A side-effect of going to the World Series? We get to see more games — a LOT more.

Jon Paul Morosi of the Free Press is reporting FSN and the Tigers have come to a deal that will see 134 games televised on FSN with Fox Channel 2 in Detroit showing an additional 17. Morosi also reported the Tigers are working to get those 17 showed through a statewide network. (Well, almost state wide. They said most markets in Michigan. I hope they include Marquette, which covers most of the UP anyway). Also, FSN will establish an overflow channel in case there’s conflict between two Detroit sports teams. Ten games — so far, I bet there’s more — will be shown on national TV. So that makes 161 of 162 games — April 7 being the lone open date — televised.

This is obviously great news. I’m glad to see the Tigers remember there are fans statewide, and we can actually see our baseball team. I think the 17 TV20 games is a decrease, and you’d love to see fans without cable TV be able to watch more. But being practical, the Tigers need all the revenue they can get and it’s a nice mix. I wholeheartedly approve.

Update: TV Schedule via the Detroit News. Glad to see there’s not too many games needed for FSN Plus…just in case it’s not on Charter.

The Tigers prospects are ranked behind a required subscription at Baseball Prospectus, so I’m not going to list everything out for you. But I’ll offer a few nuggets.

CF Cameron Maybin and LH-SP Andrew Miller are rated excellent prospects. Not giving away any state secrets with that one!

CF Gorkys Herndandez and SP RH-SP Jair Jurrgens are ranked very good and good, respectively.

Everyone else is average, at best. But several 2006 draftees made the list. Take that for what you will. So yah, the Tigers’ minor league system is not exactly flowing over with prospects right now.

On the other hand, BP does something it calls “The Big Picture,” which combines prospects with a team’s current major league players under the age of 25 for a good look at the talent level the team should have over the coming years. When you think Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya and Jeremy Bonderman are on that list, along with Curtis Granderson who turns 26 during spring training and was not eligible for the list, you’ve got a pretty good, young base.

In fact, BP writer Kevin Goldstein said ranking the top five in Detroit’s organization was so hard, he took a poll of what some other experts thought, just like he had to do with the talent-laden Cleveland Indians. Verlander and Bonderman took most of the first-place votes, with Verlander edging JB.

D-Town baseball reviews the same articles.

Jon Paul Morosi of the Freep reports this afternoon the Tigers signed the rest of their arbitration-eligible players.

The biggest surprise might be Craig Monroe, who’ll get $4.775M, a rather substantial raise. It’s great news for Craigdunitagen, of course, but it does seem a bit high unless he truly possesses that debatable “clutchiness.”

Nate Robertson inked up for $3.26M, Omar Infante for $1.3M and Fernando Rodney for $1.05M. Morosi mentions the Tigers might be trying to add another year to Rodney’s contract. Rodney’s agent is quoted as saying Rodney is in position to be the 2008 closer, which made Eric at D-Town nervous.

Using Bilfer’s payroll information, this puts the Tigers at about $95M, not including a few of the minimum pre-arbitration contracts. So by the time all is said and done, it should near $100M. Wow. That was pretty quick. I never pictured I’d see the Tigers spend that kind of money during my lifetime. I hope they get value for it. Fortunately a lot of flexibility next year remains.

As it’s that time of the year to make New Years Resolutions, if you do — and I don’t. I just change or I don’t, I don’t check the calendar first — I thought I’d take a peek at some of the Tigers’ New Years resolutions. (Yeah, original theme for a post, isn’t it? Maybe that’s my resolution…)

Pudge Rodriguez — Don’t swing at the first pitch. Don’t swing at the first pitching. Don’t swing at the … CRAP!

I think that covers half the lineup.

Gary Sheffield — Listen to some happy music in the locker room and teach those guys above some patience.

A trio:

Joel Zumaya — Stay away from Wii.
Kenny Rogers — Stay away from dark objects.
Fans when Todd Jones is pitching — Stay away from sharp objects.

Okay, those were too obvious!

Jim Leyland — Find a bigger ash tray.

And you thought I’d take the obvious one again!

Jeremy Bonderman — Develop a changeup. And a plan on how not to blow a 6-0 lead.

I kid because I love. Or is it because I wanted to strangle him that day..? One or the other, anyway.

Andrew Miller — Work to get back to Detroit soon.

With some seasoning and a starting role, he’s gonna be fun.

Brandon Inge — Buy a razor and shave that soul patch!

Please?

Dave Dombrowski – More of a maintenance resolution: keep spending wisely.

Mike Ilitch — Keep letting him.

And a few Tigers related resolutions:

ESPN — Show some Tigers games when they don’t play the Yankees. For that matter, show anyone’s games — I don’t care who — as long as they don’t play the Yankees. Or Red Sox.

