Over at Minor League Ball, John Sickels has been reviewing his off-season lists of Top 20 prospects for each major league club.  Yesterday, he re-posted his list of the Detroit Tigers' top minor leaguers, with thoughts and impressions on how they've performed this season and how that's affected their standing in the organization.

Even better, some of MLB's commentors have chimed in to mention several players (Matt Joyce!) that weren't on Sickels' original list, others that have developed into notable prospects (Guillermo Moscoso, Dusty Ryan), and inquire about one or two players (Jonathan Kibler) who have flown below the radar. 

You can give the list a look here.

Instead of the usual Open Thread posted on off-days, I thought maybe we'd be a little more topic-driven today because there's a decent amount of news to bat around.

  After Justin Verlander's turn in the rotation was moved up because of today's day off, it looked like we'd get a clash of pitching titans tomorrow night at Comerica Park.  Verlander vs. C.C. Sabathia.  Instead, we'll get something a bit less glamorous.  Sabathia, as you know, has all but officially been traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for four prospects, including last year's first-round pick, Matt LaPorta.

So who will be starting for the Indians tomorrow night, in Sabathia's place?  Could it be Jeff Weaver?  He signed a minor league deal with the Tribe over the weekend, perhaps in anticipation of the Sabathia trade.  (Since Weaver was in Milwaukee's organization before being released in June, maybe he should be considered a de facto part of the Brewers-Indians transaction.)

UPDATE: It looks like Jeremy Sowers will get the start for Cleveland tomorrow.

Why did Jamie Burke end up pitching for the Mariners in the 15th inning yesterday, instead of, you know, an actual pitcher?  The last available reliever, Arthur Rhodes, slept on his arm wrong, according to Seattle manager Jim Riggleman.

"Arthur, he came in today and said he slept on his arm funny and just didn't feel good.  So he said "If I get up, I want to get in.'  He didn't want to get up (in the bullpen) and down.  So we had a point in the lineup where we were going to use him, and Norm (Charlton) called down and said he's not feeling to good, so we shut him down."

Lookout Landing isn't too worked up about it, though.  Jeff thought Burke pitching provided some entertainment value for a long day.

  Something we didn't talk about when it was making the rounds last week was the possibility of Joel Zumaya being a starter for the Tigers in the future.  Jim Leyland said it was "possible," looking at the organization's lack of starting pitching.  The press then went to Zumaya to ask what he thought about such a move, and he laid a verbal smackdown.

"That's a stupid question," he said.  "I'm not answering it."

Zumaya then said that he didn't see himself going back to starting, though that's what he did for his entire minor league career.  His mindset and personality seem ideally suited to be a closer, yet his injury history and the emergence of Freddy Dolsi as competition to take over Todd Jones' role next year (along with the many relievers Detroit drafted last month) have the Tigers considering other possibilities.

  Brandon Inge begins a rehab assignment with Triple-A Toledo tonight, and will alternate between catcher and designated hitter with the intention of rejoining the Tigers after the All-Star break.

  Ramon Santiago appears to have finished his rehab assignment and is set to be activated to the Tigers' roster tomorrow.  That will send Michael Hollimon back to Toledo, where he can play every day.

With Carlos Guillen possibly missing tomorrow night's game due to the birth of his daughter, however, I wonder if the Tigers might hold off on that move for one more day so Hollimon can play third base.  Probably not, since Ryan Raburn or Santiago could fill in there.  It was just a thought.

  Something else that we haven't discussed here - largely because I'm not sure I want to get into it - is the pending demolition of Tiger Stadium.  It began with a bang - almost literally - last week with a wrecking ball punching a hole through one of the stadium's walls.  That's certainly a sobering image, one that brings what seems like an inevitability that much closer.  But to me, it's not much worse than seeing the pictures and descriptions of the decay that the ballpark has fallen into over the past nine years.

This probably deserves its own post, but I figured we could talk about it here.  I realize how much Tiger Stadium means to a lot of people, and I have many happy memories associated with that ballpark, as well.  But it's been almost 10 years since it closed.  We've all had more than enough time to say goodbye.  If part of it can be preserved, as The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy would like to do, that might give Detroit a feature that other cities don't offer.  Is it the best thing for Detroit?  Probably not, but unfortunately, no one else has been able to establish what would be best.  And because of that, a landmark has been left to rot.

We already used the "Re-Joyce" headline this week, so we had to come up with something else, even though it was probably more fitting for Matt Joyce's performance last night in Seattle.  But he definitely gets the Golden Tiger Claw for the second time in four days after going 4-for-5 while batting between Carlos Guillen and Miguel Cabrera.  (You think he got some pitches to hit in that spot?)

