Some key acquisitions could elevate the Detroit Tigers from being on the verge of the playoffs to being serious contenders. The Tigers picked up Johnny Damon in a one-year, $8 million deal, and phenom Austin Jackson as part of a three-way, seven-player, two-Jackson trade that sent Curtis Granderson to the Yankees and pitcher Edwin Jackson to Arizona. With Damon and Jackson at the top of the order and rookie second baseman Scott Sizemore (who has averaged 17 steals in three minor-league seasons) at the bottom, the Tigers will be in the hunt for the pennant. If they can win more games than Minnesota — thus negating the need to go through the agonies of revisiting that extra-innings, one-game divisional-playoff defeat they suffered at the hands of the Twins at the end of last season — or the Chicago White Sox and make the playoffs, nobody will want to play them in October.