Today happens to be Lou Whitaker’s birthday, and Lou happens to be my favorite Tiger of all time. In other news that is mildly coincidental, Charlie Gehringer’s birthday was yesterday. The two greatest second basemen in Tiger history were born only one day, (and 54 years) apart.

Moving on…

The Tigers have gained quite a bit of national attention lately. They’ve been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and a bunch of other places. Now we know they’ve really made it with an appearance in the Onion. (thanks to Jim for the heads up)

“In all the years I’ve known Jim, I don’t think I have once heard him mention anything about the Tigers, but now that they’re good again, he’s walking around in a Tigers cap every day,” said Roger Lussier, a longtime friend

If you like splits, and you like the minor leagues, you’re going to love this. Brew Crew Ball has a database of minor league splits available for perusal. It’s like Baseball Musings Day by Day database, but for prospects.

Lee has taken a look at how the AL Central teams stack up in a variety of categories. It’s easy to see why the White Sox have had success in that they are top 5 in every category.

Baseball by Paul is a newer blog that has been running some in depth reports on each game. Paul is an occasional commentor here, and I encourage you to check out his site. Of course the day I choose to link to him, he announces he’s off until Monday, but that just means you have time to catch up.

Baseball Analysts has a paragraph about the Tigers farm system. I think he’s not expecting the Tigers to remain in contention.

Detroit Tigers – This is a very hard system to get a feel for, with an odd blend of prospects. In terms of upside, the top two talents are definitely Cameron Maybin and Humberto Sanchez. The Tigers have dealt with bad pitching for so long, it’s interesting that Jim Leyland has been handed a rotation of fireballers. Sanchez always seems to be too inconsistent as a starter, but even more so than Joel Zumaya, I think he could make a dynamite reliever. Trying Zumaya and Jordan Tata in the rotation, while filling their bullpen slots with Sanchez might be a good late-season experiment for the Tigers.