When is the time to trade Turner? I have been think about this for a while now and I have come up with an answer....now. Smyly has a ton of promise and has looked like a Type-A prospect, but still, he's a rookie. He is going to have a tough stretch, probably a rather long one. Unfortunetly, it's just growing pains. Fister and Verlander are a solid 1 2 punch but 3 4 Porcello and Scherzer are extremly up and down, hot and cold. So another pitcher would be realy nice. But hey, another hitter dosen't hurt. Young has'nt been impressive so far, but With the imergence of Dirks/Kelly I feel like that won't happen. Overall, I really want another reliable pitcher. What do you think?

Since Avila is having day to day problems with tendinitis in his knees, perhaps we should think about DH'ing him until he's 100% healthy. I know that Delmon Young is the current DH, but he isn't exactly winning much playing time with his bat right now.

What to do with Ryan Raburn is another concern. He's just not hitting. Tigerdog suggested that we could send him to Toledo since he still has 1 option remaining. I agree with that, perhaps some time in Toledo would help him and the Tigers. Danny Worth and Ramon Santiago could fill in at 2B until Raburn gets his stroke back.

So who do we call up to take his roster spot? The Free Rob Brantly Bandwagon Starts Now!

Rob Brantly is in AA playing for the Erie SeaWolves.

He bats left handed and currently has:

Year   Age Lev  G  PA  AB  R  H 2B HR RBI BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS
2012    22  AA 27 116 106 12 38 13  3  22  8 10 .358 .405 .566 .971

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/13/2012.

I also feel that adding an enthusiastic farm fresh rookie on the roster could light a fire in this team and help get the offense going. I'm not expecting Brantly to be the next Buster Posey and lead us to the World Series, but maybe he could help provide a spark like Alex Avila did a few years ago.

Does Avila need to rest his knees more? Could Brantly be ready to make the jump to the majors? You tell me.

Sure we want to win every game, but with a 162 game schedule, one thing is guaranteed, we will lose 50+ games.

The Tigers have already lost several games in the late innings this season. Is that so bad? Is it worse to lose a gut wrenching game in the 9th inning or to have the starter or middle reliever get blown out? Would you rather have trivial managerial decisions be the difference between winning and losing or have no strategical means to victory?

One would think that the better the team is, the fewer blow out defeats they'll have. The better team will have more loses that come down to the final at bat or pitch. As frustrating as that may sound, it's probably the best thing that could happen when you are on the losing end. Perhaps those types of loses should thought of as moral victories, in that the game could of easily went in our favor.

So the next time when it seems like the sky is falling in the 9th inning, it's probably because we're a better baseball team that never quits.

What's your favorite way to lose?

I started this fan post because I am curious what stations other BYB folks listen to.I have Sirius in my car and occasionally listen to the MLB Chanel but because its national, most stories and discussions are not as interesting to me this time of year..

I'm just North of Lansing and sports talk radio is somewhat limited. We have an am station (730) that carries the Tigers and also has local call in shows. Early morning we get a three hour show from David "mad dog" Demarco, followed by another three hours of "The Dean of Sports: Tim Staudt". Tim is the Sports Director for the Lansing NBC affiliate. Mid Day it's Jim Rome and afternoon drive is Bill "Huge" Simonson.

The Mad dog show is fun because the host, Dave DeMarco, got the gig by being a regular caller to the old Papa Joe Chevalier nationally syndicated sports show. He called at least once a day and eventually got a part time job at the local station.. For 16 years he has had one show or another in this market and has come a long long way. Dave will deny it but he is a Michigan State University homer and during Football and Basketball seasons he'll drive Michigan fans crazy. He is also a huge baseball fan and is very knowledgeable about the history of the game. He is a Leyland apologist and will be defending him until the day he moves on. Dave gets fascinating guests, and does a good job interviewing them. Today for example he had Dr. Mike Marshall on the show and he talks to Denny McLain a couple times a month. Dave also does well with most callers, though he will occasionally piss one off and they will depart for a while. Dave does not have patience for wannabe fans of any sport and he'll sometimes ridicule a caller that tries to talk about a sport when they are at best a casual fan. Once in a while he goes to far. That's a lot rarer these days. All in all if you are in the Lansing area between 6-9, check out his show.

Tim Staudt has been covering sports in Lansing for as long as I can remember. He has been around so long that his first breaking news stories was the retirement of Duffy Daugherty as MSU football coach. Staudt has also had the sports talk show for 20 years and continues to do well in local am ratings. Staudt will talk about the Tigers but baseball has never been his passion so I rarely listen to his show which follows DeMarco from 9-12. If you enjoy Michigan State athletics and golf Tim Staudt is your man. His show is kind of lame with a "You Pick em" contest evry other day where callers win stuff for guessing how many hits in the game tonight, or for the total points in the MSU u of M game. His you pick em shows are jammed with callers but most want to just register for equally lame prizes. During football and basketball seasons any move by a Michigan State athlete or coach gets dissected by the "Staudt On Sports" community. Both Izzo and Dantonio call in and talk with The Dean. Staudt's show for me is just ok. If something happened at MSU I tune in because I know it will be discussed. But golf is not something I am interested in and that's why I rarely listen and prefer the CBS tv affiliate sportscaster Fred Heuman. Fred contributes to the mad dog show and is passionate about the Tigers. He is Tim's competition on TV so he rarely if ever appears on Tim's show.

