Detroit Tigers Season Preview

Victor Martinez will help the offense a lot by providing
 protection for Miguel Cabrera in the batting order

Another baseball season is just a few days away and this is my preview for the 2011 Detroit Tigers baseball season.  The Tigers got their off-season moves done early by signing C/1B Victor Martinez and relief pitcher Joaquin Benoit.  Victor will be a huge addition to this team offensively.  He is a guy who every year will hit around .300, get around 20 home runs, and finish with about 80 RBI's.  He is also a switch hitter who can hit well against righties and lefties.  He will also provide Miguel Cabrera with some protection in the lineup, which will help the teams offense a lot.  Joaquin Benoit will be a huge help to the tigers bullpen.  Benoit had a break out season last year after not doing so well in the majors.  If he plays as well as he did last year he will be a very good set up man in the bullpen.  He would do a good job of getting the ball to the closer in the ninth inning.  He will also prevent Jose Valverde from pitching 2 innings, which we saw last year usually ends up in a disaster for him.  Both of these additions should help the team tremendously this season.
The pitching rotation this year has the chance to be one of the best in the majors.  My projected pitching rotation is Verlander, Scherzer, Porcello, Penny and Coke.  Verlander will probably be solid as usually at the top.  If Scherzer can pitch like he did in the second half the season and Porcello gets back to the way he pitched in '09 then the top three should be pretty solid.  Penny has pitched pretty well the last few years and hopefully he will keep it going this season.  It will be interesting to see how Phil Coke handles the switch from set-up man to starting pitcher.  If he is able to be effective and have a good year as the fifth starter it would be a huge boost for the team.
Last year the offense finished in the top 11 in all four of the major offensive categories and with the addition of Martinez the offense should be even better this season.  My projected line up is:
1. Jackson
2. Rhymes
3. Ordonez
4. Cabrera
5. Martinez
6. Raburn
7. Peralta
8. Inge
9. Avila
Austin Jackson is a big key in the line up.  If he can have a good year like he had last year and hit around .300 it would be great for the Detroit Tigers.  I expect that his numbers will probably drop a little bit this year but he should still do a good job in the lead off spot.  Also I have Raburn starting in left field this year because I have seen that in limited playing time the last few season he has put up good numbers and I think it is time to see what he can do as a starting player.  Carlos Guillen and Brennan Boesch are 2 key bench players for the Tigers.  Guillen is coming off a injury and if he is able to get fully healthy he might even be able to take a starting job.  Boesch had a great first half of the season but slowed down drastically in the second half.  He is another player that could find himself in the starting line up if he starts playing like he did in the first half of last season.  With the addition of Martinez and the improvement of some other players the Tigers offense should be even better than it was last season.
My prediction for the Tigers this season is 85-90 wins.  They should be contending with the Twins and White Sox all season for the AL Central crown.  It will be a tough hard fought season that will hopefully end with a playoff birth for the Detroit Tigers.