Everyone's Favorite Tiger (?)

In the past two years of collecting baseball cards and mostly Detroit Tigers cards at that I have finally added a Brandon Inge autograph. It comes from the 2001 Fleer Showcase set. Inge spent part of 12 of his 13 seasons with the Detroit Tigers before him and the Tigers cut ties with each other. Playing mostly third base for the Tigers Inge showed signs early on in his career as a fan favorite with his flashy leather and occasional pop at the plate. Towards the end of his stay in Detroit, many fans would feel frustrated with him at the plate where his average would slowly slip below the Mendoza line.

At the end of his career with the Tigers Inge would post a slash line of .234/.304/.387 with 140 home runs. In 2006 and 2009 he would have his career best of 27 home runs and even made the 2009 All Star game. He would also be selected for the Home Run Derby that year, but failed to hit one out of the park. Love him or hate him he will always be remembered by fans who grew up watching the Tigers during his stay in Detroit.

Off-season additions

The Detroit Tigers had a few holes to fill on their team this off-season. With Dave Dombrowski out of the picture as the GM and Al Avila stepping in he had some work to do. The Tigers do have the pleasure of having one of the greatest owners in all of sports in Mike Ilitch who isn't afraid to spend money.

The biggest need this off-season was fixing the horrific bullpen and Avila wasted no time on doing that. On November 18th the Tigers sent a pair of minor league prospects to the Brewers for Francisco Rodriguez. K-Rod is best known for setting the single season save record back in 2008 with 62 saves for the Los Angeles Angels. Over his career he has posted a career ERA+ of 156 with 386 saves.

The other need for the Tigers was to bolster their starting rotation. This off-season there were many good pitchers to pick from guys like David Price to low risk high reward guys like Doug Fister. I personally thought that the Tigers might go somewhere more in the middle with signing two guys, but instead they signed one of the top free agent pitchers, Jordan Zimmermann. He should slide into the number two spot right behind Justin Verlander in the rotation. He is a guy who can give you 200 innings year with an ERA+ of 118.

These were the two bigger moves of Avila this off-season. As it looks right now the Tigers should be pretty set with the other moves they have made and I personally think Avila had a good first off-season as the GM of the Detroit Tigers.

Buy Low, Sell High

It has been awhile since I have wrote about baseball and baseball cards on my blog. In the past week I have added a few more cards to my collection. I will start with my Victor Martinez lot that I bought off ebay for under $10. After getting the cards and going through what all I received I thought it was a pretty good purchase. It is a perfect example of collecting a player after he has had a down year. V-Mart battled injuries all season and had one of his worse season to date. I believe a healthy Martinez next year will be back to the .300 hitter with 15 home runs and 80 RBIs. Let's take a look at the cards that I received.

These two cards were the only ones that I knew where part of the deal. It was V-Mart lot and had both cards listed and said with extra V-Mart cards. The first card is from the 2011 Topps 60 relic set part of series 1 for that year. It is of V-Mart with the Boston Red Sox honoring his 2010 season when he lead the league with a .400 batting average against left handed pitching. The second card is from the 2015 Topps Stadium Club set. The member only stamp means it is a short print card and is one of 7 cards. Two really cool cards and I would have been happy to with both of them for $10, but there was more.

The lot also included a gold and purple parallel cards, a card /50 and a insert card honoring his first home run on September 29th, 2002. I also had some base cards to go with these 6 cards. All in all I was pretty impressed with all of the cards I received for a good buy.

A buy like this makes me think that collecting cards is somewhat like the stock market, you try to buy while the players value is low and sell them when their value high. I will probably not be looking to move these cards, because V-Mart is one of my favorite players, but I will continue to look for good buys.

#MyCardMonday

With the regular season wrapping up this past weekend the Detroit Tigers did end on a high note. They beat the Chicago White Sox 6-0 with only giving up 3 hits, the young guys looked good with their hustle on Sunday, and Miguel Cabrera claimed his 4th batting title in 5 years.

In honor of Miggy winning another batting title I figured I would share another one of his cards for #MyCardMonday. This bat relic comes from the 2013 Topps Tier One set. This is my one and only bat relic that I have of Miggy and thought it was fitting for today.

