Here's a quick glance at what's happening around the American League Central.
Though the Twins don't look to be primed for a splashy trade this week, a shakeup appears to be looming. The Twins have discussed promoting left-hander Francisco Liriano -- the former All-Star -- from Class AA, and using him out of the bullpen. The Twins play 33 of their reamaining 61 games on the road. This is not good news for a team that is 21-27 outside of the Metrodome.
The Tigers have won four straight and are three games over .500 -- their high-water mark of the season -- entering a key weekend series in Detroit against the White Sox. Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free-Press does the math for us: The Tigers trail the Sox by 5 1/2 games, so a Tigers sweep makes it 2 1/2 and a Sox sweep makes it 8 1/2. Lynn Henning of the Detroit News examines the Tigers' three big deals for National Leaguers in the offseason -- the acquisitions of Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis and Edgar Renteria -- and the results haven't been pretty.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland puts the state of the Central in simple terms: ''We've got to hit a couple winning streaks and [the White Sox have] got to hit a couple bumps in the road.''
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