The 4 time, 4 time, 4 time, 4 time AL Central Champs!!

[Flipper]

Your Detroit Tigers! Since Prince Fielder has waddled off to Texas and taken that sweet ..500 range playoff OPS and piss poor attitude with him, we might actually make some noise this year.

SO Tribe fans...what will you be trading Kluber for next year or the year after?

[Class of 61]

Right after Tigers pay out 120+mill. To Scherzer(who then turns it down).

[hammb]

Funny thing is they'll probably re-sign Kluber. He'll be 29 next year and still has a couple cost controlled years left. The smart thing to do is let him play out his cost controlled string and then either pawn him off, or take the first rounder in compensation. Instead I imagine the Indians will try to buy out his arbitration and get him for a couple additional years in hoping that his steady improvements to this point will remain his norm for the next 3-4 years.

This is the case where the Indians need to act how they usually do...don't throw money at a guy who wasn't a great pitcher until his prime. Let him walk or trade him...so I fully expect this to be the time they try to lock him up.

As for the TIgers, they didn't play well this year but still won the division. Any team in the playoffs has a good shot to win it all...it's so random. Hopefully this is the year they put it together. I don't see them being real great next year, unless they throw a ton of (ill-advised) cash at V-Mart & Scherzer. I think this is the time to slap arbitration offers on 'em both and go into next year with a handful of first round draft picks to re-stock the farm.

[Flipper]

I would resign Victor...Scherzer is going to walk, I would imagine. I can live with a rotation of Price, Verlander, Sanchez, Porcello and whomever...maybe take a run at a guy like Peavey who'll get less years and $$$ than Max. I think the bullpen will be better next year if only because we'll have a solid option from day one to close in Soria if Nathan goes into another funk. I imagine Hunter will walk (unless Victor leaves and he's a DH candidate) so we're going to need a RF.

[hammb]

I would have no problem with resigning victor but I don't think I'd go to 3 years, and after the season he had this year I could see somebody doing that. I'd take Torii for another year at dh if they lost Victor, but no way I'd want him in rf again.

I wonder what the marlins feel about our farm system? About time for them to move Stanton. I'd love to have him, but I think the system is probably too depleted from the price trade. I have an inkling they might try to roll with JD in rf and dirks/moya in lf. That scares me a lot...especially since they don't really have a good cf either. Love what JD has done, but not sure he'll maintain it for his prime years.

No way I'd throw money at scherzer. Arbitration and take the pick. He's too old to commit long term, as awesome as he's been (and he's always been a favorite of mine since before we traded for him). I'd give vmart an arbitration offer as well and wouldn't go over 2 years. There is something enticing about having a bunch of high picks to restock the farm with upper tier talent (that we can then trade off for kluber, Stanton, etc.)

[bgsufn]

One thing to think about... one of the reasons Torii came to the Tigers is because his son plays football at the University of Notre Dame and it's close for him to spend time with his son. His son is a sophomore. I could see him trying to stay for a couple more years.

[Flipper]

The Tigers have a ton of depth at 2b/SS in the system..even after shipping Adames off in the Price trade. I don't know if any of them have a high enough ceiling to be a key part of a deal for an OF. You could trade Sanchez...but then you really need to focus on keeping Price around after 2015.

I like Torri Hunter if we confiscate his fielding gloves....that statue of Ty Cobb in the stands has more range now than Hunter.

[hammb]

The Tigers have a ton of depth at 2b/SS in the system..even after shipping Adames off in the Price trade. I don't know if any of them have a high enough ceiling to be a key part of a deal for an OF. You could trade Sanchez...but then you really need to focus on keeping Price around after 2015.

I like Torri Hunter if we confiscate his fielding gloves....that statue of Ty Cobb in the stands has more range now than Hunter.

And how awful would Hunter look out there if Kinsler was fielding all pop flies on the shallow infield for him? I was upset with the Fielder trade because I thought it made the team worse simply to save money (and long term that's probably what it did if Fielder stays healthy), but my god having a glove like his at 2B has been a godsend...especially with Torii being so bad.

