Oh Baby! It’s getting to be that time of year again. It’s time to shake off the dust from another long winter, clean out the garage and turn on Tiger baseball. It’s time to bust out your “Tiger Town” and “Wire to Wire” dvd’s and get in the mood (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, stop what you’re doing, google them, buy them, then come back and read my preview). Heck, I wouldn’t even be mad if you popped in “For Love of the Game”. Well, maybe a little, but at least it portrayed Tiger baseball! And let’s be honest, that’s all that really matters. Sure I love all of the other sports the great state of Michigan has to offer but for me, it starts and ends with Tiger baseball.
All that said, I give you my first ever Detroit Tigers Season Preview brought to you by isportsweb.com, soon to be the most comprehensive sports coverage on the web.
I hope you find it informative, relatively unbiased, and most of all a nice appetizer for our annual 6-month journey starting in April. Read it and post your comments below the article.
Welcome to the 4-part 2009 Detroit Tigers Season Preview. Here’s what we’ll be talking about:
Part I: Expect the Unexpected: a glimpse at past records, last year’s mishaps and this year’s roster shakeups
Part II: They Better Be Better: Projected Starting Lineup and Rotation
Part III: Fine in ’09?: Team and Individual Projections
Part IV: Fire Down Below: Who can we watch on the farm this year
Part I: Expect the Unexpected
One thing that has gone largely unnoticed in the recent history of this club is the inconsistency from one year to the next. Since 2003 we have surged from a 43-win team all the way up to 95 wins in 2006 and back down to a disappointing 74 wins last year. One thing that is evident is the swings from one year to the next (with the exception of ’04-’05). See below.
2003: 43-119
2004: 72-90
2005: 71-91
2006: 95-67
2007: 88-74
2008: 74-88
One thing that is frightening is if you were to put that into a graph, it would appear as though we are a team in the midst of a sharp decline. So, are we?
I think not.
First, I need to remind everyone what went wrong last year. It’s a painful topic so I’ll be brief. Dombo and Leyland put all of their eggs in the offensive basket and assumed that our bats and relatively proven starting rotation would be enough to get us to the playoffs. As exciting as that idea was last March, the mere thought of it disgusts us all now a year later. Our offense scored a fair amount of runs but never on the consistent game-to-game basis that we would have expected. A first half slump by Miguel Cabrera, down years from Brandon Inge, Gary Sheffield, Edgar Renteria, Carlos Guillen and the eventually traded Pudge Rodriguez quickly destroyed all hopes for the 2008 season.
To make matters worse, Leyland and then pitching coach Chuck Hernandez lost the pitching staff. Virtually everyone on the staff had a bad year. They couldn’t locate their pitches with any consistency, couldn’t get out of jams, and in general, lacked confidence.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the topper was our awful defense. In order to maximize our offensive potential, Leyland pulled guys from their natural spots and shifted things around just enough to create a defensive catastrophe. I ask you, what was more embarrassing than watching Carlos Guillen trying to play first base? The answer could be watching Miguel Cabrera try to man 3rd.
All of these things led to a massively disappointing 74-win, last place campaign from an expected playoff team.
When October rolled around and the season had mercifully ended, the question left on the table was simple: what does a team that finished 20 wins below expectations do to right the ship?
I think we all knew what the answer was going to be: find a way to pitch and play defense. Owner Mike Ilitch threw a nice wrinkle in there too: payroll would not be increased this year for the first time in about 5 years. Dombo’s task: get better without spending a dollar more.
The easiest thing would have been to go Yankee-style and sign every major free agent the market had to offer. Certainly, the signings of C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixiera, or any one of them, would have done wonders for our team but Ilitch wasn’t buying and it’s hard to blame him.
Who’s In and Who’s Out
Key Members Gone from last year’s roster:
C Ivan Rodriguez: traded to New York, now a free agent
SS Edward “the enigma” Renteria: contract bought out, now a San Francisco Giant
OF Matt Joyce: traded to Tampa for Edwin Jackson
SP Kenny Rogers: free agent/retired
RP Jason Grilli: traded to Colorado
RP Todd Jones: retired
RP Kyle Farnsworth, now a Kansas City Royal
Pitching Coach Chuck Hernandez
Key Acquisitions:
C Gerald Laird from Texas
C Matt Treanor from Florida
SS Adam Everett from Minnesota
SP Edwin Jackson from Tampa Bay
RP Brandon Lyon from Arizona
RP Scott Williamson from a year off
Pitching Coach Rick Knapp from Minnesota’s farm system
For a team that under-performed to the level the Tigers did last year, this may not look like much but it does accomplish a lot.
Picking up Laird and Treanor allows Inge to move back to 3rd, far and away his best position and a huge upgrade over the Cabera/Guillen duo of last year.
Everett will give us an outstanding defensive shortstop for the first time in a long, long time. Not to mention, his character is far superior to what Renteria brought to the mix.
Jackson should be an innings eater with a high upside, something we desperately needed last year.
Lyon and Williamson give us two guys in the bullpen who know how to get major league hitters out. That sounds obvious and simple but if you watched a lot of Tiger baseball last year, you know it’s not that easy.
What does this all mean? It’s hard to say because expectations have been misleading in the past for this team. I for one like what I’m hearing and expect the downtrend in wins to stop this year. Are we a playoff team? You’ll have to read Season Preview Part III to find out.
Next up, Part II, the 2009 projected lineup and rotation.