With the demise of MVN, Samara has taken her brilliant illustrations and blogging acumen independent. Check her out at her new digs.

According to Morosi, Detroit, Kansas City, and San Francisco might be destinations.

A look at some of the Tigers minor league signings as of late.

And once again Lynn Henning questions Granderson's commitment to the Tigers during his time in Detroit. This is getting tiresome.

With Kurt in charge at Bless You Boys he has brought in some additional help. Check out the cast.

A piece of Tiger Stadium lives on at Wayne State University.

Take 75 North looks at who might be the next Tigers we learn to love.

Mike Rogers beat me to this (or maybe he saved me some time) but he takes a look at the pitch f/x data for Robbie Weinhardt from the AFL.

Premium piece from Tigstown, but Mark Anderson talks with a bunch of the Tigers contingent after they won the AFL title. Nice to see a favorite of DTW, Robbie Weinhardt, get the win with a dominating 2 inning performance to cap it.

Former Tiger Matt Treanor is returning to game action in the Dominican Republic. For those who were wondering, what is Matt Treanor up to these days…

Miguel Cabrera got a first place vote from a writer in Seattle. Thank goodness it wasn’t from a Detroit scribe. Oh yeah, and the writers still aren’t done handing out awards. This is more drawn out than college bowl season.

Granderson, king of all media, will be doing some offseason television work.

Curtis Granderson wins another award for excellence in the field of awesomeness.

Angels are more interested in Granderson than Jackson, but the Tigers are more reluctant to move Granderson.

Lynn Henning spoke Dombrowski who further reiterated that the Tigers aren't in salary dumping mode. I think we knew this, but it hasn't stopped the dozens of articles that include "and the Tigers who are being forced to shed salary…"

Matt Wallace has been looking at past Tigers drafts over the last month. I missed all of these posts because it seems as if the MVN network tweaked the RSS feed settings so I hadn't been getting updates. Check out his site and the work over the last month.

Ian Casselberry debunks nonsensical speculation (not even a rumor) about a Miguel Cabrera for Mike Lowell/Jonathon Papelbon trade proposed by Ken Rosenthal.

Mike Rogers plays with CHONE projections to look at the Tigers options at second base and in the outfield.

Lee continues plowing through historical WAR data. Verlander already has himself on the Tigers top 20 list.

An interesting look at high heat. Relevant to Tigers fans because Verlander is all about the high heat. Now we know what makes it effective.

Dayn Perry kept insisting that the Tigers needed to upgrade over Fernando Rodney last year. This offseason he's still pushing for the Tigers to get a closer recommending they get Billy Wagner.

I have a hard time disliking Greinke. He's just phenomenal. Now I like him even more after he told the NY Times he pitches "to try to keep my FIP as low as possible"

Zach Greinke deservedly won the Cy Young with Justin Verlander placing 3rd between Felix Hernandez and Roy Halladay. I figure that's about right. But Verlander did receive 1 first place vote and it came from Detroit beat writer Steve Kornacki who defended his choice. Yes there is some homerism in the pick, but not as blatant as with the Ordonez/A-rod scenario in 2007. I suppose there probably is some value in pitching in big games – which Greinke really didn't do and Verlander did well. For me it's not enough to push him over Greinke, but I can see where Steve is coming from.

If you're like me and don't have MLB Network, you missed out on Ernie Harwell's appearance with Bob Costas last night. Jason Beck does his best to capture the highlights. Many of the stories we know. The beauty is in hearing Ernie tell them.

Chris Jaffe has written a new book profiling managers. Based on this excerpt about former Tigers manager Billy Martin, it is definitely a book I'll be adding to my Christmas list.

Interesting look at a minor league franchise (coincidentally the Lakeland Flying Tigers) and their business operations

Not Tigers, but c’mon. It’s the Captain we’re talking about here. Congrats Steve Yzerman. You always did Detroit proud.

Tim Dierkes tries to forecast where the top 50 free agents (his ranking) end up. The Tigers aren’t in the mix on many of these guys.

Lee takes a historical look at the all time Tigers leaders in Wins Above Replacement.

Kurt looks at the arbitration question marks the Tigers face. I think they offer Rodney and Lyon. I think if they offer Polanco it isn’t to get the draft picks, it’s because they want him back.

The official rankings are out. Eddie Bajek has been forecasting this stuff all season and out of all of MLB he only missed on 6 players. That was due to a playing time discrepancy. Pretty impressive stuff.

Looking at who contributed what to the Tigers offense – with graphs!

Sickels reviews Avila

The Tigers offense wasn’t inefficient.

I had no idea his home was still around. Of course Tiger Stadium is a pile of rubble.

How many millions did the Tigers lose out on my falling short of the playoffs?

Mark Anderson is in Lakeland for the instructional league. His first report is up and it’s a free preview of premium content.

Very cool graphs

With graphs!

I missed this, but it sounds like Rod & Mario’s mic’s didn’t get closed going into a break and Rod Allen had some telestrator fun.

Going in the way back machine a look at OBP specialist Donnie Bush

Yeah, I think he’s done for the year.

Granderson blogs about the Metrodome.

A recent Tigers topic is Edwin Jackson’s 2nd half and whether it shows Jackson has improved this year as much as we think or if the first half was a fluke. (with links to related analysis).

Ryan Raburn has been an offensive boon against left handers as he’s taken the bulk of the left field playing time when southpaws are on the mound. With Guillen swinging the stick right handed will that change? I doubt it, just more pinch hitting opportunities for Guillen.

