2008 Detroit Tigers MLB Preview
Baseball Outlook for This Season's Motown Nine
The 2006 American League champs dropped to second place last year. But after a boatload of winter acquisitions, they look like they can win it all in 2008.
The 2008 Detroit Tigers are already being hailed as one of the favorites to win the American League. After a slightly disappointing 2007 season, when they dropped from league champions to second place in the American League Central, the team made several aggressive offseason moves that should put them back at the top of their division and their league.
2007 Regular Season: 88-74 (second place AL Central)
New in Detroit: LHP Dontrelle Willis, RHP Denny Bautista, SS Edgar Renteria, OF Jacques Jones.
Biggest Offseason Acquisition
The biggest move of the baseball off-season was the Tigers trade for the Marlins’ Miguel Cabrera. Given what this kid has already accomplished, It's hard to believe that he is still only 24 years old.
In his truncated rookie season, Cabrera was integral to the Marlins 2003 World Series victory over the New York Yankees. Over the next four full seasons, he has four straight years of 110+ RBI, three straight years of batting at least .320, and he’s averaged more than 30 home runs a year since 2004. Now that he will hit third or fourth in a lineup that is far superior to the Marlins, don't be shocked if Miguel competes for the American League MVP award in 2008.
A More Potent Offense Returns to Comerica Park
Cabrera isn't the only offensive threat on the team; not by a long shot. MVP runner-up Magglio Ordonez, who hit .363 with 28 home runs and 139 RBI, is back after the best season of his life. He and Cabrera will share the 3-4-5 batting slots with veteran Gary Sheffied. Sheff is coming back from a season where nagging injuries limited him to just 494 at-bats. Despite those physical problems, Sheff was productive, with 25 home runs, 75 RBI, a .378 OBP and 22 stolen bases. If he can remain healthy throughout the season, look for Gary to have one last year of 30 homers and close to 100 RBI.
Supporting the big three will be a roster full of all-stars, and perennially productive players. The first is leadoff hitter Curtis Granderson. A relatively unknown player outside of Detroit before the 2007 season, Granderson came into his own last season, hitting .302, and becoming the fourth player in baseball history to top 20 doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases.
He will be followed in the lineup by Placido Polanco, who hit .341 last year and struck out only thirty times. With his ability to get on base, sacrifice, and hit and run, Polanco is the ideal number two hitter for this power laden team.
Hitting sixth will be the very underrated Carlos Guillen, who will move from shortstop to first base this year. Although he is sometimes lost in the shuffle of Detroit’s more prominent sluggers, Guillen has averaged better than .300 with 20 homers and 95 RBI over his past three full seasons. He will be a serious offensive upgrade over the departed Sean Casey, who did a yeoman's job manning the first sack in 2007.
Replacing Guillen at shortstop will be newcomer Edgar Renteria, who is coming off a season where he hit a career-high .332. Following him is the ageless and still very effective Ivan Rodriguez. Having this future Hall of Famer as your team's fifth or sixth best hitter says a lot about how deep the Tigers' offense is this year.
The bottom line is this: the Tigers have a great lineup that should score more runs than anyone else in baseball.
Starting Pitching
Justin Verlander is one of the best starting pitchers in baseball. His 35 wins in the last two seasons are the third most among A.L. starters, behind only Chien-Ming Wang (38) and Josh Beckett (36). He’ll anchor a rotation that features Jeremy Bonderman (11-9 in 2008) and veteran Kenny Rogers, who was injured most of last year, and is now 43 years old. Whether or not Rogers can still pitch effectively in the regular season remains to be seen, but his early spring training performance is giving the Tigers reason to hope.
The most intriguing pitcher, of course, is newcomer Dontrelle Willis, who came over from the Florida Marlins in the Cabrera trade. At times, Willis has been a dominant pitcher. In 2003, he was 14-6 and won the Rookie of the Year Award. The next year he struggled, but in 2005, he finished second in the Cy Young voting on the strength of a 22-10 record and a 2.63 ERA. After a solid season in 2006, however, Willis struggled last season. He won 10 games, lost 15, and had an ERA of 5.17. If the "real" Dontrelle shows up this year and win 15-20 games, the Tigers could put together a seasons for the ages.
A Healthier Bullpen?
This was another part of the team that battled injuries last year. Their best middle-releief man, Fernando Rodney, spent a lot of time on the diabled list last year and he is scheduled to start the '08 season on the shelf. This puts stress on guys like Bobby Seay and Zach Miner to bridge the 7th and 8th inning gap to reliever Todd Jones. With the injuries and the age of Jones, the Tigers relief corps may be the team's only potential weak point.
2008 Prediction: Verlander, Bonderman, Willis and Rogers will do enough to keep that potent offense ahead in most games. The bullpen may struggle at times, but that lineup could score close to 1000 runs, and that should be plenty for the Tigers to win 98 games.
Final record: 98-64; American League Champions.
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