betterREDthandead

I have a new car. It is a Mustang GT Premium. where has this beauty been all my life? pictures are forthcoming.

Part of the reason the Wings are considered such a class franchise is that they don't lowball their players. Even if Cleary gets twice the league minimum (very unlikely) does that really affect the Wings' ability to sign someone? I think Cleary will get about $700-750K per year. Does that extra $250-300K really cause problems for the Wings to try and sign a $4 million free agent, if they need to?

If you're waiting for the other shoe to drop.....grab a Snickers. Sparky always said the 40-game mark was the time to take a look at your team to really see what you've got. Jim Leyland (who I worship forever) doesn't put much stock in that, but Sparky is a Hall of Famer so I have to think he knows what he's talking about too. Thusly, take a look at some statistics I gathered: Pitching: AWESOME. Bob Cluck said for a couple years that the rotation was going to really bloom in 2006. Even he is probably surprised at how right he was. He didn't figure with Rogers, and maybe not Verlander (although he was drafted in 2004, so he probably included Justin). But Maroth, Bonderman, and Robertson were certainly part of his thinking. Here is the rotation's ERA, to start. Maroth: 2.18 Rogers: 2.69 (including today's game) Verlander: 3.18 Robertson: 3.50 Bonderman: 3.74 All five are in the top 40 in ERA, league-wide. Only the Dodgers have as many as three, nobody else has more than two. The White Sox do, the Twins have one, and the Indians and Royals none. The WHIPs are just as good: Rogers at 1.14, Verlander 1.18, and Bonderman is a sparkling 1.04. Additionally, Bonderman has an excellent groundball-to-flyball ratio of 1.7, and 47 Ks. In other words, that 3.74 ERA is going to come down. Last, and the best part, is that the Tigers haven't been getting lucky. Nor have they been unlucky. If you haven't heard of he Pythagorean win percentage, it's this: (runs scored^2) / ( (runs scored^2)+(runs allowed^2) ) It's an excellent indicator of what a team's W/L record should be - rarely does a team finish more than 5 wins either way of what their expected percentage is, and teams that do always regress to the mean the following year. Basically it measures luck. The Tigers' Pythagorean record is exactly the same as their real record, meaning they haven't been lucky at all. Or unlucky. In the Pythagorean standings, the Tigers are 2.5 games ahead of the White Sox, 2 ahead of the Yankees, and 5 ahead of Boston. In other words, the Tigers' are for real to stay, with the pitching they have. And the luck factor over the first quarter of the season means the other teams should (statistically speaking) back off a bit, while the Tigers hold steady. Watching this season is going to make every....single....one....of those 119 losses worth it.

They had Kaline in the booth?!?!? Aw man!!! Extra Innings for some reason wasn't working on the ONE CHANNEL that had the Tigers game, and I had to miss it! I feel double- and triple-cheated!!

anyone who doesn't vote Ernie never heard him call a game. simple as that. just stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched his career go by. if you haven't heard Ernie Harwell, then you just don't know how the radio should sound. my distant second choice, and no disrespect by calling him distant, would be George Blaha. but missing from that list is George Kell/Al Kaline, who always did a beautiful job calling Tigers games for Channel 50.

wow, look who's batting second for the O's tonight. Chris Gomez. Now there's a blast from the past.

It's over. Quote from the article on the game: Guys just don't say this sort of thing publicly. When they do, it's rare, and it means something. The Pistons are in the Cavs' head, and all that remains is to take care of business. If I were a Cleveland fan, I'd be cringing. Pistons in 5 - tops.

What we just saw is a far superior team playing in the comfort of home on several days' rest and preparation, against a team that just went through two emotionally and physically draining OT games in one week that took all their effort to win, and then had to turn around and play 40 hours later. The Pistons shouldn't have a hard time in Game 2 either, but then again they probably won't hit 14 of their first 16 three-balls. Given that Lindsey Hunter was knocking everything down, and McDyess was a monster on defense, and Delk was firing on all cylinders, I would say it's a safe bet that the Pistons could have put their starters in street clothes after one half and the outcome still would not have been in doubt.

Delfino and Cato came in with 7 minutes to go. When do we get to see Jason Maxiell?

Liv likely to jump the pond, but not Grigorenko Latest from Hockey's Future. Some excerpts: According to the article, Tolsa and Jamtin are not terribly likely to actually make the jump. Blatak strikes me as the sort who will languish in the AHL for a couple years and then return to the CR. Ericsson is the intriguing one. Big fella. Could play useful minutes a few years down the road, but he's a huge risk/reward type. Liv will of course provide good competition for Howard. Grigorenko, on the other hand....I hope we'll see him in the NHL soon. Doesn't look promising for next year. How much more can his game develop over there? He wants to play for the national team, but in the long run, he'd be doing more for his game in the NHL and might get fewer chances to play for Russia, but when he does, he'll be of more use to them.

Priceless exchange between the Twins broadcasters (Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven): "I like roller coasters - the big kind, the ones that go up and down, round and round and hopefully you end up back where you started." "See, that's why I don't like them - the best thing that can happen is you get off alive. With a lot of screaming in between. Why would you do that to yourself?" "Sounds like my first marriage."

Zumaya must be Mario Impemba's Tiger too. I know he's mine.

Who'd'a thunk in the first 30 games, the Tigers would win 20 of them? Amazing. And speaking of amazing, Zumaya and Rodney teamed up to strike out five Twins in a row. Zumaya broke one bat and made the next two hitters look like tools. Yes, I'm still man-crushing. When the radar gun says 102, I tend to get all googly-eyed. If Kevin Youkilis is the Greek god of walks (if you've read Moneyball you know what I mean) then Joel Zumaya is the Aztec god of strikeouts.

