Oh boy, here we go.  Six games into the season, six
marks in the L column.  The Tigers are out of the gate
in their normal fashion.  Without the game on Sunday,
the Tigers were averaging under 4 hits a game.  So far
they've been shut out twice.  On Sunday, they attained
their first lead of the year, only to lose it after
one inning in grand fashion (giving up nine runs in
the 8th to the White Sox).  This season has the
familiar scent of last season. 

I'll begin posting the MLB standings around the
beginning of May (hopefully after the Tigers start to
right their ship). 
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Week of 3/31 - 4/7

Record:  0-6   L-LLLLL-

The Undy-Five-Hundy isn't too hard to figure out here.
 We start it out the right way with a fat 6.  The
Tiggers may be setting new undy-five-hundy records
this year. 

AL Central  (as of Tuesday night)
KCR  5  0  -
CWS  4  3  2
MIN  3  4  3
CLE  2  4  3.5
DET  0  6  5.5

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Tiger of the Week...
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The Tiger of the week is the only Tiger that's shown
any power...Eric Munson.  But, "Matt" you ask, "what
about his .167 batting average?"  Well, I might scoff
at it if the team leader wasn't Gene Kingsale who's
hitting .250!  Munson has the only two home runs of
the season and 3 of the 6 team RBI's.  Amazing.  I
think he's our All-Star!!!
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Mo Vaughn Weekly...
-------------------------------------------------------
Mo is hitting 4 for 12 so far this season (not bad
enough for my liking) and is outhitting all of the
Tigers.  He does have four K's already, however, and
he recently did something to hurt his hip.  Too bad
it's not keeping hime out for any extended amount of
time.  His replacement?  The Big K, Tony Clark!  If
there was ever a moment where I was rooting for Tony
to get hot, it's now.  Keep Mo out of the game.  The
only way I could hate Mo more is if he was traded to
Detroit. 
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Poll Question...
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What team do you think has the best shot to surprise
this year, and why?  Note:  Bonus points will be
awarded to those who pick the Tigers. 
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Game Linescores...
-------------------------------------------------------
March 31:  Minnesota 3 - Detroit 1
Starters:  MIN: Radke 6.2IP - DET: Maroth 7IP
MIN  020 000 010  3  8  0
DET  000 000 100  1  4  0
W: Radke     (1-0)
L: Maroth    (0-1)
S: Guardado  (1)

April 1:  Detroit 100 - Minnesota 99  APRIL FOOLS! 

April 2:  Minnesota 8 - Detroit 1
Starters:  MIN: Mays 5IP - DET: Bonderman 4IP
MIN  120 300 011  8  13  0
DET  001 000 000  1   3  0
W: Mays       (1-0)
L: Bonderman  (0-1)

April 3: Minnesota 3 - Detroit 0
Starters:  MIN: Lohse 8IP - DET: Bernero 7IP
MIN  100 100 010  3  6  0
DET  000 000 000  0  3  0
W: Lohse     (1-0)
L: Bernero   (1-0)
S: Guardado  (2)

April 4: Detroit 2 - Chicago White Sox 5
Starters:  DET: Cornejo 1.1IP - CWS Loaiza 6.2IP
DET  000 020 000  2  3  0
CWS  130 001 00X  5 10  0
W: Loaiza  (1-0)
L: Cornejo (0-1)
S: Koch    (1)

April 5: Detroit 0 - Chicago White Sox 7
Starters:  DET: Maroth 4.1IP - CWS: Buehrle: 8IP
DET  000 000 000  0  3  1
CWS  003 012 01X  7 13  0
W: Buehrle (1-1)
L: Maroth  (0-2)

April 6: Detroit 2 - Chicago White Sox 10
Starters:  DET: Knotts 5.1IP - Stewart 6.2IP
DET  000 010 100  2  8  1
CWS  001 000 09X 10  9  0
W: Marte (1-0)
L: German  (0-1)
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Readers Write In...
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Peter "The King" Gregory...

Sweet! Tigers weekly. Just promise me that Bonderman
will be a stud, that Cornejo will lose his spot to Van
Hekken, and that Pena will hit 30+ homers. Spring
fever is here.
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Steve "dances with retarded old ladies" Sprague

I like the picks but let me give you mine.

NL
East: Braves
Central: Astros
West: D-Backs
Wild Card: Cubs

AL
East: Red Sox
Central: Twins
West: Mariners
Wild Card: A's

World Series: Cubs over A's.  Yes you read correctly,
two wild cards in the World Series with the Cubs
winning their first since 1908.

One other thought.

Gibby will get fed up with the Tiger's lack of effort
and quit by the all star break.
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Christian "Slooty" VanSlooten

The Tigers will have a successful season if they win
more games than RED WINGS (who will win Lord Stanley's
cup again).  For goodness sakes they play almost
twice as many games!  I feel the season is already a
success in the hiring of Trammel as manager.  He is
the perfect guy to change the attitudes and work ethic
of the players .  Plus he and his staff can fill seats
in Comerica park even if the players can't!

