Watching ESPN’s report about the Pudge trade to the Yankees. Peter Gammons says:

The Tigers-Pudge relationship “had run its course.”
Jim Leyland told him that the Tigers can’t run Zumaya and Rodney out there every night and the team needed bullpen depth.
The Tigers believe Brandon Inge is ready to take over behind the plate.
“On that stage in [...]

The Score: Tigers 8 – Indians 5
The Gist: Armando Galarraga is to the Indians as Paul Byrd is to the Tigers. Well, not quite, but Galarraga beat the Tribe for the third time this year, Tigers hitters were spared batting practice and turned it on, you know, during a game. But back to Galarraga: three [...]

The Score: Orioles 11 – Tigers 10
The Gist: The Tigers were up 6-0. Again they couldn’t hold pile on until it was too late. Not sure if tacking on three runs counts as “piling on”, though. Nate Robertson was awful — 2.1 IP, 8 hits, 7 ER (but no walks) — and Placido Polanco had [...]

I’m breaking from the usual game recap format tonight to reluctantly raise a white flag on the 2008 season.
In fact, indulge me while I use a line from my favorite movie, “Midnight Run“, in which Robert DeNiro tells Charles Grodin:
“You’re in this mess because you’re in this mess. I didn’t put you in this [...]

Like Nuke LaLoosh, summer is announcing its presence with authority.
Triple digits returned to the desert on Sunday — a mere 104. Today the temps approached 110.
Big whoop. If you can’t handle the heat, don’t dish out The Non Sequiturs.
Or something like that.

Charley Steiner spoke with national baseball writer Phil Rogers of the Chicago [...]

ESPN highlights available here.

The Gist: Game #37 featured a terrific outing from #37 Kenny Rogers, three hits from Pudge Rodriguez and ridiculous ninth inning from Todd Jones. Luckily, and most importantly, it all added up to a Tigers’ 6-5 win over the Yankees. Rogers gave the Tigers a quality start — 6 IP, 9 H, [...]

Okay, we get it. The Tigers bullpen is to the team’s championship aspirations as an anvil is to a skydiver.
But what, pray tell, if it’s not?
I, for one, refuse to buy into the bullpen as Achilles’ heel conspiracy theory, and here are three reasons why:

Healthy starters
Dave Dombrowski
Zach Miner

1. Healthy starters. Among the many problems last [...]

Happy 31st Birthday, Fernando Rodney. You’re going on the DL.

From my vantage point, tonight’s game at Comerica Park had the look and feel of a playoff game. Two good teams, a cool, overcast evening, and a sellout-plus crowd.More importantly for Tigers fans, the game had the look and feel of a Tigers game from June or early July – from 2006 or 2007, [...]

Those of us old enough to remember when Pat Gillick was general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays (before moving on to similar roles with the Orioles, Mariners and his current employer, the Phillies), may be thinking of him today when pondering the Tigers approach to the non-waiver trade deadline.In the late 1980s, Gillick earned [...]