Baseball Historians

Baseball Prospectus recently unveiled their AL Central preview and talk about some interesting results.  The good news is, they have the Tigers tied for first place.  The bad news is, they’re tied with the Twins and White Sox and all three teams have a projected record of 80-82.  That’s right, nobody is projected to have [...]

This is some good news.  Lynn Henning’s latest talks about the Tigers who are on the mend and he reports the Scott Sizemore should be fully healed from the broken leg  he suffered in the Arizona Fall League.  It’s also nice to see Brandon Inge has been working hard and he’s been in Lakeland for [...]

Ken Rosenthal is the latest to provide us with the soap opera that is Johnny Damon.  Based on this, it looks like the Tigers are close money wise but this could still drag out if Damon wants to fish for a better deal.  It also looks like the Braves might be out of the running [...]

I’m waiting to write some substantial until the Tigers actually sign Johnny Damon.  In the meantime, here’s the latest mailbag with Jason Beck.  First and foremost is why Damon is taking so long to sign but he also touches on why the Tigers might sign Damon when the dealt Granderson as well as why there’s [...]

With pitchers and catchers set to report this week, Lynn Henning thinks the Tigers are going to be lucky to hit the .500 mark  in 2010.  He said 75 is more realistic with 80 being a stretch and that’s even with Damon in the fold.  I personally think their hitting won’t be that much worse [...]

It looks like the price to keep Edwin Jackson would have been pretty high because he signed a two year, $13.35 million deal to buy out Edwin Jackson’s final two years of arbitration.  It’ll be interesting to see how Jackson does in Arizona in 2010.  He’s coming off of a career high 214 innings and [...]

It looks like the Tigers are going to sign Johnny Damon and while they play different positions in the field, Damon will fill at lead off and all but try to fill in for the Tigers exciting former centerfielder.  It’s also interesting because the Yankees have effectively made the swap but in the other direction.  [...]

I’ve always wanted to go to Tigers fantasy camp and it’s on my list of things I want to do (at some point in my life).  I’ve talked to a few people who have gone but David Laurila did a really nice job of describing his experience this year.  There’s some great stuff in here [...]

Now this is interesting.  Buster Olney is reporting that the two year offer the Tigers made is actually a smokescreen of sorts to help Scott Boras save face over how he handled (or if you like, mishandled) Johnny Damon.  The idea is that the two year offer was publicized but that it’ll eventually be turned [...]

It looks like the Johnny Damon saga is going to drag on for another week because he’s going to wait until he gets back from his Hawaii vacation to make a decision as to who he’ll play with.  The Tigers appear to be the frontrunners but you wonder if the stalling tactic is to see if [...]

Scott Boras must be loving this.  Now the White Sox have put their name in the hat for Johnny Damon.  There’s nothing like your division rival forcing you to push up your price.  The Tigers have more room for Damon but the White Sox have shown that they can make a crowded outfield work although [...]

According to “sources,” Tigers owner Mike Ilitch has told the front office that he’ll go along with a two year, $14 million deal for Johnny Damon.  This appears to be the top money out there so it looks like Damon could be a Tiger in 2010 just a week before pitchers and catchers report.

Bless you Boys gives us a great update on where the Tigers are at with Johnny Damon.  It looks like the Braves are sticking their nose in with the Rays looking to pick up the scraps.  Of course with Scott Boras involved, you never know what’s real and what’s being thrown out to help spur [...]

Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman have been throwing the ball around down in Lakeland and Verlander has some encouraging news.  Bonderman hasn’t thrown well since the first half of 2007 and at this point, having him be an effective starter would go a long way towards the Tigers making the playoffs in 2010.  Verlander reported [...]

With pitchers and catchers reporting in close to a week, I have a few more optimistic pieces planned but I wanted to write one more downer article.  Back in 2006, Tigers fans were sky high.  While the Tigers fell short of winning the World Series, they put themselves back on the map.  Now with that [...]