As I understand it the the afternoon drive time "Huge" show is on a state wide network. For me it is un listenable. I tried three times in the past week to listen to the show but his anti Leyland, anti Inge, anti Raburn rhetoric is almost nauseating. My drive home is 15 minutes and all three times Simonson just attacked and attacked. He wants Leyland fired today and will not shut up about it. His callers are a mixed bag of some folks that sound like real baseball fans and others that call in with this type of comment that prove their ignorance:

"Hi Huge - I'd fire Leyland and all of his assistant managers" Simonson will agree with any anti Leyland sentiment. but never ever correct or call out a precious listener. Pro Leland or even ambivalent ones like me rarely get on the air. Another caller last week suggested that Leyland bring in Rodney instead of Valverde and a third wanted to trade Inge (after he had been released) and Raburn to Minnesotta to get Clete Thomas back. I could rip on Simonson and his callers all day. A really good description of Huge is at Designaterobertson:

http://designaterobertson.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-huge-tuesday.html

All in all sports talk is pretty limited here. There used to be two competing stations but for several years we have been down to one. I wish 730 would drop the broadcast of the huge show and replace it with true afternoon drive of local guy Dave DeMarco but until then it's MLB on Sirius for me.

I'd be interested in hearing about other local sports talk shows around Michigan. Who do you listen to?

Watching both Porcello and Scherzer pitch well their last outings was certainly a nice turnaround. However, and particularly with Max, they both tend to have their bouts of inconsistency that can drive us all mad. So far this season they've both started in six games, and with varying levels of success.

My question is, between Scherzer and Porcello who's more important to the success of this season? Which one of these guys do we really need to buckle down and pitch well on a consistent basis? I have no doubt in my mind that both of them will end up having a pretty good year, and I'm certainly not worried about them, but I am curious as to who everyone feels needs to step up big this year.

Also do you think the early season success of Drew Smyly has taken a little pressure off of these two?

Closing Pitching Mystery Solved

Detroit, Michigan - Baseball fans across metro Detroit breathed a collective sigh of relief as Todd Barton Jones was arrested early Monday morning for kidnapping and identity theft. FBI officials revealed a complex plot by Jones to kidnap Detroit Tigers closer Jose Valverde and impersonate him for the first five weeks of the 2012 season.

Apparently, Jones kidnapped Mr. Valverde shortly before the Tigers home opener, created an elaborate costume, and began handling the closing pitching for the Detroit Tigers. FBI officials were initially alerted to the crime when they noticed Valverde's new style of pitching. FBI spokesman Brent Clevlen stated, “We noticed that he sucked. We figured Todd Jones must be involved in some fashion.”

After an in depth investigation, Jones was arrested while checking on Valverde in the make shift cell Jones created in his Pell City, Alabama home. FBI officials entered Jones' home to find him receiving refreshers from Valverde on proper dancing, water spitting, and dirt touching. FBI officials noticed that Jones did not bother asking Valverde questions about pitching techniques.

Other than being bloated from the steady diet of pork rinds and Miller High Life that Jones kept on hand at his home, Valverde was in fine condition. Valverde stated that he hopes to start pitching immediately. Valverde stated, “I guess I'll get people out and not suck like that Jones guy.”

When questioned about the incident, Jones stated that he felt that the kidnapping and impersonation plot was his only way to return to the game. “Although I will always have fond memories of blowing save after save, there is no substitute for seeing the look of desperation on the starting pitcher's face in the dugout as I ruin all of his hard work. I just needed to see that in person a few more times,” Jones stated.

When asked if he had any regrets, Jones stated, “Well, I am kind of upset I got that Beckham guy out on Sunday. I was throwing him plenty of balls, I don't know why he kept swinging. I really wanted to walk the bases loaded.”

Tigers manager Jim Leyland was asked if he had any suspicions that Valverde was actually a costumed Todd Jones. Leyland mumbled, “I did think it was kind of odd that he kept giving me advice on mustache maintenance.” Leyland added, “Ryan Raburn is a damn fine ball player.”

The Baltimore Orioles, the MLB's winningest team, somehow figured out a way to be even more improbable. They just knocked off the Red Sox in 17 innings to complete a 3-game sweep with DH Chris Davis pitching 2 scoreless frames. He out-dueled his DH counterpart, Darnell McDonald, who entered the game as a pinch runner for Big Papi. Since write-ups of the game will abound, if they do not already, I wanted to share some of the amusing aspects of listening to the O's broadcasters on Gameday Audio.

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I know this was a topic on the Telecast, but I didn't care for the choices they gave, so I will hold my own poll.

What is the best Tiger nickname ever?

I was always partial to the Gambler, Kenny Rogers. That nickname just sounds bad ass!

The Bird is a good one, because that's just what he just reminded you of.

There is too many to put on a poll, so just put your favorites in the comments section.

Hey guys! It's that time of the season again, and the Tigers have another series against the Mariners, so I'm back! With another series preview! I'm not going to rewrite everything from the old post again--if you want to read that one more time, go read it one more time here--but I will run you through what is different about the Mariners since the last time you guys saw them.

Not too long ago someone here on BYB wrote a fanshot pegging the M's as the worst team in the major leagues. Specifically, it was said that their offense was the worst in the Show! I take issue with this statement for a couple of reasons.

• The Mariners are 16th in the Major Leagues in runs, 23rd in slugging, and 21st in average.

• The Mariners are 10th in the Major Leagues in hits.

• The Athletics and the Twins. Oh my god the Twiiiinnnnnnns.

My series prediction hasn't changed since last time. The Mariners have shown that they can beat up on bad teams, that they are not as good as the Rangers or the Rays, and that they occasionally have mental lapses that cost games. They just reeled off a seven-game losing streak, but four of those were one-run losses and two of those losses happened after obviously blown calls that would have swung the outcome of the game if called correctly. I'm betting on a 2-1 Detroit series victory. 2-1 Seattle wouldn't be too surprising. If Seattle sweeps again I'll be shocked. On to the players!

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You can see edition #1 here.... from April 1st.

I posted on a few team's SB Nation's team page sites and Bless you Boys was one of them, hope you enjoy :)

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