Historic Power Display

The Tigers are now 3-0 after defeating the Texas Rangers 10-6. They blasted 7 more home runs today:

Chris Shelton (2)
Magglio Ordonez (2)
Brandon Inge
Craig Monroe
Marcus Thames

That gives them 12 homeruns in their last 2 games and 15 in 3 games. According to MLB.COM, those are both team records. Their record for one game is 8 set back on June 20th, 2000 in an 18-6 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays:

Tony Clark (2)
Robert Fick
Bobby Higginson
Richie Becker
Juan Gonzalez
Juan Encarnacion
Deivi Cruz

The 2006 Tigers will try to continue their assault on American League pitchers when they face John Koronka tomorrow night at 8:00. Mike Maroth goes for the Tigers.

First Place Tigers Rout Royals

How is that for a Tiger headline? Just about everything went right in today's 14-3 rout of the Royals. Offensively, the Tigers got 19 hits including 5 for Pudge Rodriguez who had a homerun, three doubles and a single. It was a great day for a veteran who needs to bounce back this year if the Tigers are to improve substantially over last year. My two favorite young Tiger hitters in a long time (Chris Shelton and Curtis Granderson) and one of my all-time favorite veteran acquisitions (Placido Polanco) had three hits apiece. One of Granderson's hits was a long homerun.

The best thing that happened today though was Jeremy Bonderman's 6 2/3 strong innings - 1 run, 3 hits, 8 strikeouts and no walks. This was especially encouraging after reading some ominous articles the last couple of days about last year's elbow problems. In Tom Gage's column this morning, Bonderman talked about his injury last year:

"Last year, when my arm was bothering me, I didn't say anything," he said. "I learned you can't do that.

"You have to tell people when stuff is going on. If I would have said something, I probably would have missed a week or something.

"Instead, I ended up missing five or six starts. I don't want to do that again. But I was stubborn and didn't know any better."

He also mentioned that he felt a little pain this spring:

"A little bit," he said, "but it's gone now. I've switched a lot of my maintenance programs to help the strength of that part of my arm."

Now, Gage's column was not meant to be alarming and he was not saying that anybody is worried. In fact, the theme of the article was Bonderman learning from his mistakes. However, any time I hear about a young pitcher pitching through pain one summer and feeling "a little bit" of pain the next spring, it concerns me. the fact that he dominated today doesn't mean that he'll stay healthy all year but it's a good sign. Leyland pulling him after 92 pitches was another good sign.

Today's game was full of good signs.

Great Start!

I'm sure that most of you somehow managed to either watch or listen to today's opening day 3-1 victory at Kansas City. I listened to the game at work and it was a great start to the season. Here are my thoughts:

Shelton had an awesome start to the season - three hits including a pair of solo homeruns. He also hit the ball hard the fourth time up but was robbed of a hit by Mark Grudzielanek. I am expecting Shelton to be the best hitter on the team this year and today's performance did nothing to dampen my confidence. I don't think he'll be batting sixth for long. Carlos Guillen, who might be the biggest key to a significant Tiger improvement this year, helped ease concerns about his health by belting a homerun for the Tigers third run of the game. He only hit 5 homeruns all last year so this was good to see.

The pitching was excellent. Many of us are concerned about Kenny Rogers' advancing age but he got off to a good start today pitching 6 strong innings. I was even more pleased with the bullpen. Joel Zumaya was put into a key spot in his first major league game and pitched two shutout innings. He reportedly was throwing between 97-99 MPH consistently and had good control. I can hardly wait to watch him pitch on TV later in the week. Finally, Fernando Rodney, who struggled as a closer last year, pitched a perfect ninth to get the save.

It was only one game and it was only the Royals but it was still a very satisfying start to the season. Jeremy Bonderman, another big key to a successful season, pitches the second game on Wednesday against the Royals.

Tata Replaces Jones

This news is a little old but, according to Danny Knobler, Jordan Tata has taken the roster spot which opened up when Todd Jones went on the disabled list with a strained hamstring. The 25 year old Tata had a strong season for lakeland in 2005 (2.79 ERA and 134/41 k/BB ratio in 155 innings) and pitched well this spring.

This move is a surprise because Tata has never pitched above A ball. However, Jim Leyland did hint earlier in the spring that he was not afraid to promote an inexperienced pitcher to the majors if he felt he was ready. Tata was supposed to start the season in Erie and I suspect he'll still head there when Jones returns.

Jones Injured, Opening Day Line-up Set Again

Todd Jones pulled his hamstring during the ninth inning of today's game and he's now headed for the disabled list. There is no word on how long he'll be out or who will take his place on the roster. Fernando Rodney will almost certainly be the closer in his absence. Jones could be replaced on the roster by Franklin German if he clears waiver. Other possibilities include Roman Colon and Mark Woodyard.

I was not expecting a great year out of Todd Jones, certainly not close to what he did last year. I'm not too concerned with Rodney assuming the closer role. However, the Tigers bullpen is thin and losing Jones hurts their bullpen depth even more. I would imagine that Jones will miss most of April and maybe more.

Opening Day Line-up

Jim Leyland has tweaked the starting line-up again switching Craig Monroe and Chris Shelton so that Shelton now bats 6th and Monroe eighth. This is the likely opening day line-up:

Curtis Granderson CF
Placido Polanco 2B
Ivan Rodriguez C
Magglio Ordonez RF
Dmitri Young DH
Chris Shelton 1B
Carlos Guillen SS
Craig Monroe LF
Brandon Inge 3B

Since Shelton is a better hitter than Monroe, I like this new line-up better. I'd still like to see Shelton and Guillen bat a little higher though. Most people think that Rodriguez is batting third because Leyland wants to keep him happy by showing him he is an important player in the line-up. If massaging Pudge's ego helps him be more productive, then I'm all for it. However, I hope Leyland takes him out of that spot pretty quickly if he starts hitting like he did last year.