Season retrospective

[JNewton]

I got spoiled pretty fast after a decade of miserable baseball, but it's pretty dissapointing the Tigers aren't going to be participating in October. But it's tough to make the playoffs in MLB, and a lot of things just didn't go our way this season: All of the injuries (Kenny, Zoom, Sheff, etc.), the miserable intra-division record, the bullpen woes (how the hell did Jason Grilli last an entire season), and all of the blown leads. All in all, this season makes me more dissapointed last season's squad wasn't able to beat an inferior St. Louis team in the World Series, than I am of this year's effort. Them's the breaks.

But, we are still set up pretty nicely for the future. Hopefully next season we have better luck injury wise. Ilitch is willing to spend (unlike another certain owner in these parts), he went way over Selig's slot recommendation to sign Rick Porcello and has commented he will spend what is necessary to keep the team competitive. Hopefully we find a good SS for next year (no Ramon Santiago, as I have seen suggested in a few newspapers, please), Kenny Rogers comes back, and Maggs can repeat the awe-inspiring season he had this year. I feel pretty confident about next season.

[ajaX82]

Agreed, it was pretty dissapointing. But as you said the insane number of injuries and the bullpen being flat-out terrible didnt help. Verlander was our only consistent pitcher the entire year.

I'll be interested to see where Maybin ends up. AAA? The Bigs?

Maggs and Granderson really grew this year (especially Curtis). I think next year we have another great season to look forward to.

[Low-Ki]

I'm at peace with this season, our guys battled hard until the last game and overcame a lot. Sure it would have been great to be in the playoffs, but it wasn't meant to be. Rogers was out most of the season, as was Zumaya, I believe Bonderman was pitching injured a lot of the second half and missing Sheff cost us as well.

Today was a great game, even if it was the last one of the season with so many individual milestones being reached.

Ordonez wins the batting title, the first Tiger to do so in over 40 years. He sould finish second in MVP voting.

Lost in the Magglio storyline was Placido Polanco finishing 3rd in the batting race. Also he collected his 200th hit of the season today.

Carlos Guillen reached 100rbi for the first time in his career with his home run this afternoon.

Granderson's two hits guarenteed him to finish over .300 for the season. If the kid can ever figure out lefties he'll be a terror. Unfortunately Jimmy Rollins tripled today securing a 20-20-20-20 season as well, of course Grandy did it in about 150 less at bats.

Mike Rabelo hit his first major league homerun

Sean Casey got a base hit in his last at-bat as a Tiger.

[Master Shake]

I highly doubt Maggs and Polonco can duplicate what they did at the plate this year... I just don't see them hitting that amazing again... which is what makes me even more sad about this year. We couldn't take advantage of such amazing years that these guys had. I expect some kind of a drop off from them both, but they will still be all-stars.

Granderson maybe won't get a 20-20-20-20 again, but I expect even bigger things from him next year. All-star game for sure.

So many injuries is what killed us though, and Monroe and Inge were such huge parts to our success last year, and we practically got nothing from them this year. We obviously need a Left fielder in the worst way, and a shortstop. If we can get all-star caliber players at one of those positions, we'll be back in the playoffs for sure.

Something needs to be done about our youth, we probably have too many prospects, and need to turn them into a big name player.

I like Jurjjens, Maybin, Miller, and the pitcher we drafted this year. But we're gonna need to either fully committ to them or look to move them for solid veterans.

[JNewton]

Yeah, unfortunately it is pretty unrealistic to expect Maggs to do this again, but I think .300+, 20 HRs, and 100+ RBIs are well within his range for the next few years. You have to remember this was the first season since he's been here that he was at full health. However, I do think Polanco can put up similar numbers, he's been remarkably consistent since coming to this team.

What's interesting to me is that Knobler is saying the Tigers aren't bringing back Pudge. I gotta admit, the thought of Rabelo and Vance Wilson as everyday players isn't too appealing to me. Hopefully there's something up Dombrowski's sleeve, as there's nothing out there in the FA market to replace him with.

And there's no way Maybin breaks spring training with the big league team next year. He was completely lost after coming up in August, I have to imagine he'll spend most of next year in Toledo.

[Master Shake]

I'm wondering if they plan on making Raeburn into a full-time player next season. He was a real bright spot for us, and he could convert to play third full-time and we could trade Inge for... something of value?