Oh No-No, Tigers!

If you follow Detroit sports, you surely know that our beloved Motor City Kitties got no-hit tonight. This is an embarrassment on many levels. Some of you may be saying, "Well, it's not THAT big a deal. I mean, there have already been 5 no hitters in the MLB this season, 6 if you count our very own Armando Galarraga's imperfect '28 out' perfect game." Well, you'd be wrong. It is that big of a deal, and for exactly that same reason. This is a slap in the face to the Tigers and Galarraga.

The Tigers have now surrendered far too many "firsts" this year. They finished off a stellar series in Cleveland last weekend by allowing Jeanmar Gomez his first Major League win, in his first, and quite possibly only, Major League start no less (Gomez isn't exactly tearing it up in AAA, congrats, Tigers!). I'm sure there are others that I'm forgetting/missing, but then we get to tonight. Going into tonight, the Tampa Bay Rays were one of 3 active MLB franchises to not have a no-hitter to their name. (The others are the New York Mets and the San Diego Padres, for those of you keeping score at home.) But, of course, the Tigers/Miggy + the Mud Hens had to go and play Santa Claus for Matt Garza and the Rays. The real only threats in the game were a line shot to right fielder Ben Zobrist by Danny Worth and a liner to left fielder Carl Crawford off the bat of, who else, Miguel Cabrera. Only one runner made it on base, a walk by Brennan Boesch (who is something like 1-for-32 since the All-Star break). This kind of stellar showing won't cut it, nor do I expect the Tigs to show much of anything for the rest of the season. I just didn't expect to be another notch on the 'no-hitter belt' this year.

As bad as this showing was, the night wasn't a total loss....well, they lost, but you know what I mean. Max Scherzer pitched an absolutely spectacular 5 and 2/3 innings, but then gave up a Grand Slam to former Tiger Matt Joyce, the first hit of the game. Heyoooooooo. A little offense for that performance, minus the Grande Salame, would have been nice, but couldn't expect much out of the Tigers tonight.

This game also pushes Armando Galarraga further into baseball oblivion this year. His almost perfect game was lauded by some for his professionalism. Some said that the instant replay rule MLB implements would be changed because of that game, and the rule would be named the "Galarraga Rule" in honor of his blown perfect game. I, and others, disagreed, noting that there had already been 3 no-hitters at the time of that game, and his would surely be forgotten. Well, now that there have been 5 no-hitters, and at this pace there could be 8 or 9 by season's end, he gets left in the dust. Poor guy. At least that Corvette will look mighty good in his garage.

But the real story of tonight is the fact that the Tigers clearly can't win with this lineup. As I called them earlier, this team has now become "Miggy and the Mud Hens." Professional baseball team, or bad 60's cover band? May as well be the latter. Injuries have ravaged this team over the past week. Missing Singlio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, and, as much I hate to admit it, Binge, really hurts. This is a AAA lineup. And for those of you who don't know, it's a bad AAA lineup. How bad? Well, the Mud Hens are in last place in their division. But hey! At least we have about 40 pitchers we can bring up at a moment's notice! Oh wait. How's Casey Fien Daniel Schlereth Enrique Gonzalez Robbie Weinhardt working out for you? Boombayay.

Now is the time to do one of two things.
1. Sell at the deadline - preferrably Perry, Porcello, and someone else for, oh, I don't know.....a half-eaten peanut butter and jelly....and a bag of batting practice balls? Sign me up.
2. Do nothing at the deadline and bank on your young talent turning it around next year - and using some of your roughly $40million in offseason salary to bring in some major league-caliber players. Please and thank you.
Either of the above will do.

For those of you who actually do read this, know that I'm not a "fair weather fan" or a pessimist. I'm looking at this realistically. Scherzer is supposed to be your #2 pitcher in the rotation. He did a great job - for 5 2/3. #2 starters need to go longer than that. Your team couldn't hit Tampa's 4th best pitcher, statistically. That won't do. Minnesota and Chicago have infinitely easier schedules than we do in the second half of the season. I see exactly no way we win the Central division.

Of course, David Dombrowski, the man who invented pants, will inevitably concoct some sort of groundbreaking deal that will spend all the money we could use on free agents this offseason, and he will use it all on a fringe player who is attractive in name only. I might puke.

I love the Tigers. Really. But this kind of crap (both the game and the management of the team) really shows that this team, despite having the 3rd or 4th highest payroll in the Majors, is a disgrace. Throw in the towel, they're done for this year. May as well bring up some more AAA or AA ballplayers and see how weak the organizational depth is. Maybe then Dombrowski will realize his hard-on for power pitchers has put this whole organization behind the 8-ball.

And a last, more light-hearted tidbit:
Kudos to Jim Leyland for getting tossed, and actually getting the call right. It's too bad the baseball gods really do hate the Tigers this year.
If any of you have Marty Foster on your Umpire Ejection Fantasy Team, you win tonight. Congrats!

Moonshine: An Introduction

Since I really don't know what to do for my first post on this blog, I'd like to formally welcome all readers to the Datsyuk and Friends blog. The idea for this blog was conceived by both Adam and myself. We wanted to create a blog that would be more of a group blog than an individual one, having posts from many contributors. Think of it as the perfect blog for schizophrenics. One blog, many voices.

Though I think this primarily will be Adam's blog for now, I will be making my own occasional contributions to it in small segments that I've decided to put under the banner name "Moonshine." These short blogs will be exclusive to Datsyuk and Friends and cannot be read anywhere else.

So please, enjoy what we are hoping will eventually become a blog that is greater than the sum of all its parts. And remember, Datsyuk's got friends in loooooow places. Where the Red Wings drown and Yzerman chases the Blues away.

