Garret Craig

While thinking about the Tigers this morning, I punched some numbers in to my calculator… I would have liked to have made it a bit more in-depth (Division Analysis, Comparison to rest of MLB, etc.), but here’s what I ended up with:

2008 PLAYOFF PAYROLLS

AL
Boston Red Sox - $133,440,037
Chicago White Sox - $121,152,667
Los Angelas Angels - $119,216,333
Tampa Bay Rays - $43,820,598

NL
Chicago Cubs - $118,595,833
Los Angelas Dodgers - $118,536,038
Philadelphia Phillies - $98,269,881
Milwaukee Brewers - $81,004,167

AL Total: $417,629,635
AL Average: $104,407,409
NL Total: $416,405,919
NL Average: $104,101,480
MLB Total: $834,035,554
MLB Average: $104,254,444

2007 PLAYOFF PAYROLLS

AL
New York Yankees - $195,229,045
Boston Red Sox - $143,526,214
Los Angelas Angels - $109,251,333
Cleveland Indians - $61,673,267

NL
Chicago Cubs - $99,937,000
Philadelphia Philles - $89,368,214
Colorado Rockies - $54,424,000
Arizona Diamondbacks - $52,067,546

AL Total: $509,679,859
AL Average: $127,419,965
NL Total: $295,796,760
NL Average: $73,949,190
MLB Total: $805,476,619
MLB Average: $100,684,577

COMBINED 2007 & 2008 PLAYOFF PAYROLLS

AL Total: $927,309,494
AL Average: $463,654,747
NL Total: $712,202,679
NL Average: $356,101,340
MLB Total: $1,639,512,173
MLB Average: $819,756,087

Average AL Playoff Team*: $115,913,687
Average NL Playoff Team*: $89,025,335

*Between 07′ and 08′ seasons.

_____________________________________________

The Yankees spent $209,081,579 this year, and didn’t make the playoffs… You can draw your own conclusions from this.

A little something I did in my spare time may give you a better idea of the Tigers chances of making the playoffs in 2008.

If the White Sox keep their season pace to finish their final 58 games (33-25), they will finish with 92 wins and a .567 win percentage. For the Tigers to finish with 92 wins, they need to go 39-18 in their final 57 games with a .684 win percentage.

If the White Sox finish .500 in their final 58 games (29-29), they will finish with 88 wins and a .543 win percentage. For the Tigers to finish with 88 wins, they need to go 35-22 in their final 57 games with a .614 win percentage.

If the Tigers keep their season pace to finish their final 57 games (29-28), they will finish with 82 wins and a .505 win percentage. For the White Sox to finish with 82 wins, they need to go 23-35 in their final 58 games with a .396 win percentage.

This, however, does not factor in the AL Central’s 2nd place Minnesota Twins, who the Tigers play 3 more times this season, and the ChiSox play 6. The Tigers play the Sox 6 more times, all at U.S. Cellular Field.

The Red Wings kept up their momentum from Colorado last Thursday into the Joe tonight, as they handled the Dallas Stars with ease winning 4-1 and taking a 1-0 series lead.

Penalties killed the Stars in Game 1, as Detroit went 3 for 7 with the advantage (stats were skewed by two Dallas penalties in the final minute). Dallas was 0 for 4 with the man advantage.

Johan Franzen remains hot, recording the game winning goal at 15:34 of the first period which gave the Red Wings a 2-0 lead.

Chris Osgood refused to slow down, stopping 20 of the 21 shots he faced–plenty of which were quality scoring chances. Meanwhile, Marty Turco stopped 27 of 31 shots as he continues his win-less drought at the Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings win streak continues to 7, while Chris Osgood remains unbeaten in his 7 starts. Detroit also has not dropped a contest at home in 6 games. They will try to continue all of these streaks Saturday night as they try to extend their lead to 2-0 at the JLA.

So much for a “rivalry sparking playoff duel”. The Wings tossed the Avs to the side Thursday night, winning 8-2, and finishing off a four game sweep of Colorado.

Johan Franzen was sensational, scoring a hat trick by the end of the second period. Franzen has now scored 26 goals in his last 26 games going back to the regular season on Sun Mar 2 @ Buffalo when he recorded a goal and an assist while filling in for the injured Thomas Holmstrom. The “Mule” now leads all playoff scoring with 11 goals. Daniel Briere of the Flyers is a long-shot second with 8 goals.

Mikael Samuelsson and Henrik Zetterberg each recorded two goals of their own in the rout.

Detroit will now go to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight year. They will face either Dallas or San Jose. Tired Wings fans would prefer Dallas, who currently leads the Sharks 3-1 in their series which continues Friday night @ San Jose.

We’ve seen it in the last two games especially, the Colorado Avalanche are taking stupid penalties, and the Red Wings aren’t letting them get away with it. But it isn’t just the PIM’s that have handed the Avalanche a 3-0 deficit in Round 2, they may actually be trying too hard. I noticed this especially in last nights 4-3 Wings win, the Av’s are overplaying the body, sending two or even three men to hit a Red Wing player, leaving goal scorers like Johan Franzen, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterberg wide open in front of the Av’s goal.

Jose Theodore isn’t doing much to help them out either. Last night’s game was the first against the Red Wings when he played the whole 60 minutes, and he still gave up four goals in the loss.

The Wings will go into game four Thursday night confident and aiming for the sweep. The Wings come in with a 4.3 Goals Per Game Average in this series alone.

Saturday was great day for the city of Detroit. The Red Wings squared off with the Avs in Game 2 of the 2nd Round, and dominated from the first whistle to the final horn, winning handily by a score of 5-1. Johan Franzen scored his first career hat trick, and Chris Osgood was spectacular once again, leading the way for the Wings to a 2-0 series lead going into Denver Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, 1.34 miles away, the Tigers and Armando Galarraga took a no-hitter to the 6th inning, only to have it erased by a triple with two outs. Galarraga finished going 6 2/3, with 2 earned runs on just a single hit. After a Los Angeles comeback late, the Tigers got back on top and finished the game 6-4, leaving Tigers fans happy and eager to find the Wings’ score.

It couldn’t all be good though, as all this happened, the Detroit Lions made barely a ripple in the NFL draft with the 17th pick (why did they have to win so much last year?). They selected Gosder Cherilus
. Has anybody heard of him before? All I can say is, at least it wasn’t a wide receiver.