Even the back of the card is pretty cool talking about Miggy's Triple Crown season of 2012 when he drove in 139 runs. The team had produced 726 runs that season. He drove in 19.15 percent of the runs that year which is the highest for a player whose team made the playoffs that year. He broke Johnny Bench of the Reds 1970 record of 19.10 percent.

Tigers vs. Twins 9/27/2015

Yesterday for my birthday I was able to spend the day down in Detroit watching the Tigers play the Twins thanks to my girlfriend. The Tigers had one bad inning that lead to the loss. It has been a rough season, but either way I cannot complain about spending my birthday watching the team that I love so much. I did have great seats right behind home plate which made it even better.

Sorry for my chicken scratch, but this is the scorecard from the game. If you look at (Bryon) Buxton last at bat for day in the 8th inning you will see that he hit a solo shot home run. This would be the first of his career. Pretty cool to be able to say that I saw the #1 prospect in all of baseball going into this season hit his first career home run. Check out the video below to watch it.

Take out the 2nd inning for the Tigers and they would have been right in the game. Randy Wolf the starting pitcher got shelled in that inning. It was base hit after base hit for him. Kyle Ryan came in next and looked pretty good outside of the two walks of his. I didn't take a lot of photos but I will share the couple that I did take below.

Through Detroit they have giant bobble heads of different Tigers, Lions, Red Wings, and Pistons. The Victor Martinez was at the stadium and the first one I saw. They did give away normal size bobble heads of Anibal Sanchez, but only to 14 years and younger.

To give you an idea of how close my seats where to the game I took a few pictures. Starting at the top with Rookie of the Year candidate Miguel Sano, former Tigers right fielder, Torii Hunter, and the generation player in my current generation, Miguel Cabrera.

The Tigers lost 7-1 to close out there home schedule. This has been a disappointing season, but with injuries to several key players hurt the Tigers a lot this season. It also forced the team to trade top players away to build for the future. Staying positive for next season!

#MyCardMonday

Last night Torii Hunter launched his 350th home run of his career and I couldn't think of a better ball player to do a #MyCardMonday then Hunter. Being a Tigers fan I have had a lot of chances to watch him play when he started his career in Minnesota to him playing for the Tigers for two years after he left the Angels and now that he is back with the Twins. Hunter has to be one of the most liked guys in the game. He always plays with a smile and always gives it his all.

In his two years in Detroit he batted .295/.327/.456 with an OPS+ of 115. His defensive had taken a step back from his early years when he won 9 straight gold gloves from 2001-2009. Along with his 9 gold gloves and 350 home runs he has 2,435 and counting hits in his 19 year career. He has been selected to 5 all star games and won two silver sluggers. At the end of his career I believe Hunter will be a borderline Hall of famer. 350 home runs and 9 gold gloves is nothing to go unnoticed on his resume. I would give him the nod if I had the vote.

#MyCardMonday

#MyCardMonday goes out to the 2014 Topps Series 1 Justin Verlander Rookie All-Stars. I love this card and I love the fact that I pulled it out of a box myself. It is really thick card featuring the Topps All-Star Rookie award. JV has battled back to his all star form this year and I thought this would be a fitting card for today.

This time last year Justin Verlander was struggling on the mound and probably was our fifth best pitcher on the team. Now after having core muscle surgery in the off-season and finally making it back to the team healthy he is showing his dominance once again. In his last start he took a no hitter into the 9th before giving up his first. He would finish the inning out with leaving the runner stranded. I really think JV never lost anything after his past 8 starts it was all a matter of dealing with the core muscle injury and getting healthy. With our bullpen in shambles and our starting rotation struggling, JV is one of the bright spots for the team right now. He takes the mound again tomorrow night against Johnny Cueto and the Royals. Should be a good pitching match up with those two on the mound.

#MyCardMonday: Justin Verlander

I have been doing a #MyCardMonday for awhile now and I really never have talk much about the card that I have posted, but more about the player that is featured on the card. Well today the card and the reason why I picked the card goes hand in hand. I will do my best to explain why I picked this card over the other ones I could choose from.

For starters I have a few of different relic cards of Justin Verlander that I could have picked from, but this one was sitting on my kitchen table and its from this years Topps Series. The relics and even the autographs even the set features a feat from the player on the card. In Verlander case it features the 24 wins he posted in his Cy Young/ MVP season of 2011.

