Preview: Kansas City.

 

	Tigers	Royals
Monday	Verlander	Greinke
Wednesday	Scherzer	Hochevar
Thursday	Willis	Bannister

Tomorrow at 4:10 Eastern Time, The Tigers kick off their quest for the 2010 Central Division crown against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals finished 2009 tied for last in the division with a record of 65-97.

The Royals send 2009 Cy Young award winner, Zack Greinke to the mound to face Verlander on opening day. These are two guys who finished in the top three of the AL Cy Young voting.  The Tigers as a team hit .176 against Greinke in 2009 although few teams faired much better.

On Wednesday we send Max Scherzer to the hill to face Luke Hochevar. Scherzer was acquired from Arizona in the Edwin Jackson deal, will get his first shot at American League hitting. Hochevar last season had a rough go of it(7-13 6.55 ERA) He’s a guy that throws strikes(46 walks last year in 143 IP) so hopefully the Tigers can put the ball in play and make some noise.

The series wraps up on Thursday as we send the D Train to the hill to face Brian Bannister. Willis is looking to get on track for the first time since he has put on a Tigers uniform. This is a guy who has given up something like 947 walks in only 17 innings of work(Yeah I exaggerate, so what) so hopefully he can prove that he has turned the corner and make this a year to remember.  Brian Bannister is the same pitcher he has always been, not over powering, but he has pretty good command and could have had a much better season last year if he received any kind of run support.