That nasty taste in my mouth, is the mighty Tigers pitching, failing to come through and win just one game of three this weekend against the Royals. The hitting was there, but the pitching was not. I could go on and on about this, but as tough as it is, a negative attitude isn't going to do the Tigers and me any good. That all said, congrats to the Royals who came out swinging and showed guts and played tough as nails ball against the Tigers.

The positive spin, if any is this, I won't have to worry about missing work on Tuesday, as the Tigers won't play at home until Friday night against the Yankees. Therefore, I'll just leave work a little early on Friday to make it to the game.

I'm not even excited about the Colts win today which was nothing short of spectacular. Given the fact that the Colt defense played like absolute crap.

Gotta stay positive, we are in the playoffs for the first time in 19 years.

Let's go Tigers!

Week 3 pick results: 9-5. My losses were at the hands of the Lions, (of course) Bills, Giants, (who once again tried playing from behind) Patriots, and Falcons. No complaints here though as I predicted it would be a tough week for pick 'em.

I am now 2-0 on my Mortal Locks thanks to the Eagles pounding the 49ers. Last week's Upset of the Week was correct as well, thanks to the Bengals taking care of business in Pittsburgh.

My record through Week 3: 31-15 Win Pct.: .674

Here are Week 4's picks: (Winners in Bold.)

Colts @ Jets
Saints @ Panthers
Vikings @ Bills
Cardinals @ Falcons
Chargers @ Ravens
Dolphins @ Texans
49ers @ Chiefs
Cowboys @ Titans
Lions @ Rams
Jaguars @ Redskins
Browns @ Raiders
Patriots @ Bengals
Seahawks @ Bears
Packers @ Eagles

Upset of the Week goes to the Ravens over Chargers. The Ravens are 2.5 point underdogs at home, so this seemed like an obvious upset for me. Mortal Lock of the Week will be the Bengals over the Patriots. I could go with the Eagles again, (Heck, I could go with the Colts for just about every game) but I'll try to keep things fair and interesting, so I'll try to pick a different team every week for the Mortal Lock.

NFL Stat of the Week: Last week Rex Grossman led all QB's in the QB Rating stat with a lofty 128.7. This weeks leader: David Carr of all people, (obviously sacks don't figure heavily into the QB rating formula if at all.) with a rating of 113.6.

Tigers Update: With two games to go, and the Twins having lost today, means the Tigers only have to win one more game to clinch the Central and secure a playoff date at home with Oakland.

And on another Tigers note, I have acquired playoff tickets for ALDS Game One at Comerica Park on either Tuesday against the A's or Friday against the Yankees. (I'm pretty good at hiding the excitement.) I will have my account of the game along with some possible pictures in a blog to follow next week some time.

Woohoo!

Update 10/1 12:20 AM: Well the Tigers lost tonight, thanks to a seven-spot the Royals put up in the 1st inning. To clinch the division, the Tigers will either have to hope for a Twins loss (Thank you White Sox) or just win their darn game tomorrow themselves. (Hopefully the latter) This is a bit frustrating, as the Tigers should have won Friday night after building a 5 run lead and then the Royals come back and tie it up in the 9th. Oh, well tomorrow is another day, well actually its today already, but hey nobody likes a stickler.

The Detroit Tigers have clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 1987. (Takes deep breath) Aaahhh. The only thing undetermined at this point is whether or not the Tigers will play the A's or the Yankees. If they win the Central (which they lead by one game over the Twinkies at this point) then it's the A's at home. If they enter the playoffs as a wild card it's the Yankees on the road. I'm obviously shooting for the A's at home, I sort of feel that home field advantage is more important in a short 5-game series than in a 7-game series.

Even though it was the Royals they swept this weekend, the bats really started to come alive and the pitching is staying pretty consistent. Granderson and Ordonez are really the ones that needed start hitting well. Your leadoff guy needs to set the table for the returning professional hitter Polanco. And your $15 million a year right fielder in Ordonez needs to put up the power numbers he's being paid for.

