Coincidence? I Think Not!

I cannot believe this. The post below was written during my son's basketball practice tonight, which was from 6:00 -7:30 PM eastern. The elementary school did not have Internet, so I just wrote the article in a word processor to post when I got home. I had to research some links, so it didn't get up until much later. Imagine my shock and dismay to later read this article on the Tigers official web site. Jason Beck posted it at 7:55 pm eastern. Actually, if you read my post (which I don't recommend) you'll see I did not plagarize, because the article clearly outlines how Cabrera has now been dealing with the pressure, while I stated that I didn't know what would help. Anyway, just wanted to assure that I did not rip off Beck's article.

Little Jimmy Jackson

On FSN's Tigers Live show last night, Leyland was asked what he thinks brought Raburn's hitting around the last couple games.  He said that he threatened to take away his walk up music.  He was like "I told him no more "Little Jimmy Jackson, and he started hitting."  Actually, Leyland told Jason Beck that he thought Raburn was pressing a lot, and has finally relaxed.  Funny stuff.  Raburn's walk up song is titled "Hicktown," performed by Jason Aldean.   Enquiring minds.

Prophesy!

Well, not five minutes after I wrote my last post, I read Jason Beck's blog, and lo and behold, my prediction about Sheffield has already come true.    Not that it was too difficult to foresee, but, I'll still take credit for the prophesy.

The Mystery of the Unstolen Bases

Last year in his ESPN blog, Curtis Granderson answered a reader's question as to why his stolen base attempts were down in 2008.  He said that he wasn't getting the green light as much, and basically said it was out of his control--that he had to wait for the go ahead.

Now, in one of his mailbag's pieces in his blog, Jason Beck fielded a question about Curtis stealing more bases.

He said that Grandy has a bit of a perfection issue with base stealing-in that he only goes when under the most ideal of circumstances.  That has resulted in a very high baserunner rating--he rarely gets caught--but fewer attempts.  Beck also mentioned that Andy Van Slyke had worked with Curtis on baserunning in 2007, which we may all remember prompted Granderson to look more for triples out of the box--and wow did that ever work like magic.

I guess both of these factors probably come into play a bit with Curtis' running game, but when I had read Curtis' own explanation late last season, I was more than a little bewildered--why on earth wouldn't he be getting the green light more often?  I  mean, he's not José Reyes or anything, but he should have been running a lot more last year, especially given our lack of overall team speed.

I'm hoping that Curtis, Jim and the rest of the coaching staff get on the same page so that he can swipe his fair share of bases this year.