Miguel Cabrera knew the Tigers had some financial flexibility this winter, so he told GM Dave Dombrowski he’d be happy to help the team recruit free agents. Dombrowski took his first baseman up on the offer and told him to call up Victor Martinez. Just three weeks into the offseason, Cabrera and the Tigers accomplished their goal, luring Martinez to Detroit with some persuasive words and a four-year, $50MM contract.
Martinez drew strong interest from "at least six teams," agent Scott Pucino said on a conference call with reporters. Martinez says Cabrera’s recruiting was "a good part" of his decision to sign in Detroit, but it wasn't the primary reason he turned down other offers.
"Bottom line, I just want to win," Martinez said. "I came here because I want to win. Anything that I can do to make this team better [and] win, man. I want to do it. I’m just really excited and I just want to win bad."
Martinez made it clear that he'll play any position the Tigers ask him to. Dombrowski says the 31-year-old will be the team's regular DH, catch two or three times a week and back up at first base. Alex Avila will remain the team's primary catcher; Dombrowski expects the precise breakdown to take care of itself.
The Tigers lose their 2011 first rounder for signing Martinez, a Type A free agent. Dombrowski said the Tigers were willing to surrender their top pick for Martinez because it's difficult to acquire All-Star caliber major leaguers.
"For example if we had a straight trade for him, would I be willing to give up a number one type of talent in return for him? The question would depend upon who you’re talking about in any case, but the generality of it would be yes,” Dombrowski said.
The Tigers, who surrendered their first round draft pick last year after they signed Type A free agent Jose Valverde, say they can overcome the lost picks by signing top international free agents and drafting aggressively.
“Last year we supplemented it by drafting somebody in the sandwich pick, Nick Castellanos, that we thought was a legitimate high number one pick, so we were able to fill that role,” Dombrowski said.
The Tigers have not shied away from talented, but expensive amateur players in recent years and they have Rick Porcello, Jacob Turner and, more recently, Castellanos to show for it.
This offseason the Tigers have been exceptionally aggressive on the free agent market, signing Brandon Inge, Jhonny Peralta and Joaquin Benoit. They're settled in the infield, behind the plate and at DH and they like outfielders Austin Jackson and Ryan Raburn, but they aren't necessarily done their offseason shopping yet. Dombrowski acknowledged that the team may add another outfielder.
Atta boy Miggy
Sounds like Martinez wants to win!
Too bad he signed with the Tigers.
Considering that division, it’s entirely possible. I know the Twins are good, but the Tigers have definitely improved themselves immensely with this signing. Do not count them out.
I agree with you, but it seems like no matter what the Tigers or White Sox do in the offseason, the Twins come up on top.
it’s probably because they have more than 1 or 2 good pitchers in their rotation each year.
I would like to know how blowing $50MM on a backup catcher and average, RIGHT NOW, DH, none the less in 4 years, is improving immensely.
2010………..302/ .351 /.493 ..ops .844..20 hr, 32 doubles… you’re right.. what a bum
He wants to win so he’s going from a team that would have made the playoffs if not for a bunch of untimely injuries to key players to a team that finished in third place because of its pure mediocrity? I know that was the PC thing for V Mart to say, but if he thinks Detroit offers a better opportunity to win than Boston, he might need a head check.
Easier to make the playoffs in that division rather than AL East.
Yet the Tigers have still only made it to the playoffs once since that division was created compared to nine for the Red Sox.
That’s a cop out. He said he wants to win a World Series, not make the playoffs, so he’s going to have to get through one of the three AL East juggernauts either way. At least in Boston he had a hitter’s park and a damn good lineup surrounding him. Aside from Miggy, who is going to protect V Mart’s bat in that lineup? Jhonny Peralta? If he thinks that team can win a championship, well… wow.
1. is the offseason over yet?
2. didnt the Tigers beat a juggernaut in 06?
no but after signing 4 bad-terrible contracts already, the Tigers should probably call it quits before they commit more money to an unworthy cause. They just got rid of a ton of terrible contracts, only to sign more and more. $16MM for a set up man with major injury risks? Inge/Peralta are not quality options and VMart already is an average DH. He’ll be less than that in 4 years and Miggy will have probably moved to DH then too. You guys needed help in the INF and OF and SP and instead blew a ton of money with players that won’t help there.
