Garret Craig

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.

They just don’t seem to care any more. The moves by Jim Leyland Monday were supposed to give the Tigers some sort of new energy, but the Tigers batters will have none of it. The Tigers, who scored three runs last night, and were shut out 5-0 tonight, are now averaging 2.2 runs in the past 5 games, and 4.7 runs per game over the first 34 games.

Let me take you to the bottom of the 8th inning, two outs, “All-Star” Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez at the plate. Pudge lines it down the right field line into the corner. Now most players, not making the money Rodriguez is, would be running hard out of the box, putting some pressure on the opposing team and maybe trying to spark a rally. But Ivan Rodriguez, since he knows he’s just an amazing player, trots around the base paths like he just hit a grand slam. This is just one of the many things I’ve seen over the last month+ that tell me this team doesn’t want to win a World Series.

Why? They have no reason to. Most of these players have guaranteed money for many years to come. And good money too. Just as one example, Miguel Cabrera is locked up for 8 years, and if he never hits the ball again in his career, he will be set for life with $153.3 million. That comes out to $120,000 every game in the next 8 years. What incentive does Miguel have to win?

Gary Sheffield, who will make around 13 million this year, and around $80,000 per game, is currently hitting .176 with 2 home runs. The Tigers have him locked up through next year. That sounds promising doesn’t it?

Until now, I’ve been preaching “We’re only a few games back, we’ll be OK.” All I can say now is that Tigers fans have reason to be scared.

Tigers bullpen scapegoat in 2007 and 2008 will not see the Tigers again till June 08′. He was traded today for 22-year-old Class A reliever Zach Simons of the Colorado Rockies.

It’s doubtful that Simons will ever be a Major League pitcher, which begs the question, why trade Major-League Junk for Single-A Junk? I know they needed to make room for Cruceta, but is this really all the Tigers could get for Jason? Do other teams really think he’s as bad as Tigers fans think he is? Grilli was actually pitching moderately well in recent games.

I guess I don’t really know what to think about this one.

More than one site (FoxSports.com, kffl.com) has claimed Brandon Inge is very upset with Jim Leyland’s move of Carlos Guillen from first base to third recently (Though I have failed to find a quote from Brandon).

But despite upsetting a 19 million-dollar .200 hitter with no reasons to complain, the move appears to be paying off. The infield has noticeably improved with Cabrera at first base. The pathetic errors have abruptly ended, and the Tigers are now beginning to look like a Major League Baseball Team.

The Tigers are currently @ the Yankees for a three game set, Detroit took the first game behind a quality start from Kenny Rogers.

Justin Verlander went 5 2/3 innings Sunday night on ESPN in the Detroit Tigers 6-2 loss to the Angels, giving up 6 “earned” runs on 7 hits, 4 walks, and 3 k’s. Impressive? Not statistically, but at least two of those “earned” runs can not realistically be faulted to Verlander, the first of which came on an RBI triple on a playable fly ball that was misplayed by Magglio Ordonez in right field.

No, if you watched the first five innings of the game, you would have seen glimpses of the Justin Verlander that we saw in the 06 and 07 seasons, who had his velocity back and was pitching consistent high-90’s with his fastball.

Verlander had good control of most of his pitches, especially his curve-ball (which was ’stellar’). He threw 57 strikes and 45 balls (Most of which were pitched in the 6th inning collapse) while giving up 4 walks in the game.

Then again, it is the stats that count for tonight, so we’ll see if the Tigers can recover and get back on track Tuesday night when Kenny Rogers faces the dangerous New York Yankees.

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.