Pistons Up 2-0

After the first two games of the opening round of the NBA playoffs, the Pistons lead the Sixers 2-0 after blowing them out in the first two games at the Palace. The series now moves to Philadelphia for game three and four.

In game two five Pistons were in double digit scoring. Rip Hamilton scored a game high 23 points on the way to the victory. In game one the Pistons were down by 16 but came back to beat the Sixers by 21 points.

I fully expected the Pistons to blow out Philly and that is exactly what is happening.

Draft Wrapup

The Detroit Lions selected Mike Williams and Shaun Cody in the NFL Draft on Saturday. Both players are from USC.

Mike Williams, the Lions first round pick, was a big game wideout in college. He scored 14 touchdowns in 2002 and in 2003 he scored 16 touchdowns. He finished his career with 30 touchdowns and 2,579 yards. Some people had this guy number one on their draft boards.

Defensive tackle Shaun Cody, the Lions second round pick, was an all-american candidate at USC. In 2003 he had 6 sacks, 26 tackles, and three blocked fieldgoals.

Both of these draft picks were good choices for Detroit. Mike Williams is another young receiver for Joey Harrington to throw too. Next season the Lions will have the receiver core of Charles Rogers, Mike Williams, and Roy Williams. This upcoming season again rests on Joey Harrington. He must perform well if they want to have a good team. We just have to wait and see how he performs.

Quick Notes

The Pistons start the playoffs tomorrow against the Sixers. The Pistons won the final 11/12 games of the season to finish with 54 wins and the second seed in the East. I think the Pistons will easily beat the Sixers. The Pistons are just too good for the Sixers. This series should be over in about 5 games.

The Lions have the 10th pick in the NFL Draft tomorrow. They might trade their pick but I am not sure. The Lions had one of their best drafts ever last year and that trend should hopefully continue tomorrow.

Ordonez out 4-6 Weeks

Magglio Ordonez is going to be out for the next 4-6 weeks due to a hernia. This will really hurt the already struggling Tigers. Ordonez has barely played this year as the Tigers are just 3-7 on the young season. The Tigers signed Ordonez counting on the fact that he would be healthy for most of the season. This is just another frustrating thing that the Tigers have to deal with. We will see how they respond to this injury over the next few weeks.

Quick Tigers Update

After the first 6 games of the season, the Detroit Tigers stand at 3-3. The Tigers' pitching has been either their strength or their weakness in almost every game so far. Their pitching has to be solid if they want to have a strong season. The Tigers' hitting has been strong so far as expected. Detroit has already scored 40 runs so far this season. Their bats should be lighting it up all season.

Dmitri Young is having a strong season so far. He has scored 9 runs and has 7 RBIs. He is batting .375 on the season. After a season of being injured he looks to be back into his allstar form.

New Tiger Magglio Ordonez has started the season a bit rough. Due to sickness he has missed 4 games already.

The Magic Number is Four Games

The Detroit Pistons have to win only 4 more games (there are only 8 games left) to clinch their division. The Pistons' record stands at 47-27; the next closest team is the Chicago Bulls(42-32).

If the Pistons clinch their division, which it appears that they will, they will be the number 2 seed in the East. The Miami Heat will be the first seed in the East. The Pistons will probably play the Cavaliers, Sixers, or Pacers.

The Pistons have been playing strong lately, winning their last 4 games. They need to keep playing good as they head into the playoffs. I am fully expecting them to have another long playoff run.

An Opening Day Win

The Tigers started the season on Monday with a huge 11-2 win over the Kansas City Royals.

Dmitri Young had one of the biggest opening day games of all time. He hit 3 homeruns; becoming the first Tiger to ever hit 3 homeruns on opening day and just the third player in major league history to hit 3 homeruns on opening day.

Jeremy Bonderman struck out seven and allowed six hits and one earned run in seven innings to get the opening day victory.

