Johnny Damon

General Motors Plants have been taken away over the years and Detroit has suffered. Detroit has suffered their share of pains by far, and another one occurred tonight. Armando Galarraga, the 28-year-old from Venezula, was one out away from a perfect game against the Indians.

The Tiger faithful love their team, and stand by their players through good and bad.

That is, after said players have won them over.

Johnny Damon and Jose Valverde didn't exactly hit the ground running in their first few games donning the Olde English D. It took Damon until mid April to get above the Mendoza line, and Valverde blew his very first save opportunity of the year (as many as Fernando Rodney blew all of last year).

The moves were highly-questioned to begin with, within the Tigers fan base and outside it

The 2010 baseball season has been a fiesta thus far for these outfielders.

As of Cinco de Mayo, the statistics of these amigos speak for themselves.

When they aren’t pushing their teammates across the dish, they are spending their time on the lawn fielding flies and throwing out hopeful base runners.

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Detroit Tigers fans remember Curtis Granderson.

Don't they?

Granderson was ushered off to New York in a multi-player deal, and the former fan-favorite is now a distant memory to the MoTown faithful.

In exchange for Granderson in the three-team merry-go-round, the Tigers received Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer, Daniel Schlereth and Phil Coke.

And the Arizona Diamondbacks got shafted.

The Yankees were presented with their World Series rings on Opening Day with former Bombers Jerry Hairston Jr. and Hideki Matsui on hand to get their rings.

Melky Cabrera and Eric Hinske, now with the Braves, got theirs from Hairston; Chad Gaudin and Edwar Ramirez, now with the A’s, got theirs when the Yankees went to Oakland; and Xavier Nady, now with the Cubs, got his when GM Brian Cashman brought it to Citi Field.

So a couple nights ago I'm dinking around on the computer, trying to figure out what my fantasy baseball team's pitching rotation is going to look like this year, when my buddy Paul texts me out of the blue to see if I want to go to the Tigers' home opener at Comerica Park.

"Oh, hells yes," I answer. I've never been to a Tigers game in my life before, and what better place to start than the '10 home opener?

Through five innings, CC Sabathia appeared on his way to an Opening Night victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

But the Yankees' ace quickly ran into trouble in the sixth, issuing a walk to Dustin Pedroia before Victor Martinez doubled and Kevin Youkilis brought them both home with a triple to cut Boston's deficit to 5-4.

After the Sox tied the game at 5, New York once again jumped ahead at 7-5, only to see the lead disappear another time thanks to poor middle relief by newly acquired Chan Ho Park and always erratic Damaso Marte.

The American League Central has consistently been one of the most competitive divisions in baseball in recent years. In fact, 162 games have not been enough to decide the division pennant the last two seasons, requiring a play-in game to award the Central crown. The AL Central figures to be tight at the top once again in 2010. The following is a completely unscientific prognostication of whom will be the key figures will be in this season's race.

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Here are some outfielders who could struggle to match their 2009 production.

The 2010 season is almost upon us. Baseball season is getting much closer to being back.

We're about two weeks away to Easter Sunday on April 4, when Opening Night will kickoff the season on ESPN, and what a game to open up with between the defending World Series Champions New York Yankees and rival Boston Red Sox.

But there will be 29 other teams trying to do what the Yankees did this past November, which is win the World Series. Eight teams only get a chance every year to qualify to win, so who will be the teams this season to step up and challenge the Yankees?