The Tigers have said that they completed a five year deal that will keep Justin Verlander in town for the forseeable future.  With all of the emphasis toward cutting salary (up until they signed Jose Valverde), this was a welcome move for Tiger fans and it all came down as the arbitration date was getting [...]

Keith Law’s latest blog post is on top rookie prospects for 2010 and he touches on Austin Jackson, Al Avila and Scott Sizemore.  He has some nice things to say about Sizemore which is encouraging.  I’m still a little pessimistic (about him at second next year, not long term) so hopefully I’m wrong.

This is a great story over at Bless You Boys.  Apparantly Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers are doing a number of things to fulfill an injured police officer and big time Tigers fans baseball dreams.

The Detroit News had a quick chat with Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers GM said the team isn’t close to signing Johnny Damon.  It also looks like the Tigers haven’t even talked to Boras or Damon so you wonder if this is just Dombrowski’s usual cryptic response (can’t blame him), or if it’s a play [...]

Tom Gage gave a run down on what he thinks the top ten spring training stories will be as we get closer to pitchers and catchers reporting.  His number one is Austin Jackson and that will go out the window if the Tigers sign Johnny Damon.  I think Scott Sizemore and Jeremy Bonderman will matter [...]

MLB Trade Rumors brought up an interesting discussion today.  Should Justin Verlander make more then Felix Hernandez?  Jon Paul Morosi seems to think so but Dierkes brings up some great points as to why this might not be the case.

It’s hard not to get too excited about a Verlander/Scherzer/Porcello front end of the rotation.  Verlander has already shown what he can do while Scherzer has just as much potential.  It’s also easy to get jack up over Porcello’s freshman campaign as a 20 year old.  That’s why Jason Beck’s latest on Porcello is a [...]

It looks like Scott Boras is working hard and he’s come out and said that Johnny Damon wants to talk to the Tigers.  I like how he plays up Damon’s numbers at Comerica Park.  Damon tied a career high last year with 24 home runs and he has an impressive .355 on base percentage so [...]

Is it going to be long before PECOTAing is a word.  Anyway, Billfer does a nice job of not only mentioning the fact that the mean averages are out for PECOTA, but he gives us a few Tiger specific nuggets.  Namely how good people expect Max Scherzer to be as well as how things stack [...]

Brandon Inge’s contract with the Tigers is finished at the end of the 2010 and this fan can’t wait for him to go somewhere else.  One interesting not on Inge in his defense is when you look at his splits, he’s a much better career hitter when you carve out his time at catcher.  Those [...]

It looks like the Tigers and Justin Verlander are getting closer to a long term deal that will lock up the franchise pitcher.  The current deal on the table is 5 years, $75 million with the Felix Hernandez contract as the bench mark.  Rosenthal and Morosi say in their piece that if there’s a sixth [...]

The Tigers sent Jeff Larish outright to Toledo today and he’ll be a non-roster invitee to spring training.  Larish is one of those guys who mashed in the minors but has problems in the majors catching up to pitches with that long swing.  I hope this isn’t Ryan Strieby’s fate (i.e. a career AAA guy) [...]

I’m confused.  Very confused.  Unless you’re the Chicago White Sox, you usually determine whether your team is a buyer or a seller and you react accordingly.  The Tigers appear to have an identity crisis because with each move they make, it appears they swing from one side to the other.  At the end of the [...]

The Tigers were busy locking up a bunch of players prior to actual arbitration throughout the past week.  Gerald Laird signed for $3.95 million, Zach Miner is in for $950,000 and Bobby Seay signed for $2.475 million.  That leaves the pink elephant in the room in Justin Verlander.  The Tigers and Verlander look to be $2.6 million apart [...]

The Tigers locked up closer Jose Valverde to a two year, $14 million deal and there’s a $9 million option for 2012.  I’ve said this before, but I thought relief was one of the few spots where the Tigers should have just looked from within.  Instead, they’re overpaying, in my opinion, for a good but [...]