Detroit

Stuff that happened: The Indians scored a run in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Michael Brantley Thread stuff that happened: N64 > all new video gaming consoles Rob's upcoming trip to Peru Other stuff oh crap the inning is over

Okay, so I was rooting around the Baseball Reference site and looking at the 2003 Detroit Tigers season. Why? I suppose I was in the mood to poke at an especially painful and nasty-looking scar from the history of my baseball fanhood - but more importantly, I got extremely annoyed at the bellyaching (from some fans, not all of us) over this team losing ANY GAMES EVER. We are forcing Rogo and Phil Coke's Brain, of all people, to be the voices of reason and sanity, and that is not a comfortable role for either of them. Forget fitting a square peg in a round hole - this is like trying to force an icosahedron into an origami envelope. It's mean to force them to be rational when all they want to do is make puns and silly jokes and flowcharts, and not try to talk people off the ledge. Perhaps a picture might help to reassure the more visual among us - so I played around with spreadsheets instead of studying for my biochemistry quiz on Thursday, and this is the gobbledegook I pulled together. First, for reference, here is a graph of the number of wins a team has against the number of games they have played. The lines represent, from top to bottom, a 100 win team, an 81 win team, and a 62 win team. Assuming they have a constant win percentage during the entire season with no streaks of wins or losses, the projections look like so: Tigers comparison wins - hypothetical records (via Baroque97) Straight lines are nice, but in general do not reflect reality. Here are some REAL numbers of wins at different points in the season, for three different Tigers teams: Our delightful (although occasionally infuriating and inconsistent) 2013 Tigers, the thoroughly mediocre 2008 Tigers from five years ago, and the incomparably putrid 2003 Tigers of a decade ago. Behold their wins numbers during the season: Tigers comparison wins - three different seasons (via Baroque97) Now, overlaying the two graphs, we get this picture: Tigers comparison wins - three seasons and hypothetical team records (via Baroque97) (I am annoyed that I can't do anything with error bars and correlation coefficients, but as a quick-and-dirty illustration I think they serve some kind of purpose. Anyway.) LOOK AT THIS BEFORE YOU GET TOO UPSET. JUST LOOK AT HOW AWFUL THE TIGERS HAVE BEEN AND AT THE PACE FOR THESE GUYS THIS SEASON. Infuriating as they are, as much at I blame my gray hairs on too many men in my life because this baseball team stresses me out, they aren't doing all that poorly thus far - and look at that tiny little like of wins and how much baseball is left to be played yet this year. Please don't worry yourselves into multiple ulcers, and let Rogo and Brain go back to their comfortable role of making us laugh instead of calming frantic fans down. Remember 2003 and how far this team has come and be glad that we aren't in that dark miserable dungeon of baseball purgatory any more. :) Okay, so I was rooting around the Baseball Reference site and looking at the 2003 Detroit Tigers season. Why? I suppose I was in the mood to poke at an especially painful and nasty-looking scar from the history of my baseball fanhood - but more importantly, I got extremely annoyed at the bellyaching (from some fans, not all of us) over this team losing ANY GAMES EVER. We are forcing Rogo and Phil Coke's Brain, of all people, to be the voices of reason and sanity, and that is not a comfortable role for either of them. Forget fitting a square peg in a round hole - this is like trying to force an icosahedron into an origami envelope. It's mean to force them to be rational when all they want to do is make puns and silly jokes and flowcharts, and not try to talk people off the ledge. Perhaps a picture might help to reassure the more visual among us - so I played around with spreadsheets instead of studying for my biochemistry quiz on Thursday, and this is the gobbledegook I pulled together. First, for reference, here is a graph of the number of wins a team has against

Back in April it was reported that this 103 year old home in Brush Park was intentionally set on fire by drunken Tigers fans on opening day. Located on Watson Street, the house was once known as Mercy Hall Hospital. It served as a care facility for indigent cancer patients from 1931 until the 1940's when the hospital moved to 269 Mack.

The Detroit Lions' move to sign running back Reggie Bush earlier in the offseason created a lot of excitement, and not just among fans. The Lions themselves are obviously quite excited about the addition, as they see Bush as someone who can keep defenses guessing. Wide receiver Calvin Johnson, for example, thinks Bush will force defenses to respect the run more than they have in the past when facing the Lions. Calvin on Bush's impact: "He's gonna make them bring another man down (in the box). If you don't, Reggie will make you look foolish." — Chris McCosky (@cmccosky) May 20, 2013 Bush himself is excited about getting to play in the Lions' offense. During interviews last week, he compared the Lions' style of offense to what it was like playing for the New Orleans Saints. He likes how the Lions spread things out in their passing game, and he is also a fan of the "screens and draws and stuff like that." Via the Lions' official site, here's more of what Bush had to say: "I look forward to getting back to this style of offense," Bush said on Sirius NFL Radio. "There's a lot of room for big plays and scoring a lot of points. There's never a dull moment with this offense and the talent that we have." Hopefully the Lions will be able to better take advantage of all the talent they have in 2013 by actually scoring a lot of points on a consistent basis.

