The American League Central is becoming one of baseball’s best.
The American League Central Division in Major League Baseball has been long thought of as one which the same team dominates every year.
The Detroit Tigers, their roster filled with elite starting pitching and top market hitters, have been able to win the AL Central for the past four years.
This past year, however, turned out to be different than what was initially expected. Rather than having the Tigers run away with the division like years past, the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals constantly nibbled at the heels of the eventual AL Central champions.
The Royals came in at a close second by finishing one game behind the Tigers at 89-73, and the Indians were five games back at 85-77.
Every other division leader in the American League had a lead of ten games or more. The 2014 season showed that this division is turning out to be one of the most competitive in baseball.
Kansas City was catapulted into the national spotlight by using a mix of speedy base-running and quality bullpen pitching. The Royals’ American League-leading 153 stolen bases helped propel them to the World Series and a 1.28 combined earned run average of the back end of their bullpen provided security late in games.
Although Cleveland put up a second consecutive solid season, they did so quietly. The majority of the Indians performed with below-to-average numbers, but a few names stuck out. Those few names are solid pieces to build the rest of the team around.
Corey Kluber — easily the ace of Cleveland’s pitching staff — put up an astounding 2.44 ERA and finished second in strikeouts with 269. He also is a finalist for the Cy Young award.
The other piece to the puzzle for the Indians is Most Valuable Player candidate Michael Brantley. The outfielder finished with a batting average of .327 and showed some power with 20 home runs.
Hitting for average is one thing, but if a player can provide some additional power, that makes him twice as dangerous. With three straight seasons of 140 or more games played, it shows that Brantley is also a durable player who can be counted on for most games.
Kluber and Brantley are also both 28. With having the stars so young it allows for years of finishing the puzzle and putting together a championship ready team.
The offseason will raise a lot of questions on how the season will play out after the Tigers’ Max Scherzer, Victor Martinez and Torii Hunter rejected qualifying offers to become free agents. Detroit needs to sign one of those players to keep a part of the core that made them so good.
In 2015 keep an eye out for the American League Central. The king is beginning to fall, making way for the townsfolk to rise up and take over what they have so long yearned for.
jr096012@ohio.edu
@jordanbrandall
