In the first of a five game series, the best of the American League Central took on the 2012 Detroit Tigers as Justin Verlander faced off against Minnesota Twins pitcher Carl Pavano. Needless to say, both pitchers were a bit off their game, but the shocker of the night was on how good the Tigers might be this coming season. Full recap after the jump, but before we go there, I want to make two things clear. 1. This is a exercise put together by me using rosters picked by SBNation user kjmick24 and 2. The Tigers are playing the best of the remaining teams in the AL Central with the team being managed by Minnesota Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire.

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So as we all know, Prince Fielder finally chose his future destination in our division rival, the Detroit Tigers. After viewing the comment sections in other posts, it seems as though many Twins fans are unhappy and discouraged. I, for one, am glad Detroit added approx. 24 Million a year to their roster at a position of no need. Neither Cabrera or Fielder are athletic enough to play 3B. This means that either Fielder, Martinez, or Cabrera will have to sit on the bench regularly. Unless, they want to replace a great catcher in Alex Avila on occasion.

Don't get me wrong, this move can only make the Tigers better. Significantly? No. They would have been better off adding starting pitching to a rotation that is awful minus the AL MVP. What I'm getting at is he really isn't worth $214 to a team like the Tigers. Especially in the later years in his career or if (more of a matter of when) he lands on the DL. I'd honestly rather see them add Prince Fielder instead of Edwin Jackson. The positive thing for the Tigers is that he fits their mold of a slow position player with no glove (mind Austin Jackson). There is no salary cap in baseball, but you have to believe that this type of acquistion limits what the Tigers' front office is willing to do in terms of future free agents.

Below is a Twins related poll. Justin Morneau says he felt concussion symptoms last month and still has problems with his head. This is clearly not good news and my gut tells me he's "done." Your opinions?

Today has been a weird day. First, Jonah Hill became an Academy Award nominated actor and, at roughly 2 PM central time, it was announced that the Detroit Tigers signed Prince Fielder to a nine year, $214 million dollar deal. And all around Twins territory, hearts broke. Babies cried, and everyone, at or above the age of 21 started drinking to drown their sorrows. Because, as we all know, one player a team makes. Clearly.

So, I decided to take a look at the Detroit Tigers starting lineup. One by one and talk about what they are on the field. Just to give everybody a reminder that the Detroit Tigers, even with Fielder and Cabrera still have a lot of issues.

The line up, after the jump.

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* note i will Star those who could see Major league time in 2012. Some possible impact guys for next year.

Grades that have been given are mainy John Sickles grades with a little bit of my own twist, I think guys that were hurt last year that were solid prospects before I bumped up a bit, also I tried to take his list(s) and form my own based on Baseball America and Baseball prospectus' ranks as well. I kept it to just 11 for each but teams like the Royals would have been easy to go to 20-25 deep.

