Season Preview: Detroit Tigers

Well we've got 21 days left until Opening Day, which means it's season preview time. We'll be running it down team by team, with an added new wrinkle this time around: the beer of choice for fans of the team to enjoy whilst watching their team take the field! Nothing like that to help get you through a baseball season, especially if you're from Pittsburgh. Up next: the Detroit Tigers


Lineup: We don't see this group being especially good. Miguel Cabrera is the star here, but he doesn't have much in the way of support. Johnny Damon is the big name addition, but he's only a 3 WAR player, and unless Austin Jackson starts to develop in a hurry, the Damon-Jackson-Magglio Ordonez outfield doesn't pose too much of a threat. Rookie Scott Sizemore will start the season at second base, and has drawn comparisons to Dustin Pedroia, but we wouldn't expect too much out of the first-year guy. Adam Everett, his double-play partner, is one of the best in the business with the glove, but is a very weak hitter. Brandon Inge is reportedly healthy for the first time in years, but he's also getting pretty old and doesn't bring much to the table hitting-wise considering that he's a third baseman. Carlos Guillen is in a similar situation as Inge, as he struggled with injuries last season and needs to return to form - which he may be able to do as a full-time DH. And Gerald Laird is a waste of ABs at catcher.


Rotation: Justin Verlander is a Cy Young-level guy, Rick Porcello had a solid rookie season and should figure to improve, and Max Scherzer is a high-ceiling fireballer who we think is a bit underrated by most. Beyond those three, you're looking at an array of marginal talent and injury risks. Jeremy Bonderman is getting what is probably his last chance to prove that his career hasn't been ruined by a litany of arm and nerve injuries, Armando Galarraga got by on luck for awhile, and in Dontrelle Willis and and Nate Robertson, the team has two lefties with embarrassing contracts.  You could do worse than to have three good starters, but if this team has any aspirations beyond divisional competition, they're going to need to get somebody good.


Bullpen: One of the worst units in the league last year, the team hopes that the addition of former Houston closer Jose Valverde and the return of Joel Zumaya will provide a boost this year. But beyond those two, and Daniel Schlereth, many of the same faces remain, including Fu-Te Ni, the man with the shortest last name in baseball history. So that's neat. Anyway, this is a fairly average unit overall we'd say. But then it's just about impossible to project bullpens.


Overall: If this were a younger team, there'd be a lot to like about their chances for the future.  There's talent to be had all around, particularly in the youthful core of Verlander, Porcello, Scherzer, Cabrera, Jackson and Sizemore, but the other pieces don't really fit. Damon and Ordonez are both gone after the season, they don't have a viable catcher, and there's not much coming up in the system. 2010 may be their last chance to compete for awhile, but the chances of that happening don't look too great.


Predicted Record: 83-79, 2nd place AL Central


Beer: Heineken. Overpriced because of the foreign flavor - reminiscent of the Magglio Ordonez situation, where the Tigers had a chance to hold him to less than 540 ABs and save themselves $18MM. They didn't, and instead are stuck paying his bloated salary for this season, like the guy who just can't help himself for shelling out for Heiny.

MLB Jam: AL Edition

Well, this started as a post that was going to compile information about all the arbitration-eligible players in the league, like what they were being offered/countering with, what they signed for, etc. After all, a lot happens very quickly around this time of year. But then we found out that the indispensable Cot's Baseball Contracts is already doing just that. Sometimes, we just don't know why we bother.

But in any event we went through the trouble of logging in here, so, hey, might as well write something, right? A couple of days ago, over at our other gig on MLB Notebook, we briefly tossed out the idea of creating an MLB version of NBA Jam - hence the goofy title of this post. At the time, we weren't really sure how such a thing would work. Should we pick the two guys who'd be best at hoops, or the most representative players of the team regardless of hooping ability? If we did consider basketball skills, was there any chance that we could avoid charges of racism*? Should we look at baseball skills?

*Short answer: certainly not. Longer answer: certainly not, but it's not like we've got an enormous readership clamoring for controversy.

