Detroit Lions Update

I wasn't planning on posting any updates on here until spring training started, but I felt this important to post.

After a dismal and disappointing 0-16 season, the Detroit Lions have fired head coach Rod Marinelli and most of the coaching staff. I must say that I'm surprised this happened so fast, despite their record this year. Typically, the Lions would wait for months before making such a decison, but apparently they decided to move quickly. In a disappointing side note, the Lions promoted Martin Mahew to GM, instead of hiring fresh blood from outside. I was really hoping we would get someone from outside the current organization to bring a fresh perspective to the team.

Well, now us Lions fans have to wait until April for the draft and hope that management doesn't screw that up and set us back another 2-3 years.

Go Tigers...and Go Lions!

Let's wrap it up

Well, I think we all have to be honest with ourselves and say that we entered this baseball season with high hopes. Sadly, the 2008 season ended Monday night with a whimper instead of confetti and champagne.

As I stated back on February 18, our entire season hinged on the starting rotation and the bullpen. This year was not kind to our starters and pulling together a rotation from the bullpen, the minors, and free agency was nightmare-ish at best for the coaching staff. As a result, the pitching coaches have already been fired.

Starting in August, I asked the readership to give their predictions as to what changes should occur in the Tigers organization before 2009. Your input is below.

As you can see, pitching dominated the predictions. Coaching changes have already taken place (with Dave Dombrowski already stating that Leyland has his job for next year). And who knows if we'll see more young guys appearing on the ball diamond in April.

This offseason should be interesting to watch as pieces are shuffled around, faces come and go, and the roster begins to take shape for next year. Let's just hope that when April rolls around, we'll all have high expectations for our Detroit Tigers.

Go Tigers!

Changes in the future??

Well, despite their hold on the NL Wild Card, the Milwaukee Brewers decided to part ways with head coach Ned Yost. I'm assuming the reason is because the Brewers are in a slump right now, and hoping that a changing of the guard will get the team back to its winning ways.

So, what does this mean for the Tigers? Not much, but if a wild card team can oust their manager in mid-September, what should/will a team that was susposed to win the World Series do at the end of their disappointing year? I'm not laying sole blame on the Tigers flop on Jim Leyland, but he sure hasn't made it easy for us Tigers fan this year.

When Leyland joined the Tigers in 2006, I thought it was a good change. He brought a lot of experience with him. Winning experience. And the change in the Tigers team was immediately evident. However, since making it to the World Series that year, the Tigers have tried to replicate their success through trades, acquisitions, and position changes. (Let's just say that I'm not a fan of Farnsworth, of letting Sean Casey go, and positional merry-go-round with Cabrera, Inge, and Guillen. And don't get me started on the starting rotation and bullpen. Just leave Bobby Seay in the game and stop pulling him!)

I'm a fan of the line-up we have right now, however, I feel that we need to make some drastic changes in the starting rotation and bullpen this year. And, the coaching is not immune either. Perhaps a change at the dugout steps will right the ship and get the Tigers back to where they belong, the playoffs and beyond.

Go Tigers!

Busy Times

Sorry for the lack of posts as of late. Things have been beyond crazy at work, so blogging has suffered. I've hope to have some thoughts posted by the end of the week.

Stay tuned!

September 2008 Desktop Wallpaper

Here's the desktop wallpaper for September 2008. I'm unsure as how the Tigers will end the 2008 season, but I'm pulling for them. Let's hope they go out on a high note.

Right-click and choose Save Target As to download the wallpaper in the desired size.

1680 x 1050, 1280 x 1024, 1280 x 800, 1152 x 864, 1024 x 768

Upcoming series

The Tigers haven't been performing up to snuff as of late, but if they want a chance to get back into the AL Central race, the rest of August is the time to do it. Their next five series are against Baltimore (.483), Texas (.500), Kansas City (.446), Cleveland (.450), and Kansas City (.446).

