20-2, do those numbers mean anything to you? If they don't they should. That was the combined record of the Tigers top 2 (Verlander and Fister) starters Post All Star game last year. Those kinda of numbers are usually only heard of in MLB The Show! Verlander went 12-1 and Fister went 8-1 which helped propel the Tigers from a dogfight that was the AL Central at the end of July to a cruise control Divisional Championship title for the 1st time since 1987! Of course there were reinforcements to go along with those two big boys and we'll take a look at them today and what we can expect going forward in 2012.
As we sit here a mere 2.5 weeks away from Pitchers and Catchers reporting to Lakeland (and my happiness being restored) 4 of the 5 starting rotation spots are spoken for, they are of course Verlander,Fister,Scherzer, and Porcello. The 5th spot appears that it is going to come down to a camp battle between one of the young guys even with some decent veteran arms still out on the FA market. Some of those arms wouldn't be a terrible risk (Jackson, Harden, or Brandon Webb). The one pitcher who I was hoping they'd attempt to sign this off season was Paul Malholm. Nothing fancy but a decent LHP who eats innings! Now let's take a look at how the front 4 are going to shape up.
1) Justin Verlander The unquestioned best SP in the League last year will be looking to build off of his record setting year where he went 24-5 with a 0.92 WHIP and a 2.40 ERA along with an astronomical 250 strikeouts and a .192 BAA. Some of the most impressive stats about Verlander are the opposing SP he was up against. I know that you don't pitch against the opposing pitchers, but when those opposing pitchers are the other teams Aces' there is no doubt you have to be on your A game that night on the bump. Another crazy fact is of his 5 loses 4, that's right 4 were against the paltry AL West, it should be noted that the 1-0 to LAA on July 5 should belong to "Cowboy" Joe West for the BRUTAL call that lead to the 1 Angel run that night. When I look back to his year last year I think his defining moment and where he really hit the map as the best in the league wasn't necessarily his NO NO against the Jays in May (which was the best sporting event I ever attended in my life), but rather the game in Comerica against the Angels on July 31where he battled Jared Weaver and went 8 innings giving up 2 Runs, 0 Earned and the Tigs made Jared Weaver lose his marbles. has Guillen's HR even landed yet?
2) Doug Fister He came over from the Seattle Mariners at the deadline and immediately taught everybody How to Dougie! He made 10 starts (1 Relief appearance) when he came to Detroit pitching 70 innings and compiling a .084 WHIP, 1.74 ERA and a .206 BAA while racking up 57 K. He was the reliable arm that DD had been looking for for quite sometime to slot in behind JV and take some of the load off of him. The most impressive stat to me of Fister's is that everybody knew he was a control pitcher, but issuing JUST 5 BB...that's right 5 BB in 70 innings is unheard of! That's some Greg Maddux type of control right there. Allowing only 5 free passes in 70.1 innings was key as everybody knows that the Tigs D was suspect last year and will continue to below average this year. It's a simple formula keeping runners off of the base paths will give you success in The Show!
3) Max Scherzer I've been waiting for Maxwell to reach his potential since coming to the Tigs at the end of the 2009 season. The guy has an electric slider a plus fastball and a average change piece. The thing is though it seems like every game at least one of those pitches isn't there for him. He needs to be a more consistent pitcher and maybe take a page out of JV's book, strikeouts are nice and sexy, but getting outs early in the count saves your energy and saves your pitch count which will allow you to pitch deeper into games and put less wear and tear on your arm! Max could go out on any given night and toss a 7 inning 2 run gem, and then the next game go out and get lit up for 7 runs in 2+ innings against the Mariners anaemic offence! Bottom line for him is that I feel like this is the year that he has to show more consistency, improve the change up and not have the slider flatten out so often.
4) Rick Porcello When he made the roster out of Spring Training in 2009 everybody (including myself) expected him to make the transition to the bigs without a glitch. We need to remember that he just turned 23 last month. I don't know too many 23 year olds who can go out there every 5 days and have total control of a major league ball game every time. We all know the book on him: he has a heavy sinker that he relies on A LOT...sometimes too much. I'd like to see him get a true swing and a miss pitch which is what he is lacking right now. Last year was a tale of 2 different types of seasons. He was AWFUL in months April, June, and August with his lowest ERA in any of those months being April at 4.25. He was on fire in months May, July, and September with his best month being July going 5-0 with a 3.06 ERA and a WHIP of 1.05. Ultimately I would like to see him as a 15-9, 3.75 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP for a full season and if that happens I think that all Tigers fans would be quite happy with that.
