rhoneyman

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 10:30 PM) He tossed the helmet right before he jumped into the mob at home plate when Pudge was trying to yell at him. well, duh. pudge is the enemy. he's supposed to annoy you when he does stuff that, if he were on your team, you'd find endearing. i enjoyed the home run run. if it had been against my team, i'd have found it beyond offensive. :7)

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 05:14 PM) Yeah, if we go 7-3 or 8-2 against the Tigers, we'd have an actual shot. I think anything less than a sweep against them next weekend is a big shot to our division hopes (even though 2 of 3 helps us big time in the WC against a team as good as they are). tigers have gone 14-1-1 in their last 16 series. it's possible they'll blow the central, but highly unlikely. plus, that would kill the season for the lions. we all know that that's not going to happen. :7)

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 10:08 AM) Ha, and monkeys will fly out of my butt. I will believe it when I see it. you and me both, pally. :7)

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 07:56 AM) As this whole conversation started last night, the Tigers better get a ring out of this. It's a massive choke, if they don't. You can't color it any other way. I know they haven't been in the playoffs since 1987, but you can't only hang your hat on a good regular season when you're playing this way. there's only one guarantee coming out of detroit this year: the lions will lead the nfl in wins. hear me out... red wings: president's cup, first round loss pistons: best regular season record, punked by miami (only because labron wasn't ready to go the next step) tigers: best in mlb, guaranteed to lose to sox/yankees/twinkees in al finals lions: guaranteed best in nfl, guaranteed lose in first round see? that's the magic in detroit this year. millen doesn't deserve such karma. :7)

QUOTE(danman31 @ Aug 5, 2006 -> 09:46 PM) Pudge please go do some more steroids. Are the Tigers still claiming to be a real team? No real team wins from behind at will. The question is how many Tiger fans had to sell their souls for this season to happen? only one. and it was cheap. i just hope i paid enough. $5 seems like such a small amount these days. :7) speaking of steroids, i wonder if zoom has ever had to take a test. i love the guy but he went from a mid-80s hurler when he was drafted a couple of years ago to 103 today. if i were ml baseball, i'd be checking him out every day just to be sure. hell, if i were dombrowski, ... state of the tigers pitching: bonderman should be fine the rest of the way. he's had a couple of weak games plus the meltdown last week, but in the meltdown game, he was absolutely dominant until unforgiveable defense got to his head at the metrodome. look for more of the dominance these next couple of months. 3.5 era the rest of the way. verlander will start skipping turns. dombrowski seems ready to trade a cy young award in favor of protecting a young, live arm. good for dd. although it's only a sample of one, verlander was awesome on what, 10 days' rest?, after the asb. he's good for another half dozen starts and could still get to 20 wins. 2.5 era the rest of the way. robertson will be fine. he's streaky but showed in his last outing (in which zumaya allowed both inherited baserunners to score, losing the game for nate) that his arm is in good shape. 3.5 era the rest of the way. rogers is a wild card. he probably needs more rest than verlander at this point. it won't happen since that's not leyland's style. will he win another game the rest of the way? only if he skips starts, imho. 6.0 era the rest of the way. miner is a placeholder. his job has been to get in five innings while keeping the tigers in the game. the tigers are blessed with above average middle relief this year. i wouldn't want to build a staff around grilli, colon, walker and ledezma but they've all been pitching better than any of us could have hoped for. this has made the miner miracle possible. 5.0 era the rest of the way. maroth will be back. the question is, of course, was his start for real. maroth depends entirely on control and tight ball placement. his performance early on indicated that he's one of the rare ones to have figured it out, important since his fast ball clocks out in the high 80s. my $5 bucks says he comes back and picks up where he left off. 3.5 era once he comes back. boy, is this a stupid post or what? :7)

