The Boys Are Back in Town!

Well, we can honestly say that this first series against the Red Sox was one of the most exciting that the three of us have seen as Tigers fans.  It had everything...dominant pitching, powerful slugging, and comeback wins that made all true fans want to weep with joy.  All this against a not-too-shabby Boston Red Sox team.  There have only been three games this season, and we don't want to make predictions too early, but we thought we'd point out a few of things that we saw in these first three games that we hope continue for the season (and some things that we hope are changed immediately!)

Good Thing 1: Justin Verlander
To be honest, throughout this offseason we were kind of worried about our ace JV.  Not that he was slacking, but the talk from all of our news sources showed him making commercials and playing golf as opposed to throwing and practicing like he did last offseason.  However, if its possible, Justin looks even better than the beginning of last season. He seems to have finally found a sort of solution to his April woes, and we just hope that the trend continues.  He deserved the win, yes, but what's most important is that he gets off to a good start.  He wasn't MVP for nothing. When Justin does well, the team tends to do well too.

Good Thing 2: Big Bats
Our offense seems to be as powerful and dominant as it was in Spring Training.  We put up big numbers in games two and three of this series, thanks most notably to Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, but to all the other players as well. It was truly a team effort to win, especially in game 3, when every player who came up to bat had at least one hit.  At this point, there is no obvious weak link in the Tigers lineup, and Prince Fielder seems to have settled many people's fears about being able to hit home runs in the expansive fields of Comerica Park, blasting two home runs in game two.  Even when our pitching struggles, it seems like we will have our bats and clutch players (@Miguel!!!) to bail us out.

Good Thing 3: Team Chemistry
Was it just us or did it look like they were just having fun out there?  From the good natured jokes at Miguel's ungainly foul territory catch to Prince talking about how he loves his new club, it just seems like our boys are on a mission.  Many people think that Chemistry doesn't matter in baseball, but we really believe it does.  It also makes for a much more entertaining game when players are rooting for one another, and we're looking foward to a fun season!

Best Thing: Austin Jackson
Rod has often stated that Austin (and Curtis before him) is the "Straw that Sitrs the Drink."  We're not entirely sure what that means, but from context clues, we gather that when Austin is playing well, the team plays well. Austin Jackson has been freaking amazing this week.  In the game on Sunday, he was 4-6 with a double and three singles, and he had the hit that one the game in walk-off fashion on Thursday.  He's been coming up clutch, and he seems determined to shut up the haters by having has few Ks as possible. We hope he keeps doing well!

Concern 1: Dougy F.
We don't want Doug to be injured, mainly because we don't want Andy Oliver or any of the other no-name shmucks who got beat out for the starting job to come up to the big leagues.  They are not reliable, and its conerning to have the player we were most excited about at this blog be injured. Thankfully, it's the beginning of the season, and we can deal without him for a little bit, but we hope he recovers ASAP.

Concern 2: Max Scherzer
Max will be one of the keys to the Tiger's success this year, but judging by his performance on Easter, we're going to need a different key.  We really like Maz Scherzer... if you don't follow him to Twitter then you should because he's crazy hilarious... but he needs to get his act together to help out the team.  We think he can; this was just his first game of the season afterall. Max has good stuff, and we really just want to see him use it.

Concern 3: Brennan Boesch
Brennan played pretty poorly.  Everyone else in our lineup was hitting like a champ all weekend, but Brennan was the lone weak spot in the lineup. He has the power and he has the skills, but it just didn't work against the Red Sox. Once Brennan gets hitting (and we belive he will) we will have a pretty much unstopable lineup.  Its also a hard place to be hitting, but that's why he has to do a good job and get on base for Miguel and Prince.  Its times like this when we miss the best 2nd man the Tigers have had in a long while in Placido Polanco!  Brennan can do it though...we have faith!

Anyway...it was kind of a crazy first series, but we were glad to sweep the Sox and and show those clueless FOX commentators a thing or two.  What are they going to do now that both the Sox and the Yanks are 0-3? 

Here's to a fantastic rest of the season!

The Man, The Mystery

Dat Hollywood Swag.

