Verlander says he had to quit throwing the curve last year, He says he got blisters from a poor grip. He has made changes and now feels he can trust it. The Tigers are not a flash in the pan’ They still have great pitching and middle relief. Todd Jones had a very solid year. He scared me because I remember how often he blew up when we had him the first time. That nervousness remains. Sheff may be an important pick up. The offense was solid but now appears even more productive. We have very good pitching and a few other prospects beating on the door to go up.
Unfortunately in their division there is very little room for error. The White Sux are good. The Twits are good. Injuns good. Whoever gets off to a good start will be in the drivers seat for a while. I would not want to pass up 3 teams in the last half of the season.
Blue Jay fans are also happy Jonathan Papelbon is moving back to the Red Sox bullpen. I’d much rather Boston’s best pitcher pitch 70 innings than 200.
I don’t think losing Wang for a month is that big a deal, really. It’s six starts, and the difference between a good pitcher and a replacement in six starts is two games, if you’re really unlucky.
What would concern be about Wang is that in 218 innings last year he only struck out 76 men. Either he raises he strikeout rate a LOT or he’ll be blown out of the American League in a year, two years tops. It is absolutely impossible for a starting pitcher to sustain success with a strikeout rate that low. It can’t be done, and any pitcher who won a bunch of games with that low a K rate was either not long for the major leagues or (in far fewer cases) quickly developed a strikeout pitch.
I have a feeling the Yankees’ big ace in 2007 will be Andy Pettite. For some reason, I can’t shake the feeling he’s going to win 20.
I agree with everything you said, except the Pettitte winning 20. I suspect we are looking at 15-17 wins.
Wang is trying to develop a strikeout pitch and he actually does throw harder than someone would expect from a guy with a great sinker. He hits the low to mid 90s regularly on his fastballs and his sinker goes 87-91 which is why he has as much success as he does.
Jim
Well, we have #5: Brett Tomko. Furcal is iffy at short after the injury, and we just traded for Brady Clark in center. Loney will be part of the starting lineup, if I am calling this correctly. I’m sure everything will shift extensively by the end of April. Game faces on, ready for Game Day.
Everything’s going swimmingly in Tigerville. Nothing really new to report other than possibly maybe kind of sort of wanting a left handed setup/reliever guy.
God, it’s good to not have positional drama in spring training. I remember when every position was up for grabs.
Hey, so how is YankeeLand feeling about Carl Pavano: Opening Day Starter?
Seems to me like Wang will be OK with or without upping his strikeout rate. His groundball rate is very high, and his home run rate keeps declining, and those things correlate with success, too.
If the Tigers jump off to a good start again , they may be tough to beat. All the power lineups in the world are silenced by pitching. and fielding. Guys keep saying how powerful the lineups are. Talk about pitching and I will pay attention. Bats are for show.
When Illlich bought the Tigers he brought in a softball team mentality. He had several guys who could knock the ball into Trumbull Ave. It was fun to watch ,but they lost. No pitching no win. They are loaded with pitching and have more in the minors. An injury to a front line pitcher wont kill the Tigers. How many other teams can survive that.?
What do you think? 
At least it is against Tampa.
**RickJay ** is probably correct however. Wang would be completely bucking a historical norm if he becomes a sustained ace without getting his average strikeouts per year over at least 100 and probably closer to 150.
Jim