I checked the pre-trade deadline playoff predictions I made about two months ago and man was I way off:

AL East: Red Sox NL East: Mets
AL Central: Tigers NL Central: Cardinals
AL West: Rangers NL West: Giants
AL Wild Card: Yankees NL Wild Card: Braves

In the AL the Red Sox are done for the year the Rangers are toast as well, and the Yankees have won the East. The only pick that might still be right is the Tigers in the Central.

In the NL, I was right on the Mets (But, hey who wasn't?), the Cardinals just might let me down after losing 6 games in a row and seeing their lead dwindle to 2.5 games, the Giants are 9 games out and the Braves just didn't have that second half resurgence that I thought they would.

So hey, I could possibly bat .375 with these predictions, not bad, eh?

And to finish, I just watched the Tigers turn a double play to win a 4-3 game over the Blue Jays, which means that their lead in the Central is still in tact.

I went 13-3 last week, with my three blemishes coming at the hands of the 49ers, Culpepper and the disappointing Dolphins, and the Steelers, who in retrospect maybe should have started Batch over the ailing Roethlisberger. However, Pittsburgh only ran for 26 yards in the game, so maybe Batch wouldn't have fared any better.

As for my mini-upset of the week, I was correct, thanks to the 4th quarter heroics of the G-Men in Philly. And of course my mortal lock was correct as the Ravens pummeled the Raiders, who might possibly be the worst team in the league. Anyone heard of Andrew Walter?

And so far I'm 22-10 on the season, that's a win pct. of .688. Not too shabby.

Anyway, here are my picks for this week. (Winners in bold)

Redskins @ Texans
Bills @ Jets
Packers @ Lions
Jaguars @ Colts
Bears @ Vikings
Titans @ Dolphins
Bengals @ Steelers
Panthers @ Bucs
Ravens @ Browns
Giants @ Seahawks
Rams @ Cardinals
Eagles @ 49ers
Broncos @ Patriots
Falcons @ Saints

I'm not afraid to say that this is a tough week for pick 'em. There are count 'em, 9 divisional games. I have good potential to go somewhere around 7-7 because there are a lot of close games. That said, my Mortal Lock of the Week is Eagles over 49ers. Philly is going to be upset after giving away a game in which they lead by 17 points in the 4th quarter. Look out Alex Smith.

I've got 3 dogs this week in the Rams, Giants, and Bengals. But my most confident Upset of the Week is Bengals over Steelers. I might have to eat some crow, because a while back in the forums I said that the Bengals have a brutal schedule and probably won't make the playoffs this year. But, they are looking very efficient and confident; I look for Big Ben to struggle again this week against a hungry Bengals team.

NFL Stat of the Week: Sexy Rexy (The often maligned Rex Grossman) leads all QB's with a 128.7 QB rating and the Bears offense is 3rd in the league in points scored, averaging 30 points a game. Who'd a thunk it?

Tigers Update: With 9 games to go, they have all but wrapped a playoff berth. Chicago at 6 games back looks as if they have thrown in the towel. The only question remaining is whether the Tigers will face the Yankees on the road or the A's at home, as Minnesota is only a half game back for the Central division lead.

Colts Update--The Colts looked very impressive in their win against the lowly Texans. Running back Joesph Addai split the carries with Rhodes (16-14) but Addai managed a whopping 5.1 ypc and had a nice TD catch. Manning was clearly on his game, dismantling the Texans secondary for 400 yards, splitting up most of those yards to Harrison and Wayne who were both over 125 yards for the day. Can't wait for this week's match up against the physically punishing Jaguars. Jacksonville always plays Indy tough, at least this week the outcome of the game will be in doubt.

Tigers Update--12 games remain for the 2006 Tigers and if this weekend and Monday's results were any indication of the rest of the season, Tigers fans can be rest assured that we will be in the playoffs in 2 short weeks.

Random TV Thought--Usually each year I pick one or two new shows to start following right off the bat. Last year it was Invasion and Night Stalker. ABC just didn't give Night Stalker enough time to develop, and Invasion despite the fact that it followed Lost just didn't find enough of and audience to warrant a second season. This year's picks are The Nine and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I usually like anything that Aaron Sorkin has a hand in (A Few Good Men and The West Wing). And as for The Nine it looks like it has a bit of a Lost/mystery/flashback type feel to it and it follows Lost at ten  on Wednesday, so I'll be front of the TV at that time anyway.

