Spanning back through 2006, Detroit has been horrible when playing in front of the entire nation, that is if you don’t take the playoffs into count. There isn’t a reason for this but tonight would have been a wonderful night for the teams bats to slug out a few runs. Buerhle was also a good pitcher for it as well but Detroit made him look like Cy Young.

There were a few take aways:

• Carlos Guillen continues to be a shining part of the lineup. He continues to work every single at-bat and hasn’t been giving up constant easy outs like say… Magglio.
• Guillen appears to still be uncomfortable at first base. It’s not only with the error in today’s game due to dropping an easy catch, he has played over too far and gone after balls that were really for the second baseman.
• Third-base Coach Gene Lamont, who is normally very conservative, should never have waved Santiago to third base. It was an obvious very bad call and ended in a ridiculously unnecessary out.
• Magglio has swung at the first pitch in nearly all of his at-bats and it feels like he is trying to make something happen.
• Yorman Bazardo was quite a disappointment. In some of the previous games I was hoping they would go with him instead of Miner or Jason Grilli. Oh well.

I don’t leave games early too often but I did tonight. It was cold and there just wasn’t a good game out on the field. Listening to the game on the ride home made me feel good about my decision.

Below are a few pictures from today’s matchup.

1. Magglio Ordonez giving some pre-game interviews to ESPN.

2. They put out a stand for the gold glove and silver slugger awards given to the Tiger players. Al Kaline and Willie Horton were in attendance as well.

3. Many of this vaunted lineup warming up before the game.

4. Verlander on the mound. He looked pretty good, other than the leadoff home run, to start the game. It went downhill very quickly.

5. Brandon Inge on third-base due to an errant throw to first by White Sox third-baseman Joe Crede. Brandon would eventually score.

6. Magglio got a hit, one of a few so far. This ended in one of the 5 double-plays on the night.

7. Can’t think of much bad with Bobby Seay’s performance, he was as advertised.

Brandon Inge has been spectacular to start off the year and looked unlike the Inge of 2007. He’s shown great plate discipline through the first couple games, as well as back in Spring Training, and continued to show that he can play nearly any position in the field competently. He’s earned multiple walks and shown power out of the gate, yet Miguel Cabrera is better. This first three-game sweep by the Royals has brought the Inge-supporters out in droves, but nothing has really changed. If anything, Brandon is helping find himself a starting spot elsewhere which can only benefit Detroit later in the season when particular needs are more apparent.

If there is anything to be concerned about it is the one thing that can really hold this team back; injuries. The season has started with many key players out (Joel Zumaya, Fernando Rodney, Curtis Granderson) and now Gary Sheffield is appearing to have as serious problem. There have been some mixed messages in what has been in the crowd, but as Blake points out, it does not sound good. Miguel Cabrera will take Shef’s place in DH today.

Today Nate Robertson will look to carry his successful Spring Training starts into the regular season. For the Chicago White Sox, Jose Contreras will take the mound. If there is any pitcher that the Tiger bats should come alive against, it is Jose. Detroit took him for 26 hits and 4 walks in 18 IP over the 2007 season and slugged .587. He was just bad in ’07 and didn’t look as if he had straightened out at all this past spring.

Game time is 1:05 PM @ Comerica Park.

“I always worry about that injury more than any other,” Guillen said. “That part of the body is sensitive when you swing.”

This could be quite a blow to the White Sox as Thome was one of the few hitters on the team that is batting above the Mendoza Line with an impressive .340/.553/.680. Chicago is currently tied for last in all of MLB in team batting average at a whopping .229.

He hit .286/.571/.286 against the Tigers in the first series but did not play in last weeks series. Detroit will not face the White Sox again until July 23rd.

Buehrle had a 4.32 ERA going into the night and it was his first win of the season. The Tigers will not face him this weekend but instead face John Danks, Jose Contreras and Jon Garland.

Ozzie on Sparky Anderson

Sparky Anderson was the greatest. He managed my favorite team, the Cincinnati Reds. But Sparky Anderson lose 100, 100, 100 [games] with the Detroit Tigers. But everybody remember Sparky Anderson with the ‘Red Machine.’

Ozzie on Jim Leyland

Jim Leyland quit with the Colorado Rockies. Can’t handle it no more. ‘I’m gone.’ Having money on the table. He said, ‘I don’t need the money. My health is more important than baseball.’ Is he a great baseball man? Awesome. Is he a great manager? Hell no.

Never amazes me what this guy says. Last years feuds with Magglio Ordonez were classic and this off season he spent verbally sparing with ex-White Sox (or is it Sock?) Brandon McCarthy. So far the White Sox organization has put up with this due to his winning ways but after this season that likely won’t be the case. After that we’ll see how he’s remembered, if at all.

Where we are in our ballclub now is we had to create room for what we think is a very special pitcher in Brandon McCarthy in moving forward,” Williams added. “If we are to have sustained success, we have to filter in young players, and we think we acquired two special ones.

Brandon McCarthy is now no longer with the White Sox and was traded to the Rangers for Danks in return. They gathered other players in the trade but John Danks was the key pitcher, realizing that there was now going to be much competition for the fifth starter spot.