We love Brennan Boesch. Who doesn't? We were thrilled when at the start of the '10 and '11 seasons when he performed so well. He has the power. He has the personality. He has the smarts. And he has the looks.

However, there are some reasons why people could dislike Brennan, or at the very least not trust his abilities. He fell apart mentally in '10 and physically in '11, and Tiger fans have always been wary of one-half-only players (read: Ryan Raburn).

Early today the Detroit News put out an article that explained a little bit about Brennan and his background. Everyone should read it. How he was raised as a rich kid from LA who played a mean piano to a struggling rookie outfielder who questioned his devotion to baseball. He wasn't sure if he wanted to do it anymore.

He obviously had a choice of quitting baseball and going back to the Good Life in LA. He could have done that, could have quit right then and there. But here's what we like the most about Brennan Boesch, and one of the things we like the most about baseball: it doesn't matter where your from, what your background is, or how much money you have. To make it in pro baseball you have to have talent, but more importantly you have to have ambition and drive. Brennan has all that, and he used it to get to where he is today. He took the hard way.

He also seems to have great personality and character, which isn't something required of big leaguers, but certainly doesn't hurt. He speaks Spanish to the hispanic players, who no doubt appreciate that. He seems to be friends with everyone, most notably Miguel Cabrera, and has quickly befriended newcomer Prince Fielder. He even spends a lot of time with other player's kids--something he definitely doesn't have to do.

Perhaps the coolest thing though is that Brennan has serious respect for the city of Detroit. In the aforementioned article he states: "I'm more Detroit than Southern California. If only I could bring the weather to Detroit, I'd be here. I love this area, everything about it." The Royal Oak resident further goes on to say that "I just get really, really defensive about (Metro) Detroit. It bothers me…I got my GMC outside. I think it would be blasphemy for me to drive a Mercedes in Detroit."

If that isn't the quickest way to a Michiganders heart, than what is?

Combine this great clubhouse personality with massive potential and is it any mystery why he's such a fan favorite? Of course, if he has a second-half dip for a third year in a row it could be potentially problematic, but we don't really see that happening. We, along with countless other Tiger fans, have always, always admired Brennan for his bat, but now we should all give him more respect for his character as well. This is the kind of ballplayer that clubhouses, managers, GM's and cities should love.

Somewhat surprisingly, this pretty-sappy-but-also-pretty-good article was written by Lynn Henning. Nice job, Lynn, but this one line had us literally dying laughing.

"He has an ever-expanding fan club in Detroit galvanized by his slashing, game changing bat, and by a certain mystique, crafted mostly because he's a native of Hollywood's backyard who looks and sounds as if he might have had a shot there."


Brennan Boesch has a mystique? That sounds like something we'd have to judge for ourselves one day!

*Fingers crossed*

Don't Forget the Little People

Our Tigers are now 42-36 and have a full one game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central. We fans have witnessed two great games in a row, in which our two biggest stars have come through in outstanding fashion. On Saturday we saw Justin Brooks Verlander continue his year of amazing-ness, striking out 14 (14!!!!) and going eight innings while allowing only 4 hits. The next day we saw Sparky Anderson's number retired in an emotional ceremony and then watched Miguel Cabrera be clutch--again--while driving in the game-winning runs in the bottom of the eighth.

As great as these two are, and as much as we should appreciate their skills, we do have to remember that others on our team have been making significant contributions as well. In fact, we would argue that without  certain players stepping up and filling in key supporting roles, we wouldn't be winning the Central right now.

Austin Jackson-The Catalyst. Despite his pretty bad day at the plate yesterday (4 strikeouts-yeeeeesh), Ajax has been hitting well lately, and whenever he's on, the whole team follows. Obviously nothing needs to be said about his defense. We all know how good he is at that.

Victor Martinez-The Quiet Leader. More than a few Tigers have commented on how good a leader V-Mart is. He seems to lead both in the clubhouse and on the field, and it is great to see him get all emotional and riled up whenever he delivers a clutch hit or slides dramatically into home. He also has helped out a bunch of younger players (Jackson, Alex Avila) with their offensive swings this year.

