A year ago, the Detroit Tigers came out of spring training with few thinking they could get to .500, much less the postseason. So much for the experts.

The Tigers not only advanced to the postseason for the first time since 1987, but they knocked off the Yankees in four games in an American League Division Series and swept Oakland in the AL Championship Series before losing to St. Louis in the World Series.

With the Tigers' success, there remain 11 teams that have not made a postseason appearance since the turn of the century. Four of them, in fact, haven't had a winning record in this century - Baltimore, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay.

Could one of the 11 be the Tigers of 2007?

Five that can

• Philadelphia, last in the postseason when it lost the 1993 World Series to Toronto, is coming off four consecutive winning seasons. The Phillies have a postseason offense. Now, if they could catch a break with their rotation, which was dealt a spring training blow when offseason addition Freddy Garcia was forced onto the disabled list.

• Milwaukee made its previous postseason appearance in 1982, losing to St. Louis in the World Series, and has gone 14 consecutive seasons without a winning record (it was .500 in 2005). The Brewers have hope, with right- hander Ben Sheets healthy, a developing offense built around Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks and a division without a sure thing.

• Colorado was the National League wild card in its third year, 1995, and lost to Atlanta in the division series. The Rockies have finished in fourth or fifth place the past nine seasons, but they have an explosive homegrown nucleus and are in a division without a dominant team.

• Texas has never advanced past the first round in the postseason and last appeared in 1999. Odds favor the Rangers after firing manager Buck Showalter during the offseason. The two other teams that fired him won World Series the next year - the Yankees in 1996 and Arizona in 2001.

• Toronto won the World Series in 1992 and 1993 but hasn't been back since. Ownership has opened up the checkbooks, and the team has shown signs of competing, but there are two major obstacles - the Yankees and the Red Sox - which makes even a wild card a challenge.

Six that can't

• Cincinnati hasn't been in the postseason since losing to Atlanta in the NLCS in 1995.

• Baltimore hasn't had a winning record or made the playoffs since 1997. Nothing bodes well for that to change anytime soon.

• Pittsburgh won three consecutive NL East titles (1990 to 1992) and hasn't had a winning record since then, leaving the Pirates two losing seasons shy of the major league record held by the Phillies from 1933 to 1948.

• Kansas City had a string of seven postseason appearances in 10 years, capped by a championship in 1985, but hasn't been back since.

• Tampa Bay has never lost fewer than 91 games since inception in 1998. Enough said.

• Washington was playing in Montreal when it made it to the postseason for the only time in the franchise's history, in the strike-interrupted 1981 season.

Overheard

• Baltimore has approached Kansas City about outfielder Reggie Sanders to take over for injured Jay Payton.

• AL MVP Justin Morneau and the Twins have put talks about a multiyear contract on hold until after the season.

• The Cubs have reopened talks with right-hander Carlos Zambrano about a five-year deal.

Readers' turn

Glen Leonard writes, "How can they really call Daisuke Matsuzaka a rookie? If they want to be in the Rookie of the Year running, put them in the amateur draft just like the true rookies have to do. It really is a shame a Troy Tulowitzki or Chris Iannetta or any other true first-year player will lose out to a player that has been paid to play."

Glen, the precedent goes back to when players from the Negro Leagues came to the majors. The NL Rookie of the Year Award, in fact, is the Jackie Robinson Award. If a player has never appeared in the major leagues, he is a rookie. Truth is, Tulowitzki and Iannetta have been paid to play, too, although not as much as big- league players, and Tulowitzki did get a $2.3 million signing bonus two years ago.

For Tracy Ringolsby's response to other questions, or to ask questions of your own, check out the Rockies Inbox at www.Rocky MountainNews.com/rockies.

Two cents' worth

The Chicago Cubs invested $136 million over eight years to sign Alfonso Soriano during the offseason. That's a stretch. But the most questionable part of the whole deal has been the Cubs' insistence that Soriano can actually play center field.

Soriano has gone along with the idea, which is nice of him, but Cubs pitchers can't be excited, and their fans have to be wondering what's going on, too.

Soriano has never been a defensive whiz, whether it was at second base or in left field, but at least he was serviceable. In center field, he's a disaster.

Why not just put him back at second base, put Mark DeRosa into a utility role, where he fits best, and give rookie Felix Pie his chance to play center field?

MILE HIGH WATCH

• Byung-Hyun Kim just doesn't get it.

He is upset he lost the battle for the fifth starter spot to Josh Fogg. He complained the Rockies asked him to work on some changes in his pitching approach this spring training and, if he had known his status as a starter hinged on an effective spring, he never would have tried the new ideas.

Earth to Kim: The reason the Rockies suggested the changes is because what you had been doing wasn't good enough to stay in the rotation.

Your 8-12 record and 5.57 ERA last season weren't good enough for another chance.

On a good day, Kim can dominate. But on a bad day, he has shown he is incapable of making adjustments and keeping the team in the game.

The kicker: Kim explained he preferred starting because then he doesn't have to think about baseball every day.

• Left-handed pitcher Bobby Seay, who appeared in 17 games with the Rockies in 2005, got a second chance Thursday in Detroit.

He was called back from the minor league camp and told he would be on the major league roster, taking the place of left-hander Kenny Rogers, who will start the season on the disabled list.

• Right-hander Jamey Wright is expected to be the fifth starter in Texas, but that will get him only three starts in the opening month.

John Thomson, who signed with the Rockies out of the 1993 draft along with Wright, is the odd man out in Toronto.

ringolsbyt@RockyMountainNews.com

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