FSN — Show some more games!

And finally:

Tigers fans – Stop thinking about the World Series meltdown and keep thinking about how fun opening day is going to be when the penant is raised at Comerica Park.

We haven’t had it this good in 22 years.

Happy New Years!

I didn’t even know the News had a Sportsman of the Year, and then I got to this paragraph.

Henning: The Tigers manager helped steer a once-lost team to remarkable achievements in 2006, capped by a stunning trip to the World Series. His remarkable influence on 25 players, and the celebration it in turn sparked within Detroit’s baseball community, is why Leyland has been chosen as the first Detroit News Sportsman of the Year.

I’m trying to remember if it’s the Freep or the AP, I think the Freep, who generally does this sort of thing. Other than maybe a sympathetic shoutout to Steve Yzerman’s retirement, I can’t really think of anyone else I would substitute for Leyland. (And to be clear, I would not substitute Yzerman, but I could see that happening).

It seems Tigers bloggers have turned the page. I’m seeing more posts popping up among us.

I read this last night when I set up the headlines on the sidebar (plug!), but Daily Fungo Mike has a full post to check out, too: Murray Chass of the New York Times writes about Marian Ilitch’s involvement with Ilitch Holdings, which owns the Tigers, as she also runs a casino. He waxes that while technically not against the rules, as she claims no involvement with the Tigers, it’s not a good idea. I agree. It’s probably not a good idea. It’s not one that concerns me. I doubt there’s any game fixing that 25 guys and Jim Leyland are going to agree to, so I don’t see it as a problem. That and I look at the Maloof Brothers owning casinos and the Sacramento Kings and the Illitch’s don’t look so bad. Like I said, I don’t condone it, but I’m not going to get too upset.

Speaking of Mike, he has many posts up at his new site. You fans out there, update your RSS feeds and bookmarks. We’re all starting to get the bug as the year ends.

Former Tiger Chris Brown died of burns he sustained earlier this year. Mike has a post on that, too.

Hardball Times had an article on what the average ERA is per rotation position. What makes an ace? What makes a No. 4 starter? And most importantly to us, how do the Tigers stack up?

In the AL, 3.70 is average for the ace of the staff, and 5.09 for the No. 4 guy.

What immediately jumps out at me is how high the #4 and #5 ERAs are. If there’s one thing most people agree on when they talk about rotation spots, it’s that a guy with an ERA over 5.00 ought to be your #5 starter. As it turns out, fewer than half of major league teams could claim an ERA under 5.00 from their #4 spot.

… In other words, an AL pitcher who managed an ERA under 4.00 over 32 starts very likely qualifies as an ace

The Tigers cumulative No. 4 slot had an ERA of 4.07. Obviously, 1, 2 and 3 were all better. So just think about that one for awhile. The top three pitchers would be considered aces under those parameters. (Team stats.) Jeremy Bonderman’s 4.08 with 200+ strikeouts was just outside the range. He’s actually the No. 4 guy. Nate Robertson (3.84), Kenny Rogers (3.84) and Justin Verlander (3.63) all would have qualified as ace, although Verlander only had 30 starts. And that is how good of a season the Detroiters had at the mound.

… I thought I had something else but if I do, I’ll add it in the morn… afternoon.

In trying to find comparable pitchers to help decide Daisuke Matsuzaka’s fantasy value, the pitcher Baseball Prospectus found most similar? Our very own Jeremy Bonderman. (Premium)

In today’s News, Lynn Henning looks at a possible lineup card. My opinion? (First, make sure to pull up a copy of Lynn’s so this makes sense!)

I like his 2-3-4. I think Granderson is fine at leadoff given that there isn’t a real great candidate to bump him. I’m even fine with Casey fifth given his left-handed bat and ability to clear the bases. But then, just spitting one lineup out, I’d go Polanco, Inge, Monroe, Pudge. Pudge might not like 9, but I view him as setting up the top of the order that way. Otherwise in Lynn’s lineup, flip him and Monroe. A radical idea, too, might be putting Pudge leadoff and Granderson sixth.

Doubtlessly, you are familiar with Baseball-Reference.com. During the season, it’s a valuable source I visit several times a week. Maybe you’ve noticed that there’s a small text advertisement that goes on every manager, player and team page on the site. In the past you probably would have noticed those frequently empty for Tigers, and frequently low priced. That is no longer the case. I was thinking about sponsoring a favorite Tiger and hadn’t been there for awhile. Well, let me tell you, Tigers bloggers and fans all caught on to that idea before I had. Here’s a sampling.

Samara sponsors Brandon Inge. (Go figure!)

Bilfer? He sponsors Jeremy Bonderman and Fernando Rodney.

Baseball by Paul sponsored Curtis Granderson. My top pick, darn you Paul!

