Destiny in Our Own Hands

The only team that the Detroit Tigers need to be concerned with at this point in time is the Detroit Tigers. If they continue playing good baseball, the Tigers should run away with this weakened AL Central division. Winners of 31 of their last 50 games, the team is playing some of the best baseball in the majors right now. They’re even contending on the road, and have an 18-21 record after going 29-52 last year. I doubt that they will continue to play .600 ball from here on out, but even .500 might be enough. A .500 finish the rest of the way would put the Tigers at 85 wins, could that be enough to get it done? My guess is yes.

On May 23, Cleveland was 30-15 and in first by a significant margain. Since then, they are 11-21, or pretty much the team everyone thought they were in the beginning of the season. I don’t really expect them to hang on for much longer, and I’d be surprised to see them finish above .500 even. Their pitching simply isn’t good enough to contend. Fausto Carmona has been dreadful, along with Mitch Talbot. It’s hard to be a successful staff when no one on it strikes out more than 6 per nine innings, except Masterson at 6.5.

The Sox are in pretty much the same boat. They haven’t been over .500 since April 15. In order to get to 85 wins, they’d have to go 47-37. Not impossible, but they’re going to need huge rebounds in the second half from Rios, Morel, Dunn and Pierre. That’s half their lineup. The Sox scare me, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a second half implosion, especially with Ozzie at the helm. If they’re 7 or 8 out at the deadline, they’ll probably be sellers anyway. Did I mention they have a higher payroll than the Tigers?

Ugh, the Twins. People keep expecting them to come back like always, and play lights out ball in the second half. Simply put, this isn’t the same Twin team. They’re not fundamentally sound, they don’t have the same type of pitching, and all of their usual producers have proved to be injury riddled. It took a 14-2 stretch for the Twinks to not have the worst record in the AL. Currently, they stand at 32-45, and in order to get to that illustrious 85 win number, they’d have to go 53-36, .600 ball. Unless they start winning soon, the Twins will be out of it by the trade deadline, too. Did I mention they have a higher payroll than the Tigers, too?

All in all, if the Tigers keep their blinders on and get to 50 wins at home and 35 on the road, good for 85 total, I don’t see another team that can catch them.