Breaking Dawn

Can you feel it?

Feel what, you ask? Why, just the glorious sensation of this 2013 baseball season finally, mercifully starting up again. Pitchers and catchers officially reported to training camp today, and it feels like the beginning of something beautiful.

While the Indians may be making wanna-be flashy, late off-season moves, our team doesn't have to. Our Tigers are, once again, the team to beat in the AL Central, and THIS year our boys have the leadership and all-around experience to make another post-season run. The question is: are they going to put us through as much pain and stress as last year?

Seriously. You remember the absolute torture of last season. The last month was fun and exciting, but we do not deserve the up-and-down emotional roller coaster of 2012. But this year, we have our beloved V-Mart back, and the addition of perennial leader Torii Hunter. They can hopefully keep our team on pace and not give us so many heart attacks.

But lets get to one of the burning issues of the offseason, a question which we're sure you're all sick and tired of, which has been dissected by almost everyone and talked about at length. But who cares, because we're going to talk about it anyway!

There aren't many uncertainties on our roster this season, but the biggest and most obvious one would have to be Bruce Rondon.

Welcome to the team, Bruce! The haters have already started talking about how his inexperience and youth are going to doom our closer spot and wreck our chances at being an elite ball club. While it is true that having a crappy closer  can definitely affect the swagger of a team, how is it fair to say that Bruce Wayne Rondon is going to fail before he even starts?

Look. If Jimbo and our main man Dave Dombrowski think that the kid has the stuff to be a closer for this team, then he does. It's just a matter of him executing. We think Master Bruce is talented enough to close for our club. Whether he can handle the pressure remains to be seen, but we're not going to count him out before he even steps on the field.

The sun is rising once more on our team. It is no coincidence that our team is seemingly getting better and better as the years go on, but we think that our time is now. Who knows how long we're going to have all of these superstars and young talents together? It's time for our boys to take what is theirs, and it all starts in Lakeland. We can't wait to see what happens next.

Can't Be Tamed

This is what the Tigers have won since we last posted:

-Destroyed White Sox in the second biggest butt-kicking in the MLB this year
-Won series opener against Indians by way of Doug Fister's 13 (!!!) strikeouts, a career high
-Chased Fausto Carmona out early by putting up 8 combined runs in the 1st and 2nd innings, going on to win 10-1
-Jose Valverde got his 42nd save, tying Todd Jones for most club saves all time
-And, finally, swept and demoralized the Tribe with a come-from-behind victory thanks to Victor Martinez's grand slam (which got him a good slapping around from Justin Verlander!)

Yeah. Not much. Just two sweeps, one home and one away, of our two closest division rivals.

(Also, apparently we CAN win in Cleveland. Maybe because that witch girl dancing behind home plate wasn't there? Guess girlfriend's powers can't curse us forever.)

For serious, though--who could have dreamed this would happen? We're not part of the grumble-grumble-pessimist-We-Hate-Leyland-Tigers-Are-Collapsing crowd, but never in our wildest dreams did we think our team would do this. Chicago is closest to us in the AL Central race, at 9 back. Our Magic Number is now 12.

Barring what would be an unbelievable, epic, Met-like collapse, the Tigers are going the playoffs (knock on wood). There. As much as it scared us to actually write that sentence, it is what is going to happen. There is no denying it now. Besides playing the White Sox in Chicago next week, there aren't any more difficult series. The Central belongs to the Tigers.

And you know what we love most about the past six days? Before, we kept hearing that, save for Verlander, this team's pitching staff was average at best. What Max Scherzer, Doug Fister, and Rick Porcello just did was not mediocre. No, if our pitching staff can keep going strong throughout these last few weeks, we will roll into October with a lineup that absolutely no one wants to face.

Oh, and our hitters! We've said it before and we'll say it again: this year, Dave Dombrowski is looking like a straight up genius. Our hitters, led by Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera, have scored 57 runs in the past 6 days. It really doesn't even matter who Leyland puts out there--even with the cringe-inducing lineup today, we still pounded out 8 runs. Our hitters can do no wrong.

Plus, we love the attitude. The Tigers, as Rod has frequently and persistently reminded us, now have lots of Swagger. They come in confident, but not cocky. They've learned that lesson. Jim Leyland, too, is taking the appropriate response to his team's success. Obviously he wasn't going to go "Yep, we got dis ish in the BAG" but it's good to see him constantly say that the Tigers have to keep grinding out the wins and that nothing is guaranteed yet.

Of course, there is always at least one catch, and that is our poor Baby Brennan's thumb. He's out for the year, but at least he can still hang with the team. We actually don't need him, what with Maggs, Delmon, Dirks and Raburn coming up big, but it makes us sad to see his baby face on the bench. Poor thing! He's the one Tiger who can be tamed...

