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March 12, 2008

Pressure in Motown

The 2007 Tigers

by John Perrotto

A gaunt, 63-year-old chain smoker, Jim Leyland looks like a man who has been under pressure all his life. However, the manager of the Tigers lives for pressure. He relishes it so much that he came back to managing after a six-season exile in which the former Pirates, Marlins, and Rockies manager had a cushy special assignment scouting job with the Cardinals that never required him to leave his Pittsburgh home.

Thus, Leyland isn't the least bit bothered that his Tigers are the consensus pick to win the American League Central division, two years after an improbable run to the World Series, and one season after missing the playoffs. "In this job, you’re under pressure every single day, that’s just a fact," Leyland said. "If people want to put the pressure on us to win, then that’s fine with me. That’s a good kind of pressure to have. I’d rather have that pressure than the pressure of going into a season hoping you don’t lose 100 games. I’m happy there are expectations on us, and I know our players are, too."

Having said that, Leyland immediately tried to take the pressure and place it on the Indians, last year’s AL Central champions. "Last year, we were the team to beat and understandably so," Leyland said. "We had been to the World Series and we had a helluva team. I look at Cleveland the same way this year. The Indians have a great pitching staff. They’ve got C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona in their rotation, and (set-up reliever) Rafael Betancourt was probably their MVP last year. They came within one game of the World Series. This year, the Indians are the team to beat."

While PECOTA picks the Indians to win the AL Central, even the most ardent Cleveland fan would have to admit that the Tigers are an especially formidable foe after Detroit made the biggest trade of the offseason by acquiring third baseman Miguel Cabrera and left-hander Dontrelle Willis from Florida for a package of six prospects that included top prospects Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin. Throw in the fact that the Tigers also traded with the Braves for shortstop Edgar Renteria and the Cubs for left fielder Jacque Jones, and a potentially outstanding lineup has been assembled in the Motor City.

While PECOTA only expects Detroit to score 842 runs, some analysts have suggested the Tigers could become just the eighth team in history to reach the 1,000 mark. Last year, they were third in the major leagues and second in the AL with an average of 5.48 runs a game. Eight of the Tigers’ nine regulars have been selected to All-Star Games: catcher Ivan Rodriguez, first baseman Carlos Guillen (who shifts from shortstop), second baseman Placido Polanco, right fielder Magglio Ordonez, designated hitter Gary Sheffield, Cabrera, Renteria, and Jones. The only non-All-Star is center fielder Curtis Granderson, and all he did last season was become the second player in major league history (and the first since Wildfire Schulte in 1911) to have at least 30 doubles, 20 triples, 30 home runs, and 20 stolen bases in the same year.