MLB Team by Team: 2008 Detroit Tigers

2006 saw the Detroit Tigers appear in the World Series for the first time since 1984, and completing the turnaround from one of the all-time worst seasons in baseball history (43-119 in 2003). In 2007, the Tigers fell short of taking home another division crown, being upended by the Cleveland Indians, falling eight games off the pace.

The front office decided that was enough to make some changes, and rocked the American League by trading a handful of prospects to the Florida Marlins for superstars Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, to add to an already talented and deep team. Are they, once again, the team to beat in one of the toughest divisions in baseball?

OFFENSE: A

If it wasn't for the Boston Red Sox, this team would be the top offensive unit in the American League. For example, Curtis Granderson is a dynamic players, an almost automatic 20-homer, 20-stolen base guy, a guy most teams would have at the top of their lineup in the blink of an eye. There's an outside chance the man could hit ninth in this lineup. American League batting champion Magglio Ordonez was no slap hitter (28 homers, 139 RBI), Placido Polanco turned in a .341 campaign, Carlos Guillen hit 21 homers, Gary Sheffield 25, and that's before you add newcomers Cabrera (.320, 34 homers, 119 RBI in a lineup with no protection to offer in Florida) and shortstop Edgar Renteria (.332 last season for Atlanta). These Tigers are loaded for bear.

STARTING PITCHING: B-

The starting pitching is a little shaky, but just a little. Justin Verlander had a Cy Young-worthy season last year (18-6, 3.66 ERA, a no-hitter last season), Jeremy Bonderman continues to emerge, and Nate Robertson is a respectable, solid five. The two real question marks are the probable two and four spots. Kenny Rogers is coming off a year in which he needed surgery on one of his shoulders to repair arteries and elbow woes that combined to limit him to 11 starts, plus he's no spring chicken at 43. And Willis is coming off a horrible year by his standards (10-15, 5.17 ERA) and will now have to adjust to a new league. It's then possible that, two or three out of every five games, it could be a long night for the bullpen and a early shower for the starter.

PROJECTED ROTATION: Verlander, Rogers, Bonderman, Willis, Robertson

BULLPEN: C

And that bullpen is a little thinner to start this season without Joel Zumaya. Zumaya, the fireballing righty, sustained a shoulder injury while helping his father move out of the path of the San Diego wildfires this past year, and will miss the entire first half of the year, not a little blow. Todd Jones returns as the closer, and has done a great job, both last year (38 saves in 44 tries) and for his career (301 career saves), but is another one dancing that age line (he turns 40 on April 24). Fernando Rodney will go into the year as a setup man, and he's pretty good at it. They can also depend on Bobby Seay and Jason Grilli for good work as well. A solid, dependable group all around, and you can do a lot worse than that.

CONCLUSION

The Tigers go into this season with high hopes, and they certainly look justified. The ifs aren't big (if Cabrera can live up to the hype, if Verlander can repeat last year's heroics, if the rest of the rotation can be at least serviceable), and the numbers should be huge. The biggest question may not arise until October, when it may well be "Are they good enough to topple the Red Sox?"

PREDICTION: 95-67, first in American League Central.