AL Central

With the Joe Mauer situation on the back-burner, the Twins now can turn their attention to which of their internal free agents they would like to retain for the next season. With five guys slated for free agency, the Twins will obviously have to make the tough decisions on who they should bring back and who they shouldn't.

Scott Sizemore, a top prospect for the Detroit Tigers and heir apparent at second base, fractured a bone in his left ankle during Thursday's game in the Arizona Fall League.

The next step in this series of looks at roster moves that face the Tigers is to look at the arbitration eligible players who don’t have the option of turning their team down. These are players with three or more years of service time (usually—it’s explained here ) who are still under team control, but get to negotiate their salary through arbitration.

Since the 1931 season, the Detroit Tigers uniforms have featured numbers assigned to each player.  Our “By The Numbers” series takes a look at the best, or sometimes just the most interesting, player to wear each number.  We have reached number 8 in our series, if you would like to catch up on the first seven, click here to find the earlier installments.

It's safe to say that there is a lot of pressure on Alex Rodriguez going into the ALCS.

David Dombrowski has been President/GM of the Tigers for eight baseball seasons, and just what has the team accomplished?

One playoff appearance.

DD is 1-for-8, and that’s a .125 BA—something that even Gerald Laird would scoff at.

It’s time to take a serious look at how Dombrowski has been minding the store.

It’s one thing to miss the playoffs; it’s quite another to do so consistently in a notoriously weak division. It’s yet another to do it whilst frittering away the owner’s money like it grows on trees.

If you missed part one of this installment, check it out here.  Now, for part two:

Eddie Cicotte

This is the man that inspired this little project.  Cicotte won 208 big league games before receiving a lifetime ban for his roll in conspiring to throw the 1919 World Series as a member of the Chicago White Sox. Cicotte threw 18 innings and won one game as a member of the Detroit Tigers. He was born and passed away in the state of Michigan.

The Detroit Tigers' 2007 first round selection surprised many when he made the team directly out of spring training. Jim Leyland, on the other hand, was not. His love of big power arms fit Rick Porcello's game to a tee.
 
Rick Porcello, a 20-year-old native of Morristown, New Jersey and just two years removed from high school, made an impact on the Detroit Tigers season and it shouldn't go unnoticed by Major League Baseball and its fans.
 

Elite.

Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander finally earned the adulation with a remarkable 2009 campaign.

Starting on May 10, May's American League Pitcher of the Month led the Tigers on a 147-day first place expedition. Though Detroit was dramatically unseated by Minnesota in the 163rd game, it was no fault of Verlander's.

Among AL Triple Crown pitching categories, Verlander ran away with the strikeout title (269), shared the lead in wins (19) with Felix Hernandez and CC Sabathia, and placed sixth in earned run average (3.45).