While the Detroit Tigers’ four-game visit to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington wasn’t disastrous, it seems fair to say that it could have gone better. A match-up between two of the top teams in the American League provided an opportunity for early bragging rights for league supremacy. While the Tigers came in with the most productive offense in MLB, the Texas Rangers were pitching very effectively. But it was the Texas offense that pounded Detroit pitching in three of the four games, reminding us that the Rangers can still slug their way to victory. So did we actually learn anything from the Tigers losing three of four games to the Rangers? Here are five things that come to mind, as Detroit gets ready for a two-game set with the Cleveland Indians. 1. Miguel Cabrera is going to win another AL MVP. Maybe that’s selling him short. Could he win a second consecutive Triple Crown? That seems like a bit much, though Cabrera does lead MLB with a .387 batting average and 47 RBI. His 11 home runs are only two behind the AL lead as well. The Tigers are in contention, which will certainly help Cabrera’s cause. (Of course, Tigers fans would like their team to be in a better position than 2.5 games behind the Indians for first place in the AL Central. Perhaps they can take care of that during the next two games versus the Tribe at Progressive Field.) Detroit’s third baseman also left a major impression on voters with a huge performance in a nationally televised game against another playoff contender. Obviously, one game isn’t going to determine anyone’s MVP vote. (If it did, that voter’s Baseball Writers Association of America membership card should probably be rescinded.) But Cabrera’s three home runs on Sunday night, with the national ESPN crew in attendance, was a strong reminder that the reigning AL MVP is playing at the height of his abilities. He batted 9-for-16 (.563) in the four-game series. There’s no better hitter in baseball right now. And unlike last year, there may not be a suitable challenger to Cabrera for top player honors. The biggest threat might be Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees. Can the Baltimore Orioles’ Chris Davis keep up his current production? Maybe Dustin Pedroia? Why am I listing hitters only from the AL East? 2. Detroit’s starting pitching isn’t invincible. Perhaps this was just one bad series, with most of the Tigers’ starters pitching poorly in one series. Justin Verlander had what might have been the worst start of his career, giving up eight runs in less than three innings. Two bases-loaded walks and poor location on several pitches call into question whether Verlander’s mechanics are out of sync or even if he’s injured. Anibal Sanchez certainly had his worst start of the season, allowing five earned runs and nine hits as he had trouble finding the strike zone. He couldn’t make it out of the third inning either. In addition, Doug Fister couldn’t help Detroit salvage a series split on Sunday. At least he was able to get through the third inning. Unfortunately, he couldn’t last through the fifth after giving up four runs during that frame. Surprisingly, the Tigers’ starting pitching standout was Rick Porcello, who allowed just one run in 5.2 innings. Porcello also racked up six strikeouts, which was encouraging. He’s given up three runs or fewer in his past four starts, while striking out 24 batters in 25 innings. (Porcello credits his changeup for the improvement, according to MLB.com’s Jason Beck.) Detroit might just hang on to this guy after all. Right, Lynn Henning? 3. The Tigers’ lineup misses Austin Jackson. Here’s our Captain Obvious statement for the day. Jackson has been an extremely valuable player for Detroit going back to last season. Making matters worse, the Tigers don’t really have a viable replacement for him. Andy Dirks batted 3-for-13 (.231) w

DETROIT – The Wings continue to win most of the draws taken through three games of the series. After winning 52 percent of the faceoffs in Game 1, they increased it to 55 and then 56 over the next two games. “It’s definitely a factor,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’ve got to get better in that area. That’s definitely an area that’s a point of emphasis going forward. All zones. All critical ones, special teams, PK, offensive-zone faceoffs we’ve given up a couple goals the last two games.” Detroit’s first goal was directly associated with a lost draw in the Wings’ zone. “Well, you’ve got a tendency to look at the guy you’re against and what his tendencies are and getting an even puck drop is what we’re looking for, finding ways where … if you’re not going to win it, we’ve got a 50/50 chance along the line,” Quenneville said. “So, there’s more work we can do and not just counting our centermen coming up with the win and not just laying the onus on them.” Every Wing that took at least two faceoffs in Game 3 won at least 55 percent of the time. “Our power play, it starts with faceoffs,” Quenneville said.

