| I happen to think Verlander was a deserving candidate, he may not have been my first choice, but I'm not offended that he won. However, I think people are getting carried away with "the Tigers don't sniff the playoffs without Verlander." Let's remember that Detroit won the AL Central by FIFTEEN games. Yes, it was a close race throughout July and most of August, but their chief competition was an Indians team that everyone agreed was playing over their heads (both scouts and statisticians.) I don't think WAR is a perfect system, but if you use that, you could replace Verlander with say, Armando Galarraga, and the Tigers still win by six games. By any form of analysis, I think it's hard to argue that the Tigers wouldn't be the best team in the division even without Verlander. |