tiger's weekly

[august 26, 2003]

tiger's weekly

Again I am a little bit late, but the Weekly is out.
I believe from now on I will be putting this beast out
on Monday nights, as I was doing before the start of
the summer. I have Tuesday's off, so I can afford to
waste my time on the Tigers on Monday. But I don't
think it's too wasteful! The Tigers finished off an
eleven game losing streak and have notched back to
back wins for the first time since the All-Star break.
They are up to 33 wins now. Another ten wins by the
end of the season and the Tigers can avoid being
called the worst.
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Week of 8/20 - 8/26

Record: 2-4 LLLLW-W

Undy Five Hundy: The index continues to climb and
we're up to 64. This number is pretty insignificant
these days, but if you want to relate it to the chase
for the loss record, then the magic number there would
be 78. If we finish above that then we will have
broken the 120 loss record. Well, the Tigers will
have broken the record. Nowhere to go but up!

Dunn vs. the Tigers...

Adam Dunn 27 HR's
Detroit    33 Wins

The gap continues to grow. Nothing like a little DL
time for Dunn to give the Tigers some breathing room.
For those that don't remember or joined late, there
was a "Fact or Fiction" section on ESPN where two
analysts (I think that Tim Kurkjian was one of them)
predicted that Adam Dunn would finish with more home
runs than the Tigers would finish with games won.
FYI, the home run leader right now is Barry Bonds with
39.

Up Next for the Tigers...
August 27-28   @Cleveland
August 29-31   Chicago White Sox
September 1-4 Cleveland

This will be the last time we see Chicago this year.
In September there are six games against KC and
Minnesota each, but I believe that we have a game to
make up against the Royals. So in everyone else's
eyes that's bad news for the White Sox. But for us
faithful Tiger fans, we know that it's the best thing
for them.

News and Notes: Lots of moves, lots of moves.
September must be on its way. Coming in are Franklyn
"Walk Every Man" German, Fernando Rodney, and Brian
Schmack who came straight up from double-A Erie.

AL Central Standings...
CWS 70 62 -
KCR 68 62 1
MIN 68 63 1.5
CLE 58 74 12
DET 33 97 36

AL Division Leaders:New York, Chicago, Seattle/Oakland
Wild Card Standings...   (games back in division)
SEA - (0)
OAK - (0)
BOS 1 (5)

NL Division Leaders: Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco
Wild Card Standings...   (games back in division)
PHI -   (14)
FLA -   (14)
CHC 1.5 (0.5)
ARI 1.5 (11)
STL 2   (1)
MON 2   (16)
LAD 2.5 (12)
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Tiger of the Week...
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Last week it was Brandon Inge who was on a hitting
streak. This week is not as surprising, but it's nice
to see. Dmitri Young has hit safely in his last
twelve games and has his batting average up to .293.
He continues to be the lone star on the team. Let's
hope that the big D is around for a while. Also
having a fine week was Jamie Walker, who picked up a
win and a save. Also deserving of accolades is Inge,
who hit a 3-2, 2 out Troy Percival fastball over the
wall in left for two runs to give Walker and the
Tigers a 10-9 win over Anaheim, avoiding the season
sweep.
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Triple Crown Chase...
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Albert Pujols has an outside shot of winning the NL
Triple Crown this year (that's leading the league in
batting average, home runs, and RBI's). It looks like
his biggest obstacle will be the RBI's but we'll see
how he's doing in a couple of weeks and reevaluate.

Average
Pujols   .362
Helton   .355

Home Runs
Bonds    39
Thome    36
Pujols   35
Sexson   35

RBI's
Wilson    121
Pujols    109
Sheffield 107
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Poll Question...
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There is a lot of talk that Eric Gagne could win the
NL Cy Young award this year. Do you think that
relievers should be considered for the Cy Young?
Also, who do you think will win the award in each
league? And along those lines, I was talking with
some buddies the other day and we were wondering if
there are any punters in the NFL hall of fame. They
always talk about being "the best of your era at your
position" so shouldn't punters also get elected?
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Game Linescores...
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August 20: Texas 6 - Detroit 0
Starters: TEX: Dickey 9IP - DET: Cornejo 6IP
TEX 002 200 020 6 9 0
DET 000 000 000 0 6 0
W: Dickey (8-5)
L: Cornejo (5-13)

August 21: Anaheim 10 - Detroit 7
Starters: ANA: Sele 6IP - DET: Loux 5IP
ANA 111 011 203 10 17 1
DET 000 500 011   7 8 0
W: Sele (7-9)
L: Roney (1-9)

