Bert Blyleven

With the offseason additions of Miguel Cabrera, Edgar Renteria and Jacque Jones, the Tigers added to their already outstanding offensive core.

Talk about the rich getting richer. What Detroit has done is built a fortune of firepower. Hands down the Tigers have the most potent lineup in the majors and one which could prove to be among the greatest -- if not the greatest -- offensive attacks of all-time.

No let-up in this lineup
Rattle off the names and numbers in the Detroit lineup and even the best pitchers in the game will be intimidated when taking the hill against these battering bats. The outfielders are Magglio Ordonez, last season’s AL batting champion with a .363 average and 139 RBI, Curtis Granderson, who besides his .302 average and 26 steals, posted the second highest on-base slugging percentage (OBS) for a leadoff man, and Jones, who comes over from the Cubs where he batted .332 with 46 RBI after the All-Star break.

In the infield there’s Cabrera, coming off a .320 average, 34 homers, and 119 RBI with the Marlins last season, the overshadowed but not underappreciated Placido Polanco, a. 341 hitter with 105 runs scored, Renteria, who the Braves dealt after he batted .332 and posted the third highest OBS for Atlanta shortstops, and Carlos Guillen, who hit at nearly a .300 clip (.296) and had 102 RBI.

Catching will be Ivan Rodriguez, who while not the Pudge of 1999, hit .275 with a slugging percentage of .400. Gary Sheffield’s the designated hitter. His numbers from last season were hampered by a shoulder problem after a collision with Polanco in July, but they still were nothing to sneeze at: 22 homers, 73 RBI and a .451 slugging percentage. Opposing pitchers should feel free to say “when” at anytime 1-9.

Grand comparisons
Last season the Tigers averaged 5.48 runs per game. The league average was 4.90. Detroit ranked second in batting average, total bases, slugging, RBI and runs scored. Manager Jim Leyland’s club had the fourth highest on-base percentage and ranked sixth in homers and stolen bases. It’s hard to see how many if not all of those numbers won’t increase this season.

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Some are comparing the Tigers’ lineup to that of the 1927 Yankees, which had a couple of guys named Ruth and Gehrig as part of it. Those Bronx Bombers scored 975 runs. Last season Detroit tallied 887 runs. This season with such premier offensive talent stacking the order from top to bottom the Tigers must be considered capable of breaking that magical barrier of 1,000 runs. The record for runs is 1,067 set by the 1931 Yankees.

If the Detroit hitters stay healthy, they have a shot at making history. It would be foolish to believe otherwise. The only team to score more than 1,000 runs in the designated hitter era was the 1999 Cleveland Indians (1,062). But the Tigers are not thinking of breaking records, they are thinking of winning the World Series. If their bats boom the way they are expected to, it will be tempting for them to stay in such a mindset, but also very dangerous for them to fall out of it.

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