Here are my predictions for the 4 starters mentioned above for the 2012 season
1) Verlander 19-6, 1.17 WHIP, 2.60 ERA and 235 K
2) Fister 17-8, 1.25 WHIP, 3.45 ERA and 155 K
3) Scherzer 15-9, 1.30 WHIP, 4.15 ERA and 190 K
4) Porcello 12-10, 1.35 WHIP, 4.40 ERA and 125 K
If we add those up it's a 63-33 record for our top 4 SP. To make the playoffs you generally need 70-75 W out of your starting rotation so if the 5th starter can manage even a .500 record at say 10-10 would put the Tigers at a 73-43 record. Add in 20 wins from the 'pen (it had 22 last year) and that's a 93 W team which should be good enough to win the AL Central in 2012!
Oh and in case anybody wants to see my favourite moment from the 2011 season click here
Where I fell in love
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Monday, 30 January 2012
Please Forgive Me....
Hello!
First of all to the 5 people who read this blog I would like to take the time to apologize for going 6ish months without posting. I can assure you that that will not happen again, I promise at least 1 blog post per week!
So with that said let's get down to business....
The end of the Tigers 2011 season was bittersweet for many fans and it left us wondering "what if". What if ALAL could have thrown strikes, what if Mags didn't shatter his ankle again, what if Max could have gotten out of game 2 with the lead, what if Nelson Cruz didn't make me say a string of curses every time he came up that would make a sailor blush, what if Avila and V mart had 2 legs to stand on..you get the point. Our beloved Tigs were downed in 6 games to Texas in the ALCS.
I think that if you would have asked any Tiger fan back on March 31 if they would have been happy watching the boys of summer play ball into the middle of October nearly every one would have said HELL YA, but might not happen. It did and it was a magical ride. Last season was even more fun that the magical 2006 season for me anyway.
Heading into the off season we fans knew that their needed to be some changes to the roster to make us legit contenders, not just to win the Central, but to advance to the Fall Classic. *Side note, I'm not saying it's a given that the Tigs will be there in in October of 2012* DD has gone and made some of those changes necessary. Gone are grizzled old vets who were fan favourites such as Mags, and Guillen. Penny, Perry,Zumaya, V Mart (for 2012) also will be joining Mags and Carlos in not wearing the Old English D on the field this year. But let's look into who will be:
1B) Prince Fielder. It's no secret Prince signed a looooooonnnnnnggggggg deal worth a lot of Pizza's to come here and that sort of set off a musical chairs feeling with some people switching positions, but I think this deal is going to pay HUGE dividends for the Pizza Man and the city of Detroit. This is the same Prince Fielder who at the age of 12 was hitting moon shots into the RF porch of old Tiger Stadium while wearing Zubaz.
RP) Octavio Dotel. Dotel comes in reasonably cheap (3,000,000) and is what the Tigs needed in the playoffs last year, a dependable RHP not named Benoit or Valverde. Benoit and Papa must have felt like their arms were going to fall off in October last year, but JL had no other options as neither Albuquerque nor Perry could throw strikes to save their life. We all know the book on Dotel..Low 90's heat with some good off speed pitches to complement his heater. JL must make sure that he doesn't let Dotel pitch against LHB because those balls will be into the Pepsi Porch quicker than Prince hit play on his Kid 'N' Play cassette back in 1991!
RP) Collin Balester. I'll admit I know virtually nothing about him other than he rocks a sweet 'stache in his pic and that the Tigs got him from the 'Nats in the Perry trade. He had an ERA of around 4.5 last year and 2010 is the only year he had an era below that. I reckon he'll endear the fans of Fifth Third Field with his moustache! However if he makes the club, he better be good other wise, he'll be my Tiger to hate on this year! (For those of you who don't know I pick 1 guy on the club each year and pine to my friends about how bad he sucks. It's usually somebody who takes the position of one of my favs, and Agent P was one of my favs)!
C) Gerald "G Money" Laird. The only good thing I see out of re signing Laird to a 1 year deal is we'll get to hear Rod say "I see ya G $$$$" from time to time.. See what I did there, I just referenced the Rod Allen Game..if you're reading this..start drinking!!!
So heading into ST this is what the TIgs lineup could look like on any day.
1) Jackson-CF
2) Boesch-RF
3) Cabrera-3B
4) Fielder-1B
5) Young- DH
6) Avila- C
7) Peralta-SS
8) Dirks-LF
9) Raburn-2B
Not a bad lineup at all. Personally I'd have Santiago at 2B more often than not for his D and his ability to get bunts down and move runners over. I do like the Left/Right balance that it has now which is something it has been lacking for years!! I don't mind giving Dirks and opportunity in LF, but I think that if he can't handle it on a full time basis I'd move Delmon back there and get Inge into the lineup at 3B.