I don't doubt that Hunter would love to stay for another 2 years. I doubt that they'll want to pay him money and put him in the lineup. And as Flip said, NO business playing OF anymore. His ONLY asset out there is that he's got a nice arm in RF. I think at this point I'd cover more ground out there than he does. Amazing how quickly he's dropped off the cliff as an OF. He'd still be a viable DH if A) he'd be willing to play DH, and B) You let VMart leave in FA.

You're right about the MI depth, but like you said, I question the overall ceilings. Seems like we have a whole lotta future Suarezes, but no future Trammels. Hell, I'm not even really thrilled about pinning the future of SS on Iglesias...love the glove, but I don't think he'll ever hit a lick. I wouldn't trade Sanchez...even if they locked up Price beyond next year (which I'd be leery of, always am leery of signing 30 year old superstar pitchers). With his health issues (that have been an entire career thing) I'm not even sure what Sanchez's trade value really is. No doubt you could get a viable starting OF, but I don't think you'd be getting a star.

I really think this team is starting to near the end of their window. Yes, they could throw a ton of cash at Victor, sign one of the ace starters this year (Shields, Lester, Scherzer), and re-sign Price. Throw a ton of money at it all and you'd end up with another 2-3 years of window, but for the long term health of the organization I think it might be time to think about letting some of these guys walk and be ready to re-tool in 16-17. Of course the fear with doing that is if your attendance goes into the shitter while they rebuild for a couple years you may not be able to hit these payroll numbers again. If you throw cash at Price and one of those other guys I fear that in 3 years you're going to have a rotation that includes Verlander, Price, and Scherzer making $80 million and pitching like shells of their former selves.

Either way I'm going to enjoy this playoff run. I grew up in the 80s & 90s and if there's one thing I've learned it's never take baseball playoff appearances for granted. I'm hoping this year they can put it together. Having a hot handed Miggy going into the playoffs hasn't happened in awhile, so I like that. I like that JV's last couple starts were decent and we've got Scherzer & Price to go with him. I like that Soria has been pitching alright (wish he'd get the closer role). This could be the year they finally get it done in the postseason, and I hope it is, because Dombrowski has some VERY difficult decisions to make this offseason.

[Critical Thinker]

I like Torri Hunter if we confiscate his fielding gloves....that statue of Ty Cobb in the stands has more range now than Hunter.

Hunter tried bunting his way onto first against Baltimore today. Hunter still thinks he has wheels...

[hammb]

Said it all year that you couldn't win a WS with this shitpen. Then I let myself get semi-optimistic because once you get in the playoffs anything can happen.

Then, sure enough, Bullpen costs them this game, and took them completely out of the last game.

Blow the fucker up. So sick of this bullshti.

[Falconfreak90]

One loss away from the end of the season for the Tigers. They got to play 3 more games than the Tribe this year. Hey, at least ya have the Browns, Hammb.

[Flipper]

Yeah...not sure WTF Ausmus was doing pulling Sanchez and putting Joba in when he had AL AL in the pen.

Re the Browns...this is from week 2..but it still applies.

http://www.adultswim.com/videos/carls-l ... vs-browns/" target="_blank

[hammb]

[Falconfreak90]

Hey! The Browns won! Can they beat the Squeelers?

[hammb]

Hey! The Browns won! Can they beat the Squeelers?

Can they? Yes.

They have more talent than the Steelers.

Will they? No, probably not because that talent has never figured out how to play a 60 minute game and win. Pettine is trying to change that culture, and I think he's done a solid job so far, but I don't know. This just to me has shades of the Bengals game last year when we had a chance to make some noise in the division and then just fell apart. They absolutely can win that game, it's a home game against a struggling Steelers team. But they need to come out and play for real for 60 minutes, and I'm still not convinced they can do that...I hope I'm wrong.