Detroit Tigers position by position review: First Base (revised)

I never would have dreamed a team out there would have taken on the contract of Prince Fielder even with the Tigers kicking in 30 million dollars towards it. The important thing to note is the real win here is how the 30 million will be paid and it looks like it will be in payments spread over several seasons and for a team in win now mode 5 million of bad money over the last years of the Fielder contract is nothing considering he is owed 24 million for the next seven seasons.

Of course this alters the Tigers daily lineup and the entire make up of the infield. Miguel Cabrera reportedly has asked the team to be moved back to first base, and the expectation is he and Victor Martinez will platoon there and at DH. I would also expect this team to give 27 year old Jordan Lennerton a very long look in the spring and would not bet against the team carrying him on the roster as insurance at first and a left handed bat on the bench. Of course without Prince the Tigers also need a left handed bat in the daily lineup.

I do not think the Tigers will add a free agent at first. Having Miggy and Victor as well as Lennerton seems solid enough to begin the season with. I think the big change will come at third. If they feel that Nick Casetallanos is not ready to play every day for the big club at his natural position.

Cabrera played a fine first base for four years making the All Star team twice and finishing in the top five of MVP voting three times. The move back to first makes sense for anyone who saw Miguel battle through injuries in September, and the post season. Having Cabrera and Victor playing everyday at first and or DH reminds me a lot of the years Darrell Evans and Dave Bergman played first and DH (amongst other positions). I also think Miggy and Victor will hit 3 and 4 in the lineup as of right now. That may change if they find a left handed bat to play left field. Then it would make more sense for the lefty to bat 4th with the switch hitting Martinez 5th.

It will be nice to see a little youth, even if it is somewhat experienced youth, and other guys filling out the bench positions on this team. We all wait to see who Brad Ausmus' guys are but some of the Jim Leyland guys are not likely to return. With that being said I don't see Don Kelly going anywhere. his value to the team is his ability to play multiple positions and I don't see that value declining. Kelly can also play first and fill in in later innings if need be.

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Thoughts on the Prince Fielder trade

First and foremost, while I have bashed Prince Fielder for his record in the post season and questioned his leadership skills, and called him out for how he handles the media, Detroit Tigers fans far and wide owe this man and very big thank you for his two years of service with the club. In two years he played every single game, every single one. He was also a 100 RBI guy and the cleanup hitter for a very good baseball team. Let us also not forget that the two years he hit behind Miguel Cabrera, Miggy won the MVP and a Triple Crown. He had a lot of value for the Tigers, and even though it ended poorly for him in Detroit he was a big part of their success.

Let us point something else out. This trade, by itself, is nothing more than a salary dump. Now what happens next is the payoff for getting rid of a very good player. It will be those moves that hopefully win this team a World Series title, and they will be forever linked to how those moves work out.

First and foremost the Tigers now have enough money in 2014 and beyond to sign Max Scherzer. that is very important as pitching is this club's strength and having the rotation stay together means that right now today the Tigers are the favorites to win the division once again. That means another shot at the ultimate goal.

I also think that it means Nick Castellanos will be on the big team in 2014 either at third (preferably) or in left. I also think it means Miggy and Victor Martinez will rotate at first and DH, and I like that cause I remember the days of Dave Bergman and Darrell Evans. I liked hose days and I like having older guys who don't move so good now at first and DH.

The simple fact here is the Tigers are not a better team today. That much is pretty evident but this move, getting out of that contract, opens up a world of possibilities and those possibilities should excite Tigers fans because Dave Dombrowski is very good at getting good pieces for this team. Maybe not always the right pieces but very good talented pieces none the less.

If this boiled down to a choice between Fielder or Scherzer, and I think it sorta does, I would take Scherzer all day long. That is a guy entering his prime. Fielder and Kinsler are guys on the far side of their prime. Pitching wins, and the 2013 Tigers kinda proved that had Prince stepped up bigger in the post season then that changes the equation for me. The fact is he did not. I don't think he wanted to be here anymore, and I don't think the fans wanted Prince back. There is no addition by subtraction here, the Tigers just lost 25 home runs and 100 RBI and those numbers will need to be picked up by someone. The Tigers have created another hole for themselves. they are back in the familiar position of needing a power left handed bat.

