September 19, 2006
Put a Tiger in Your Tickets
Tigers playoff tickets go on sale at 10:00 AM EDT. Who thought I would write that sentence six months ago?
Well, I had some hope:
A number of factor on the Tigers point toward improvement. Guillen and Ordonez playing healthy for a year make them a better team. A full season of Placido Planco ups their win totals. Shelton and Bonderman should continue to mature and improve. Even the addition of Kenny Rogers should help the staff, provided he controls his temper. Detroit is another team that if everything that can go right does go right, they'll be in the division race. More likely, however, is that a few thing will go wrong, and they'll be fighting the Twins for third place.
Never mind my predictions about the rest of the division..
While we're sharing Tigers' preseason predictions:
"It is a very balanced lineup, to be sure. This lineup would be expected to score 5.282 runs per game, or 856 on the season. Throw in the defensive skills of the team, and the pitching, which will be covered shortly most likely, and you have yourself a team capable of surprising a few people. To the same level that the White Sox surprised in 2005? It's certainly a possbility, but baseball is a funny game sometimes...my guess is that the division will be the bane of the Tigers' playoff hopes and dreams. If they can beat up their own division, they can make a run at the playoffs. Easier said than done though."
That's from the my Tigers team preview, and of course, the runs scored estimate is from your nifty program David. They're scoring 4.97 RPG by the way.
well
it just shows that with baseball youneverknow
because guys have career years, all the breaks can go their way, and the exact opposite too