Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Hard-Luck Tigers

In my last blog-post, I made the point that if teams were smart, they'd start walking Miguel Cabrera in almost every meaningful at-bat.. I kinda regret it now, on the off-chance someone read it and told this to the Rays front office.  Why?  Because of course, the Rays employed this strategy on several occasions during their 4-game series with the Tigers.  Cabrera was put on base intentionally in 3 consecutive games and struggling Brennan Boesch (why he hasn't been sent to the minors for a couple weeks to try and regain his confidence I'll never know) was dared to do something about it; he didn't come thru in ANY of those situations.  The Tigers were swept in that series and lost 2 of 3 to the Red Sox (the last two with heartbreaking walk-off hits), dropping them wayyyyy behind the division-leading White Sox and 2nd place Twins.

After splitting a day-night doubleheader with the White Sox on Tuesday, the Tigers have fallen to 53-53, 7 back of the White Sox and Twins.  I'm beginning to think that the Tigers were cursed during the All-Star break or something!  Look at the facts.. Starters Brandon Inge, Magglio Ordonez, and Carlos Guillen along with reliever Joel Zumaya have all missed extended time with injury (Inge and Guillen are due back soon, while Ordonez and Zumaya are likely gone for the season).. The Tigers have been in a 5-15 skid, while their division rival White Sox and Twins have been winning (they're 11-8 and 13-6 respectively since the break).. If the Tigers can't break out of this funk SOON, their postseason chances will disappear completely. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

News and Notes

* Trade-deadline acquisition Jhonny Peralta smashed a home run in his first at-bat as a Tiger in a win over the Red Sox on Friday; he followed that up with a homer in his second AB, making him the first player in Tigers history to hit a home run in each of his first two AB's with the team.

* Terrell Owens officially signed with the Bengals, giving them a second Vh1 reality star.  I wouldn't be surprised if they brought in Flavor Flav to play safety, Hulk Hogan to play fullback, and Dr. Drew as the new punter..

* DT Ndamukong Suh finally agreed to a contract with the Detroit Lions; it's a five-year deal with $40 million in guaranteed money (not as ridiculous as the $50 million guaranteed to Sam Bradford, but still pretty ludicrous for an unproven player).. Maybe his presence on the defensive line will guarantee them 4 wins instead of 2!

*  Shaq is supposedly close to an agreement to sign with the Boston Celtics.. After the addition of a washed-up Jermaine O'Neal, this will officially make them the all-dead-body all-stars!  This is how they plan on keeping up with the Heat, Magic and Bulls?  I don't understand the logic here.. Their starters average age is already the oldest in the NBA, so add a couple of washed-up big-men to man the middle?  I see the Celts finishing no higher than 4th in the East next season.

*  A-Roid still is looking for his 600th career homer!  Seems like we've been waiting a loooong time for it.. Did he miss a shipment of the juice?  The Yanks clubhouse attendant had better get on that..

*  Brett Favre reportedly notified the Vikings on Tuesday that he's planning to retire.. I would have mentioned this at the beginning of the blog, if I actually believed it for even A SINGLE SECOND.  But of course, we all know about Favre's tendency to waffle back and forth before deciding to come back.. You know he just doesn't want to go thru the rigors of training camp.  When the Vikings open the regular season, I have no doubt that he'll be under center.

*  Albert Haynesworth is not worth his MASSIVE contract.. He's failed a relatively simple fitness test for almost a week straight now, and I watched a 47-year-old Mike Golic pass the same test yesterday on ESPN.  What excuse is there for Haynesworth?  Ohhh, his poor widdle knee hurts?  Get over it, big man!  You're getting paid a bajillion freaking dollars and you've tried to hold-out for a trade cuz you don't like their new system!!  Kudos to Mike Shannahan for taking a stand on Haynesworth; I can guarantee it's gaining him a lot of respect from his players.