Really.

the only way I would be worried is if at the famed 40 game mark we’ve only won 18 games or so, still I think they’ll win right around 100 games even with this massive 2 game blowup =P

still I think there is something to the cold weather and lack of hitting

Still, give some credit to the Royals – you don’t get a guy like Polanco to go 0-10 in this cold weather (even if he was robbed a time or to) if you are throwing up beach balls – they aren’t bad

You make a good point on not getting too carried away with Jones. I agree with you. However, the disconcerting thing with Jones is that he, in my opinion, has had awful at bats. He is jerking his bat through the zone with an uppercut. It looks like he is swinging a salami with a bowling ball tied to the end of it. Further, he is pulling his head. It looks like a classic case of a guy pressing to make a splash with his new team… He is not making good contact, and not being overly selective. At this point I would rather have Thames. Of course, I would rather have had Thames starting before the season…

Other players are struggling, notably Polanco. But Polly is puting the bat on the ball, he has just been hitting a lot of ‘at him’ balls. He doens’t need to change anything. The baseball fates will come around… But with Jones, it appears to me he has a bad approach right now.

I hope he pulls out of it, and knowing JL, he will have plenty of opportunity, as we all know Jimmy likes to give his veterans every opportunity…

At the risk of inciting another DTW riot, let’s talk about Inge….

I love that he looks at many pitches, and this spring he did seem to have changed a few things (like going to right/right center, and he seemed to be less pull happy). However, I think he is taking too many first pitch strikes. Kansas City seems to have the book on him as always taking the first pitch. I have observed that every at bat this series the first pitch is a fastball on the outer half of the plate that is almost always a strike. I would love to see Brandon drive one of those to right (even for an out), if nothing more than to change Kansas City’s approach to him. When Inge gets to an 0-2 count he REALLY struggles, as his 3 K’s speak very well to…. Push one to right Brandon! Make them change their approach….

Edited by Billfer because comment author can’t play nice. Oh, and comment author is banned because of a history of not being able to play nice and resorting to name calling and swearing to make his points.

Jacque Jones will be ok. He is still getting over the old Wrigley faithful reaming him every day. He will do better as the season goes on.

On the other hand, Jair Jurjens is looking like the player Detroit should not have traded. I did not like this trade from the day I heard it.

Man the Royals are still kicking our butts. It looks like Bannister is going to continue to own this team. My prediction has been that the Royals are going to be the sunrise team of the year and the Tigers are going to struggle in the early going. Tigers are going to be the biggest disappointment of the year.

My company blocked the audio package this year, so I was FURIOUS that I couldn’t listen to the game…at least before the game I was. I’m kind of glad I didn’t get to listen to that now…I just hope I can figure out how to listen at work now.

I know I’ve brought this up with people before, and just FYI..I switched to Directv and their EI is AWESOME. They offer both broadcasts (if there are 2) and standard and high def broadcasts (if there is one) for each for every game. You can even push a button and get scores from around the league and they have a channel with 8 games on at once. It’s really cool. So anyone thinking of trying it out..I HIGHLY recommend it.

Out of 162.

There are 160 left.

Sometimes you can overhype a team. Then a lot of missed opportunities coupled with a two-hit shut out suddenly makes everyone question themselves and try too hard. In the back of my mind I was somewhat concerned when the Tigers became the “hip pick.” Last year it was the Yankees — they were the “hip pick” — and we all know how lousey they played in April and the first half of May.

We need a twelve-run game to break the jinx — and restore the natural order in the universe. I’m not too concerned about an 0-2 start, but I also don’t want to start devling into the psychology of the underachieving giant. If we do start 0-3, or if it gets out of hand, it’s up to Leyland to keep everyone focused and nip this head trip in the bud.

At least one of these teams is not going to make the playoffs:

Red Sox
Yankees
Indians
Tigers

And then the White Sox always have our number this isn’t looking good for that series either. If we are third or less in the Central this year by the trade deadline, it would be time to unload and TOTALLY rebuild around Cabreara and Granderson and Justin Verlander.

Hopefully though, this is a phase like last year and our bats heat up in May. I just hope we fans can keep up the optimism until they heat up. JV and Rogers pitched great games, just that this $100+ million lineup needs to play like they are worth $100+ million.