Royals

1. Michael Montgomery*** -SP ; A-

2. Wil Myers - OF ; A-

3. Bubba Starling - OF ; A-

4. Cheslor Cuthbert -3B ; A- (sort of their version of Miguel Sano but already a level or two higher and may play SS)

5. Jacob Odorizzi*** -SP ; B+

6. John Lamb -SP ; B

7. Christian Colon -SS/2B ; B-

8. Kelvin Herrera*** - RP ; B-

9. Jason Adam - SP ; B-

10. Chris Dwyer*** - SP ; B-

11. Brett Eibner - OF ; C+

Twins

1. Miguel Sano - 3B ; A-/ B+ (Beloit in 2012)

2. Oswaldo Arcia - OF ; B+ (Ft. Myers)

3. Eddie Rosario - OF/2B ; B (Beloit)

4. Aaron Hicks - OF ; B (Ft. Myers / New Britian)

5. Joe Benson*** - OF ; B- (Rochester)

6. Liam Hendriks*** - SP ; B- (Rochester/ Minn)

7. Levi Michael - SS ; B- (Beloit?)

8. Kyle Gibson - SP ; B- (Re-habb)

9. Brian Dozier*** - SS/2B ; B- (Rochester)

10. Hudson Boyd - SP ; B- (Elizabethon w/ guys like Kepler, JD Williams and Summers)

11. Chris Parmelee*** - 1B ; B- (Rochester/ Minn)

(other prospects that could impact 2012 are Carlos Gutierrez, Dave Bromberg, Tyler Robertson, Lester Oliveros, Kyle Waldrop, Chris Herrmann and Bobby Lanigan, maybe longshots such as Tom Stuiffbergen and Alex Wimmers as well) I think Oswaldo Arcia is the real deal and could see AA New Britian before the year is out.

Tigers

1. Jacob Turner*** - SP ; A- (one of the top SP prospects in all of baseball to me, not an ace but very good)

2. Nick Castellanos - 3B ; B+

3. Casey Crosby*** - SP ; B

4. Drew Smyly - SP ; B

5. Andy Oliver*** - SP ; B

6. Tyler Collins - OF ; B-

7. James McCann - C ; C+

8. Brian Flynn - SP ; C+

9. Aaron Westlake - 1B ; C+

10. Jay Voss - SP ; C+

11. Daniel Fields - OF ; C+

Indians

1. Francisco Lindor - SS ; B+

2. Dillon Howard - SP ; B-

3. Tony Walters - SS ; B-

4. Jake Sisco - SP ; B-

5. Nick Hagadone*** - RP ; C+

6. Luigi Rodriguez - OF ; C+

7. Scott Barnes*** - SP ; C+

8. Rafael Rodriguez - SS ; C+

9. Felix Sterling - SP ; C+

10. LeVon Washington - OF ; C+

11. Cord Phelps*** - 2B ; C+

White Sox

1. Addison Reed*** - RP ; B+ (could be there closer by mid-season for a long time)

2. Nestor Molina - SP ; B/ B+

3. Trayce Thompson - OF ; B-

4. Tyler Saladino - 3B ; C+

5. Simon Castro*** - SP/RP ; C+ (acquired for Carlos Quentin along with LHP Pedro Hernandez)

6. Jacob Petricka - SP ; C+

7. Hector Santiago - SP ; C+

8. Dylan Axelrod*** - SP/RP ; C+

9. Kevan Smith - C ; C+

10. Erik Johnson - SP ; C+

11. Eduardo Escobar*** - SS ; C+/C

(also acquired SS- Osvaldo Martinez and P -Jhan Martinez from the Marlins for manager Ozzier Gullen)

I placed the teams in order of who i think has the greatest to weakest farm systems in the A.L. Central accounting for both top quality talent and all around depth throughout the minor leagues.

#1 is Kansas City for the 2nd straight year, they lost some key guys: Hosmer, Duffy and Moustakas are now Major Leaguers and they also graduated some relievers like Crow, Coleman and Collins but they still have the best minor leaguers in the conference or lg. and have tons of depth.... I think the only team that comes close to their surplus of depth is the Twins for prospects. I think if the Twins cannot be the biggest competition for the Tigers this upcoming season it could should be the Royals who i have pegged to surpass the Indians sooner than later. Their bullpen has a chance to be special and they're offense is coming along.

#2 is the Minnesota Twins while also weakening a bit from a season ago, they still rank high in general. However, they unlike the Royals, lost guys due to injuries or just poor performances which is never good. Even silly trades like Wilson Ramos and Billy Bullock (the trades were over a year ago) and acquiring guys like Jacobsen, Bargas, and now Turpen have yet to pan out. Gibson and Wimmers had forgettable years for different reasons, and Hicks continues to be an enigma while Arcia and Angel Morales faced injuries throughout the season. Disappointments for Carlos Gutierrez, Scott Diamond and Pat Dean on the mound. While Liam Hendriks, Chris Parmelee, Sano and Rosario flourished.