As of today, the Tigers are 59-62 (.488), and 9.5 games out of first place. If there ever was a time to play for the postseason, it's in these next five series. I believe we have to go 12-3 in these five series in order to have any shot of catching the White Sox/Twins. If we can't beat these .500 or below teams, then there is no way we will have anything to play for in September.

Be sure to vote in the poll to the right. You can select more than one option, so let me know what you think the Tigers will be doing during the off-season.

Aaarrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Okay, if you were wondering why I haven't posted on here for over a week, it's because I've been slamming my head against the wall in fustration with the Tigers bullpen. I can't recall feeling more fustrated over these past few weeks than I have in a while.

I'm about ready to throw in the towel for the 2008 Tigers season and wait to see what happens with the rest of the league. Despite my disappointment with the Tigers, there are some tight races in quite a few divisions and should make for an interesting September.

Here's the results from last month's poll. While the playoffs are certainly not out of the picture, if the Tigers keep having the same darn luck with their bullpen, then the 22% of you who chose an early winter are going to be spot on.

I've got the poll for the months of August and September up now. Let me know what you think.

Go Tigers!

August 2008 Wallpaper

Here's the desktop wallpaper for August 2008. I'm excited about the rest of the season as it should be fun to watch the race to the playoffs.

Right-click and choose Save Target As to download the wallpaper in the desired size.
1680 x 1050, 1280 x 1024, 1280 x 800, 1152 x 864, 1024 x 768

The background photo credit goes to Christian Yanchula. He has some great photos that can be viewed on his Flickr page.

Tigers Sweep the Royals

The Tigers swept the Royals in amazing fashion yesterday. Armando Galarraga was teetering on the verge of a perfect game until David DeJesus broke it up with a hit in the seventh. Regardless, this series was a showcase of the Tigers hitting and pitching.

Let's keep it rollin' in the series against the White Sox.

Go Tigers!

Pennant design contest

A few years ago, the Detroit Free Press did a contest to see how creative Detroit Tigers fans could be with designing a pennant. I kept watching the website to see the submitted designs, but they never showed.

So, I thought that maybe I could revive this contest to see what designs you readers could come up with. Unfortunately, I have no cool prize to give you. However, I will post all submitted designs here on the blog and I'll let the readers decide which design is the best/most creative/unique/insert adjective here....

To get you started, download the full size template. You can submit your designs to me by e-mailing them to pauldavidellison (at) gmail dot com.

I look forward to seeing your designs. Have fun!

Mid-week updates

I'm a little late in getting this up, but here are the final numbers for June's poll. As it turns out, most of you are are either in Michigan, or in the Midwest. In case you haven't checked out my profile, I'm located in Grand Rapids, MI.
I've got another poll up for July. Let me know how you think the Tigers will finish.

Go Tigers!

Blogging to resume shortly

My apologies for the light blogging as of late. I had a 5 day weekend with the holiday, and playing baseball with my kids was a lot more fun than starting the work on the August desktop wallpaper.

I'll have some stuff posted later this week.

July 2008 Wallpaper

Here's the desktop wallpaper for July 2008. Let's hope the Tigers keep up the hot play and win a bunch of series.

Right-click and choose Save Target As to download the wallpaper in the desired size.
1680 x 1050, 1280 x 1024, 1280 x 800, 1152 x 864, 1024 x 768

The character known as Todd "The Rollercoaster" Jones

This picture says it all.

(AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Apparently, Todd got a little bored during last night's rain delay and decided to re-create Magg's walk-off homer from the 2006 ALCS. I didn't see this live as FSN kept showing interviews and I couldn't resist channel-surfing.

Let's keep it going!

Since the start of the Cleveland series on June 6, the Tigers have gone 12-4. If the Tigers can sweep the Cardinals, they will be back to .500 for the first time this season.

Kenny "The Gambler" Rogers is on the mound tonight, Galarraga is up tomorrow night, and Robertson is up on Thursday.

Live from Comerica Park, it's Tigers Baseball!


