sox just took the lead, so if they win, then the Tigers will lose that half game. They are seven games behind the White Sox in the loss column, which is a little more telling of how much ground they have to make.

I started playing MVP Baseball 2004 this weekend. I’ve basically mastered the easy level, and I’m going to move up and see how I do. I think the guy who’s supposed to imitate Charly the singing hot dog guy does a very poor impersonation of him. Outside of that, a great game.

I also went to Electronic Boutique to try to sell a handful of games. The amount they wanted to give me was inadequate. Regardless, if anyone has a PS2 or XBox and wants to trade some games, drop me a line.

I had some nice responses to my last post on Moneyball. Not so much on the actual book, but from fans of some of the other books I’m reading. If you ever want to talk books or stocks, as well as baseball, feel free to drop me a line. I have my opinions. And hopefully everyone went and read Aaron’s work. Those were some really good columns.

The Tigers bounced back from a poor performance on Thursday to even the series with the Twins. Rookie Jason Smith doubled his career homerun total with two solo shots, and Jose Guillen hit a three run shot to start things off in the first to give the Tigers the lead, for good.

With the win, the Tigers won their 40th game of the year. That was July 9th. Last year the Tigers didn’t win their 40th game until September 24th. They could realistically pass their previous season’s mark for wins the weekend after the All Star Break.

Last year, the Minnesota Twins were down by 7.5 games in the AL Central and sitting in third place right before the All Star Break. Two wins this weekend, and Tigers will be five games back (5.5 if the White Sox win both their games) and probably tied for third with the Indians. Yes, their pitching could wear down. But it may not. I’m going to go on record now, because I haven’t said it before, but this team now has a legitimate shot at making the playoffs.

Look at it this way. If Vina and Inge come back, it will help the offense down the stretch. We’ll bring up Will Ledezma and Nate Cornejo to bolster the pen. What I’d like to see them then do is trade Urbina, but not for prospects. Maybe get two good middle relievers who will really help in critical situations. I know there’s a ton of if’s, but this isn’t unrealistic.

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