OT: Detroit Tigers officially the 2012 AL Central Division Champs

Submitted by BeatOSU52 on

Back to back division champs!

 Celebrate good times!

 

Alton

October 2nd, 2012 at 10:33 AM ^

The two games on Saturday are Detroit hosting Bal/NYY/Tex/Oak and San Francisco hosting Washington or Cincinnati.

The game time slots are 6:00 and 9:30 pm.  It seems pretty clear that the Detroit game will be at 6 and the San Francisco game will be at 9:30.  It wouldn't make any sense the other way around.

Don

October 2nd, 2012 at 12:39 AM ^

Repeated attempts to convince an attractive woman to go home with you that are initially rebuffed, but eventually succeed through sheer force of repetition and liberal application of alcohol.

BlueinLansing

October 2nd, 2012 at 12:55 AM ^

years, it was ALOT harder to make the playoff in back-to-back years.  Still this is no small feat.

 

Baseball didn't split into divisions until 1969, and then split into its current format in 1994 and from 94 to 2003 the Tigers were pretty much a train wreck.

 

 

Also a little perspective on how long ago 34-35 really was, Tiger Stadium wasn't even called Briggs Stadium yet, it was still known as Navin Field.

SFBlue

October 2nd, 2012 at 3:38 AM ^

Tigers had Greenberg, and six of eight position players hit better than .300 in 1934. (The other two hit better than .280.)



So that is a historical outlier. And the last two years are in a sense the closest the Tigers have been to dynasty since.

SFBlue

October 2nd, 2012 at 3:28 AM ^

Wearing vintage early 90s Tigers t-shirt and having a few rounds for the tiges in the Upper Haight.



Leyland has more playoff appearances than Sparky, and a better win pct to boot. (Leyland is our winningest skip since Billy Martin, who I think was fired for fighting in his third year thus providing a smaller sample size.)



Buck Killer

October 2nd, 2012 at 6:01 AM ^

What don't you understand? The teams in our division wouldn't make the playoffs over the last 5 years in ANY of the other divisions. The Tigers of the 90's would have won this AL Central. This team performed well below expectations through poor management. On a positive note 3 pitchers can win the World Series, so Leyland can f up the lineups, base running, and bat signals.

RONick

October 2nd, 2012 at 9:50 AM ^

I'm not trying to disagree, I generally like Leyland (even for as stubborn as he is playing some players *cough*Rayburn*cough*).  But, wouldn't you agree that Leyland has been blessed with some tremendously talented teams compared to those of any of the slew of managers since Sparky retired?

Just like any sport, the coach/manager can only do so much with the talent he has.  The good ones know how to put their players in a position to succeed, after that it is up to the player to do the hard part.  Jim has been a good manager, but he also has been fortunate to have Magglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera, Placido Polanco, Curtis Granderson, Kenny Rogers, Justin Verlander, Prince Fielder, etc, etc, etc.

BlueinLansing

October 2nd, 2012 at 11:36 AM ^

is that he always seems to have a good clubhouse.  No matter where he's been that seems to have been the case.

 

He's an outstanding manager.  The Tigers got almost no production from its utility players this year and several players had lower production than maybe expected.  On top of that the 4/5 pitching was mediocre at best until late in the year.

Buck Killer

October 2nd, 2012 at 6:04 AM ^

Anything can happen in the playoffs and the skipper has less impact in them. We need the pitchers to fire it up! Do it!

Moleskyn

October 2nd, 2012 at 8:46 AM ^

So, I had heard that Scherzer was going to pitch sometime this week. I think that should absolutely not happen. There's no reason to put him out there. Give him extra time to rest up for the playoffs.

Moleskyn

October 2nd, 2012 at 9:54 AM ^

I think you can. At this point in the season, it's all about regimen and getting into a structured routine. He's already broken up his regimen with the injury, so what's the point in putting him in, even for a couple of innings? There's not enough time left to re-establish his routine.

I can understand why you would say to put him in (get him back in live game situations), but I just don't see the real benefit of doing that. It's not like he's forgotten what it's like to compete or what it takes to win. I say, save his arm for the playoffs.

WMUgoblue

October 2nd, 2012 at 12:03 PM ^

He had a great bullpen sessions yesterday according to the Dickerson, velocity was up in the 95-96 range and he said he felt great, so assuming he feels good today I'd throw him out there Wednesday for 3 innings or so. Just get his feet under him before the ALDS starts, and let Smyly finish the game.

MikeCohodes

October 2nd, 2012 at 12:44 PM ^

I just saw some other ppl had voted down your post as offtopic without doing you the favor of explaining why it was OT.  Just trying to be helpful & polite :-)

As to outcome, I would just like to se an entertaining postseason regardless of who's in as I have no horse in this race.

bronxblue

October 2nd, 2012 at 12:15 PM ^

In Scherzer comes back, this team would scare me in the playoffs.  Verlander, Fister, and Mad Max would be a terrifying 1-2-3.  Of course, Valverde would still be at the end of the game, so everyone gets to freak out.

The offense is still a bit stagnant but should be competitive against most of the teams they'll see at least in the first round.  I'd rather play the Yankees or Baltimore, but Texas hasn't impressed me nearly as much as they did to start the year.  

Blue boy johnson

October 2nd, 2012 at 2:11 PM ^

Yankees and Rangers still desperately fighting for Division Title, while the fat cat Tigers are on easy street today.

This new Wildcard format really puts a premium on winning your division. I am not a fan of the one game Wildcard playoff thing.

Blue boy johnson

October 2nd, 2012 at 3:17 PM ^

I think you understate it. Winning the Division carries not a "bit more weight", rather, a ton more weight. One of the two Wildcards will be out after one game, I don't think that is going to go over well.

OT: Then you have the ridiculous situation of the AL West has 4 teams and the NL Central has 6 teams. What's up with that! Houston needs to be moved into the AL West tomorrow.

bronxblue

October 2nd, 2012 at 4:34 PM ^

But at the same time, it gives a team like Oakland or Atlanta  a chance at the playoffs instead of punishing them for playing in a tougher division while a team with a lesser record gets in as a division winner.  I mean, the Tigers would not be in the playoffs if they did not win their division, while teams like TB and Oakland would be clear division winner if they played in the Central. 

Lionsfan

October 2nd, 2012 at 7:24 PM ^

I dunno if it's on the table, but maybe shorten the regular season? FInish up in mid-September, have a 3-game series for the wild-card, and then regular playoffs to start October. Plus everything should be finished by the end of October too, avoiding the November WS games the league has had the last few years