Maybe so but V-Mart does see himself as a catcher, and does want to continue at his chosen position. Is it possible he decided to go with the Tigers because of assurances of ample opportunity to stay behind the plate — instead of man 1B or DH?
Boston has Ortiz taking up the DH spot and Youkilis playing first. If anything V Mart would see more catching time in Boston
‘”We expect Victor to be in our lineup on a daily basis, serving primarily as our club’s designated hitter and catching two to three times a week,” Dombrowski said.
Unless Dombrowski lied to him about his likely role (Which I doubt), that doesn’t seem to have been the motivating factor.
I brought it up because I thought I heard that certain Sawks pitchers are less comfortable with V-Mart than they are with other backstops, and I don’t know how much of a factor that would be in things. Weren’t they considering moving Youk back over to 3B and sliding V-Mart in at 1B at least some of the time, instead of having him catch — or were they moving Youk in order to accommodate another 1B target?
I wouldn’t say Boston is looking better than Detroit. Both have question marks but Detroit is filling in the pieces while Boston is letting them slip away. As a catcher he obviously sees the potential of that starting rotation and why on earth wouldn’t you want to bat behind Miguel Cabrera?? If they get one more big bat they will have just as much offensive power as anyone else in the league with an eager young pitching staff that has all the talent needed to win and the ambition to quell all the doubters.
Boston will be looking for answers till the beginning of next year and Detroit will have all their pieces in place by the end of January…Vmart made the right choice.
Pretty sure he is going to be batting ahead of Cabrera
Yeah, I wouldn’t trust his vision of any team’s starting rotation as a catcher. He is terrible at calling games and his arm behind the dish is so bad he can make guys with average speed look like Rickey Henderson. Boston had a 4.2 staff ERA last year with V Mart behind the plate. Before V Mart arrived in the summer of ’09 Varitek had that number at 4.07, and in 2008 it was 4.01. Pre-All Star break in 2010 the staff ERA was 4.34, and it rose to 4.55 in September. Obviously that’s not all V Mart’s fault, but for a pitching staff that didn’t significantly change its personnel from 2008 to 2010, don’t you think V Mart had a hand in that? I sure think he did.
Well hell, Put ‘Tek back in then, him being the Captain and all…
Pink hat alert, folks.
Whatever you say buddy.
you are one deluded Tigers fan. The rotation is a mess. Verlander is a stud. Max is too with major health risks. After that? what is there? And the offense is a disaster as well. Right now you have an elite 1B, an average DH, and a pretty good CF who is due for a BABIP correction and pitchers will figure out how to pitch to a guy without discipline or power. That offense is a mess. How is that as much as the Yankees who have a stud at every single position besides possibly C and they have a top prospect there as well?
An “eager” staff doesn’t mean a good staff. When you have to resort to eagerness and ambition over talent or stats you’re in trouble. And the Red Sox have a MUCH better pitching staff. you’re whistling in the dark my friend.
You said it best–Detroit missed out because of nasty injuries. Boston missed out because of pure mediocrity.
And which of those teams is getting aggressive to get better and who’s standing still?
You’re right, Boston was the mediocre team. It’s not like they were half of a game out of first in late June before losing Pedroia for the year, V Mart for a month, Buchholz for a month, and Youkilis for the year.
And Detroit was just one 20 home run, 79 RBI bat away from jumping from third place to first place. Keep telling yourself that buddy.
Not sure where you are going with this, but both Detroit and Boston finished 3rd in their division. Boston was 1/2 game out of the division lead in late June? Detroit was IN the division lead by 1/2 game on July 10th. Boston had injuries… so did Detroit (Inge, Maggs, Zumaya, etc). Both are good but flawed teams whose chances on the 2011 play-offs will be determined by what happens this winter.
The point I was making that if the Red Sox had Ellsbury, Pedroia, Cameron, V Mart, Buchholz, Youkilis, et. al for the entire season they wouldn’t have been a third place team. When both teams are 100% I don’t think it’s even a question that the Red Sox are a better team than the Tigers, but that’s just me.
If the Tigers hadnt of lost Magglio, they wouldnt have been a 3rd place team either.
