The Rise of the Tigers

Something horrible has happened.

Within a 24 hour span, the Yankees took themselves out of the running for Santana, ushering him toward Boston, and then watched the Tigers basically shove them out of the wild card spot. Somewhere Hank Steinbrenner is staring blankly into space.

The Yankees just became the fourth best team in the American League behind the Red Sox, Tigers, and Indians. Last night, as Hank Steinbrenner bit off his finger nails and gorged himself on room service, the Detroit Tigers nabbed Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis from the Marlins. The Tigers, who won the pennant in 2006 and faded in last year's pennant race, are now poised to compete with the Indians for the Central Division title.

The four best teams in the American League are now spread over only two divisions, which means that only three can make the playoffs. With Boston's recent dominance and superior pitching (even without Santana), the Yankees will have a hard time winning more games than the Red Sox over the course of the regular season. Most likely, they will have to compete for the wild card and if that's the case, they'll be fighting to post a better record than either Cleveland or Detroit. The question is whether the Yankees have the pitching to rack up the wins. Right now their staff is filled with guys who are unreliable because they're either too old or too young. Pettitte and Mussina are at the end of their careers. Chamberlain, Hughes, and Kennedy all have yet to pitch a full season in the majors. The staff is fraught with uncertainty. They could have one of the best rotations in baseball. They could have an average one, too. We won't know until the season starts and even then, the results are unlikely to be steady.

The Tigers just put themselves in a position to win a World Series. They add Cabrera (.320, 34, 119 last year) to potent lineup that already includes Magglio Ordonez (.363, 28, 139), Ivan Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Guillen, Placido Polanco, and Edgar Renteria. The main question about Cabrera is his weight, but he has said that he has dedicated this off season to getting himself in prime physical condition. White Sox manager and former Marlins coach Ozzie Guillen has been critical of Cabrera's weight problem in the past. Recently, however, he came out in support of his friend. According to ESPN, Guillen said Cabrera "has lost about 15 pounds, maybe a little bit more. If you see Miguel Cabrera now, you will be surprised." Guillen added, "I told the Marlins he's going to be in the best shape you've ever seen him in. Whoever gets this guy is going to have a heck of a ballplayer with a different mentality...He has the power and talent to be one of the best players ever."

Whether or not Cabrera's weakness at third is due to his weight, he has offered to move to first base or the outfield in order to help his team. It seems the Tigers will take him up on that offer. Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who managed Cabrera on the Marlins, said, "He's a complete player. I always marveled at how well he knew the game, and how he was willing to teach the game - even though he was a young player - to other young players." The Yankees signed A-Rod, but the Tigers may have just acquired A-Rod minus seven years.

Dontrelle Willis' performance in his first few seasons earned him comparisons to a young Dwight Gooden. He helped lead the Marlins to a World Series title in 2003 and won 22 games in 2005. Since that year, he has won 22 games in two seasons combined and struggled last year with a 5.17 ERA. We have seen over the past two years that he is not Gooden. But he is still good. Willis will see more run support in Detroit than he could ever have imagined in Miami and his arrival brings to the Tigers an experienced left-hander with a World Series ring and a media-ready personality. He should jump into the number two spot in the Tigers rotation between Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman. My biggest concern would be how he would handle pitching in the cold weather in late-season Detroit.

The Tigers are taking the "win now" approach, which has to be nice for Jim Leyland. The club knows its lineup is aging quickly and that its manager (who has a ring of his own) might not stick around long enough to see all his prospects become pros. With the Indians overpowering them this year and the Red Sox and Yankees always possible playoff opponents, the Tigers acted quickly to give themselves the edge. They became the best or second best team in the American League (the Sox might have the advantage because of pitching) and are poised to make a run at a championship.

Again, Hank arbitrarily stops negotiating with the Twins, basically giving Santana to Boston. He then watches as the Tigers stage a coup. You know how if you have a veteran pitcher going deep into a playoff game, you hesitate to replace him because 50% of the veteran is still better than 100% of the rookie? Yeah, that's George and Hank Steinbrenner.