The Tigers dumped salary and given themselves the flexibility to get better in other areas. We will not know if they won this trade until that happens. The rid themselves their fan base had turned on, and who was not very popular amongst the front office. They get a do over on a ridiculous contact that should have never been handed out in the first place.

This is the first domino of the 2013 of season. We shall see what is the next to fall and if that is the resigning of Phil Coke to a one year deal, I and all the rest of you should be very disappointed.

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Detroit Tigers position by position review: first base

Prince Fielder saw action in every game the Detroit Tigers played in 2013. That is an amazing stat, and proves that Fielder is at the very least ready to go out and play every day. However, baseball is just a job to him. he does not have the passion for the game a guy with his contract really should. He also does himself a large disservice by how he speaks to the press and by extension the fans. Detroit is a working class sports town, with a ultra loyal fan base but once that fan base turns on you things can get very uncomfortable just ask Juan Gonzales.Prince isn't to that point yet, but his personal problems have led him down a dark path in 2013 and while some Detroit fans will give him the benefit of the doubt it is using up all his good will in Detroit. That on top of the payroll situation is why the Tigers are listening to trade offers for him this off season.

That makes first base a position of some concern for the Tigers this off season. They do have other options, but before we get to all of that let's look at what Prince did. He hit .279, with 25 home runs and 106 RBI. All of those numbers were a decline form what he did in 2012. He has also played in every game since coming to Detroit and that is huge, but what he does in the post season is of up most importance because this is a team trying to win a World Series title. In the two ALCS he has helped this team get to he is hitting just .205 with no home runs and just 1 RBI. In two ALDS since dawning the Tigers colors he is hitting just .231 with 1 HR and 2 RBI. In the 2012 World Series he hit just .071 with no homers or RBI. It is a large part of the reason why the Tigers were swept by the San Francisco Giants.

What happens in October matters most, and what happens last is what sticks in the minds of the front office and the fans. Prince's massive nine year 214 million dollar deal was always going to be ugly one day, but that was not suppose to be in year two of the deal. The contract is too large given what this guy brings to the table, an average first baseman in the field and a guy with a ton of power in the regular season. I never thought he was a good fit for this team, and until they win it all and/or Prince wins the MVP I will continue to think that.

The Tigers have a few internal options if they unload Prince via trade this off season. They could move Victor Martinez to first from DH, along with moving Miguel Cabrera toward a more full time DH role to keep him healthy for the playoffs. Those moves could be accompanied by bringing Nick Castellanos to the big team as the every day third baseman his natural position. The Tigers could also move Cabrera back to first base along with bringing Castellanos or with a free agent upgrade at third. It is probably time to see what Castellanos can do every day on the big team, but he is only 21 so delaying that till 2015 could be a very solid move.

It seems pretty unlikely the Tigers will be able to rid themselves of this ridiculously bad contract.They could go the Damion Easily route and just pay him off, or trade him and eat a big chunk of salary but none of that helps the current payroll situation.

Here is my biggest concern...How does this fan base react if the Fielder deal forces this team to trade 2013 Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer to upgrade at another position? If Prince thinks he heard a lot of boos this past off season the crowd at Comerca Park can be quite vocal...again ask Juan Gonzales. And that was before this team was good.

We shall see how this plays out.

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The curious case of Prince Fielder

2013 was just the second year of a nine year 214 million deal between the Detroit Tigers and Prince Fielder. There was little doubt that this contract was gonna get ugly, but the hope of Tigers' fans was that would be in year 6 or later. By then the plan was to have at least one and ideally multiple World Series titles. Then it all went sideways. In many ways Fielder is the Tigers version of Alex Rodriguez. A guy that can light it up when there is no spotlight but wilts under the glare of post season pressure. the one key difference was at least A-Rod owned it. It makes me sick to agree with that human piece of garbage about anything but he never did what Prince did this week, and that is why he has to go. Regardless of what it does to the win now mentality of the Tigers, or what it ends up costing Fielder is a cancer that must be cut out.