Alex Avila-Pitcher's Compliment. Verlander is obviously an amazing pitcher, and Max Scherzer is getting a lot of work done, too. However, people tend to forget that not only is Alex Avila kicking ass and taking names at the plate, he is also helping out our stellar starters behind it. He is a genuinely good guy, too, and deserves perhaps more than anyone on this team (save Verlander) to start the All-Star Game. If you haven't voted yet, vote!

Juh-honny Peralta: The Comeback Kid. No one, especially us, thought Juh-honny would be an offensive asset this year, especially coming out of Spring Training. Not only is he hitting over .300 but he also has the best fielding percentage of all shortstops in the American League. Quite a departure from his lackluster seasons the past few years.

Brennan Boesch-The Comeback Kid Pt. 2. After his miserable second-half last year, many wondered, including us, if Baby B was just a fluke. He has (hopefully) proven us wrong again, hitting close to .300 and getting on base whether he's hitting 2nd, 3rd, 6th, or wherever.

Max Scherzer-All I Do Is Win. What is it about Mad Max? He gets on the mound, we score runs. Period. Sometimes he doesn't deserve the win, but why quibble? A guy like that is always an asset to the team, and his W-L record shows it. Hopefully he can get win number 10 tonight.

Jose Valverde-The Stopper. Despite him giving us a few heart-attacks this season, Papa Grande has not blown a save this year, not a one. Perhaps he wasn't as completely dominant as he was last season, but he gets the job done, and acts like a rock star while doing it.


Al Alburquerque-The Surprise. This guy isn't just having a few good outings--he is consistently making batters look like assholes as they miss his sinker by feet. He is on pace for a ridiculous number of strikeouts this year, and he has only let one runner he has inherited score. Oh, and he's 5-1.  No one expected this out of him, which is part of what makes him so amazing.

Don Kelly, Ramon Santiago, Casper Wells, Andy Dirks-Supporting Players Extraordinaire. Though many people have issues with one or more of the Tigers above, we love them all. They have consistently stepped in this year and delivered. All of them! Though we may mock Don Kelly for his sometime unfortunate hitting skills, his defense is not to be ignored, and lately he has been coming through in the clutch.

Ryan Raburn-The Comic Relief. This has to be the reason he's starting all the time. Jim Leyland must love to get a good laugh in, right? There can't be any other reason, right?!?!

So, as much as Verlander and Cabrera deserve to be credited for getting us into first place (and believe us, they deserve a lot of that credit!) the Tigers mentioned above are vital to our success, too. We're liking the look of this team a lot, and not just the physical one. A few pieces aside, we seem to be on track to be serious, serious contenders in our division (fingers crossed!).

Justin Brooks Verlander is on the Edge of Glory

The three of us have never felt any love towards the Cleveland Indians. None whatsoever, especially this year, and especially since Laura goes to school in Ohio and is surrounded by Cleveland fair-weather idiots. So to see Justin Verlander almost touch no-hitter greatness for a second time this season against the Indians was a beautiful thing indeed.

Before we get into our huge amounts of Justin-worshiping, we need to share with everyone our level of maturity regarding the Indians. This is a little ditty we wrote a few years back, to the tune of "Frere Jaques":

I hate Cleveland, I hate Cleveland
Cleveland Sucks! Cleveland Sucks!
Indians are assholes, Indians are assholes
Go die now. Go die now.


Grady Sizemore is a douchebag
Tribe must die! Tribe must die!
Indians are assholes, Indians are assholes
Go die now. Go die now.


Good, right?! We're obviously very smart and creative young ladies who channel our Cleveland-hatred effectively. As you can obviously tell, the type of people who would make a song like this obviously are the type of people who love watching Justin Verlander strike the snot out of the Cleveland Indians. So, here are some notes on Justin's amazing game and the team in general.

• Nothing, and we mean nothing, gives us more pleasure than to see Grady Sizemore strike out. We don't know why. Maybe it's because we're sickened seeing someone so smoking hot on the roster of a division rival he's overrated. Whatever. So to see Justin strike him out four times practically brought tears to our eyes.

