Monthly Archives: December 2007

Trades

Holy Freakin Crap

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The Tigers have pulled off a franchise altering trade today sending former first round picks Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller, along with Mike Rabelo and 3 minor league pitchers to the Florida Marlins for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.

When Dave Dombrowski decides to go for it, boy does he go for it. Like in 1997 when he loaded up for a run at the World Series, Dombrowski has quickly put together what has to be considered the best line up in all of baseball. To do it they had to give up 2 of the blue-est of blue chippers. Normally I frown on such a move, but rarely do you get in return a 24 year old with 138 career home runs and a 313/388/542 line in 2700 at-bats either. The Tigers had to have emptied their farm system, but this isn’t for a player on the wrong side of 30. This is someone who has yet to enter his peak. The Tigers have to sign him to a long term deal for this to work, but I can’t imagine they make this trade without some sort of frame work in place.

As for Dontrelle Willis, his 5+ ERA in a pitchers park in the NL is certainly disconcerting. But the Tigers were giving up a player that was likely to be in their rotation next year, and they had to fill that spot and there are certainly worse ways to do it than with Willis.

The Tigers gave up some seriously talented players, but if you’re going to do it, do it the way the Tigers did and get a couple guys in their mid 20’s in return. Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller are tremendous prospects, but Cabrera is a rare, rare player and for the Tigers to acquire him is a major coup.

As for the other 3 pitchers, Jon Paul Morosi is reporting that they are Burke Badenhop, Dallas Trahern, and Eulogio De La Cruz. Trahern is the prize of this group. He’s a heavy groundball pitcher who was set to pitch for AAA Toledo this year, and was a decent bet to reach the majors in 2008. De La Cruz we saw last year, and he has the potential and stuff to strike out a ton of guys, but he’s still searching for consistency.

The Tigers still have Rick Porcello, who couldn’t be traded yet, and is now the clear top prospect in the system. I’m also pleasantly surprised the Tigers didn’t have to move Jeff Larish, Mike Hollimon, and especially James Skelton.

As for what happens next, the Tigers just have to sign Cabrera long term. They also have some of their own players to move. Cabrera is thought of as a third baseman, but he could play left as well. I don’t know where he’ll play for Detroit and it depends on who they can get for Brandon Inge probably. I know that the Tigers just traded for Jacque Jones, but I don’t think they are married to him.

I applaud Dombrowski and the Tigers for pulling this off. The Tigers have the pieces in place to be a very very special team this year and I can’t wait for spring training. I’ll have more on the trade over the next couple of days.

2008 Season, Contracts, Free Agents, Trade Rumors

Rogers, Rumors, and the Winter Meetings

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The Winter Meetings kicked off today. My fellow bloggers have already commented on how it will be a fairly quiet meetings for the Tigers. That’s what happens when you fill your biggest needs within a couple weeks of the end of the season.

Still, I don’t think the Tigers are done this offseason. While I don’t expect big moves from Detroit during the Winter Meetings, there is still work to be done. The Tigers still have a number of players to tender contracts to. There are currently only 16 members of the team who are signed, and likely to be on the 25 man roster. At least two of those players could be in for a substantial payday.

Curtis Granderson is entering his last year of indentured servitude. The Tigers could sign him for half a million and be done with it. However, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a 5 year deal which would buy him out of his arbitration years and first year of free agency. That would gain the team cost certainty through 2012 which also coincide with the years where he figures to be in his prime.
Continue reading Rogers, Rumors, and the Winter Meetings →

Links

links for 2007-12-03

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Minors

MiLB.com Top Prospect list

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The Tigers placed 2 players on the MiLB.com top prospect list. Cameron Maybin ranks 3rd overall behind Jay Bruce and Evan Longoria. Rick Porcello debuts at 14 which is impressive to say the least.

There are still a couple of prospect lists that still to come. John Sickels list should be coming in the next week or so, and Baseball America is still a ways away. Once they are all in (Tigstown and Baseball Prospectus have already completed their Tigers lists) I’ll aggregate the results into a consensus top 10 list.

As a side note, Gorkys Hernandez who is now with the Braves, just missed the list and checked in at 53. As for the rest of the AL Central, the Royals had 2 players on the list. But the Indians, White Sox and Twins combined to have 2 players in the top 50.

Minor League Baseball: News: Top Prospects

Fan Experience

Tigerfest 2008

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The Tigers have sent information to [edit:]some[/edit] season ticket holders about this winter’s version of Tigerfest. It will be on January 12th and once again it will be hosted at Comerica Park. Of course the nice thing about holding it at an outdoor venue is that you don’t have to worry about the ice sculptures melting – for like 6 weeks.

I am a little surprised that they’ll be doing it at Comerica again, because reports from last year were that despite portable heaters the venue was still cold as well as very congested. I’ll give the organization the benefit of the doubt though and will trust that they’ll take what they learned last year to try and alleviate those problems.

No word yet on when tickets will go on sale to the general public, but it did sell out last year so I’ll let you know when I hear something.

UPDATE: Info on tickets:

Tickets for the 14th annual winter baseball event, presented by StubHub! will go on sale on Tuesday, December 4 at 10 a.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.tigers.com/tigerfest or by calling 866-66-TIGER (84437). The cost of admission will be $12 for adults and $6 for kids 14-and-under. Children three and under are admitted for free.