Inge to Toledo and Worth to Stay?

There are advantages and disadvantages in sending Brandon Inge to Toledo to begin the year. As stated in the last post, with his performance this spring, Ryan Raburn has all but locked up second base. This leaves two spots for three potential infielders on the roster and important decisions for Jim Leyland and company to make prior to moving up north after spring training.

The three characters that are a part of this drama around the two spots in the infield are Ramon Santiago, Danny Worth and Brandon Inge. With his consistent and humble play, Ramon Santiago will undoubtedly head to Detroit with the team. This leaves one spot for either Worth or Inge.

It will be generally assumed that Inge will have this spot. With his bloated salary and declining ability to compete at the MLB level, maybe proper consideration should be given to Worth instead. The future will be with Worth, experience for the young infielder will be invaluable for the coming years, and his offensive and defensive productivity will be better than that of his counter part.

On the other hand Inge can't get any worse than he was last year. He is bound to hit better and to play solid defense at 2B, which could be beneficial in light of the rest of what is bound to be a sloppy defensive year in the infield in Detroit. More importantly, he is the patriarch of the clubhouse and his experience will be beneficial for keeping the glue strong in the midst of the relationships of the various characters on the club's team.

The decision will be difficult, and both players will get time on the diamond this year, but the decision that the team makes for who comes to Comerica in April will have implications.

The Over/Under on Rayburn Locking Up 2B

How many more days until Jim Leyland officially places Brandon Inge where he belongs, and announces Ryan Raburn as the everyday starting second baseman for the Detroit Tigers? There are exactly 18 days until the Tigers take the field against the Red Sox and as far as we are concerned, the "battle" for second base actually ended before spring even started. As spring training has unfolded, the inevitable has emerged. Here is a comparison of numbers between the two. 

          Brandon Inge

9G 25AB 3R 6H 1HR 1RBI .240BA .736OPS

          Ryan Raburn

8G 21AB 6R 10H 5HR 15RBI .476BA 1.859OPS

As if the past two year's of stats weren't enough, this spring has decided who should be at second. With all of this in mind, we will be placing the over under on the number of days until Raburn is announced as the starting second baseman at 11 days. He should have at least a week to settle in and prepare for the season ahead.

Oliver On Pace to Take 5th Spot in Tiger's Rotation

And down the stretch they come...

After our last post, we noted that Andy Oliver had taken the early lead in the race for the 5th spot in the Detroit Tiger's starting rotation. After his last appearance on Monday, he has built on that lead. After a spotty third inning in his first appearance, Oliver shifted gears and pitched a near perfect stretch of four innings against the Mets on Monday. This outing has placed him in the lead, over Jacob Turner, who has been miserable this spring and Drew Smyly, who has pitched better than Turner, but not as well as Oliver. If Oliver can continue to hit his spots with his fastball and get his slider over the plate, it will be hard for anyone to catch him.

There are two pieces of good news behind all of this action between these three hurlers that form the core of depth in the Tiger's minor league pitching program. Firstly, if a starter gets injured this year, there will be plenty of options to replace him. Secondly, this core could also function as trade bait later this summer when the Tiger's look to upgrade at either 2B or middle relief. All in all good news for people of the D.

Why the Tigers Will Win Over 100 Games and Andy Oliver

Hank Greenberg in 1934

It isn't often that the Detroit Tigers win over 100 games in a season. It has only happened 5 times in their history. (1984, 1968, 1961, 1934, 1915) There is one outstanding reason why this may happen this year. It has less to do with the Detroit Tigers, and more to do with the rest of the AL Central. While the Tigers have put together an exceptional squad for 2012, let's remember that the rest of the AL Central is as exceptionally bad as the Tigers are good. We have already predicted that the chances are slim that any team in the central will break .500. With this in mind and 43 percent of the Tigers games coming against teams in the central (70 of the Tigers 162 games), the chances for winning over 100 games are high. If the Tigers play .685 baseball against the central, which is well within reach, the Tigers would only have to play .565 baseball against the rest of their schedule to make it to 100 wins.

48 wins and 22 losses Against the Central

52 wins and 40 losses Against the Rest of the American League

This blog will take all bets that the Tigers will win less that 100 games. Just email us with how much!

On another note... Andy Oliver today... Nasty.

96 mph cheddar

Andy Oliver topped out at 96 mph today and commanded his fastball that consistently topped 94 mph throughout two innings. He also had a tight slider and dominated Braves hitters in that time. If he can keep this type of work up through the rest of March, there is no way that any other pitcher could compete. Unfortunately, in his third inning of work he began to lose command and walked a couple of hitters. He was bailed out by an excellent diving stop and double play by Brennan Boesch. In short, Andy Oliver has taken the early lead in the competition for the Tigers fifth spot in the starting rotation. His spot will solidify if he can show over the next couple of weeks that he can control his fastball.

2012 AL Central Analysis and Predictions (Part 3)

After taking an in depth look at the Central, the bottom line is this... The AL Central is the worst division in baseball, in competition with the NL Central, and only has one legitimate contender within its ranks. The Detroit Tigers will win at least 100 games and will contend for the world series in 2011. The Kansas City Royals will finally break through and take a step toward contending for the wild card and be 10 games better than they were last year. (As long as the injury bug stays far away.)  The rest of the AL Central will be both worse and bad. Really bad. The White Sox, Twins, and Indians will be out of the race by the All Star break and will begin rebuilding when this reality lands heavy on their front office come July. With no major moves in the off season, and question marks across all three rosters, the Indians, Twins and White Sox will need divine intervention to help cross the .500 mark. Not even an act of God could get them in a playoff race come September. 

Here is how we see the Central finishing.