• As good as Justin has been in his career, has he ever really been this good? I mean, even he said that every time he takes a no-no into the third or even the second inning, he thinks he can pull out the no-hitter. And the crazy thing is, everyone else believes he can, too. We are so, so not worthy to be watching such a great being pitch for our team. 

• Twelve strikeouts. TWELVE. This man is clearly not human. 

• As far as hitting goes, clearly, CLEARLY, the catalyst on this team is Austin Jackson. That has never been more obvious as it has been in the month of June. Austin sucks in April, we suck in April. Austin heats up in May, we heat up in May. You get the picture. Thats a lot of pressure for such a young player, but we have to believe that Austin's hot streak will continue. 

• Breaking news: ALEX IS BEATING JOE MAUER IN THE ALL-STAR VOTING. This is amazing. The People have some sense after all! Now-just 700,000 more votes until we catch Russell Martin. Watch your back, Russell. 

• Also about Avila-Leyland is thinking about playing him at 3rd base when we go to Colorado on Friday. Though we adore Don "Struggles" Kelly, it would be verrrry interesting to see if Avila can handle the hot corner. It definitely would be a strange sight to see his fuzzy mug at third instead of concealed behind his catching mask. 

• Brennan Boesch did not shave his disgusting beard until he finally had an 0-for-5 night against Seattle. Good riddance, we say. First off, it blocked his adorable face. Second, it was a really sad excuse for a beard to begin with. Brian Wilson, he is not. 

• The three of us didn't get the chance to watch the game yesterday, but obviously we missed a good one. It was too cool to see Ramon get his first (!) walk-off win, and V-Mart, after his initial exultation as he slid home, looked like he was going to die. Oh, how we laughed. 

• Finally, a Moment of Cuteness: Did anyone else see Andy Dirks try to conceal his triumphant grin win he hit his first RBI single? We sure did!!!!

Obviously, it has been a good few days for our club. And Magglio's back! We feel like whenever people count Maggs out, he comes roaring back to hit comfortably above .300. We shall see, Magglio, we shall see. But for now, let us bask in the glorious glow of Justin Brooks Verlander, and look forward to whipping the Indians again tomorrow. 

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Phil Coke = Hot Mess.

So, our team just finished the dreaded West Coast road trip, and there was so much of a confusing mixture of good, bad, and ugly that we had to break it down here at April in the D. Read on!

The Good
-Miguel Cabrera, Brennan Boesch, and Jose Valverde kick ass. We're really really hoping/praying Brennan keeps this up all year long. Is that so much to ask?! As far as Cabrera goes, we would lose almost every game without him. That much is obvious. And Valverde, despite giving up his first run of the year, is 2-0 and 4/4 for saves. Plus he struck out Milton Bradley twice (and his dancing got a death stare). Do your thang, Papa.

-Max Scherzer, as Mario Impemba pointed out, has been on the mound for 4 out of 9 of the Tigers' wins. That stat right there says enough about how good he's been. IT'S THE EYES. Speaking of Mario...

-Mario and Rod take over Twitter. Nothing delights us more than logging on to Twitter and seeing Mario's tame, boring tweets juxtaposed with one of Rod's exclamation point-filled ones. It's like hearing them on TV, only with a behind-the-scenes feel.

-Scott Sizemore is hitting .375 with an OPS of .991. It's soooo great that he's on our team, we really need him!...Oh, wait. He's not. This needs to be fixed.

-Minnesota and Chicago are sucking even worse than we are. Gotta love it.

-Bromances. See our last post for more on this.

-And, finally, rumbling out of the West with a winning record. We feel like that hardly ever happens.

The Bad
-Staying up until 1:30 a.m. watching the boys slug it out every night was not so fun the next morning. Most of the time it was worth it, but other times? Not so much. The things we do for our Tigers...

-V-Mart's new stint on the disabled list was probably a good idea in the long run, but we desperately need him back. Not just for his accordion playing skills, but also for his bat, which we really need.

-Austin Jackson is slumping, that's no secret. He showed signs of life on Wednesday's game, but the Tigers need to get him hitting, since he really is our team's catalyst. Maybe Lloyd McClendon could wake up long enough to help him out...

