Will playoff experience be important?

How critical will playoff experience be when the Orioles and Detroit Tigers meet beginning Thursday in the American League Division Series?

Detroit has a lot of it. In fact, the four pitchers named to start today for Detroit - Max Scherzer in Game 1 followed by Justin Verlander, David Price and Rick Porcello - have made a combined 30 playoff starts.

We don't yet know the O's order beyond Chris Tillman in Game 1, but Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen, Miguel Gonzalez and Bud Norris have combined for two playoff starts.

The Tigers have other players with plenty of postseason experience, too. Torii Hunter has played in the postseason seven times with three teams and closer Joe Nathan five times with three different teams.

The Orioles only have three position players that made starts against the Yankees in the 2012 playoffs who could play in this series.

These players played for the Orioles in the 2012 ALDS:

C Matt Wieters
1B Mark Reynolds
2B Robert Andino (three games), Ryan Flaherty (two games)
SS J.J. Hardy
3B Manny Machado
LF Nate McLouth
CF Adam Jones
RF Chris Davis
DH Jim Thome (three games), Lew Ford (two games)

How the Tigers starters have fared in the postseason:
* Scherzer is 4-2 with a 3.42 ERA in 11 games, nine starts.
* Verlander is 7-5 with a 3.28 ERA in 15 starts.
* Price is 1-4 with a 5.06 ERA in nine games, four starts.
* Porcello is 0-2 with a 4.41 ERA in eight games, two starts.

This morning, I wrote about Nelson Cruz and that incredible, six-homer, 13-RBI series he had for Texas against Detroit in the 2011 American League Championship Series.

In 34 career playoff games, Cruz is batting .278 with 14 homers, 27 RBIs and a 1.018 OPS.

Delmon Young has been in the playoffs each of the last five years. In 33 career games he is batting .265 with nine homers, 18 RBIs, a .538 slugging and a .859 OPS. He has hit those nine homers in just 117 at-bats.

Does Buck Showalter have a decision to make? He can start Young at DH, but that means Nelson Cruz would start in left and Alejandro De Aza would be on the bench.

The two O's starters that pitched in 2012 against the Yankees pitched real well in that series. In Game 2, Chen gave up two runs (one earned) over 6 1/3 innings. In Game 3, Gonzalez went seven innings, allowing just five hits and one run. That is a 1.35 combined playoff ERA for Chen and Gonzalez.

The bottom line is that between the 2012 postseason, and considering the experience of players like Cruz and Young, the O's have players that have been there before. At least enough of them that the experience edge the Tigers have could not be that significant.

In 2012, while the O's were not hitting much, their pitching kept them in it. This club has had amazing pitching much of this year. In the second half, the Orioles went 44-24 with a 2.88 team ERA.

Get pitching like that now and no one will be worried about postseason experience.

Meanwhile Kansas City hosts Oakland tonight in the wild card game to begin the playoffs with James Shields facing Jon Lester. Who do you like in that game?

Ausmus speaks: Click here to watch some video clips with Tigers manager Brad Ausmus courtesy of the Oakland (Mich.) Press.