Since I last posted the Tigers season ended, the Red Sox won a World Series, and the Tigers withdrew their offers to No. 1 pick Justin Verlander only to sign him a week later. All this without commentary. So here’s where I catch up.

Thoughts on Justin Verlander. When news came that the Tigers broke off negotiations I actually viewed it as a positive. Not that they wasted a first round pick, but that they weren’t going to be stupid with money. There was definite frustration that Greg Smith missed on assessing Verlander’s signability, but Verlander’s (or his agents) demands were unreasonable and I applaud the Tigers for risking getting burned in the public to stand their ground. Since Verlander’s dad came back to open up negotiations, and things got resolved quickly, it looks like the Tigers did the right thing.

Thoughts on the season You know what, it’s just too late to recap the season. I will say that I was pleased with the improvement. However, I think that the team still underperformed. Their offense and starting pitching were good enough to get them another half dozen wins. The good news is that the fans actually paid attention. The trick is to keep them interested next year. Another sub .500 season won’t cut it, and the coaching staff will feel the brunt of the heat.

Future of the Blog While I have taken hiatuses (hiatii?) in the past, I take pride in the fact that I’ve managed to keep this thing going through some pretty bad seasons. So I’m sure not going to stop now.

Without day to day Tiger news, I figured I needed something to write about to keep the blog from going dormant during the winter. Probably once or twice a week, I’ll be writing up a piece on Tiger players who have some question marks surrounding them. Mostly these question marks arise because of contract issues (the arb eligible players), or they are a player most likely to be traded (Maroth, Sanchez, Inge…). I’ve decided Craig Monroe will be first up.

Of course I’ll be commenting on free agent signings and free agent misses, as well as any trades or other transactions.

So I’m sorry about the delay, but hopefully you’ll still check in once a week or so and see what I’ve been up to.