I say the Tigers will be a .500 team at best.
Yes, the lineup was loaded last year and it only gets better with the addition
of Gary Sheffield. But, pitching and defense wins championships and the Tigers will not have the same pitching staff they did last year. Last season the Tigers relied on three very young pitchers to carry them - Jeremy Bonderman (24 years old last season, 214 innings pitched), Justin Verlander (23, 186), and Nate Robertson (29, 208.2). This heavy workload will surely tell on their young arms this season. Plus, last week the pitching staff lost its anchor - The Gambler, Kenny Rogers. Rogers will be out of the lineup until at least the All-Star break after having surgery on Friday to remove a clot from his arm. The Tigers young guns now have no steadying influence to look to when things go bad.Tigers' pitching will not live up to what it did last year and the team will be 81-81 at the end of the season, probably good enough for 4th place in the AL Central.
touch with baseball when his childhood heroes Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Jim Gantner retired but the Great Home Run Chase of 1998 reignited his passion. As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Erik became involved with the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. With this group Erik traveled to Portland, OR and Baltimore, MD to work on construction projects and help the group raise $25,000 to partially sponsor a house in Milwaukee. Also at UWM, Erik met Peter Nagel. The two attended their first Brewers game together during Opening Weekend 2003. Despite their failure to ignite the coals at their first tailgate, the two had a blast and were soon making weekly trips to the ballpark. Erik has gone on to several colleges and changed careers several times, and has moved all the way out to New Hampshire, but has always stayed true to his baseball roots by holding part-time stadium usher jobs. To this day he looks back fondly on his incredible cross-country journey.
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