Because He would have intervened.

(via FSD, messenger of broken dreams)

What a wild freaking week that was.

The Metrodome was every bit the house of horrors that we feared it would be. At least the Tigers were in position to win that series, it’s just that the Tigers bullpen decided to take a few minutes to be the Tigers bullpen. D-Train made his less-than-triumphant return, but it wasn’t as awful as we feared it would be. The Train threw strikes, got hit a good bit, didn’t make it five, but will live to fight another day. So, just as quickly as the Tigers dispatched the Indians via a road sweep, they were, in turn, swept by the Twins. And then the Tigers went home…

And proceeded to break out the beating sticks and teed off on Athletics pitching. Sweep – Get Swept – Sweep again. It’s a recipe for .500, and we’ve gotta do better than that folks. Thankfully, the rest of the AL Central is playing meh-level ball as well and our heroes find themselves in first place on this glorious Monday off. Best of all – The Big Tilde is heating up.  TBT went 8/25 last week with 5 RBI and got his average back up to .256.

Unfortunately, our titular hero is going to be taking some time off this week to be with the Lady Tilde while she has surgery. Best wishes to the Ordonez family this week.

The Rangers are in town starting tomorrow night – D-Train makes his home debut, y’all!

The man you see here to the right is Mr. Paul Schrieber. Family man. Lover. Sinner. Doer of things he should have done a long time ago. And a one-time transgressor of Notinaslump Ordoñez.

After calling out Tilde on strikes in the seventh inning, Mr. Schrieber forgot the cardinal rule: Touch Tilde Unlesseth Commanded To Touch. (For those interested, this is dogma derived from the Church Of Sexing Mutombo.) This touching, in turn, caused Jim Leyland to scream the tar out of his lungs, resulting in an ejection.

Well, before the Tilde Prophets could write letters excommunicating him from our upcoming picnic, Schrieber confessed his sins to the pertinent deity: “I should not have placed my hand on him. For doing so, I apologize to both Magglio Ordoñez and the Detroit Tigers.”

I have no idea how the game ended. In actuality the game ended the minute religious crimes were inflicted.

So, things are generally going well right now, no?

When we last spoke, right before the Yankees series, things were looking up as well. Then a couple of unspeakable seventh innings occured and things looked meh once again. However, over the last ten games, the Tigers are 6-4 and are currently sitting in first place at 17-13.  For twenty-six innings against the Indians, the Tigers allowed only ONE solitary run to score. And only three altogether after Fernando’s rough ninth inning.  Also, Friday night, this happened:

Curtis Makes Me Need To Change My Pants - Chuck Crow/AP

How about our front-two starters? Verlander has been untouchable in his last three. Jackson has been that way all season except for one inning versus New York. Porcello seems to be getting it together, although he was a little shaky at times this afternoon. Armando needs some straightening out after a glorious start to the season, though. And, we’re getting back our favorite (hopefully FORMER) trainwreck.

D-Train is back, y’all! After four minor league starts in which our hero managed to cut back on his wildness and strike some folks out, Dontrelle is back as the #4 (or is he #5?) starter and will make his debut against the Twins on Wednesday. And the Tigers will need that left-handed arm in the rotation considering the strong slate of lefty batters in the Central – especially in the Twins lineup. However, the Twins have had the Tigers number of late and I worry about a rough start. But, it’s now or never for Dontrelle. I think we’re all rooting for something to build on.

Tilde at Spring Training - Photo by Tony Dejak/AP

It’s been a rough go to 2009 for our titular Tilde. He had all of two extra-base hits going into this afternoon’s game and his average was floating around .230. After taking Saturday off, The Big Tilde made a triumphant return to the line-up and went 2/3 with his first double of the season, scored twice, and drew a walk. We still haven’t seen him driving it to the gaps like he has the past four seasons wearing the D, but this is Magglio we’re talking about. The march to .300 will continue, even if its beginning from the 6 spot instead of his traditional 3.

