Great Time To Be a Detroit Sports Fan!

Who would have guessed the amount of success Detroit sports are accomplishing this year?  The Detroit Tigers are headed to the playoffs and the Detroit Lions are 3-0. This weekend starts the playoffs for the Tigers, next week presents a challenge for this new look Detroit Lions team, and the Red Wings preseason and begun with a team stacked just like the past ten years!

 

The Detroit Tigers first round playoff opponent has yet to be determined. The wild card spot is still up for grabs as it looks to be between the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Tampa Bay Rays. I really would like to see the Detroit Tigers play the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees in the first round. I feel this Tigers team can out pitch both of these teams. The bats will come. I feel the Tampa Bay Rays is a risky team to play in the first round because they are a determined ball club with a decent amount of veterans and a great pitching staff. I honestly feel the Detroit Tigers could beat any of these teams on starting pitching alone. The combination of Justin Verlander, Doug Fister, and Max Scherzer is almost unbeatable in my opinion. 

The Detroit Lions picked up their third win Sunday in exciting fashion. Being outscored in the first half 20 to 0 the Detroit Lions team did not give up. They came back with 20 unanswered points to tie the game up. The game ended up going into overtime and winning on a Jason Hanson field goal. I loved the feeling of seeing Jason Hanson get the field goal to win the game, he has gone through a lot as a Detroit Lions and it’s finally good to see him getting to experience being on a successful team. I hope he can stay healthy this year and experience the play offs. Just like the past two games, defense kept the Lions in this game and that’s going to be big all throughout the year. Go Lions.

Tigers Clinch the AL Central

The Detroit Tigers have finally clinched the AL Central. They will be representing the AL Central in the playoffs which start in approximately ten days. With the couple handfuls of games left the Tigers cannot ease up. In Major League Baseball, there are two conferences, the American League and the National League. The team with the best record in both conferences gets home field advantage when the playoffs begin. The Tigers are currently only three games back of taking over the top spot in the American League. It is currently led by the Texas Rangers, who the Tigers do not play for the rest of the season.

Personally, I feel with the momentum the Tigers have right now, anything is possible and they may be able to take over that number one spot. Justin Verlander and Jose Valverde complete a solid pitching staff and is pretty much an automatic 2 wins within the next 10 games. Justin Verlander currently has 24 total wins this season and Jose Valverde has 46 saves in 46 opportunities.  It is also possible Valverde has a chance at getting 50 total saves, which is a huge milestone.

As I said in my previous blog posts, I feel the Tigers have what it takes to make the World Series. But they are going to need some of their bats in their lineup to contribute as well. Especially Austin Jackson, he has struck out almost 50% of the time within his past 50 at bats. Hopefully last night’s game of him going 2 for 5 with a homerun and a single is a sign for things to come. To counter the slump of Austin Jacon, Brandon Inge and Ryan Raburn has stepped it up tremendously. Brandon is hitting .440 since coming back from being designated for assignment and Ryan Raburn is hitting .344 in his past 30 games.

Detroit Lions win first game!

The Detroit Lions kicked off the 2011 season this past Sunday. It was a great game filled with tons of intensity. It feels really weird being a Lions fan and feeling that way during a game. I have never witnessed a Detroit Lions team have the team make up to have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs since the Barry Sanders days.

The Lions beat Tampa Bay 27-20. The Detroit Lions defense was like a brick wall. Tampa Bay did not get a first down until the end of the second quarter. All of Tampa Bay's points had little to do with Detroit's offense. Most of their points came from either a interception from the Tampa Bay defense or a field goal. The highly though of Detroit defensive line played as expected and only allowed around 50 yards of rushing yards.

Although the Detroit Lions offense wasn't clicking at the start it managed to control the game having more then 10 minutes of possession more then Tampa Bay.  Matthew Stafford played a little jittery or as if he may of been a little dinged up but still managed to keep the Detroit Lions passing game at a top level. He passed to nine different people today which is a great sign when you have that many offensive weapons. As for the running game, it wasn't as effective as the passing game but it was good enough to keep Tampa Bay guessing.

The future looks bright for the Lions. Especially with all their skilled players being under 30 years of age. I am looking for many good years of football from the Lions, but lets focus on this season and hopefully give the fan base a playoff game to cheer for. I am predicting a 10-6 record and call me crazy, a Super Bowl appearance.

Detroit Tigers are soon to be playoff bound

To be exact, the Tigers are 7 official wins away from being playoff bound. As a Tigers fan I am very excited. I have been waiting for this moment to relive what it feels like to see the Tigers in the playoffs since 2004. 

I feel there are many signs the Detroit Tigers have what it takes to make it to World Series and win it this year. In this blog post I will talk a little bit about why I feel this way.

The past two weeks has been amazing for Tigers baseball. They have won 9 in a row, becoming White Sox and Indian killers. It is amazing to see the Tigers sweep their two top rivals in the AL Central. It just proves how dominant of a team they are this year and that everything is finally coming together. The starting pitching was struggling at the begginning of August and it is awesome to finally see Rick Porcello and Brad Penny pitching to their full capabilities.

The late season acquisitions in Doug Fister and Delmon Young are deffinetly paying off. Delmon Young was added to the team in hopes of adding depth to an already complete Tigers outfield. This paid off because left fielder Brennan Boesch was diagnosed with a thumb injury that needed surgery. Delmon has since then took over his position and is playing at the same skill level if not better then Brennan. Doug Fister was acquired from the Mariners at the trade deadline. He began his Tiger career with two straight losses but since then has become almost unhittable. During the Tigers sweep of the Indians he faced Ubaldo Jimenez, whom he outpitched that day throwing a shocking 13 strike outs. 

I am proud to say I am a Detroit Tigers fan. Everything is seeming to come together, whether its from the late season acquisitions or everyone playing to their full potential, the Tigers are certainly looking like a World Series capable team.