Fangraphs has an iPhone app. I don’t have an iPhone, but cool anyways.

More great Ernie stuff, this from a national perspective. Ernie wasn’t putting a timeline on things before, but it sounds now like it will be about 3 months.

A mechanical look at Edwin Jackson.

I just don’t know.

Some Rodney appreciation time.

(Premium piece) The good news is that scouts still look at Iorg and see a stud. At some point the tools have to translate to results.

The full postseason strips are in some cases more than people’s season tickets. That’s a big pile of cash to layout.

Fun list. They made some really crappy plastic back in the day.

Gammons blogs that Leyland was never given any directive about Magglio’s playing time and his option. Not surprising.

Ernie answers reader questions about old time baseball.

Check out the love for our friend Eddie Bajek of Tigers Thoughts in this article from Jon Paul Morosi

A call for the Tigers to re-adopt the stoned looking Tiger in the circle logo (I love this logo). As an aside, check out the Bayside Tiger logo from Saved by the Bell. See if it looks familiar to you.

Much griping about the Tigers recent additions because of their sub-par performance so far. Caputo looks at a trade that wasn't made.

A detailed look at the remaining schedules of the Tigers and Twins.

I'd pay to see him too

Leyland made mention of the knee during his pregame show on the radio as well. It was the first I'd heard of it.

An excellent piece by Beck around the Tigers impact on the region. I'm not big on the "the region really needs this, take pity on us" angle to sports that popped up around the Final 4 and Stanley Cup playoffs. This article didn't go all the way down that path thankfully. But I did love reading about the awareness on the part of the players and the role they play this summer. I think the Tigers do have quite a few "good guys." This comes from the way they conduct themselves at the park and around fans and a few brief personal encounters I've had. It could be crap, but I believe it. If the Tigers can do anything down the stretch the potential for the mutual lovefest that we experienced on a Saturday night against the Yankees in 2006 could come tumbling back – and boy would it be welcomed.

Yet more support for Cabrera as a "hey, have you thought about Miguel Cabrera" candidate for the MVP

A look at the best scooping first basemen

I wonderfully in depth look at the ramifications of offering or not offering Placido Polanco arbitration. I think if he's a type b you offer him, type a and it gets really fuzzy. I still think many of the Tigers decisions will come down to how deep they play into October (and the $$ that comes with that).

A look at what frustrates fans everywhere…

This is a create-the-caption cornucopia of awesomeness

It appears he did. Huh

Make sure to fill out the ballot and show your scouting acumen and rate the Tigers

Checking out Tigers on the cover of SI

Lee notes that the pen has been pretty good of late (well, not real late cuz Sunday was kinda bad)

Jarrod Washburn !> Lucas French so far

An interview with Leyland where he swears and talks about working pitchers

Callis says Turner is the Tigers new #1 prospect (shocker) and that the big 3 from this draft all fit in the org's top 10

Beck chronicles the last 8 days or craziness that has been Miner's life.

Neyer thinks the Tigers are doing everything right with Porcello…let's hope he and the Tigers are right.

Stark looks at the 5 contenders who have the biggest closer issues…whoda thunk the Tigers wouldn't be on this list?

Tigers everywhere. Verlander best fastball, Zumaya second. Verlander best curve. Cabrera 3rd best hitter. Laird and Polanco make the list as best defenders at their position.

It's one thing that the Tigers don't score for E Jack, but considering how many times they've faced bad pitchers and not scored…

My favorite take on the whole brawl/discipline thing

Lee delves into the defensive stats once again.

Some encouraging quotes from Jacob Turner's mom.

Is this just prep for when the rosters expand? I can't imagine them actually relying on Willis at this point.

Zumaya and optimism don't really belong in any headline, but things look good for the pitcher returning. He'll even be traveling with the team on this roadie.

The Tigers really do seem to be driving the mood elevator around these parts this summer.

Looking at Fien's debut with Pitch f/x magic. Notice the location plot. I only count 2 pitches in the middle of the strike zone. The rest were at the edges. Me likes.

Lee takes a look at the numbers to find out that the Tigers actually do have some clutch hitting ability – despite what we saw in the first 6 games after the break.

Different pitchers to be sure, but their career numbers are remarkably similar.

Check out point 4. It seems as if Henning is calling Granderson out a little bit using terms like "honeymoon should have been over long ago" and "needs to make baseball his fixation"

There is one vertical component left in the pile of rubble, and that's the elevator shaft up to where the pressbox used to be.

Where Grandy talks about how the best baseball fans in the world took the time at the All Star Game to taunt him about his fall in the '06 series.

Lee delves into the Tigers success at home and struggles on the road.

Chatting it up with Lynn Henning about the Tigers and the Tigers beat

Leyland offered up his support to the Inge on the All Star team campaign. If he said it publicly he probably said it to Joe Maddon as well (Maddon only has 8 picks at his discretion and many of those go to insuring every team has a rep).

Graphing Fu-Te Ni and concern over Verlander and Jackson's workload ahead.

Jim Hawkins is hearing rumblings that the Tigers are working on acquiring a pitcher.

This is old news now, but Robertson had his surgery. My guess is that we probably don't see him again until September when the rosters expand.

Lee looks at how lucky the Tigers were to have a winning month despite being outscored. Their last 6 wins have been by 1 or 2 runs, and going farther back, it's 11 of their last 15 wins. It isn't a sustainable pace, but the good news is they picked up wins when not playing particularly well.

The Twins starters, who struggled early in the year, are coming on now. Getting the scouting report ahead of the weekend series.