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PRINCE FIELDER IS A TIGER. A 9 Year deal. More than likely moving Cabrera back to third.

Wow. Did not see this coming. Best of luck to the rest of the AL Central

So freaking HAPPY!

$214 Million....wow.

Yeah, but Victor's out for the year. (Please remember, Cleveland fan here.)

"Loading up on offense can't fail!"

Signed,
1996-2002 Texas Rangers


I would have spent the $214 million to convince Verlander to throw every other day.

Detroit's pitching is pretty solid. The rotation is set except for that fifth guy and we have two SP's in the Baseball America top 100 prospects (Turner and Smyly) along with a couple of other guys (Crosby and Oliver) with major league arms to fill that slot. The back of the bullpen looks really solid with Coke, Dotel, Benoit and Valverde.

If I'm a ground ball pitcher like Rick Porcello, an infield defense of guys like Miggy, Fielder and Peralta who have no range and a butcher at 2B like Ryan Raburn has to make me very nervous...if not suicidal. I would prefer to put Miggy in RF...he can't be any worse than Ordonez was... and Boesch in LF. Delmon DH's. Raburn gets packaged for a 2B with some range and the abilty to draw a walk. I could then live with the Inge?kelly platoon at 3B. God...I'd kill for the early 1990's version Tony Phillips in this line up. Delmon Young's inabilty to get on base is going to really hamper Avila and Peralta behind him....I really do not like Delmon Young.

This is not a smart move, Comerica is gonna cost him 7-10 HR. Also you have a three defensive liabilities on the infield now. Cabrera, Peraltta, and Fielder are realitively weak with the glove. Fielder has no speed in a park where a gap shot could easily be a triple, or going from first to home is realistic. The back end of this contract looks like a bad idea.

daspollak wrote:This is not a smart move, Comerica is gonna cost him 7-10 HR. Also you have a three defensive liabilities on the infield now. Cabrera, Peraltta, and Fielder are realitively weak with the glove. Fielder has no speed in a park where a gap shot could easily be a triple, or going from first to home is realistic. The back end of this contract looks like a bad idea.

As a lefty I don't see any realistic way Comerica costs him 7-10 HRs a year. Especially considering his HRs are rarely the "just eek out" type. Dude hits bombs, and RF in CoMerica isn't really that far. The gaps & CF are long shots, but I don't think he'll lose more than a handful of HRs over the course of a season.

As for the rest? Yeah, the defense will suffer, but the Tigers haven't been a good defensive team in years, I really don't think that will be a deciding factor. The back end of the contract looks like a killer now, but that will be completely dependent on what happens in the first half of the contract. I think Fielder has a helluva lot better shot to earn his pay at the back end of his deal than Pujols does, for instance. You know going in that you're overpaying when you grab a FA...you just do what you can to make the budget work.

If Fielder helps put the Tigers over the top for a WS title then living the rest of the contract out will be worth it. If they don't win it all in the first 3-4 years then it was a failure. This team has a small window to compete when they can keep Verlander & Cabrera under contract and in their prime. Adding one of the best bats in the game to that core is worth any price, IMO, even if it does bring some defensive liability with it.

hammb wrote:

daspollak wrote:This is not a smart move, Comerica is gonna cost him 7-10 HR. Also you have a three defensive liabilities on the infield now. Cabrera, Peraltta, and Fielder are realitively weak with the glove. Fielder has no speed in a park where a gap shot could easily be a triple, or going from first to home is realistic. The back end of this contract looks like a bad idea.

As a lefty I don't see any realistic way Comerica costs him 7-10 HRs a year. Especially considering his HRs are rarely the "just eek out" type. Dude hits bombs, and RF in CoMerica isn't really that far. The gaps & CF are long shots, but I don't think he'll lose more than a handful of HRs over the course of a season.

My scientific analysis says there should be no net change in his HRs.

Dimensions of both parks ( http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/Dimensions.html ) Same in left and LC, Comerica deeper in CF and RC, but shorter in RF. Fielder hits 41% of his HRs to CF and RC and 40% to RF. So 41% of his HRs are going to a deeper fence in Comerica, but also 40% are going to a shorter fence. If you assume he will continue to hit the ball in the same general directions, he should lose as many HRs to CF and RC as he gains in RF. Unless he decides to become a dead pull hitter because of the shorter fence, then all bets are off.

I'd think the difference in pitching in both leagues will have more impact than the ballpark dimensions.

Of course this is also just considering Comerica vs Miller. He only plays 81 home games each year, so you'd also have to consider the differences in dimensions of all AL parks vs NL parks.

Agreed with Wh and hammb...so far as the speed issue goes. Victor Martinez did well at Comerica and he's the slowest human I've seen since Rusty Staub.

With Fielder and Cabrera getting on base 40--45% of the time in front of him...Delmon Young should knock in 100 runs by August.

Delmon Young has not driven in 100 runs....other than that....WE'RE FINALLY OUT OF THE HOLE!! Didn't think it would take this long, but the team is heating up. Add a 2B like Omar Infante and maybe another starter since Turner isn't ready and Smyly has been on the DL twice already and we're good.

I asked for Infante and a SP and I got them. Can we also have a RH hitting corner OF with some pop while we're at it?

Flipper wrote:I asked for Infante and a SP and I got them. Can we also have a RH hitting corner OF with some pop while we're at it?

I think at this point I'd rather sit on what we have at the OF than deal more prospects. Boesch is starting to heat up, and you know what he can do when he goes on one of his tears. Berry continues to get on base and wreak havoc on the basepaths too. With the possibility of Dirks coming off the DL as well I wouldn't want to move anymore prospects for veterans.

ESPECIALLY considering the only prospect of worth in the system still is Castellanos, who actually probably will BE that RH corner OF with some pop, just not yet (although I fully expect him to get a cup of coffee this September).

As for the trade I love it. I think Turner was vastly overrated by the prospect rating websites. He never really dominated the minors and couldn't strike people out. Granted he was always way younger than his level, but still I didn't see a super high ceiling with him...I think he's destined to be Rick Porcello v2.0. I hope they can get Sanchez to sign a 3-4 year extension, but even if he doesn't the trade makes them much better this year, and moving up a lot in the draft will help ease the pain of losing one of their better prospects. Brantly looks like he is a legit catching prospect, but he was probably not going to see Detroit with Avila around.

Like the Indians to the Yankees in the 1970s, the Marlins are the new farm team for the Tigers.

Warthog wrote:Like the Indians to the Yankees in the 1970s, the Marlins are the new farm team for the Tigers.

I cannot WAIT to see Stanton in a Tigers uniform!