Central Comparison: Cleveland the next Detroit or Chicago?

The Cleveland Indians pitching staff was and still looks to be the anchor to a pennant contending team. The Indians overall staff ERA finished third in the league in 2007 with a 4.05 ERA, behind Boston and Toronto. With the entire staff back and the addition of extra arms in the bullpen, can last season’s success be duplicated? In 2007 the Tribe had two dominant performances by young aces and unexpected performances from the bullpen. To the casual fan, the Indians and their pitching seemed to come from nowhere. Their run through the AL Central in 2007 has been compared to the 2005 White Sox and 2006 Tigers teams. All came from losing seasons to make the playoffs the following year and were successful because of pitching. The problem with the comparison is that the Sox and Tigers success was based on extreme jumps in pitching. In 2005 the Tigers team ERA was 4.51, eighth in the league. In 2006 during their World Series run, they led the AL in ERA at 3.84. This was a league high drop of .67 ... (link)