Season Update

The expectations for the Mid Michigan Tigers in 2011 were pretty low amongst most of the "experts" but so far they have defied the odds and pulled out a 7-5 win in Week 1 over the Dallas Redbirds and followed that up with a 9-2-1 win over North Texas with both teams being projected as preseason playoff teams. The result is a spot at the top of the Great Lakes Division after 2 weeks of play. We have been very happy with our SP as we have gotten pretty much what we expected from the big guys and also some solid efforts from the bottom of the rotation guys. The offense was sluggish in week 1 beyond Cabrera but Week 2 created much more optimism as Berkman went off big and Bourn looked to be turning things around as well. We can only hope these guys can continue to hit decent all year as beyond Miggy we could have problems in the production numbers if we don't get solid numbers from them. We still have a few guys scuffling and if Jackson & McGehee as well as a couple others get things straightened out our offense could be ok. If our pitching staff stays healthy we believe we only need to get decent numbers from the offense in order to win each week but could look to add a bat or 2 if needed especially if the back end pitchers pitch well and create an overload of good pitchers to use in trades. There is a long way to go in the season but for now there is once again optimism running high in Mid Michigan.

Tigers make early moves at Winter Meetings

Well after solidifying the bullpen with Cordero and adding another solid bat to the lineup in Berkman the Tigers are still looking to possibly make other moves. Ownership has been looking at the possibility of trading down in the first round if the move made sense as well as possibly adding another player through trade. With three 3-yr spots still open they have talked about looking to add another 3-yr player if there was one available who would fit the Tigers need for the upcoming season. With the #2 overall pick they know they can get an impact player who would most likely fill one of those 3-yr spots. Early pre-season rumors have them taking Matt Kemp with the pick but who knows? Anyone with any interest in trading for the #2 pick or who has a 3-yr player that they are looking to move as well as any other offers can email the Tigers directly. After last year's disappointing season ownership is demanding better results from the team and no possible move will be turned down without close inspection on it's impact on the 2011 team.

2011 Preview

After a disappointing 2010 season in which we believed we were capable of making the playoffs and a serious run at the championship we were left licking our wounds and sitting in the lottery with what looked like a very solid lineup. Going into 2011 we will have a nucleus of C-Ianetta (who really needs to live up to the hype that got him a contract to begin with) 1B - Cabrera (MVP candidate) OF - Bourn & Garrett Jones and a decent SP trio in Lackey, Lee & Danks with RP Guerrier & Brian Wilson in the bullpen. With a top pick it looks as if we will be able to get more offensive firepower although a definite choice has not been determined at this point. Could look to trade down in the draft depending on what is offered but obviously it would take quite a bit especially if we end up with the top pick. We will probably try to be quite active in the Winter Meetings especially with Broskey back as there is bound to be some crazy offers flying around :)

We also want to welcome all the other new members and wish them good luck!

Season Update....

Well it was a disappointing first week in which we lost to the Brewers 7-5. This was fairly concerning as the Brewers were expected to be a fairly weak team this season. A closer look at the numbers reveals that we just hit the Brewers at the wrong time as we had 39-11-44-6-28 .317 for offensive numbers yet lost 3 of the categories and how do you get 6 wins with a 5+ ERA? yet the Brewers managed it.

In week 2 we did what was expected by putting a hurt on the instate rival Miracles 10-2 as they had a pretty poor week in all respects. A closer look at these numbers shows we got lucky to play this team on a bad week as our numbers were down across the board. We will need numbers a lot closer to week 1 offensively if we want to compete with the Columbus lineup.

Week 3 update: As of Thursday's games we were down 9-3 with even the Stuff's pitching chipping in for some categories. Fortunately we are still in most of the categories and still have a shot to grab some offensive categories and grab back some pitching categories to try and at least pull off a tie against one of the better teams in the league and prove to ourselves we belong at the top of the league somewhere and not in the bottom half.

Time will show where we really belong.