Most of Cabrera’s 32 intentional walks (Hamilton only had 5) came AFTER Magglio was gone.
Id say showing one man’s injury versus the slew you listed shows Tigers are closer to contending than you’re willing to admit.
Inge missed about a month and was about a2 WAR player anyway.
Joel Zumaya actually pitched more innings in 2010 than he did in all but one other season in his career and he hasn’t really been effective since 2006 to begin with.
Ordonez missed a whole bunch of time, I’ll give you that, but he was the only difference maker of the guys listed as missing time.
As noted, by comparrison, the Sox lost Youkilis for the last third of the season (He’d put up a 4.2 WAR alone in the 100 games he did play in), Dustin Pedroia for half the season (Himself at 3.3 WAR when he went down, basically same amount of time and more value than was lost by Ordonez), Ellsbury the whole year, Cameron for most of the year, Buchholz for a month (Almost led the MLB in ERA), Beckett for two months, Matsuzaka for a month, Martinez for a month (You know, that guy Tigers fans are convinced will be the difference between third place and a playoff spot) and Lowrie for the first 2/3 of the season.
The Tigers would not have made the playoffs healthy or not, the Sox almost certainly would have.
Youre missing the point.I didnt mention Inge because he’s not an offensive player anyways..but- it was Magglio’s loss that was detrimental to the team. Without him in the lineup to protect Cabrera, they just walked the big guy and we no longer had anyone bringing in runs for the 3 or 4 spot.Even moreso- I was making the point that it took just ONE tiger to make a large negative impact on a team that finished third…you’re telling me it took half a dozen players to bring the sox back down to the 3rd slot, and yet Boston is a somewhat “a better contender”.Really? So Im one guy away from contending, but thats not “close”? Does that make sense to any other folks?
So wait…losing one player and falling completely out of contention makes a team better than having to lose like six to fall out of contention.
Well, that makes perfect sense.
One guy was the difference between 1st place (july) and 3rd (sept)
You’re point was that the Tigers wasnt one guy away from contending. Pretty sure I just proved you wrong.
Oh, that’s your attempt at a point? I hate to break this to you, but the Tigers missed the playoffs by 13 games and finished at .500 even. Magglio Ordonez is NOT the difference between them making the playoffs and finishing third. If you sincerely believe that another 300 at bats of 2.5 WAR production was going to get the Tigers into the playoffs, you’re on something. By that logic, losing Jed Lowrie for so long kept the Sox out of the playoffs. He put up about half a WAR less in almost 170 less at bats and the Sox missed the playoffs by a whole lot less than the Tigers did.
DUDE IM NOT SAYING THE BOSOX WERENT CLOSE.
Im saying the TIGERS were CLOSER than YOU’RE GIVING CREDIT.
After Magglio went down, Cabrera was walked the majority of his 32 Intentional Walks.
THIRTY. TWO. The last player to even be close to that was back in 1993..he almost set the the AL record. And, again- that happened in the 3 months following Magglio’s injury.
So the guy was pitched around for three months, and still ended up with the league leading RBIs, ops etc…if we had that good bat in front of him, YES the tigers would have been a crap ton better and surely wouldnt have been 13 games out..Id say less than 5 games away if not closer.
So yeah..with Vmart in the lineup, and we’re STILL going to get Maggio back, or Werth/Dunn/Crawford (or similar)- Tigers are definitely going to be contenders. And if you cant comprehend that notion, Im content to let you continue with your delusions/denial until they prove it.
Youre missing the point.I didnt mention Inge because he’s not an offensive player anyways..but- it was Magglio’s loss that was detrimental to the team. Without him in the lineup to protect Cabrera, they just walked the big guy and we no longer had anyone bringing in runs for the 3 or 4 spot.Even moreso- I was making the point that it took just ONE tiger to make a large negative impact on a team that finished third…you’re telling me it took half a dozen players to bring the sox back down to the 3rd slot, and yet Boston is a somewhat “a better contender”.Really? So Im one guy away from contending, but thats not “close”? Does that make sense to any other folks?
Inge missed about a month and was about a2 WAR player anyway.
Joel Zumaya actually pitched more innings in 2010 than he did in all but one other season in his career and he hasn’t really been effective since 2006 to begin with.
Ordonez missed a whole bunch of time, I’ll give you that, but he was the only difference maker of the guys listed as missing time.
