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I'm not going to go into everything that's wrong with the Tigers right now, as their problems are pretty obvious to any baseball fan that cares to look. They can't score, and they can't keep their opponent from scoring. It's the type of equation that leads to 2-10 records and manager blowups.

What I want to know is when it's safe to pronounce the Tigers as dead.

It seems that no matter where you look, there's somebody saying that while the Tigers are off to a horrid start it's still too early to abandon all hope with this team. After all, they've only played 12 of the 162 games on their schedule. I'm one of those people as well, but if you'll allow me to play devil's advocate for a bit here, why is everybody so afraid to say what seems to be growing more obvious with each passing day? That maybe, just maybe, the Tigers aren't as good as we all thought they would be.

Is it pride that is keeping everybody from writing this team's obituary? I hear that once Curtis Granderson comes off the disabled list, the Tigers are going to start hitting and climb back to the top of the Central division standings. Really? A team that consists of hitters like Magglio Ordonez, Gary Sheffield, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Guillen, and Ivan Rodriguez is dependent on Curtis Granderson? Are we really supposed to believe that?




Don't get me wrong, Grandy is a very good young hitter, but he's not the type of guy that carries an entire lineup, nor should we expect him to once he returns. The more I hear things like this, the more I think it's just a self-defense mechanism of baseball writers and talking heads like myself who are still trying to justify their opinions that the Tigers would win the AL Central. God forbid we all admit to ourselves that may have been wrong in judging this team.

Now I'm not saying the Tigers are going to continue at their current pace (if they did they'd finish the season 27-135), but I'm not sure they're going to be a team that wins 65-70% of their remaining games either. Injuries are playing a large role in why the team is struggling so much at the moment, but they're aren't the only reason. The offense will start to hit at some point, I firmly believe this, but the pitching staff isn't going to magically become dominant. Not in the AL Central where the Indians are still a force to be reckoned with, the Twins are never easy to beat, the White Sox are back, and the Royals are much improved.

People keep pointing to the bullpen as the team's weakness, but what's so fantastic about the starting rotation? Verlander has dominant stuff, but he also has an ERA of 6.52 with that dominant stuff. Jeremy Bonderman has always had great stuff, but he's never been able to find consistency. Nate Robertson is never going to be anything but a three or a four type guy. Kenny Rogers is just old, though to be fair to him, he still hasn't received a single run of support this season. And Dontrelle Willis? Yeah, smart move giving him $29 million over the next three years.

Things aren't going to be this bad all season for the Tigers, but barring some insane Colorado Rockies-esque win streak at some point, this team isn't going to make the playoffs. I just don't see it happening.