It is really too bad. For a lot of long time Tiger fans Prince is still the 13 year old kid who hit a home run shot at that young age in old Tiger Stadium. Prince bring almost nothing to the table past offensive production when it doesn't matter a heck of a lot. He is a defensive liability, mentally weak, and not passionate about baseball. Any one of those things would be survivable in a baseball crazy town like Detroit, but added together (with his enormous contract) and the blue collar fans of the Tigers are never gonna get a guy making 23 million plus a year who thinks about baseball as a job.

Detroit fans are a passionate bunch, and Fielder has had some trouble explaining what it is he his feeling to the media and it makes him come off as a pompous ass. This city will not tolerate over privileged athletes unable to perform when it counts most, who also happens to be the highest paid guy on the team.

To be fair, this is not all on Prince. Sure he didn't produce, and sure he said exactly the wrong thing at the exact wrong time to the Detroit spots media, but he really shouldn't be in Detroit to begin with.

Tigers owner Mike Illitch over reacted to the season long loss of Victor Martinez in 2012. He panicked and signed a guy to a way too long contract that already had a history of under performing in the playoffs. Granted Mike Illitch's ultimate goal is to bring a World Series title to Detroit, but he knew Prince would be good for business in the regular season and struck this deal. One has to wonder what role Dave Dombrowski played in this signing...It seems very likely Illitch did this independent of his President and GM and once more got a name guy for his team. That is what he has done, or tried to do since he bought the team.

Here is something I have never understood about the Tigers' brain trust. Why is this team built like they play in a small yard? Why is there such a reliance on power? Where are the speedsters and the gap hitters that could single and double their way to 10 or more runs in spacious Comerica Park? Is it that Detroit doesn't want that brand of baseball? Is it that Dombrowski, much like his pitchers, only believes in power? Or is that the direction of Illitch himself? I think no one would care if the leading home run hitter on this team had only 30 jacks and the Tigers cruised to a World Series title, but hey that's me.

Worse is what happens to Prince's relationship with the fans if his huge contract forces the early departure of Max Scherzer. How would Tigers fans react if Mad Max wins the American League Cy Young and then is traded in the off season. More than a few phone calls to local Detroit sports radio shows and more than a few boos are sure to be the fallout of that.

Granted, Prince is going through a divorce and given the relationship with his own father we can imagine how hard that is for him, but the fans sympathy is only going to go so far. Prince could have avoided a lot of these problems by not signing a huge contract with a team his Daddy played for. He and the team created an almost no win situation when they did so, and its ok for Prince to go after the money. I take no issue with that, but he has to understand how the fans in this town are going to view this.

The situation is bad now, and this is not likely to get any better. The best thing for Prince would be to hit a memorable home run in the post season that clinches a pennant of puts his team ahead in the World Series, he will likely get that chance, and then he can rewrite his narrative. Since the Tigers are likely stuck with this contract maybe its best for him to retreat to Florida, get his personal life straightened out, and put in some hard work this off season and in spring training try to win back some of the fans goodwill. If that matters to him, and its ok if it doesn't, but the boos will only get louder if that is the case.

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If I were Mike Illitch....

The news coming out of the Detroit Tigers today is that Jim Leyland is out as the Manager and that changes things greatly of how I would handle the off season if I were lucky enough to own the Detroit Tigers. Since it now seems likely that this team needs a manager and likely an entire new coaching staff my list of the people I would offer this job to wold include Kirk Gibson, Tony La Russa, and Dusty Baker. Not sure how likely any of those choices are right now but that is where I would start looking for my new skipper.

Past that I would make a few personnel changes, and I would have my front office working double time to start looking at where this team is weak. I see three big holes right now; second base, left field, and closer. I would also say that this team needs a new lead off hitter. The hope there is you find a player to fill a hole and bat lead off.

We begin at Second. The Tigers have two in house options. they could resign Omar Infante who they like and who fits in well here or they could give the job to youngster Hernan Perez. That would give them a very young middle defense, but a good one defensively. However, having two weak bats at those two spots doesn't seem likely.

