Say, did anyone else takre a look at that ‘68 WS play video that was up on WHYG, Johnny Grubb recently? I think Northrup was right. Flood wouldn’t have gotten to it even without the stumble. He came across or even slightly in at first on Northrup’s drive, not back at the angle that would have been required to catch it.

Anticipating a contest where we get to vote on what billfer drinks during the next DTW Live, I vote for Blue Moon. A Belgian wheat ale (or is it a beer? Can’t remember). Good stuff.

Is your name taken from the wine smokin loon? I saw some at the store the other day and I thought maybe thats where you got your nick name

Steve

I can’t remember the last time the Tigers had a solid left fielder. Carlos Guillen might be the best all around player they’ve had there for quite some time. Only if he were more durable.

As far as I’ve seen, Thames has not been able to stay healthy either.

I think you mean when Guillen the LF gets injured, don’t you? Yeah, they’ll move Raburn, Thomas, Clevlen, Perez, whoever to the everyday spot (two days after announcing that Marcus was the everyday LF!)

But really, does it matter who the last guy on the bench is? The pitching still looks so bad that even the vaunted 2008 lineup that scored 2,721 runs would have trouble contending. Another $130 million payroll, another fight for the basement.

Rick, do you mean odd man out as in getting traded at some point during the season? It’s pretty clear that Marcus isn’t going to start, and even if Guillen the LF gets injured, Leyland will find a way to not give Thames LF every day (or maybe even any day). And as others have pointed out, the Joyce trade makes it seem less likely that they’d trade the only proven power on the bench right now. But could he be gone as soon as, say, Thomas was ready to go?

Thames and Raburn does seem to be the most balanced (offense/defense) choice for the final 2 of the presumed 4 spots, but the lack of any LH power off the bench at all can’t be very appealing to Jim Leyland. If Clevlen is still around and has a tremendous spring, i wonder what happens then.

“Larish goes IMO, I do not think they will deal Thames”

Do you think they’ll trade Larish, David?

I wonder if the Tigers will bank on Cabrera and Inge being Iron Men at their positions. There is a lot more injury vulnerability in the OF.

Leyland seems to have some inexplicable dislike for Marcus, so he will probably be the odd man out.

I detect a heritable traits joke in here somewhere.

“PS: I hope Smokin Loon gets a new keyboard this year”

Ah, S eve in NY – i had i all wrong. I hough he S eve in Kzoo was he S eve razzing e abou pos ing so of en. I don’ see a new keyboard in y i edia e fu ure (hard i es), but I do have high-speed in erne a ho e now, so I expec o be earing i up in he ga e hreads co e 2009.