August 22: Anaheim 6 - Detroit 5
Starters: ANA: Ortiz 6IP - DET: Bonderman 7IP
ANA 110 121 000 6 8 0
DET 200 102 000 5 10 1
W: Ortiz     (15-10)
L: Bonderman (6-17)
S: Percival (27)

August 23: Anaheim 14 - Detroit 8 F/10
Starters: ANA: Washburn 6IP - DET: Robertson 6IP
ANA 000 000 431 6 14 17 0
DET 300 200 120 0   8 7 0
W: Donnelly (2-2)
L: Spurling (1-2)

August 24: Anaheim 9 - Detroit 10
Starters: ANA: Shields 4.2IP - DET: Maroth 5IP
ANA 320 010 030   9 12 3
DET 221 020 012 10 16 1
W: Walker   (3-2)
L: Percival (0-4)

August 25: no game scheduled...

August 26: Detroit 5 - Cleveland 4
Starters: DET: Cornejo 7.1IP - CLE: Traber 4IP
DET 010 400 000 5 12 0
CLE 021 100 000 4 10 1
W: Cornejo (6-13)
L: Traber (6-7)
S: Walker (3)
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Readers Write In...
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Matt "the messenger" Houser

O'Toole,

You failed to note that the Tigers were officially
eliminated from the playoffs last night.

Helpfully,
Houser

8/25...

from Jim Baker today on espn.com.:

Here's what the Tigers' record will have to be the
rest of the way to avoid being worst team of 20th and
21st Centuries: 7-26. That will nose out the 1916 A's.

To avoid being second-worst team of 20th & 21st
Centuries: 9-24. That will nose out the 1935 Braves.

To finish better than the '62 Mets: 9-24. That will
best the '62 Mets and the 1904 Washington Nats,
putting them at fifth-worst all-time.

Barring a .500 finish, the Tigers will be the third
team since World War II to finish below .300. I'll be
honest with you, I didn't think it could happen
anymore but they have managed to assemble an
unassuming lineup with a young, inexperienced pitching
staff and there it is. They don't lose in much the
same way the '62 Mets did and they are certainly not
generating any folklore, but they are getting their
L's in.

The Tigers have trashed more baserunners on
stolen-base attempts than any other team in the
league. This brings up an interesting debate: when you
have very few baserunners to begin with, is it better
to treat them as special and not risk their mortality
or is it wise to try to make something happen since,
chances are, the likelihood of them being driven in by
conventional means are slim?

Informing this debate should be the following
information: are the players in question capable of
stealing bases with any degree of success? Only Craig
Monroe (4-for-5) and Eric Munson (3-for-3) are over
the approximate 70 percent break even point at which
the risk of stealing starts making sense. Team leader
Alex Sanchez (30-for-45) is close.
---
Jim Baker has to find a couple interesting things
about the Tigers to write every week, since the Tigers
usually make it into at least one of Biggest
Mismatchup of the Week (teams with greatest disparity
b/t winning %) and Worst Matchup of the Week (teams
with worst combined win %).

Go Tigers. Thanks again for John Smoltz, although
you'd think Cox might use him at least once while
getting swept in San Francisco, losing each game by
one run and in the very last at-bat of the game, and
taking a lead into the 8th in 2 of them. But you'd be
wrong.

-Houser
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Mike "MAC-Man" Kopec

How appropriate that the Tigers and MLB announce
Detroit hosting the 2005 All-Star game one hour into
the Blackout of 2003.
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Nic "Big Spender" Gilbert

I would like to point out that I am still 3-0 on the
year at Comerica Park watching the Tigers. Who can
say that! I have seen 10% of their wins. WOW I never
really looked at it that way before.

Oakland wins the Wild Card

Chi Sox win the AL Cen

Cubs win the NL Cen

Florida wins the NL wild card since I am riding the
Juan Pierre SB wave right now. And they do have Juan
Encarnacion still which is a plus.

I would pick Detroit but they are 41.5 games out of
the wild card lead as of wed night. WOW is all I can
say.

Well since I will be at Ford Field on Saturday
watching the Lions play a little ball, maybe my
winning luck will rub off next door and the Tigers can
get to 32. We'll see once this is published if that
became a reality.

Gilby
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Bob "Snowplow" Hesse

Matt,

Good to hear from you about your Twins experience.
Yes, Bert "Be home by eleven" does color for the
Twinkies. We're going to the game tonight against KC
(only a half game back). It's an exciting year with
KC, the White Sox and Twins battling it out.

