Detroit Tigers

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).

There have been some rumblings of late that the Detroit Tigers are going to allow Placido Polanco to walk via free agency, turning the keys to the candy store over to Scott Sizemore. 

The Tigers face a number of arbitration situations this offseason, and a fair number of them involve players who could potentially net the Tigers some extra draft picks. Today, I'm going to kickoff a series in which I will look at each of these players. I'm going to start with Brandon Lyon because, well, he's the first one of these players who came to mind. 

The Detroit Tigers ended their 2009 season with a devastating extra innings loss to the Minnesota Twins.  Some writers are dubbing the collapse the worst in baseball history, but let’s reflect on the past season.

In 2008, the Tigers finished in the cellar, looking up to the rest of the A.L. Central with no lock on first place entering the ’09 season.  Despite their woes last season, Detroit preserved and maintained the top position for the majority of the year.

Before I write anything else, I have to offer congratulations to the Minnesota Twins. They were seven games back on Sept. 7, and closed the season on an incredible hot streak, winning 17 of their final 21 games—including the one-game playoff against the Detroit Tigers.

Remember, Minnesota accomplished all of this without All-Star first baseman Justin Morneau. Coming back from a large deficit in the final month of the season without one of your best players? Minnesota deserves their playoff berth and all of the accompanying accolades.

It's been a slow, painful ride, but the Detroit Tigers have managed to defy all odds and handed over the division title tonight in Minnesota.  No team had ever blown a three game lead with four games to go until the Tigers did this season.

But, the past is the past, and there is no reason to reminisce about the less-than-stellar 2009 Tigers campaign any longer.  We must look to the future and fill in some major voids that were apparent down the stretch.

Two different teams oppose each other today in game 163 of this regular season.

The Detroit Tigers have been leading the Central Division for nearly the entire season. The Twins have been playing catch up to the Tigers almost the entire season. They have finally caught them and the two teams will now fight today at 5 P.M. for the right to call themselves AL Central Champions.

The baseball wonks liked the Twins' chances of taking three of four against the Tigers for couple of reasons.

The Tigers assigned Eddie Bonine and Nate Robertson to pitch in the final two games of the series, and the Tigers struggled against Twins starter Carl Pavano.

Tonight's game proved that trends and predictions are useless.