Playoff baseball is unpredictable, especially in a five game series. With the powerful New York Yankees now finished for 2006, the American League will now be decided by pitching and defense in two cities that have waited for their ALCS chance. The Detroit Tigers have waited for over a decade to return to the glory years of Tigers baseball and under the steady leadership of manager Jim Leyland and the emergence of their young talent, they are now back in baseball?s spotlight. In Oakland, the success has been their since the turn of the century, but only this year have they been able to get past the division series. This series will be won on pitching and both of these teams are loaded both in the rotation and in the bullpen. The Tigers? starting staffs, especially Kenny Rogers and Jeremy Bonderman, were dominant at times against the Yankees. Justin Verlander was also strong in his outing and showed his maturity to pitching in Yankee Stadium. They were matched by Oakland and Barry Zito, who looked every bit of his Cy Young form in Game one against Johan Santana and the Minnesota Twins. In the bullpen, the Tigers have a direct advantage with Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney throwing straight gas and then Todd Jones to close out the games. Oakland is strong at the end of games as well in Huston Street, who showed he is a big game pitcher from his time at the University of Texas. Reliever Justin Duchscherer also does a good job of helping build the bridge to Street, but a lack of depth could hurt them. Offensively, I think the A?s have an advantage with the top hitter in Frank Thomas and good balance up and down the order elsewhere. The Tigers also have a deep and balanced line-up with veteran hitters, but most of those players are having career years. The real question for Detroit is if this trend for hitters like Craig Monroe and Brandon Inge will end and if it does, when? These teams are very well-managed with Detroit and Jim Leyland and Oakland and Ken Macha, which showed when both teams did the little things in the Division Series. Similarities are found in other areas as well, making this an interesting series that should go the distance and come down to a second-tier player getting the big hit or out. Oakland in 7 This is going to be a great series that will introduce the country to some great young players, like Justin Verlander, Dan Haren, Craig Monroe, and Nick Swisher. In the end, I think that the Tigers? pitching can only get worse after the Yankees series and the A?s have more proven pitchers and hitters than the Tigers, which should play itself out over the full seven games.