-Bob
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"Scuba" Steve Sprague

I'm gonna throw my 2 cents in this week. I'm pretty
sure that the AL wild card will actually end up going
to Seattle as I feel that Boston will falter late in
the season, and Oakland will surge as always and win
their division. As for the NL Central I hope and
believe the Cubbies will pull this one out. They
didn't do much to improve themselves though, and
even made some questionable trades, ie getting Tony
Womack, but I feel that Baker will still push them to
the top. The AL Central I feel will be won by the
White Sox, they made some great pick-ups at the break
and have been surging lately. I think the NL wild
card will go to Arizona or Philly, the D-Backs have
been to the playoffs before and know what it takes to
get there, and Philly has been good all season.

Well that's my $.02.

Steve Sprague
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Dave "Frankenstein" Dixon

Is it possible to put the brain of a Kevin Witt or a
Warren Morris inside the body of an Alex Sanchez?
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Dallas "Softball Champion" Senters

AL

     yankees
     white sox
     a's

     red sox

NL

     braves
     astros
     giants

     phillies

i was on vacation last week, and did not
follow baseball at all. however, i did hear
that bobby bonds died, and in memorium,
i feel that barry should take the rest of
the year off. he can spend the time polishing
all the jewelry he wears.

dallas
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Toolie's Trashtalk...

Man oh man those Tigers. At the beginning of the week
I would have told you that they were never going to
win another game. Today I'm thinking "they're turning
it around, baby!" Well a couple of one run wins
doesn't mean they're turning it around, but it does
show that they can pull out some close ones. I almost
missed Inge's home run, as I was sitting in the
computer lab at Wells Hall (the math building at MSU).
But I got the gamecast up in time to check on the
ninth inning. I thought it was over, and then...10-9
winner! When I saw the replay on Baseball Tonight,
they showed Trammell and he had this look on his face
like "I figured it would be something crazy like
this." Inge has been lumbering with his bat lately,
pushing his average to .210. Amazing!

Houser, I believe it was Jason Bryan who told me that
the Tigers have been officially eliminated from the
playoffs for the next few years, and I'm starting to
believe him. Lots of negativity from the readers this
week. I guess I can't blame you. The Tigs lost some
pretty winable games during that stretch. They were
leading Anaheim 5-0 going into the seventh inning on
Saturday and lost 14-8 in the tenth. How rotten is
that? Nate Robertson pitched rather well, but the
bullpen let him down. I think the losing streak
started the night that I bet on them to win. That
taught me a valuable lesson...don't smoke crack.

Don't look now, but the Tigers have five (count 'em,
5) position players batting above .260! They are (in
order of best to worst) Dmitri Young, Warren Morris,
Alex Sanchez, Kevin Witt, and Carlos Pena. Also, the
Tigers are flexing their muscles a bit. Along with
Young having 26 HR's, Munson has 18 and Monroe has 17.
Pena and Higginson both have double digits, but they
are both below expectations. Dean Palmer had none in
86 at bats. I hate you, Randy Smith.

Big D, you never miss a chance to take a shot at
Bonds, I'll say that. But you'd better focus close to
home. The Brewers are on an eight game winning streak
and are trying to put the Reds in the NL Central
cellar. Don't worry, once you're here a while it gets
pretty comfortable (you know the commercial where the
little kid goes downstairs and his big brother is
smoking weed and never going anywhere? the kid is us
and the brother is the Tigers).

Preseason NFL has been the best thing to happen to the
Tigers in August. The Twins game that I attended had
a nice turnout and that was after the Lions had played
in the afternoon. This Saturday, when the Lions were
playing at night, the Tigers drew over 26000 people.
In comparison though, the Angels pulled in over 40000
people a game when the Tigers were in town.

As far as who will win. St. Louis will make the
playoffs. I'll call Montreal for the Wild Card. In
the AL, let's take the Red Sox for the Wild Card, and
with the way things are going, it looks like Seattle
is on the way out. I'll take the Twins to win the
central. I don't like the idea of Gagne winning the
Cy Young. It's almost like giving a "running back of
the year award" to a guy like Tommy Vardell for TD's,
who gets in when you're on the one and punches it in.
I'm sure a handful of starters could do what Gagne is
doing as a closer. Seriously, Todd Jones led the AL
in saves once.

That's a wrap for this week. I have to go to class, I
suppose. Remember, it will come out on Monday next
week, so make sure to get those posts in before the
deadline (because I'm strict about getting this out on
time).

Geaux Tigers! (I saw this on a license plate border of
a friend of mine in the math department who attended
LSU. I thought it was clever.)

Toolie
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