• OK. Let’s try this name out. I understand it may give some bad flashbacks of Alex Sanchez, but I’m willing to take that risk.

Tigers thoughts:

• I’d really like a Tigers game I could enjoy and relax. I had a few innings of that against Toronto when Detroit took a 9-0 lead, then kerplunk! Otherwise, these games haven’t been the most fun to watch. Even a well-played close game would be okay by me. Stress well played.
• Brandon Inge: YEEESSSH! Bilfer looks at an unlikely cause for his problems.
• Daily Fungo Mike’s feelings? Not worried. Just podcasting.
• Via Oriole Post: Jamie Walker will show no mercy to his ex teammates, the WashPost reports. Naturally it’s not that simple.
• “Like I said, they’re trying to take food off my table and I’m not going to let them if I can,” Walker told the paper. “So I’m going to go right after them like if I’m going to prepare for one game like I always have done my whole career. When they’re in there, it could be my mom up there, if I have to knock her [down], I will.
• Scott writes about Chad Durbin’s debut and the odds of seeing Andrew Miller at Quo Vadimus.
• Believe it or not, the Tigers are not the worst hitting team in baseball right now. (I hardly believe it myself). The Braves, Royals, Mariners and Cardinals are all batting under .225. Detroit is batting .231. Of course, Pudge, Polanco and Granderson alone are keeping the Tigers above them.
• OBP? .302. OPS? .664. Ugly, but the Tigers still aren’t the worst.
• (Via The Cutoff Man): Sports Illustrated profiled Jeremy Bonderman recently.
• Jim Leyland is getting grumpy, Lynn Henning writes.
• Jason Beck has a mailbag on Nate Robertson, Curtis Granderson and Nate Robertson.
• ADD: Pudge is featured on AT&T’s “See how they live.“

Around the league:

• In his new book, blogger Geoff Young (Ducksnorts for the Padres, Knuckle Curve for the league) writes about building a winning franchise by developing players from within and trading for quality players. Sounds a bit like the Tigers method, although they probably added a few more free agents than the formula calls for. But trades for Carlos Guillen and Placi Polanco while developing pitchers from within, as well as a pair of outfielders and a third baseman sure fit it.
• Teams are struggling to keep players healthy all over:
• Yankees OF Hideki Matsui went on the DL last week.
• St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter went on the DL yesterday and will miss the rest of the month. (Viva el Birdo)
• Recently acquired Dodgers pitcher Jason Schmidt isn’t feeling too good, either. (SI)
• If you noticed Dan Wheeler being added in your fantasy leagues, thank Brad Lidge. The Houston closer was demoted. (Space Race)

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First some site news:

• I really need a name for my quick hits. I’ve been blogging a year and I still don’t have one. Whenever I think of one, I’m pretty sure it’s already used by another Tigers blog. Or its name!
• One goal I’ve always had and always fallen short of is linking baseball blogs of opposing teams rather than always a regular media source. Like a stable of baseball blogging “friends” I can go to, and not necessarily always the best known blog. As the Tigers blogosphere proves, there can be good ones bubbling up. I’d like to find those. Any tips, drop me a comment or email.
• I’ve also committed myself to a daily recap of some other interesting things in baseball, though that will always be secondary, maybe as little as “around the central” at the bottom of a game post, but as I come up with items, I hope to have more posts like today’s.
• Finally, I’ve tried to incorporate Ballhype a bit. It’s a great help in finding interesting MLB stories around the Internet, but nice to have on my blog, too. Any comments, please let me know.

Now some Tigers news:

