Thursday, April 10, 2008

It’s over for Detroit?

Hang on a minute.

We’re just over a week into the new Major League Baseball season and one of the pre-season favorites, the Detroit Tigers, are flat on their face. Boasting the worst record in baseball, the Tigers heinous record stands at 1-8, five games behind first place Kansas City.

First place Kansas City!?! And the pundits on ESPN are burying the Tigers? Listen pennants are not won in April, they are won in August; baseball is the ultimate marathon.

If last year proved anything, you can’t eliminate any team until mid-August. Look three-quarters of last season’s National League playoff teams stumbled out of the block.

The Philadelphia Phillies started 3-10, but pulled even by mid-May and finished the season on a 13-4 as the New York Mets fell to pieces. The Chicago Cubs lost sixth straight games and were struggling in early June, before turning on the burners winning 35 of 53 and making up a 7 ½ game deficit to clinch the division.

And Colorado was 18-27 in late May, in last place in the NL West. That’s right the eventual League Champs were dead last in their division in May!

Let's not forget the 1998 Yankees, 2002 Angels and 2003 Marlins were all slow starters and all won World Series titles.

Should the Tigers be worried? Yes, they should be. They team bullpen is shoddy and bats aren't piecing hits together. But is Detroit out playoff contention? Ask me again in August.

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