already & not yet

Baseball is a true hop sport. Unlike, say, football, where a mere 10-game schedule serves as the litmus test for a team’s ability, the baseball regular season is a grueling 162-game gauntlet that leaves little room for flukes. Sure, any given team will win it’s share of games, but in baseball, the regular season is a stark barometer of a team’s true identity. No wicked Astro-turf “eat ’em up” hops in baseball. No strength of schedule. No BCS. No cupcake teams to beat up on (well, except the Royals). Luck is only gonna take you so far over the course of 162 games. At some point, the cream rises to the top. Like I said, it’s a true hop sport.

When the Detroit Tigers started the 2006 season with a 16-9 mark in April, they were branded with the dreaded “f word”. Sure the Tigers were a nice story, but after their blistering start we all expected them to go the way of Chris Shelton. Shelton, the Tiger first baseman at season’s start, exploded out of the gate with 8 home runs in his first 13 games. Shelton has always showed decent power in his career, but he’d certainly never produced at such a Ruthian level in the bigs. “He’ll cool off,” I said. “And so will the Tigers.”

I was right about Shelton.

Boy, was I wrong about the Tigers.

In the next few days, these Detroit Tigers will accomplish something no Tiger team has done since 1993. They’ll win their 82nd game, guaranteeing them their first winning season in 13 years. Just for reference, the last time the Tigers had a winning season, their first baseman was Cecil Fielder, a behemoth 250 lb. slugger known for his prodigious home runs and waistline. Fielder’s son, Prince, is now the first baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers.

In the years since ’93, the Tigers have been downright dreadful. The ’96 edition bumbled their way to a then-team record 109 losses. In 2002, the fangless Tigers lost 106 times. Not to be outdone, the 2003 Tigers were one of the most inept clubs in big league history, setting a dubious American League record by losing 119 games. Since 1993, only two Tiger teams (1997 and 2000) have come within 5 games of .500. In short, the Tigers have been very, very bad for a long, long time.

For years, the Tigers have also tried — unsuccessfully — to lure top free agent talent to Motown. After placing substantial bids on free agents Vladimir Guerrero and Miguel Tejada (only to be rejected), the Tigers finally landed Magglio Ordonez, a slugging outfielder from the Chicago White Sox, prior to the 2005 season. After an injury-riddled ’05 campaign, Ordonez has been the consistent run-producer the Tigers were counting on when they inked him to a five-year, 75 million dollar contract. Ordonez notwithstanding, most big name free agents have long eschewed Detroit’s lucrative offers to play for more competitive clubs. As a result, the Tigers have been forced to rely on second-tier free agents and home grown products, a recipe that has yielded surprisingly positive results this season.

Take second baseman Placido Polanco. A journeyman utility player with St. Louis and Philadelphia, Polanco has flourished with the Tigers, posting a .331 average last season and hitting at a .294 clip this season. Polanco epitomizes this Tiger team: nothing flashy, he plays solid defense, is willing to move the runner over and can get a base hit when the chips are down.

Marcus Thames is another castoff who’s come into his own in 2006. After amassing only 368 at-bats over parts of four seasons with the Yankees, Rangers and Tigers, Thames has emerged as a legitimate power threat in the heart of the Detroit lineup. This spare-part outfielder is tied for the team lead in home runs (21) on the best team in baseball. But that’s just par for the course for this unassuming team bereft of a true superstar. This club is sprinkled with guys who simply love to play the game. This is a ballplayer’s team.

The key to the Tigers success, however, has been the maturation of their young pitching staff. After losing 19 games as a rookie on the dreadful ’03 team, Jeremy Bonderman has emerged as one of the American League’s elite power pitchers, as evidenced by his 159 strikeouts, good for second in the AL. Justin Verlander had pitched a total of two ball games (and he was the loser in both of them) prior to the ’06 season. But this lanky 23 year old has put together a stellar campaign; his 14 wins and 3.14 ERA are both second in the league. Fellow rookie Joel Zumaya, who had never pitched an inning in the majors prior to the 2006 season, has solidified the bullpen, posting a 2.09 ERA and serving as setup man for closer Todd Jones, a critical role for such an unproven youngster. Zumaya’s fastball is already legendary. On July 4, Zumaya’s fastball was clocked at 103 miles per hour at McAfee Coliseum in Oakland. On July 20, TV speedguns clocked him at 104 in a game against the White Sox. With young studs like Bonderman & Verlander starting games and a horse like Zumaya (who is 21 years old) at the back end, the pitching should be solid in Detroit for the better part of a decade.

Teams predicated on dominant pitching and timely hitting are built for October. With baseball’s best record midway through August, the Tigers appear to be a shoe-in for the postseason. After that, it’ll be interesting. The five-game Division Series — baseball’s opening round of postseason play — lends itself, oddly enough, to the fluke-ish (just ask Billy Beane). Facing another team’s ace twice in a short series has spelled doom for many a regular season juggernaut. And with teams like the Yankees, the Red Sox and the White Sox vying for the AL pennant, the competition is sure to be stiff. Will the Detroit Tigers win the World Series? That’s anybody’s guess. But here’s one fan who can appreciate what a special season these Tigers are enjoying. Believe me, they’re not a fluke.