With no real answer in sight, we decided that this was probably a pretty silly idea. But then!

Well, no, there is no but then! moment. We're still fairly sure this is a dumb idea. But we're going to try to play it relatively straight, and pick the two guys who we think would make for a decent 2-on-2 team from each team's 40-man roster. Will it work? Well, that's for you to decide.

AL East
Baltimore Orioles: Matt Wieters and Brian Matusz

• Sliced bread, of course, is the greatest thing since Matt Wieters, and if Matusz can toss entry passes like a baseball, this team could get by on some Stockton/Malone mojo. They'll be a bit 'tweener-sized, since both are 6'5'', but they might be a nice darkhorse.

Boston Red Sox: Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia 

• The Sox are just not a very tall team - Dustin Richardson (whom we've never heard of ) is the tallest at 6'6''. So we're gonna go small ball with this team - Ellsbury's legs will play well at the point, and Pedroia seems like that annoying bastard at the Y who plays dirty and hits enough shots to feel secure in taunting everyone about it.

New York Yankees: Andrew Brackman and CC Sabathia

• Brackman is at least 6'10'' (he was listed at 7'0'' in the Cape Cod League) so he's a natural choice to be the big man for the Yankee squad. And have you ever seen a fat man play basketball who doesn't hit shots like it's his job? We haven't. And we're writing this. So there.

Tampa Bay Rays: Carl Crawford and Jeff Niemann

• Crawford gets the nod over the uber-athletic Desmond Jennings because he's got about 40 pounds on the guy. Niemann makes it because he's 6'9''. We also considered Matt Garza because of the aforementioned douche-factor that got Pedroia a spot, but we decided that Garza's more like the kind of guy that people on his own team resent during pickup games.

  Toronto Blue Jays: Jason Frasor and Mark Rzepczynski

• We know it looks like this team will suck. But Jason Frasor's brother, Bobby Frasor, is the point guard at North Carolina, and Rzepczynski has a first-rate fitness program. So all we're saying here is that this team could be a dark horse.

AL Central
Chicago White Sox: Brent Lillibridge and John Danks

• "Baby Face" Brent Lillibridge is on the team because he looks sort of incredibly fragile, so he'll be able to draw plenty of charging calls against the bigger, badder teams. Danks' brother, Jordan, is an excellent athlete in center field, so maybe big bro John was blessed with some of that, too. What we're saying is, it's slim pickings on this team.

Cleveland Indians: Fausto Carmona and Justin Masterson

• We're going big with these guys. Carmona, a 6'5'' sinkerballer, should be able to throw a mean bounce pass - assuming he doesn't miss wildly every time. Masterson's 6'6'', and that's literally the only reason we can think of to put him on here. But unless Shin-Soo Choo has some Jeremy Lin in him, we're sort of at a loss for the rest of these guys.

Detroit Tigers: Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello

• Couple of tall young guns here. We figure that since they're a pair of starting pitchers, they both spend plenty of their copious downtime with one another, and so have a good chemistry. Now let's all start pretending that "chemistry" has still never been used to settle an issue on this here blog.  

Kansas City Royals: Yuniesky Betancourt and Jason Kendall

• Sorry, but when a team is fielding two of the worst regular players in the league, they sort of have to be on the same team together. But, hey, at least Kendall has that Veteran Presence, eh? Let's just hope he doesn't break an ankle.

Minnesota Twins: Joe Mauer and Pat Neshek

• Sort of the same reasoning here as with the Orioles...what, exactly, can't Joe Mauer do? And would Pat Neshek's sidearm game translate to roundball? And has anyone ever won a game while listening to Livin' on a Prayer? Stay tuned!

AL West
Los Angeles Angels: Jered Weaver and Reggie Willits

• Weaver, at 6'7'', would be one of the tallest players in this silly little contest. Willits has himself a speedy pair of legs, and since the other choices were the oft-injured Howie Kendrick and old Bobby Abreu, we took Willits. Though it would be funny to watch Fernando Rodney repeatedly throw chest passes into the crowd...that is, if he's not still standing on the mound in the Metrodome.  

