The Tigers are officially halfway through the season. they’ve managed to lead the division for the majority of the first half. They’ve seen some good pitching, some awful pitching and some much improved defense (which is helping the pitching). They’ve seen the offense roll, and then cough and sputter against pitchers that shouldn’t induce coughing and sputtering. Through it all they have a 2 game lead in the division (and 2 games in hand). Far from a commanding lead, but they also have a schedule that could prove favorable in the second half as well. Some various thoughts on what the team has done so far:

• Playing the ‘”on pace for” game the Tigers have 3 hitters with a decent shot at 30 homers.  The Tigers have only had 2 30 homer seasons this decade and the last time 3 Tigers hit 30 in a season was 1992.
• The Tigers have 47 of their final 81 games at home and only 1 more trip to the West Coast. They do still have to go to Fenway and Yankee Stadium and they’ve yet to play Tampa Bay yet. They do have 1 9 game roadie left going to Minnesota, Chicago, and Cleveland in late September.
• The Tigers are on pace to improve on their walks but only slightly. The 2008 total was 644 and the 2009 projection is 612.  But intentional walks are way down (on pace for 40, 63 issued last year) as are HBP (on pace for 30, 68 last year) and wild pitches (on pace for 46, 65 last year).
• One of the speculated reasons for the walks last year was that pitchers knew how bad the defense was and they nibbled. That can’t be an excuse this year with the Tigers having one of the best defensive teams in baseball. They are above average at every infield position and are typically in the top 5 at the position. Last year Detroit was 39 runs below average for the season, so far this year they are 26.7 wins above average.

[blank] of the Year

• Catch of the Year: Curtis Granderson robbing Grady Sizemore of a walk-off homer and preserving a complete game shut out for Justin Verlander.
• Surprise of the Year: I have this as a 5 way tie between Edwin Jackson’s dominance, Brandon Inge’s offensive season, Fernando Rodney being 17 of 17 on save chances, Magglio Ordonez being so awful, and Don Kelly starting a game as a clean-up hitter. Ramon Santiago’s power surge gets honorable mention.
• Start of the Year: There are some good candidates, but I’m going to go with Edwin Jackson’s complete game effort against the Angels. Verlander has a couple of games that were better pitched, but Jackson’s came at a time when the team was scuffling a little (4 game losing streak) and he tossed a complete game fanning the heart of the Angels order to preserve a 2-1 win.
• Comeback of the Year: When the Tigers covered up an awful Armando Galarraga start by coming back from an early 6 run deficit.
• Worst  Walk of the Year: Joel Zumaya walking in the tying run in Houston. Just brutal.
• Best Walk of the Year: The intentional walks to Mauer and Morneau setting up the bases loaded K of Michael Cuddyer on Friday night.
• Best time to ignore typical platoon rules: Pinch hitting right hander Ryan Raburn for left hander Josh Anderson against right hander Ryan Dempster Kevin Gregg setting up the Best walk-off pinch hit homer of the year.
• Best comeback story: Dontrelle Willis’ 7 innings of shut out ball against a hot hitting Rangers team.
• Worst comeback story: Pretty much every start Willis made after that.
• Team MVP of the year: At the risk of being labeled and Inge Fan-Boy or Inge-lover, I’m going with Inge. His offensive and defensive contributions have brought more value to the team than any other player. The Tigers were prepared to sacrifice offense for defense at many positions including third base. They didn’t plan on sacrificing it in left field and right field and DH and second base (due to Polanco’s early season struggles). And it’s not just the overall contributions, or the contributions in context of expectations and the rest of the lineup. Inge’s hits have been dramatic. The homer in Houston to grab a victory, the homer in Toronto to tie the score after Brandon Lyon surrendered the lead late. Other 2 run homers that proved to be the difference in the game (against the Brewers and against the Rockies). Inge has been a legitimate force and the Tigers would be in a world of hurt without his contributions this season.

It was July 19th, 2007. Things were looking great for the Tigers. Detroit was playing their second series after the All Star break. Heading into that break the Tigers had won 5 in a row, 2 against the Indians and a sweep of the Red Sox. After the break they split a 4 game set in Seattle  and then pulled off an improbable sweep of the the Twins in the Metrodome. They won 3 straight 1 run games against Minnesota and found themselves 21 games above .500. Talk about momentum. The big series was followed up with a 4-12 stretch.

Today the Tigers are once again heading into Minnesota for a 3 game set. It is a big, exciting, mid summer series. But the season is too long and it is too early for this series to mean that much – even if it results in a sweep for either team.

If things go poorly they could find themselves a half game out of first place, a perch they’ve held since May 9th. It would be a disappointing result to be sure, but being within a half game of the division lead before the All Star Break isn’t that bad of a worst-case scenario.

We’ve seen the Tigers in past years surging early in the season only to later collapse. We’ve seen it this year where the team had “serious issues” only to reel off 7 wins in a row, and then 2 drop back to back series. Two weeks ago the White Sox were done and playing “must-win” games against the Tigers. Now they are in 2nd place. This is the type of rollercoastering that happens over the span of a couple weeks, let alone over the course of a season.

If the Tigers were on the brink of contention a week before the trade deadline (like  when they went to Seattle in 2005) maybe it takes on more importance. If it is September and there is limited time to make up ground it becomes huge. Yes, every game is important because you can look back at the end of the season when your team is a game short and say “see, if we’d just won one more game…” But there are are typically at least a dozen games that are given away during a season and a dozen more that are “stolen". These are just 3 of 162.

Games against division rivals always take on more importance, it’s your team’s only chance to directly put L’s in their standings. With both teams involved in the hunt for the division and it falling on a holiday weekend, the games should be exciting and it should provide for a great “playoff like” atmosphere. But it ain’t the playoffs because both the winner and loser still have 90 more games to go.