GoWings1905

I can delete the other one if you need me to. It's showing three different names for you from what I can tell. Thanks for your help as well!

Yes, indeed. I plan to still post a weekly reminder here probably on Wednesday.

That went well. Game was lost in the first inning when the Tigers let AJ fricking Burnett off the hook. Why bunt Santiago in that spot? Jackson can easily steal second off Burnett and Santiago had some huge hits just a night earlier. Score some runs there and it probably completely changes the outcome. He settled in and if the Tigers lose on Thursday, getting beat by Burnett will be the reason why they aren't in Texas this weekend. Porcello is a sinker-ball pitcher and all of his mistakes were up. I didn't think Porcello was too bad, but the Yankees did make him pay. The bullpen is downright sorry -- Fister better go seven innings and get it to Benoit and Valverde because everyone else blows. Hopefully this is one the Tigers can just forget about quickly, but you have to wonder what their mindset is getting destroyed at home and having to win a deciding game now at Yankee Stadium against a team with offensive momentum. Agreed, but in theory it should have worked in the Tigers favor tonight. They got to face Burnett instead of Sabathia twice and they didn't take advantage. Losing JV is definitely not a positive at this point, but the Tigers had their chance to make that irrelevant. It also kind of shows the Tigers rotation is nowhere near as deep as it needs to/should be yet.

Just trying to get some feedback from the people here that have participated previously in Weekend Picks and/or have checked out the site BOTI posted. It appears the weighted option is all or nothing. So we can either just pick winners and get one point for each correct selection OR assign a confidence level to each game and then you receive the total number of points based on the teams that win. We can keep the double up game if preferred, but it looks like we would end up having to track that here in the forum still if so. I don't care either way, but wanted to see if there were any opinions first as I would like to create the pool so people can start joining and making picks tomorrow. Thanks!

Alright, starting lineup for Game 4 with a chance to clinch at stake: Jackson 8, Santiago 4, Young 7, Cabrera 3, V-Mart DH, Kelly 9, Peralta 6, Avila 2, Betemit 5 Finish them off Tigers!

Great find Blood On The Ice. I played around with the site and it definitely looks like it would work for us. I guess we just have to decide what to do with the weighted option and if we feel like using a secondary site wouldn't deter participation too much.

How about the unsung guys coming through last night? Santiago, Inge, Kelly, Jackson had some great AB's too. Gotta give some credit to Jim Leyland too -- he has made all the right moves in this series so far with the lineups, defensive replacements, bullpen usage and so on. I think it's pretty clear we just gotta roll with Ramon at second and Maggs in right. I still like the platoon at third even with Inge coming through last night. Betemit definitely still hits righties way better. Verlander was just unreal except for about 5 batters. The 5th inning where he struck out the side on 10 pitches was about as sick of a display as a pitcher could ever throw. Valverde is going to cause me major health issues, but he got the job done like always. Hopefully we get the good Rick Porcello tonight. One more boys!

Jackson CF, Santiago 2B, Young LF, Cabrera 1B, V-Mart DH, Maggs RF, Peralta SS, Avila C, Inge 3B are your Tigers starting tonight for Game 3. This day is dragging, by the way.

I was nervous as hell Max was going to implode when he had control issues in the first inning. I'm incredibly impressed though -- six shutout innings at Yankee Stadium in a game the Tigers had to win. Comerica is going to be insane tomorrow, even more now with JV pitching. I want 2006 and no trip back to New York.

I was just messing with you. Glad to see you are still around though. You had always been extremely helpful in previous years, but don't feel obligated like you have to help out still if you had no intention of doing so. I will go along with whatever you feels works best. Thanks!

Exactly. Not only that, but it also moves Scherzer up to start at Yankee Stadium. Max is clearly better off pitching at Comerica with all of the fly balls and HR's he allows. I'm so pissed Torre and MLB sent the teams out there and wasted our best chance of winning the series. Only positive I can see today is Freddy Garcia blows and hopefully the Tigers can win 11-10. Jackson 8, Maggs 9, Young 7, Cabby 3, V-Mart DH, Avila 2, Peralta 6, Betemit 5, Santiago 4 is the Tigers starting lineup for Game 2. I'm fine with Maggs starting, but can we please ditch him batting second? Put Avila there with his high OBP or hell even Betemit or Santiago would be fine. Gotta even this series up and let JV take over tomorrow night!

I don't think anybody really sees Helm as a top six forward. He doesn't have the finishing ability (yet). If he forechecks hard, creates havoc with his speed and kills penalties like he has so far as a Red Wing, that's a perfectly fine role for Helm.

I'm willing to give Jimmy the benefit of the doubt because it's only the preseason and second he earned some major respect from me for his playoff performance. That being said, the Red Wings need to clean it up defensively starting next Friday including Howard. Jimmy just needs to find a level of consistency -- the Wings don't need him to steal games like Lundqvist, but he needs to be sharper than last regular season. Conklin is a more than adequate backup, but he's not a guy that's going to get the Red Wings a championship. We need Jimmy to pick up where he left off in the Sharks series.