So, the State of The Tilde looks promising right now. The lineup shake-up has paid off thus far and a sweep of the Indians is always welcomed. The AL Central is wide open and this week’s three game set at Minnesota provides an opportunity to prove that the Tigers are ready to take on the challenge. It’s followed up by a nine-game homestand against Oakland, Texas, and Colorado – none of which are teams that should intimidate and provide an opportunity to get well above .500. There’s a lot to be excited about right now people – we’re rooting for a first place team, our star pitchers look dominant, our bats are swinging well enough, and The Big Tilde’s hair continues to flow freely in the breeze. Now, let’s get Dontrelle a win and get Bondo healthy and keep going after this thing.

After Bud Selig sent them to wander the West Coast and the Heartland for 10 days, the Tigers are returning home at long last today. And, for the next three days, the newest entrant in the Remove The Tigers From First So ESPN Can Make Stupid Trade Rumors Regarding Big And Mig Sweepstakes is….THE NEW YORK YANKEES.

That’s right. The greatest team ever. The Yankees. Now, I haven’t watched much baseball outside of the Tigers thus far, but I believe the Yankees and Red Sox have combined to start 35-5 and that tonight’s opposing pitcher, CC Sabathia is 4-0 with a 0.25 ERA and a WHIP of 0.30. Let’s all be very, very afraid and just accept the inevitable sweep.

Oh wait, the Yankees have pretty much the same record as the Tigers and Sabathia has pitched about the same as Verlander at this point in the season. Ok, so CC has a better ERA and has actually won a game, but Verlander has fallen victim to horrendous defense and a ridiculous strand rate in ‘09 to date. He’s gotta catch a break at some point, right?

Your match-ups for this series are:

• Verlander vs. Sabathia
• Jackson vs. Hughes
• Porcello vs. Chamberlin

Wednesday night’s game will be broadcast on ESPN, btw. For the first time this year, I’ll get to watch on a screen bigger than that of a MacBook. HUZZAH!

After this series, it’s thirteen straight games against division opponents, including eight of them on the road. These are the good times, people.

How ya feeling about these guys right about now?

Pretty good, right? The Tigers just went 5-4 on a 9 game road trip and played well enough to win at least a couple more of them as well. Best of all, the Fightin’ Tildes are now in possession of a one game lead in the AL Central. Thats the AL Central – FIRST TO 85 WINS IT!

As for the Big Tilde himself, well he’s had some issues at the plate thus far. Not so much with the hitting overall, although the average has taken quite a tumble over the past few days, but for the absolute lack of pop the in bat of TBT. It took until game number 17 for his first extra base hit to occur. Now, we know his slugging percentage took a healthy drop last year, but that had to be expected coming off of his insane 2007 season. Thankfully, as an exclamation point on Saturday’s win, Maggs finally got past first base with the single swing of his bat. We’ve got the first one out of the way, so we’ve got about 35 doubles and 20 more homers that need to start happening know.

YOUR BIG TILDE STAT LINE 2009 – .257/.350/.300 with 7 RBI and a solitary HR.

YOUR BIG INGY STAT LINE 2009 – .323/.432/.694 with 17 RBI and 7 HR.

That last bit was posted just because its really unreal how good of a start BInge is off too.

The inevitable fire sale has been going on for quite some time, and the centerpiece of all that has been His Tildeness. He was supposed to be traded, like, eight times to seven different teams in the last year, if you believe everything you hear. And if you’re that gullible, when are you going to pay me back that ten bucks?

Anyways, if the Tigers are flat out of the race, you’re going to be haring a lot of teams wanting to claim ownership to our bloggable inspiration. Take it away, James Schmehl! Schmimazehl! Hassenpfeffer Incorporated!

Ordonez is guaranteed $18 million this year and has vesting options for 2010 and 2011. A strong selling point is that he has limited no-trade protection. But unless the Tigers are willing to work with teams to take on part of his contract, I don’t see much trade value.

First of all, MLive, if you’re on a Mac, it’s option+n and then another “n.” Use the tilde and use it well. Secondly, of course teams want him. Who wouldn’t love to trade for a God among men? Rarely can you find a divine force teams are willing to part with.

When all is said and done and baseball is extinct and replaced with a version featuring robots and large-breasted blonde women, there will still be Magglio Ordoñez on the Detroit Tigers, a team that no longer exists. By then his average will be slightly less than it is today, in his prime. I’m going with .326.

Tonight, in Lakeland, one of our favorite baseball players ever (non-Tilde’d edition) took another shot at redeeming his career.

Take a Ride on the D-Train!

