Spring Awakening

Baseball is back, and so are we! As the regular season has finally gotten underway, the three of us think it's high time to resume writing on this blog regularly. With the added stress of school, work, family, and other stressors, we haven't gotten to see as much baseball as we would like. That is about to change.

After the first week of baseball, our boys are 4-3. Not great, you say? We beg to differ. This season we have made a solemn vow--we are NOT gonna let the haterz get us down. How quickly people forget what happened last season! A shitty first 2/3rds of the season and almost everyone was checking out, and then BOOM! Our Tigers were World Series bound. So even if we DON'T do as well in April (in the D! [!!!!!]) as everyone thinks we should, who the hell cares? It's one month! That being said, 4-3 ain't all that bad, folks, and we'll tell ya why.

This top 5 (Austin Jackson, Torii Hunter, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Victor Martinez) is the best we've ever seen on our team. When they're on, they're on, and it has been evidenced very early in the season that they can be hard--if not impossible--to stop. Save for V-Mart, who we are expecting to take a little more time to get going (he HAS been gone for a year) the Fab Five have already made their mark.

Ajax is the catalyst for this group, and whenever he gets on base their is a high likelihood that the Tigers will score. Torii has been extremely impressive in his first week as a Tiger, hitting .424 and scoring 4 runs. While we obviously don't expect him to keep up with that BA number, we do think he is going to fit in quite nicely in the D. And don't even get us started on his bromance with Austin!

And then there's our big boys, the dynamic duo of Miguel & Prince. If we're perfectly honest here, we think both have the potential to win an MVP award. Seriously. The potential of their numbers has grown exponentially thanks to V-Mart's intimidating presence. In our minds, Triple Crown King Miguel has a great shot a repeating by simply coming close to the numbers he did last year. We're not saying he will win the Triple Crown again, but we are saying he should be plenty of folks' pre-season pick for MVP.

As far as starting pitching go, we're willing to overlook a few bumps in April! All these group of fine (and we mean fine) gentlemen need are a few outings under their belts and they can get back to kicking ass and taking names like they did in the postseason. Why, look at Anibal Sanchez! His outing today against the better-than-average Toronto Blue Jay offense was outstanding. We predict by May/June JV & Co. will be utterly dominant.

And then we come to our bullpen.

This, as we have said before, is clearly going to be a trouble spot--our only real trouble spot, hopefully--this year. While we are confident in Drew Smyly, Al Alburquerque, Joaquin Benoit and Octavio Dotel,  we honestly have not a clue what is to happen with our closing spot. True, the club did sign Jose Valverde, but we wouldn't call ourselves (or the rest of the Tigers fanbase) big fans of that move. Hopefully the team can figure out this issue sooner rather than later, or it could end up costing us more than a few games.

So for now, before people get too caught up in the stress and worry of will-the-or-won't-they-be-good-enough-to-make-the-playoffs-gahhh-help!!, relax and enjoy this lovely season of April in the D. IOnce again, it's going to be a fun and exciting year. We just know it.

PS-Congrats to Alex Avila and his wife on the birth of their first child!!!!! We remember when Alex was just a yougin' making his first start in the bigs....*sniff sniff*

The Return

We're baaaaaaaaaack!

Not as soon as we would have hoped, but April in the D is back in blogging business once more!

Sorry for the extended leave of absence, but after the acquisition of Torii Hunter, things got crazy for us! With finals, holidays, and job stress quickly rising, it was hard for us to keep up with this thing. Add on the heartbreak of our boys' World Series and it was the perfect recipe for completely neglecting this blog. We apologize.

But like a phoenix rises from the ashes, our blog too will be reborn! Our break was only temporary, folks--we are back for good.

Now, down to business. Stuff has happened since we've been gone, but not too much stuff. Miguel Cabrera did indeed win the MVP (yes, it has been THAT long since we've been on here) and it wasn't even all that close, and thank goodness for that! We always knew Cabrera would win out in the end, but we didn't think it would be such a convincing victory. Now he's in the running to be on the cover of MLB 13 The Show, but we have to vote him in. So, VOTE!

Also, lest we not forget that Anibal Sanchez is returning!!!! Yes, it's to the tune of $80 million, and yes, the Tigers apparently insulted him by a lesser offer at the Winter Meetings, but Dave Dombrowski waved his magic money wand bestowed to him by Mike Illitch and all was taken care of.  We even got the pleasure of stealing Sanchez right from underneath the Cubs' nose! HA!

Since then, however, it's been a pretty tame winter. No big splashes at the Winter Meetings. No acquisitions of any hot rod stud players. Not that we care. With V-Mart healing up, Sanchez returning, and Torii on board, we should be ready for one hell of a season.

TigerFest and the caravan are upcoming, and with pitchers and catchers reporting in a matter of weeks, this winter is looking brighter already!

NoTORIIous

Well!

So, it's been a while. Fifteen days, to be exact. We don't know about you guys, but the three of us needed to take a breather from baseball. There is still too much pain after that World Series From Hell, and we needed to to remove ourselves from that situation.

But, as per usual, the game we love sucks us back in, in none other than the form of a notorious, card-carrying Tiger Killer, Torii Hunter. When we first read about the Tigers showing interest in the slick-fielding outfielder, our interest was piqued, but we didn't pay too much attention to it. We knew other teams were interested in him, and we figured Torii would need to take some time to weigh his options.

We were so, so wrong.

Torii Hunter doesn't wait for you to contact him, HE goes out and contacts YOU. We have never heard of a player pitch himself so strongly and confidently to a team, let alone our own Tigers. Remember when Dombrowski & Co. had to beg people to play in the D? Those days are clearly long, long gone. Now we have All-Star Gold Glove winners banging on our door, demanding to be let on the American League Championship team.

Times, they have a'changed. To put it crudely, the Tigers are suddenly the hottest bitches on the block, and everyone wants a go. Best part is, everyones on the same page: Hunter wants a WS ring. So does Illitch. The time is now.

Do people even realize what has happened? We have gone from Delmon Young and Brennan Boesch to Victor Martinez and Torii Hunter. In what world does this happen? Yankee Land, maybe, but not in Detroit. This is absolutely crazy.

So we guess it's time to cross Mr. Hunter of our hate list and nestle him in our hearts, because he is now One Of Us. It only makes it that much sweeter that Torii wanted to play in the Old English D. What can we say? We're an appealing club.

We will address the issue of JV's Cy Young loss and Miggy's impending MVP decision (gulp!) soon. Right now, let us bask in the glow of another already successful offseason.