Preview #13 of 30: Detroit Tigers

All right, raise your hand if you had the Tigers in the World Series at the beginning of the season.  Liars.  Heck, a lot of people though that the Tigers were going to be easy fodder for the Yankees in round one of the playoffs -- and that was after the Tigers rolled through the regular season at 95-67.

How completely unexpected was that?  Well, it was the Tigers' first winning season since 1993.  It was the first playoff appearance for the team since 1987 (which also happened to be the last time the Tigers had won more than 90 games.)  Was 2006 a fluke?  Or are the Tigers a club on the rise?  Can we expect them to make it back to the playoffs?

The answer to the last question is maybe.  The AL Central is still the toughest in baseball, though the Twins probably will not be as good as they were last year and the White Sox didn't really improve their lot in the offseason (and may have actually hurt themselves.)  But I'm also hard-pressed to believe the Indians will underachieve again (or were they just playing over their heads in 2005?)

The offense is solid.  No one player really stands out.  Magglio Ordonez has been very good in the past, while Gary Sheffield is coming off an injury-plagued season and can no longer be expected to hit 35 homers on a regular basis.  But the Tigers lineup doesn't have any obvious zeroes, either.  A good way to sum up the Tigers last season was that they had four players who hit more than 20 homers (and two more with 19), but none who hit more than 30.  Adding Sheffield probably helps, but even if he's hurt or ineffective, Ordonez, Curtis Granderson, Craig Monroe, and Marcus Thames are all very capable outfielders.  The infield of Brandon Inge, Carlos Guillen, Placido Polanco, and Sean Casey is solid all around, and that's assuming that Casey starts (after all, the Tigers still have Chris Shelton around.)  And Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate is still as good as any in baseball.  Even if no one player blows you away, this Tigers offense will score runs.

The real key to the Tigers' resurgence, though, was the pitching staff, which returns intact from last season.  Kenny Rogers, Jeremy Bonderman, Justin Verlander, and Nate Robertson all made 30 or more starts, and the highest ERA of the four was Bonderman's 4.08.  Mike Maroth was hurt for much of the season, but the Tigers were able to get by with Wilfrido Ledezma and Zach Miner in his absence.  There's some evidence that the Tigers got lucky with their pitching last season -- Rogers, Robertson, and even Verlander all survived even with poor peripherals -- but that may just be a reflection of playing in a park friendly to pitchers with a good defense behind them.  Those four will once again form the front four, with one of the three of Maroth, Miner, and Ledezma filling the final spot.  The bullpen got a solid season from Todd Jones, but if he's the closer again it's because Joel Zumaya has a bad spring.  Everybody knows about Zumaya now -- the 22-year-old hurler with the sick 102 mph fastball -- and he was one of the most effective relievers in the majors last season, with a 1.94 ERA and 97 strikeouts in just 83.2 innings.  Yeah, he also walked 42, but he was so unhittable that it didn't really make much difference.

The Tigers epitomize something of an ideal among baseball teams.  While there isn't a lot of star power -- Sheffield's best days are behind him -- there aren't any obvious zeroes hanging around, either on offense or on the pitching staff.  Unfortunately, in the same division as the White Sox, that may not be enough.

Projected 2007 finish: 2nd, AL Central

Projected Starting Lineup

Granderson cf
Polanco 2b
Guillen ss
Ordonez rf
Sheffield dh
Monroe lf
Rodriguez c
Casey 1b
Inge 3b

Projected Starting Rotation

Kenny Rogers (L)
Jeremy Bonderman
Justin Verlander
Nate Robertson (L)
Mike Maroth (L)

The season will be a success if... The Tigers make it back to the playoffs.  Yeah, they made the World Series last year, but simply making the playoffs again is a more realistic goal.

Projected 2007 record: 89-73