Cranky Tigers are coming to town

Hey, wasn't Detroit the team that was supposed to run away with the weak American League Central? You know, signing Prince Fielder to a fat contract that pays until decade's end. Justin Verlander, the best pitcher in the American League. Delmon Young, the slur-spewing outfield addition stolen from Minnesota.

It hasn't happened and there's some crankiness in Detroit.

As the Tigers blog Bless You Boys wrote following Thursday's 2-1 loss at Cleveland: "The Detroit Tigers dropped a 3 game series to the 1st place Cleveland Indians in embarrassing fashion, falling in the finale 2-1. With the sweep, the Tigers are mired in 3rd place, 6 games out of 1st, closer to the 4th place Royals than the top of the division Tribe. Not exactly what was envisioned before the season."

Or, in more terse terms: "It was damn near an epidemic of suck."

It was bad enough that the blog's player of the game poll went all North Korea and listed only one player -- Verlander, who was excellent in a complete-game loss, and for the second time this season will miss a chance to pitch against the Twins. He's 5-2 in 10 starts this season with a 2.15 ERA, a strikeout per inning and 61 baserunners allowed in 75 innings pitched.

In other words, he's the best.

Here's the full Bless You Boys post from Thursday.

Bloggers and their commenters are already having the Mauer/Pujols debate about Fielder's nine-year, $214 million deal, which runs through 2020, even though he's on about a 25-home run, 95 RBI pace.

Read it. It'll sound familiar.

And Delmon? He's back to being not very good -- on and off the field. Even the Cleveland Jewish News weighed in on him this week.