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jul 27, 2006 -> 07:48 AM) 44-11 is the Tigers record vs losing AL teams and in interleague play. 24-22 is the Tigers record vs AL teams with winning records. For how bad the Sox have played recently, they are still 30-24 vs AL teams with winning records. If the Tigers don't improve vs winning teams they will be in trouble pretty quick. They have 32 out of 35 games vs winning teams from August 7th to September 13th. detroit had a 3-7 week-and-a-half in late may/early june, against teams that at the time were able to get into the tigers' heads. the season was young and the team was as surprised at its early success as the rest of the world. include the 0-3 sweep by a differently performing cws back in april and the tigers showed 3-10 against teams with winning records early on. back out that bad stretch and the tigers have been 21-12 against the best. this series against the twins is the tough test in my book. playing minnie at their place has not been easy for anyone the past few years. the rotation for that series is miner, robertson, bonderman. miner against liriano is almost a certain loss, although the tigers' record against lefties is really good. the other two could go either way. this is maturing tigers team. i don't see the yankees or red sox having anywhere near the same psychological advantage over the late 2006 tigers. feel free to bash me for playing with numbers - i certainly would, albeit quietly and to myself. :7)

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jul 20, 2006 -> 09:13 PM) I think you and I will get along just great. I don't care about hockey, don't have a team in college football, hate the Yanks, hate the Mets, hate the Boys, hate the Lakers. If you tell me that you hate Boston oriented teams, and you hate the Packers, than you are basically a White Sox fan that, errrrr, roots...for...uhhhhhh, the Tigers? ohmygd, b*ston's almost as bad as new york! and the packers? as bad as the viqueens (i won't say anything bad about da bears). i think there's a common theme in the midwest, eh?

two really good teams. one of them should be in the ws this year.

ouch!

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 02:20 PM) their pitching is set up to be good for a long while. Add another veteran to take Rogers' place and Detroit will be a force. I am a bit surprised there's so much optimism regarding Maroth's return. It was elbow surgery, after all. all they did was clean out some bone chips. i don't even know if there were any burrs to scrape. really minor stuff. am i overly optimistic that he can come back strong? dunno. if he still feels the elbow, we won't see him again until the spring, i suppose. if the elbow feels good, he should be able to regain his command after some rehab work in the minors, don't you think?

QUOTE(loltrain @ Jul 17, 2006 -> 08:39 PM) Rogers v Contreras is no contest? Uhh, Rogers and Contreras have been equally horrible the last month, if anything that's the crappiest pitching match up of the series. I find it funny that every White Sox fan thinks the Tigers are playing 100% and can't possibly do better, but even though almost everyone in your lineup is having a career year the Sox haven't "clicked yet" or "aren't playing their best ball" Both teams have been playing great, and their is no need to make excuses at this point. garland - robertson: advantage robertson vazquez - bonderman: advantage bonderman contreras - rogers: advantage contreras where's the dispute? if rogers can go six w/o giving up more than two or three, he might have a shot (profound, eh?). as i said, robertson and bonderman should both have top notch games. if jones doesn't blow any saves, the series goes to detroit. rogers is due for a good game so even with a jonesy foobar, detroit might win the series. the tigers are going through a bit of a rough period right now. their defense is dramatically worse than it was through the first 80 games. but for playing the royals, the lead would likely be stuck at one or two games. thank you buddy & co. if the defense doesn't tighten up, there's going to be a seriously anxiety producing pennant race in the central.

i am somewhat concerned (not a lot, just a little bit) about the way the tigers are playing at the moment. they were playing mediocre ball going into the break (although i did say that i'd be delighted with a 3-3 west coast swing) and have continued with fairly weak performances against the royals. ok. got that off my chest. here's how i see the second half lining up for the tigers and why i think they can actually get to 100 wins (warning: the following is pure conjecture): bonderman and robertson will continue to pitch well, winning 15 games between them and starting another three or four wins credited to the bullpen. verlander's going to get a lot of rest once maroth returns. verlander and miner will share starts. between the three pitchers, they'll win a dozen games and perhaps leave another two or three wins to the bullpen. rogers will go .500 the rest of the way out and pick up a half dozen wins. the sox will win the division and the tigers will lose to the sox in the al championship series. wait'll next year! this coming week, look for robertson and bonderman to pitch balls out - robertson because he's become incredibly competitive and bonderman because he sucked his last outing. jones may still blow one of their starts. rogers against contreras is no contest. depending on jones, detroit will take two of three against the sox.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Jul 4, 2006 -> 05:40 AM) No need... they have a nice looking site over here... thanks. i've never seen that one before.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 11:23 PM) Polanco with an RBI double. Why not throw this guy nothing but garbage? Coming into tonight, .283/.316/.357. He doesn't walk, but he doesn't strike out either, yeah. he was a pretty good pick up for uggie, who turned out to be a clubhouse (and airline) cancer. 3-2 on a marcus thames solo shot. woo-hoo. can robertson bear down and get this thing to the zoomster?

