Dayn Perry's Power Rankings

[Soul]

on second thought, perhaps he underrated detroit. 5-0 all on the road. team ERA around 2 - mind you this after two games in Texas.

 

And if Detroit got hot for 5 games in the middle of July, nobody would be making such a huge deal about it.

 

of course not, but they have justified their ranking.

 

I don't think a hot stretch of less than 5% of the season justifies anything. For all of Detroit's hotness, they're an entire one game ahead of Cleveland. Nobody has justified their rankings yet.

 

I am happy I started Verlander today, though.

 

True. I think there are few folks in Detroit who are cocking their eyebrows and re-considering whether a trip to the ballpark might be a good idea this summer though. If they can keep it going, Tiger fans will at least have something to cheer about which they haven't had in forever.

 

Cleveland looking much better since the debacle in the opener...

[Warpticon]

Detroit could surprise a bit this year. Granderson is supposed to be the real deal. Shelton is playing his first full season. Maggs appears to be healthy. Pudge and Guillen are coming off of down years and are typically much better than they were last year. Polanco and Inge are nice role players.

 

The addition of Kenny Rogers, Bonderman now has major league experience, and Verlander could be a ROY candidate. They have a solid bench and no real weakness except maybe middle relief.

 

If they stay healthy, they are not an "easy" series for anyone.

I have to agree with you. Their offense is starting to become scary.

 

They *are* set to have a number of things go right. The question is whether this is self-sustaining success. Verlander, Bonderman, and Rogers are solid (the latter two are studs in the making). Maroth and Robertson are bad, which makes the performance of the other three that much more crucial. And their offense is pretty good, but not as good as it's playing right now. Maggs and Pudge couldn't be counted on going into the season, but if they're healthy and productive, they make a huge difference. Still, when Shelton comes back down to earth or Granderson struggles or somebody gets hurt, they're going to need guys like Monroe or Inge to step up, and I don't know if they're really good enough to do much at that point.

 

it's a *much* better Detroit team than we've seen lately, though. I'm more thoroughly impressed with them and their future prospects than the Hype City Blue Jays.