Tigers 51-45 Overall, 2 GB of Gutless Bastard White SoxWell, this certainly has been quite the week. After coming off a 7 game losing streak, we've lost our all star 3rd basemen, our all star right fielder, and our all star DL veteran/ second basemen. Shit. Here are three reasons its going to be tougher than you thought to be a Tiger's fan in the second half of the season:
1.
Tigers' Injuries: Inge, Guillen, Magglio. Better known as defense, switch hitting, and offense. Mags went out this weekend after pulling the world's worst slide into home (He's lucky all he broke is his ankle, I saw a kid slide like that in high school once and almost tore his balls off). Mags was second on the team in HR, RBIs, and runs. Guillen, the 6 million dollar man (cus he constantly need to be repaired like a robot), strained his calf muscle so now he's out, and of course Inge still has a broken hand. Unless you're holding onto a Cabrera or Verlander jersey, you're basically out of luck... Has anyone seen my "Who's The Boesch?" t-shirt by the way? Its the only thing I can wear now...
2.
Tigers' Cubs: 9 out of 25 guys on the Tigers roster are officially rookies... 12 out of 25 have spent time in Toledo this season (which trust me, I wouldn't wish that on anyone...). Larish and Rhymes are now in. Leyland says that Sizemore/ Kelly will continue to platoon at third base (with a little Rayburn thrown in for good measure), Rhymes will play 2nd base (again, Rayburn will also fill in) and Larish will play 1st/DH. "The one thing is that we will have a lot of energy," said Leyland. Good, you're going to need it. It takes a lot to get up off the ground as you're getting beat down continuously. Dombrowski pointed out that the already young Tigers have just gotten way younger, but thats why he brought in Damon right? Great, all our hopes ride with the Geico Caveman.
3.
Pitching: What happened to Valverde? Dude is straight trippin'. Picked up a loss this weekend and almost blew another one the game before. We need our closers and starting pitching to step their shit up. The Tigers were rumored to be looking into Dan Haren from the Diamondbacks, but since he was just traded to Angels, he's out. Porcello, Scherzer, Bonderman, and Galaragga need to go deep into games to even give us a chance in the second half of the season.
So basically, get ready to cheer for an all new team for the next couple weeks. Although, I'm so frickin tired of watching Guillen hit into double plays, a change of pace may be just what we need...