future

Today is a momentous day for any sports fan in the Detroit area. In the early evening yesterday, the Detroit Tigers made a blockbuster eight-man trade which resulted in the team adding the best young hitter in the game not named Pujols, and a former all-star pitcher who could prove to be the most solid 4th or 5th starter in baseball. Perhaps, most amazing about this trade, is that it was accomplished without sacrificing a single player who was going to be on the roster next season. Granted, we gave up a great deal of talent in terms of prospects, but this is not such a bad thing (more on this later).

While this trade is exciting in terms of potential runs scored and games won, it is equally exciting in how it effects the national perception of the Detroit/Michigan/Midwest sports market. Namely, that sports exist in places other than the two coasts. According to ESPN, sports teams are only of interest on the East and West coast. Detroit, the scrappy, tough, sentimental underdog has just willed itself into the spotlight through determination and sacrifice. That is exciting. We did something so bold and successful that it was the equivalent of grabbing ESPN by the throat and screaming LOOK AT ME!

PS - Screw the Knicks! They are the 12th best team in the east with no shot at the post-season, they are totally irrelevant. Yet, somehow, every single time I turn on the freaking tv I hear about the Knicks. Even Bill Simmons, who I read religiously, has tried to make a similar point this month, in doing so, however, he has simply made them a page 1 feature in the magazine and on the website. Let's deal with Knicks and Knicks fans by ignoring them.



Anyway, sorry about the tangent, on to what really matters!




The tigers are going to have the best line-up in baseball next year. Miguel Cabrera has had over .900 OPS for the last three years running and he is only 24. I don’t care how fat the guy is, he can hit the freaking cover off of the ball. Baseball has a history of fat, successful players. Babe Ruth, Kirby Puckett, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Tony Gwynn just to name a few. Now that he is in the AL, he could even wind up being a DH if he can’t control his weight. Defense is an overrated ability in baseball anyway. There is an extremely long essay about the importance of defense to the success of a team in the book “Baseball Between the Numbers” which I highly recommend. It isn’t that defense doesn’t matter at all, it certainly does, but it just seems like lately due to the home-run driven nature of the game today there have been a bunch of reactionary small-ball, defense-first morons who seem to have forgotten that 9 runs beats 8 runs every time. (I would like to make a very important side note. I am not talking about defense in terms of pitching, only fielding. There is no substitute for great pitching, I am only talking about the fact that the 5 errors more that Cabrera will make versus a gold glove 3rd baseman don’t effect the success of a team as much as the 50 more runs he is going to create with his bat for that team)





Dontrelle Willis is an intriguing character as well. Yes, he has pitched like crap the last couple of years. However, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that he is going to do well for our team. First, he is a young player who seems to play with a lot of emotion. I imagine it was extremely difficult for him to pitch as the ace for a really bad team last year, that didn’t want to do anything but trade him. I know that if I were in the same situation I would have also pitched poorly, as I would have been very frustrated with my situation. Also, he was probably consistently overmatched by having to pitch number one in the rotation.


On our team he will probably pitch fourth or fifth. Which gives hitters an extremely tough time given how different all of our pitchers are. For example, imagine you were playing a five game series against the tigers (this is imaginary). Day 1, you are trying to hit a guy throwing 97 mph from the right side(Verlander). You spend all day trying to catch up to that fastball and getting your timing down and getting used to his arm angle and approach. Day 2, now you are facing a guy throwing from the left who is just tossing you junk. (Rogers) You are out in front of everything and you cannot pick-up what the ball is going to do at all, and again totally different arm angle. Day three, now you are facing a guy with a hard, hard, hard slider coming at you from the other side of the plate. (Bonderman) You are breaking your bat every time as the pitcher is coming right in on your hands with heat. Day 4, once you finally were able to pick up that slider, now you are facing a lefty again, he is throwing you junk again. You are out in front of every pitch and you can’t pick-up what it is doing (Robertson). Day 5, once you finally got used to the lefty throwing you junk, now you get another lefty but he is bringing it. (Willis). (thanks to Chris B for discussing this scenario with me)

All I am really saying is this: we are going undefeated.