Fan News

Let the Matt Holliday free agent speculation begin. From Buster Olney:

"But I'll venture a guess (and it's nothing more at this point): Holliday winds up signing with the Angels, effectively replacing Vladimir Guerrero within their salary structure."

Now comes the obvious question: could it actually happen?

Sure, the Mets are out of it. Everyone has been injured. The manager is still a disaster, and there is still no obvious plan in place going forward. So what should we watch when we’re drawn in to watching baseball? What should we be rooting for?

Big news this week as Spot Starters favorite, Derek Jeter, tied Lou Gehrig for the most hits ever in a Yankees uniform with 2,721 hits. 

That’s an impressive total and Jeter and Gehrig each had phenomenal careers.  Gehrig is in the Hall of Fame and Jeter is as close to a Hall of Fame lock as you can find.  However, did you know that three Tigers had more hits wearing the Old English D as Jeter and Gehrig have had in Pinstripes.

Here’s the rundown on the Tigers all-time hits leaders.  Just for fun.

Notable nattering nabob of the Detroit Free Press Drew Sharp recently took a break from his negativity to proclaim Tigers manager Jim Leyland as the easy pick for American League Manager of the Year.

When Sharp writes, I instinctively believe exactly the opposite.

But maybe he's on to something.

Leyland won the award in 2006. In just his first year in Detroit, he guided the Tigers from perennial bottom-feeder to their first playoff appearance since 1987.

Brad Lidge continues to struggle on the mound for the Phillies, and that doesn’t make for a good situation as the Phillies make their inevitable entrance into the postseason this year.

But to be honest this is par for the course for Lidge.

Historically, the past four years to be exact, Lidge has been a big up-and-down guy, which is probably one of several reasons why Houston traded him away.

You know the Toronto Blue Jays are having a bad season when they start shattering records for attendance, but not in the good way. This week had two of the lowest attended games in Blue Jay history as Toronto squared off against the Minnesota Twins.

The onset of the NFL season has pretty much insured that only the hardiest of Jays fans are still paying attention. Personally, I've done my best impression of a corpse just trying to find something to write about. It's like trying to get a straight answer from Elton John (he's gay).

Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about the emergence of Miguel Montero. 

We’ve talked about how he’s helped to save many fantasy owners, especially those in two catcher formats, as top level catchers have either missed time or fallen flat in 2009.  What we haven’t done is dig into his success and determine if he has a chance to repeat it for the final few weeks of this season and into 2010.

First, let’s take a look at his line so far:

The Cubs have a dilemma.

As the offseason approaches, General Manager Jim Hendry faces a number of difficult decisions about the future of his team. The 2009 team has a number of weaknesses, and the ability to throw money at the problem, even if he indeed has that ability, will not count for much.

Some of the additions he will need to make to make the Cubs competitive in 2010 will be by subtraction.

Angel Pagan’s production has far exceeded expectations this season.  He’s batting .313 in 67 starts with 6 home runs and 28 RBI mostly hitting out of the lead off spot.  He’s played mostly solid defense in center field while filling in for one of the best center fielders in the game in Carlos Beltran.  He’s been one of the few bright spots on the team this season.

Sparky Anderson was miserable.

Sleepless nights. Constant worry. Fear of being strung up on the center field flagpole at Tiger Stadium (no joke). Ghoulish thoughts of bitter disappointment.

Yep, the Tigers’ 1984 World Championship season almost wrecked the team’s manager.

The ‘89 season of 103 losses almost wrecked him too. When Sparky took a few weeks off during the season due to mental exhaustion he said: “I ain’t never lost no 100 games before.”

But 1984? It was nearly poison to him.