• Speaking of, I’ve found this link via Ballhype (see, it is useful) about Joel Zumaya. It’s pretty entertaining: Voodoo Sabermetrics - Joel Zumaya.
• Jeff Passan at Yahoo! Sports likes a good Jim Leyland rant.
• A thought I forgot to include in the recap of today’s game: Wow, did the Tigers ever let Brandon Duckworth off the hook. He threw 90 pitches, 49 for strikes. That meant41 were balls. But he kept the Tigers off the basepaths, allowing few hits or walks. While listening to the game, it seemed like he forced a lot of ground balls. But it was actually a 10-7 ground-to-fly ratio, not that much different than Bonderman’s 6-4.
• Cold weather makes batting harder. But you hate to glance at the stats and see .176 average from Gary Sheffield, Magglio Ordonez and Sean Casey, a .143 with eight strikeouts from Craig Monroe and .000 with six Ks from Brandon Inge after the first week of play. On the other hand, they’re not going to do that all year and Detroit finished the week 3-2, so it’s nothing to worry about.
• Casey’s problem so far is that he’s a ground ball/line drive batter but half of his contact has resulted in fly balls.
• But if he continues to struggle, how much fuel does that toss on the fire for Chris Shelton fans? He has a homer and double to go with a 1.250 on-base-plus-slugging in the first three Mudhens games.
• But Curtis Granderson has a .938 slugging and was pretty fun to watch. As was Pudgey and his two homers. Those two alone sank the Royals in the past two games.
• Vance Wilson may not need surgery, Jason Beck reports.
• He reported in the same piece in addition to Gary Sheffield wearing Jackie Robinson’s #42 on April 15, Curtis Granderson, Craig Monroe and Marcus Thames and hitting coach Lloyd McClendon will, too.
• Eric at D-Town Baseball has a look at the A.L. Central after the first week.
• Scott Warheit, also known as The Cutoff Man at Mlive’s blog, has a blog I can barely spell, Quo Vadimus, for his views on sports, politics, etc. He has a post on the Tigers today.

And finally, some other stuff:

• Warm weather vs. Cold Weather: The Los Angeles Angels and Oakland A’s have played seven games. The Cleveland Indians and their guest Seattle Mariners? 3.
• Allowing just one run today after some nice relief work, the Oakland pitching staff dropped its team ERA to 2.59, but has a 3-4 record to show for it, Baseball Musings reports.
• John Danks made his MLB debut for the Chicago White Sox today against Johan Santana. Sox Machine was impressed.
• Seattle Mariner blog Lookout Landing takes offense to Cleveland starter Paul Byrd’s annoyance with losing his no hitter to snow.

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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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Detroit ended its regular season by tying the New York Yankees, 3-3. That gave the Tigers a 21-10 Grapefruit League record. That apparently gives them a mythical Grapefruit championship. I’m sure they care. It doesn’t matter one way or the other, so don’t get upset that Detroit accidentally finished with the top record in Spring Training. It is neither a curse nor a blessing.

So, on to a short series of links.

Bilfer’s got the rundown on the finalized roster.

The Big Lead had a funny interview with Curtis Granderson.

CBS Sportsline has its first power rankings of the year out. (Actually, that’s a couple days old). Tigers were third. CBS was the one that didn’t have a lot of respect for the Tigers last season. So that’s nice. Fox Sports already has its second set. Detroit fell from fourth to sixth. Pre-Kenny Rogers Injury.

Finally, not Tigers related, but SI has an interview with Curt Schilling about his blog, 38pitches.com. As it’s always great when an athlete interacts with the fans, I thought it would be nice to highlight that.

Update: Because a commenter asked about it, here’s my story on a local umpire who spent time at Phillies Spring Training. It tells a bit about the other side of camp in Spring Training.

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I was playing around on the internet doing research for an upcoming story about a minor league umpire I know. Anyway, I spent some time at MILB.com and noticed some Tigers related stuff I hadn’t seen linked to.

Tigers roaring with Top Notch Talent in 2007

This one is basically an organizational look at the Tigers. There’s a lot of guys mentioned we’re familiar with. Ryan Raburn, Cameron Maybin, the like, so I’ll just point out their under-the-radar. That one seems to be true. I like to think I have a nice idea about Tigers prospects up and down the ladder, and this was a new name to me.

Brett Jensen, RHP
Drafted three times as a mainstay in the bullpen at University of Nebraska, Jensen then filled that role with similar success for the Gulf Coast Tigers after he was taken in the 14th round. He was 1-0 with a 0.67 ERA in 26 2/3 innings, striking out 31 and walking only five.

“He’s a tall, lean kid with a sidearm, down-under delivery,” Ezell said. “He’s a very strong competitor and he loves to be in there at the end of the game. He’s a guy we think will do some nice things.”

Naturally, they have the required Maybin story, this by Jason Beck actually ran on the Tigers.com main page a week ago, or around there.

By the way, Maybin had an EQ Average of .383 and contributed 6.4 EQ runs, per Clay Davenport at Baseball Prospectus.That put him behind Placido Polanco and around the same spot at Raburn. For whatever that is worth. *shrug*

Speaking of Maybin, the Lakeland Flying Tigers have a pretty cool looking site at MILB.

Also at MILB, and I don’t know how long this will last so you may want to look soon, they have streaming video talking about the top prospects of the A.L. Central. There’s an Andrew Miler interview early on in it.

That concludes the minor league portion of our festivities.