Slooty
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Dave "Easley does it" Dixon

After exhaustive research focusing primarily on
regression analysis and other statistical models, this
is what I’ve come up with:

American League(TM) Award Winners:

MVP - Alfonso Soriano, NY Yankees, .305, 44 HR, 131
RBI
Cy Young - David Wells, NY Yankees, 20-3, 3.31 ERA
Rookie of the Year - Angel Berroa, KC Royals, .266, 17
HR, 61 RBI
Home Run Champion - Alex Rodriguez, TX Rangers, 52
Batting Average Leader - Miguel Tejada, Oakland A's,
.320
RBI Leader - Alfonso Soriano, NY Yankees, 131
Strikeouts Leader - Pedro Martinez, Boston, 243
ERA Leader - Pedro Martinez, Boston, 2.33
Saves Leader - Mariano Rivera, NY Yankees, 41
National League(TM) Award Winners:

MVP - Barry Bonds, SF Giants, .344, 46 HR, 116 RBI
Cy Young - A.J. Burnett, FLA Marlins, 20-5, 2.78 ERA
Rookie of the Year - Ty Wigginton, NY Mets, .269, 19
HR, 60 RBI
Home Run Champion - Jim Thome, Phillies, 47
Batting Average Leader - Barry Bonds, SF Giants, .344
RBI Leader - Chipper Jones, ATL Braves, 118
Strikeouts Leader - Curt Schilling, AZ Diamondbacks,
259
ERA Leader - Odalis Perez, LA Dodgers, 2.47
Saves Leader - Eric Gagne, LA Dodgers, 55
Final Regular Season Standings:

American League:

East: Central: West:

    New York      Minnesota         Oakland
    Boston        Chicago           Seattle
    Baltimore     Kansas City       Anaheim
    Toronto       Cleveland         Texas
    Tampa Bay     Detroit
National League:

East: Central: West:

Philadelphia     Houston     San Francisco
Atlanta          St. Louis   Los Angeles
Florida          Chicago     Arizona
Montreal         Pittsburgh  Colorado
New York         Cincinnati  San Diego
                 Milwaukee
2003 Post-Season Results:

    --  American League Wildcard - Boston
    --  American League Champion - Boston
    --  National League Wildcard - St. Louis
    --  National League Champion - Philadelphia
    --  World Series Champion - Philadelphia
    --  World Series(R) MVP - Jim Thome, Philadelphia
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Christopher "Florida" Marlink

Allow me to start out by saying, "2003: The Year of
the Tiger"  As a Tigers fan for twenty years now, I've
learned to hold on to hope in the face of even the
most ridiculous circumstances.  The 2003 baseball
season will be just one of those circumstances.  But
remember, it is the year of the Tiger.

Ok, what'll make 2003 a successful year for the Tig's?
1.  Carlos Pena, Dimitri Young, and Eric Munson all
hit 25 homers.  (It would make an exciting season
anyway)  It could happen, and hey, where else are the
tigers going to get production at the plate?
2.  Bobby Higginson suddenly becomes worth what the
organization is paying him.  I'm talking .330 or
better, do pitchers even fear this guy?
3.  The Tig's can deal Palmer and get some serious
pitching help.

A prediction from this westsider?  Nate Cornejo, and
Adam Bernero are atrocious through April and Sparks
comes out of the bullpen with something to prove.
Next they bring up Andy VanHekken from the bush
leagues, with a little more control, and he and Sparks
find their way back into the rotation.  If their
pitching staff shines, (not necessarily a Mr. Clean
type shine, more like a spit shine) even enough to
keep these guys in half of their games, I think that
2003 really could be the Year of the Tiger.  God help
us.  That's my two cents, and then some.

Chris Marlink - Zeeland, MI
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Toolie's Trashtalk

So this week I've heard about thirty total minutes of
the Jim Rome show, and he's spent at least ten of
those minutes slamming the Tigers.  I hate to say it
but they really deserve it.  It's rather quite
stunning how inept the Tigs have been at the plate.
They opened up with a four hit gem, then proceeded to
pump out three hits a game for the next four games.
On Sunday, they EXPLODED for a massive eight hits. All
other teams in the majors have scored at least twice
as many runs of the Tigers, and that was as of
yesterday.  But things can and will get better. 

I voted on MLB.com that I thought the Tigers would win
the AL Central.  The Twins lead the way with 43% of
the vote.  5% of voters agree with me.  Which is
harder to believe, that percentage or the Royals
having 21% of the vote?   They may be 5-0, but the
Tigers and Royals have a little self-policing contract
where whenever one team ges hot, they play the other
and get swept.  I project a good couple of games
tomorrow and Thursday. 

Pitching has been sporadic in the first week.  Mike
Maroth has been decent, but certainly not ace
material.  Bonderman's debut was a flop.  Bernero and
Knotts both pitched well, and Cornejo was brutal
agian.  Bonderman goes tomorrow...if the CoPa is game
ready.

Nice to hear from a good bulk of you.  Dixon, that is
some characteristic hard-core analysis.  But if it's
the same algorithm that convinced you to invest in
Acclaim, then I would attach a rider on that post
warning others not to put any money on those picks.
But who am I to talk?  I'm the guy who put five bucks
down at The Frontier's sportsbook banking on the
Tigers to win it all.  At 250-1 it seemed like a good
bet. 

Looks like if the weather heats up a tad that I'll be
attending my first game of the year Friday against the
White Sox.  Damn I hate those fans in Chicago.
They're always chanting something like "Detroit Sucks"
and, dad gummit, they're right.  Oh well, they're not
going anywhere this year.  Seeing the Sox will mean
that I will have seen all of the AL teams.  Now I'll
have to get working on the NL. 

In the booth this year for UPN is Jack Morris!  That's
another plus for this season and another link to the
last championship squad.  Silver linings folks, silver
linings. 

Commercial of the Week:  It's an old one, but I love
that commercial about the guy who's like "That thing's
got a hemi, right?  Well now I gotta hemi too!  But I
got something you DON'T got!"  It beats the hell out
of that "let's play duck duck goose in public at
dinner on our cell phones" commercial that UPN has
been peppering me with. 

OK that's about it.  Normally I'll be coming out with
the Weekly on Monday night, but I got a little off
track last night.  Let's see some sunny skies this
week, and no more snow!  For it's 1-2-3...inning for
the Tigers.  I think I heard a stat that over half of
their innings have been 1-2-3.  Nice. 

See y'all next week...