Price is Right?

 The boldest, most interesting team in sports right now is undoubtedly your Detroit Tigers. With a do-or-die  World Series mandate and deep pockets, the organization once again has the baseball world on notice with a stunning trade.

Detroit raised America’s collective eyebrows by plucking lefty ace David Price from the penny-pinching Rays. The move would be more jaw-dropping had we not already come to expect the unexpected from the Tigers. Pawning off a top five worst contract in MLB history in return for an All-Star.  Snapping up the best hitter this side of 1990 for a group of ditch diggers in 2008. When your team is run by a guy who should be running major league baseball, you hardly bat an eye. Dave Dombrowski, as Jim Leyland, put it, ain’t scared.  The Western Michigan grad is a proven assassin, scooping up talent for nothing and pillaging rosters coast to coast (Florida, Seattle, etc.). Maybe old Dave already runs baseball…

DD’s antics have fueled a solid team and invigorated the fan base right up the point of delirium. But just shy of the sublime climax of World Series glory, the Motor City Kitties have dug their own graves two years in a row. What gets them over the hump? Dombrowski and Illitch have moved heaven and earth taking shots at answering that question for a punch-drunk city just yearning for a championship.

After a feverish off-season and a roller coaster of a start, the Tigers, along with the Athletics, are the teams to beat in the AL. Not many would argue that these two clubs are managed by the best GM’s in the game. Billy Beane and Dave Dombrowski  tower over their peers, but lack hardware with their current clubs to show for it. In a push for that elusive title, the two GM’s are locked in a battle. This week’s deadline standoff played out like a movie – with each side trading for highly coveted pitchers with the other side in mind. The story reads like a screen-play, but old fashioned baseball factors will determine this Detroit team’s fate. Behind the star-studded rotation and the monstrous Miguel Cabrera, glaring weaknesses exist on this club.

Shit List: Detroit Tigers

• Outfield Defense With Austin Jackson out, the outfield defense may well be the worst in all of baseball. Don’t let Rajai Davis’ speed fool you. He’s lousy in the field, and now he’s manning Comerica Park’s colossal center field. Detroit loves the trade for Price, but will sorely miss AJ’s brilliant defense.
• Team Speed Another adverse effect of the Jackson departure. The lineup, despite an injection of speed in the offseason, has become more dependent on extra base hits and less equipped to steal runs on base hits and sacrifices. Good for entertainment value, bad for playoff style games.
• Relief Pitching The bullpen is miserable – ranking 28th in ERA currently. DD brought in some help with his trade for Joakim Soria last week, but aside from Joba Chamberlain the group is utterly unreliable. Bullpen quality is a longstanding issue for Detroit. With a stronger bullpen, the Tigers likely would have won the ALCS last year. To be clear, the Tigers have an awful, no good, gut-wrenching, friendship-ruining bullpen. Improvement is a must or this team is dead on arrival in October.

Despite the same problems that doomed Detroit the last two years, most everyone expects this team to get to the series. Expectations are dangerous though, causing teams to unravel in the worst way (i.e. LA Angels 2013 season). The Tigers can shoulder those forces with a strong locker room full of veterans like Torii Hunter and Victor Martinez. After purging Avisail Garcia last year, the group’s cohesion is apparently back. These guys are hungry, healthy, and can’t possibly be pissed off about their paychecks. It’s winning time.

So 30 years after their last World Series Title, the Detroit Tigers are poised for a run. DD works the phones like Cabrera works a hanging curveball. But the jury is out on whether this unit can blast through the wall and emerge in October with a ring for old Illitch. Watch out for that bullpen, and check out the poll question today.

Have a Miggy pic…