A more serious note from Danny Knobler, Vance Wilson had an MRI after experiencing elbow soreness. He says if it’s not serious, he’ll play through pain. As Knobler points out, Wilson is an important part of the team, but he’s still a backup catcher. So I’m not sweating it.

For some other stuff: Lee finishes his preview up with pitchers at Tiger Tales. I won’t ruin the”surprise” about how many wins he sees the Tigers getting, but I will say it’s a pretty good preview of what I’m going to predict myself.

Big Al at The Wayne Fontes Experince has parts 1 and 2 up. And the Mickey Tettleton Memorial Overpass does as well. Ian at Bless You Boys promises his preview soon. It kinda sneaks up on you, doesn’t it Ian? Ian also points out how tough the April schedule is for Detroit.

The stodgy Sporting News picks Detroit as the top team in baseball. Strange. Todd Jones says not so fast. Frankly the whole thing makes me a bit nervous. But being picked to win is actually no different than not being picked to win. None of it matters in the end. Hat-tip to a poster at Motown Sports who posted the cover to this week’s mag.

The Tigers reaction to being picked to win, at the least, the Central Division by so many people? “Thanks” basically. They’re keeping even keeled over it, Knobler reports. Leyland wouldn’t have it any other way.

Beck points to a poll which showed Tigers fans were among the most satisfied in sports. They ranked 12th overall, second in the MLB behind the Braves. They especially liked the ownership and loved Jim Leyland, but some thought the Tigers could have had more effort on the field. I’m not sure why that one came in a bit lower. Last year, the Tigers came in at 26th in baseball. Amazing what winning can do, huh?

And finally, the AP preview stories have crossed the wire and will probably sneak online at some media entity’s site ahead of the embargo. So keep your eyes open for that at Google.

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First off, here’s a copy of Curtis Granderson’s interview with Sporting News Radio interview. It was sent to me by Grandy’s agent, but I uploaded a copy on my own server for anyone else who missed the actual interview. It’ll stay up unless anyone official would like me to take it down. (Just, please link don’t link directly to the file, if you link to it. Thanks.)

Also, Grandy had an interview with Baseball Prospectus posted today. (Sub). Of interest, since much talk of Granderson is about his play at the plate, Granderson would like to hang his cap on his defense.

David Laurila: If you could win any title, or award, this season, what would it be?

CG: Maybe the batting title? No, I’d rather win a Gold Glove. That would be more meaningful to me.

DL: How would you rate where you are as a defensive player right now?

CG: On a scale of one-to-10, as a major league outfielder, I’d say I’m a six. The reason being; arm-wise I need to get more consistent. I have decent arm-strength and accuracy, but not consistency in putting the two together. I’ll make several good throws in a row, but then won’t be in sync with the next one. It’s a mechanical thing. You go through streaks as a fielder, just like you do as a hitter, and I want to improve my consistency because I take pride in my defense. I’ve had the knock of not being a true center fielder, and that motivates me to get better.

Based on how strongly he’s played the position, compared to, oh, most Tigers center fielders in the past 15 years, I’d say there’s no way you can knock his defense. I think having Granderson starting in CF was an important factor in the Tigers improved play defensively last year.

And the final CG note, Granderson answered a few more questions on his blog at MLBlogs. One note of interest is Sheffield is already having a similar influence on the batters — or Granderson, anyway — as Kenny Rogers had last year with the young pitchers.

R. Evarts (Rossford, OH): Which player on the team serves as the biggest role model to you and why?

I would have to say Gary Sheffield, because of the length of his career and what he has accomplished. Sheffield has a lot of hits, homeruns, and a World Series title. If at the end of my career I can have a piece of what he has done, that will be a successful career for myself.

From the Copa had a AL Central Division preview.

And finally, you could see Mack Avenue Tigers and a of your other favorite Tigers blogs in this week’s Sports Illustrated magazine print edition. (Lee and I aren’t actually on the SI Tigers web site). That was a complete surprise to me, but pretty cool. Congrats to everyone. Of course, several fine Tigers blogs were left off, too, but I fully expect someone to bounce me from the list by next year!

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Sabermetric great TangoTiger has a community forecast project for forecasters. If you’ve got a serious OPS and ERA forecast for the Tigers, or any other team, drop by his site and give a hand.

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While the Tigers start a bit late in their game against the Phillies, here’s some links I would have liked to present over the past few days.