This was Dontrelle’s line:

7 IP 8 H 2 ER 2 K 0 BB

No, it’s not overly impressive, considering he was facing Class A hitters and we need Dontrelle to baffle MLB hitters. But there is a lot of good that lies beyond the basic box score.

First things first – Dontrelle did not walk a single batter. And he pitched 7 full innings. WITH NO WALKS. He threw strikes and pitched to contact and did a fine job of it. For three innings, his first trip through the order, the Train was unhittable. No hits, no walks, 2 K. From that point on, he was a little more human.

One run in the fourth, another in the fifth, and then a two run homer in the sixth. Take away that homer and you’ve got yourself a pretty damn good overall line. Alas, we can’t take it away, but it was one of only a handful of balls that got into the air.

The most amazing stat of all, and the one that is tucked away, is the fact that Dontrelle had an insane groundball to flyball ratio of 16:3 for his outs. He was throwing strikes and he was keeping them low. No wildness, just an ability to locate the strike zone.

Having only the box score to work off of, I have no idea what kind of pitches Dontrelle was throwing nor what kind of velocity and break his pitches had. We already know that Leyland was extremely pleased with Dontrelle’s extended spring training outing. There seems to be a lot of positive to believe in from tonight’s game in Lakeland.

The Tigers have 30 days to figure out what they are doing with Dontrelle and hopefully Day 1 of his rehab assignment was a step north towards the Train returning both to Detroit, and to form.

Doin’ a little West Coast swing…

Sorry to disappear on you for a few days, but real life has been kinda busy. Anyway, while I was out, the Tigers up and decided to take 2 out of 3 in Seattle to improve to 7-5 and remain in a tie for first place in the AL Central. Dreamboat Rick got his very first win and a shaving cream pie to the face, Verlander looked awesome for 6/7ths of his appearance, and E-Jax (Made in Germany, So You Know He’s Good) was dominant yet again. Folks, the pitching staff is starting to look like it might just be alright. In fact, when you look at the next three matchups against the Los Angeles California Angels of Anaheim Stadium DisneyWorld Land of the Lost -San Luis Obispo, you have to like the odds.

Tuesday

Say hello to my Little Cat. Armando has been beyond stout thus far and going against Jared Weaver you have to like our chances.

Wednesday

Verlanderlay Industries FTW.

Thursday

These are the Jax arms that Farnsworth has been wanting for the past several years,

My prediction? SWEEEEEEEEP.

But I’ll happily take 2-1.

The Big Tilde is finally going deep this series, too. It has been written, so shall it be done.

Unlike Allen Q. “Chuckles” Iverson, Magglio Ordoñez is above such mortal feats of redundancy. But he humors the populous by partaking in it anyway. Jason Beck, the prophet to His Tildeness, is there with a stylus of pure ivory. (And a skosh of ink.)

“It’s very interesting, from an untrained eye, to look at him and go, ‘That’s the worst BP I’ve ever seen in my life,’ ‘” Brandon Inge said.

HOW DARE ONE QUESTION THE UNQUESTIONABLE QUESTIONS OF …

“But I’m telling you, it’s very calculated. He just gets his bat down on a plane, keeps his hands through, and he hits foul balls over there.”

If Tilde wants to hit foul balls, he will. If Tilde wants to strike out, to make fans feel bad about not paying convenience fees for their tickets, he will.

The story goes onto say that he’ll hit any ball — whether it’s thrown, placed on a tee, cooked in a quiche, and even imaginary baseballs — and drive it to any part of the field. This, of course, is something we already knew.

Take it home, blogger nerd:

“The only bad thing that it has done,” Granderson said, “is it doesn’t give him the credit of as good of a hitter as he is, because his power numbers go down a little bit. But in situational hitting, he’s one of the best guys, I think, in the big leagues.”

I have no problem in believing that Cabrera’s on-base percentage, Inge’s power surge, and Gerald Laird’s ability to impersonate somebody other than Gerald Laird is all related to Magglio Ordoñez showing them how it’s done in batting practice. He’ll hit a baseball directly into the gut of Ramon Santiago, for example, and he shall be imbued with the ability to hit bases-clearing doubles. Shall the recipient of the BP line drive be not worthy, he will be instantly designated for assignment and play for, perhaps, the Astros.