Danks, 21, pitched for both Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Oklahoma during the 2006 campaign, finishing with a 9-9 record, 4.24 ERA and 154 strikeouts over 140 innings and 27 games (26 starts). The southpaw posted a 4-5 mark and 4.33 ERA in 13 starts for Oklahoma, finishing with 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings between the two stops. He was Texas’ first-round selection (ninth overall) in the 2003 First-Year Player Draft.

John Danks has done alot to impress this off season and pretty quickly staked his claim for a shot at the rotation, something we covered here a week ago. This has now set the lineup as:

1. Jose Contreras
2. Mark Buehrle
3. Jon Garland
4. Javier Vazquez
5. John Danks

This leaves the lineup a mix of tested veterans and untested Danks who has yet to see a Major League inning. Danks has preformed the best of the entire starting rotation this spring training.

Competition for the final rotation spot on the White Sox continues. This was a quite unexpected competition between Gavin Floyd and John Danks. So far the competition appears to be leaning in Danks favor, at least say the South Side Sox.

The White Sox got Floyd in December in the trade to Philadelphia giving up Freddy Garcia. Floyd has been expected to be immediately helpful to the White Sox bullpen at least but really the hope was for him to fill the missing rotation slot left by Garcia’s departure. This spring hasn’t been the greatest for him however with a 8.38 ERA giving up 16 hits, 9 earned runs over 9.2 innings of work.

John Danks on the other hand has been the surprise this off season. He was a non-roster invitee to this years spring training. Below is a bit about him from from a Jan 22nd article:

Danks, 21, came over to the White Sox in a Dec. 23, 2006, trade sending Brandon McCarthy to Texas. The left-hander was the crown jewel of the deal for the White Sox, finishing 9-9 in 2006 with 154 strikeouts in 140 innings during 2006 stints with Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Oklahoma. Some pundits believe Danks might need more Minor League seasoning, but he certainly will be given every chance to earn one of the final roster spots.

This spring he’s put up pretty impressive stats with a 2.00 ERA giving up only 7 hits over 9 innings of work with a single walk to six strikeouts. Since real tight races for big slots aren’t happening in the Detroit camp this is a good one to follow.

We all know how the Tigers did this week or at least you should if you are reading my blog :) But it can be hard to keep track of the Tigers competition especially during Spring Training. So I will be brining weekly wrap ups detailing each teams weekly happenings. I’ll discuss what is going right for not only the teams prospects but also their roster players who Detroit will likely face in the coming year.

This was a pretty sorry looking week for the White Sox. I discussed here earlier this week how the Chicago rotation was struggling so far this spring and that has only continued through the week. The starting rotation this week has pitched a combined:

Wednesday saw Contraras pitch four innings and when he wasn’t getting strikeouts (he got 6 of them) he was getting hit pretty hard taking responsibility for 5 hits and a walk totaling two earned runs. Two of the hits were doubles, one of which was to Royals 3B phenom Alex Gordon.

Thursday Gavin Floyd got the nod and pitched three innings giving up 6 runs (only two of which were earned) with five hits and a walk. White Sox offensive squad isn’t faring much better with the notable exceptions of Juan Uribe (who was questionable for a little while this off season) and Crede. Crede is hitting .529 and got a HR in Thursdays match up.

Jon Garland took the mound today pitching 3 innings and taking responsibility for all four runs given up by the White Sox in the game. He gave up a remarkable 8 hits: three doubles, a triple and two home runs. Giving up another triple he could have had two pitching cycles in just three innings.

The White Sox came through the week without a win but more importantly didn’t achieve much success at all with their regular players. The once powerful offense has been just sticking in there with average play thus far. Maybe the cold in the windy city has stiffened the Chicago hitters, either way they need to turn around before the season starts or it won’t be a fun year for CWS fans.

Monday, March 5th – Chicago White Sox: 3 Milwaukee Brewers: 4 – LOSS
Tuesday, March 6th – Chicago White Sox: 4 Colorado Rockies: 6 – LOSS
Wednesday, March 7th – Chicago White Sox: 5 Kansas City Royals: 10 – LOSS
Thursday, March 8th – Chicago White Sox: 4 Colorado Rockies: 7 – LOSS
Friday, March 9th – Chicago White Sox: 2 Arizona Diamondbacks: 4 – LOSS

In last nights game Javier Vazquez, whom Chicago just signed to a three-year $34.5M contract, got hit up pretty badly. He gave up 6 hits, 4 runs (all earned) over three innings while racking up 3 strikeouts as well. This has been pretty common for Chicago starters thus far.

The White Sox in comparison to other teams have the 9th worst ERA (Tigers are 13th, middle of the road), first in earned runs with 48 (Tigers are 9th with 38) and second on walks with 32 (Tigers are 11th with 24). Where as the Tigers, as Billfer has pointed out, are giving up runs from many of their prospects/lower league talent, this is not the case for the White Sox.

Yesterday Baseball Prospectus continued their ‘Hope & Faith’ series with the White Sox. If their pitching overall doesn’t start to come together Hope & Faith might be all they have and this would mean good things for the Tigers.

Under Friday’s order, Uribe must appear in court in the Caribbean country on the 15th and 30th day of every month until the case is resolved.

While batting an overall .235/.257/.441 last season, Uribe did much better against the Tigers putting up .292/.320/.458 against Tiger lefties and .214/.313/.714 against Tiger right handers.

Update: It appears that these reports were all a little early. Uribe currently plans to have all these legal issues behind him before Spring Training.