Not a blogger, but attorney Dave Merwin, a big Tigers fan whomever he is, sponsors Andrew Miller, Justin Verlander and Magglio Ordonez.

The others are mostly taken by random companies, but this Baseball Evolution has Marcus Thames and has a nice article.

Who is available for those Tigers fans with money burning a hole in their pocket? Choices are limited and mostly outside the realm of play money. There’s Zach Miner ($10) (I may just have to do that one!), Todd Jones ($35), Kenny Rogers ($165), Christopher Bob Shelton ($20), Ramon Santiago and Omar Infante ($15). There may be a few bit players I didn’t check.

As for the 2006 team? Nobody has ponied up $95 yet.

I just may have to step down to the minors, where Cameron Maybin is a tidy $15.

I believe in January I’ll start putting together some actual useful posts. In the meantime, my fellow Tigers bloggers have been doing great work, which I hope you’ve read.

At DTW, Bilfer put together a Tigers payroll spreadsheed…sheet (you can tell it’s basketball season). It looks like when this year’s round of contracts are finished up with arbitration and whatnot, the Tigers will be in the $90-95 million payroll. That sounds fair for a team selling out the stadium routinely and who played in the World Series. The spreadsheet shows that GM Dave Dombrowski has built a lot of flexibility into the next several years.

At Tiger Tales, Lee put together a pair of must-read post, those being on batted balls and the Tigers. The first is more descriptive in nature, the second is more predictive. When you get down to it, what we see is this was a team that didn’t overperform at the dish. Some players did, others underperformed. Sean Casey, who anyone could see was having a miserable time with his luck, should even out over the course of the year, Lee finds. He also finds Marcus Thames should put up better numbers. Carlos Guillen might make a step back, but he’ll still be among the best batters at his position.

The White Sox possibly gave the Tigers another Christmas present for 2007: They traded young pitching stud Brandon McCarthy for a younger pitching stud. So they now lack a viable No. 5 pitching candidate. They’re definitely worse for getting rid of Freddy Garcia. Over at a forum, the Sox fans pretty much freaked but some have calmed down and now like the deal. Baseball Prospectus (premium) found this deal may actually backfire on Texas, because B-Mac gives up a lot of home runs. It just seems to me right now, I’d have to say the the Sox look weaker and the Twins lost two workhorse pitchers. If Cleveland’s pitching holds, could be an exciting rivalry for the division title. But that’s so far off in the future, no real purpose to thinking about it yet.

The Tigers made the “nice” list at Baseball Prospectus for trading for Gary Sheffield. Joe Sheehan also called signing Jeremy Bonderman to four years risky, but a good risk.

The trade for Gary Sheffield was perhaps the best example of a team matching an acquisition to need. The Tigers had major OBP issues last season, and even an aging Sheffield will be good for a team-leading mark. I suspect that his impact on the team’s overall run scoring will be greater than we can model. Adding an OBP guy to a high-SLG, low-OBP lineup should have a larger effect than adding it to a more balanced lineup.

The Tigers are trying to figure out their broadcast partners and TV deal, Lynn Henning reported in the News. I hope the Tigers really strive to get the free TV shown statewide. I know it was in most of the major cities downstate, but there’s a lot of state left that would like to see the Tigers too. 110 televised games is an embarrassment for a team that played in the World Series. They have to find more TV partners and realize that northern Michigan and the U.P. support the Tigers, too.

I think that about covers it. Have Happy Holidays! (Not that I’m PC, but I can’t spell all the holidays you should be having happily!)

A few more: I hadn’t realized that a few articles were written about Baseball America’s award winners:

1. Dave Dombrowski, Executive of the Year
2. Jim Leyland, Manager of the Year
3. Andrew Miller, College Player of the Year
4. Justin Verlander, Rookie of the Year (premium)

Jason Beck of MLB.com reports Jeremy Bonderman signing a four-year deal worth about $38 million.

Obviously this is great news, as Bonderman is among the top defense-independent pitchers in baseball as a 23-year-old and should only get better and better over the next four years as he develops. And at less than $10 million a year over that time period, he’s a real steal.

I’m tickled, as I’m sure all Tigers fans are, that he’ll be around for at least that long.

Update: while you’ve doubtlessly read this elsewhere while I was busy, the terms of the contract were released. May as well get them in for posterity sake!

Bonderman gets $4.5 million next year, $8.5 million in 2008 and $12.5 million in each of the following two seasons.

The Tigers made room on the 40-man roster for Jose Mesa by non-tendering Alexis Gomez.

What that means for Gomez is a choice between signing a minor-league contract or seeking employment on the free-agent market. As Jason Beck reported, he had this choice to make earlier in the season and chose to stay with the organization. Obviously, it paid off for him when he became an American League Championship Series hero.