Saturday Smorgasbord

Some Saturday items, powered by the Tigers’ Game Notes:

• Today marks Justin Verlander’s 99th career start at the major
  league level with the Tigers. With one more starts,
  he will become the 54th pitcher in Tigers history to
  start 100 games.

• Verlander entered his start this afternoon against the Rangers tied
  for third among American League pitchers with 46 wins since the start of the 2006 season, while he is sixth with 96 starts, seventh with 592.1 innings pitched and 12th with 474 strikeouts.

• Since the start of the 2007 season, the Tigers are tops among all American League clubs with a .474 slugging percentage against lefthanded pitchers, while they are second with a .287 batting average. During that stretch, the Tigers have compiled a 54-39 record in games started by lefthanded pitchers.

And some non-Game Notes nuggets:

• The 2011 All Star Game will be in Phoenix at Chase Field. Now the locals can stop griping about it.

• Kurt weighs in on some interesting stuff (as always), particularly the third item in his Bunt Singles roundup — April in the D Fatigue is now a widespread affliction.

Finally, Happy 58th Birthday to Sid Monge. (It’s also the birthday of Barney McCosky, the man the Tigers traded to the Philadelphia Athletics for George Kell.) Other birthdays include Sean Bergman (39) and John Martin (53)