-Kansas City and Cleveland are atop the AL Central. Kansas City and Cleveland. Is this real life??
The Ugly
-Phil Coke looked like an ace in his previous two starts. Tuesday night he looked like a white version of Dontrelle Willis, complete with the mania. We hope this is just a bump in the road, but that was seriously the ugliest game pitched all year.

-That pitch...only Justin Verlander would throw a ball that literally didn't exist in the baseball world. It was so confusing that Rod and Mario were talking about it for not just the rest of the game, but for days afterwards. Crazy.

-Our bullpen, save for Valverde and Joaquin Benoit, is erratic at best and cataclysmic at worst. It's good that Enrique Gonzalez is gone, but the Saucy Aussie needs to go as well.

-We're going to guess V-Mart getting nailed in the crotch by Valverde's pitch probably contributed to his groin injury. Yikes. Heal fast, Victor...


After a much need off-day, our boys are back in the D taking on the slumping White Sox and...the Mariners. We need these wins.

A Recap from Rosie

Yeah, He's a Stud.

Note: Every once in a while, our resident Tigers "rookie" Rosie will do a fun, lighthearted (or not, depending on the situation) recap of the game. Go Tigers!

Yesterday and today were two very different games.  And I could spend hours talking about the mess Penny made yesterday.  I could go on and on about how he allowed eight, EIGHT, runs, and I could rant about how much I hate most announcers that aren’t Rod Allen and Mario Impemba. I could, but I won’t.  Today was such an excellent game, and I am in such a great mood, I won’t ruin it talking about yesterday’s debacle and the awful commentary which made it even worse.  Instead I think we should glorify our Tigers for sticking it to the Yankees.  Finally.  We’ve stopped acting like kittens and bared our fangs.  It wasn’t a massacre, but our hitters Would. Not. Stop.

           

Today’s MVP, Brennan Boesch (Baby B):I loved him last year.  His first half of the season was phenomenal, and even though it didn’t carry over into the latter half of the season, he was still my Tiger.  Today he had four hits, four runs, and four RBIs.  And he looked so cute too!

Miguel Cabrera: Can I just say how nice it is to watch baseball and not have to hear the words “Cabrera” and “Alcohol” in the same sentence? Today Miggy had TWO homeruns today in the 1^st and the 3^rd (driving Baby B home) and a single in the 9^th. Take THAT, snarky announcers and sportswriters!

Austin Jackson: AJax drew some walks today in addition to the great homerun he had yesterday. He definitely made up for his stupid error yesterday with some spectacular plays today. In the 7^th he had a gorgeous over the shoulder catch back on the warning tracks, stealing something big from Granderson (HA!) and in the 8^th he had another great shoestring catch nabbing a hit from Teixeira. Go Go Jackson.

           

Ramon Santiago: Little Ramon was a beast today.  He had two hits; a single in the 5^th, and a double in the 6^th.  In the first he came home on Baby B’s homerun, and then came home on his sac fly.  Way to go RAMON.

Pitching: Scherzer allowed six runs, but in all fairness, in any other of the 29 ballparks in this country, half of them would have been fielded. Coke did pretty well, getting hot vengeance on Granderson and only allowing one run. Benoit and Valverde were better, getting through the 8^th and 9^th innings with minimal drama.

Final Score: Tigers: 10 Yankees 7

Comments:  YES!  Obviously I am happy with this…a win is a win is a win.  The Tigers needed to get one game from the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, and they did.  It will make me even happier when we see them again and we knock them on their pompous, smarmy, pinstriped-asses.  I think we definitely have the talent to do it.  I also think that V-Mart should catch full time, Maggs should DH, and we should have Baby B, AJax and Raburn in the outfield.  Avila is just nowhere near good enough at the plate.  Also, thank God that THE WHITE SOX LOST TODAY! Double yes!! And finally, the fact that I had my Rod and Mario to watch today really made the game special. Who else would debate what shade of white nail polish the catcher has on?!

We are going to be a force to be reckoned with this year, and I will enjoy watching the Tigers prove to all their critics that they can do it.  Especially if we hit like we did today.  We are going to eat the Orioles ALIVE (I hope). Also, this is the song we will be listening to all April. WOO HOO.

