I am really disappointed that we could not get M-cab.  Ever since hearing that he was doing a strong workout regiment with Naps I was really excited that we were going to get him.  But now he has been traded to Detroit and at first glance I was really worried about how strong they could be.  However after looking at their situation more closely they will definitely be a strong team but not an elite team.  

Their pitching situation is really BAD.

Zumaya, a really strong up and coming reliever, is already going to miss most of next season and had to have major shoulder surgery.  Their bullpen was bad to enough last year, but now their bullpen is even weaker.  

Todd Jones, their closer (39 years old, going to be 40 in April) was mediocre last year with:

an ERA of 4.28 (2.81 for Krod), a whip of 1.418 (1.248 for Krod), an ERA+ 107 (162 for Krod), a K/BB of 1.44 (2.65 for Krod), and a BAA of .267 (.204 for Krod).

These are clearly very mediocre numbers for a closer and if anything they will be worse next year as he turns 40.  The Tigers have 2 avg relief pitchers (ERA between 4 and 5) in Fernando Rodney (30) and Jason Grilli (31), 1 good reliever (ERA between 2-3) in Bobby Seay (29), and 1 horrible relief pitcher (ERA > 7) in Francisco Cruceta (28).

Their starting pitching is better, but not much better.  They have one of the leagues best young pitchers in Jason Verlander (not enough good things could be said about him) but after that their pitching is avg at best.  They have Jeremy Bonderman who had a horrible second half with a 2007 ERA of over 5, whip of 1.38, and a BAA of .279.  He is only 25 but in 5 full seasons in the majors he has had a low era of 4.08.  After that they have:

Dontrelle Willis (ERA over 5),
Nate Robertson (ERA 4.76 WHIP 1.47 BAA .283)
and Kenny Rodgers (43 years old, K/BB 1.44, 2007 ERA 4.43).  

Their pitching is weak to begin with and they just traded away some of their best pitching prospects with their MLB-ready, potential star pitcher Andrew Miller (22 years old)

Now their offense is very good but several players (Magglio Ordonez, Placido Polanco) are coming off career years and at their age (32,33) you would have to expect their numbers to decline.  

If you you look head to head at their positional players with the angels positional players the angels should be better next year at first base (if Kotchman can stay healthy), Second Base (Kendrick should have a better year and Polanco is not going to those numbers again), Left Field (GA/Rivera/GMJ are all better than Marcus Thames and his .242 BA with 54 RBI and 18 HR), and Right Field (Vlad is better than Magglio).  

They have a better center fielder, shortstop, third baseman, DH, and catcher (although I think naps can be better than 36 year old Rodriguez).  However the problem is that their center fielder, shortstop, and DH are much better than our players at those positions and thats why their offense is 1 through 9 much better than ours.  

Considering how bad their pitching is and how good our pitching is I don't see why we couldn't beat them in a post season series, especially since we should have a better record and thus home field advantage (because we play in a much weaker division).  

I'm still upset about M-cab but they just threw away their future (all their offensive players are in their 30s except M-cab and Granderson) and our team is very young and should continue to be great for a long time