February 4, 2010

Three for Thursday: Verlander, Branyan and Birthdays

Who needs a groundhog? Two weeks until pitchers and catchers arrive in Lakeland for Spring Training.

I never doubted for a minute that the Tigers would sign Justin Verlander to a long-term contact, did you? Given the questionable extensions of recent years — Dontrelle Willis and Nate Robertson to name two — the Tigers were due [...]

December 4, 2009

Friday Freehans: Trades, Memories and Salt for Your Game 163 Wound

This, that and the other after a long blogging layoff:

So where were you two years ago today? You were probably glued to ESPN or the Web reading all you could about the eight-player deal that brought Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit. Time flies. (And just a year ago today Edgar Renteria spared Tigers [...]

August 26, 2009

Wednesday Walewanders: Non-Sequiturs Galore

Celebrate Nate! I might be the only person in the Tigers Fan Universe looking forward to Robertson’s return to the rotation. Ian?
Today’s Walewanders are fueled by Almighty Blend coffee from Ann Arbor’s Mighty Good Coffee Roasting Co., sent along by the aforementioned Mr. Casselberry.

July 17, 2009

Friday Freehans

I didn’t realize how much I needed an All-Star Break of my own. It’s nice that the Tigers start the downward portion of the schedule with a marquee matchup and not a snoozer in Oakland.

The Tigers have done reasonably well out of the shoot in the second half recently. Here’s how the club has fared [...]

July 1, 2009

Wednesday Walewanders

These Walenwanders come to you with visions of a Chipotle burrito dancing in my head. Meanwhile, the mercury rises in the desert.

Despite MLB’s efforts, I realized that I still hadn’t cast my All-Star ballot. Voting ends tomorrow night, so vote late and often.

As we watch Magglio Ordonez’s swing atrophy, I’m thinking that he might personify [...]

March 21, 2009

Today’s Random Thought

Is anyone referring to the D-Train as Done-trelle? Perhaps it’s time.

February 21, 2009

2009 Player Profile: Nate Robertson

The results of our most recent poll indicate that loyal Daily Fungo readers would prefer Dontrelle Willis (43%), Zach Miner (38%) or perhaps even Felipe Lira as the Tigers’ fifth starter over Nate Robertson (19%).
Nevertheless, we want to continue our series of player profiles today with The Nater for two reasons — actually three, [...]

January 9, 2009

Friday Fungoes: New Year’s Style

It’s not often I go a full week without posting something here at the The Daily Fungo but there were circumstances beyond my control, namely my computer. It went kaput in December and only after the most drastic of all measures — erasing the hard drive and starting over — was I able to resuscitate [...]

December 31, 2008

The Top 10 Tigers Stories of 2008: #2 – The Pitching. Oh, the Pitching.

If we had to narrow the Tigers’ dismal 2008 to one culprit it would be the pitching. While Detroit’s offense had many fits and starts throughout the season, the pitching was pretty much the same from March 31 to Sept. 28: awful.
Whether it was Dontrelle Willis‘ sudden inability to throw strikes or Justin Verlander’s season [...]

December 30, 2008

The Top 10 Tigers Stories of 2008: #3 – ¡Viva Armando Galarraga!

I know. There have been few uplifting things to focus on when looking back on the 2008 Detroit Tigers.
But there was one — if only one — story that made Tigers fans hopeful and it came as a result of a under-the-radar trade with the Texas Rangers on Feb. 5. The Tigers acquired Armando [...]