The Detroit Tigers should be considered the favorite to win the American League for a second consecutive season, boasting a roster full of names like Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Justin Verlander, and Max Scherzer. However, fans are feeling a bit of déjà vu from last year, as they once again have had trouble pulling away from the rest of the fairly weak American League Central Division.
The team has ups and downs like no other; they just won three out of four against the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox, but got swept by the lowly Los Angeles Angels at home (Detroit's ninth straight loss against the Angels).
Several things need to be fixed in order for the Tigers to keep up with the top teams in the American League. It's World Series or bust in the Motor City, but the Tigers may have trouble even winning the division if a few things are not resolved soon.
Alex Avila's Struggles
Tiger catcher Alex Avila has been awful this season. He was an All Star in 2011, but his production steeply declined in 2012. This year, he has been even worse, only hitting a .172 clip.
Avila went down with an injury, but is just about to come back. Brayan Pena has been great as Avila's replacement, hitting .304 and collecting some key hits along the way.
Avila is due back, but he has continued to be horrible even in the minor leagues. In his first two games of his rehab stint, Avila went 0-for-8 with three strikeouts in Triple-A Toledo. Not exactly the kind of production you want from the starting catcher of a championship-caliber team.
Left Field
Andy Dirks had a good season in 2012 and was slated to be the starter in left field this year. He has played in the majority of the team's games, but he has not been nearly as productive as the team needs him to be. Matt Tuiasosopo has spent some time as the team's left fielder and has been great at the plate, but he is currently on the disabled list and Dirks has been playing nearly every game.
If Dirks, who hits seventh in the lineup, can get his bat going just a little bit more, he would be a huge boost to a lineup that boasts some of the biggest names in the game today.
Winning on the Road
Detroit has been nearly unstoppable at Comerica Park (other than this week's series against the Angels), but the Tigers seem like a completely different team when they break out the grey jerseys.
The Tigers have only won two of their last seven road series and have a total record of 16-19 in opposing ballparks.
Championship-caliber teams win no matter where they play, and the Tigers simply cannot have a road record under .500 if they want to be considered a series threat to win the World Series.
The Bullpen
It's no secret that the Detroit Tigers have one of the worst bullpens in all of baseball. They simply cannot find a closer (Jose Valverde, Bruce Rondon, and a closer-by-committee system have all failed to get the job done) and pretty much every reliever other than Drew Smyly, Joaquin Benoit, and Luke Putkonen have been extremely shaky.
Phil Coke has been the worst of the group. After losing in extra innings to the Angels on Thursday, Coke has a record of 0-5 and a 6.56 ERA.
The Tigers need to trade for some bullpen help or close games will cause Jim Leyland to have a heart attack.
Scoring Late Runs
Scoring runs late in games has been an even bigger problem for Detroit than the bullpen. Thursday's game was a perfect example; sure Phil Coke blew the game in extra innings, but the Tigers only scored one run. No matter how bad a bullpen is, no team is going to win games if they sit on early runs.
Detroit has not had a problem getting on the board early, but the Tigers hardly ever score any runs late in games when they need them.
When a team has a bullpen that gives up late runs but an offense that does not score late runs, it will end up losing a lot more games than it really should.
With Cleveland lingering right behind, the Detroit Tigers need to seriously fix their bullpen and scoring problems in order to lock up the division and take their next step towards winning a World Series Championship.