2024 ALDS Preview: Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Guardians

2024 ALDS Preview: Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Guardians

It’s that time of year again, and now is the time for the American League Division Series. This year, the red-hot Detroit Tigers are arriving after sweeping the Houston Astros and riding a young roster to a fantastic second half. Conversely, we have the AL Central champion Cleveland Guardians, arguably the best Guardians team in recent years. A battle of division foes: Who’s going to the ALCS?

On paper, I expect this series to be a hitter’s nightmare. Both Detroit and Cleveland share a top-five pitching staff in the game. Of course, Detroit has the expected Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. Outside of Skubal’s starts, any other game’s starter could be a mystery. Manager A.J. Hinch for Detroit has a philosophy of “pitching chaos” through the latter half of the year, and it’s on full display here in the postseason. They have used openers and long relief guys to keep opponents on their toes. How it will stack up against this Guardian offense is an absorbing layer to see play out. 

Cleveland’s pitching philosophy is more traditional than Detroit’s. Although that’s not to say that Guardians manager Steven Vogt won’t go to arguably the best bullpen in baseball, led by AL saves leader Emmanuel Clase. The bullpen ended the season with the fourth-best bullpen ERA by any team since 1995. We are talking about 2003 Dodgers territory. A great bullpen can be vital to a deep postseason run.

In recent years, teams like the 2022 Astros, 2021 Braves and 2018 Red Sox had tremendous bullpens that ultimately aided those teams to a World Series Championship. Both teams have that potential with their staffs alone.

On the hitting side, Cleveland has the three best hitters in this series: Steven Kwan, Josh Naylor, and Jose Ramirez. Ramirez was only one home run away from a 40/40 season, and he was on fire in this chase for the milestone to close out the year. 

However, after the Wild Card round, the Tigers’ offense will go into this series confidently. Players who stepped up, like Andy Ibanez, Jake Rogers, and Parker Meadows, could be the ones we see again come through. Not to mention sluggers like Kerry Carpenter and Riley Greene, who can have big games in this series.

The regular season series favors the Cleveland Guardians 7-6, with six games decided by only one run. It is also important to note that these clubs last played each other on July 30. 

This series is predicated on who’s pitching staff is better. Cleveland has an offense in the league’s upper half overall, while Detroit is in the bottom third for the season. But we can’t ignore how hot Detroit has been either, and if Cleveland wants to make a run this year, they have to extinguish this Detroit Tiger fire. 

This series may be the most competitive out of the bunch. I say Guardians in five games.

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