What do you expect for 2010?

…but based upon the abilities of the current roster, I see no reason why they wouldn’t have the capability of managing 85-88 wins, if not more. I don’t think we’re a bad team at all (And herein I normally insert my disclaimer about the difference between ability and execution, etc).

I’m going 83 wins and 3rd in the division.

Gut feeling. Still too many question marks to make a solid prediction.

1. and #5 starters…
   If I go with my gut and say that Maggs and Carlos bounce back, but we really struggle to find consistent pitching at the back of the rotation and at the back of the bullpen, I give us 80 wins and second in the division. I’d pick the White Sox at around 88, the Twins at around 79, and the Indians and Royals winning about negative 3.

“#4 and #5 starters”

generous and say 70-75 wins

Is a crap shoot. You never know who’s going to win, except that the Royals are usually pretty bad.

White Sox and Tigers are built around youth and pitching, Twins are built around hitters. Indians are a giant question mark, and the Royals are almost always bad (but still have our number!)

That said, we could win it. We’re not that bad, and the AL Central isn’t that good. All it takes is the right luck and we’re in the postseason.

to give a real prediction. Obviously we have to see what we can get out of Scherzer and I am hedging my bets there. The long term goal is for him to be a top the rotation guy, but if we don’t see it next year I’m not going to jump off a ledge. I have the same expectations for Porcello were as long as there is not a major regression I will be happy. I’m intrigued by the idea of giving Coke a shot at the rotation but I have no major expectations there either. If Bondo looks like he did as recently as ‘07, or Roberston looks like he did in ’06 or even Galarraga looks like he did in ’08 then we can definetly contend in our division. I expect the offense to be marginally better next year based primarily on how bad it was this year (hopefully nowhere to go but up). I don’t know if the expectation is for Austin Jackson to be the everyday centerfielder or not and if he isn’t I am not going to panic. My hope is that by some point in May Gullien is the everyday DH, Raburn is in LF and Maggs and Clete are platooning in RF. If there is anyone in our farm system that can help that’s great too. I expect Miggy to finish in the top 10 in MVP ballotting and JV to finish in the top 7 for the CY Young. The bullpen needs to be an open competition for everything. I expect if Jim has his way Zumuya will be the opening day closer which doesn’t worry me because I have zero faith in him staying healthy. I would like to see Perry, Coke and Schlerth at some point working the ninth and if anyone wins the job I’ll be all the happier. If I could sum up all of this in one idea it would be this: The team has enough question marks that I won’t be shocked if our final win total lands anywhere between 70-90 and I won’t be upset if we come out on the short end because I believe this team is preparing for 2011. I don’t need a left handed bat or a closer with experience to get me excited about next year. For me next year is all about this franchise preparing for a long and successful run with some fresh young arms, a star in waiting in CF, a superstar 1b and a legitimate ace already in place and all still well under the age of 30. I feel like an NBA fan some days thinking about how I don’t want to committ any additional money to this years team because we will have a ton of bad contracts coming off the books after 2010. I don’t have an eye on anyone specificly in the 2010-2011 free agent class but I can be content knowing that we will have enough payroll flexibilty that we can be active players in that market.

If DD and Leyland came out tomorrow and said “hey, it’s a transitional year until all that bad money comes off the books, so enjoy it for what it is” I would jump for joy. They won’t. But that’s what they’re thinking.

So I’m good with them being at least interesting to watch. And frankly, I’d love for them to say “A-Jack, Sizemore and Iorg are all going to start a minimum of 120 games this season, we’re gonna see what they got.” That would make a trip to the Copa interesting this year!

And frankly, it’ll be nice to have a season where I’m not expecting a whole lot. They can’t surprise me in a bad way this time.

If everything works out, notably the health of our pitching staff and the injury-prone regulars, we could contend.

Our offense was bad in 2009, and it’s done nothing but get considerably worse this offseason. No one’s been able to tell me where the runs are going to come from. Miggy will almost surely lead the league in walks unless he becomes a Vlad-type hacker.

Offense should tread water. CF production will drop off. Production at corner outfield positions should pick up. Hard to get any worse than what Detroit got there before, honestly. Second base production has a chance of increasing.

Pitching should be a bit worse. I do think Porcello takes a step back after the workload increase he had last season. going forward, Scherzer is better than Jackson in my mind. But Jackson’s 2009 was a hard year to live up to, so that could see a step back. Not like the Tigers got a lot out of the 4th and 5th starters anyway. The bullpen will see a shuffle in names but I don’t really see any dropoff in output. Nor do I expect a big jump. The defense is a bit worse behind the pitching though, so that should result in a step back.

But the Tigers got lucky last year at times, and if that luck comes back to normal it’s more like hoping for 500 than anything else.