DETROIT – If anything, the Detroit Red Wings have gotten the full attention of the Chicago Blackhawks. And at the end of the Wings’ 3-1 win Monday night in Game 3 of their best-of-seven Western Conference tempers began to boil over. The rough stuff began when Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith skated by and took a cheap shot at Damien Brunner to draw a minor for roughing with the Blackhawks trialing 3-1 with six minutes to play in the third period. “It’s always a fine line not to get penalties and play on the edge,” Chicago defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson said. “We’ve had really good penalty killing so far in these playoffs, but we know they have a lot of skilled players who can make a difference in a game if we give them too many power plays. It’s a fine line there, but you’ve got to play tough. It’s obviously a different level in the playoffs. If you could play a little bit harder on their top guys, that would be good I think.” With a minute to play, Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell was assessed a cross checking penalty on Daniel Cleary, while the Wings forward was defenseless on the ice. “Just playing like that doesn’t give us the green light to take unnecessary or undisciplined penalties,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “There’s always a discipline that goes behind everything we talk about, whether it’s playing with a purpose … but the purpose of discipline is No. 1.” The final penalty was on Chicago forward Andrew Shaw, a 10-minute misconduct with 13 seconds left in regulation. “We need to be more on the edge, like we played last game,” Chicago forward Marian Hossa said. “We have great intensity and I felt like lots of energy. Also, you don’t want to go over the board and take bad penalties, because they’ve got really good players on the power play. You have to be smart about it.” Things were actually quite chippy in the first period. Just four minutes in, Andrew Shaw caught Brendan Smith with an elbow. Later, Brent Seabrook knocked Daniel Cleary off balance sending him crashing into the net and then into the end boards. Keith then motioned like he was going to push the net over top of Cleary while he was on the ice. Detroit’s only power play of the period came as a result of a scrum in the front of Howard between all the players on the at the time. Kyle Quincey and Bickell were both assessed two-minute unsportsmanlike penalties, while Shaw got the extra two for roughing. “I think at the end, you could definitely see some of the frustration coming out,” Jonathan Ericsson said. “After whistles, they were maybe paying too much attention to us. They were doing things after whistles. That’s a good thing for us, if we can get them frustrated. We want to do that all day to them.” Wings coach Mike Babcock isn’t ready to say that his squad has gotten under the Blackhawks’ skin. “It’s playoff hockey,” Babcock said. “So it’s going to be battles out there and you don’t want to lose any of those battles. It’s going to be tough to play and I think we’re just going to have to keep doing the same things.” Conversely, the Wings didn’t lose their temper in their 4-1 loss in Game 1. “I think it’s a little bit of anger about what we are doing right now,” Blackhawks defenseman Michal Rozsival said. “We (didn’t) want to get behind 2-1 against an opponent like this. I think everybody is kind of, not happy, with the way we’ve played and I think it’s a good thing. It can give us a boost of energy. Playing with a little bit of anger going forward, you know, it’s not a bad thing. I think it’s going to help us (going) into Game 4 and obviously we have to play better and step up our game.”

Detroit coach Mike Babcock cautioned that his club hasn't done anything yet. Chicago's Joel Quenneville realizes they're back to square one with a victory in Game 4 Thursday.

Small sample size, but right-handed hitters are batting way higher (20-for-56, .357) off Corey Kluber than left-handed hitters (14-for-57, .256). It’s big enough for Jim Leyland to take a shot and start Matt Tuiasosopo against a right-hander for a change. With Tuiasosopo in left, Andy Dirks will make his first start in center since Sept. 26, 2011. On the Indians side, Nick Swisher is out of the lineup tonight after his wife gave birth earlier today. He has been placed on the paternity leave list. No word yet whether he’ll go on the paternity list. You’ve got a couple of good choices if you want to play a Tiger in MLB.com’s Beat the Streak game. Both Miguel Cabrera and Omar Infante have very good numbers off Corey Kluber. Cabrera is coming off a red-hot series in Texas, while Peralta is facing his old team. That said, Peralta went just 1-for-27 at Progressive Field last season. I still went with Peralta. You can follow the game online via Gameday, watch online through MLB.TV or listen on MLB.com Gameday Audio. Locally, you can watch on Fox Sports Detroit and listen on 97.1 FM. TIGERS Andy Dirks, CF (2-for-11, 3 K’s off Kluber) Torii Hunter, RF (1-for-3, K off Kluber) Miguel Cabrera, 3B (4-for-9, HR, walk, 3 K’s off Kluber) Prince Fielder, 1B (2-for-7, HR off Kluber) Victor Martinez, DH (0-for-3, walk off Kluber) Jhonny Peralta, SS (4-for-7, walk, K off Kluber) Matt Tuiasosopo, LF Alex Avila, C (2-for-7, walk, 2 K’s off Kluber) Omar Infante, 2B (2-for-6 off Kluber) P: Max Scherzer INDIANS Michael Bourn, CF (1-for-11, walk, 4 K’s vs. Scherzer) Jason Kipnis, 2B (3-for-14, 2 walks, 4 K’s vs. Scherzer) Asdrubal Cabrera, SS (7-for-29, HR, 2 walks, 11 K’s vs. Scherzer) Michael Brantley, LF (7-for-25, HR, walk, K vs. Scherzer) Carlos Santana, C (3-for-23, 4 walks, 3 K’s vs. Scherzer) Mark Reynolds, 1B (0-for-8, walk, 5 K’s vs. Scherzer) Jason Giambi, DH (0-for-3, 2 K’s vs. Scherzer) Mike Aviles, 3B (4-for-10, K vs. Scherzer) Drew Stubbs, RF (0-for-3, K vs. Scherzer) P: Corey Kluber