I'll do another report on the pitchers tomorrow...How many more days till we get to hear Rod say "I see ya Big Fella"? The answer: not soon enough!!
1 last thing before I go. BIG shout out to my homie who helped me recover this post after I thought I lost it ya'll should follow him on Twitter @majorleaguenerd!
First of all to the 5 people who read this blog I would like to take the time to apologize for going 6ish months without posting. I can assure you that that will not happen again, I promise at least 1 blog post per week!
So with that said let's get down to business....
The end of the Tigers 2011 season was bittersweet for many fans and it left us wondering "what if". What if ALAL could have thrown strikes, what if Mags didn't shatter his ankle again, what if Max could have gotten out of game 2 with the lead, what if Nelson Cruz didn't make me say a string of curses every time he came up that would make a sailor blush, what if Avila and V mart had 2 legs to stand on..you get the point. Our beloved Tigs were downed in 6 games to Texas in the ALCS.
I think that if you would have asked any Tiger fan back on March 31 if they would have been happy watching the boys of summer play ball into the middle of October nearly every one would have said HELL YA, but might not happen. It did and it was a magical ride. Last season was even more fun that the magical 2006 season for me anyway.
Heading into the off season we fans knew that their needed to be some changes to the roster to make us legit contenders, not just to win the Central, but to advance to the Fall Classic. *Side note, I'm not saying it's a given that the Tigs will be there in in October of 2012* DD has gone and made some of those changes necessary. Gone are grizzled old vets who were fan favourites such as Mags, and Guillen. Penny, Perry,Zumaya, V Mart (for 2012) also will be joining Mags and Carlos in not wearing the Old English D on the field this year. But let's look into who will be:
1B) Prince Fielder. It's no secret Prince signed a looooooonnnnnnggggggg deal worth a lot of Pizza's to come here and that sort of set off a musical chairs feeling with some people switching positions, but I think this deal is going to pay HUGE dividends for the Pizza Man and the city of Detroit. This is the same Prince Fielder who at the age of 12 was hitting moon shots into the RF porch of old Tiger Stadium while wearing Zubaz.
RP) Octavio Dotel. Dotel comes in reasonably cheap (3,000,000) and is what the Tigs needed in the playoffs last year, a dependable RHP not named Benoit or Valverde. Benoit and Papa must have felt like their arms were going to fall off in October last year, but JL had no other options as neither Albuquerque nor Perry could throw strikes to save their life. We all know the book on Dotel..Low 90's heat with some good off speed pitches to complement his heater. JL must make sure that he doesn't let Dotel pitch against LHB because those balls will be into the Pepsi Porch quicker than Prince hit play on his Kid 'N' Play cassette back in 1991!
RP) Collin Balester. I'll admit I know virtually nothing about him other than he rocks a sweet 'stache in his pic and that the Tigs got him from the 'Nats in the Perry trade. He had an ERA of around 4.5 last year and 2010 is the only year he had an era below that. I reckon he'll endear the fans of Fifth Third Field with his moustache! However if he makes the club, he better be good other wise, he'll be my Tiger to hate on this year! (For those of you who don't know I pick 1 guy on the club each year and pine to my friends about how bad he sucks. It's usually somebody who takes the position of one of my favs, and Agent P was one of my favs)!
C) Gerald "G Money" Laird. The only good thing I see out of re signing Laird to a 1 year deal is we'll get to hear Rod say "I see ya G $$$$" from time to time.. See what I did there, I just referenced the Rod Allen Game..if you're reading this..start drinking!!!
So heading into ST this is what the TIgs lineup could look like on any day.
1) Jackson-CF
2) Boesch-RF
3) Cabrera-3B
4) Fielder-1B
5) Young- DH
6) Avila- C
7) Peralta-SS
8) Dirks-LF
9) Raburn-2B
Not a bad lineup at all. Personally I'd have Santiago at 2B more often than not for his D and his ability to get bunts down and move runners over. I do like the Left/Right balance that it has now which is something it has been lacking for years!! I don't mind giving Dirks and opportunity in LF, but I think that if he can't handle it on a full time basis I'd move Delmon back there and get Inge into the lineup at 3B.
I'll do another report on the pitchers tomorrow...How many more days till we get to hear Rod say "I see ya Big Fella"? The answer: not soon enough!!
1 last thing before I go. BIG shout out to my homie who helped me recover this post after I thought I lost it ya'll should follow him on Twitter @majorleaguenerd!
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