See ya Sparky

I'm sure most Tigers fans have heard by now that Sparky Anderson passed away early this afternoon at the age of 76.  Here's a link to a video of Sparky at last year's 25th anniversary of the 1984 World Series Championship - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJQBKlkrnIw

R.I.P. Sparky

September / October 2010 Desktop Wallpaper

The final month of baseball is upon us.  Whether the playoffs are meant to be or not, this year has been very interesting in terms of building towards the future success of the team. Am I going to root for the team to make the playoffs?  Definitely!  Do I see the team making the playoffs?  Maybe.  That all depends on if the Minnesota Twinkies can do what the Tigers did last September.  Let's hope they do.

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Sweet sweep..

The Tigers swept the Indians in three games, and now the Royals come to town.

Let's hope the Tigers can repeat the sweep with Kansas City.

Six games

The next six games at home are critical for the Tigers if they hope to make up any ground in the division.  They start tonight by facing the 5th place Indians and then the 4th place Royals come to town.  If the White Sox and Twins can manage to drop a few during this stretch, the Tigers could close the gap somewhat.

Call me the eternal optimist, but if the Tigers get hot during this home streak, maybe they can ride that into the Toronto series and then the series in Minnesota.  I'd really like to see the Tigers make a final push to make the playoffs, but it all has to start with this six game home stretch.

Looking to next year - Catching

A lot has been said about all the money coming off the books for the Tigers at the end of this year due to free agency. And $60M is quite a bit of money.

So, what does this mean for the team?  Well, there are some critical areas that need to be addressed on the team, one of which is the catcher.  Here are some of the available catchers in 2011, who Dave Dombrowski might go after during the off-season.

Catchers available in 2011	Current salary	Yrs of service	2010 AVG	OPS	CS%
John Buck - Blue Jays	$2.0M	6	.280	.822	.271
Ramon Hernandez - Reds *	$3.0M	11	.289	.784	.341
Miguel Olivio - Rockies *	$2.0M	7	.307	.886	.411
Victor Martinez - Red Sox	$7.7M	7	.283	.809	.197
A.J. Pierzynski - White Sox	$6.25M	10	.240	.638	.303
David Ross - Braves	$1.6M	8	.269	.720	.412
Yorvit Torrealba - Padres *	$.75M	9	.310	.775	.349
Jason Varitek - Red Sox	$3.0M	13	.263	.871	.212
Gregg Zaun - Brewers *	$1.9M	15	.265	.743	.240

*have option for 2011

So looking at these available catchers, I find myself torn between two players:  John Buck and Miguel Olivio.  Both are younger, have reasonable contracts, and decent OPS.  I am leaning towards Miguel Olivio because of his higher Caught Stealing %, but that isn't a major concern of mine.  Ultimately, I see the Tigers offering a nice contract to one of these two players, which would be a huge improvement over G-Money, and would give Alex Avilia some more time to develop.

August 2010 Desktop Wallpaper

The post All-Star game schedule has been tough on the Tigers, and it doesn't appear to get any easier.  Let's hope that the Tigers can break out of this funk and get back up to the top of the A.L. Central.

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Ugh...

My apologies for the lack of posting this month.  Vacations + summer + newly acquired but previously owned pop-up camper that needs repair = no posts for three weeks.  I'll have the August wallpaper up later this week, and I've got some posts in mind for later on.

Go Tigers!

Update to July 2010 Desktop Wallpaper

I'm not perfect.  Apparently neither was the schedule.  One of the commenters from the previous post noticed that I had the All Star game starting at 3:33, which is incorrect.  I felt it important to update the schedule, so here are the updated links.

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Go Tigers!

July 2010 Desktop Wallpaper

The Detroit Tigers return home for a nine game homestand after a lackluster road trip that saw them take over the AL Central, then drop back into 2nd.  After the homestand, the All Star game takes place in Cali, where hopefully we'll see this month's wallpaper representative.  I know he's a rookie, but I really believe that Brennan Boesch deserves a nod to participate in the game.

 See updated post for links to download the wallpaper

A big thank you to whitecapwendy for the photo of Brennan Boesch.

Go Tigers!

July wallpaper

I'm running a little late in getting the July wallpaper up.  I should have it up tomorrow afternoon or the morning of July 1.

Go Tigers!

En Fuego!

The bats of the Detroit Tigers were on fire today.  The team rocked the Nationals for 19 hits with nearly each batter contributing at least 2 hits.  The only batters to go hitless were Don Kelly, 0-4, and Danny Worth, 0-1, who came in as a pinch runner for Raburn. 

The Tigers are now on a 6-game winning streak and start a 3-game series tomorrow against the Diamondbacks.