As noted, by comparrison, the Sox lost Youkilis for the last third of the season (He’d put up a 4.2 WAR alone in the 100 games he did play in), Dustin Pedroia for half the season (Himself at 3.3 WAR when he went down, basically same amount of time and more value than was lost by Ordonez), Ellsbury the whole year, Cameron for most of the year, Buchholz for a month (Almost led the MLB in ERA), Beckett for two months, Matsuzaka for a month, Martinez for a month (You know, that guy Tigers fans are convinced will be the difference between third place and a playoff spot) and Lowrie for the first 2/3 of the season.
The Tigers would not have made the playoffs healthy or not, the Sox almost certainly would have.
If the Tigers hadnt of lost Magglio, they wouldnt have been a 3rd place team either.
Most of Cabrera’s 32 intentional walks (Hamilton only had 5) came AFTER Magglio was gone.
Id say showing one man’s injury versus the slew you listed shows Tigers are closer to contending than you’re willing to admit.
this is pathetic logic. The AL East is in another stratosphere compared to the Central. Boston had horrible luck. I’m a yankees fan. I hate Boston but they’re 2 times as talented as the Tigers. The tigers suck at 2B/SS/3B/LF/RF and have an average DH getting paid like he’s elite. Then a CF without power or discipline and got extremely lucky with BABIP last year. Then of course MIGGY is a stud. But then your SP is a joke after Max/Verlander. Tigers fans are HANDS DOWN the most delusional fans i’ve seen on MLBTR
The Tigers were a .500 team primarily because their team ERA was 4.30 and their rotation ERA was 4.46. Too many poundings and run production that ranked 8th in the league.
Boston players had 18 trips to the DL and their core of 3 players that were injured and out by the end of July. If that’s not the epitome of nasty injuries, I don’t know what is. Mediocrity?
If the Sox are so damn, good, than pray tell why they couldn’t overcome the injuries? Philly did, and they only played something like 16 games all year with their starting 8. Philly, IIRC, led the majors in man-games lost to the DL. Oh yeah, they also won 97 games with their JV team playing most of the season.
And don’t try to tell it’s because of the superiority of the AL East, or the AL in general to the NL. Unless I am mistaken, I just watched an NL team steamroll the best team in the AL last month. They beat an AL team that trashed the Red Sox two primary division rivals in the playoffs.
And I’m willing to bet that Philly, the team that SF beat on their way to thumping Texas, would have done the same thing to any of the AL teams. I wouldn’t mind seeing what Cincy can do against the AL too, now that they have a little playoff experience to fall back on.
So tell me again, how good are the Sox? They couldn’t even get past the cannon-fodder in their own division, much less Texas or the top NL teams.
And you guys wonder why the rest of the country is annoyed with Pink Hat Nation.
No one feels sorry for your injuries, and it isn’t even out of the ordinary for a team to lose five or six players players in a season like the Sox did. Good teams overcome injuries ans stay in contention. Mediocre teams end up 3rd in their division.
A lot of your conclusions come from misinformation. But I shall respond either way.
————-
“If the Sox are so damn, good, than pray tell why they couldn’t overcome the injuries?”
Using the opening day starting nine lineup of V Martinez, Youkilis, Pedroia, Scutaro, Beltre, Ellsbury, Cameron, JD Drew, and D Ortiz at DH, the sox had 5 players with 30+ days on the DL and had a total of 500 days on the DL. The only player to avoid the DL totally was David Ortiz. Using the starting rotation of Lester, Lackey, Buchholz, Matsuzaka, and Beckett, the Sox had 3 starters with 30+ days on the DL and 160 days total. Using those 14 players (the most important players), the Red Sox had a total of 660 days on the DL.
Using the starting lineup of Ruiz, Howard, Utley, Rollins, Polanco, Ibanez, Victorino, and Werth, the Phillies had 3 players with 30+ days on the DL and a total of 238 days. (For the rotation, I added Oswalt’s and Moyer’s Phillies DL time together because Moyer just happened to go down at the same time that Oswalt came into the rotation. The Red Sox did not have the luxury of replacing a starting pitcher with a premiere starting pitcher, so I made an exception, but even if I didn’t Moyer’s 95 days on the DL barely makes a dent in the totals.) Using the rotation of Halladay, Hamels, Kendrick, Blanton, and Oswalt/Moyer, the Phillies had 0 starters with 30+ days on the DL and 12 days total. Using those 14 players, the Phillies totaled 250 days on the DL.