QUOTE(tigerfan @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 11:06 PM) Shouldn't be 2-1 at all. Robertson could not get a freakin strike call. He threw pitches that were obviously strikes, and they were called balls. Eventually this led to the bases being loaded, and then they got a 2 run single. Thanks a lot ump. that's what i like about this forum: only objective posts. :7)

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 06:35 PM) By the way, Detroit will have their first losing week in a while. You heard it here first. of course, the sox have started the week 0-2 (i start weeks on sunday, even if mlb starts them on mondays. how convenient!) :7) QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 06:01 PM) If Sox fans think Detroit hates us now over the all-star fiasco, I can't imagine how much they would hate us if Ben Wallace signs with the Bulls. 1. your manager has the right to go with whomever he is most comfortable. i personally have no problem with his picks. if leyland were managing (wait'll next year! ) ... 2. ben wallace is good for two more years. he is a fierce leader and he will make the bulls a much better team. a *much* better team. mazel tov. if it in fact happens. i'm fairly indifferent. wallace at 32 is not wallace at 28. wallace at 34 is not likely to be wallace at 32. i don't expect shaq to bring it on much longer either. 'round about 34/35, the quickness starts going. after that, you need native skills, skills like jordan had or like even a guy like zo has. wallace's success is based on quickness and strength. take away the quickness and he's really a journeyman kind of guy. still i wouldn't be upset if joe d signed him. i'm not overly upset if he doesn't. but he'll be really tough to replace. hate the bulls? don't need wallace's defection to do that. :7) 3. btw, is there a classier guy in all of hockey than stevie yzerman? the captain epitomizes everything good about sports. thrilled to have watched him; sorry to see it end.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 03:25 AM) On the flipside, this may be so new that if they have the right attitude they won't realize they should feel the pressure. Its usually one or the other (not so much in between) but I do think the Tigers are going to be a major player in the central for the next few years and technically speaking you could definately make a case for them being built for long term success (ie the next 3-5 years). Of course a ton can happen during that time and the Sox (while we are a bit older) still are a relatively young team aside from a few players with most of our core guys locked up. Minny should join the fray and if Cleveland makes the right changes they will be around too. Its gonna be a dogfight year in year out for the best division in baseball (currently home to the 2 best teams in baseball). the first time around against noted good teams, the tigers showed they're still raw. one of the tests of leyland will be how the tigers respond in subsequent rounds against the good teams. certainly, sweeping the cards and the astros gave some indication of leyland's mastery of the job. this week's games on the west coast will be another interesting test. finally, the matchups with your sox and with the twins will be the final test. they seemed geeked and awed against you guys early on and against nyy and boston. i think leyland is likely to have these guys settled down so that they'll be playing y'all pretty even going forward, assuming the defense returns and the starting pitching holds. i think the wc team is going to have 100+ wins this year and a couple of 90+ win teams are going to be scratching their heads. but then, the interleague play dumped 80-100 extra wins into the al this year.

