About those Detroit Tigers...

After the Twins sweep of the White Sox, they now stand 8.5 games out of the division lead, and are tied with Chicago for 2nd in the Central. As of this writing, the Twins have won 34 of 42 games, but have hardly been able to make up any ground in their division. The reason? Right now, the Detroit Tigers are the best team in baseball.

Yes, those same Detroit Tigers that lost 119 games in 2003. Yes, those same Detroit Tigers that I predicted to finish 4th in the division. They're 68-33, the best record in baseball.

So what's the biggest reason for the big turnaround? Well, we'll here from the Detroit expert on this blog tomorrow, but I can make some guesses as well as take a look at the upcoming series between the Twins and Tigers. The biggest reason in my mind for this Tiger resurgence was the quick improvement of the young pitching. Justin Verlander is obviously a strong candidate for the ROY, but Jeremy Bonderman has arguably been the better pitcher this year. Kenny Rogers is famous for his 2nd-half fades, but he was very solid in the first half. Zach Miner and Nate Robertson have also done their part.

In the pen, Joel Zumaya has been the big story. The rookie fireballer has a sub 3.00 ERA and strikes out over 11 batters per 9 innings. Which is nice.

Offensively, they seem to have had a pretty balanced attack. Granderson is a very solid leadoff hitter, and while Mags and Pudge have been solid in the middle, Guillen has been the team's best hitter so far, and is really one of the underrated players in the MLB.

Anyway, we'll hear more about the Tigers tomorrow, so let's just look at the pitching matchup for the 3-game set that starts Friday:

Friday: Zach Miner (6-2, 4.07 ERA) vs. Francisco Liriano (12-2, 1.93 ERA)

Saturday: Nate Robertson (9-6, 3.70 ERA) vs. Brad Radke (9-7, 4.74 ERA)

Sunday: Jeremy Bonderman (11-4, 3.66 ERA) vs. Johan Santana (12-5, 3.05 ERA)