Jim Leyland Isn't Giving Up Yet - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Now that we're about a quarter of the way into the season, it's a lot easier to start judging teams based on what we've seen from them and their performance. When the Tigers started the season 0-7, it was easy to say that they sucked, but really, we had no idea. We had to see them play a lot more before making that judgment.

Now that they're about 40 games into the season, you can make a lot more of an educated guess as to how things are going to work out in Detroit. You see that the offense is still struggling, particularly with runners in scoring position, and that the pitching is still inconsistent. You also see that the Tigers are 16-22, the second worst record in the American League, but are only 4.5 games out of first. So that means they aren't exactly out of this thing yet, and Jim Leyland knows it.

"I had a take on this team before the season started," Leyland said. "It hasn't taken 40 games. We just haven't put it together offensively the way I thought we would, but I think we still will. At some point, it's going to happen.

"Plus, I think our starting pitching is going to get better. Because of various concerns, we didn't push them quite as hard in spring training, so I think they were a little bit behind when the season started. But I think they're beginning to catch up."

I tend to agree with Leyland here. While I'm just as surprised and disappointed by the Tigers start to the season, I still don't think there's anyway that the team can keep playing so poorly. There's just too much talent on the roster from top to bottom for it to continue for six months. Still, I'd be a lot more confident in their ability to turn things around if they had any prospects left on the farm that they could use to add another pitcher to the rotation. Though that pitcher could already be in the organization in Rick Porcello.