PECOTA has the Tigers winning the Central in about a fifth of the simulation scenarios.

A look at prospect Rudy Darrow

And he runs like Pudge now. The Polanco decision will be an interesting one and a lot will come down to how Scott Sizemore and Michael Hollimon fare.

Tomi not only is a UM cheerleader (Go Blue), but she also mentions that her best feature is her smile and she's a Tigers fan. And there is a photo gallery. And she's pre-med.

I just hope he doesn't try it more than 15-16 times.

Remarkable story about Carlos Guillen and some of the personal struggles he faced last year. It's hard not to like this guy.

A while back (when I had more time for writing about the Tigers) I wrote a preview piece for Razzball. It's up now, with one of my favorite video clips.

In these link posts there is one link that I say is a must-click. This is the one. Please read about Kyle's plans to try out for the Tigers this year. He did it last year as well and had a wonderful tale. This year he is doing it to raise money for the homeless in Lakeland Florida. Please read the story, and if you're a fellow blogger please consider linking it up.

Will it be Larish, Clevlen, or Raburn for the last roster spot? One of these things is not like the others. One of them hits left handed and can't play centerfield.

Verducci says the Tigers are a decent worst to first candidate. I have to agree.

More Inge-y goodness

I would only ad Bad Day – the Chipmunks version.

Are you a 4th grader? Do you know one? Curtis Granderson is looking for some art work for his new book.

Lee with more great sabermetric work. No surprise that Cabrera and Ordonez are the best on the team at driving in runners. It may surprise you though who was number 3.

Gerald Laird is good at limiting the running game, among the best actually.

The sad story of Juan Encarnacion.

Cartoony goodness from Samara. Great stuff.

Eddie likes the Indians approach to building a cache of potential bullpen arms. And it hasn't cost them a lot to do it.

Cabrera and Guillen have been asking Gillett to come down to Maracay. And everyone else is working out too.

Verlander has been added to the provisional roster. I'd just assume not see him rack up the innings in the spring.

It sounds like there is a "mutual interest" here and that Lyon would be open to various roles. The Tigers need help in the pen. Lyon would be help. This would be good.

Tigers sign 3 minor leaguers

Looks like Ian at BYB has himself a regular radio gig. Congrats Ian!

When is a line drive not a line drive?

RLYW is simulating the 09 season and the Tigers look to be about .500 – which is 2nd in the central.

Think the Tigers swung at too many first pitches last year? Did you know they were middle of the league in this regard?

WAR projections for the whole AL Central. Tigers are in the hunt.

How do things like temperature and wall height and foul territory impact park factors?

John Sickels top 20 list.

Thoughts and prayers to Mac Thomason, blogger at bravesjournal.com, who was just diagnosed with cancer.

Showing how much teams should be paying for those wins above replacement we've been talking about.

Curtis Granderson took in the Winter Classic. Hat tip @behindthejersey

A couple days old now, but the Indians picked up Mark DeRosa. It's a nice trade that gives the Indians a lot of flexibility in the infield, like moving Peralta to third and Cabrera to short. I had the Indians as a narrow favorite in the division, and this makes it less narrow.

Guillen plays just enough to get his feet wet, but with good results.

And the 2nd base rankings. Polanco=good

Lee has started aggregating the defensive rankings. Cabrera=not that bad.

The Everett signing finally became official. Dombrowski said that Everett will get the majority of the starts at shortstop. I'd guess majority would probably be 60-70%.

Remember when Bazardo was a 6th starter/reliever candidate for the Tigers. I wonder how much his father's unexpected death contributed to his disappointing season.

Any chance that source is a Tigers exec?

The Baseball Card Blog retires, and they go out with a bang. Seriously, check this out.

Eddie takes a look at everything that has happened since Edwin Jackson was considered a top prospect.

If you're interested in donating to save Tiger Stadium, and want others to know it, you can do it via stickers. Things are tight right now, so anything would probably be appreciated.

A song about Tiger Stadium.

Another week for the conservancy to come up with plans for the stadium as they try and raise $15 million.

The Tigers 3 prospects (James Skelton, Kyle Peter, and Andrew Hess) didn't make the top 20. But in the chat John Manuel notes that Peter is worth watching as a potential table setter with plus-plus speed.

A look at how catcher's fared blocking pitches. Pudge and Brandon Inge were both pretty awful. My catching target, Josh Bard, was ok.

As David pointed out in the comments the Fan Fielding Survey results are in. Interesting Santiago rates a 64 which is very close to the 61 that Renteria scored in the 2007 survey.

An Excel file with all of DD's trades, signings, and drafts.

A community based Tigers prospect list – ranking the top 30. It is named the Bluhm memorial list after Tigers fan Brian Bluhm who was tragically killed at Virginia Tech.

Samara expresses Tigers fans emotions – in genius cartoon form. Must read – and I mean it.

I remember when the Tigers traded Noochie to get Alex Sanchez.

A very respectable showing. He faded a little in September which probably kept him from finishing higher. Not bad for one of those trades that didn't mean anything over the winter.

TigsTown has started rolling their top 50 list (premium content). They're starting at the back end so no Porcello sightings yet 🙂

Our friend Lee contributed to the 2009 edition of the book The Graphical Player. And Samara provided the cover photo. Go Tigers bloggers.

BA ranks the Yankees top prospects. For those still wringing their hands about the Sheffield trade, none of the players the Tigers sent (Sanchez, Claggett, Whelan) made the top 10 or were even discussed in the chat. Claggett was recognized for having the best slider in their system though.

The Tigers have talked with Brandon Lyon's agent. I like it, not as in handing him the closer's job, but as in adding a bullpen arm for under $4 million. Lyon has a low K-rate but a very low walk rate as well. He was hurt by a very high BABIP last year that resulted in probably 15 more hits than would have been expected.

And another new Tigers blog worth introducing.

Just wanted to introduce a fairly new blog to the Tigers blog scene.

David Pinto has started rolling out PMR. I'll delve into this a little more as he posts more positions, but here is the aggregated data by team. The Tigers were 4 players below expected, which is a little better than I anticipated.

Nothing new here, but a reiteration that the Tigers are very high on Cale Iorg and are looking at a stop gap at shortstop. Also that there are a bunch of lefty relievers available, but the Tigers already have Bobby Seay and Clay Rapada and a statement from Dombrowski that Nate Robertson could end up in the pen as well.

The title kind of says it all.

A brief review of Tigers prospects.

Lee looks to see who carried the biggest stick, and it was a Tiger.

BA looks at the best lefty/righty combo's in the minors. Casey Crosby and Rick Porcello put the Tigers on the list at 10.

Six of the top seven Tigers in FIP+ were bullpen pitchers (and one was Jason Grilli). And the bullpen was pretty bad. Yeah, it wasn't a good season.

This is a couple days old now, but Rogers hasn't decided if he's retiring. I'm very thankful for what Kenny did in 2006. But 2008 was awful and I can't see a role for him on the 2009 edition. And don't say pitching coach. He got a lot of credit for that stuff in 06, but he wasn't able to help in that regard at all in 2008 – much like Chuck Hernandez.

For those wondering about how much big league service time Tigers have accrued. It is listed as x.yyy where x is the number of years and .yyy is the fractional part of the year expressed as the number of days. So 7.109 would mean 7 years and 109 days (there are 180 days in a big league season).

Beck spoke with Renteria's agent and the Tigers haven't had any additional contact. Renteria is looking towards pointing himself in a different direction.