Students were polled in the Oakland Center this week on how the Detroit Tigers would fare in the 2013 MLB Playoffs.

There are only eight teams remaining after Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay advanced, and students still think the Tigers will come out on top.

“I think we have a really strong starting line-up, and I think it’s gonna carry us through the divisional series, and ALCS, and with our pitching I think we can clutch it out,” Dylan Gorbold, student, said.

Why you ask?

Many experts believe the Tigers have the best starting rotation in this year’s playoffs. If you add Miguel Cabrera’s bat along with veteran hitters like Torii Hunter, Prince Fielder and Victor Martinez, you can find reasons to be optimistic.

Most students polled students think the Tigers will win the World Series.

FINISH	PERCENTAGE
MAKE ALCS AND LOSE	15
MAKE WORLD SERIES AND LOSE	25
WIN WORLD SERIES	56
LOSE IN ALDS	4

 

Biased? What do you mean biased?

Some might bring up the fact that this poll is taking place in Metro Detroit, and that of course the scales will be tilted in favor of Detroit. True, but you can’t really blame fans for predicting with hope. Below is a table that provides a national perspective.

In a poll on espn.com, the question was: Which team will win the American League Pennant?

TEAM	PERCENTAGE
Boston Red Sox	47
Detroit Tigers	27
Oakland Athletics	16
Tampa Bay Rays	10

 

To assume, the national perspective believes the Tigers will fall to the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series.

There were more than 15,000 votes in the poll, but when you narrow it to just the 600 plus Michigan voters, 83 percent were in favor of the Tigers.

Another poll from cbssports.com has three of the six staff writers picking the Tigers to make the World Series, two of which have them winning. That’s more love for the Tigers than any other team listed, but still some are skeptical.

“Even though we have the best players, we got Cabrera, we got Fielder, we got Torii Hunter, we’ll still blow it in the World Series, like we blow our money on the players,” Michael Cardamone, student, said.

What to expect

You could assume that students might be ahead of the curve in thought and trust their judgment, or you can trust the national, more objective opinion.

The Vegas odds for the Tigers winning the World Series are 19/4 which is roughly a 20 percent chance of champagne at the end of October.

Is anything for certain?

Yes and no. One thing we do know for sure is that anything can happen, which is a fancy way of saying nothing.

Experts believe the MLB playoff is the toughest of the four major sports to make. Only 33 percent of the teams make it, and two years ago that number was only 26. The NBA and NHL both feature 53 percent of their teams in their respective post-seasons.

Last year the Tigers were a heavy favorite to beat the Giants having just swept the Yankees.

Well, we should all remember how that ended up.

Maybe we all should just enjoy the ride.