          
And finally: Please don't forget to listen to Laura on The Knee Jerks podcast tomorrow!! www.thekneejerks.com 

Angels in the Outfield

Sorry to all of our many readers (hahahahaha) that we're not posting as frequently. We're pretty busy--its called college. You remember it.
ANYWAYS, Spring Training games are officially underway, and our brilliant team has cranked out a 3-0 start, not that it matters. They took down the hated Yankees yesterday, so that can only be a good thing. Those three wins were mostly thanks to our pitchers, but today we're going to look at a different position(s): the outfield.

So Raburn, AJax, and Magglio seem to have the outfield positions all locked up. Or do they? We are going to take an in-depth look at not just the skills of these ballplayers, but their personality, looks, fan-appeal, looks....you know, the important stuff!


Austin Jackson (AJax)





Probably the only player who is a lock for an outfield spot, Austin Jackson was so good last year that he made us completely forget about Curtis Granderson. This is quite the feat, since we were the girls who openly wept when he was traded. Now, after seeing what a genius Dave Dombrowski is for making that deal, we are AJax's biggest supporters. He's young, attractive, and kind, though he can't get the right enunciation for the phrase "fair share". Even though he'll never be as beloved as Curtis was in the D, it's our firm belief that he'll be much better.

Brennan Boesch (Baby B)



Oh, baby Brennan. After such a successful first half, Brennan failed to impress in the second (and most important) part of the season. Will he win the spot reserve spot this year, or will Casper Wells steal it away from him? Either way, he'll look good doing it--his Cali-boy swag and strong physique have us (Rosie!!!) praying he'll make the 25-man roster. One can only hope that he will produce the same ridiculous stats he racked up in the first half. Yeah, sure.


Casper Wells (Ghostboy)





This Friendly Ghost is poised to overtake Brennan Boesch and fill our team quota of white-baller-who-wishes-he-was-black. Have you seen his tweets?!...Anyway, Ghostboy tore up the Big Leagues in the brief time he was there last year, and we think he will make the roster over Baby B this year. Once he gets more exposure, the fans in the D are probably going to love him. He obviously loves to connect with fans and is proud to be on the Tigers, so more power to him. Plus, he's kind of witty . Who doesn't love that?!

Clete Thomas (The Cleteus)



Ah, Clete. We're slightly embarrassed to say (especially after his performance last year) that we used to have a bit of a Clete Thomas Obsession. So much so that we hated Don Kelly when he came up for Clete in the 2009 season, and always scoffed at Rod Allen for his criticism. Now all of these feelings have passed, and it's time for us to get real about Clete's chances in the bigs this season. We don't think it's going to happen. Despite his redneck charm and deer-in-headlights smolder, Clete would have to have a hell of a spring training to beat out the likes of Don, Casper and Brennan.

Don Kelly (Don Kelly)

Don Kelly can do it all, and that's why he's definitely going to make the squad this year. He can play outfield, third base, first base, and supposedly catcher. There's no way, that with our surplus of injury-prone Venezuelans, we won't need a back-up in SOME position, and Don is the perfect guy to do it. As far as looks go, have you seen this guy in person? TV doesn't do him justice. Too bad he has the cutest kids ever...

Magglio Ordonez (Maggs)





The Tiger's answer to Fabio until he cut his hair, Magglio is the kind of player that makes both coaches and desperate housewives swoon (for very different reasons, obviously). We here at April in the D were terrified that last year would be his last in the Motor City, but Dombrowski flashed his genius once again and Maggs is here to stay (at least for the year)! Hopefully he doesn't run into any health issues -we all saw the affect his absence had on our team last year. So here's looking at a great 2011, Magglio--and please, grow that fabulous hair back.

Ryan Raburn (Ry Ry)

 


There's something about Ryan. You know what we're talking about. Just when you think he's starting to really suck big time, he goes crazy and hit .400 for the month of August. He claims that he does better when he knows he's going to play, and all evidence points that he's telling the truth. If he can be as productive as he was the tail end of last season, he's in for one monster year. We're rooting for ya!

Agree? Disagree? Let us know!