QUOTE(GoRowand33 @ Jul 2, 2006 -> 08:40 PM) Lol I love how this thread has all tigers fans in it here are some points you guys should consider 1. sox rotation has pitched like crap, but I don't think it can get any worse, but only better 2. 2.5 is not a large margin at all, and coming out ahead 2.5 games against the Tigers doesn't mean much because you came in 2.5 games up 3. your missing the point about our offense, we don't try and outslug opponents, we have just shown that we are resilient at coming back 4. the tigers are a very young team (much like the Indians last year). It's unlikely that a young team can play consistent .650 baseball for an entire season all in all I expect the Tigers to slip a little bit, not a lot, but I would expect more around 90-100 wins instead of their pace of like 110 The sox haven't hit a complete stride yet because of our pitching, but were working on it and it SHOULD get better heh. you invite strangers into your house and look what happens. :7) at least none of us seem to be pissing all over your home. i think i speak for a lot of tigers fans who expect this to now be more the norm for the next few years but don't really, deep down, believe it will last this year. it could last, though, because leyland is really good for this group of guys and because it turns out that rogers may be the most important coach in the organization. the tigers will go through a couple of bad stretches but i don't think it will be because of the starters. i think the defense will settle back to middle of the pack and the bullpen will blow a couple of easy games to finish up second behind chicago but tops in the wc. however, i'm almost always wrong when it comes to my teams. :7) just wait for the new look lions!

weird day on the diamond. the sox gift a game to the tigs by imploding against the cubbies. the wind must have been blowing out. meanwhile, the twins keep winning. tg the tigers are done with the pirates. rodney clearly doesn't like entering the game earlier than the eight. as for colon, he scares me more that tjones. this was a series they could have blown completely. hurray for interleague games! tg they're over!

the season is filled with streaks. for all teams. it looks like defensive foobars also come in streaks. bad karma on my part to have brought it up, eh? fortunately, the tigers only lost one of the two "gems" with the pirates. the key question is how does leyland address the problem. he's only had to lose it once this season to get the team focused and on track. how many more games of butt ugly baseball before he goes nonlinear? i agree that this is going to be a very difficult week for detroit. west coast trips are always perilous and this trip is against two teams that have been playing confident ball. 3-3 for the trip would make me happy. the sox ought to handle baltimore fairly easily. boston will be a more interesting story. although they'll switch places during the week, i wouldn't be surprised to see the two teams tied going into the break. this is fun. :7) for whomever was asking about where folks have come from: i got this site off of mlive.com. i live in miami beach (if that's the real question).

QUOTE(hammerhead johnson @ Jun 30, 2006 -> 01:54 PM) Yeah, flbob is the man, but when he said that he's worried about the defense, I was kind of left scratching my head. The key defensive positions on a baseball field: 1) Pitcher 2) Catcher: Ivan Rodriguez 3) Shortstop: Carlos Guillen 4) Center Field: Curtis Granderson And to a lesser extent, Third Base. The Tigers are an awfully strong defensive team, just like the Sox. Defense up the middle is what it's all about. You can get away with having a defensive liability at either of the corner OF spots if you are incredible up the middle. You guys may look at the stats of Brian Anderson and Juan Uribe and consider these players to be weak links on our squad, but they are elite defensive players at their respective positions. I don't know if I'm sold on Inge, but like I said, 3B is not as important as the C, SS, and CF slots when evaluating defense. And obviously, pitching represents the vast majority of defense. The ultimate defensive games are: Perfect Games No-Hitters One-Hitters Two-Hitters Shut-Outs And the Tigers lead the league in shutouts, which is a primary indication to me that they have a first tier defense. all good points. thank you. i remain optimistic and hopeful.

