#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.

Happy first day of Spring Training!

Today is the first day of official spring training for baseball. Pitchers and catchers report today and the rest of the team will report on Monday. Up in Alpena, MI it is a nice brisk -4 degrees, but it feels like a -17 degrees outside. Needless to say it doesn't feel like spring for me just yet, but now I can start watching baseball. Going into camp the Detroit Tigers have a few question marks to look at, mostly their rotation and bullpen. So with today's post I figured I would talk about long time Tiger and usual fan favorite coming off of his worse season yet, Justin Verlander.

Verlander last season was dealing with a core muscle injury throughout the season last year. We saw his velocity on his fastball drop down to average speed of 94.2 mph. I believe that has a lot to do with his core muscle not being at a full 100%. Looking on past that his ERA+ for 2014 was a horrible 88 compared to his career average of 122. It seems a good portion of people are giving up on JV. I am not one of them. I believe his numbers were down, because of injuries. Chris Iott, beat writer for the Tigers on mlive.com wrote a good article talking about JV on off-season adding more weight and his pitch mixing. Along with that he also touches on a few things about the team.

I see JV bouncing back this season. I doubt he will be the Verlander of his 2011 Cy Young/ MVP season, but will bounce back to being a top of the rotation pitcher. If he can stay healthy JV will claim the title back of being the Tigers' ace pitcher. My prediction for JV he will win 15-18 games with a ERA right around 3.30-3.50 and will be back up around 200 strikeouts this season. Again its my predictions and maybe it is me being a hopeless romantic Tigers fan, but I think JV will bounce back as long as he stays healthy. Go Tigers!