#3 is the Detroit Tigers

Already boasting the best Major League team, they are probably in the best all-around position in the Central yet again. Even losing DH Victor Martinez for most of if not all of the 2012 season they still should remain the biggest threat to win the pennant. While the majority of the M.L. team is in place and isn't getting any younger TOP prospect and SP Jacob Turner should help the Tigers out in the starting rotation for a good chunk of next year. Turner looks poised beyond his years (only 21 years of age) on the mound and could be the perfect compliment to Justin Verlander in the #2 spot in the rotation ahead of Scherzer, Fister, and Porcello; Which would undoubtedly form the Best rotation in the Central. They also have an interesting assortment of arms that could help out the bullpen or maybe even the rotation if someone goes to the DL.

#4 the Cleveland Indians

Graduating their top 2 guys and trading another set of 2 away from last year. Chisenhall and Kipnis should be the cornerstones of the infield at 3B, and 2B for years to come for the Tribe. What was suprising to me though, was to see them trade their top 2 pitching prospects last year at the deadline to acquire the Rockies Ubaldo Jiminez in Drew Pomeranz LHP and Alex White RHP. Pom has a chance to be a #2 starter for the Rockies and White a #3 o4 #4 both in the short-term and long-term. Jiminez while spetacular when on his game... was really worth those 2 guys? The Indians were the top dog for a while in the Central a year ago and were the main threat to the Tigers pretty much all year long, expect them to be competetive again but with the Carmona visa ID setback and a semi-punchless offense I predict them to finish 4th this coming season.

#5 Chicago White Sox

Well, the rebuilding has only begun for the South Siders... GM Kenny Williams has dealt OF Carlos Quentin to the Padres (Castro and Hernandez) and Closer Sergio Santos to the Blue Jays (Molina). Could Paul Konerko be next? or maybe one of the many Starting pitchers they have on the roster. LHP Mark Buerhle did follow Ozzie Guillen to the Miami Marlins so they do have 1 less Starter. Just like their farm system i predict them to be last in 2012.

While they have quite a bit of depth in the minors at OF and RP they lack any impact bats or Staring pitchers, other than the newly acquired Nestor Molina who is still years away.

This is just a short rant about the Strib's recent policies. First, they require you to subscribe to the digital version of the paper. You are allowed to use the home page, and to open up to 20 articles per month. After that, you are blocked from opening without first subscribing. This is true even if you have a subscription to the paper. I am a Sunday subscriber, but I would still need to pay for the online version. I have to pay even for the blog content for which they pay nothing, such as TwinsCentric. And subscriptions are per computer. My wife and son would need to subscribe as well.

OK. Fine. It's not that good anyway. I can content myself with the Pioneer Press. And at least I can scan the Strib's home page for breaking news and such. That's what I thought for the first couple of months. Nope. Now they have an ad function that runs in the background on the home page without any way of turning it off. If you come to the home page, be prepared for a barage of audio ads that launch automatically and cannot be turned off without exiting the site.

We shall see how this works. But I predict disaster. The PiPress offers much the same content for free. It is easy enough to access that content. Even long-time Strib readers will convert rather than paying for the likes of Jim Souhan or listening to ads just to scan breaking news. I used to run an online magazine that got 2.5 million unique visits per month. The fewer the UVs, the less able we were to sell ads. I'm wondering how the Stribs ad sales people are liking the fact that their traffic just cratered. Well, it won't last long. The Strib will be the gazillionth online property to try pay per click and fail.

Perhaps my favorite memory of Zumaya was a late game matchup he had against Justin Morneau when Morneau sent a 99MPH fastball into the stands. This kicked off an impressive offensive outburst from Justin that has since made him one of my favorite players.

That said, the news that the Twins signed Zumaya to an 800K deal with an additional 900K in incentives is largely a good thing, but it does come with its risks.

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Okay guys. This is probably way more information than anyone will ever need in the history of anything. Ever, but after reading Lindsay Guentzel's tweet about Roy Oswalt, I decided to do some research. And I think I went kind of insane with the research I did.