QUOTE(JackTalkThai @ Jun 30, 2006 -> 10:59 AM) Defense? Defense worries you? The Tigers have Gold Glove caliber defenders at CF, C and 3B. Guillen despite an error here and there is solid at short. Shelton has been nothing short of impressive thus far at first. Magglio is Magglio...you pretty know what you are and aren't going to get...and Thames, Monroe, Gomez in left are certainly servicable. Judging from the season to date, team defense is the least of my worries that have been mentioned thus far. at the risk of offending sox fans on *their* board ... :7) this is granderson's first year in the majors. so far so good. there remains the risk of a different reality setting in. i don't know his minor league record (nor do i care, as it's a different world in the bigs). inge stunk up the joint last year at third. his play the past month has been stellar. the risk is that recent performance is anomalous, not past performance. that shelton has been impressive is a surprise. coming into the season, his glove was a legimate concern. as i said, they have gone from near worst to near best with minor personnel changes. that gives me pause. if i weren't a detroit fan, i'd say the team has another half season of proving to go before i'd stop thinking of them as booters and stinkups. but since i love detroit, i'll just say that i'm pleased with the turn around and that i hope (and believe) it will continue. however, i think this is the most likely area of a drop off that could cause wins to turn into losses. is it likely? no. possible? yes, based on prior years with similar guys.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jun 28, 2006 -> 11:00 PM) To the Tigers fans in Soxtalk: What are your major concerns about your team heading into the 2nd half? great question! i'm actually not overly concerned about pitching. - i think rogers will cool off but not as much as he did in the 100+ degree temps of dallas. plus, i suspect he'll be getting extra rest in the second half. - maroth should come back strong. the guy is all pitcher. until he tried the last game in which he couldn't get any placement because of bone chips in his elbow, he had an era well under 3. the surgery he underwent was fairly benign: no ligament or tendon reconstruction. just cleaning out bothersome waste product. given a sufficiently long rehab - a luxury the tigers seem to be able to afford him at this point - and maroth should come back in august every bit as effective as he was up until his last start. - bonderman is totally focused, now that he's a father and now that he's picked up a third pitch to go with his fast ball and slider. his arm is strong and, barring injury ala last year, he should have a superior second half. - robertson is in the zone. he reminds me of mickey lolich. he's mean when on the mound and loose when in the clubhouse. he's 28 and, under leyland, finally seems to have matured into a front line major league pitcher. - miner is a question mark but he's got good stuff. look for ledezma to share some of the load in the event miner falters. ledezma seems to have gotten the same leyland bug that has transformed robertson. - the bullpen is solid, if not superior. offense is what it is. the tigers are middle of the pack at the plate, although they are surprisingly efficient with men on base, trailing on your white sox in that department in the al over the past month (several different statistics here so don't attack me on this one). while i expect inge and monroe to improve in the second half - given how horrible their first half batting averages were, how could they not? - i'm not sure granderson and thames can contine batting at or above .300. they are a .275 team today; there's no reason to expect that to improve. so, what really worries me? defense. this is a team that has been near the absolute bottom in defense the past four years. they downgraded at first (pena was superior to shelton in the field, although an absolute dog at the plate when he wasn't juiced (i made that up! how else can you explain his binary performance? he was either hof at the plate or double a!) but upgraded in center. the rest of the defense is pretty much the same. either leyland is a genius to get such an improvement out of the team or they've been playing way above their heads. since defense can determine a dozen or more games over the course of a season, this is an area of concern. i'm really not worried about injuries because there's nothing you can do to prevent them. sorry for the verbose response.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 26, 2006 -> 06:03 PM) Well they play NY and Boston a total of 6 more games. Even if they were to be swept all 6 games it's still merely 6 games. for what it's worth... the tigers went into the 20 games with the sox/yankees/jays at the tail end of an unreal (for them) series of winning streaks. they were due to cool off. also, it was early enough in the season that the kids on the team were still kind of geeked by the novelty of winning so many games they used to lose. i think they went into the tough part of the season not really believing what they were doing. i think they may have been cowed by playing the best teams in the league. it showed and they choked (plus, todd jones rediscovered his flamethrower cannister, the one that lights up other teams hitters). my sense is that the longer the season goes on, the more comfortable the kids on the team will become with the idea of winning and the lower the possibility that they view the sox and the yankees through puppy dog eyes. i actually expect the second round of games against good teams to be a toss up. if i'm right, at the end, the white sox will have crushed the tigers over the course of the season, but the lopsided record may be due to early games in which the tiger kids didn't really expect to compete. of course, half the arms on the team could fall off, as bonderman's did last year and as rogers' seems to do every year. but i suspect that leyland has a fair handle on how to minimize that possibility.