Thanks to everyone who participated in The BYB Introduce Yourself Open Thread yesterday. That was an impressive response, and it's been fun to learn a bit more about everyone. If you haven't introduced yourself yet, click on over and say hello to your fellow BYB'ers!
Take 75 North (which now also offers a newsletter) explains why it's a big deal that Scott Sizemore was promoted to Triple-A Toledo over the weekend. (Daniel Worth, on the other hand, seems to be taking the opposite career track in the Tigers' organization.) What could this mean for the Tigers' second baseman situation for next season?
This season, Sizemore is hitting .309/.405/.539 with nine homers and 33 RBIs.
Tigers owner Mike Ilitch told the Freep's Drew Sharp that he'll do "whatever we have to do" to keep the Tigers in first place and get them to the playoffs.
The Detroit Tigers Weblog makes the All-Star case for Brandon Inge. Is he Detroit's most likely representative, and the one Tigers fans should be throwing their voting support behind right now? And just how good has he been, compared to other AL third basemen?
Lynn Henning notes that Interleague Play is keeping Marcus Thames out of the lineup. I think it was crazy not to have started him on Sunday, regardless of lefty-righty match-ups. And he can always be replaced in later innings, if there's concern about his defense in left field. Thames is swinging a hot bat. Keep him in there.
Always a Tiger would like to see the Tigers make two roster moves: First, call up Dusty Ryan from Toledo to back up Gerald Laird (not only to give Laird some rest, but to bolster the depth at catcher). Secondly, put Zach Miner in the starting rotation. (Kurt's been driving that bandwagon for a while. Jump aboard! There's plenty of room.
BigJP actually has two additional suggestions for the starting rotation, one of which probably wouldn't be popular with many fans.
Blake has a photo slideshow of his Sunday trip to Pittsburgh at The Spot Starters. (I really regret not trying harder to make the drive to PNC Park last weekend.) There's a curious lack of pictures capturing the horror - the horror! - of Dontrelle Willis's eight-walk performance. (Blake opted to walk around the ballpark, instead.) I was hoping for at least one shot of a grown man shrieking in terror.
Big League Stew gives a fashion critique of the 1909 throwback uniforms the Tigers and Pirates sported on Sunday. I enjoyed Duk's post even more when reading it out loud in my best Heidi Klum voice.
The Jason Tyner era is over in the Tigers organization, as he was released by the Mud Hens. (In the same notebook, it's mentioned that Cameron Maybin was suspended for bumping an umpire during an argument.)
(via MLB Trade Rumors)
Ervin Santana really did give everything he had when holding the Tigers to one run a couple of weekends ago. 10 days later (and shortly after getting bombed by the Rays), he's missing a start because of a strained forearm.
Aaron Gleeman passes along a quote from a scout who doesn't appear to think very highly of Delmon Young's skills as a hitter with the Minnesota Twins. (Young is batting .252/.282/.286 with one homer and 18 RBIs this year.)
If you're among those (and I really don't know how many of you there are) hoping Bobby Valentine might be the replacement for Jim Leyland if he doesn't come back next season (interesting that both Tom Gage and Jason Beck wrote about his contract status over the past couple of days), maybe you don't want to know that Bobby V could end up with the Washington Nationals next season.
(via ShysterBall)