As you can see, the Phillies starting players had less than half the amount of DL time than the Red Sox starters. And even with 410 extra days on the DL, the Sox still managed to finish 8 games behind the Phillies. The two are not comparable because the Red Sox spent 62% more time on the DL than the Phillies. More time on the DL makes it harder to rebound. The Phillies had the advantage here. Most certainly, the Red Sox “JV squad” played more time than the Phillies’.
“And don’t try to tell it’s because of the superiority of the AL East”
Okay. It seems as though you’ve already developed my argument for me, so I’ll let you continue down that path on your own.
“I just watched an NL team steamroll the best team in the AL last month”
Wait: “Oh yeah, [the Phillies] also won 97 games…” You just made the argument that the Phillies managed to win 97 games, so that made them superior to the Red Sox, even when both were trotting out their “JV squad.” Texas only won 90. By this standard, there were 3 other AL teams that were superior to the Rangers. Therefore, by your logic, the Rangers can’t be the best team in AL.
“So tell me again, how good are the Sox?”
This is how good the Red Sox actually were. The starting nine batters’ total WAR of the Red Sox was 28.4, healthy or not, while the Rangers starting nine total WAR hit 24.6. Also, the Sox rotation’s total WAR was 17.2 while Texas’ was 13.6. While you make the argument that Texas was the best team in the AL, the Red Sox starters had higher batting and pitching WAR totals than Texas. That gives the Sox a total starting WAR of 45.6. To put this into perspective, the Phillies same WAR totals are 27.7 for batting and 15.4 for pitching, giving them a total starting WAR of 43.1. The Red Sox starting players’ WAR was 2.5 points higher than the Phillies and 7.4 points higher than Texas even with all the injuries.
“No one feels sorry for your injuries”
I wasn’t asking anyone for pity, but thanks for the implication.
“it isn’t even out of the ordinary for a team to lose five or six players players in a season like the Sox did”
Yeah, try closer to 18 players.
Dude that’s just stupid to say. They both had a lot of injuries. Listen to this list and tell me if it was only Being bad that brought the 2010 redsox down: Pedroia, Youk, Vmart, Beckett, Buch, Tek, Cameron, Ellsbury, Hermida, Dombrout. I don’t know how much the tigers got injured. Maybe they got hit worse. But there’s no way they could have been hit MUCH worse.
Maybe he just got tired of all the massholes?
The tigers are just one more bat in the outfield and a back end starter from being world series contenders, not just the AL central. I know pitching is fickle from year to year but they were a good young team last year and are looking even better with every person they sign. If they resign mags and make a trade for another big bat in the outfield(Jason bay makes a ton a sense) they would be an offensive juggernaut with a 1-2-3 punch in verlander, scherzer, and porcello that would be an awesome collection of talent. Detroit is just a piece or two away from playing deep into October.
“The tigers are just one more bat in the outfield and a back end starter from being world series contenders”
There are close to a dozen teams that can say that.
Pretty much.
But how many of those teams are going to go get it? It sure looks like Detroit is on a mission….
Yeah, just like when they gutted their farm system and raised the payroll over $40 million in the 2007 offseason. The result? A $140 million payroll and a dead last in the AL Central, sub .500 finish.
It was all worth it in the end–here we are today and they are building a great team around a bat they got in that gutting. I’d have given up even more for Cabrera and they were one year out of the world series. No one could have called that all of those arms that got them into the WS would have gotten injured or ended up a headcase like willis. I’d rather have my team fail and try their best to put a good ball team together than to have and organization like Pittsburg…
My point was that the Tigers made one half of a good move and basically raised their payroll by close to 50% and ended up even worse off for it. You say the fact the Tigers are spending buttloads of cash indicates they’re suddenly in better position, I’m saying they’ve done it before and were the worse for it, assuming the Tigers have suddenly figured out how to spend money without any turnover in their front office personel seems a bit naive to me.