Sounds like Marinelli is making them work more than they're used to. If that means they are breaking a few stupid little rules along the way, fine. Get in shape.

I'd love to see the Lions sign Marcus Vick. Waste of a draft pick if they'd drafted him, even a 7th rounder. But undrafted free agents are almost completely risk free. He claims to have turned over a new leaf and found God and all that. If he hasn't, and he's still a classless jerk, then fine, cut him loose. Nothing hurt. Marinelli's too strong a personality to let Vick poison the team, and for the length of training camp, he can't do much damage. And it only took less than half of camp for the Broncos to figure out Maurice Clarett was still a jerk. But if he has turned himself around, you've got an extremely talented quarterback for almost nothing. Why not give it a shot?

Jayson Stark of ESPN.com agrees with me:

I submit that that was the greatest three-game series ever played by a team. ESPN showed four other series where one team had outscored the other by at least 32 runs, but in none of them did the losing team score as few as 1 run. Not even close. It's boggling my mind to see that the Tigers actually have pitching.

The Pistons scored 92 points last night. In the first three quarters. Good Lord. "Milwaukee" must be the Native American word for "formality". This could be a best-of-25 and I think the Pistons would still sweep. Among the highlights: - Lindsey Hunter picking the pocket of Maurice Williams, posterizing Williams with a dish to Tayshaun for the all-alone slam to put the Pistons up by like 17....and somehow, Williams was jawing at Hunter afterwards like he had anything to say. - Chauncey drives on a fast-break against three Bucks, every single one of whom collapses on the basket, allowing Chauncey to pull up and calmly sink a three with nobody within 20 feet to stop him. Something tells me Rip will have plenty of opportunity to rest that ankle of his.

Because his stuff, while disgustingly overpowering for an inning or two, can be caught up to. He really only has two pitches. His fastball doesn't have a lot of motion - it's just blindingly fast and "rises". His curve is absolutely filthy, but he has no change-up to speak of, or in fact any third pitch at all. If he had a change-up like Rodney has, he'd be perfect starter material, but with only two pitches, you can't consistently go a strong seven innings. Zumaya's perfect for the closer job. He's got a bulldog, I-dare-you-to-hit-my-fastball mentality. Very confident. And he wants it. His two pitches are absolutely perfect for a late inning or two, when hitters have gotten all comfy looking at a fastball that isn't quite so fast and a breaking pitch that doesn't break quite so much. Even better for some poor slob of a pinch hitter who's been comfortably rolling his chaw on the bench and then has to go up cold and face that. But for seven innings, you need at least one more pitch. A splitter, change, slider, anything. Zumaya doesn't have it.

Big difference. With Datsyuk we were hearing from his agent, and clearly Datsyuk was not going to make as much in Russia as he can make (or is making) here. With Grigorenko, we're hearing from Hakan Andersson, who doesn't have any monetary interest in him. Eventually, if Grigorenko is chasing money, he'll realize he can make more in the long term by coming to the NHL, even if he takes a pay cut as a rookie. But the national team is a strong draw for a lot of people.

Leyland's got the psychological side of managing down pat - I think he's brilliant in that respect - but I sure get puzzled at his tactics. Zumaya should never have been out there in the 8th. He and Verlander are peas in a pod when it comes to their stuff. The Mariners had been looking at 98 mph gas all day, and it showed - they were way out in front of Zumaya's heater and just kept driving it to the outfield. Until Zumaya learns major-league command, he should be primarily following soft-tossing lefties Rogers and Maroth. And we finally got our wish - Guillen in the 5th spot - but Infante batting third kinda cancels that out some. OK, rant over. Tigers still won. Swept the Mariners in Seattle, where the Tigers have a sorry history of rolling over and playing dead. The dreaded West Coast swing has always been the kiss of death, but so far the Tigers have taken 5 of 6. That's all I need to know that these aren't the same ol' same ol' Tigers. FINALLY we have a rotation where 5 of 5 pitchers inspire real confidence they can win (no more Jose Lima!) and a lineup where 9 of 9 hitters do the same (no more Deivi Cruz!)

Today is like the PERFECT day to be a fan of Detroit sports. Check it: 1:00 - Wings game 4:00 - Tigers game 7:00 - Pistons game and for icing on the cake, no Lions to spoil the party!

Is tomorrow gonna be awesome or what? Game 2 for the Wings, Game 1 for the Pistons, and Verlander vs. King Felix The Terrible as the Tigers take on Seattle. And no Lions to embarass us on national TV. Great day to be a Detroit fan.

Zumaya was NASTY as usual. Felix Hernandez in Seattle must be able to knock over redwoods with his fastball and direct his curveball at will with a wave of his fingers, because he sure gets a lot of hype while Zumaya works fairly anonymously out of the Tigers' bullpen. Oh well. At some point this season Zumaya will trot to the mound in the ninth inning to protect a one-run lead and the outside-of-Detroit media will discover what we already know: this guy's good. And speaking of Felix, King of Baseball and Emperor of the Lone Islands, who's with me in eagerly looking forward to Sunday's game? Justin Verlander against King Felix The Magnificent! I'd give my left nut to watch. Fortunately, the cable company doesn't accept body parts as legal tender, and I already have Extra Innings anyway.

frickin' Admirals lost again. Louis Robitaille is a hack. it's highly unlikely he'll ever be called up to the NHL, but if he is, and you're at a game that he's playing in, and you're up against the glass.......do everyone a favor and spit on him or something. trust me, it'd be OK.