A collection of observations, links, and items of note from the last week:
Ownership
How many times did we hear this year that the Tigers own the Twins, and the White Sox own the Tigers? Now a popular refrain is that the A’s are a more favorable first round opponent than the Yankees because the Yankees own the Tigers. (I’m not questioning that the A’s are more favorable, just the reasoning). Now did anybody notice that the Tigers went 7-7 over their last 14 games against those same White Sox who owned them. Or more troubling, that the Tigers went 8-8 over their last 16 games against those Twins who they owned?
As for the Tigers 2-5 record against the Yankees, keep in mind that 5 of those games were decided by 2 runs or less or went to extra innings. And as for that last series, the Tigers were outscored by a whopping 2 runs (11-9) over 3 games in the Bronx.
Getting loaded
Since September 15th the Tigers have had 16 at-bats with the bases loaded, or a little more than one a game. During the mighty slump, spanning August 8th to September 14th (34 games) the Tigers only had 12 at-bats with the bases loaded.
I’m not even worried about how they did in those stretches. It’s all about the opporutunities.
Links and such
- Studes from the Hardball Times has handed out his defensive hardware. Taking home top honors were Brandon Inge and Pudge Rodriguez. Curtis Granderson received honorable mention in centerfield.
- Carl Crawford’s name is back in trade rumors. Baseball Musings compiles an interesting profile of Crawford. Of course the Tigers came up, but some of that speculation involves Justin Verlander which ain’t gonna happen.
- The Baseball Hall of Fame released it’s Veteran’s Committee Ballot. Mickey Lolich is eligible this go-round.
- Not Tiger related, but I wanted to point you to a baseball site called Knuckle Curve. It is a general baseball blog written by my friend Geoff Young of the Padres blog Duck Snorts.
Site News
You may have noticed in the top navigation I’ve added something called Features and removed Roster. I had a number of things to highlight, and I figured it was easier to do it all in one place.
Also, I posted the 2007 schedule earlier, but I understand there were some problems downloading it. This one should work much better for you. Given Jim Leyland’s recent comments though, I think it’s clear that he’d just assume it go away altogether.
Finally, thanks for your continued support and vigorous commenting. This has really been a lot of fun for me this year and I’m getting more visitors than I ever imagined I would.
You forgot the Gambler as the top fielding pitcher! Although it does seem like he’s made several bad errors this year.
Rob Neyer notes that there’s been only one successful stolen base against Rogers this year. (It’s Insider content, but this bit is in the preview text.)
link
And thank you for making the site. I’m glad to have a place with knowledgable fans to read daily.
Bilfer, it appears that buying a book from Amazon via your “Book Shelf” list benefits you financially. Does this apply to any of the other links to commercial sites?
Just curious what options we have to more concretely express our appreciation for the site. It’s great to have one place to get all the news we need plus the chance to exchange our thoughts with other Tigers fans.