The Detroit Tigers today announced the club has agreed to terms with righthanded pitchers Chad Durbin, Zach Miner, Jordan Tata and Joel Zumaya, lefthanded pitcher Wilfredo Ledezma, infielders Tony Giarratano and Chris Shelton and outfielders Brent Clevlen and Marcus Thames. Plus they renewed Jason Grilli’s contract for 2007. This means that everyone on the 40 man roster has a contract for 2007.
Category Archives: 2007 Season
Spring Training: Phillies at Tigers
For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. – Song of Solomon 2:11-12
Play Ball!
It seemed only appropriate to channel Ernie Harwell with the first radio broadcast of the year today.
I won’t be doing game threads for all of spring training, but I wanted a reason to post the voice of the turtle.
Game time 1:05pm.
This time it counts…a tiny bit
So while yesterday was the exhibition to the exhibition season, this one was against the New York Mets, a bona fide big league club. And the Tigers won. Mack Avenue Tigers has the wrap-up so I won’t duplicate it here. I will just point out good games for Marcus Thames, Curtis Granderson, and Andrew Miller and a pretty rough game for Neifi Perez.
Because of research and video blogs and interviews, I’m a full week behind on links and such so I’ll try to catch-up.
Scott Sizemore – credit Roger Dewitt
Pictures
When the big club is away, the kids will play. Roger DeWitt caught some of the action so if you want to see the possible Tigers of the distant future, you can see Dallas Trahern, Jeff Larish, and Audy Ciriaco (who I’m hoping has a big year) sporting Tigers road garb.
Continue reading This time it counts…a tiny bit
Drawing for Tigers Opening Day tickets
Opening Day tickets won’t be going on sale on March 3rd like the rest of individual game tickets. With a Comerica Park record 16,500 full season equivalent ticket packages sold, it means there aren’t a whole lot of Opening Day tickets left for the general public. Instead the club will hold a drawing.
The Opening Day registration period begins at 9 a.m. (ET) on Friday, March 2 on the team’s website, www.tigers.com. The registration period ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, March 11. The random drawing will take place early in the week of March 12 with winners being notified by e-mail no later than Friday, March 16. Winners will be eligible to purchase two tickets for Opening Day.
There is no charge to register for this opportunity and no obligation to buy a ticket. There is no assurance that any particular registrant will be selected. Winners may not transfer this purchase opportunity.
Fans who do not have Internet access can still register for the random online ticket drawing by calling (313) 471-BALL (2255) and working with a sales representative from the Tigers to complete the form. Winners who registered on the phone would be contacted by a member of the Tigers sales staff after the drawing.
If you miss out on Opening Day you can always try for the second game, April 4th when the team will pass out American League Championship rings.
And if you’re wondering, the price for Opening Day tickets on StubHub is up to $99 $120.
It’s a boxscore!
I know it was an only an exhibition before exhibition season, but it still resulted in a game, with 9 innings, and live pitching – and a boxscore. That’s right, fresh stats are fresh stats, even if they are irrelevant.
But let’s work our way through it anyways.
What’s not to like about Granderson leading off with a home run? Or how about Marcus Thames playing first base and knocking 3 doubles. Cameron Maybin with 2 hits of his own. Ryan Raburn going yard. A shut out by the pitching staff is always nice. And an error free day by a number of defensive subs. Neifi even had a big hit. The only downside is that the Tigers didn’t pick up a walk – I kid of course.
Now I’m not making too much out of this. I’m actually not making anything out of this. A two touchdown win doesn’t mean anymore than the 1 run win last year. I’m just taking enjoyment from the fact that we are one step closer to the beginning of the season.
DTW-TV: A position battle worth watching
You guys were too kind last week, so I’m doing this video thing again. In episode 2 of Detroit Tigers Weblog TV I highlight what I think will be the most interesting position battle in Lakeland this year.
Watch: Detroit Tigers Weblog TV – Episode 2 (9 Mb, 4:14)
Subscribing
As always you can subscribe to all Detroit Tigers Weblog posts in your favorite feedreader using:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/thedetroittigerweblog
But if you want a feed with just the video for subscription in a podcatcher like iTunes, you can grab just DTW-TV with:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/detroittigersweblog-tv
References
Chris Shelton’s Defense
2005 Spring Training Stats
2006 Spring Training Stats
Marcus Thames & Chris Shelton
Tigers leave Ticketmaster?
It appears that the Ticketmaster won’t be handling Detroit Tigers ticket sales this year. If you’ve purchased spring training tickets you may have noticed that the process was hosted by tickets.com and driven by an MLB account.
I’m not sure what the resulting fees will be, but the impact looks to be:
- There’s a new phone number: 866-66-TIGER (866-668-4437)
- Individual tickets will be available 3 ways on March 3rd at 10:00am. 1. Online at Tigers.com, 2. In person at the Tigers box office, 3. Over the phone. You will no longer be able to go to a Ticketmaster outlet.