I'm willing to do it this year. I need Dan Bylsma for the assist though.

Yeah, I worded that poorly. I meant Verlander pitched Game 2 during the afternoon, which was caused by a rainout the night before. The Yankees are usually always on at night during the playoffs. I thought Bonderman pitched the clincher in Game 4? Robertson got shelled in Game 1 IIRC.

Wow, what a letdown. I know the forecast wasn't supposed to produce that much rain according to the reports, but why even risk it since it turned into a monsoon? This is a tough break for the Tigers I think. Verlander is likely only going to pitch once now and Scherzer starting at Yankee Stadium has disaster written all over it. Anyone else think the Tigers played very tight for that inning and a half? Cabrera makes that force out to second all of the time and Inge turned an easy out at home into a run for the Yankees. Hopefully tomorrow will produce a win with Fister going. It sucks the Tigers have to use a line-up with 7 righties in it against Nova now. Didn't a game in 2006 also get rained out at Yankee Stadium? For some reason, I remember Verlander pitching Game 2 during the day which I doubt was the original schedule.

^ Scapegoat. Epstein is just as much to blame, if not more. Francona is an excellent manager. I just hope he doesn't end up with the White Sox now. Starting to get very excited and nervous too! LET'S GO TIGERS!

That's pretty cool. Talk about a talented friendship -- Super Bowl MVP and possibly NL MVP. Well, I didn't want it but I knew it was coming... Tigers lineup for Game 1 tonight: Jackson CF, Maggs RF, Young LF, Cabrera 1B, V-Mart DH, Avila C, Raburn 2B, Peralta SS, Inge 3B.

Damn. I liked that mistake. For real though, Leyland better not have Inge and Raburn starting tonight. I'm fine with righty/lefty matchups to an extent, but Leyland takes it way too far. Betemit and Santiago are better players and you start your best players no matter what in the playoffs. I expect Maggs to start in right, which is fine considering Maggs has been very good the past month and we have no better options against CC anyways there. Don't quite understand why Penny made the roster either over Below or Pauley. Does anyone trust Penny more than either of those two? We are probably in trouble if any of those three would pitch regardless, but I thought Pauley came around and he can chew up multiple innings. I'm going to wet myself still if Perry or Schlereth come in to a close game. Love Ryan Braun. Definitely want to see the Tigers/Brewers in the World Series.

That's hardly a comparable situation. Backes' first full season in the league was 2007-2008 and he was still on the last year of his deal this past season. Backes parlayed a couple of 30-goal seasons into a bigger deal. You are also comparing probably the best forward on a pretty deep team up front to maybe the 4th or 5th best forward on the Red Wings. Also, your claim Cleary misses 1/4th of the season EVERY year couldn't be further from the truth. Since joining the Red Wings, Cleary has never played fewer than 63 games, so in fact he has actually never missed 1/4th of the season in ANY year. Like Mickey says, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. Everyone on the team is getting older -- should we trade Franzen or Zetterberg too since both of them have missed time? I'll take a guy that can score 26 goals, play on any line, is strong defensively and works his ass off every single shift. Then again, I would need to get off his jockstrap and look at it with your objectivity instead.

Cleary is such a scrub. We should definitely part ways with the second leading goal scorer on the team. Why would anyone agree with you now anyways? He's been worth the money for the two years you have been claiming he isn't, so I can't see this season being any different.

Agreed. The Yankees were up 7 runs; I would want Leyland to get the regulars out too with nothing to play for two days before games that really matter. Scioscia didn't make an attempt. I fully understand shutting down Weaver and Santana, but go look at the Angels batting order the last two games. They mailed it in.

Predictions? I am pretty pumped about all of these series. Yankees/Tigers in five Rangers/Rays in four Phillies/Cardinals in four Brewers/D-Backs in three Also, interested to see the Tigers ALDS roster tomorrow morning.

I feel better as a Tigers fan when other teams blow massive September leads. What a complete collapse by the Braves. Phillies/Cardinals and Brewers/D-Backs in the NL. EDIT: WOW! The Red Sox were one strike away from winning and lost and Longoria just hit a walk-off homer for the Rays. Two incredible September meltdowns.

Tigers/Yankees again, thanks to the Angels throwing in the towel the past three days. I think Mike Scioscia might be the best manager in baseball, but he just handed the Rangers home field. Maybe some payback for the Weaver/Guillen incident? Oh well, 95 wins for the Tigers and you have to beat the best to win it all anyways. What an absolutely amazing night in baseball right now. I keep changing the channel to watch it all play out. Rays just came from 7 down to tie the Yankees with 2 outs in the 9th. Red Sox up a run on the Orioles. Cardinals already won and now the Braves are tied with the Phillies in extra innings and have to win to force a play-in game tomorrow. This is baseball heaven.