The Gambler for MVP

The season is nearing the halfway point and Kenny Rogers has emerged, in my mind, as a legitimate candidate for MVP. I can, at this time, imagine few players more valuable to their teams than Mr. Rogers.

First, Rogers is 10-3 with a 3.17 ERA. On Sunday, he picked up his 200th career victory.

Detroit is 11-4 in games started by Rogers. In the four losses, the Tigers scored a total of five runs and were shutout twice.

He is probably responsible for having the Tigers at least 10 games over .500 on his own – remember, he essentially replaced Jason Johnson in the rotation. It would be easy, based on history, to surmise that Johnson could be at least three games under .500 at this point. (He’s 3-7 for Cleveland.)

Rogers helped set the tone for the pitching staff by tossing six innings of three-hit ball to beat KC on opening day. Two of his other April wins followed a Tigers’ loss. Two more of his victories since then have followed defeats.

Over his last four starts, Rogers has pitched seven innings twice and eight innings twice. His median innings pitched per game for the year is seven innings.

Finally, of course is the impact Rogers has had on the staff as a whole. He is a legitimate No. 1 starter, which immediately moved all the other Tiger starters into spots where they were better suited. Let’s face it, having Robertson slide from No. 2 to No. 3 and Maroth (when he was healthy) from No. 3 to No. 4, makes this staff much more formidable. Not to mention that Bonderman gets to relax in the No. 2 spot and almost gives Detroit a 1 and 1A in the rotation.

There is no way to quantify what Rogers has meant to the club as a mentor to the young pitchers, but it has to be substantial. The Tigers entered Sunday with a ML-best 3.61 ERA. Consider this – the last time an AL team led the majors in ERA was in 1990 when Oakland did it.