A's - Tigers Game 1 Preview

The wild card games were a nice start to the postseason but in my mind those are just game 163's. Tonight the Cinderella Oakland A's take on Triple Crown winner, Miguel Cabrera, and the Detroit Tigers.

All season people were expecting the A's to just collapse because they never had really any big names. In this case Billy Beane ball was in full effect all season. The A's never let up and it seemed Yoenis Cespedes was a pretty good sign and Josh Reddick prevailed from leaving Boston.

Cespedes put up great rookie numbers but won't come close to being Rookie of the Year (ROY) since Mike Trout was just outstanding. Reddick put up absolute career numbers which I don't think he even expected.

Another diamond in the rough was Brandon Moss. Last Year was in Lehigh Valley in the Phillies Organization, this year he signed as a minor league free agent. He was called up in June and he hit 22 Homeruns in less than 100 games.

The A's even had one of the best bullpens in all of baseball, but personally Baltimore was btetter. They had trouble finding a consistent closer but eventually Grant Balfour stepped it up and was the closer to make the playoffs and winning the division.

                                                       

Now probably the buggest story of the season, Miguel Carbrera.  He looks like he doesn't even try hitting wise and he wins the first Triple Crown since 1967 when Carl Yasztremki did it. It is something that probably won't happen again for awhile. If he loses MVP to Trout there is something wrong with the MVP voters because he is the true MVP.

This is an above average year for Cabrera. Usually he hits about 30 homers a year. If he continues to put up these outstanding numbers he IS a Hall of Famer (HOF).

Justin Verlander coninued to be dominant. Prince Fielder put up great numbers. The story of the Tigers for me, besides Cabrera, is Austin Jackson. He has finally hit the prime of his career and is getting on base and, in my mind, one of the biggest reasons the Tigers made it to October.

Max Scherzer. He has put up crazy amount of K's. He is another big backbone of this Tigers team as they have not had stable pitching most of the year through Doug Fister and Rick Porcello.

The A's are on one of the hottest streaks in all of baseball right now and I think they will come out strong and take game one.