- Because it is a frenzy online when the tickets go on sale and you only have minutes to get your information in, you may want to create an MLB.com account ahead of time – and log in.
The fact that it requires an MLB.com account makes this feel like a MLBAM initiative and less of a team specific thing.
If the fees are less this will certainly be a positive for Tigers fans. And in doing a dry run with spring training tickets it appears the the captcha is actually legible. There is nothing like the frustration of not being able to even decipher the text you need to type in.
Baby it’s cold outside – Tigers 2007 Spring Training round-up
This is what a month old ice sculpture looks like
I was getting jealous of all the reporters and photographers down there in Lakeland taking in baseball and sun and palm trees. So I did the best I could and went to Comerica Park today to take pictures of ice sculptures…Leftover from Tigerfest…Which was a month ago. So stop complaining Wojo if it’s unseasonably cool in Lakeland. (Seriously, I took these pictures today.)
On to the link-a-thon
Carlos Guillen
An extension for Guillen is the only item remaining on the Tigers checklist. It is also a popular topic of discussion. This is a bigger topic than I’m going to tackle in a round-up post. Kurt has it covered anyways. I will say that I don’t think Guillen will sign here with the intention of playing first base. Just because he filled in there last year, doesn’t mean that is his likely destination – at least not for the next 3-4 years.
Random Stuff
- Inge gets, Inge gives
- George Kell gets in an accident. George has had a rough couple years.
- Rodriguez isn’t slowing down. Barring a pretty major trade, the Tigers will most assuredly pick up Pudge’s option for 2008. It’s a $13 million option with a $5milion buyout. With no replacement in site, and Pudge being still quite productive this is kind of a no-brainer.
Spring Training 2007 Day 2 wrap-up
photo from Det News
I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing this every day, but for the time being there is enough interesting stuff coming out…
Men looking at other men
Nothing like spring training to encourage men to comment on other men’s physiques. In the case of Todd Jones he dropped a few pounds. In the case of Curtis Granderson, he’s been getting reviews that he has bulked up.
Danny Knobler talked to him about it, and apparently he’s only 3lbs heavier than last season. I’d say this is quite believable. When I’ve seen pictures of Granderson in street clothes, or seen him up close, he looks much bigger than he does standing in the batters box. I don’t know if it’s the stance or if he wears his uniform extra baggy. Plus there is something about the angle of that picture.
Kyle Sleethcredit Roger DeWitt
Kyle Sleeth
The topic du jour today was Kyle Sleeth and his attempt to regain his prospect status. Sleeth of course was the Tigers first round pick in 2003 and in 2005 underwent Tommy John surgery. He struggled last year as he came back from injury, but has been a regular at the Tigertown compound. The good news is that Jim Leyland seemed encouraged by Sleeth’s progress.
All Lakeland
If you’re heading down to Lakeland, check out Lakeland Local. You’ll get everything you need to know about the city.
Quotable
“I don’t think he’s buying a lot of foamy Gillette.”
Spring Training 2007 Day 1 wrap-up
PFP
The first day of spring training every year brings pitchers fielding practice. Today was no different, except for the fact that there were 50 media assembled to see if the Tigers pitchers could throw the ball to third base. Now let’s move on.
credit: Roger DeWitt
They wear many hats
That section headline reminds me of a clue that Chuck Woolery would have given on Scrabble back in the day. In this case though it refers to the new hats the Tigers are sporting. Either New Era or the Tigers have added goofy white detailing the the Tigers BP hats. Not really a big fan and I can’t imagine fans clamoring to buy them. I’ll keep an eye on Uniwatch for more information.
Three out of 10 GMs prefer Yankees
MLB.com polled the 30 general managers to get their preseason picks for World Series champs. The Yankees and Red Sox dominated getting 17 of the 30 votes, but 2 GMs picked the Tigers.
“With the pitching staff they have and adding Sheffield makes the Tigers an easy favorite for me,” one manager said.
Added another: “As long as that pitching holds up, they’re the team to beat.”
Larrison outrighted to Toledo
Preston Larrison – credit Roger DeWitt
Preston Larrison had his contract outrighted to Toledo today. He’ll be a non-roster invitee to the major league camp. Larrison was designated for assignment last week to make way for Yorman Bazardo.
As Brian wrote Larrison was out of options. He was a longshot to make the club which meant the Tigers would have had to go through this exercise sooner or later anyways. By getting it done now, it may have increased the team’s chances of keeping him. If he’s a late season cut maybe someone looking for help takes a flyer on him.
Video: Spring Training Eve
With pitchers and catchers reporting on the 15th, I thought I would try out the first (and depending on feedback perhaps only) edition of DTW-TV.
It is me talking into a camera pretty much off the cuff. I make up for the lack of production quality with a lack of insight so it should be okay.
In tonight’s episode I talk about that despite how excited we are for spring training to begin, it’s probably best if we are bored during February and March this year.
Download: Detroit Tigers Weblog TV – Spring Training Eve – 4:10 – 9.7Mb