Technically I guess Bunt Singles.

• Vance Wilson had Tommy John surgery. It’s good they finally found a solution to the problem, but it’s really too bad he’s lost for the season. You have to like Mike Rabelo as a replacement, it’s still only backup catcher. Wilson was a good guy to have around the clubhouse and I think helped Rabelo and the pitching staff along. Best case, he’s ready for the start of next season. Worst case, Wilson is still out at this time next season.
• Same link, since it’s late. Roman Colon, who recently came off the disabled list and was hoped to be an eventually solution to the Tigers problems, got into a fight with his Mud Hens teammates and was suspended for seven days.
• Finally, Matt Wallace tries not to embarrass himself at Take 75 North as he writes about which draft picks the Tigers took are likely to sign.

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Toronto Blue Jays @ Detroit Tigers, 1 p.m., FSN
RHP A.J. Burnett vs. LHP Nate Robertson
Fangraphs.com live boxscore and win probability

Tigers MLB.com Preview

Jays MLB.com Preview

JAYS

1. Johnson, LF
2. Overbay, 1B
3. Wells, CF
4. Thomas, DH
5. Glaus, 3B
6. Rios, RF
7. Hill, 2B
8. Zaun, C
9. Clayton, SS

TIGERS

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Sheffield, DH
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Guillen, SS
6. Rodriguez, C
7. Casey, 1B
8. Monroe, LF
9. Inge, 3B

My pregame thoughts: The first day of celebration ended Monday when the Tigers began the day by raising the American League pennant and ended it by losing to the Blue Jays in extra innings. Today, they’ll receive their AL championship rings. Kenny Rogers may even be there to pick up his ring in person. (Update: He made it.) From that point on, it’s baseball.

Which is good. That first inning Monday was a doozy. Whether that’s because Jeremy Bonderman continued his first inning struggles, as Daily Fungo Mike thought, or if it’s because every Tiger had an Opening Day ceremony hangover and every Blue Jay had hopes of spoiling the party, I don’t know. But I sure hope not to see a repeat when Nate Robertson takes the mound. There’s a lot of right-handed batters for Toronto, and Nate had an ERA of 9+ last season against them, so it should be interesting to see if he can overcome that.

Jason Beck’s preview pointed out Sean Casey is 12-for-20 against Burnett.

Update: The weather apparently stinks but they’re going to try to get it in. It’s pretty white way up north, so if it does half this in Detroit anytime soon, the Tigs may take tomorrow off.

Yesterday in the Central: The Twins went 2-0 on the year by defeating Baltimore, 3-2, behind a strong bullpen performance. Beck watched and shared his belief many people wrote off the Twins too quickly. The rest of the Central was off.

Postgame thoughts: 10-9 Tigers. What the deuce!? Seriously. After Curtis Granderson helped put an 8-spot snowman on the board and Craig Monroe helped make it 9-0, the Tigers had, oh, about a 99.9 percent chance of winning. I’m not sure how many digits Fangraph goes out on its probability, but I have to guess it would have spat out something high like that. Nate Robertson had a slight stumble, but it’s still 10-2 when I think “Well this one’s in the bag. Why don’t I get something done at the gym?” It’s 10-9 when I step on the treadmill? What. The. Deuce?! The box score tells me Jason Grilli had a bad day. And Fernando Rodney didn’t really help matters.

So I’ll concentrate on what I did see, which was good and bad. Robertson’s dealing for five innings was decent. A lefty against a righty lineup, Robertson could have been excused if he had any struggles, but he pitched right through the lineup without giving up a run until the sixth inning. That was nice to see. For the game, he got 11 groundballs and 2 flyballs — a nice ratio — and struck out four in 5-2/3 innings. Granderson was obviously a good point, with his grandslam and triple, though he did strike out twice. Pretty much, I could mention most of the first six batters and say they had a good day at the plate. Placido Polanco continued his Spring Training tear with another 3-hit game, and Pudgey had four hits.

But you can nitpick this thing, too. I’m waiting for Fangraphs play-by-play and going off the top of my head, but I believe Carlos Guillen swung at the first pitch with bases loaded and flew out. He swung at the first pitch in another instance too. I believe a couple guys swung at first pitches in the middle of rallies to kill them. And, of course, Brandon Inge and Craig Monroe are really struggling at the plate. Sean Casey failed to get a runner home from third when he batted with the bases loaded twice, throwing fuel on the fire for Chris Shelton’s supporters, but I’d remind them it’s still early and just one game. He scooped up some pretty crappy throws to save errors to earn his keep today.

I’ll probably have a second post with a more detailed look at the game when some better stats come out.

BOX

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A record crowd of 44,297 saw the Tigers raise their 10th American League championship pennant in franchise history. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

As I listen to the Oakland A’s while watching the Minnesota Twins on this fine Monday…

– It wasn’t just Opening Day for the MLB. Ballhype officially opened its doors, as well.

I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation from Matt of Detroit Bay Boys to help beta test, a task which I failed at pretty much because I forgot to bookmark it and forgot I was a member for a week or two. But now it’s open to all.

It is one part an aggregate of stories and blog posts, including props, links and criticisms. But it is one huge part community. Once you sign up, you can join a group of like-minded fans to trade links, point out stories, just chat, or whatever. You can also attempt to pick the winner of games and see how many people of the Ballhype Nation agree or disagree. If you sign up for the Detroit group, you’ll see Matt, Ian of Detroit Bad Boys Bless You Boys and Sweaty Men Endeavors, Eric of DTown Baseball, and quite a few others. Give it a look. It could become a first sports stop. The more I use it, the cooler and more useful I find the technology to be.

– Speaking of Ian, his season preview is up at Bless You Boys.

– Greg Eno writes about the specialness of Opening Day in Detroit… or is that Opening day, he asks.

– Taking a moment to look around the AL Central, Cleveland blew the doors off Chicago and starter Jose Contreras, putting up eight runs on him in 1+ innings. CC Sabathia didn’t handle the White Sox handily, but he did enough to get the 12-5 victory. … Kansas City newcomer Gil Meche topped Boston starter Curt Schilling, 7-1. … The Twins are currently tied with Baltimore, 3-3.

– Baseball Prospectus has its preseason Hit List “power ranking” up. (Free for all to view)

– You’ve heard ESPN’s Jayson Stark, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal both picked the Tigers to win the World Series over the weekend. SI’s Jon Heyman added his agreement. On, and Peter Gammons, despite what he said on BBT Sunday, also picked them. It really doesn’t matter whether the national media picks you to win or not. But I certainly enjoy seeing some of the baseball writers I enjoy reading pick them. It sure beats being tabbed for fourth.

– A little self promotion, of sorts, but I was asked to answer a few questions about the Tigers for a Blue Jays blog, The Batters Box. Here’s the Tigers 2007 preview. Hopefully I’ve represented our guys as best I can with a minimum of navy blue glasses. Go check it out. Long as you’re over there, they’ve got their look at the Tigers, too.

– Finally, your requisite Curtis Granderson link. He moved his blog — to ESPN.com.

– And one more. I liked John Lowe’s imagery for why we enjoy baseball.

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