This game had the largest crowd in Comerica Park history (44,105).

This was a great start to the season. The MLB season is very long but this game should be a sign of great things to come for the Tigers.

Season Preview

The Detroit Tigers start the 2005 MLB season on Monday. The Tigers come into this season with great anticipation of having a chance to compete for the weak American League Central title.

Two seasons ago the Tigers finished with a 43-119 record, one of the worst records of all time. They had such a bad season that they could not really get any worse. Over the offseason they signed allstar catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez along with other good players such as Rondell White and closer Ugueth Urbina. The Tigers also traded for shortstop Carlos Guillen. The Tigers went into the season much improved. They won 72 games, 29 more wins than the previous season. The Tigers' record not only improved but some of their younger players improved also. Pitcher Mike Maroth went from a 9-21 season to a 11-13 season. Pitcher Jeremy Bonderman went from a 6-19 season to a 11-13 season. The biggest surprise of last season was how Carlos Guillen made the allstar game. Last season he hit 20 homers, had 97 RBIs, and batted .318. Another surprise we saw was how Brandon Inge stayed on the team, after the Tigers signed Pudge, and had a good season. Last season was fun to watch because the Tigers were actually competitive. They were above the 500 winning percentage for parts of the season. They were not the laughing stock of baseball. They could have maybe finished above 500 but they were not able to accomplish that goal.

Over this past offseason the Tigers went after almost every big name free agent on the free agent market but every single one of them turned down the Tigers. The Tigers finally signed outfielder Magglio Ordonez to a 5 year deal worth 75 million. Ordonez was the last big name free agent on the market. Many people thought this was a dumb signing because Ordonez is getting older and because he was injured for most of last season. The Tigers also signed closer Troy Percival. Percival had 33 saves last season with the Angels. He has always been a good closer throughout his career. The Tigers lost a lot of one run games last season and signing Percival was a very smart signing. The Tigers also traded for relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth. Farnsworth is known for his 100 MPH fast ball. He is a solid relief pitcher and he should help out the Tigers' bullpen.

The Tigers should be awesome on offense this season. They have a lot of players who can hit. Carlos Pena, Ivan Rodriguez, Carlos Guillen, Craiq Monroe, Dimtri Young, Rondell White, and Magglio Ordonez are all capable of hitting 20 homeruns or more. Brandon Inge and Omar Infante both improved greatly last season at the plate. Inge and Infante should be able to do even better this season. The Tigers no longer have Alex Sanchez to be their first bat in the lineup because they released him a few weeks ago. They will have to figure out who to put at the top of the lineup for the season. I think the Tigers will be able to produce a lot of runs this season and have one of the best offense's in baseball.

The Tigers should be able to score a lot of runs this season but they will also need to have a good defense if they want to win a lot of games this season. The Tigers' first four starting pitchers will be Jeremy Bonderman, Jason Johnson, Nate Robertson, and Mike Maroth. On how well those four pitch will most likely determine whether the Tigers compete or not for the division title. Bonderman is coming off a solid season and many believe he is a future allstar. Johnson is coming off a bad season and he needs to pick it up this season. Robertson had a very good season last year going 12-10. Robertson hopefully should be even better this season. Maroth is another young pitcher the Tigers have that shows some potential. The bullpen should be much better this year with the signings of Percival and Farnsworth. The bullpen needs to pitch good to help support the starting pitchers.

This is the most excited many Tigers' fans have been about the start of a season in a long time. Some fans are even expecting them to win their division. I think the Tigers will win about 85 games and finish in second place behind the Twins. I do not think the Tigers will make the playoffs. They will be fun to watch but I think they are a year away from winning the Central division or making the playoffs as the wild card. However, I hope I am wrong and I hope the Tigers do make the playoffs. They have a good team and they definitely have a shot to make the playoffs in the weak Central division. Opening day is on Monday and that is when we can start to see how good the Tigers of 05 actually are.