While going to FanGraph's to get the nessecary information for this project, I noticed something I'd never noticed before on FanGraph's. Pitches thrown. And what the result of those pitches were. In terms of balls and strikes.

So, I made a spreadsheet, and I wanted to see, on average, how many pitches they use per inning, per groundball, flyball, hit, walk, for each batter they face, and for how many they use per base runner they put on.

Then, I wanted to see how many base runners they create (using only hits and walks) per inning and what percentage of batters turn into base runners.

Then, finally I wanted to see what their strike to ball ratio is. Why? For fun. I will post a link to a Google Docs spreadsheet for you all to peruse. Then what FanGraph's says with their graphs...

Why did I use these three? Marquis was used because the Twins signed him. Oswalt because of Guentzel's tweet, and Jackson because of the clamoring for the Twins to sign him. Keep in mind this spreadsheet is far from perfect and still probably needs some work.

Here is the link to my spreadsheet.

Basically, the chart says that not only is Roy Oswalt more economical with his pitches, he gets fewer line drives and fly balls balls than either Marquis or Jackson. He also gets outs on fewer pitches, and throws fewer pitches every inning. A significantly smaller amount of the batters he faces turn into base runners, and his strike to ball ratio is heads and shoulders better than the other two. In almost every sense of the word, Oswalt is a superior pitcher to Marquis and Jackson.

The graphs on FanGraphs back this up. Here is the link for the Fangraph's info.

I guess this didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, but I think the pitch to pitch tendency is pretty cool.

3 guys in their late 30s who like beer, baseball, and dirty women are coming to town in June for the Cubs/Twins series. (We make a road trip every year, and this is our chance to finally get to Minneapolis. We've heard good things).

What area of downtown should I target for a hotel where we can walk to the ballpark, bars, etc?

We're too old for nightclubs, but are there any good sport bars that are lively after the games?

I appreciate any knowledge. And please just let us win one game. We're going to stink this year.

With STATS. Actually, i'm not. I think stats can be skewed this way and that way. I'm not saying that some stats aren't helpful in evaluating a player, i just think that they are less accurate as a predictor of future success. There have been so many highly touted players that for whatever reason don't make it or are under whelming and on the flip side, there are players that inexpliciably seem to play well at all the right times.

What stats do you focus in on with pitchers when you evaluate talent? Do you make any adjustment based on the defense of the team and the ballpark they will play in? Look for certain tendencies e.g., innings eater, ground ball rate, k rate, bb rate, calm composure, etc ?

How about hitters? Are you more concerned with certain offensive numbers straight across the board? Are you evaluating by position? Do you just look for a guy to fill a role and disregard the "prototypical" position numbers? What is best? Why? Can you back it up with evidence?

How do you think the Twins, as an organization, have fared at putting together a cohesive team for 2012 based on your evaluation of the numbers and any intangibles you believe exist? It's not fair to include injuries, because the team cannot anticipate injuries. Although you could even argue that in some cases, really.

Lets get a board going of the most important stats that you believe translate into wins, not ones that just look pretty. This outta be fun!

Here is a look at some of the top comparables to the Twins top starting pitchers: Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, Carl Pavano, Scott Blackburn and Jason Marquis. The rotation was taken from MLB Depth Charts. One thing that stands out to me (non Twins subject matter expert) is the number of ground ball pitchers the Twins have on their staff.

In this exercise I used 2010-2011 data, looking at the skilled stats of K/9, BB/9 and GB/FB, while coming up with a similarity score based on these three stats for each Twins starting pitcher. The cutoff was having pitched at least 150 IP as a starter over the last two years. Here is the top 25 list for each Twins starter. There is some bias when comparing NL pitchers with AL pitchers due to the slightly inflated strikeout rate for NL pitchers who don't have to pitch to a DH, so feel free to make a mental adjustment for those pitchers. If you wanted to take something like this to the next level, you could look at age, contract status, handedness etc... but I've chosen to look at these three stats which are highly controlled by a pitchers skill level.