MAKEUP GAME TO BE DETERMINED AT A LATER DATE

DETROIT – Tonight’s (April 25) scheduled game against the Kansas City Royals at Comerica Park has been postponed due to rain and impending rain. The game will be made up at a date to be determined.

All paid tickets for tonight’s game will be honored for the game at the makeup date to be determined, no ticket exchange is necessary.

Money---Money---Money---Honey

This is the time of year that everybody starts out even: everybody is hitting 000, a possible 300 year and every pitcher on the team is going to win 20, if they catch a couple of breaks, well that's why we call it spring training, we dream and hope, that's the reason they come down now in shape, they try to get 1 upmanship on the hitters because hitters don't spend as much time in the batting cage as pitchers do working on their skills during the winter and especially the six weeks prior to spring training.

One great benefit that we have is that we are a "lock" to win our division; there are no significant teams in our division. KC, Minnesota, Chicago and Cleveland.

Is there one of those teams that could be 500 this year, of course not.....so all we do to do is coast, get ready for playoffs now, we actually could be getting ready already for the playoffs. I'm not kidding, that is how brutal our division is at this moment.

Don Kelly
Our announcers were talking about the great change in Don Kelly, he will probably never be a starter in the major leagues, he's going to have to work like hell to get the number of years required to be a member of the pension that's just because Don Kelly is now hitting with a shorter version of his long swing huh?

Don Kelly has never received this much airtime in his entire career, guys pick it up on the broadcasts, do some Jimmy Northrup, tell the stories, get excited, and explain the situations, Don Kelly is a great guy, but his career so far is a hair more exciting than warm milk.

Does that mean that Don Kelly is going to hit .350 or .340 or .330…NOT!! Don Kelly is reliable defensively, there are others on teams that are reliable defensively, I suggest to you what we will wind up needing is runs. What wins ball games is also good defense, in a lot of games the ability to hit and run, the ability to bunt at the appropriate times, those things make up a ball game today.

Justin Verlander
$180 million dollars. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can anyone be worth this kind of money? Can anyone contribute enough as a pitcher to be worth $180 million?

Folks he's worth every penny cause someone has agreed to pay the money and now has set a new bar in the game for money. NOW he's gotta do the job.

As long as Cabrera, Fielder and Hunter stay healthy, we should walk into the playoffs. But if Cabrera ever gets hurt for a lengthy period of time, all bets are off. I have never seen one player so valuable to a team or any team. He makes everyone in front of him in the lineup much better hitters; no one wants to pitch to Cabrera with men on base. And the guys behind him get better pitches cause he walks so much and you have to pitch to them if Cabrera is walking and is on base.

Now if anyone was watching the World Series you saw what I've been saying for years, great hitters must be pitched inside, do not allow great hitters to extend their arms, when he extends, he is a weapon, the Giants told the world how to pitch Cabrera but on the pitching staff of Cleveland, Minnesota, KC and Chicago who can actually keep their fastballs in on the hands of Cabrera? Who on those teams have enough serious velocity to get it inside hard?

Salaries
NFL
Tony Romo - Dallas: $100 million.....Are you kidding? One playoff win---ONE THAT’S IT!

Erin Rogers – Green Bay:$125-$150 million with about 75M guaranteed, what is going on and they play 16 games!

Time Magazine Reports Team Salaries

New York Yankees $228,995,945

Los Angeles Dodgers $216,302,909

Philadelphia $159,578,214

Boston $158,967,286

Detroit $149,046,844

And the owners of the major league teams are talking about either reducing pensions for staff (not players) or getting rid of them all together. What? Look at these five highest payrolls!

Takeaways

MLB Average Salary: $3,450,000.00 Million Dollars.

A-Rod will this year make (29,000,000.00): more than the entire Astros Payroll of (24.000,000.00)

Johan-Santana will make $24,300,000 million this year on disabled list.

Dodgers will likely pass the Yankees for the top spot next year.

Miami cut its payroll from last season by more than 60 percent.

Miami payroll $39,500,00.00

The Blue Jays will field $37 million worth of Marlins.

Arizona's highest-paid player is a setup guy.

Jack Morris made only $25,500,000.00 Million dollars in his entire career?

Verlander this year $22,000,000.00. Million

Denny McLain Entire Career, $445,000.00 dollars.