Happy belated birthday, Ms. Gomez

As contributor MattByMoonlight has alluded to, yesterday was starlet Selena Gomez's 18th birthday. No doubt, scores of pedophiles across the globe are relieved that they can now stare at her for hours at a time. Gomez has been uncomfortably attractive until now, but pedos, normal human males, and Disney fans alike can all now stalkerishly objectify her without legal ramifications. Congrats, Selena!

Modano? Just say no.

Welcome to our new blog, Dastyuk and Friends. This is a joint venture with me and some friends who like to write stuff for our own entertainment, but if you enjoy it, too, then awesome!

For the introductory post, I'm going to touch on my favorite sports team, the Detroit Red Wings. Seeing as the blog's namesake is Pavel Datsyuk, this seems mildly appropriate.
As you may or may not know, the Wings have spent the past few weeks courting "coveted" free agent, and Michigan native, Mike Modano. GM Ken Holland and coach Mike Babcock have given their best effort to persuade Modano to join the club as their third line center. On the surface, this seems like a fantastic idea.

Modano is from Westland, Michigan, about a 15 minute drive from where I live. I've played at the Mike Modano ice arena in Westland. It's a nice rink. Cold, icy, very conducive to playing the game of hockey. Unfortunately, some other things related to Mike Modano are cold and icy - his game and his personality.

Modano is 40 years old and on the verge of the end of his career. He spent the past 20 years in the Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars organization. He is the all-time leader among U.S.-born players in both goals and points. He has a Stanley Cup Championship and has been selected to 8 All-Star games. This sounds all nice and peachy now, doesn't it? Well, you'd be wrong. His goal production has declined each of the past 5 years, and his points production has declined each of the last 3. He played 59 games last year, but only totaled 30 points. For a third line center on a perennial Stanley Cup contender, this may sound like a nice addition, but I'm here to tell you why it's not.

The Red Wings currently have about $3 million in salary cap space available, and still have to sign young guns Justin Abdelkader and Darren Helm. But that's not the biggest issue here. The bigger issue is that Abs and Helmer have earned bigger and better roles in the organization. Both have put in significant time in Grand Rapids, the Red Wings' AHL farm club, and have worked their tails off to get to the big club full-time. Helm made that jump successfully last year, and while he didn't necessarily have the year he may have hoped for, he came up with some big goals and a ton of energy. That's what he does. The same can be said for Abdelkader. He's not going to give you 20-goal seasons (although he may sometime down the road), but what he's going to give is a lot of effort and grit. Something the Wings have lacked over the past 5 or so years. These two players have earned the right to play more than 6-7 minutes a game. If we sign Modano, they can't do that - they would be battling for the 4th line center position, along with eternal slapshot-from-the-top-of-the-circle-pounding Kris Draper. I personally think Draper needs to have his Achilles cut at the beginning of the year to free up a roster spot, but that's another story.

Not signing Modano would enable the Wings to reward one of the players with additional playing time on a scoring line. Surely these players deserve that by now, don't they?

The third line, as it stands right now, consists of Happy Hudler and Charlie Buckets (Jiri Hudler and Dan Cleary). Adding a guy like Modano would be nice, and would certainly seem to provide an excellent third scoring line, but couldn't you say the same thing for adding Abs or Helm in there? If you put Helm with those two, he could just skate all over the ice, find open spaces, then create open space by blowing by defenders. If you plug in Abdelkader, he'll just go to the front of the net, and you can let Happy and Charlie fire away. You could essentially have 3 lines with a Tomas Holmstrom-eqsue player. Doesn't that seem like a great plan? One of those guys on the third line, and sitting Drapes for the entire season, would enable your checking line to be Miller-Abs/Helm-Eaves. That's a 3rd scoring line on any other team in the league. Sounds fantastic to me.

Unfortunately, Holland and Babcock seem to have a hard-on for Modano. But here's where his personality comes in. We were the first team to show interest in him. After he attended a Tigers game with the front office brass, he openly claimed that it was "Detroit or retirement." What happened next? You bet! Other teams start showing up late to the party and requesting his services. Then, his tune changed. All of a sudden Detroit isn't the only choice on "Deal or No Deal." So much for your word. Then, Minnesota comes into the picture and he says, 'Oh, gee, wouldn't that be cute to go back where I started and finish my career there?' The answer, Mike? No! It wouldn't! You wouldn't make the playoffs and could berate your legacy. Then, he claims that he won't make a decision until late in the summer when he re-starts his training regimen, and decides whether or not he wants to go through the grind of professional hockey every day. It can't be that hard to imagine yourself waking up and playing hockey everyday, can it?

This is what gets me. This is the kind of Brett Favre-like prima donna-ish behavior that made me hate the former Green Bay golden boy. However, being this is my home team, I wouldn't really have a problem with it if we had our younger guys locked up under contract. Therein lies the problem: Helm and Abdelkader are not signed, specifically because Holland is waiting for Modano's decision. He's not only potentially going to take a roster spot from one of those two, but he's also potentially forcing Holland's hand into trading another piece just to create cap space for Helm and Abs to be signed in the first place. These two players HAVE to be on the roster this year. Based on Holland's past loyalty-related doings, it would be sacrilege to trade either of them. And the fanbase would be furious. Surely, they would trade Miller or Eaves, but those players carved out nice little niches last year and earned at least a chance. Helm and Abs are the future, but they should also be the present.

Signing Modano seems like a great idea on the surface, but just like icebergs, 90% of signing Modano's danger is below the surface. The Wings have already, unfortunately, made a contract offer, so it's up to Modano whether he signs or not. But if I were Ken Holland, I would turn the other cheek, rescind the offer, and move on with the future becoming the present.