[Dr. Johnny Fever]

I really don't care what the Tigers do to be honest. Yes Fielder makes a real good team even better and they are certainly the favorites to win the division this year... maybe for a while. I care more about what WE do to improve.

But here's my take fwiw...

We weren't going to be better than Detroit yet this year anyway in all likelyhood. I'm as excited as anymore and moreso than many folks about the direction we're finally heading, however I do believe a lot of folks are getting ahead of themselves with expectations right now. We are INCREDIBLY young. 2 of our core starters this year have no more than a couple months of big league experience... Perez and Giavotella. 2 others have about half a season under their belts... Hosmer and Moustakas. Our new CFer is basically in that same boat. We have still-young pitching throughout part of the rotation and a bullpen full of puppies.

2012 is a "continuing to build" year in my estimation. I don't think it's realistic to expect a team this young to win a division just yet... even in the weak AL Central. What I want and hope to see is progress... and I do mean real progress towards becoming a championship caliber team... and I think (hope) we'll see that. But these guys... as talented as they are, are going to need a little more seasoning imo before we can start getting serious about the playoffs.

As much talent as we brought up and as well as we played late we still finished what... 20 games under .500? It's a long road back to glory in baseball. Give it some time and we should get there. This season should be a real nice building block toward what we hope to accomplish but I think while we get excited for the first time in years we need to be realistic about what to expect as well. Don't get so far ahead of ourselves that close to .500 or being .500 looks like a disappointment. That would be serious progress.