2009- what a wild ride

So, when it is all said and done the Detroit Tigers finished 2nd in the AL Central. In what seems to be a disturbing pattern the Tigers lead their division for most of the season, but when it was over they had given up control t somebody else. This year it was the Twins, who took control after 11 innings in an extra game (#163) in extra innings (12) after the lead see-sawed back and forth for the last 5 innings. But how did it come down to that anyway?

Way back in Spring Training most of us were worried about the pitching. We couldn't tell whether or not we had 5 for the rotation. Would Verlander bounce back from 2008? Would Edwin Jackson be able to find the strike zone? Would this Porcello kid be able to hold his own in the Big Leagues? At least we had Galarraga right? (He did so well in the World Baseball Classic!). Would Dontrelle Willis, Zach Miner or Nate Robertson be our 5th starter?

Or how about the bullpen? Would Zumaya be our closer? Maybe it would be that new Lyon guy. It couldn't be Rodney though, right? Could Seay be the LOOGy? Could Ryan Perry hold up?

It seemed that pitching would be the biggest weakness for the Tigers in 2009. Wow, was that wrong!

Verlander not only bounced back, but lead the Majors in strike outs (269) and is in the conversation for the American League Cy Young award. Edwin Jackson became a strike throwing machine (at least for the 1st half of the year) and was an All Star. Rick Porcello is in the running for Rookie of the Year for his 14-9 record.

Fernando Rodney not only earned the role of closer but saved 37 of 38 opportunities. Unfortunately, if it was not a save opportunity he sucked (except for #163, he was very good in that one). Ryan Perry was "effectively wild" in his first season with Detroit (with some time in Toledo to fix some bugs). Brandon Lyon started out poorly, but became an absolute lock as the set up man with a WHIP of merely 1.07 over 64 appearances. That guy nobody knew about (Ni) sure became known as he had a WHIP of 1.06 in 36 appearances and became the fill in for Seay after Seay was injured late in the year. For most of the year Seay was the most effective man in the bullpen. Toward the end of the year Seay started to appear more human (probably his injury before it became known).

Over all the Tigers starters had 60 wins and 55 losses with an ERA of 4.34 (5th in the League). They allowed 461 earned runs (3th in the League).

So pitching was a great success for the Tigers in 2009. We'll look at the other aspects of the game in future posts.