Tigers - 2008 World Series Champs!

That title was plastered all over every newspaper, magazine, talking heads show, and www.insertsportswebsitehere.com before the team hit the field for Opening Day last year. This team was going to score 1,000 runs, blow away the Yanks and the Sox, and send their entire starting roster to the All-Star game. Tigerfest and Lakeland were Mardi Gras central with booze, beads, beer bongs and braziers strewn about as the Fall Classic Champions had already begun their Parade down Woodward Ave. A huge offseason of aquisitions by the "Big Dombrowski" led all fans to drink entirely too much of the rum spiked Kool-Aid like a freshman girl at a frat party, and then proceed down the walk of shame in the morning mired in a six month hangover the likes of which John Daly would've been proud to call his own.

Fans were spoiled. Much too spoiled. They believed they were guaranteed something because of offseason moves. Kenny Rogers didn't come out of the dugout and sing "you never count your money while you're sittin' at the table," like he should have. Instead he asked "who's your new overpaid Tiger?" The pun here is almost as sickening as the final win-loss columns. And yet it seems the fan base and the Michigan Media want the club to make the same mistakes as they did last year. They want K-Rod, K-Wood, and K-$$$. They wanted the Tiggies to trade the rest of their young talent for JJ Putz. What Michiganders should want, however, is a geography lesson. The Tigers do not reside in one of the burroughs of Long Island. Sorry.

The point is the Tigers are having one of the most unheralded offseasons to speak of, and all of this after arguably having the biggest offseason in the MLB over the past decade in '07. Yet in reality, the team has done more to guarantee wins this offseason than what they brought in last year. While '07 brought the pomp and circumstance, this year has us being served meat and potatoes. Donovan McNabb's mother would be proud. How the rest of us aren't is beyond understanding and leads one to believe that most casual observers don't comprehend how a winning team is put together. So listen, everyone can put away the Tylenol, the hangover is subsiding. The Tigers filled the holes in their roster very quietly and actually brought in what they really needed in the first place, pitching and defense.

Yet people continue to talk about how terrible the Tigers starting pitching and bullpen are. Part of this is because people think Dontrelle Willis, Nate Robertson, Justin Verlander, and Jeremy Bonderman are washed up. They all had probably their worst years last year ever in their Major League Baseball careers. And in all actuality, that may be one of the biggest hopes for the upcoming season. Are each of those players as good as they pitched in 2006 (minus D-Will) when they went to the World Series? Probably not. Are they all as terrible as they were last year? Definitely not. By the law of career averages, if the club had made zero changes this offseason, the starting pitching probably would have improved.

Then you add this to the fact that the Tigers went out and got one of the best pitching coaches in the Majors by inking Rick Knapp from the Minnesota Twins and canning our previous dugout disaster who had about as much baseball pedigree as a room full of 5 year olds eating pizza, fondly known here as Chucky "Cheese" Hernandez. Knapp took Kevin Slowey, Nick Blackburn, and Scott Baker, among others, and made them into household names that took the White Sox to the brink for a playoff seed. The Twins starting rotation was a huge question mark at the beginning of last year, and they were one win away from the playoffs when it was all said and done. Knapp is known for getting pitchers to throw strikes, and that's exactly what this ballclub needs.

The addition of Edwin Jackson is also an underrated signing that didn't catch a lot of attention. He hits upper 90's like Ron Jeremy hits anything with two legs. Hard and often. Not to mention the fact that he pitched out of the bullpen for the 'Rays in the World Series last year. He has experience in the starting role, and also has the flexibility to go to the 'Pen if necessary. But by far the most exciting addition for Tigs fans everywhere should be the signing of Brandon Lyon. He's not as sexy as Kerry Wood, Francisco Rodriguez, JJ Putz, or Jessica Alba thats for sure. However, if it is thought through this is the perfect signing for an ailing bullpen.

First of all, he is compared to Todd Jones. Most would cringe and cower at that name being uttered, but most people have an IQ around room temperature. Jones is the all time saves leader for the Detroit Tigers and was 18/21 in save opportunities last year before going down with an injury. Funny how the bullpen actually held together while Jonesy was still suiting up. . . Lyon is also younger, has a wider array of pitches that he throws for strikes, challenges hitters, is paid quite cheaply, and has a bulldog attitude. Just by reading his comments after signing with Detroit, you can tell he has the mentality of a closer. He spurned less money for a shot to come to D-Town to earn the closer's role and turn that into a big payday for next year. He wants the ball and he knows what's at stake, which is a classic closer mindset. Just signing a player and having them be in a contract year immediately is a beautiful thing, especially when that player is going to be the closer for a team that desperately needed one. And he will be the closer, mind you.

Dombrowski also went out and got Gerald Laird and Adam Everett this winter. Again, not glitzy or glamorous, and yet it was exactly what was needed. They are both defense first players who, along with Inge and Santiago, will give the Tigers one of the Top 5 defensive infields in the game. What they give up in hitting will more than be offset by fielding church softball grounders that Renteria couldn't corral and turn into outs. With a predominantly groundball pitching staff, this is key. Three out innings turned into four or five out innings because Renteria couldn't make a routine play, which put more undue stress on an already depleted pitching staff. Add in the fact that Laird is well known for handling a pitching staff, and won't call fastballs with a man on 1st just so his pick-off stats wouldn't suffer as he got older. Hmm . . . sound familiar? Kind of sounds like a guy who lost 50 lbs. when the steroid scandal exploded doesn't it, making his nickname obsolete. Another post for another day. . .

Bottom line is this. Davey Boy went out and got what the team lacked that caused the Motown Letdown, pitching and defense. The offense sputtered at times with Grandie and Sheff hurt, Miggy and Guillen on the position merry-go-round, and the feces sandwich that was left field. But those dilemmas are now extinct, and truly wasn't the main source of losses for this team. Will Lyon, Jackson, Laird, and Everett along with the new pitching coach solve every problem this team has? No. Every team has question marks going into the season, the Tigers simply have less of them than a year ago. Few enough, in fact, that the Tigers will win their Division, and we all know what that means.