The fact of the matter is it wasn’t their payroll increasing that caused the Tigers to fail in 2008, it was that they were putting too much stock into their lackluster rotation instead of going out and signing a starter and it failed them. Verlander and Willis lost all their command, Rogers and Robertson were God awful, and Bonderman was out by the end of May. Did they spend a lot of money? Sure, but it wasn’t the money that caused them to lose. Think about it.
Miguel Cabrera > Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller.Last time I checked, wasn’t there only one player from that trade that the Tigers sent to the Marlins still in the Marlins system?? Sure, the Tigers farm system is depleted, but would it be any better off if they still had those guys and not Cabrera? I think not.
And that’s what makes the Cabrera deal such a win for Detroit. Not one of the players sent to FLA worked out, so they basically got Miggy for the cost of Dontrelle.
The big mistakes they made were extending Dontrelle and giving up Jurrgens (?) Those are the moves that put them in a hole.
a mission to give as many terrible contracts as they can.
The difference might be that the Tigers still potentially have another $25-35MM to spend, depending upon where they want their payroll, and an owner who really wants a championship. But in the end, there’s only so many players that are worth big contracts, and a lot of competition for those players. So we will see.
Mike Ilitch is now 80 years old. I’m betting that he thinks time may be running out on him to win with the Tigers.Mr. Ilitch was a farmhand in the Tigers system way back in ’52 and ’53. He is a native Detroiter. He started out with one little pizza shop on Michigan Avenue, and built it into the largest franchise chain in the world. The man is a billionaire, but he is also a Tiger fan, through and through.
He has won with the Red Wings, but that pales in comparison with what it would mean to him to win with the Tigers.You can bank on Mr. I going all out for the next few years to try to win it all with the Tigs. And he has the money to do it too.
He wants to win so he goes to Detroit??? Over Boston? for only an extra $8mil??? That makes ZERO sense.
I call B.S. on that.
No one goes to Detroit to “win”.
Call it what it was, Vic…”I got more money here”.
But Detroit is such a nice place to be! Who doesn’t love being surrounded by unemployment, homelessness, drug dealers, and gang violence?!
This is a worthless comment. Yes, Detroit is not a great place to live in but then again, these athletes do not live there. The city of Detroit is surrounded by many fine communities that are ideal locations for raising a family.
Talk about ignorant. Go to any major city in the country and guess what you find… all of the exact same stuff.
The metro-Detroit area and the surrounding suburbs are actually a very nice place to live.
Boston appears to be filled with egotistical jerks that love to hijack threads.
Seriously- take a break from dumping a city that already has its problems.
Do you guys also jump on NFL forums and make fun of New Orleans because of Katrina? Detroit has suffered major economic tragedies, just as bad- IF NOT WORSE- than Katrina’s effect on NO.
I simply dont see why its OK to to fart on D-town..not cool man. Baseball is a sport, not a reason to make fun of where your neighbors live.
While I’ll agree that dumnping on someone’s city is pretty juvenile, Detroit’s bad reputation goes back a whole lot further than the recession.
Not once did I mention the recession. Economic tragedies have been in that city since the 60’s.
Reading comprehension. Its a good skill to learn 😉
While I’ll agree that dumnping on someone’s city is pretty juvenile, Detroit’s bad reputation goes back a whole lot further than the recession.
Boston appears to be filled with egotistical jerks that love to hijack threads.
Seriously- take a break from dumping a city that already has its problems.
Do you guys also jump on NFL forums and make fun of New Orleans because of Katrina? Detroit has suffered major economic tragedies, just as bad- IF NOT WORSE- than Katrina’s effect on NO.
I simply dont see why its OK to to fart on D-town..not cool man. Baseball is a sport, not a reason to make fun of where your neighbors live.
My comment about Detroit was immature. I am sorry for anyone I offended. But given the kind of reputation Detroit has among most of the people outside of Detroit, it is hard for me to imagine someone being thrilled to go there for the scenery. Sounds about as likely as somebody wanting to go to Siberia so they can enjoy the weather.
Baseball players dont typically live in their team’s city.Offseason- they live in their hometowns/countryPreseason- Arizona/Florida81 away games- on the roadthat leaves about 1/3 of the year actually in Detroit…and when its in season, they arent going out to the bars (unless its Cabrera) or shopping etc. Its to the park or back to the apt.
