The Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals play their MLB season openers on Monday at 1:08 pm with James Shields and Justin Verlander facing off as the NL central race gets started up and the matchup has a division winner and a playoff hopeful playing each other at Comerica Park as the 2014 season starts up on Monday March 31 in the US after opening in Australia.
The Royals had their best season in years and now they are gunning for the Tigers and a postseason berth and they would join the Pirates from last season as the latest upstarts to get into the playoffs after a lengthy absence. The Royals have tons of young talent in Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, while the Tigers come in with big names like Miguel Cabrera, Verlander and the newly acquired Ian Kinsler after the team traded Prince Fielder this offseason. The Tigers have World Series expectations once again and they are expecting a better run than they had last season after losing in the playoffs.
The Tigers have dealt with some injuries and losses in free agency and now they have Alex Gonzalez starting at shortstop after Jose Iglesias was injured and they are hoping to have him back at some point this season. The Tigers bring back the AL MVP and Cy Young winner in Cabrera and Max Scherzer and their pitching should be some of the best in baseball after Verlander also won a Cy Young in recent years. Scherzer is looking to get locked up by the team and he is one a one year deal, while Cabrera signed a massive extension that made him the highest paid player in baseball ever and that will keep him in a Detroit uniform for the next decade.
The Royals come in after having a winning record for the first time in 10 years and now they have the chance to continue that. Shields comes in at 13-12 and the team went 41-25 down the back stretch last season to lock things in. Verlander is in for his seventh straight start on Opening Day and the Royals hope that Shields can follow that as well and they are looking to get even more after going 86-76 last season. The team was ranked in the top 10 in batting average and the top 20 in runs and they would like to improve that as well. The Royals pitching was better, going into the top 10 in WHIP and in the top three in quality starts, while they were ranked sixth in ERA in the league.
The team had Hosmer over .300 and Gordon led with 20 home runs while Butler was the leader in RBIs and that trio is expected to perform even better this season as they have another season of development under their belts. The Royals will face Scherzer in the second game of the series and they will have Jason Vargas countering the Cy Young winner. Last season Cabrera was filthy and now he has the chance to win another MVP award after getting his triple crown nearly once again.
Check here for the Royals and the Tigers live coverage from MLB on Opening Day from Comerica Park.