With the World Series over, it’s for the baseball world to officially turn it’s collective mind to next spring. For the Tigers, that means raising the bar and locking in a closer.

First things first, they picked up their $4 million option on Ugueth Urbina, so now they just have to focus on getting to the ninth.

Which brings me to Rosey’s column on the future, which is humorous and has points.

“We’re looking to compete, to win our division,” said president and general manager Dave Dombrowski. “Not do anything that is long-term foolish, but compete to win next year.”

Considering that the previous lofty goal was “try not to lose so much that the whole country makes fun of us,” this is a welcome change. And it’s reasonable. It won’t be easy, though.

His keys to the season:

• Relief pitching (like everyone, though Urbina at least solves on problem)
  
• Center field
  
• Third base (Inge is fine, but doesn’t have to be the ultimate solution here.)
  
• The starters continuing to develop, especially Jeremy Bonderman

Yeah, but the improvement should continue. They’ve had a year of seeing success, so at least winning a game won’t be new. Coming into September in a duel with the Twins, they’d still be playing above anything they’ve done, but it’d be nice and probably put a bounce in their step on the way to the ballpark.

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