Also..thanks for the apology. Its hard for the D-town fans to not feel defensive in these threads. Instead of celebrating a player coming to out team, I feel like we’ve been constantly bashed for being a crappy community. I live in Seattle, and have to deal with the fans sitting next to me make AWFUL remarks about the FANS/CITY when the Tigers come into town.
Heckling is a big part of this sport, but it should be directed at the players..not the fans or their home.
Call me insane, but I actually love going to Detroit, especially to see the Tigers. It has it’s bad parts, but it’s a pretty gorgeous city. Don’t diss it until you try it. Sounds to me like you’ve only heard about Detroit.
The majority of Venezuelian players grew up in worse environs than Detroit. The extreme poverty and all that goes with it is not where they live in Detroit. They do drive through it every day on the way to Comerica.
By that logic, the Yankees wouldn’t be able to sign anybody
I missed the mention that VMart signed in Detroit for the beautiful scenery…
I’m pretty sure that $8MM is not an immaterial amount, given that it’s 19% more than Boston’s reported offer. If you want to put blinders on that’s fine, but I think he probably meant that of the contract offers which were reasonably similar (i.e. not 19% less than the top offer) Detroit presented the best opportunity to win. I think if anyone should have a beef with VMart, it would be the Whitesox, if their reported offer is indeed correct.
Blinders? You’re mincing words and putting V-Marts words into a context that was never offered. Talk about “blinders”.
I made it really plain and simple…It was anbout the money…PERIOD. I’m not blaming him either.
But the fact remains that of ALL the teams that offered him contracts; if he REALLY wanted to be with a team with the “best chance to win” he’d have stayed in Boston.
That’s a fact…No superimposed context there, buddy.
Wow it’s as if people have never seen cheap PR statements before. Of course he’s going to say that winning is important to him. It is, but money is more important. It’s his career, get over it people.
The Tigers have not upgraded anything YET. V Mart is a good hitter and a nice addition, but no way is he, by himself, and upgrade after losing Damon and Ordonez, the No. 2 and 3 hitters who put up OBP’s of .355 and .378 ahead of Cabrera.
The Tigers needed an upgrade in the bullpen, but their first move was to take out the only proven set up man that they had and move him to the rotation. That’s all fine, but they’re now one up with Benoit and one down losing Coke.
Most importantly, the team had a Rotation ERA of 4.46 last season, and no way is moving Phil Coke from the bullpen to the rotation a sufficient answer for that.
Neither the lineup, nor the rotation, nor the bullpen have been upgraded from last year’s .500 team. There is still a lot of work to do this off season.
They do need maglio back. Damons stats can be reproduced internally and you are 100% right that Coke isn’t the answer to the rotation. I’m pretty sure they will see that as well. The rotion isn’t the issue though. Getting them consistent has to e a priority because the 1-3 was absolutely lights out the last half of the year.
They have upgraded but it will all be in vain if they don’t continue down this path. If they only stay knee deep in this water theyre in then they will end up the same as last year but alls in place for them to jump in and finish out this offeseason strong. They have to keep spending or all the dough they have coughed up already would be in waste
I don’t think Porcello was necessarily lights out, but he has the potential to be that this year.
I would be shocked to see the Tigers get aggressive with International signings. Outside of Wilkin Ramirez, the Tigers have never been actively engaged with top International free agents. They make some meager attempts from time to time, but that’s nothing that will close the gap of losing their first round pick. So I hope they truely will stop neglecting International talent.
You should read up on thier academy in Venenzuela. They have quite a few international signings including Danry Vazquez, he is getting comparisons to a current tigers first basemen at the age of 16.
Al Avila was instrumental in signing Migeul Cabrera out of Venezuela when he was a kid…thats a damn good record IMO (even if it was for Florida).
So the Tigers are now paying $12 million a year to a guy who’s offense is nothing exceptional for a DH. What a signing lol.
.300 swich hitting, consistent 20-25 homeruns. i think that is exceptional.
he can play catcher and first base hits .300 hits 20-25 hr a year
Here is my tirade on yet another idiot posting about Detroit being an awful place to live.
