Detroit

Brett Lawrie, 2B Toronto Blue Jays (23 percent owned in Yahoo, 22.7 percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: 2/4, 1 RBI

Brett Lawrie has finally arrived! He tore up AAA pitching this season going .353/64/18/61/13. In my opinion, the call-up should have happened much earlier—but it didn't. Then Lawrie suffered a hand injury on May 31st which kept him out of the game for a while. Now that it is completely healed, expect him to rake for the Blue jays.

Ten months ago, Brennan Boesch burst onto the scene for the Detroit Tigers and was the story for the team in the first half of 2010.

A middling minor league prospect, Boesch slugged his way into the middle of the Tigers lineup and helped provide protection to Miguel Cabrera, making him an early Triple Crown candidate.

Last week: 2-4
This week: TEX (April 11-13); at OAK (April 14-17)

So, What Happened?

Buzz saw, meet the Tigers; Tigers, meet the buzz saw.

The Detroit Tigers will be honoring their former manager, Sparky Anderson, by retiring his No. 11 jersey later in the season. The Tigers will also honor him by wearing a commemorative patch and raise a banner. 

For many Tigers fans, this is a long time coming. Baseball in Detroit is making a comeback and everyone remembers Sparky Anderson. However, the Tigers should have done this a long time ago. It would have been nice for Anderson to see his numbers raised into the rafters.

Detroit Tigers (2010 Record: 81-81)

The Detroit Tigers finished the 2009 season tied for first place in the AL Central (86-76) after having relinquished a seven-game lead to the Minnesota Twins during the last four weeks of the season. They then lost a one-game playoff in the Metrodome in 12 innings, sending the club into the offseason on a down note.

We all know Max Scherzer’s 2010 story. It was a tale of two seasons, to say the least, as we can tell by his splits before he was sent down to the minors and after it:

One of the most interesting races in baseball should be the AL Central Division.  The Midwestern division isn't the sexiest in baseball, but it's highly underrated. 

ESPN will give more coverage to one Red Sox/Yankees series than they will to the combined seasons of the five teams in the division, but the fans of those teams know it's shaping up to be a great race in 2011.

The more we learn about Phil Coke, the more Detroiters are going to love this guy.

But the more we learn about Phil Coke, the more Detroiters are going to worry about him.

If Coke, the lefty lifetime reliever who will be in the Tigers rotation this season, was a product, he'd be juice concentrate—and he needs to be diluted with realism.

I grew up just outside Motown, during a time when the Detroit Tigers, much like the local economy, toiled to stay afloat in the midst of global change. This was the late-1990s.

Alcohol is a problem that affects not only the richest of athletes and businessmen, but also the middle- and lower-class workers who need a "relief" from their everyday stress.

Most know of the consequences and repercussions of taking a sip, but does that stop most individuals?

Most of the time, no.