Old Time Family Baseball

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Record: 81-81, 3rd Place in the AL Central

Offensive Leaders: Miguel Cabrera 1.042 OPS, 6.2 WAR

Pitching Leaders: Justin Verlander 3.37 ERA, 6.3 WAR

Surprise: If you were following the Tigers at the beginning of the season, nothing would shock you more than to learn that Max Scherzer finished the season with a 12-11 record and a 3.50 ERA. Through his first eight starts, Scherzer had a 7.29 ERA and opposing batters were Pujolsian with a .955 OPS against. After spending two weeks in AAA, Scherzer was recalled and looked like a completely different pitcher. In his final 23 starts, Scherzer pitched like a Cy Young winner, putting up a 2.46 ERA while striking out 158 batters in 153.2 innings. If Scherzer can keep up that level of performance next season, he and Justin Verlander should form the best 1-2 punch in the AL Central.

Disappointment: While Rick Porcello’s season seemed to mirror Scherzer’s from the outset, the only difference was that Porcello never turned his season around. After a strong rookie showing in 2009, hopes were high that the 21 year-old Porcello would continue to grow into a front of the rotation option. Instead Porcello saw his ERA balloon to 4.96 and manged to only strike out only 4.6 batters per nine innings. It’s important to remember that many of Porcello’s peers would have just been drafted out of college and not pitching in the Majors, but there is reason to be concerned about Porcello’s future ceiling.

Defining Moment: Overshadowing almost anything that happened in Major League Baseball was the 28-out perfect game thrown by (now former Tiger) Armando Galarraga. James Joyce may have actually helped keep Galarraga’s name in the spotlight as much less attention would have been paid to yet another pitcher performing so well during “The Year of the Pitcher.” Though the game wasn’t enough to keep Galarraga in a Tigers uniform, it has been enough to turn Galarraga into the author of a book that he will be writing with Joyce.

Outlook: The Tigers have shown they’re not afraid to spend money, throwing 4 years and $50 million dollars at Victor Martinez to be their catcher/DH. With the Twins in stasis, and the White Sox adding Adam Dunn, it should be a three team race in the AL Central with the Tigers relying on Scherzer and Verlander to front the lineup and natural born hitter Miguel Cabrera to hold court over the offense. While the team still has holes, they added enough rotation depth that they were able to trade Armando Galarraga, and they possess a large enough number of young players like Ryan Raburn, Will Rhymes, Brennan Boesch, and Scott Sizemore to hope that one steps forward to have a breakout season. Though the Twins and White Sox should still be considered favorites, I wouldn’t be surprised for the Tigers to be dark horse candidates in what should be a very tight race.