The Healthy Scratch

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The Detroit Tigers are the best team in baseball.

Let that sink in for a while. The Detroit Tigers, who spent the last 10 years as a laughing stock, are absolutely dominating this year. They are 6 and a half games better than any other team in the majors and showing no signs of slowing down. How the hell is this happening and are the Tigers for real?

Lets answer the 2nd question first. The Tigers are real and here to stay. You just can’t fluke your way to a .673 winning percentage. To put their current record in context, they are on pace to win 109 games. The 1984 Tigers, the team that started the year 35-5 and is regarded as one of the best Tiger teams ever, only won 104 games. You can’t credit an easy division either. The AL Central features three of the best teams in baseball (The Tigers, White Sox and Twins) and another competitive team in the Indians. This isn’t the AL Central of a few years ago that was full of patsies, this may be the best division in baseball.

So how is all this happening? How did the Tigers turn into a powerhouse all of the sudden? You don’t have to look further than the mound to see the main reason. The Tigers feature two of the best young starters in baseball in Jeremy Bonderman and Justin Verlander. Bonderman’s been around for a few years but he’s only 23 and will probably get even better in a few years. Verlander’s has been nothing short of outstanding in his rookie year. He’s a tall pitcher who can rally crank it up.

If you add in Joel Zumaya and Curtis Granderson, the Tigers have four stars all under the age of 26. If it wasn’t for Francisco Liriano’s dominance, MLB could have already mailed the rookie of the year trophy to Detroit, they’d just have to figure out who’s name to engrave on it.

Now there are some warning signs that the Tigers could come back to a earth a bit in the 2nd half. Kenny “The Roaster” Rogers faded badly in the 2nd half last year, those kooky old guys can’t pitch forever ya know. Detroit also has an AWFUL closer. Homophobic jerk Todd Jones doesn’t scare anyone. This is a guy who just two years ago was begging for a job and now all of the sudden he’s going to be a closer on a top contender? The sooner the Tigers give the closers role to Zumaya and kick Jones to the curb the better. If they don’t Tiger fans better keep defibrillators handy when their team has a one run lead in an October playoff game.

But for now, its high times in Detroit. The Tigers are back baby. You gotta love it.

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