The Tigers swept the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium for the first time since the beginning of the 1966 season when they won the opener on April 12 and swept a doubleheader on April 14. The Yankees returned the favor in the Bronx from August 26 - 28 of that year. The Tigers will never be swept [...]

Tigers April Record: 13-15
Individual Batting Leaders (minimum 20 games, my totally subjective criteria)

Average: Carlos Guillen, .321
Home Runs: Miguel Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez, 5
RBI: Cabrera/Ordonez, 19
OBP: Guillen, .414
OPS: Guillen, .938
SLG: Guillen, .524
SB: Guillen, Pudge Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, 3

Individual Pitching Leaders

Wins: Five pitchers tied with two each - Jeremy Bonderman, Armando Galarraga, Aquilino Lopez, Clay Rapada, Kenny Rogers
ERA

Starter: [...]

The Gist: The Tigers lost 4-3 to the Angels in one of the best baseball games the Tigers have played this year — i.e., both teams played well. Nate Robertson gave up four runs in the Angels fourth and the Tigers chipped away but couldn’t overcome Ervin Santana. Curtis Granderson went yard for the second [...]

ESPN highlights available here.

The Gist: The Tigers lost 5-3 to the Toronto Blue Jays Sunday at Rogers Centre. Nate Robertson showed no sign of turning the corner for the Tigers and allowed five runs on eight hits in five innings of work to take the loss. Clete Thomas led the Tigers offense with three [...]

ESPN highlights available here.
The Gist: Powered by four home runs — solo shots from Gary Sheffield, Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez and a two-run dinger from Miguel Cabrera — the Tigers defeated the Twins 6-5 and swept the mini-series. Nate Robertson appears to be working his way back into form with 6.1 innings pitched, four [...]

ESPN highlights available here.
The Gist: Tigers lose a slugfest, 12-6, to the Red Sox. Nate Robertson throws 107 pitches in 5.1 innings, gives up four earned runs — but strikes out 6. Go figure. Magglio Ordonez hit his first homer and drove in his first run of 2008.
The Quote: “Showing up every day isn’t enough. [...]

UPDATE: ESPN highlights available here.

The Gist: The Tigers drop to 0 and 4 on the year thanks to Jason Grilli’s incendiary seventh-inning performance in which he gave up three runs on five hits — including a bomb to A.J. Pierzynski — and a walk on just 22 pitches. Nate Robertson wasn’t much better in his [...]

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 [...]

Count me among the delighted that the Tigers locked-up Nate Robertson for three more years at $21.25 million. I’ve been a fan of Robertson’s since day one and think the Tigers were wise to secure an essential member of the rotation.
(If you want to find someone who isn’t a big Nate fan, look no [...]

Are you kidding me?When Mike first broached the possibility of Dave Dombrowski’s blockbuster this afternoon late this morning by forwarding me Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal I thought it must’ve been some posturing and cheap talk.When I nosed around ESPN.com and saw Peter Gammon’s blog entry saying there was some validity to it I let my [...]