Morning prowl: Maggs is putting on the miles

Saturday is one of my days at BYB to run wild, and write whatever I want, with Kurt's blessing. But I'm very short on time today, as I have family obligations. 

The thing is, you folks here at BYB are like family too, and I can't let you down. I have to give you something to read and ponder early on a Saturday morning. As I can't give you an opinion piece on the value of the 25th man, or bitterly complain about Jim Leyland's batting orders in a 1000 word manifesto, I can still do something...

Thus, here's your morning prowl.

MLB's Jason Beck interviews Magglio Ordonez, and we find out Maggs is overdue for a new timing chain.

MLB.com: So, like a well-run car, you feel like you still have a lot of miles left?

Ordonez: I have about 150,000 miles, and this engine is good for about 200-250,000 miles. So I have 100,000 miles [left]. I still have a long way.

My significant other's Saturn has over 150K, and it's not looking or running so hot....much like Ordonez's first half of 2009. I hope her Saturn rebounds as well as Ordonez did in the 2nd half of the '09 season. But how much longer will both the Saturn and Magglio keep running effectively?

Keeping a high mileage car or baseball player in working order can quickly become a money losing proposition. You have to keep throwing large sums of cash at it to keep it on the road. Though I've never had to pay $18 million for a tie rod.

Jim Hawkins, who covers the Tigers for The Oakland Press, has a blog post up telling us nothing we fans didn't already know...several days ago.

Willis (2-0, 13 strikeouts,12 walks in 19 innings) and Bonderman (1-1, 6.92 ERA), were both battling for their big league lives. And both pitched well enough during their exhibition outings to convince the Tigers to restore them to the starting rotation and eat $9.6 million of the $10 million remaining on Nate Robertson's contract.

Really? No kidding? 

All I can say is some of the best baseball writing in town is being done at web only sites. Just compare the thought provoking pieces Mike and Kurt wrote when the Nate Robertson trade went down, and the rote article I just linked. What would you rather read on a daily basis?

Thought so...

More linkage and commentary, after the jump.

At The Detroit Tigers Weblog, Billfer tells us Tigers opening day tickets are still a hot property, the God awful Detroit economy be damned. Turns out the secondary ticket market is booming.

SeatGeek, a site that monitors the secondary market for sports tickets issued a report and the Tigers-Indians game on April 9th is the fourth priciest MLB ticket on the market at $141. It trails only the Yankees opener, a Yankees-Red Sox match-up, and the Minnesota Twins opening of Target field.

I was an opening day regular for years, and would get tickets by hook or crook, so to speak. But I was also younger and more willing to endure a long day of  boozing and bad weather (I swear the absolute coldest I've ever been was at an opening day at Comerica in the early 00's) and most irritatingly, deal with clueless bandwagon fans who only turned up for one Tigers game a year...opening day.

I'm not saying I didn't have fun, as I had plenty. But I'm quite older and hopefully much wiser. Meaning I will instead be in front of the TV and hanging out in the BYB game thread for the opener. 

There's a new Tigers blog on the scene, Detroit Tigers Scorecard. run by the youngest writer in the Tigers blogosphere. He's a young pup of 18. (I feel so damn old. Where's my Geritol?) Austin ranks the Tigers' prospects, and like what he sees. Here's what he has to say about his number 7 prospect, Andrew Oliver.

Oliver pitched just three innings this Spring for the Tigers, he gave up one hit, walked three and whiffed three. Andrew, also known as Andy, has a fastball anywhere from 92-97 MPH with great control. MLB.com compares Oliver to Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Expect Oliver to touch nowhere higher than Double-A Erie in 2010, but he could get his feet wet in the Majors as early as 2011.

Seriously, Austin is only 18, and keeping up with a blog? When I was 18...uh, let's not go there. Let's just say I refuse to incriminate myself. I'm not sure what the statute of limitations are on some of my youthful transgressions.

SI's Jon Heyman has an opinion on the Dontrelle Willis / Nate Robertson kerfuffle:

Dontrelle Willis is a feel-good story for the Tigers' rotation, though skeptics remain. The Tigers think he has more upside than Nate Robertson, the disappointment who was dealt to the Marlins. Robertson didn't look great, but it's hard to question the Marlins, who almost never miss from a scouting standpoint.

Though the Marlins sure look to have missed on former Tigers prospects Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin. Just sayin'...

One more thing...

If you are a sports fan (or even if you aren't, I'd bet you still did a bracket or three), you know the NCAA Final Four is taking place in Indianapolis. Our fearless leader's beloved MSU Spartans are taking on Butler in one of the national semifinals tonight.

Let me the the first to say...GO STATE!

Kurt's update: Sparty on!! And check out our sister site, The Only Colors!