The 2011 Detroit Tigers finished 95-67 and won the AL Central by 15 games over a Cleveland team that basically went into the tank after the All-Star break. The Tigers eliminated the Yankees in 4 games in the LDS, but fell to the Rangers in 6 in the ALCS. How did they get this far with a pitching staff that was ranked 7 (middle of the road) in the AL ? They hopped on the broad shoulders of AL Cy Young / MVP Justin Verlander. It's impossible to quantify just how valuable Justin was to this team. Aside from his gaudy stats (24-5, 2.40, 251 IP, 0.920 WHIP) Justin put fear into hitters and was the ultimate stopper. The rest of the rotation is average at best. At least that was the case until Doug Fister (8-1, 1.79) arrived in a trade with Seattle on July 30th. Fister had pitched well all season, not that his 3-12 (3.33) record would show it. Getting to Motown and getting run support turned those 1 run losses into 3 run wins. The combination of Fister and Verlander made Detroit a credible force heading into the playoffs. A 12 game winning streak in early September finished off all the pretenders and virtually locked up the division for the Tigers. On nights when the big 2 aren't on the mound this team will rely on a solid if not spectacular bullpen. Jose Valverde (2-5, 2.24, 49 Saves) is the dominant closer a championship caliber team needs to have. Joaquin Benoit (4-3, 2.95), Al Alburquerque (6-1, 1.87), Dan Schlereth (2-2, 3.49) and Phil Coke (3-9, 4.47) will do the setup work.
The offense is solid, not spectacular. Six starters reached double digits in homers, but only Miguel Cabrera (.344-30-105) and Jhonny Peralta (.299-21-86) posted more than 20 round trippers. What this team did real well was get on base. They were third in both average and OBP in the AL. Cabrera, who is flat out a hitting machine who owns a first baseman's glove for fashion purposes only, can flat out rip the cover off the ball. By mid season most pitchers were smart enough to pitch around him to the tune of 108 walks. Alex Avila is a .295 hitting catcher with 19 homers. Peralta is that power hitting shortstop everyone covets. The weak link in the infield is all glove, not bat Brandon Inge (.197-3-23). The outfield lacks the power that a traditional Detroit team would normally feature. Austin Jackson (22 steals) makes up for his lack of average with his base path speed and his ability to cover a lot of ground in center. DH Victor Martinez (.330-12-103) sacrificed power for average and in doing so struck out only 51 times and knocked in over 100 runs. The bench is strong. In fact the temptation is there to start Wilson Betemit (.292-5-19) at third instead of Inge. Delmon Young (.274-8-32) will get some serious consideration to play regularly over Magglio Ordonez (.255-5-32) in right. Ryan Raburn (.256-14-49) and Don Kelly (.245-7-28) are solid utility types who can get big hits.
When the day is done this team will only go as far as Verlander and manager Tom "Crash" Davis can take them. Davis, who is as close to a charter member of KOD as anyone, will be returning for his 13 season on the bench for Motown. Tom doesn't just manage Detroit, he IS DETROIT, having lived their his whole life. Tom's KOD resume ranks right up there with the all-time greats in this league. Tom won the KOD 8 Championship and has two pennants to his credit. His Tiger teams year in and year out make the post season. Tom has also won 6 Divisional Championships as he does his best Sparky Anderson each season to get he most out of his charges.
It took 23 cards to round out the 2011 set for the Tigers. It was not an easy template to create. The arching lettering for the player's name was very tough to center and balance. I'm not ecstatic with the results, but they are certainly serviceable.
The offense is solid, not spectacular. Six starters reached double digits in homers, but only Miguel Cabrera (.344-30-105) and Jhonny Peralta (.299-21-86) posted more than 20 round trippers. What this team did real well was get on base. They were third in both average and OBP in the AL. Cabrera, who is flat out a hitting machine who owns a first baseman's glove for fashion purposes only, can flat out rip the cover off the ball. By mid season most pitchers were smart enough to pitch around him to the tune of 108 walks. Alex Avila is a .295 hitting catcher with 19 homers. Peralta is that power hitting shortstop everyone covets. The weak link in the infield is all glove, not bat Brandon Inge (.197-3-23). The outfield lacks the power that a traditional Detroit team would normally feature. Austin Jackson (22 steals) makes up for his lack of average with his base path speed and his ability to cover a lot of ground in center. DH Victor Martinez (.330-12-103) sacrificed power for average and in doing so struck out only 51 times and knocked in over 100 runs. The bench is strong. In fact the temptation is there to start Wilson Betemit (.292-5-19) at third instead of Inge. Delmon Young (.274-8-32) will get some serious consideration to play regularly over Magglio Ordonez (.255-5-32) in right. Ryan Raburn (.256-14-49) and Don Kelly (.245-7-28) are solid utility types who can get big hits.
When the day is done this team will only go as far as Verlander and manager Tom "Crash" Davis can take them. Davis, who is as close to a charter member of KOD as anyone, will be returning for his 13 season on the bench for Motown. Tom doesn't just manage Detroit, he IS DETROIT, having lived their his whole life. Tom's KOD resume ranks right up there with the all-time greats in this league. Tom won the KOD 8 Championship and has two pennants to his credit. His Tiger teams year in and year out make the post season. Tom has also won 6 Divisional Championships as he does his best Sparky Anderson each season to get he most out of his charges.
It took 23 cards to round out the 2011 set for the Tigers. It was not an easy template to create. The arching lettering for the player's name was very tough to center and balance. I'm not ecstatic with the results, but they are certainly serviceable.
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