Also for the second time in a week, we come to praise those that have risen from Toledo to help revitalize the Detroit Tigers' 2008 season.  Red Bull gives you wings, but Mud Hens give you wins.  Joyce wasn't the only recent call-up that had himself a career night against the Mariners.  Michael Hollimon went 2-for-5, which included his first major league home run.  And he didn't get a cheapie, either.  (Is there such a thing at Safeco Field?)  Hollimon showed off a classic power swing in blasting a ball deep into right-center field, over the outstretched glove of Jeremy Reed.

But as nice as that was to see for Hollimon, I have to agree with Billfer.  How did the rookie not get a shaving cream pie in the face during his post-game interview?  Did Ryan Field warn everyone to back off so none of that stuff would get in his hair? 

One more Tiger Cub that deserves some praise is Clete Thomas.  Even though he didn't get a hit, Clete showed some nice glove work in left field that got the BYB Brigade excited in the GameThread and made up for Marcus Thames' bat not being in the lineup.  We're proud to say we began The Cult of Clete here, and there's plenty of room for joiners.

Roll Call

I was at a concert last night, so I knew I would've joined the fun late, but we had a big power outage in my part of Ann Arbor, so there was no baseball to be watched or listened to by the time I got home.  And once the power returned, John Keating was discussing a Tigers victory.

But it looks like ThaWalrus9, wepri31, Grant E., Zappatista, explosivo2k2, pfuhrmeister, busta (hey, it's been a while), MSU4LIF, halo0 (Welcome!), and PBURGTIGER had a fun night watching Carlos Silva get knocked around.

So long, National League; it was great while it lasted.  And I really mean that.  It was great.  You (especially the NL West) were berry, berry good to us.  Thank you for helping to revitalize the 2008 baseball season in Detroit.

The Tigers cleared a big hurdle today in going over .500.  (And that was not intended as a pun toward the Rockies' manager.)  In past seasons, getting past that break-even point has been a pretty steep obstacle to overcome.  Was it back in 2000 when Todd Jones finished off a game, and then held an index finger in the air, indicating that the Tigers were only one game away from .500?  And that seemed like a big deal back then.  The enormous difference, of course, is that those Tigers weren't a very good team and playoff contention was more of a hope than expectation.  Things are a little bit different around here eight years later. 

Once again, Detroit rallied from behind to snatch a win from the jaws of the Colorado Rockies.  Kenny Rogers looked like he might not make it out of the third inning, but after a 1-2-3 double play got him out of trouble, he pulled himself together and toughed it out through the sixth.  And it was in that sixth inning that the Tigers got the one big hit they needed.

Virtually nothing was expected from Dane Sardinha with the bat.  (He was hitting .206 in Triple-A.)  Just play good defense when asked to back up Pudge Rodriguez.  Any offense would be a plus.  Some might call it icing on the cake.  If so, Sardinha spread some sweet, creamy stuff on the Detroit victory cake today.  The Tigers seemed to find every gap in this series, while the Rockies had a hard time closing in on those balls.  Sardinha smacked a ball into left-center for what turned out to be a two-run triple, scoring Marcus Thames and Edgar Renteria, and that was the difference in the ballgame.

So if Red Bull is supposed to give you wings, what have the Mud Hens been giving the Detroit Tigers lately?  Just look at the past week.  Sardinha had the two-run triple today.  Last night, Ryan Raburn (who began the season in Toledo) hit a grand slam and scored the winning run.  On Friday, Eddie Bonine pitched eight innings of one-run baseball.  Thursday, Clete Thomas drew a game-winning bases-loaded walk.  And don't forget Michael Hollimon, who's gotten four hits in his last three games. 

As Blake said in his recap, the Tigers now seem to have a different hero each day.  But a lot of those heroics are coming from where it wasn't expected.  Role players are the glue that holds a team together.  Youth gives a flagging veteran team a boost of enthusiasm.  It's all coming together beautifully right now.

Roll Call

Let's all say goodbye to the National League together now.  (Though hopefully, we'll be seeing them again.)

Fist-bumps to ThaWalrus9, cannonad03, rock n rye, explosivo2k2 (Welcome!), MSU4LIF, ahtrap, LosTigres, dettigionswings'stons, tbliggins, wepri3, Jerkwheat (Condolences on The Tilde), ashmark (Thanks for the Maggs news), ReichardZ, Germantiger (Sorry about Germany, mein Freund), Juskimo, and Boney (Boney!) for today's participation in the GameThread.