There hasn't been much news other than Michael Vick recently, and although I haven't done well in baseball blogs recently, I feel like I should get this off my chest. The AL races or significance (Central, East and Wild Card) have heated up, with the Yankees finally playing like themselves and giving Red Sox fans a reason to fill up with dread. New York won again today 9-3 over the Tigers, who are the focus of this entry for something they didn't do.

I found it amazing how a team that just about a month ago was a favorite in the AL, has fallen onto hard times. The stats are not pretty (the starting pitching has one victory of their own in the last month) and the hitting has cooled considerably. I predicted as much at the trade deadline, when they clung to their prospects like it was gold from Fort Knox or the original copy of the Declaration of Independence, most notably Cameron Maybin (who was called up yesterday to replace the essentially waived Craig Monroe). They passed on helping their beleagured bullpen because, as GM Dave Dumbrowski, er, Dombrowski, felt there wasn't anybody available they wanted. I know Eric Gagne has stunk in Boston, but when I heard Dumbrowski say essentially "We didn't want him because he only wanted to close" I said "Todd Jones stinks! Why protect him?!?!".

What Dumbrowski doesn't realize is that you only have a very short window to win a championship in any sport. The long-term ability o####uy like Maybin isn't going to win you anything this year, and what is there to not believe he could be a bust? The Boston Celtics realized that they couldn't afford to wait for the future in their young core, so they traded five players and three picks to Minnesota for Kevin Garnett. Will it be a good move for the future? Probably not, but the future is now, as George Allen said, and Boston wanted to contend. Now they're considered a prime contender for the East. The short term effects outweighed the long term ills.

Let's not forget that the Tigers forged a losers identity from 1994-2005, suffering losing years each time including a record 119 losses in 2003. A key reason? They were unwilling to trade for help (more likely, they traded the help to other teams). They probably won't do that this time, but inactivity can be just as, if not more, deadly if you aspire to become champion. That will cost the team, as I think Cleveland will win the Central, the Yankees and Red Sox will make the playoffs, and the Tigers will sit at home, wondering "What happened?".

Since most of you have the market cornered on Lakers-Suns (for the record, the Lakers are still going to lose the series), I thought I'd shift my focus to a topic that, up to now, hasn't gotten too much attention. The Tigers have gotten off to a rough start, and their pitching, among the best in baseball last year, has struggled. It seems like every time I see them on TV (they where rained out last night) they've given up about 6-8 runs per game. They must've aspired to be the Yankees (i.e no pitching, all hitting) and that's what they look like up to this point. One must wonder if all the innings they made their young pitchers, like Verlander, Bonderman and the like, may have taken upon them. Just look at the Cubs. In 2003, they were an inning and change from the World Series with young studs Mark Prior and Kerry Wood leading the charge. Faster than you can say "Steve Bartman", they lose the series, and Wood and Prior start getting hurt in earnest (although Wood had a series of injuries even before that point). Today, Prior is out for the season with his first (you heard me, FIRST!) surgery, and Wood has yet to throw this year as he has been converted to a reliever (if and when) once he's ready. So Tiger fans, this early struggle could be a sign of worse things to come if they aren't handled with a little more care. This team isn't equipped to slug it out against their opponents. It needs good pitching to make a return trip to the World Series. Hopefully, this isn't just me worrying, but this team went through a 13 year stretch that  was painful to watch and equally dreadful to simply be apart of. Am I panicking? Or is there a foundation for my fear?