Kuzul

The Tigers rode their starting rotation to a Central Division title and an appearance in the World Series. The Tigers have insured they will have the same rotation (more or less) that pitched a great postseason for Detroit.They do have several questions facing them for the 2013 season, can they stay healthy, can Porcello or Smyly take a hold of the fifth job, and can recently re-signed Anibal Sanchez pitch as well as he did down the stretch and in the playoffs.Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer finished 2012 leading all of baseball in strikeouts. What can we expect from them and the other Tigers starters in 2013?Lets take a look and see.Begin Slideshow

It took better than one-third of the season and two stints on the disabled list, but the Tigers' Doug Fister finally broke into the win column with an outstanding performance after his first game back in 19 days.Fister has battled through a pulled stomach muscle which occurred in his first start of the season and has hampered his efforts to continue the hot stretch he finished with in 2011.Fister (3-1) was razor-sharp, giving the Rockies all they could handle through six-innings, allowing just three hits while striking out six and walking one. His swing-back fastball and two-seamer were money and allowed Fister to take early control of the game, sitting down the first 11 Colorado hitters he faced. Phil Coke provided strong relief in the seventh and eighth while earning his 11th hold of the season for the Tigers. Joaquin Benoit allowed the only Colorado run via a Michael Cuddyer ground-out ...

Even though the Tigers' early struggles have been well documented throughout the past month, there are still signs of life from various points of this truly deep roster.  One of those bright spots is Doug Fister.After boasting an 8-1 record, as well as a 1.79 ERA and 0.84 WHIP, expectations were high coming into the 2012 season for Fister.While no one expected Fister to perform as well as he did after the trade that undoubtedly helped send Detroit deep into the postseason, he has performed exceedingly well thus far. He has yet to disappoint, and all signs point to another great year from one of the Tigers' biggest pitching acquisitions in recent memory. Here are five reasons why Fister's stellar 2011 performance was not a fluke.Begin Slideshow

Texas felt comfortable with Nelson Cruz and a 3-1 series lead on Detroit. If C.J Wilson didn't come through, surely Derek Holland would.And if not, surely Colby Lewis would finish.Now, that comfort is gone. Detroit has Delmon Young, who has matched Nelson Cruz, and they have power with Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, as well as Ryan Raburn and Brandon Inge, who are both surging.Detroit hasn't gotten much from Justin Verlander, who has given up 12 runs in 20 and one-third innings. Although Young and the Tigers have supported him (Verlander is 2-1 in October), he will need to step up if the Tigers are to advance.Still, Detroit is in the thick of this race. Max Scherzer has been impressive this postseason, giving up 4 runs in 13 and one-third innings. Scherzer didn't give up a run in Game 2 and has a win and a hold this postseason.Add in ...

Brett Lawrie, 2B Toronto Blue Jays (23 percent owned in Yahoo, 22.7 percent in ESPN)Current Stat Line: 2/4, 1 RBIBrett Lawrie has finally arrived! He tore up AAA pitching this season going .353/64/18/61/13. In my opinion, the call-up should have happened much earlier—but it didn't. Then Lawrie suffered a hand injury on May 31st which kept him out of the game for a while. Now that it is completely healed, expect him to rake for the Blue jays.Projection (rest of season): .280 AVG / 23 R / 6 HR / 26 RBI / 4 SB Hideki Matsui, OF Oakland Athletics (32 percent owned in Yahoo, 70.6 percent in ESPN)Current Stat Line: .268 AVG / 39 R / 10 HR / 54 RBI / 1 SBI try not to mention players two weeks in a row, but I need to make an exception here. It seems like ESPN has caught on to Matsui ...

Coming off a franchise-record 17-game losing streak that has essentially torpedoed the season, it was only a matter of time before the Seattle Mariners started trading from their position of strength:  starting pitching. We know they are not dealing Michael Pineda or Felix Hernandez (which I have been saying for awhile now), but the rest of their deep rotation is up for auction. It appears that the Mariners have finally made a move, as SI’s Jon Heyman reported that the Mariners had traded Doug Fister and reliever David Pauley to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for outfielder Casper Wells and lefty Charlie Furbush. I’ve felt bad for Fister this season, as the tall righty has pitched much better than his won-loss record would indicate. Fister has gone six or more innings in 18 of his 21 starts, ranking seventh in the AL in walk rate (1.97) and taking advantage of spacious Safeco ...

Even after extending Felix Hernandez, the Mariners were faced with speculation that they’d trade their ace at the beginning of 2011. In the past couple days there has been a ton of speculation in the media about the team trading Erik Bedard, Jason Vargas or Doug Fister.The Mariners should trade one of these guys, if the package they get in return is right.There are a ton of components that go into a decision to trade a starting pitcher, not the least of which is that starter’s talent. We talk a lot about years of team control, which is certainly important, but are years of team control as valuable for a pitcher, presumed to be a back-of-the-rotation starter, as perhaps a mid-to-upper-rotation starter?Certainly not.And in Bedard, Vargas and Fister, the team has guys who can easily be perceived by some teams as fits in any of their rotations slots.Fister is a ...

After a season that disappointed most Mariners fans, it seems as if more disappointment is coming. Yesterday during the game against the Boston Red Sox, Mike Cameron hit a line-drive against the left field wall. Michael Saunders picked it up threw it in to second where second baseman Chone Figgins didn't even attempt to pick it up and let it roll by, having Cameron make the double into a triple. The play seemed like a lackadaisical attempt at anything baseball, so when Figgins came into the dugout manager Don Wakamatsu had a word with him. Figgins did not take too kindly to it and things got physical. Third baseman Jose Lopez had to keep Wakamatsu and Figgins apart, then first baseman Russell Branyan got into it. It seemed as if he was angry with Figgins, too and was yelling at him, and then Lopez started yelling back. Everyone was separated with even starting pitcher Jason ...

Erik Bedard is on his way back from labrum surgery. He has shown encouraging signs after his stint in the Arizona Rookie League, most recently last Saturday throwing 68 pitches and hitting 93 mph on the radar gun. On Thursday, Bedard will kick off July with a Triple-A start in Tacoma, Wash., and could start for the Mariners on July 6th against the Kansas City Royals. The biggest news in this chain of events is that Bedard's apparent happiness. He’s as healthy and as happy as he has been in a long time. Remember his first two years in Seattle where it seemed he never cracked a smile? The injuries and the pressure of performing up to expectations based on what Seattle gave up to acquire the left handed pitcher mounted up and sapped the life out of Bedard in his first stint with Seattle. However, he was absolutely golden when he was healthy ...

There are only five teams in Major League Baseball with a worse record than the Seattle Mariners. The M’s are 14 games behind the red-hot Texas Rangers in the division standings. They’re 13 games off the pace for the Wild Card. The Seattle Mariners should be sellers at the trade deadline, right? Well, they just gave up two minor-league prospects to the Cleveland Indians for 34-year old Russell Branyan whom they declined to sign over the off-season. Yes, we’re all trying to digest this one: An aging power hitter with a .233 career batting average who has had injury issues the last few years is what Seattle needs during this disappointing season? Russell hit 31 homers for the Mariners last year and they wouldn’t even reward him with a contract because of injury concerns with a herniated disc that cut his 2009 season short. Matter of fact, Branyan wasn’t getting interest from any teams and didn’t get ...