Detroit Tigers Find Themselves Last In Power Rankings

There’s just a month to go until Spring Training and with that comes every detail scrutinized under a microscope. Case in point, Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report puts the Detroit Tigers dead last in his MLB Power Rankings.

Pitchers and catchers report on February 13^th, and baseball is almost here. With that comes the question of how the season will fare for each squad. If you’re the Houston Astros, you’re looking for a repeat in the Fall Classic. Detroit Tigers fans? Hoping to stay under 100 losses.

Joel Reuter over at Bleacher Report has a pretty grim outlook on the state of the Detroit Tigers with just over a month to go until Spring Training.

Reuter notes that:

"“Offseason rankings are not meant to be a prediction for the year ahead. Instead, they are a look at how teams would stack up with their current rosters if the season started today.”"

He takes into account that the Detroit Tigers have shed payroll and shipped away most of their star players in the off-season as well as last season.

He goes on to further explain:

"“The Detroit Tigers have already cashed in their obvious veteran trade chips as they get set to embark on a necessary overhaul of the roster.”"

Reuter is stacking each of the opening day rosters up against each other and then ranking them. In that sense, it’s hard to argue that the Detroit Tigers don’t have the worst Opening Day roster.

Over at FanGraphs, however, there is a more positive outlook of the 2018 Detroit Tigers.  FanGraphs projects the Tigers to finish the season 72-90, ahead of the Marlins, Padres, Royals and White Sox.

It’s important to note that the FanGraphs projections use the depth chart of the roster. They take into account more than just the Opening Day Roster, which is all the Reuter is doing.

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Going through a rebuild, however, is more than just the quality of your Opening Day Roster. It’s about building a deep farm system that produces elite level talent. In turn, that talent sends you all the way to the fall classic and hopefully then a World Series Title.