Let's Go Tigers!

A sign of life?

The Tigers just swept the White Sox in very nice fashion and have won 5 of their last 6 games. Is this a sign that the lineup, both hitting and pitching, is starting to click? Let's hope so.

Go Tigers!

May Poll Results

At the start of May, I created a poll asking you to let me know how many Tigers games you've attended in your life. The results are in, and 40% of you have attended 51+ games in your life.

Now, I must confess, I've only been to one Tigers game in my life. It was in April of 1998 with my college roommate. We saw the Tigers play the Baltimore Orioles at Tiger Stadium. I was pretty excited to see Cal Ripkin play as my roommate had scored 3rd row seats along the 3rd base line. I remember the game so well because Brian Hunter led off the game with a solo home run, and then two batters later, Bobby Higginson hit a solo shot. The Tigers won that game 7-1.

The new poll for June is up, and I'd like to find out where you Tigers fans are located.

June 2008 Wallpaper

Here's the desktop wallpaper for June 2008.

Right-click and choose Save Target As to download the wallpaper in the desired size.

1680 x 1050, 1280 x 1024, 1280 x 800, 1152 x 864, 1024 x 768

Are the Tigers heating up?

So, have the Tigers turned the corner? They've won three of their last four, which is pretty nice.

Tonight they are going for the series sweep against the Mariners. Let's hope the bats stay hot.

Go Tigers!

Come on guys!

Well, it's been a rough start to the month of May. There's not much I can say that already hasn't been said in newspapers, on radio talk shows, or ESPN. All that's left to say is:

Go Tigers!

Prediction and poll update

On my April 10 post, I predicted the Tigers would finish April with an 18-10 record after starting 1-7. Well, that didn't turn out as well as I hoped it would. However the Tigers have made significant progress going 12-7 since that post. As it currently stands, the Tigers sit in 4th place in the Central Division with a 13-15 record.

They have 28 games in May and my prediction for this month is that they will go 19-9.

In March of this year, I created a poll asking you to provide your best guess at how many games the Tigers would win this year. The results are in, and the majority of you said the Tigers would win between 91 - 100 games.

I've got a new poll up now for the month of May. I'd like to find out how many games you've attended during your time as a Tigers fan.

May 2008 Wallpaper

Here's the desktop wallpaper for May 2008. Let's hope it's a good month for the Tigers.

Right-click and choose Save Target As to download the wallpaper in the desired size.
1680 x 1050, 1280 x 1024, 1280 x 800, 1152 x 864, 1024 x 768

D'oh!

I was checking out the upcoming games on the desktop wallpaper I created, and realized that I made a mistake. The wallpaper showed that the Tigers were playing a four game series with the Rangers, when it should have showed just a three game series. So, I've updated the links in the original post below.

http://detroittigersbaseball.blogspot.com/2008/02/march-april-2008-wallpaper.html

Ummmmm....yeah

Okay....no need to panic. The Tigers are 2-10 entering two series with division rivals Minnesota and Cleveland. Fortunately for the Tigers, the Twins and Indians are only a few games ahead of them in the standings. So, if the Tigers can sweep both series, they will be tied with Minnesota for third in the division.

Sadly, in my last post, I predicted the Tigers would finish April with an 18-10 record. For this to happen, they would have to win 16 straight games. I'm not saying this is impossible, and I'm the eternal optimist, but I have to be real and admit that 16 straight is pretty tough to pull off.

First win of 2008

Well, it took eight games for the Tigers to get their first win. Those first seven games were not a pretty sight to watch, but last night's game was certainly more fun.

Apparently someone with a lot of time on their hands did some research and found that no team that started 0-7 had gotten their first win off the defending World Series champion. Also, according to these statistics, the odds for the Tigers making it to the World Series are pretty slim. Now I don't know about you, but April and October are separated by a lot of games, right now, 154 games. That's a lot of time to make up for losing the first seven games. Does anyone remember the last few months of the 2006 season? There were some stretches in there that caused some concern, but look where the Tigers ended up. I'm saying all of this to say that you shouldn't count the Tigers out yet. If this were early September and the Tigers were bordering .500, then I'd be a lot more concerned.

