Magglio Ordonez

Welcome to Rudy Dominick & Johnny Lawrence's Week 13 installment of Detroit Tigers information and analysis. 

Each Thursday, we will delve into all things Tigers. Read and digest, or skim and spit out our insightful banter.

Keep An Eye On

Robbie Weinhardt, Relief Pitcher—Erie Sea Wolves (AA)

(Season @ Single-A Lakeland)

1-0, 31.2 IP, 24 H, 30 K, 0.85 ERA.

I have had it with Magglio Ordonez.

Okay, I should preface this by saying how much I appreciate what Ordonez has meant to my beloved Detroit Tigers and the fans in general. 

Maggs signed with us when we were still a losing franchise without a lot of promise.  Sure, we may have overpaid for the then injured slugger, but he still had to sign the contract and we all were grateful.

After an early injury scare (sports hernia) kept him sidelined from the outset of his Tigers tenure, he eventually hit the field and tore the league apart in the process.

The Detroit Tigers are one of the hottest teams in baseball and are currently in first place in the American League Central Division. After being a major disappointment last year, not much was expected out of them in 2009.

This a group still has a large part of the nucleus that was in the World Series three years ago, but are they for real?

Looking at some of the players they have and the division they are in, I think they are definitely contenders.

Well today I am going to look at five individual players that you should consider dropping or trading as of now. There are obviously more than five struggling players, but these are five individual choices of mine. There will be a slideshow like this every other week which will run down the five worst players of the week, but here are five players you do not want on your fantasy team as of today.

There will also be a Top 5 regarding the Best Players coming out on Monday.

As the first month of baseball comes to a close, the Tigers look like the team who could win the Central Division.

At this point, though, anyone could win it. With Chicago and Kansas City both producing good records right now, either team could take over the top spot.

Kansas City will fall off, just like surprising teams early in the year often do.

The end of April will start my monthly installment of who I think are the Tigers' pitching and batting MVP's.

Pitching MVP: Armando Gallaraga

In the current economic slump, only the New York Yankees seem to be unfazed by it. A very cavalier off season for the Yankees saw them heap nine-figure contracts upon Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia. Throw in another 80+ million dollars for A.J. Burnett, plus the bloated contracts of Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter, and the Yankees, again, will wear the crown for largest payroll in Major League Baseball.

In the interest of full disclosure, Justin Verlander and Gary Sheffield destroyed my fantasy team last year. Verlander was the second pitcher I drafted (after Aaron Harang—ouch), and all I needed from Sheff was one decent run at the end of the season to take my opening round playoff series. Swing and a miss on both counts.

Consequently, the residual bitterness may creep into this preview of the 2009 Detroit Tigers. Don't say I didn't warn you.