A great season ends, not with a bang...but a whimper. Rangers end Tigers' year with malice, 15-5

He wanted to bring a championship to Detroit more than anyone. You gave me more than I could ever expected this year, Leyland. Be proud of it, because I’m proud of you, and my Tigers.

I’ll say that either until we get it done or until I’m dead.

We need a leadoff 2nd baseman.

Well done, Rangers. You guys were the better team. But G-damn it, this post season run was one of the most dramatic that I’ve followed.

we ended up with the best pitcher (Verlander) and the Best Hitter (Cabrera) in the American League. We won our first AL Central Title (and first Division Crown since ‘87). Justin Verlander through his 2nd No-Hitter, and had damn near many more, we had 5 All Stars (Verlander, Cabrera, Peralta, Avila, Valverde), and we saw the immergence of newer players (Boesch, Alboquerque) and pivotal 2nd half moves (Fister, Betemit, Young), had a 12-game winning streak in September, clinched the crown early, ended up winning our Division by 15 games (and by ~30 Games over Minnesota), and we beat the New York Yankees in the Playoffs. We have the Unanimous Triple Crown Cy Young (and possibly MVP) winning pitcher Justin Verlander, a possible MVP in Miguel Cabrera, protection for Cabrera in Victor Martinez, rising stars in Alex Avila and Brennan Boesch, and excellent output/production in Jhonny Peralta. We also may have seen the last of Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen, 2 of the biggest contributors to the change in fortune for the Tigers franchise, and for them, I wish them all of the best in the future and thank them for what they’ve done for Detroit. We also saw the regression of Brandon Inge and even seen him down in Toledo (who would’ve thought that at the begining of the season?!). But overall though, this team has a very bright future, and another offseason of Dave Dombrowski making moves should help the Tigers reach that goal of bringing back the World Series to the Detroit Tigers! Sorry again for the long post

for a great, exciting, and surprisingly long season! Let’s make it even longer (in a good way) next year!!!!!

hurt his arm in Game 4 when he collided with Napoli

I want to tell you guys that you have a hell of a team. The series was a hell of a lot closer than 4-2 or 15-5 indicate.

It was the best playoff series the Rangers have ever been a part of (not a ton to choose from) and it was especially scary considering how the Tigers have kicked the crap of the Rangers so much in the last few years.

Hat tip to your fine team and no matter what… you ended the Yankees season.

When Peralta hit that home run.

Actually the opposite, I felt like he did one of his best jobs ever.

The team had stupid bad luck towards the end with all sorts of injuries. We have the sticks to match with anyone, and we’ll learn from this.

Baseball is weird, the best team by far, the Phillies, couldn’t even get out of the first round, and lose one of the top 5 player in the majors on his last at bat, probably for a good chunk of 2012.

Illitch has already talked about adding two more bats. Your 2012 rotation is going to look like this: JV, Max, Fister, Porcello, Turner. You have one of the best hitting teams in the majors when healthy and you’re going to add likely a 2B and an outfielder. We’re going to be deadly from 2-8, maybe even 1-8 if Austin can straighten out.

In other words, chances are we own the Central for the next 3-5 years, and we can win it all in that time frame as well.

While tonight hurts, we have better days to come.

Yes, it was a great season. We actually got enough offense to pull this one out, and could have had more if not for two rally killing double plays by Raburn. Once again, Holland was let off the hook with limited damage. The Tigers were done in tonight by a shaky Max, the usual horrific job by our middle relievers, and Leyland’s horriffic use of them, with a couple of terrible calls thrown in just to make sure it wasn’t our night.

And yes, Leyland should be criticized for some of his moves in this game. Dan Schlereth does not belong on a major league roster, let alone on the mound in the playoffs with the season on the line. It doesn’t matter that there was a lefty hitter at the plate. Leyland’s pavlovian response to bring in a lefty, ANY lefty from the bullpen backfired, because it is a flawed strategy. Fact of the matter is that Schlereth sucks. He’s not a good pitcher. The result was predictable.

Porcello essentially did the job, but for a bad call and some limited infield defense. He gave up ground balls, including one where Santiago GOT the runner on a fielder’s choice, but the runner was ruled safe on a bad call. Add that to the bad call on a check swing by Cruz that was not called a strike (with Max still pitching), and the Tigers were out of that inning with a 5- 2 score. Another grounder just out of the reach of Jhonny- one that many shortstops make easily, added another run to Rick’s stats. Then came middle relief, the rout was on, and the official end to the Tiger season.

It is fitting in a way, that if the Tigers were going to go down, it was their greatest weaknesses this season that sunk them. All season long, particularly before they acquired Fister, the non Verlander members of the rotation survived with good run support or amazing work by the back end of the bullpen. When you can get a win when delivering a lead to the back of the pen !00% of the time, a pitcher’s win totals will be padded. Max and Rick were beneficiaries of that all season long. But give the ball to the middle relievers, and kiss the game good bye. Bad Max showed up tonight, followed by bad middle relief, bad calls, and bad infield defense. That’s what the glaring problems are on this team, and they were on display as the season came crashing to an end.

Max has a fundamental flaw in his delivery. He has a three quarters arm slot, not over the top like most pitchers. If he keeps his fingers on top of the ball, his slider gets a nice downward rotation, the ball sinks, and it’s a deadly pitch. If he gets around the side of the ball, it breaks from inside out over the plate, and it’s a meatball. That’s what killed him tonight, more than anything. It sounds so simple, and in theory, it really is. But with his rather violent delivery and his three quarters arm slot, it’s hard to repeat the mechanics to command his pitches. Max has yet to show that he can be a legit top starter in the major leagues, and that is why. When he’s on, he can be dominant. He wasn’t on tonight.

Once the Tigers got into their middle relief corps, the game was over. Those guys are not capable of getting enough batters out in the major leagues. Sorry, but Rick Perry is a first round bust, IMO. He throws batting practice. When he’s not walking hitters, he’s throwing meat balls. Sorry to be so negative about tonight’s performances, but that’s what we got tonight, and it’s what we’ve gotten from our middle relief corps all season long.

I had to chuckle, sadly, at Leyland’s post game press comments, where he admitted that he put Penny in the game because he wanted to get him into the playoff action “to be honest with you”. Well, Jimmy, to be honest with you, that’s a problem. Forget the sentimental crap. Penny was the worst starting pitcher in the league this season, and he didn’t belong on the playoff roster. He gave up five runs tonight. What did you expect? Hopefully, he’s done as a Tiger.

That’s just my assessment of tonight’s game, and not of the Tiger team or their season overall. Leyland said that he has never been more proud of a Tiger team. Neither have I. They gave it their all, and they left it all out there on the field. Hobbled by injuries, they played on and they battled. They overcame serious holes in the rotation, in middle relief, and in the lineup. They have work to do in the off season, but this season is one to be celebrated. It’s almost better that they went down like this, rather than losing 3- 2 on a bad call at second base, or because the wrong pitcher was put in, or because of leaving runners on base. There was some of that during the series, but it was still a great season. One we can all be satisfied with and proud of.

and thanks to everyone at Bless You Boys. This was my first season with you and you did not disappoint.

kicked butt this season, proud of them, and can’t wait till next year!!!

They finished the regular season great, Central Champs. I really like the look of their team right now. A few improvements & 2012 will be even better.

I can’t wait to see who the bats are Mr. I was talking about. I have a couple in mind. One big one I said last spring would join the Tigers. We will see if he wins another Ring & decides to stick with his team or leave.

Rogo points out that Randy Smith is to blame for Nelson Cruz being on the Rangers’ roster.