Monthly Archives: November 2013

2013 Season, Hot Stove, Trades

Miguel Cabrera Back to 1B

126 Comments

So many thoughts, more coming tonight.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Fielder and $30M for Ian Kinsler. Kinsler’s big contract is up in 4 years. Fielder’s bigger contract is up in 7.

I’m going to start with Jim’s question below. There’s been a lot of discontent surrounding Kinsler down here, and it’s been rising for about a year and a half. After six years of a .794 OPS or greater, the last two have been rather average for 2B. People think he should be a perennial All-Star. He’s prone to lapses in attention and he may be the most picked off base runner in the AL, other than Elvis Andrus (and Darrell Evans). He’s basically embodying the classic decline you would expect for a borderline All-Star in his early 30s.

That alone was likely enough to put him on the trading block, but this move is being driven by the need for the Rangers to find a place for Jurickson Profar. Profar is the golden child of one of the best farm systems in the league, and the team is anxious to find out what he can do. Realize that the Rangers also lost Nelson Cruz and it’s uncertain whether they’ll pony up what he’ll get elsewhere. Fielder fills that hole nicely.

We all knew that the Tigers over-reached on the last 2-3 years of his contract in order to have Fielder for the first 4-5. Well, the first two were pretty disappointing, and Fielder’s playoff efforts were, well, non-existent. I haven’t done any direct comparisons, but I’m certain that we would have been better off with just about any other 1B in the league in the playoffs, and that’s simply offensively. If you include the poor fielding and base running blunders, Fielder had to have had a net negative effect.

I can’t help but wonder if there is something else going on with Prince Fielder that we don’t know about. Maybe it was the divorce, maybe he couldn’t handle being the 3rd or 4th biggest name on the team, perhaps it was the pressure oozing out of Leyland’s smoke rings. He’s definitely been off since October of 2012, and I hope that heading home to Texas will allow him to return to his Milwaukee self.

Trading Fielder has a myriad of other effects. Here are a few topics for discussion:

– The Tigers just saved about $76M on paper. How much of that does Scherzer see?

– Does Shin-Soo Choo see any of that? Hunter in left, Dirks as the 4th?

– What do we gain defensively by sliding Cabrera to 1B and putting anyone else at 3rd?

– VMart/Cabrera 1B/DH sounds nice.

– I love Brad Ausmus already. Not sure if he had anything to do with this. But I’m looking for an Ausmus jersey.

1. Jackson, CF
2. Choo, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Hunter, RF
6. Kinsler, 2B
7. Avila, C
8. Castellanos, 3B
9. Iglesias, SS

2013 Season, Awards

2013 Cy Young and MVP Talk

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Congrats, Max. Scherzer earned 28 of the 30 first place votes. Even Fangraphs was on board with this. Don’t let this one slip by you – Anibal Sanchez finished 4th in the voting (and had 1 first place vote).

 

(saving this space for tomorrow)

 

In other news, Peralta met with the Mhets yesterday.

The Tigers are going to have to deal either Porcello or Scherzer (or Fister) this off-season, else we’ll all have to pledge to buy Hot N Ready’s until our belts explode. This means Smyly to the rotation, which is less exciting to me now than it was last year at this time.

Joe Nathan is getting a lot of pub as he looks be the early favorite for your 2014 closer. Curious to see how free agent Joaquin Benoit is feeling right now. I mean, he didn’t load the bases. He only gave up 1 of those earned runs.

Brayan Pena’s replacement is Ronny Paulino.

I’ll update this tomorrow.

2013 Season

The Brad Ausmus Era Begins

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The Tigers have not officially announced it, but all signs point to Brad Ausmus as your new manager. From what I can tell, this guy out of Houston broke the news.

Though the home opener next March against KC will be the first game that Ausmus ever manages, this is a hire that I’m excited about. Ausmus has a tremendous baseball brain, as he spent 18 years in the majors, including two stints with our Tigers. He was a hot candidate this off-season, making the rounds with the Cubs and Nationals. Some are already drawing parallels to Mike Matheny in St. Louis, a former catcher who was a rookie manager in 2012. All he’s done in 2 seasons with the Cards is go to game 7 of the NLCS and game 6 of the World Series.

Ausmus made the All Star team with the Tigers, in 1999 (which means he beat out Tony Clark & Dean Palmer) and won 3 gold gloves later in his career.

 

Hot Stove, Miscellaneous

Scroll Relief

23 Comments

It’s safe to come out now. The you-know-what is over. I don’t know what it was supposed to prove, with the Tigers not in it, but I guess they’d already scheduled the event and couldn’t cancel on such short notice.

(NOTE TO FUTURE GENERATIONS IN SEARCH OF CONTEXT: At this point in the offseason, the following changes/events have taken place: Jim Leyland has retired. Four or five candidates to replace him have been interviewed and have also interviewed with other teams. Club declines to offer Brayan Pena a contract. Matt Tuiasosopo (Diamondbacks) and Darin Downs (Astros) have been claimed off waivers by other teams. Club declines to pick up Jose Veras’s option. Miguel Cabrera has had surgery to repair a groin tear and is expected to recover well before spring training 2014.)

To discuss, much of said discussion already in progress:

* Who will the new manager be? Who should it be? You, maybe? Commenting here gives you a leg up for the job, I’ve been told, so speak up.

* Whole new coaching staff or some holdovers?

* Catcher: Avila/Holaday? Holaday/Veteran Backup? Free Agent/Avila?

* First Base: Fielder an albatross? A slight overreaction, perhaps?

* Second Base: Pay up for Infante or let him go? Go with youth and potential in Perez, or make him serve an apprenticeship, under… who?

* Shortstop: Is Iglesias the shortstop of the future or an injury-plagued and mostly batless dead end?

* Third Base: Is Cabrera’s surgery really “no big deal”? Will his condition(ing) and health be an issue in 2014? How did that groin injury come about, anyway? (Rhetorical.)

* Left Field: Sink or swim with Castellanos? Hedge your bets with Dirks? Something more surprising, as in free agent in, other guys gone?

* Center Field: Continue to grant AJax Favored CF status, or pull a surprise? Could he bloom under a manager with actual confidence in him?

* Right Field: Is Torii the Hacker really your #2 hitter? I see a vacancy at #6.

* Designated Hitter: A position without a question mark, eh? Oops. Would Martinez batting immediately behind Cabrera be too much to ask for?

* Bench: Santiago and Kelly stick around? Seriously? What’s a good bench for this team?

* Starting pitching: Would they really trade Scherzer? Come on. Really? Is Smyly in the rotation a foregone conclusion? Is Fister such a lock? Does the occasionally brilliant young Alvarez stand a chance, and would it take an injury to one of the main dudes to find out?

* Bullpen: Is Benoit the “anchor” you want? Will the mythical appeal of “established closer” never die? Is it enough already with AlburCokey? Is Rondon the new Zumaya? As the bullpen purge proceeds apace, would you rather see a few “name guys” brought in or an effort to assemble a greater quantity of lesser-known talent? Rondon, Putkonen, Ortega, Alvarez – young turks and core of a new group or peripherals?

* AL Central: Would 3rd place in 2014 surprise you? It’s a jungle out there.

* Does a new manager really promise a more modern approach to baseball and a different style of play, or does “no culture change” mean what we think it means? Is Mr. New Manager going to be the placeholder for a train wreck, the one-season sacrificial lamb?

* Scan those free agent and arbitration-eligible lists, plot your brilliant trades, and order your brilliant lineups and batting orders. The Hot Stove League is upon us.