Oakland Athletics: Jack Cust and Jerry Blevins

• Cust's Three True Outcomes game at the plate clearly translates to the hardcourt like so: HR -> slam dunk; BB -> puppy two-footer; K -> missed three-pointer. Not the worst guy in the world to have on your team. Blevins is 6'6''. We're starting to see that size is something of a premium in MLB, so instead of going with the speedier Eric Patterson or Rajai Davis, we're gonna pick height. This is gonna be a plodding team, so for their sake, we may have to play half-court. 

Seattle Mariners: Milton Bradley and Franklin Gutierrez

• Would you want to foul Bradley and get him angry? That's what we thought. And Gutierrez - a.k.a. Death to Flying Things - would clearly pull down every rebound in sight, and probably block a few shots as well. 

Texas Rangers: Nelson Cruz and Elvis Andrus

• We're dipping into the defense theme again with Andrus, but Cruz is the real threat here. He's a stocky guy, at 230, but he's also got speed to burn, having stolen 20 bases last season. 

So there you have it. Feel free to let us know if you can think of better choices for any of the spots - we promise we won't be offended. Oh, and stay tuned for the NL version at some point in the near future. We hope.

Yesterday's Players of Note

Every day we're going to mention 5 or so players (we're not much for hard and fast rules around here) whose performance in the day before warrants mention.  They aren't listed in any particular order, and it could be for reasons good or bad; the only caveat is that it has to be on the field work.  Players of Note will not, for example, cover dudes who get trashed and get arrested for peeing in the street (here's looking at you, Jake!).  You know, unless it's a really fun story.  Like we said: hard and fast...not so much.

Justin Verlander:  Yeah, Verlander got knocked around yesterday, to the tune of 8 hits, 8 runs (all earned), and 2 free passes in 3.2 innings, but he also recorded 4 K's.  So, kiddies who aren't much for math, that's a little over a K an inning.  Also, according to the MLB At Bat app (which is pretty awesome), he was consistently working at 96-100 MPH, which is what he was hitting when he was receiving Cy consideration.  And he was even doing it from the stretch, which impressed us all the more.  We consider this a good sign that he is on the way to rebounding from the mechanical disaster that was last year.  Now someone tell him to stop leaving pitches in the zone.

Carlos Zambrano: PNH (post-no hitter), Zambrano was awful in '08.  In the last few starts of the year, like in the first few, he lost his arm angle, velo, and control.  He got knocked around in the playoffs as well, contributing to the Cubs' early exit last year.  On Opening Day, though, he looked solid: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 6 K.  His control isn't all the way back yet, but it's early; we're encouraged by the 90-93 mph sinking fastballs he was hurling.  Big Z needs to get back to the form he showed in his younger days if the Cubs have any real hope of turning this potent team into a champion.

Adam Lind: Besides Travis Snider, Lind is the closest thing the Jays have to a slugger.  He got the job done yesterday, knocking Verlander and the Tigers' 'pen around to the tune of a donger and 3 singles.  Why, if he keeps up that pace, you can forget about the Jays having a weak offense; Lind alone would drive in 972 runs.  Don't you love statistics?

Tony Clark/Felipe Lopez: We're cheating a little bit by including them both, but the duo jacked two unlikely tater tots apiece, so they ate plenty last night.  We say the homers were unlikely because...well, because it's Tony the Tiger and Felipe the...Frolicker?, because Aaron Cook's usually got a better sinker going than to allow the pair of ding dongs that he did, and OHBYTHEWAY they both hit one jack from each side of the plate.  Five (5) round trippers on the day for the D'backs.

Felix Hernandez: The King was outstanding last night, holding an admittedly impotent Twins lineup to 1 run on 5 hits and 3 walks in 8 shutdown innings.  He also K'd 6, including Michael Cuddyer 3 times.  Good start for Felix; hopefully he builds on this and makes a real bid for Cy Young contention.  'Cause lord knows there's not much else for M's fans these days.