It was also the year of the run. From Coldhardfootballfacts.com

[quote=CHFF]The highest single-season rushing yards per carry average in NFL history is 4.29…set in 2011.[/quote]

Link to story The story is actually about passing, the rushing comment was in the last line.

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We won't know exactly what we're dealing with until after the game on Monday night but this feels like a very winnable game to me.

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I was just looking  at the remaining schedule and I think some of our timing of games is somewhat fortunate. Here are just a few observations

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http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15093

Mike Fast has an article at Baseball Prospectus about framing pitches, he breaks it down by the numbers of who is good, who is bad and what makes good catchers good and bad catchers bad. He even has gifs of good and bad technique. The Upshot of the article: Alex Avila is very good, and Gerald Laird was very bad.

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Right now the Tigers are 3 back of the yankees at 89-64 with 9 games left to play.

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Jered Weaver should be suspended, for at least 2 starts if not more, as should any pitcher who throws at someone's head.

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I was just doing my best Jim Schwartz impression watching Jahvid Best and Mikel Leshoure highlight clips which got me to thinking about how the lions can use them to complement each other and what a nightmare preparing for both of them will be for opposing defenses.

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It's going to be insane, shades of week 1 vs the bears every week.

Suh, Fairly, Williams, Avril, KVB, LoJack, Hill and McBride? Ahahahahhahahahha

I admit at first I was pretty pissed we didn't pick Prince, but the more I think about this the happier I become. I am in a great mood now. I think my favorite comment that I saw about the Fairly pick was "Alphonso Smith is now a shutdown Corner"

According to PFT Jets are thinking of letting Antonio Cromartie hit free agency http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/02/16/report-jets-plan-to-let-antonio-cromartie-walk/

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Just saw this article over at HBT

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/12/16/rangers-angels-tigers-are-not-on-greinkes-no-trade-list/

Tigers are not on Greike's no trade list, Royals are looking for middle infielders and a center fielder. The most obvious pieces that would come up as young talent for the tigers are Sizemore and Jackson, or maybe Rhymes, what you would guys feel comfortable with? Personally I would trade Sizemore and Jackson for Greinke, he's a true ace pitcher that could give us an amazing rotation. Jackson was great in 2010 but I'm not sure he can sustain the success with his strikeout number and high BABIP and Sizemore is still a huge question mark. Thoughts?

So pretty much everywhere I look the Tigers starting rotation looks like this:

1.  Justin Verlander

2. Rick Porcello

3. Max Scherzer

4. Jeremy Bonderman

5. Oh god please no

Am I the only one who is more than a little nervous about putting Bonderman in the rotation?

Lets recap Bondo's career a little bit:

Overall it's not looking too great, below average ERA (not that that means much), almost exactly average WHIP, average HR stats, a below average ERA+; pretty much the only good thing are his strikeout numbers which are better than average. 

Alright lets give Bondo a break, he wasn't ready for the big leagues in 2003, anyone could see that, so lets remove those stats from his averages:

A little better, WHIP slightly better than average, about 1 K/9 better, and pretty much average on HR/9.

Obviously his career year was 2006, where he was a solid pitcher and workhorse. In 2007 he was pretty average with a crappy ERA, an okay WHIP good strikeout numbers and too many home runs. He was doing pretty well in 2008 before his blood clots cut his season short. 2009 as we know didn't go too well: One disastrous start and then a few unremarkable bullpen appearances. Coming out of the bullpen he looked okay, his fastball velocity was still down but his slider was okay. He had more control issues than normal with more walks than strikeouts. Of course all of this is meaningless since the sample size is so small. I'm just not confident that we'll get the 2006 or pre-injury 2008 Bondo, I think it's more likely that we'll get the other Bondo which is average at best and flat out bad at worst.

As I wrote this I found that I warmed slightly to the idea of Bondo as a 4th starter, because after all 4th starters don't need to be great, you just want them to be average. But I still have a lot of doubts, he could very well go nowhere and then where is our rotation left? Do any of you feel comfortable with 40% of our rotation being filled with:

Dontrelle Willis

Nate Robertson

Phil Coke

Zach Minor

Armondo Galarraga

Alfredo Figaro

Eddie Bonine

Because I don't.