The Detroit Tigers are doing it again. For the second straight year, the Tigers are the heavy favorite and clearly the most talented team in the American League Central, and for the second straight year they find themselves in a tight division race for the summer.
If there was anything we could count on when the baseball season opened it’s that the Detroit Tigers were a mortal lock to win the AL Central. There might have been debate over whether they could win a pennant and a World Series—no one said they were better than the Rangers, Angels, Yankees or Phillies. But all of those teams had real-life competition in their divisions. Detroit did not. So the story went. But now we sit here with the games of June 7 about to start in the next few minutes and the Tigers are staring at a 26-31 record and are 5.5 games off the lead. It’s not that the deficit is insurmountable—heck, they could be in first by the All-Star break. But it’s that Detroit has dug themselves this hole without anyone else having to be great. What’s gone wrong?