True or false?
Justin Verlander will have the rotation's best ERA at the end of the season.
The Tigers' ace -- er, Justin Verlander edition -- has a 2.68 ERA. Sounds great, right? But the other Tigers' ace, Max Scherzer, has a 1.72 ERA after eight shutout innings on Monday. The third Tigers' ace, Anibal Sanchez, lags at 3.13, but led the American League in the stat last season. Only one of them will have the best ERA on the team at the end of the year (probably). Why not side with the guy who has a Cy Young Award under his belt? Wait, that's two of 'em? Holy geez. Well, OK then. Verlander's done it longer. Scherzer's done it more recent. Tough, tough call here.
Andy Dirks will be used as a bench player when he returns from back surgery.
When left-fielder Andy Dirks underwent surgery in early March, with a timetable of 3-4 months put on his recovery, panic ensued. Rajai Davis was a platoon hitter who struggled against right-handers, and no one in the organization seemed like a good fit to take a majority of the at-bats at the position. Today Davis is hitting a team-best .337 with .389 on-base percentage. He has 11 stolen bases. He's batting .349 against righties. Yet ... that doesn't seem destined to continue forever, does it? A guy with a .259 career mark suddenly figuring it out? The Tigers may yet need that platoon advantage Dirks can provide when healthy. So, what do you say? Can Davis make Dirks' return a luxury rather than necessity?
Robbie Ray will allow three runs or fewer in his debut.
That Robbie Ray is making his MLB debut against the Astros certainly does help his case here. They score an American League-worst 3.4 runs per game. But MLB debuts are a different animal, aren't they? The debut of everyone currently in the Tigers' rotation, for reference: Justin Verlander, 4 runs in 5⅓ innings; Rick Porcello, 4 runs in 5 innings; Drew Smyly, 1 run in 4 innings; Max Scherzer (with the D'backs), no runs in 4⅓ innings; and Anibal Sanchez (with the Marlins), no runs in 5⅔ innings. So, we're kind of all over the board here. Ray has a 1.53 ERA in Triple A after five starts (six games). That seems pretty good. Will Ray keep it up and make a splash right from the start or will there be some growing pains?
So you tell me: Are those statements true ... or are they false?