Under manager Jim Leyland, the Detroit Tigers have finished with a winning record in 6 of the past 8 season, which is good, considering the fact that before Leyland, the last time the Tigers finished with an above-.500 record was in '93 under Sparky Anderson and the last time they had made the playoffs was in '87. Still, it has to feel to die-hard Tigers fans that they've been getting teased in recent years. The Tigers lost the '06 World Series four games to one, didn't make the playoffs for four consecutive years, before losing in the '11 ALCS four games to two, the '12 World Series four games to none, and the '13 ALCS four games to two. Especially the past three years, it's felt as if the Tigers have had the makeup of a playoff, even World Series-caliber team, yet haven't had the proper ingredients to actually win the World Series. Unless some changes are made, I see this pattern continuing.
One area where change doesn't need to be made is in the team's starting pitching. The Tigers have one of the best five-man rotations in all of baseball. Justin Verlander's numbers weren't as impressive this past season, but he came on at the end, and dominated in the playoffs. Max Scherzer finally put together the kind of season many felt he had the stuff for, as he finished the year 21-3 and is all but guaranteed to be the AL's Cy Young Award winner. Anibal Sanchez is the best #3 man in all of baseball. Doug Fister is one of the more underrated pitchers in the American League. Rick Porcello has been quite inconsistent, but with his youth and potential, he's still a solid #5 starter. The only one of these five I'd even think about possibly trading is Porcello, but again, with his youth and potential, it may be too difficult to part ways with the guy so early in his career.
For as good as the offense was this season, I think some changes need to be made here. First off, I think the following starters need to stay put: C/DH Victor Martinez, 2B/OF Omar Infante, SS Jose Iglesias, 3B Miguel Cabrera, LF/2B Jhonny Peralta, and RF Torii Hunter. I would seriously think about trading Prince Fielder (1B), Alex Avila (C), and Austin Jackson (CF). I'd also think about placing Infante at third base and Peralta at second base, as well as putting Martinez at first base and Cabrera at DH. Cabrera was way too banged up at the end of the season to both hit and field, and he's much too valuable a hitter to take that risk year in and year out. So, for the time being, my vision of this team would look at follows:
C
1B V. Martinez
2B J. Peralta
3B O. Infante
SS J. Iglesias
LF
CF
RF T. Hunter
DH M. Cabrera
Backup catcher Brayan Pena has shown an ability to hit the ball, so I wouldn't count out possibly starting him in place of Avila, but even if that's the case, look at the starters. Notice something missing? An ideal lead-off hitter. If Boston held one key advantage offensively against Detroit in the ALCS this year, it was speed. Austin Jackson, Torii Hunter, and Jose Iglesias are the three fastest starters the Tigers had this season. Yet Jackson struck out a team high 129 times in 129 games. Torii Hunter added 113. Iglesias didn't strike out a great deal, but only walked four times for an on-base percentage of .306. Jackson led the team with just 8 stolen bases this season. Most of the Tigers starters didn't even have average speed. Alex Avila, Prince Fielder, Miguel Cabrera, Jhonny Peralta, and Victor Martinez are all incredibly slow base-runners. Omar Infante has average speed. Jose Iglesias, Torii Hunter, and Austin Jackson have above-average speed. This is why there were times when the Tigers might have had 9+ hits in a game, but only managed to come away with 1-2 runs. It takes more hits to drive in such slow base-runners than if they had a blazer to lead off the game. This is why I feel it's of great importance for the team to sign or trade for a quick, good contact-hitting lead-off man. Speed distracts pitchers, takes the pressure off hitters, and adds an entirely new dimension to an offense. Playoff baseball typically comes down to manufacturing runs. As the saying goes, good pitching beats good hitting, which is why playoff teams typically have some of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball. Power-hitting teams, like Detroit and Atlanta, typically don't have the same kind of success hitting the long ball in the playoffs that they do in the regular season. So if a team is void of speed and is mainly reliant on the home run ball, they may run into problems come the postseason. Getting a lead-off single in an inning, stealing second base, being bunted over to third, and being driven in on a sacrifice fly is much easier than hitting the ball 420 feet off one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Not only would speed help the Tigers offensively, but also defensively. Peralta, Cabrera, and Fielder, in particular, lack the range of most players at their position. While they may not make a great number of errors, they also won't be able to make plays that most other players at their positions routinely make.
The second critical change I think the Tigers need to make is with their bullpen, and in particular, their closer. This has been the Tigers' Achilles heel the past few years, it seems. From Fernando Rodney to Todd Jones to Jose Valverde and beyond, the team's closers have prompted more heart attacks than fast food burgers. While Joaquin Benoit threw fairly well during the regular season, he was beaten up in the playoffs (6.35 ERA, 7.71 against Boston in the ALCS). He had never been a full-time closer before and I'm thinking he'd be much more comfortable as a 7th or 8th inning setup man than as a closer. This is another area where Boston had a significant advantage over the Tigers in the ALCS. Detroit was up 5-1 in game 2 before David Ortiz hit a grand slam in the 8th inning to tie the game, which Boston won in the 9th. Another grand slam was allowed by the Tigers bullpen in the 6th and deciding game. While quality starting pitching is essential to having consistent success in the MLB, that good quality pitching isn't worth a great deal if it consistently gets blown in the 7th, 8th, or 9th inning.
If the Tigers can add a quality lead-off hitter to their lineup and a consistent closer, I think they have all the tools necessary to win the World Series.
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