Now the second part of why I picked Verlander and the reason why I picked this card is to talk about how much better Verlander has pitched as of late and why wins for pitchers are pretty much a pointless stat.

Verlander last season had one of his worst seasons, but was dealing with a core muscle injury. He started this season on the DL and has only made 11 starts so far this season and has an ERA of 4.11. Now if you look at his last 7 starts he is 1-3 with a 2.85 ERA and a WHIP of 1.01 while only walking 7 batters and striking out 42. Now if you watch Verlander pitch or only look at his starts the record and the rest of his stats do not go together. The Tigers have average 2.71 runs per game during those 7 starts of his and even his win the final score was 2-1. It just goes to show the the number of wins and losses for a pitcher does not tell the whole story on how the pitcher is actually pitching.

Collecting the Tigers: Daniel Norris

The key piece to the David Price trade was the top 25 prospect, Daniel Norris. Norris has a lot of potential and in his first 3 starts give the Detroit Tigers a glimpse into what the future might hold for the Tigers and Norris. In his 3 starts he has had one good outing, one bad outing, and one okay outing. Last night Ausmus left him in the game in 6th (I believe could be the 5th) and he was able to get out of the jam. He seems to be attacking the strike zone with averaging just over 52 strikes thrown out of the 87 pitches a game he has averaged. It is hard to really get into his stats this early into his career with the Tigers, but from  what I have seen I like what the future could hold for Norris. Only 22 years old he has plenty room to grow and with him making plays like this below it will be fun to watch him pitch.

#MyCardMonday: Placido Polanco

As a Detroit Tigers fan everyone knows that 2006 was a magical season for the Tigers. To me it was the season that turn the Tigers into one of the worse teams of the decade into a team that showed they could compete. We all know that season was capped with a World Series run. Out of all of the players on that team, Placido Polanco was probably my favorite player out of them all.

Saturday night I was watching the Tigers pregame show and they were talking with Polanco before he was honored during the game. They were celebrating the 10th anniversary of Fiesta Tigres which honors Latin-American ball players. Polanco spent five seasons in Detroit as our second basemen and our number 2 hitter in the lineup. As a hitter I cannot think of anyone who was better then Polanco batting second. He wasn't a power guy, but he could move the runner over and hit for average (.311 as a Tiger) along with getting a walk (.355 OBP). Defensively he was one of the best defenders in the game at second. He posted a career dWAR of 6.8 and won two gold gloves in Detroit. His defensive career is highlight by him setting the record of 144 straight games at second without an error.

In 2009 Polanco would reach free agency and would sign with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Tigers hoped that upcoming prospect Scott Sizemore could hold down second base for them. I thought they should have kept Polanco and have him work with Sizemore at second before letting he have full control. That didn't work out for the Tigers as plan. The Tigers didn't have a second basemen until they traded for Omar Infante in 2012.

Mail Day!: Ty Cobb

I have been really impressed with some of the commemorative cards that Topps put in their series 1 and 2 this year. They have honored players with a commemorative medallion celebrating their first home run and they have also issued a nice thick card with a commemorative bat knob.

Ty Cobb is one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game of baseball. There are not many people that are around that can say that they have seen him play in real life. I have enjoyed reading and learning about Cobb and he has became one of my favorite ball players. Here are a couple cards I picked up honoring Cobb.

On September 23rd, 1905 Ty Cobb would hit his first home run. He would hit a total of 117 in his career. Nowadays that doesn't sound like many home runs, but he did play during the dead ball era. His career high in a season was 12 which he did twice 1921 and 1925. 

This is one of my favorite cards in the series. It was part of series 2 and I did pull a Robinson Cano bat knob in my box. I have been looking for a bit to add a Ty Cobb commemorative bat knob card to my collection and I finally found one that I thought was a good deal and snagged it.

#MyCardMonday Thank you Yoenis Cespedes

I guess you could say this is a second part of my last blog post about David Price being traded away from Detroit. I will save my ramblings about why this was for the good of the team, because you can just go back to the last post to read that.

