Miguel Cabrera

The Detroit Tigers are coming off of a heart-breaking finish to their 2009 season. After squandering away the division lead to the Minnesota Twins, they lost a one-game playoff to them and missed the playoffs entirely.

The Tigers now seem focused on shredding payroll heading into the 2010 season. Edwin Jackson and Curtis Granderson have both been mentioned as possibly being on the move to lower a payroll that already sits at well over $100 million between just 10 players.

For Latinos living in the United States it is fiesta time.

This week it just started the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

As is the case every season, the official announcement of the rosters for the All-Star game has created some controversy.

The fans and players votes have been tallied and some glaring omissions need to be mentioned.

So without further adieu, let's take a look at the five biggest All-Star game snubs of 2009.

By Derek of The Sportmeisters

Another week of baseball in the books means another Winners, Losers, and Waiver Wire Wonders blog from the fantasy guru. Keep in mind, the stats I show are the players stats for the week, not on the season. Let’s go!

The Minnesota Twins have spent most of June slowly gaining ground on the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central.

Early next month, the Twins could quickly gain ground on the rest of the Major League Baseball when it comes to high-profile international signings.

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.

Buster Olney of ESPN made this comment on Mike and Mike in the Morning, an ESPN morning radio program: "If the Detroit Tigers are out of the playoff race early this season, look for them to trade Miguel Cabrera to the Red Sox, since the Red Sox are one of the few teams that could take on a large salary."

Cabrera is in the second year of an eight-year, $153 million deal. His annual salary ranges from $15 million to $22 million a year.

For the throngs of Tiger fans and critics alike, today's game was for you. 

For the talking heads and assorted prognosticators who have predicted another disappointing season in Detroit, today's game was for you.

For those who called for Jim Leyland to run for governor three years ago and are now calling for his head, today's game was for you.

And for those that think the city of Detroit is a walking corpse, today's game was for you.

At no time over the past couple seasons have the Tigers needed a victory more. 

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.