Detroit Tigers: News and notes before Pirates series

Here at The Corner, we round up Detroit Tigers news and rumors around the Tigers blogosphere so that you don’€™t spend hours surfing the web searching.

The Detroit Tigers have an off day before they start a series tomorrow against the Pittsburgh Pirates. There is still plenty of news and notes to report on throughout around the web. First up, the team cut Drew VerHagen today. VerHagen had a rocky outing yesterday against the Royals.

In nine outings VerHagen has posted a 6.30 ERA and is 0-1. As seems to be the case every year the bullpen is still a work in progress for the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers DFA’d VerHagen and Wilson gave up a grand slam in the loss yesterday.

The bullpen was the bad and the ugly against the Royals. The bats were hot though and the starting rotation produced solid starts for the team. Francisco Liriano had a no-no going into the sixth inning. After he gave up a solo home-run things the team turned to the bullpen. It was all downhill from there.

Despite the bullpen woes, the Tigers have had a surprising start. The Talkin’ Tigers podcast took a chunk of time out to examine the reasons behind that start.  The Free Press beat writers discussed why they think the Tigers are hovering around the .500 mark through the first twenty games.

Next: Who should start in left field?

Chris McCosky, of the Detroit News, thinks that JaCoby Jones and Leonys Martin gives the Tigers a defensive edge.  Mike Gerber had a brief debut on Friday against the Royals. That didn’t stop the Tigers from recalling him back to Comerica Park.

Andy Patton examined what to expect from the Tigers’ prospect playing in the big leagues. We also took a look at the top five fantasy performers on the Tigers roster so far this season.  SB Nation’s Bless You Boys examined how the Tigers are performing through the first twenty games of the season.