Well, maybe him and Big Brad, the one starter who has underperformed this week. We'll see how he does Friday against the Twins. Hopefully he can move the Tigers closer to their goal of division champs!!

Make It or Break It

So. That was a fun series, right guys?

Tigers vs. Twins. 1st place vs. 4th place. In Detroit. Tigers acquired a very good player from the Twins in Delmon Young. The Tigers should have been completely dominant for the whole series. They certainly were when Verlander was on the mound. As per usual, Justin was amazing. But this fairly dramatic blog post isn't going to be dwelling on the shiny happy points of the series so much.

No, this post is going to be focused on the fact that, after tonight's soul-crushing, heartbreaking loss with the Cleveland Idiots breathing down our necks once again, it is now officially time for our boys to show up or go home.

What exactly do we mean by this? Well, we'll tell you AFTER THE JUMP...

We're Coming Home

Glorious!

Can we just ignore yesterday's game vs Baltimore? After solid offensive games from Jackson, Cabrera, Boesch, Martinez, and Avila (!!!) Jim Leyland makes the worst managerial decision yet in putting Brad Thomas in a one-run game. Every Tigers fan watching knew we were in trouble then. But, whatever. Though we are only 2-4, we are a notoriously crappy road team and a very, very good home team. And guess where we are finally going?!?! The Promised Land: Comerica Park.

Since we are on this positive and exciting note, can we just say that we adore Brayan Villarreal here at April in the D? Sure, he gave up that one run to A-Rod. Rookie mistake. Since then he has been damn good. Who else loved his little celebration when he struck out the last batter in the 6th yesterday? And of course, there was the shopping adventure he had a few days ago (brilliantly portrayed over at Roar of the Tigers). This kid is a gem.

Before we go (Opening Day starts in 15 minutes!) we have to say that we would have torn apart the latest FSN ads with those skankalicious girls in them, but Jen at Old English D got there first. Well done, Jen! We couldn't have said it better ourselves. We may go on about how hot we think one of the guys on the Tigers is, but there is a line with objectification and FSN crossed it!

Now, enjoy Opening Day, everyone! Let's hope for our first series win...

For Your Entertainment

We know that a lot of Tigers fans out there are very adamant on reading serious, straightforward Tiger news. We agree with that...for the most part. Its pretty obvious that we like to keep it light here at April in the D, but sometimes we too take disciplined looks at the players, their stats, and their impact on the team. We can be serious.

However, today is not that day.

Hopefully you find our blog informative and interesting and funny at the same time. We're going for entertainment value here, people. With that being said, we would like to examine the two wildest, craziest, most absurd people in the entire Tigers organization (no, not Rod and Mario)!

No, we're talking about these two.

Yes, the most colorful people in the Tiger's clubhouse are Crazy Cokey and the Big Potato himself. We remember Jim Leyland two years ago saying that the 2009 team had great chemistry. Well, chemistry or not, we have two of the most fantastic characters in all of the MLB. Lets take a look, shall we?

JOSE VALVERDE


We had to capitalize his name because he is just all kinds of awesome. His dance moves are all kinds of amazing. Hasn't everyone wished players would celebrate more, or is that just us? Wouldn't you just love to see Verlander do a few fist pumps and hip thrusts when he strikes out the side? Or how about seeing Magglio whip his hair back and forth when he hits a home run? SEE? Baseball is already more fun. Hell, Jim Leyland can get into the mix too. Actually, no. That would be disturbing. Anyways, Jose Valverde is quite the character, from his sweet moves to his practical jokes. He also seems to have become the bullpen's version of a mob boss. Everyone answers to him. He rules all.
On the playing side of things...he needs to stay out of the Brennan Boesch Bi-Polar Season Zone and keep consistent this year. He was absolutely unbelievable at the beginning of last year. He needs to continue to Do Work. As well as dance.

Phil Coke


What...an oddball. From the way he says he's going to drive Jim Leyland nuts in the dugout to his insane hair choices, Phil Coke fascinates us. What interesting facial hair/hairstyle combination can he come up with next?!? Dreadlocks and a beard? Flowing tresses like Magglio used to have? Maybe he should dye it. Also--the sprinting thing. Cokey, in his bullpen days, used to literally sprint to the mound from the bullpen when it was his turn to pitch. I'm sure you all know everything we're saying, but just writing it all out makes us smile.
We hope Phil will be awesome in his starting role. We pray to the baseball gods that he will. But, we're not 100% sold on the idea. He's been doing pretty well in Spring Training, but it is just Spring Training. We shall see, Cokey. We shall see.