Yoenis Cespedes spent a half season with the Detroit Tigers before he was traded to the New York Mets for two prospects, Mike Fulmer and Luis Cessa. In the half season he spent in Detroit, Cespedes put of some of his best numbers yet as a major leaguer. He posted .293/.323/.506 with 18 home runs and 61 RBIs while having an OPS+ of 126. He was on pace to have his best season yet. I hope he finishes the season out strong for the Mets and maybe from the rumors (he has been telling friends and family that he would like to come back to Detroit) he will re-sign with the Tigers in the off-season. Either way thank you Cespedes for the exciting half season we were able to watch you play.

Thank You David Price

As a fan of baseball (or any sport) it can be hard to understand that sports are not just for our entertainment, but it is a business for the people who are directly involved with the game. We can get attached to players and not want to see them leave the team if is from free agency or via trade. For Detroit Tigers fans seeing star players such as David Price being traded away from Detroit can be especially hard with knowing that the team is (as Dave Dombrowksi stated) rebooting. In other words we are going from winning four straight Central Divisions title to missing the playoffs to build for the future.

David Price was only with us for half of last season and half of this season. I loved Price before he came to Detroit and I will continue to follow what he does afterwards. In his short period in Detroit he went 13-8 with a 2.90 ERA and 220 strikeouts. He posted a 136 ERA+ in the 32 starts he made for Detroit. With the Tigers trading Price to the Toronto Blue Jays they were able to get three prospects in returning, including a top 25 prospect, Daniel Norris. From the sounds of the trade, it was a win win for both sides. Thank you David Price for the great year that you spent in Detroit and good luck with your future.

Collecting Detroit Tigers: Victor Martinez

Out of everyone on the Detroit Tigers since 2011, Victor Martinez has been my favorite player. I really love how he is a fighter at the plate and rarely strikes out. He has came up clutch for the Tigers and has added much needed protection to Miguel Cabrera. One of my favorite cards of V-Mart's to collect is from the Topps Museum Collection. This card here is the quad relic from the 2015 series. I believe I added 3 or 4 of them from last year as well. Sometimes it is just white uniform pieces, but other times it has a pinstripe or part of the Old English D or the Detroit logo from an away jersey. All in all I tend to try to added a card or two now from this series.

I am glad to see V-Mart back in the lineup and producing. After coming back from the DL he has really swung the bat well for the Tigers. They need his bat while Miggy is on the DL. For the past month he has put up .285/.338/.455 with 4 home runs and 13 RBIs.

Collecting Detroit Tigers: Kevin Ziomek

Kevin Ziomek was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2013 First Year Player Draft out of Vanderbilt. In his first full season in professional baseball he would post a 10-6 record with a 2.27 ERA while striking out 152 batters and only walking 53. Going into this season according to mlb.com he is ranked 4th in the Tigers farm system.

Ziomek is a deceptive left hander with three solid pitches. His ceiling is as high as a 4th starter and could reach the majors by 2017. This season his ERA is up (4.17) but his strikeout to walk ratio is also up (91 strikeouts 24 walks) which shows good signs for the future.

All around good guy

On Saturday Minnesota Twins outfielder, Torii Hunter celebrated his 40th birthday. I was going to use one his cards for #mycardmonday, but being busy yesterday I didn't get around to it and I have some time today and thought I would share it.

Hunter seems like an all around good guy. He played two seasons in Detroit before heading back to the Twins where he started his career. He always seemed to have a smile on his face and is a good team leader in the clubhouse. It was fun watching him play in the Old English D. I don't know if any baseball fan can really hate him.

I really like this card that I picked up also. I first I thought cool it has a pinstripe on the jersey piece. Then thinking about it the Tigers don't have any uniforms with pinstripes that close to each other as you can see in the uniform in the picture on the card. Maybe it was part of an old Twins uniform? I did some research on what it could be from.

Detroit Tigers Negro League uniform is the only jersey that has pinstripes that I found. Makes the card even more cool to me.

The future or trade bait

At the half way point of the season the Detroit Tigers find themselves playing .500 ball. It has really been a roller coaster of a year. From every aspect of the game they have had both good and bad pitching, defense, and hitting. The Tigers have been all in the win it all the past few years and they are still claiming they are this year. With veteran players like David Price, Yoenis Cespedes, Joakim Soria, and Alex Avila due to be free agents after this season it is hard to say if they will be sellers or buyers at the trade deadline.

