Lynn Henning spoke Dombrowski who further reiterated that the Tigers aren't in salary dumping mode. I think we knew this, but it hasn't stopped the dozens of articles that include "and the Tigers who are being forced to shed salary…"
Matt Wallace has been looking at past Tigers drafts over the last month. I missed all of these posts because it seems as if the MVN network tweaked the RSS feed settings so I hadn't been getting updates. Check out his site and the work over the last month.
Ian Casselberry debunks nonsensical speculation (not even a rumor) about a Miguel Cabrera for Mike Lowell/Jonathon Papelbon trade proposed by Ken Rosenthal.
Dayn Perry kept insisting that the Tigers needed to upgrade over Fernando Rodney last year. This offseason he's still pushing for the Tigers to get a closer recommending they get Billy Wagner.
I have a hard time disliking Greinke. He's just phenomenal. Now I like him even more after he told the NY Times he pitches "to try to keep my FIP as low as possible"
Zach Greinke deservedly won the Cy Young with Justin Verlander placing 3rd between Felix Hernandez and Roy Halladay. I figure that's about right. But Verlander did receive 1 first place vote and it came from Detroit beat writer Steve Kornacki who defended his choice. Yes there is some homerism in the pick, but not as blatant as with the Ordonez/A-rod scenario in 2007. I suppose there probably is some value in pitching in big games – which Greinke really didn't do and Verlander did well. For me it's not enough to push him over Greinke, but I can see where Steve is coming from.
If you're like me and don't have MLB Network, you missed out on Ernie Harwell's appearance with Bob Costas last night. Jason Beck does his best to capture the highlights. Many of the stories we know. The beauty is in hearing Ernie tell them.
Chris Jaffe has written a new book profiling managers. Based on this excerpt about former Tigers manager Billy Martin, it is definitely a book I'll be adding to my Christmas list.
Kurt looks at the arbitration question marks the Tigers face. I think they offer Rodney and Lyon. I think if they offer Polanco it isn’t to get the draft picks, it’s because they want him back.
The official rankings are out. Eddie Bajek has been forecasting this stuff all season and out of all of MLB he only missed on 6 players. That was due to a playing time discrepancy. Pretty impressive stuff.
A recent Tigers topic is Edwin Jackson’s 2nd half and whether it shows Jackson has improved this year as much as we think or if the first half was a fluke. (with links to related analysis).
Ryan Raburn has been an offensive boon against left handers as he’s taken the bulk of the left field playing time when southpaws are on the mound. With Guillen swinging the stick right handed will that change? I doubt it, just more pinch hitting opportunities for Guillen.
More great Ernie stuff, this from a national perspective. Ernie wasn’t putting a timeline on things before, but it sounds now like it will be about 3 months.
A call for the Tigers to re-adopt the stoned looking Tiger in the circle logo (I love this logo). As an aside, check out the Bayside Tiger logo from Saved by the Bell. See if it looks familiar to you.
An excellent piece by Beck around the Tigers impact on the region. I'm not big on the "the region really needs this, take pity on us" angle to sports that popped up around the Final 4 and Stanley Cup playoffs. This article didn't go all the way down that path thankfully. But I did love reading about the awareness on the part of the players and the role they play this summer. I think the Tigers do have quite a few "good guys." This comes from the way they conduct themselves at the park and around fans and a few brief personal encounters I've had. It could be crap, but I believe it. If the Tigers can do anything down the stretch the potential for the mutual lovefest that we experienced on a Saturday night against the Yankees in 2006 could come tumbling back – and boy would it be welcomed.
I wonderfully in depth look at the ramifications of offering or not offering Placido Polanco arbitration. I think if he's a type b you offer him, type a and it gets really fuzzy. I still think many of the Tigers decisions will come down to how deep they play into October (and the $$ that comes with that).
Tigers everywhere. Verlander best fastball, Zumaya second. Verlander best curve. Cabrera 3rd best hitter. Laird and Polanco make the list as best defenders at their position.
Zumaya and optimism don't really belong in any headline, but things look good for the pitcher returning. He'll even be traveling with the team on this roadie.
Looking at Fien's debut with Pitch f/x magic. Notice the location plot. I only count 2 pitches in the middle of the strike zone. The rest were at the edges. Me likes.
Lee takes a look at the numbers to find out that the Tigers actually do have some clutch hitting ability – despite what we saw in the first 6 games after the break.
Check out point 4. It seems as if Henning is calling Granderson out a little bit using terms like "honeymoon should have been over long ago" and "needs to make baseball his fixation"