BP named Cameron Maybin an excellent center field prospect and said Gorkys Hernandez is ranked very good (8th) and called the prospect you haven’t heard of today who’ll likely be creating buzz by next year. (Sub Req)

Nate Robertson is back to blogging for a second year and writes about the dog days of spring. Good on ya, Nate! (hat-tip The Dugout.) Still, I REALLY wish he hadn’t given out the secret some of them watch American Idol. Why, guys? WHY! Next time, I hope he at least tells us there’s a huge Scrubs fan in the clubhouse.

FYI, Curtis Granderson just had another update. An interesting question he was posed.

J. Zinn (Culpeper, VA): Since we’ve been hearing a lot about your two-strike approach throughout the at-bat, how has this been for you?

I think there has been a little misunderstanding on when I’m using the two-strike approach. During the approach I spread out a little bit and choke up. My thought is to let the ball travel and not only put the ball in play, but to make solid contact. I’m trying to do that of course with two strikes and also when I have guys at third base with less than two outs.

Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal likes the Tigers. A LOT! (hat tip The Dugout). He’s not the only one.

Rosenthal:

The Tigers are the best team in Florida, maybe the best team in baseball.

Scouts following the defending American League champions are raving about how sharp the team looks in Grapefruit League play.

“They have a swagger about them, a confidence,” one scout says. “They’re all business. The way they approach it, they’re on all cylinders now.”

A second scout adds, “It’s almost like they could open the season tomorrow and get out of the gate quickly, just by the way they prepare.”

I know we all have our personal worries. (Pitching health, Sheffield’s mouth, etc) So it’s always nice to read something reassuring.

Speaking of Sheffield’s mouth, we knew we were gonna see our newest superstar all over the media, for good and bad. And he likes to talk. And the media likes to quote him. So he’s on ESPN’s Page 2 with a lengthy interview. (FYI, Daily Fungo Mike wishes Sheff would just shut up).

Maybe it’s just a bit disturbing because the Tigers have always been pretty soft spoken, both in losing and winning, so it’s a bit jarring to have this new guy spouting off all over the place.

Part of me wishes he’d take a nice break from talking. I’m sure a lot of this is promotion for his upcoming book, and hopefully a week or two after publication, it dies down a bit.

But if he can return to pre-2006, takes the count deep, and hits a walk-off or two, I think I’ll get used to it. After half my life was spent watching a team under .500, frankly, all I really care about is winning. If Sheffield can contribute to that while talking, it’s all cool by me.

If you’re curious, Dmitri Young finally played a Spring game. And he homered.

And there’s a lengthy story on Kyle Sleeth’s comeback in the Rocky Mountain News.

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Just a welcome to Ian of Sweaty Men Endeavors, who will be joining the Tigers community as the new writer at Bless You Boys. ByB is the Tigers blog of SportsBlog Nation, the folks behind Athletics Nation.

Best of luck to Ian in growing the audience that Mark started.

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Baseball Prospectus had a minor-league organizational glance for the AL Central today. (Subscription). The highlight was Edward Campusano, on which Kevin Goldstein wrote:

Campusano was one of the better Rule 5 picks in December. In the end, he’ll be more than just a LOOGY, as his plus-fastball/plus-slider combination makes him equally effective against hitters from both sides.

Unrelated, but Brian of TigerBlog was in a roundatable discussion on the American League Central oer at Baseball Analysts. Unwilling to pick the Tigers, he went with the White Sox to win the Central. The panel spent a good amount of time discussing the Tigers, but in all, the discussion is a nice primer on the division for those who want to catch up on what to expect.

I’ll quickly weigh in. The interesting factor for me is every AL Central team is flawed, even while the division remains (among?) the strongest in baseball. More interesting, for the top four teams I believe the pitching staff provides a weak point while appearing strong. I still think Detroit has the strongest staff, but how will Verlander and Rogers hold up? How about Maroth? Those are valid questions.

What about the Twins? They appear to be afraid of their youth so they have Ramon Ortiz and Sidney Ponson. And highly-touted prospect Matt Garza has been less than stellar, if he makes the rotation at all. So after Johan Santana, who have you got? Not a great staff. And their lineup isn’t as strong as the three other teams.

The White Sox have a weak No. 5, but if their top 4 rebound, they should continue to be strong. So I think Brian has made a good choice.

And then there’s the Indians. Pitching cost them last year, especially in relief. They tried to rebuild their bullpen. How will it turn out? Who is to say. They have a decent rotation but I am not ready to buy into it. I’d still put it, at best, third in the AL Central.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of teams would be happy with any of these pitching staffs. But nobody is perfect.

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