NFL Week 3 Picks--I will post my picks on Friday and recap my picks from the previous two weeks.

I don't think I did too bad last week. I went 9-7 and picked a lot of road teams, I would've gotten more games right if I would have picked the right road teams though; Road teams went 11-5 last week. Anyway, each week I will announce my picks here (winners in bold) and keep track of my overall performance throughout the year. That way I can check my blog and remind myself that I'm either an NFL idiot or a NFL genius.
 
Panthers @ Vikings
Bills @ Dolphins
Giants @ Eagles
Saints @ Packers
Texans @ Colts
Lions @ Bears
Browns @ Bengals
Bucs @ Falcons
Raiders @ Ravens
Cardinals @ Seahawks
Rams @ 49ers
Titans @ Chargers
Patriots @ Jets
Chiefs @ Broncos
Redskins @ Cowboys
Steelers @ Jaguars

I took 11 home teams this week. Giants over Eagles is my mini upset of the week and my mortal lock of the week is the Ravens over the Raiders. (I would pick Colts over Texans for the lock, but I don't want to jinx my team.) I have a bad feeling the Lions are going to upset the Bears, but I just couldn't pick them and if the Patriots play like last week, which I expect they won't, they could very well be beat by the upstart Jets.

The Colts by the way looked pretty good on Sunday night, hopefully their running game will get on track against the Texans, and sometime in the next few weeks either Addai or Rhodes will assert himself as the dominant running back, because I'm not a big proponent for running back by committee.

Tigers Update: With 16 games to go, they lead the Twins by 1 game and the White Sox by 3 games. So this weekend I'm rooting for Frank Thomas to crush some homers against his former team. And it should be noted that Santana of the Twins will be facing his toughest opponent yet this year: The Great Fausto Carmona. The heavily favored Carmona has a fantastic record of 1-9 with a lovely ERA of 6.24. Let's just concede this one to the Twinkies now. If Carmona could possibly win tonight, I will headline my next blog thanking him.

And finally, after nearly 4 months, I completed 500 subs. Jared Fogle eat your heart out. Seriously, I received the little rocket ship emblem, and I was surprised to see that I am now one of the top 1000 users. I'm going to keep plugging along to remain in that group and hopefully down the road I'll be in the top 500.

Well, as of today (9/12) the Tigers stand 1.5 games ahead of the surging Twins and 3 games up on the Chi Sox. Lets analyze. At one point the Tigers were 10 games up in the division, they had the best record in baseball for the majority of the year, and currently the Tigers have gone 10-22 in their last 32 games (the only team worse in that 32 game stretch being the Cubs at 9-23). Now given all that, Tigers fans have a few ways they can react:

1. Panic-"Oh, God, why must you torture us with visions of the 84' team and thoughts of the playoffs and even maybe the World Series, and then take it all away?"

2. Acceptance-"Well, what if the Tigers had started the season 10-22 and then made a playoff push to be 1.5 games up at this point. We'd be singing a different tune, right? Plus, Isn't this year a whole lot better than the past 13 in which they didn't even finish over .500, regardless of whether they make the playoffs this year?"

3. Confidence-"What about this: The Tigers have 18 games remaining, 12 of those 18 are at home. 9 of the 18 are against the Orioles and the Royals. The Twins and Sox have much harder schedules then that to finish the year. What if the Tigers have all gone into a collective hitting slump at the same time, and then what if the bats all start coming back, then they would be firing on all cylinders and peaking once again, but this time right before the playoffs. Plus, we still have had excellent pitching down this stretch, with the exception of a few bullpen mishaps and a couple bad starts. The games they lost have all been fairly close, they just need a few more clutch hits at the right time."

Call me crazy, but I'm leaning on option 3. The drought has been to long for the Tigers and it would be to easy to point fingers and assess blame and come up with excuses as to why they won't win this year. But, darn it, why can't  they turn it  around? There is no reason they can't. Remember they still control their own destiny and I believe they will come back from this, make the playoffs and keep the faces of baseball fans in Michigan smiling into the month of October.

Well, I spent the Labor day weekend in Traverse City. Wasted time snorkeling, swimming, floating, playing spades and ping pong, and of course watching the Tigers.