I would explore every option of trading Prince Fielder and his contract to the New York Yankees for Robinson Cano. I would much rather pay him 200 million dollars and have a lead off bat and a guy who is passionate about baseball then Fielder who isn't great defensively and is a post season bust. I want out of that deal, and I would do almost anything to accomplish that this off season. Past that I would keep options open and look hard at resigning Infante.

In Left I would give Nick Castellanos every opportunity to win that job. I would like to see him make the big team out of Spring Training and get regular starts and at bats in Detroit in April and May. I think having Andy Dirks to push him is enough, but I would not rule out inviting someone to Training Camp to push the two of them.

If I am Illitch, and I am near the end, and I want to win a ring before that happens 2014 is an all in year for me. Not only would I resign Maz Scherzer to whatever amount of money keeps him here next year, but I give Dave Dombrowski enough payroll room to go get a legit big time closer. Not knowing the free agent market of yet I do not have a name, but I want a stud. I resign Joaquin Benoit as the set up guy. I also give Bruce Rondon a shot to make the pen as a 7th inning guy for seasoning. Phil Coke is out, and I would want Drew Smyly in the pen for 2014 with an eye on getting him in the rotation in 2015.  I keep Al Alburquerque, but the rest of them are tougher decisions and they need a new left handed specialist.

That is the opening salvo of my outline for a Tigers plan to get better for 2014. That is gonna change a lot but if I were Mike Illitch I don't care about the luxury tax, I don't care how big the payroll gets, I am all in for 2014 with or without Prince Fielder.

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CBS Detroit paints Prince Fielder the villain

Today, October 18, 2013, an article on the local CBS Detroit website has the headline

"Prince Fielder responding to boos, If they could do it, they would play." that headline is just part of a response by Fiedler to the assembled media and paints to be a not so nice guy. A guy playing with a sense of entitlement that gets paid a lot of money and is slumping with the Detroit Tigers 2013 season is on the line. However, what Prince actually said isn't as bad as CBS would have us believe.

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The ALDS moves to Detroit...a few thoughts

The Detroit Tigers accomplished the main goal, they went to Oakland and won one of the first two games of the 2013 ALDS. However, they wasted a gem of a pitching performance by Justin Verlander last night to put a choke hole on the Oakland A's in this series. The offense, the team lost the last week of the regular season, has yet to be found. The simple fact here is if this team does not start hitting they are not going to advance.

Among the problems, and probably first on the list is the fact that the Tigers' 3-4-5 hitters are hitting just 5-24 so far in the ALDS. Prince Fielder is 1-9 continuing a miserable post season performance we saw a glimpse of last fall in the World Series. And a not quite right Miguel Cabrera is just 2-8, and Victor Martinez is also 2-8. Simply put that is not going to get it done. These three men have the responsibility to carry the offensive load and since the last week of the regular season they have failed to do so.

If the Tigers exit the playoffs this early we have no choice but to look at the massive investment in Prince Fielder as a complete and utter failure. An overreaction by the owner of this team to the 2012 loss of Victor Martinez. It would also likely be the end of Jim Leyland's run in Detroit. He has a record of 1-8 in the World Series with this team and while he has helped them come this far it seems reasonable to argue that he is not the manager that will get them to the ultimate goal.

Granted we are not quite at the doom and gloom phase of the 2013 post season. The next two games will be played at Comerica Park and the Tigers are a much better team there, and the offense seems to like playing being there as well. The Tigers still have Anibal Sanchez (Monday) and Doug Fister (Tuesday) and have the option of Verlander or Max Scherzer for game five if necessary. However, the bats need to wake up sooner rather than later.

The Tigers can not ask for better pitching performances. Their top two starters put this team in a position to have a 2-0 lead in this series. The offense has been very disappointing, and largely absent last night in Oakland. This team let a rookie, making his 11th MLB start, shut down a lineup that features five .300 hitters and about 60 million dollars of payroll...

If the Tigers win the next two games, or wind up winning the series maybe we will not focus on this as much. However, for right now it is the story and the Tigers offense needs to work to change that.