Ahem;
I know everyone is convinced that Detroit is the worst city in the US, but let me tell you-it’s not. ESPECIALLY if you are a baseball fan(even better if you’re a ball player). The metro area is fantastic and so many of the suburbs are great places to live. Detroit is only awful if you are middle class and/or looking for work.
And why on earth wouldn’t top free agents want to come to Detroit. You are obviously going to get paid and they are really trying to build a winning ball club and even when the team is losing, the city still packs into a brand new ballpark. Jim leyland is reapected by everyone in or around the game and on top of that, the tigers are as classy of an organization as there is in all of sports. Just look at the gallaragga blown call-do you think Jim Joyce would have been given that kind of respect if that happened to Ozzies white sox? Hell no.
Any of you who would question why a ball player would want to come to Detroit obviously has never been there and dot see the bigger picture. Just ask Johnny Damon-he and Vmart both turned down Chicago for Detroit and isn’t that supposed to be a “high society” city?
Take a look at other cities like cincinatti, Cleveland, Kansas city, Chicago, or new York and you will see that everything negative you have to say about Detroit is there as well with the nearly the same magnitude.
I don’t get the middle class part of this. I grew up in the Detroit area in a middle class family and it was great.
I wonder if Cabrera will help pay some of the contract as well (Note- this is sarcasm).
I wonder if Cabrera will help pay some of the contract as well (Note- this is sarcasm).
Hey Miggy, why don’t you give Carl Crawford a call now?
Hey Miggy, why don’t you give Carl Crawford a call now?
It’s always a good thing to see players reach out for their team. Very mature move of MCab. Maybe he can extend that reach to a certain fellow by the name of Carl Crawford or Adam Dunn.
Well I don’t think they need Dunn now, seeing as VM is going to primarily be a DH, but CC would be a nice piece to pick up.
on the 3 days a week Vmart catches, Dunn can play DH and on the days Vmart DH’s, Dunn can play OF, despite his terrible D. Detroit can play A-Jax in a way to cover more of Dunn’s ground and then trade 1-2 good prospects for another OF with good outfield range and hopefully good OBP/AVG i.e. ellsbury or willingham. Or trade Guillen for Beltran or Fukudome or Mike Cameron. His salary is smaller than both the first two and Boston won’t need Cameron after they sign Werth/Crawford so I can’t see either of those teams refusing. Given the injury history of Youk and Pedroia, Boston might like to have a LH bat who can play 1b, 2b, 3b off the bench. They don’t have Bill Hall.
Well I don’t think they need Dunn now, seeing as VM is going to primarily be a DH, but CC would be a nice piece to pick up.
So $12.5 million a year for a DH who’ll hits 20 HRs (probably 15 HRs if you adjust for Comerica Park)? Yes he hits for average and drives in runs, but does anybody else feel like those power numbers just a bit pedestrian for a full-time DH making that kind of money?
The power in the Tigers lineup doesn’t need to come from VM. They already have a top-shelf power guy playing 1B for them. VM will do just fine in Comerica.
A doubles park for a doubles hitter.
The bottom line is Batting average, Adding V-mart raised the teams batting AVG. Just think if we had a team with all .300 AVG. OUTSTANDING. Now if we could raise inges avg and the others(exclude,Cabrera).
Look at your opponets,are the tigers better than the cardinals,Phillies,(Iwant polanco back),are they better than the twins… NOT = too, but better than these teams.
There are a few players on the team that need to improve,(do better) all year long, not just half the season. The all fense needs to be upgraded.
How are The Phillies and The Cardinals opponents of Detroit?!
when we see them in the world series or interleague play,like when we get to watch verlander bat ,,hay,.
when we see them in the world series or interleague play,like when we get to watch verlander bat ,,hay,.
Im sorry herb, when we play national league teams.
Yes, and most of them were either rookies or 2nd year players. I guess that in Red Sox land all those guys come out of the box as All-Stars, eh?
Yes, and most of them were either rookies or 2nd year players. I guess that in Red Sox land all those guys come out of the box as All-Stars, eh?
Something everyone is forgetting is that with all the injuries last season for Detroit they spent most of the season as the league’s 2nd youngest team. There were games where every player on the field besides Cabrera hadn’t played a full season.
Also, people are acting like V-mart got the largest contract in history. I’d much rather have his contract than what the Yankees are going to end up paying Jeter and Rivera.