The aforementioned Tigers go 2-4 for the week not including Monday's win. Their pitching seems to have gotten back to their early and mid-season form. Except for Jones blown save on Saturday. Ledezma pitched awesome on Sunday but the Tigers bats have been hibernating and they need to wake up quick. Thankfully during this .500 stretch the Sox and Twins have cooled have and continue to hover at about 5 games back.

Anyway, I pick NFL games for fun and decided to list my picks here. Week 1 is usually the toughest week to pick, but without further ado:

Dolphins @ Steelers
Ravens @ Bucs
Falcons @ Panthers
Broncos @ Rams
Bills @ Patriots
Eagles @ Texans
Saints @ Browns
Seahawks @ Lions
Jets @ Titans
Bengals @ Chiefs
Bears @ Packers
Cowboys @ Jaguars
49ers @ Cardinals
Colts @ Giants
Vikings @ Redskins
Chargers @ Raiders

I'm taking half the road teams this week, which is a bit high, but it's week one and teams usually aren't clearly defined until week 4 or 5.

God bless Kenny Rogers. Way to stop the bleeding, buddy. The Tigers go 3-4 for the week and get a much needed day off after playing 30 games in 31 days. Their lead is now 5 games over current wild card leader: The Minnesota Twins.

On Sunday, Tiger bats finally woke up and they didn't waste a stellar 7-inning effort from Rogers. Hopefully, hard-luck pitcher Nate Robertson receives the same treatment on Tuesday against the Yankees.

1st round draft pick Andew Miller has been brought up and placed in the bullpen, and Leyland has said that Maroth will return on Friday when major league baseball rosters expand.

If anyone is wondering, "Red Pop" Chris Shelton, is batting .286 with 3 HR's in 25 games at AAA Toledo.

I finished The Simpsons season 8 today and once again I have to say that this was one of the better seasons, with only a few duds (the Mary Poppins parody, The Secret War of Lisa Simpson, and Simpsons Spin-off Showcase even though it had the great Troy McClure).

And although it's the pre-season, the Colts looked very impressive scoring at will, with Manning leading the way for 17 points in the 1st half.

So, the Tigers improve sightly from the week before, going 3-4. They lose some tough games to the Rangers over the weekend. On Friday the Tigers trail 2-1 and C-Mo leads off the bottom of the 9th with a triple. With three outs to go and the tying run on 3rd you've got to get him home, and they couldn't. Saturday Nate Robertson goes eight innings and allows 2 hits, man I feel for him. He arguably could have 4 to 5 more wins this year with some more run support. And Sunday, Bonderman uncharacteristically (sp?) blows a 6-run lead. If it's not the pitching it's the hitting that's not up to par.

The evil White Sox are in town for a 4 game set this week and by Friday morning a lot could change in the standings, for the good and for the bad.

Also they trade for Neifi Perez, an infielder from the Cubs. He only hits in the .260 range but Dombrowski got him for the defense he provides, while the Tigers won't need him at 3rd, Perez will mostly fill in for Polanco at 2nd, and he can if needed fill in for Guillen at short.

In other baseball news, the Yankees sweep a rare 5 game series from the Red Sox over the weekend and give themselves a 6.5 game lead over Boston and send the Sox to 4.5 games back in the wild card race.

As I write this I'm half-watching the premiere of Prison Break, It's good to see William Fitchner back in action again, I was sad to see Invasion get cancelled last year. He was in a movie about 8, 9 years ago called Drowning Mona with Bette Midler and Danny Devito. The movie itself wasn' that good but Fitchner was great in the movie and I've been a fan since.

Also, I've been watching a few episodes a day from season 8 of The Simpsons and I've got to say I forgot how good a season that it was, The Springfield Files, You Only Move Twice, A Milhouse Divided, Lisa's Date With Destiny, Bart After Dark, and The Twisted World of Marge Simpson just to name a few are all great episodes. I'm halfway through the season and the only episode I haven't really cared for so far, is the Mary Poppins parody.

Finally, as I write this the Tigers lead the hite Sox 7-1 in the 7th and it looks like Verlander will get win #15. Until next week.