Go Tigers!

Bud Selig is a moron

Even despite the overwhelming evidence supporting the perfect game...

Even despite the fact that over 17,000 fans at Comerica Park saw with their own eyes that Luke Donald was out by a half-step...

Even despite the hundreds of thousands of television viewers saw that Galarraga had pitched a perfect game...

Even despite the admission of the umpire who made the wrong call THAT HE GOT IT WRONG...

Mr. Allen "Bud" Selig refused to overturn the call that cost Galarraga a perfect game. 

Way to go "Bud", you clearly love this game.

Galarraga was robbed

Jim Joyce should be fired.  Don't even give him a chance to clean out his locker or desk or whatever.  Just give him a coach ticket to China, because as long as he's in the US, there's going to be a Tigers fan who will want to punch him in the nutsack. 

June 2010 Desktop Wallpaper

Good-bye West Coast!  The Tigers are back home after their final west coast trip.  Let's hope that the team will get off to a good start with a four game series against the A's.

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Go Tigers!

Tigers sweep the A's out of their own park

Well that was nice. After a rough game against the Chicago White Stockings, the Tigers had a plane ride to the west coast to face the A's.  As I was hoping, Justin Verlander is back to his old self again and totally dominated the Athletics while pitching a complete game.  Then, to our surprise, Jeremy Bonderman pitched himself a pretty nice game yesterday.  Bondo had eight strikeouts and was unhittable through four innings. 

The Tigers start a three-game series again the Dodgers today, before heading to Seattle to wrap up their west coast trip. 

Go Tigers!

Ernie Harwell - 1918-2010

Ernie, your voice and gentleman's ways will truly be missed.

Ernie Harwell passes away

Tiger nation weeps tonight.  After a long struggle with cancer, Ernie Harwell passed away today at the age of 92.  Words escape me right now.  I know that with the coming days, I'll be able to process this somewhat.  Right now, my eyes are tearing up just thinking about this.  

R.I.P. Ernie.  You were one of a kind, and you will be missed!

May 2010 Desktop Wallpaper

The Tigers are off to a .500 start for the season through April.  The comeback wins have been nice, but I'd sure like to see some early inning scoring.

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Big props to whitecapwendy for the background photo.

Go Tigers!

May wallpaper

The wallpaper for May is nearly done.  I should have it up on the site by the end of the week. 

Opening Day is here!

The 2010 season is just about to kick off!

Listen to Ernie Harwell's reading of the Voice of the Turtle

Go Tigers!

April 2010 Desktop Wallpaper

The regular season is finally here!  The 25-man roster has been set, and Opening Day is just days away!

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Big props to lakelandlocal for the background photo.

April wallpaper

For anyone looking for the April wallpaper, it will be posted in the next day or two.  Thanks for checking in!

Radio coverage rant

I know Florida is a long way from Michigan, and I know it's only Spring Training baseball, but so far, I've only heard one game broadcasted on the radio.  I'm not in Detroit, so that may be part of the reason I'm not hearing that many games, but I am in Grand Rapids, so you would think that with two sports stations in town, at least one might cover the game.  However, here it is, 2:15 on Tuesday afternoon, and no game to listen to.  I might think about subscribing to MLB radio so I could listen online, but my company's IT department has blocked streaming audio and video. Oh well, the regular season will be here soon enough, and then all the games will be on the radio.

Spring Training 2010 Desktop Wallpaper

Baseball is back!

After what seemed like an endless off-season, the Tigers are back in camp in Lakeland with some exciting new faces.  Expectations are mixed at this point, but I'm anticipating a good race in the A.L. Central.

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I'd like to hear your feedback on the minimalist design of the wallpaper.  Your comments are appreciated.

Tigers sign Damon....finally

The waiting game is finally over.  After weeks of talking, the Tigers and Johnny Damon have agreed to a 1-year deal reportedly worth $8 million.  He will spend most of his time playing left field and DH. 

Now that this is ordeal is finally over, we can now focus on the rest of the team and identifying the best prospects to fill out the 25-man roster.

On another note, I should have the desktop wallpaper for Spring Training out in the next week.   Keep checking back after that for the regular season schedules.

Go Tigers!

Spring Training 2010

It's freezing outside right now in Michigan, but I was warmed by this thought...

Pitchers and catchers report in 3 weeks!

I know that the first game is three months away, but I was so excited when I realized that baseball will soon be back.

My apologies for the lack of posting, but it's been a hard to post when not much has happened.  I know that Granderson got traded, but other than that, it's been somewhat quiet.  But with Spring Training starting up, the posts will become more regular.

Go Tigers!