AL Central Preview: Detroit Tigers

God dammit.

Son of a bitch.

Aw, shit.

You gotta be kiddin' me.

Fuck.

Suck my ass, Dombrowski.

Those were just some of the things that went through the minds of Twins, White Sox and Indians fans, not to mention Red Sox, Yankees, Angels and Mariners fans, too, when the Detroit Tigers swapped their farm system for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, formerly of the Florida Marlins.

The Tigers already had a pretty good team, one that went to the World Series in 2006 and appeared headed there again in '07 before faltering in the second half. But rather than sit still and hope things could right themselves on their own, they did what fans love and GMs are generally afraid to do. They literally bet the farm to make a run at a World Series.

And in fairness, it's not like they bet the farm to make one run. While the Tigers do have some veterans getting up there in years, they also have some young studs, and with an owner willing to spend, there's no reason to think they won't be able to fill holes in free agency over the next few years to keep this team in contention for the foreseeable future.

The lineup is loaded. The rotation isn't as good as Cleveland's, but it's still pretty good. The bullpen is hurting right now due to injuries, but it's a long season. Assuming they eventually get healthy, that unit will be a strength.

The Tigers did clean out their farm system to get Cabrera and Willis, but you know what? Good for them. Seriously, even as a Twins fan, I'm happy to see it. It's about time someone went ahead and tried to win now. At some point you have to cash in your chips and go for it. Good for the Tigers for having the balls to do it. As a fan, I can't imagine being disappointed, no matter how good the prospects are that went to Florida (and they were pretty good).

Lineup
CF Curtis Granderson
2B Placido Polanco
RF Magglio Ordonez
3B Miguel Cabrera
DH Gary Sheffield
1B Carlos Guillen
C Ivan Rodriguez
SS Edgar Renteria
LF Jacque Jones

Bench
IF/C Brandon Inge
OF Marcus Thames
OF Ryan Rayburn
IF Ramon Santiago
OF Timo Perez
OF Brent Clevlen

I'm not exactly sure that's the order Jimmy Leyland will go with, but what does it matter? You could pull those 9 names out of a hat and come up with a damn good lineup.
Granderson will open the season on the DL, but when healthy, he's a guy who slugs .500 out of the leadoff spot. Polanco is the most underrated player in baseball (he hit .341 last year!).
Then you've got Magglio (.363, won the batting title), Cabrera (otherwise known as the A-Rod of the NL) , Sheffield and Guillen (.296, 21, 102) in the middle, with I-Rod, Renteria (.332) and Jacque rounding out the bottom.
Seriously, their 7-8-9 could be 1-2-3 for many teams.

Rotation
RH Justin Verlander
LH Dontrelle Willis
RH Jeremy Bonderman
LH Nate Robertson
LH Kenny Rogers

Again, I don't know if this is the order they'll go in. But if Rogers is healthy and Willis finds his form (both fairly big ifs) this is a terrific rotation. Verlander is a legit ace, but he is the only sure thing.
I've given up on Bonderman ever being a true ace. He's too much of a mental midget. But he's pretty good for a 3rd or 4th starter. Robertson woke up last year after a terrific '06, but again, you could do a lot worse in the back end of the rotation.
I think a lot of how well Detroit does this year will come down to how well Rogers and Willis throw.
Willis won 22 games in '05 as a 24-year old. The last two years have been a struggle, but you get the feeling he'll find his game now that he's on a team as loaded as these guys are. I wouldn't blame Tiger fans for being nervous about a guy who had a 5.17 ERA in the NL last year, but I'm predicting a solid year from the D-Train.
Rogers I'm less sure of, as his fastball barely cracks 80 these days. But he knows how to pitch. If he's healthy I don't think 180 innings of 4.30 ball are out of the question, and with this lineup, that'd be just fine.

Bullpen
RH Joel Zumaya
RH Fernando Rodney
RH Todd Jones
LH Bobby Seay
RH Zach Miner
RH Jason Grilli
LH Tim Byrdak

Zumaya and Rodney are both expected to open the year on the DL, and if they're out for a prolonged stretch, that will make it tough for the Tigers to hold off Cleveland. Seay and Byrdak both pitched very well last year, as did Miner. As a Twins fan, I'm usually happy to see Grilli brought into a game.
Jones, as I wrote yesterday, is a decent closer. He doesn't have very good stuff, and you probably want to give him at least at 2-run lead to work with, but he usually finds a way to get it done. He won't be as good, however, without Zumaya and Rodney in front of him.

This is one of the best lineups I've ever seen. And while the rotation and bullpen both have questions, my prediction is that the Tigers are going to come out ahead in both of those areas. If I'm wrong and they don't, the Indians probably take the Central.

Detroit Tigers
Manager: Jim Leyland
Lineup: A+
Rotation: B+
Bullpen: B
Bench: A-
Defense: A-
2008 Prediction: 98-64, 1st in AL Central