Among the NL favorites, the Braves, Nationals, and Reds all show the importance of home-grown pitching. Giants have reached the phase where they've had to pay top-dollar to keep their aces.

Houston' Manager said this: "When we get on the baseball field with whomever the opponent is, they are not sitting there saying: `Well, their players make more money than us so therefore you're deemed a winner and we're deemed a loser.'"

This is true. It's also true that Houston could lose 110 games this year. But Houston sucks big time!

Now let’s see if the Tigers, if not positively clinch the division, at least figuratively clinch the division before August 15.

Thank God Opening Day has arrived!
Denny McLain

Five-Time All-Star’s deal through the 2019 season with a vesting option for 2020

DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers today announced the club has agreed to terms with righthanded pitcher Justin Verlander on a five-year contract extension through the 2019 season with a vesting option for the 2020 season.

Verlander, 30, compiled a 17-8 record, 2.64 ERA (238.1IP/70ER) and 239 strikeouts in 33 starts with the Tigers during the 2012 season. He topped the American League with six complete games, 238.1 innings pitched and 239 strikeouts, while he finished second with a 2.64 ERA, .217 batting average against, 7.25 hits per nine innings and 3.98 strikeouts per walk, tied for third with 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings and tied for fourth with 17 wins.

“Justin is one of the premier pitchers in baseball and we are thrilled to keep him in a Tigers uniform for many years to come,” Tigers President, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager David Dombrowski said. “Justin has been a Tiger for his entire career and he is on pace to be one of the greatest pitchers in this illustrious franchise’s history.”

A five-time American League all-star selection (2007, 2009-12), Verlander has posted a 124-65 record, 3.40 ERA (1,553.2IP/587ER) and 1,454 strikeouts in 232 starts during his major league career. Detroit’s first-round selection in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft in 2004, he is currently fifth all-time in club history with 1,454 strikeouts and 10th with 124 wins.

Verlander was selected the American League Most Valuable Player and unanimously selected the American League Cy Young Award winner in 2011. He became the 10th pitcher in major league history to win both the Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Awards during the same season, joining Don Newcombe (1956), Sandy Koufax (1963), Bob Gibson (1968), Denny McLain (1968), Vida Blue (1971), Rollie Fingers (1981), Guillermo Hernandez (1984), Roger Clemens (1986) and Dennis Eckersley (1992).

He was selected the American League Rookie of the Year with the Tigers in 2006. Verlander joined Don Newcombe to become only the second player in history to win the Most Valuable Player, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year Awards. Newcombe was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1949 and he earned both the National League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Awards in 1956.

Verlander led all American League Pitchers with 24 wins, a 2.40 ERA and 250 strikeouts during the 2011 season to become just the second Tigers pitcher to ever lead all three categories during a single season. He joined Hal Newhouser (1945) in accomplishing the feat.

He has led the American League in strikeouts in each of the last two seasons, fanning 250 batters in 2011 and 239 batters during the 2012 season. Verlander is the first Tigers pitcher to lead the league in strikeouts in back-to-back seasons since Jim Bunning did so in 1959 and 1960.

Verlander fired the first no-hitter in Comerica Park history on June 12, 2007 versus Milwaukee, marking the sixth no-hitter in Tigers history. He tossed the second no-hitter of his career on May 7, 2011 at Toronto, the seventh no-hitter in Tigers history. Verlander joined Virgil Trucks as the only two pitchers in Tigers history with multiple no-hitters. Trucks threw two no-hitters for the Tigers during the 1952 season. According to STATS LLC, Verlander became the 27th pitcher to record two career no-hitters in the American or National League.

He is scheduled to start on Opening Day in Minnesota on Monday afternoon, marking the sixth straight season (2008-13) Verlander has been tabbed the club’s Opening Day starter by Jim Leyland. It marks the longest such streak by a Tigers pitcher since Jack Morris started 11 straight Opening Days (1980-90).

For each of his home starts, Verlander hosts Veterans from the John D. Dingell Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Detroit and the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System. The Veterans, along with their families, watch the game from Verlander’s personal luxury suite. Veterans receive a personalized welcome letter from Verlander, while all guests receive a Verlander’s Victory to Veterans T-shirt and are welcomed on the scoreboard during the game.