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Detroit Tigers week in review: Week 21

Kind of a tough week for Detroit Tigers fans. The Tigers go out and lose 3 of 4 to the Oakland A's at home, and in one of those losses Ace Justin Verlander struggles mightily. Then they bring in the Cleveland Indians and beat up on the tribe making their record against them 15-4 for the 2013 season. While getting banged up by a team the tigers could see in the playoffs sometimes in baseball it matters who you beat and when. 15-4 versus the tribe means the magic number is 19, and the tigers handled their business at least within the division.

As always we look at the splits to try and explain exactly what is going on with this team. The overall record is 80-57 and the tigers have a 7.5 game lead on the tribe and the division title is a virtual lock. A big test comes today with the Tigers on the road in Boston playing a very good Red Sox team. We would like to see the tigers play well, but with Miguel Cabrera ailing the tigers might be tempted to but their season on cruise control and get healthy for the post season.

September call ups are upon us. Phil Coke, Jose Alvarez, Bryan Holaday, along with top[ prospect Nick Castellanos have all joined the big club and we shall see how those call ups play out over the rest of the month and what is likely another post season appearance by the team.

In other organization news Toledo Mud hens manager Phil Nevin has been let go, and the Mud Hens will begin a search for a new skipper. It seems very likely that the Tigers will look within their own system to promote someone, maybe the manager of the Erie Sea Wolves who has gotten a lot out of the talent on that team.

The Good:

• Prince Fielder- We have been a lot down on Big Prince so far in 2013 but the truth is he has had a pretty good season. Maybe not in terms of power numbers but we are talking about a huge man that has 29 doubles and will wind up with over 100 RBI. All while hitting behind Cabrera. He has some personal issues to deal with and we always knew his power numbers would suffer playing half his games at the Copa. 
• Anibal Sanchez- With Max Scherzer being basically automatic, and JV struggling (by his standards) we can sort of overlook Sanchez. he has had a very solid year with a 12-7 record 151 innings pitched, 163 K's, and an ERA of 2.68. Hopefully he keeps that up and lives up to the terms of a fairly large free agent contract. 
• Jose Iglesisas- Jose is magic with the glove and will be the starter at Short Stop for this club for years to come. However, as he nears 100 at bats for the Tigers he is hitting .292, and is good enough bunting that Manager Jim Leyland is more willing to let him drop a bunt here and there. This adds another dimension to the Tigers and that is a very good thing. 

The Bad:

• Cabrera's injury- He has missed the last few games, and we are not sure exactly what is meant by abdominal strain. This is a cat who thrives on being in the lineup everyday but who is just dinged up right now. 
• JV- We have yet to see the dominate JV this year that we have seen in past years. He did turn 30, he has pitched a lot over the last couple of seasons but before we get to concerned let's see what he does in the playoffs and maybe even next year. Players are most remembered for what they do in October and JV above anyone else in this town has certainly earned the benefit of the doubt. The good news is he was very sharp yesterday against the tribe. 

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Is it all Victor Martinez's fault?

A lot of people like to tell us that the 2013 Detroit Tigers would be a much better team if Victor Martinez was a more consistent threat in the five hole. They may have a point obviously we would rather have the 2011 Victor who hit .330 then the 2013 version who is only hitting .249. I hate to break it to you but Victor isn't the real problem here. In fact the Tigers are getting a comparable amount of production of of Martinez that they did from Delmon Young who hit out of the five hole last season. The seems to suggest either the streakiness of one Prince fielder is to blame or that the blame lies later in the daily lineup, or elsewhere on the roster.

Does that sound crazy? Well thank goodness baseball has enough numbers to prove any jackass point I could ever hope to come up with. For all of 2012 Young hit .267 with 18 home runs and 74 RBI. He racked 153 hits. Much has been made of Victor's struggles at the plate in the DH role but so far in 2013 he is hitting .249 with 7 home runs and 46 RBI. He has 17 doubles in his 83 hits and since we are a little past halfway it seems reasonable to argue that Victor will come close to meeting Young's offensive production from a year ago.  A team that battled the White Sox till the last month of the season before winning the division on the way to the World Series.

