Quick Notes

Jason Johnson was supposed to be the Tigers' starter on opening day but since he has struggled in spring training; Jeremy Bonderman will get the start on opening day.


It appears that the Tigers are going to release Dean Palmer. They invited him to camp but he has not done very well in spring training.

Around the Horn

The Tigers are most likely going to release veteran outfielder Bobby Higginson before the season starts. Higginson has played 10 long losing seasons with the Tigers. The Tigers foolishly gave him a huge contract a few years back. If the Tigers release him they would still owe him the rest of the $8.85 million he's due on his contract's final year. He has not had a good season in a long time and releasing him seems to be the right choice.

Jason Johnson was supposed to be the Tigers' starter on opening day but because he has struggled in spring training, that looks to not be not as likely. Mike Maroth would probably take the opening day start if Johnson does not. Johnson has one more game left, before the season starts, to get back on track.

I am not a fan of Michigan State but I would like to mention how they are headed to the Final Four to play North Carolina. I was shocked when they beat Duke and Kentucky and I give them a lot of credit for getting this far.

The Pistons finally got out of their three game losing streak by beating the Celtics in overtime on Saturday night. Their record for the season is now 43-26.

Pistons on Cold Streak

The Detroit Pistons are currently going through a bad stretch. They have lost three straight games. They lost to Cleveland by 15 points, then they lost to the Sixers by 23 points, and in their last game they lost to Indiana by 13 points. The Pistons need to get out of this little slump as they head into the playoffs soon. The Pistons have 14 games left and they hold a 5 1/2 game lead on the next closest team(Cleveland) in their division. They would be the second seed in the East if the playoffs started today. I think the Pistons will blow through the first two rounds of the playoffs and then play Miami(the number one seed) in the Eastern Conference Finals. If both teams make it that far it should be a great series. I expect the Pistons to beat the Heat in about 6 games and move unto the Finals to face the Spurs or the Suns.

The Pistons will have to prove to everybody whether their championship last year was a fluke championship or a legit championship. As Pistons fans we know that it was a legit championship but not many other people in the basketball world think so. Most people remember the Lakers losing the championship rather than the Pistons winning the championship. If the Pistons win the title again, making them back to back champs, everybody will know that this team is for real.

A boring stretch

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. There has not been a lot going on in the Detroit Sports world. The Lions recently signed an offensive lineman; the Pistons keep on winning; the Tigers start the season in a few weeks; and the Red Wings won't be doing anything for a long time. That is about all that is going on in the Detroit Sports scene. In national sports news the NCAA College Basketball tournament is going on(AKA March Madness). Michigan is not in it so I do not have a ton of desire to watch it. Michigan State is still in it but they play Duke in the Sweet Sixteen and I don't think State will beat them.

I hope to start posting more as soon as some more interesting things happen. The only article I could find that was good is one about Dean Palmer.
Click Here to read it.

Tigers Dump Sanchez

The Tigers have released outfielder Alex Sanchez. Sanchez hit .322 last season but his inability to get on base from walks and his poor fielding skills led the Tigers to release him. Sanchez was a great base stealer, and I think the Tigers will miss this guy more than they think. He was never a good leadoff hitter but he could did have a good batting average, like I mentioned, and he had some good speed. Some speculation is that the Tigers released him to go after Mike Cameron. Whether they get Cameron or not, the Tigers should be able to fill the void Sanchez left through a trade or a free agent signing.

Blogger Interview

I recently had a chance to interview Evan Brunell of Firebrand of the AL. Evan is the owner of Most Valuable Network. I am sure you have heard of it but if you haven't then you should check it out. You won't be disappointed. MVN is doing great and it keeps getting better and better. My questions are in bold and his responses are in normal font.

When and why did you decide to get into blogging?

Around December 30, 2003, I decided it was time to put my thoughts about
the Red Sox on paper. I had started seeing an explosion in blogs and I
thought that I should get into it because I knew I had a lot to offer.
Then my friend wanted to start up a Pirates blog, and we were going to
link each other. Then he was like "Hey ... why don't we get people to
write for every team?" I loved the idea because it would be a nice
network and I could learn more about each team because every year I find
myself sliding towards being more of a baseball fan than the Red Sox.
While I still swear 100% by the Red Sox, I wanted to become a baseball
connoisseur.

Did you ever think MVN and "Fireband of the AL" would get so popular?