My prediction: the Tigers finish April with a 18-10 record.

Go Tigers!

My Fantasy Baseball Team

Okay, this took some time, but as I said in my last post, real life ensues and my blogging gets pushed back. I thought I'd share my fantasy baseball team with you and get some feedback on my choices. The league I am in has 10 teams, so as I was drafting these players, I was taking my best shot at building a complete team.

A return to blogging

My apologies for the delay between posts. Real life interrupted and I haven't been able to post on here as frequently as I planned. I should start having some more frequent posts starting this weekend.

Baseball is coming!

I'm starting to see more grass in my backyard so my anticipation is rising for baseball season. Just two weeks ago I had nearly a foot of snow on the ground. Now, I've got large patches of grass and even smaller patches of snow.

Regarding Tigers baseball, the relief pitching questions remain. Will Rodney be ready by April? Will Byrdak or one of the other relief pitchers step up and perform? Will Todd Jones break out of his funk and get command of his pitches?

On the other side, Verlander is looking awesome this spring training. Last I heard was that he had not given up a single run so far. Let's hope that kind of pitching continues throughout the season.

Fantasy Baseball

For the first time ever, I've accepted an invite to join a fantasy baseball league. This particular league is on ESPN. I'm pretty sure I've got a good grasp on how the league works, but I'm unsure as to whom I should be drafting.

Does anyone have a method for drafting players? I mean, I know I should be drafting the best available position player left, but it seems like there should be a science to it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Winter Blahs

Okay, it's March 1 and I'm looking out my den window. I look up and see blue sky, a few white clouds and sunshine. I look down and I see 9 inches of snow.

Where's spring?! This weather makes me wish I was in Lakeland right now.

March-April 2008 Wallpaper

They're here! The first batch of Detroit Tigers monthly wallpapers are hot off the press.

Right-click and choose Save Target As to download the wallpaper in the desired size.

1680 x 1050, 1280 x 1024, 1152 x 864, 1024 x 768

The background photo credit goes to Adam Steenwyk. He has some great photos that can be viewed at http://ajamess.smugmug.com/.

Detroit Tigers Desktop Wallpaper

Well, the television schedule has been released and I've got the elements for the monthly wallpapers. So, hopefully in the next week or two I'll be releasing the March/April wallpaper.

A Must Have

The Detroit Tigers announced some of their game giveaways today, and there is one that immediately jumps to the top of my list.

On April 15, the first 10,000 fans will receive a DVD of the FSN telecast of Verlander's no-no from last season. I was one of the unfortunate few to have to hear about this the following morning in the news recap, so this would be great to be able to watch the entire game unfold.

A close second from the giveaway list happens on my birthday. On June 24, the first 10,000 fans will receive replica road jerseys from the 1968 World Series Championship year. The 1968 road jerseys looked like the jersey below.

Spring Training

Spring Training is here!!!! Now if only winter were to go away I could really focus on baseball.

The players are starting to report to Lakeland with high expectations for the 2008 season. As many have already stated, I think the Tigers season hinges on the longevity of our starting rotation and the performance of the bullpen.

Here's hoping for a 90+ win season and a great playoff run and a World Series Championship in Detroit.

Preparing for the 2008 season

I know, it's only January 25, but I'm already getting very excited about the upcoming season. Jim Leyland has the tough task of determing batting order with one of the best offensive lineups I've ever seen. Of course, I've only been on this planet for 30 years, so I might have missed a few.

I'm also beginning prep work on the monthly Detroit Tigers desktop wallpaper for the 2008 season. I've got the initial design nailed down, so it's just finding the right elements to use. Also, I'm waiting on the TV schedule so I can identify where you can watch the game. I'll keep this blog updated as things progress.