Detroit Tigers

Tigers taking on the Astros, looking to improve to 7-0 against them for the season. Scherzer gave up a homerun in the second, but Avisail Garcia hit his first big league home run and the Tigers put up a 4-spot in the bottom half of the second.

4-1 now, good guys in the lead.

This is BHGP or MGoBlog quality comedic gold in my opinion! Bless You Boys blog has created an  awesome flow chart to answer the age old question, "Who's your Tiger?" 

http://www.blessyouboys.com/2013/3/29/4159286/a-handy-whos-your-tiger-flow-chart 

FYI for non-Tigers fans, "Who's your Tiger" has been the team's primary marketing campaign slogan for the last half decade if not longer.  This provides you with a handy chart to find your Tiger. 

The Dotel, Peralata, Fister, and Santiago tie-ins are hillarious IMHO.   

Edit:  Not actually created by Phil Coke, but rather a poster/user named "Phil Coke's Brain". 

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121214/SPORTS0104/212140423/Report-Tigers-sign-Sanchez-5-years-80M?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports

Well, it looks like Dombrowski signed Anibel Sanchez for a 5 year hitch at $80M.  I'm very curious to see what happens with Porcello now that Sanchez is wrapped up for the foreseeable future.

I thought Sanchez was (imagine Ernie Harwell voice here) long gone.  Looks like more evidence to support the theory that Mike Ilitch is in "win now" mode.  I wonder if this is a deal the Tigers will regret at their leisure - Sanchez is below .500 in W/L for his career, although sabremetricians will quickly point out there are better measures of a pitcher's worth than W-L.  In any event, Ilitch gets a lot of credit for investing in his club and giving Dombrowski the ability to do deals like this.

Fister vs. Miilone.  First pitch at 12:07.  Would be a really big win for the Tigers to start the playoffs 2-0 and only need to take 1 of 3 out in Oakland.

Bless You Boys has a good preview up.

Go Tigers!

Per the Tigers' official Twitter feed, via BYB, the Tigers have set their playoff rotation:

Game 1: JV
Game 2: Fister
Game 3: Sanchez
Game 4: Scherzer
Game 5: JV (if necessary)

That's a scary rotation, if you ask me. If our offense wakes up, we could make a very solid run. Speaking of the offense though, I haven't heard anything about Martinez possibly joining the team. Earlier in the season, I thought the word was that he would be good to go for a postseason run, as long as we made it. But I haven't heard anything about his status for a while, which makes me think he's not going to play at all.

How are you feeling about our series against the A's?

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/10/01/Media/MLB-RSNs.aspx

The Tigers earned the highest average local TV ratings this season of all 30 MLB teams, and were watched by a larger audience than any team outside of NYC.  (And only 5,000 households shy of the Mets' average audience.)  I see you Rod and Mario.  Literally.