Olney Says Tigers Have Fifth-Best Lineup In MLB, Sixth-Best Rotation
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - The Detroit Tigers have made a number of transactions this offseason, and ESPN baseball insider Buster Olney projects the moves will keep the team strong in the same areas that have allowed the Tigers to contend the last several years - starting pitching and offense.
Olney ranks Detroit's rotation as the sixth-best in the major leagues and lists the lineup as the fifth-best.
Between Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, J.D. Martinez and Yoenis Cespedes, it makes sense Olney would rank the Tigers as one of the best offenses around. Cabrera, Martinez and Martinez both hit for average and for power in 2014, and Cespedes will add even more pop to the lineup.
In fact, Olney acknowledged Detroit's lineup might deserve to be ranked higher. The only reason he ranked it fifth was the question of Cabrera's health. The two-time MVP underwent surgery after the season to have bone spurs removed from his ankle and to repair a stress fracture in his foot.
"Perhaps Cabrera's return will be seamless," Olney wrote, "and he showed last year that even when he's playing hurt, no hitter has better hands and he can still be very dangerous. Cabrera played in 159 games last season, batting .313, racking up 76 extra-base hits among 191 hits, and hitting .379 in September, hobbling all the while.
"But if Cabrera's rehabilitation is extended, or if he has a setback," Olney continued, "that will change a whole lot about Detroit's attack."
Olney believes the rotation, along with the lineup, will remain one of the strongest in the game. He writes that Detroit could have an elite rotation even if the Tigers lose Max Scherzer, their ace the past two seasons and one of the best pitchers in baseball.
The team's 2015 rotation bears little resemblance to the group with which the Tigers started the 2014 season. Detroit began last year with Scherzer, Verlander, Anibal Sanchez, Rick Porcello and Drew Smyly. If the Tigers do not make any other moves, their rotation this season will include David Price (who joined Detroit at the deadline last year), Verlander, Sanchez, Shane Greene and Alfredo Simon.
Olney considers Verlander the determining factor in how good the revamped rotation can be.
"Verlander is coming off a season in which he allowed an opponents' average of .275, the highest against him in any full season," Olney wrote. "The steady decline in his average fastball velocity -- from 95.6 mph in 2009 to 93.1 in 2014 -- has been documented.
"But keep in mind Verlander required offseason surgery on his core last winter, and because of that, he could not go through his regular winter regimen of strength training with his legs and core," Olney continued. "Verlander never used that as an excuse, but it might be part of the reason he didn't have his best velocity until the end of the season. Verlander is already at the Tigers' camp in Lakeland, Florida, and has resumed his old routine."
Not surprisingly, the Tigers were not included in Olney's ranking of baseball's top 10 bullpens.
To see Olney's full lists of the best lineups, rotations and bullpens, you can follow the links, but ESPN insider access is required to view the articles.