I sure wanted it to, but I didn't think it would, nor even this fast.
And add in MVN just merged with All-Baseball, which should more than
double our hits, and we are well on our way towards our goal of
bankrupting ESPN! Here's a little secret I'll let out to you - we are
going to move Fire Brand of the American League and some other MVN
bloggers to All-Baseball and find replacements on MVN. Someone likened
it to Sports Illustrated - for example, All-Baseball is the star powered
lineup, while other writers work writing the body of the magazine, which
is MVN. That is not to say that MVN has lousy writers, we have all very
capable writers but for reasons unknown to anyone, people gravitate
towards a few and we want to maximize their exposure, therefore they
will move to all-baseball.com.

What do you enjoy most about blogging?

I'll answer first what I enjoy least - when nothing comes to mind! And
I'm the guy who makes myself blog at least every other day, so when I
can't figure something out, I go nuts until I figure out what to write.
As for my favorite part, it's when I write something and get good
reviews and comments and thoughts on it, it is very rewarding to see
that people read me and take me seriously.

What are your future plans for MVN?

As I said before, bankrupt ESPN.

Do you hope to eventually have every sport(out of the NBA,NHL, MLB and
NHL) covered at MVN?

Yes, and more. NASCAR, Poker, Boxing, Wrestling, even high school
sports! Everything!

Now let's move unto baseball. As a Red Sox fan, how was it to see the
Sox finally win the World Series?

I can't really describe it but what I can say is that I'll never feel
that same feeling again until I get married and then until I have kids.
It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime feelings. If you rooted for the Red
Sox to beat the Yankees and win it all although you weren't a Sox fan
(many people became Sox fans in the playoffs) then multiply it by 100
and that's how I felt. I didn't cry, but I will admit tears come to my
eyes ... and they still do!

Do you think the Sox will repeat this year?

I can't 100% know that but I will say this: they're better than last
year and last year they won the World Series.

Do you think the Sox/Yankees rivalry is stronger than ever now?

Yes, but not on the Red Sox side. Our feelings and anger have now been
tempered, but now it's the Yankees who have a chip on their shoulder.
Before I rarely heard offensive names for the Red Sox but they're all
over the place now - Red Sux, Blosox ... never heard it before. I love
it, it shows the Yankee fans are ticked off and now I love they're
getting a taste of what they looked down at all these years.

Now to the Tigers, with their new improvements, do you think they have
a shot at the Central this year?

Yes, I don't think they will win it, as a matter of fact I picked them
to finish fourth, but that's not reflective of their record, but of how
strong the AL Central is becoming. I think they, if everything goes
right and Minnesota falls which I think they are very liable to do, the
AL Central is wide open. Cleveland will eventually be the 1990s Braves
of the Central, winning the division for years to come, but they're not
there yet. Minnesota is slipping, and Chicago is so unpredictable. The
Tigers have the next three years to win it before Cleveland becomes the
big powerhouse. If they can win it in the next three years, or two in
the next three years, they'll have the fan interest and money to compete
with Cleveland.

(A note I would like to point out is that right after I did this interview, I found out that MVN is going to join forces with All Baseball. All Baseball, a huge site, is somewhat like MVN but it just covers baseball. Wow, those two combined will do some damage.)

Lions Sign Two

The Detroit Lions have made their first move of the offseason by signing safety Kenoy Kennedy and tight end Marcus Pollard. Kennedy's deal was for 14 million over 5 years along with a 4.4 million dollar signing bonus. Pollard's deal was for 6 million over 3 years along with a 2.3 million dollar signing bonus.

Kenoy Kennedy was highly regarded as the best safety on the free agent market. He has played for Denver the last 5 seasons. This was a good signing for the Lions. They were looking for someone to play the strong safety position and Kennedy will nicely fill that role. He should be able to help out the Lions' weak defense.

Marcus Pollard is a 10 year veteran who has played his entire career with the Colts. Pollard caught 6 touchdown passes last season along with 29 catches for 309 yards. He will probably replace Stephen Alexander, the Lions' starting tight end from last season. Pollard's best season was in 2001 when he scored 8 touchdowns along with 739 receiving yards. It will be nice to have a good veteran on the offense helping out Harrington and the offense. He is a very solid player. This signing was as well a good one.

These signings were hopefully a sign of good things to come for the rest of the offseason for the Lions. The Lions are showing that they are willing to spend the money to get the right player for the job.

Other Offseaon Notes: The Lions are looking for a backup quarterback. They targeted Kurt Warner but he went to the Cardinals. The Lions will probably now go after Jeff Garcia or perhaps Brad Johnson.

Elden Campbell back in Detroit

The Detroit Pistons recently signed Elden Campbell. Campbell was on the Pistons earlier this year before he was traded to Utah. The main reason the Pistons signed him was so he could battle Shaq in the upcoming playoffs. Detroit and Miami will both be high seeds in the East and they will probably play eachother in the Eastern Conference Finals.