Steven Moya could possibly be used as trade bait or be our future corner outfielder next year. Cespedes to set to hit the free agent market this off season and with no clear signs of a contract extension he could easily walk, which means Moya could claim a corner outfield spot next year. If the Tigers are buyers again this year Moya could as be used as trade bait. He is our number 1 prospect and 81st overall according to mlb.com. Last season he broke out in Double A Erie while hiting .276/.306/.555 with 35 home runs 105 RBIs and 16 stolen bases. He can clearly hit for power, but does struggle with his strikeout to walk ratio. He only walked 23 times compared to striking out 161 times.

This year his numbers are down, but he has also battled injuries throughout the season. This is another problem he has faced throughout his career. It will be interesting to see what the Tigers do with Steven Moya. Either way he is can an exciting player to watch when healthy.

2015 Topps Series 2 Break Part 1

Last week I received my box for the 2015 Topps Series 2 and Archives. Today I thought I would start with the autograph and relic hits from the Topps Series 2. I have to say I was pretty pleased with my pulls from this box.

First up a Robinson Cano commemorative bat knob out of /99. I am not a huge Cano, but I really like this idea for a commemorative piece. I know it would be even cooler if it was a game used bat, but I still like the idea behind it. Probably going to try to add a player or two that I like to collect that is on this list for the bat knob.

I have had pretty good luck this year with pulling Detroit Tigers in the boxes that I have bought. A Nick Castellanos jersey relic honoring his 66 RBIs from his rookie year is pretty cool card to add to my growing collection of Castellanos cards.

What is better then pulling on a Detroit Tigers relic card, but pulling aDetroit Tigers autograph card also! Plus it is my new favorite player, rookie catcher James McCann. He has been playing well offensively and defensively this year. I love his snap throw back to first to try to catch the runner napping. Love adding McCann cards to my collection.

Tigers vs. Pirates Thursday July 2

I'm a little late with doing this post, but better late then never. Last Thursday I took in a Tigers game against the Pirates. I took my dad for his birthday and my sister who flew up from North Carolina. The game didn't go as plan with the Tigers losing 8-4. Kyle Ryan got the start for the Tigers, but ran into trouble with walking 5 batters. JD Martinez made it a game in the 8th with a 3 run home run, but the bullpen would let us down again. I might not be a good photographer but here are some of the photos I took at the game.

My dad and sister by the Mickey Mouse Detroit Tiger. Funny story with my sister she really isn't much into baseball especially when we were at Meijers the night before and she had a shirt in her hand that she liked but didn't want to buy a shirt with a player's name on the back that wasn't good. Yes, she had a Cabrera shirt in her hand.

An ugly swing, for $4 for 10 swings in the batting cage why not try my luck. Did make some contact even let the first pitch go when it was low and outside.

Bruce Rondon waving at the me (or the crowd in general) while walking back to the bullpen.

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Kyle Ryan and third basemen Nick Castellanos.

Miguel Cabrera at the plate. He went 1-2 with 3 walks on the day

My seat was close to the guy we should be voting in on the final vote, Yoenis Cespedes!

Not really one for selfies, but here is the photo of my dad, my sister, and me at the game.

Trade with The Snorting Bull

A couple weeks ago The Snorting Bull and I worked out a trade. Last week he posted the cards I had dealt to him. I received my cards this afternoon once my card mule (a.k.a. my mom) returned from her vacation visiting him my sisters and my nephew.

Both of my pick up come from the Topps Pro Debut series. First up is Detroit Tigers 2014 First Round Draft pick Derek Hill. The card features a commemorative pennant patch of the Detroit Tigers Single A team. Hill only being 19 years old still has a way to go to prove if he will live up to a first round draft pick. Excellent speed on the base path and a great defender in centerfield. The question will be the bat.

The second pick up for me is of the Washington Nationals top prospect Lucas Giolito. Same type of card as Hill's with the commemorative pennant patch. Giolito was the 16th overall pick in the 2012 draft for the Nationals. He is known for his command and his control on the mound. His fastball averages between 93-96 mph and has even touched triple digits. He could reach the majors as soon as next year. Definitely someone I will follow closely the rest of the year.