Jonah Keri looks at the flaws in the construction of the Tigers roster.

My one quibble with the post is Max Scherzer. Keri talks about the Tigers poor infield defense and the ground ball tendencies of the pitching staff:

The rest of the rotation consists of Max Scherzer, a pitcher who induces slightly more grounders than flyballs but struggles mightily with going deep into games and will need all the defensive help he can get; Justin Verlander who…well, he’s Justin Verlander, he’ll probably be fine; and Phil Coke, who induces quite a few more flyballs than grounders, but will also be asked to carry a starter’s workload all season, the first time he’ll assume that role since the first half of the 2008 season. In Double-A.

Scherzer strikes out a ton of batters, as does Verlander. That goes a long way toward hiding defensive short comings. It’s how the Yankees covered their defensive flaws for years.