Tigers in last place?

Yeah, you saw right, the Detroit Tigers currently sit in last place in the AL Central after an 0-6 start to the 2008 season.

What happened to the hype about them being the "World Series favorites?"  What happened to Miguel Cabrera being the big bat this team needed to get over the hump?  Nothing is happening for this team.  Not only has their offense been dormant, but their pitching isn't very good either.  Dontrelle Willis seems to be the only one, in the Tigers staff, that is pitching well at all.

So what's next for this team?  If their bats don't pick up soon, it's going to be a long season for Detroit.  Are they the new "overspending for nothing" team?  Although we're just into the 2nd week of the season, things are looking good in Detroit.

First Week Observations.

Baltimore and Florida in first? Boston in last? The Detroit 0-6? You gotta love the first week of the baseball season.

The biggest suprise is the winless start for the Detroit Tigers. The pre-season world series favorite started the season by dropping 3 games apeice to the Royals and Whitesox. The offense has been dormant and pitching has been eratic. Brandon Inge leads the team in Home Runs and RBI's, while freshly signed Miguel Cabrera has knocked in exactly 1 run on a solo homer on opening day, and is hitting .111. On the pitching side the team ERA is well above 5 with the only starter under 5 being 43 year old Kenny Rogers. Justin Verlander has been hit hard giving up 8 runs in just over 11 innings.

On the other end of the spectrum there is the Baltimore Orioles. After losing their first game 6-2 against the Rays, they then preceded to win their next 5, includng a 4 game sweep of the Seattle Mariners. Brian Roberts(yup, still an Oriole) came out of the gate on fire batting .368 with 3 stolen bases and a 1.170 OPS. However he has been upstaged by Luke Scott. Aquired by Baltimore in the Miguel Tejada Deal, the outfielder is sporting a .500 average. Aubrey Huff hasn't been the hitter he once was in Tampa since being aquired, but has put up decent power numbers to start his 2008 campaign with 2 homers and 7 RBI's early on. Starting pitching hasn't been great, Steve Trachsel is the only starter with an ERA under 5 , but the bullpen has been fantastic. In just over 21 innings of work the orioles pen has given up just 2 earned runs.

Some other notable opening week observations:

Chien-Ming Wang is just fine. After his poor performance in the playoffs, he has pitched 2 supurb games to start the season and has looked dominat at times.

Milwaukee is for real. Braun and Fielder can rake, Sheets is fantastic, they may not win the division, but they will be in the hunt.

Hanley Ramirez is good. The rest of the team, especially the pitching, is awful, but that kid is special.

The Mets could be in trouble. With pedro Down again, the Mets better hope Maine and Perez are for real and Pelfrey and Hernandez can get the job done. Santana has been great, but a so-so offense and bullpen can only get them so far. They will also have to figure out how to beat Atlanta..


With one week doen, just another 26 to go.