It is hard for Tigers fans not to fret when Justin Verlander has struggled to live up to his and our expectations. It seems important to note that the Tigers are in first place by 2.5 games and GM Dave Dombrowski has a particular gift of finding the right move to make at the trading deadline. In fact he has done just that in each of he last two years.

In fact the tigers, under Jim Leyalnd anyways, have never played this well in the first half. They are almost always behind in the division at the all star break and in each of their two recent trips to the World Series they came down to the final weeks of the season before securing a playoff spot.

Granted, as currently constructed this does not look like a World Series caliber team but calm down. The worst thing to do in baseball is get too freaked out over any one game. Sure, JV has looked rough at times and getting blown out by the Chicago White Sox is never a good thing, but that was one game of 162. Sure sometimes games like that pile up and it is hard to keep everything separate but in the end this is a very good team that is one move away from being pretty awesome.

We could debate what that one move is but I think most of us would agree that adding a bullpen arm is the best route to take. Granted that is if Jhonny Peralta can avoid a suspension and us Tigers fans can wait to freak out over something a little more tangible.

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What the 2013 Detroit Tigers need is....Leadership!

Detroit sports fans have become a spoiled bunch. We have an owner, who owns both our hockey and baseball team's that is willing to spend whatever amount needs top be spent to win championships. We have a starting rotation that is without doubt among the best in baseball currently, and out Tigers sport the last two American League MVP. Wit hall of that being said the Tigers still have not one a World Series since 1984 and that is so long ago most current Tigers' fans count Magglio Ordonenz's Home Run in the 2006 ALCS as the greatest home run in Tigers history. Fans of my generation still count the blast by Kirk Gibson in the 1984 Fall Classic as the defining home run in their Tigers fandom.

The 1984 team had a few things that the 2013 version doesn't have, a strong bullpen, and excellent bench, and tow names in particular jack Morris and Gibson himself. These men were leaders on that team drafted by this organization and developed into the nucleus that was the dominant force in baseball. It still amazes me that this core of players only won one World Series title.

While the current core of players has won the last two AL central titles this is a baseball town where the goal is to win the World Series each an every year. Given the age and the size of the payroll the window for this core of players to win it all is rapidly shrinking. It seems the biggest thing missing is veteran player leadership. Octavio Dotel tried to be that guy but he was not here long and may not ever pitch for this club again.

The Detroit Red Wings that won two straight Stanley Cup championships and three in five seasons had the Captain Steve Yzerman as the one ice leader. The example setter, but the also had Darren McCarty (for the most part) as the vocal leader in the clubhouse. Before last fall the last Tigers team to go to a World Series had a vocal veteran leader in Kenny Rogers. The current core has two example setters in Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera (we could probably add Max Scherzer to that list, but no vocal leader in their clubhouse. This seems to be an issue for an offense that goes cold at all the wrong moments and a team that fails to score runs late in games. This roster needs a guy to get into people faces and to help the team pick up its late game effort.

The simple fact here is the Tigers for a long time have looked to add veteran leadership via free agency. Thinks about it Ivan Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Rogers, Ordonez, and Torrii Hunter were all brought in and yet no home grown Tigers has stepped into to take up that leadership void. That may not mean anything but a team with this amount of talent and the size of its payroll that has only two division title and one AL pennant to its name has certainly come up short.

Veraldner has struggled so far this year, while Max Scherzer is a perfect 13-0. However, JV did go out and shit down the Toronto Blue Jays on the fourth of July in a performance that should announce he is back and that could be a rallying cry for this team in the second half of 2013.

Let us not forget it was an early spring closed door ass reaming by then first year manger Jim Leyland in 2006 that lit a fire under this team's collective butt. It seems that the current version of the Tigers needs exactly the same thing. If Leyland is unable or unwilling to do so Veraldner, Cabrera, or someone else needs to step up and do so sooner rather than later.

If that does not happen we could wind up talking about the 2013 Tigers in the same breath as we do the 2008 version. That would be the ultimate tragedy and let;'s hope one of the veterans on this team figures that out.

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