Barrie

Valverde just got his 48th SV without blowing one. The Tigers this year have the best hitter in the game with Cabrera, best pitcher in Verlander, and the best closer in Valverde.

Ok. Actually Finger after that season was the better blueliner anyway. Imagine what Fletcher what would have paid Finger if he was trying to sign him? It probably would have been more. Typical Leaf fans, Finger was decent in his first season in Toronto, 6-17-23 in 66 games.

I think rumor has it Fletcher thought Finger was John-Michael Liles.

Wasn't the reason why Finger got that big deal was due to Old Man Fletcher mistaking him for another defenseman on Colorado?

I agree. Also I think with Boston being a disappointment, none of their players should be in the mix. Not that Pedroia, Ellsbury, and Gonzalez had bad years, but the Red Sox were supposed to run away with the AL! That leaves Verlander, Granderson, and Cabrera in my opinion. Down to those 3, Cabrera's my pick (having the highest Batting Average in both League is the difference maker for me), with J.V. taking a unanimous Cy Young.

I was thinking today about the AL MVP. There's a lot of talk about J.V., Granderson, Pedroia, Ellsbury, Gonzalez, and even Bautista (which I think is a joke) from the 4th place Blue Jays getting votes. Personally I think Cabrera should win it, especially if the Red Sox can't hold on. Miggy is going to hit over .340, highest in both leagues, have 30 HR, 100+ RBI, 100+ Runs, 40+ 2B, .450 OBP, 1.030 OPS. The guy's flat out done it all for the Tigers! Edit: Granderson will probably get it, and well deserved, being a CF and with his 41 HR, 135 Runs, and 119 RBI. But any sabermetrics geeks should give Cabrera a serious look.

Is it just me, or is the NHL getting dumber by the day? Every day there's another head hit to talk about, and Avery is pissing and moaning about a homophobic comment, when he's one of the worst trash talkers in the league. I hope Shanny continues with his tough love, because they players don't seem to be getting it. Eventually I think this will lead to a ban of all kinds of head shots.

Well it is Matt Cooke so I can understand an overreaction. That guy shouldn't have the privilege of being in the NHL anymore because he may end the career of another top star again.

I like how the Tigers are battling for the 2nd seed in the American League, there's been no drop off after we clinched the division. There's still something to play for here! Also I like how in Baseball the final few weeks of the regular season the main focus is on the best teams in each league, and who's going to win the wild card. One thing I don't like about the NHL, with 16 teams making the playoffs, the thing that gets the most attention are teams with losing records, and which one of them is going to finish 8th. It make for a better finish in Baseball before the playoffs, because Baseball wild card teams actually have a shot at winning the World Series, the 8th seeds in the NHL don't.

Good to see people being realistic after a loss, and knowing it's only preseason. I was getting ready to post a gem from youtube if anyone took a preseason loss to serious. Ah, I'll post it anyway:

Nice job Shanny!

I like being in the West. I live in an Eastern market, the Toronto area, so I can see a lot of Eastern teams on TV. I like being only 3 hours away from Detroit and can see the Western Conference teams when I go to The Joe, or when I follow the Wings along online. I get a chance to follow both Conferences. Also I think there's no chance we're moving East, as already stated many times here, we make the West to much money.

The thing I don't like about OPS is that the hits are factored in twice since all it is is adding OBP and SLG together. It would make more sense to me if they had an average where they added BB and HBP into SLG. Take total bases, including BB and HBP, and divide that into Plate Appearances.

http://detnews.com/article/20110921/SPORTS0103/109210337/1128/rss16 Nyquist maybe that next guy.

Good points. Even Lidstrom can be overlooked by us Wings fans, myself included.

Can someone explain to me OPS? It doesn't really make sense to me. What's a good OPS? 800 and over? The only thing I see it's useful for is to compare it to other OPS's on a team and see who the best all around hitter is on that team. For example, Cabrera is top on the Tigers, Avila is second, and V-Mart is third. Range factor doesn't make much sense to me either. It counts how many balls are hit to a position. It doesn't take into account how many strike outs a pitching staff has, and if they're fly ball or ground ball pitchers. I think people just use range factor to try and tell us Jeter isn't a good shortstop, even though he's played behind a pitching staff that was continually the top in the league in strike outs. Obviously Jeter won't have as many ground balls hit to him when Clemens, Cone, Mussina, Rivera, etc. are pitching, because they're combining for 8-10 strike outs a game, leaving only 19-17 more outs for the fielders. I'm a numbers guy, but Baseball has to many numbers. The geeks have taken over my favorite sport! Edit: I like what Jeter said when he won his first Gold Glove and his range factor increased, "I'd like to thank our pitching staff for letting the opposition hit more grounders to me".

Yea the only way I see Penny makes the post season roster is to be the long man out of the bullpen if a game gets out of hand.

I like that! However, reading the article, here's what wrong with the Leafs: The first thing said about the new jersey is how much revenue it'll generate. They're the Chicago Cubs of the NHL.

and we still could play the Yankees in the 1st round based on how Texas plays. After all my favorite sports teams (Wings, Tigers, Roughriders, Pistons, Lions, and Spartans), the Yankees are the other team I follow. Congrats to Rivera, and Jeter, for their achievements this season. Hopefully after they win the East, all their achievements this year comes to an end , Lets Go Tigers!

Interesting... Actually I'm not expecting much from Kindl. Smith will take his job in my opinion.

I remember in the 1993-94 season Probert and Primeau got into a fight in practice.

Yea you never want to wish for an opponent, but the way things are going now, I'd take the Red Sox over the Rays.

Yea save your concussions for the regular season.

Same song, but better presentation!

I've seen this show advertised, never watched it. I'm going to have to find out when it's on and watch it!