2006 Detroit Tigers

2006 Detroit Tigers / Franchise: Detroit Tigers / BR Team Page[edit]

Record: 95-67, Finished 2nd in AL Central Division (2006 AL) | 2006 American League Wild Card

Clinched Wild Card: September 24, 2006, At Kansas City Royals

Won AL Pennant

Coaches: Rafael Belliard, Chuck Hernandez, Gene Lamont, Lloyd McClendon, Don Slaught and Andy Van Slyke

History, Comments, Contributions[edit]

The 2006 Detroit Tigers are one of the famous "turnaround teams" of all time. Only three years earlier, in 2003, the team lost a stupendous 119 games, and even in 2005 the Tigers were well under .500, going 71-91. Some of the credit will undoubtedly go to veteran manager Jim Leyland, who took over the team in 2006 after not having managed in the majors since 1999.

The Tigers gave an early indication that they would not be patsies by winning their first five games of the year. They set a major league record by hitting 15 homers over their first three games. Chris Shelton went deep twice and Carlos Guillen once in a 3-1 Opening Day win over the Kansas City Royals on April 3rd, accounting for all of their runs. Two days later, they hit five more long balls in a 14-3 win over the Royals, with five different players going deep, including Guillen, then on April 6th they connected 7 times in a 10-6 win over the Texas Rangers. This included six homers hit off knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who had a historically bad start for Texas. Shelton and Marcus Thames both homered twice off Dickey, while Magglio Ordonez also had two long balls, but the second was hit off reliever Brian Shouse. Shelton was off to a tremendous start, hitting 9 home runs in his first 13 games, but he faded after that, finishing with 16 homers, two fewer than he had hit in 2005.

As of August 8th, the Tigers were on their way to winning around 109 games, which would have made them one of the top teams of all time. Curiously, they received little attention for it. In contrast, the 1984 Tigers, also a terrific team, got a large amount of attention after starting the season on an unstoppable winning trend.

The Tigers had a notorious swoon in August and September, failing to even win the division - they finished one game behind the Minnesota Twins with a record of 95 wins and 67 losses. But they did win the AL Wild Card and came back strong in the postseason to reach the 2006 World Series, winning seven consecutive games against the favored New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics after losing Game 1 of the ALDS to the Yankees.

The 2006 Tigers were a very deep team with no MVP candidates of note. No Tiger player hit 30+ home runs (Craig Monroe led the team with 28), and no Tiger player was in the top 10 in the league in RBI. Ordonez had 104 RBI, but 113 RBI were necessary to get into the top 10). No Tigers player was in the top 10 in slugging percentage either, and none was in the top 5 in batting average (although Guillen was # 9). Brandon Inge hit 27 home runs and provided some "highlight reel" plays at third base.

On the other hand, the team had the lowest ERA in the American League and four reliable starting pitchers in Kenny Rogers, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson and 2006 American League Rookie of the Year Award winner Justin Verlander; all of them won at least 13 games, and pitched at least 186 innings. Fellow rookie Joel Zumaya topped 100 mph frequently out of the bullpen and joined with holdover Fernando Rodney to provide setup work for closer Todd Jones (37 saves).

Unfortunately, the Tigers headed into the World Series and faced a hotter team in the St. Louis Cardinals. Despite finishing the season with an 83-78 record and being an underdog in many minds, the Cardinals found new life in the postseason, playing sound ball and outpitching the Tigers, who had a horrible problem with their defense, which contributed to the Cardinals' momentum. Kenny Rogers had Detroit's lone victory and the Tigers ended their season on the losing end of the World Series.