To blog or not to blog

I guess this post isn't so much about blogging, as it is about creating the monthly wallpapers. As is the common excuse is nowadays, life has gotten busy. It's certainly not for a lack of desire because I really enjoy the challenge of designing and publishing them.

At this point, I haven't made a final decision on the direction I will take, but when I reach it, I'll let everyone know. Thanks for all your support throughout the past five years.

Detroit Tigers ALCS Desktop Wallpaper

The Evil Empire has been defeated and the Tigers have advanced to the American League Championship Series!

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Detroit Tigers Post-season Desktop Wallpaper

Now that the Detroit Tigers have officially clinched the AL Central, I have decided to release a post-season wallpaper.  I was hesitant to do this before they locked up the top spot in the division, but now we can celebrate the first division title since 1987!

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Post-season Wallpaper

For those inquiring, I will probably be making a postseason wallpaper, but I was waiting until the Tigers had clinched.  I didn't want to jinx anything by working on it before they won the A.L. Central.  As I haven't started anything, I won't have it up until later this week at the earliest.

September 2011 Desktop Wallpaper

September finds the Detroit Tigers sitting five games up on the Chicago White Sox, and five and a half games up on the Cleveland Indians.  Several key additions over the course of the last few months have aided the Tigers in remaining in the top spot, including this month's featured player, Delmon Young.  Since acquiring Delmon on August 15, the Tigers have gone 10-5, and I believe that Delmon has played every game.

Some notable series yet to be played in September start this weekend with a 3-game set against the White Sox.  All in all, the Tigers will play the White Sox six times in September, and they will play the Indians six times.  It will be an exciting month of baseball!

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Thanks to Dgaken for the photo of Delmon Young

August 2011 Desktop Wallpaper

August finds the Tigers leading a tight AL Central race.  Continuing the common thread of a pitcher dominating, Rick Porcello was 5-0 for the month of July.  Verlander was his usual commanding presence, so the starting pitching which concerned some going into the second half, might be getting stronger.

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Thanks to Spring Noel for the photo of Alex Avila.

July 2011 Desktop Wallpaper

The mid-point of the season finds the Detroit Tigers a half-game in front of the Cleveland Indians.  The cursed inter-league schedule is nearly done and soon we'll be back to facing our divisional opponents.  

Justin Verlander was 6-0 in the month of June, so lets hope he continues that hot streak for the rest of the season, and that he can positively affect the rest of the pitching squad.

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Thanks to whitecapwendy for the photo of Justin Verlander.

July wallpaper

For anyone already looking for the July desktop wallpaper, I should have it up tomorrow, but definitely Friday at the latest.

June 2011 Desktop Wallpaper

As of today, the Tigers find themselves trying to catch the Indians at the top of the AL Central.  Their home record so far this year has been much better than their road record.  Fortunately, June has a lot of home series, which should help Detroit in the standings.

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Thanks to BeGreen90 for the photo of Victor Martinez

May 2011 Desktop Wallpaper

My apologies for the lateness of this post as real life has intervened as of late.  Unfortunately, this post finds the Tigers the losers of six straight games.  Let's hope that the month of May brings better results for the team.

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Many thanks to MatthwJ for the image of Ryan Raburn.

Opening Day 2011

Welcome to Opening Day 2011!  

 

This year, we have the privilege of our Detroit Tigers opening the season against the New York Yankees in New York.  It should be a chilly afternoon in the Big Apple, but I have a good feeling that the Tigers' bats are going to be hot today.

March / April 2011 Desktop Wallpaper

Baseball is back!  Spring Training is wrapping up with the final roster cuts being made this week.  Opening Day is just 8 days away, and I really hope this cold weather ends soon otherwise the players will be wearing parkas on the field.

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Many thanks to Russell for the image of Cabrera.

No Spring Training Wallpaper...but

I didn't have the time, energy, or the design finalized before the first Spring Training game, so I opted to forgo it this year.  However, I have gotten over my design block (Yay!), and will be posting the monthly wallpapers in a couple of weeks.

Drawing a blank

Typically this time of year, I would be in the process of designing the monthly desktop wallpapers.  Well, I'm drawing (pun not intended) a blank.  I usually get inspiration for my designs from design blogs, but I'm not finding anything that is hitting me.  

I'm sure I'll find something before Opening Day, but if you see anything that might work for a design, leave a comment.

 

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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