January 24th, 2012 at 4:07 PM ^
well, how much was guillen worth the past couple years? basically nothing, and he cost $13 mil per year. yet, he was key in the 2006 run. i think illich is willing to overpay fielder on the back end of this deal for a chance at titles the next 3-5 years.
dombrowski is doing it the right way. a hitter is more likely to retain value over the long-term (see the many yankee SPs). so he drafts pitchers, pays them on the cheap early, and fills the offensive holes with free agents.
very smart, imo.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:14 PM ^
maybe this helps a bit - magglio and guillen averaged a combined $30 million the past several years. this is about the same as fielder and peralta. seems ok to me.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:25 PM ^
Boras is his agent. As such, I suspect the only way this contract ends up less than the full term is an opt-out for Fielder, so if he plays better than his contract he opts out and the Tigers have to pay more or let him go, and if it turns into the Alfonso Soriano contract the Tigers are stuck paying him for the duration.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:55 PM ^
Hey it's everybody's favorite baseball snob, AAB!
They are TRYING TO WIN A WORLD SERIES! If they do it just once I don't think anyone gives a shit how much Prince makes the rest of his contract. Including the Illitch family.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:10 PM ^
Not good news for the Tribe. Holy shit. When Mr I goes for it, he goes for it.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:11 PM ^
Rosenthal has picked up on it. Nine years, $214 million.
http://twitter.com/#!/Ken_Rosenthal/status/161902578790170624
January 24th, 2012 at 3:13 PM ^
Hate, hate, hate, hate it. 9 years $214 million for a fat 1st baseman (a player type that historically ages atrociously) who, while a very good player, isn't as valuable as his old-school stats make it seem? You would need the most optimistic possible projection on Fielder for this to be a remotely good deal.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:27 PM ^
If the Tigers can win one or two World Series in the next 5 years its worth it.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:32 PM ^
they're stuck with no rings and an albatross of a contract. And they still have a suspect rotation behind Verlander. And awful defense. I get that Martinez got hurt, but I don't see how this signing fills the actualy holes the team had.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:44 PM ^
Moneyball my friend.
January 25th, 2012 at 5:08 AM ^
Moneyball is for poor people.
We have an owner willing to spend the $$$$.
How many World Series appearances has moneyball gotten the As?
January 24th, 2012 at 3:46 PM ^
Sample sizes and all, but Doug Fister was 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA and a 2.75 xFIP in 11 appearances for the Tigers last season (not including post season). That hardly seems suspect to me.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:56 PM ^
His xFIP for the whole season was 3.61, if you expect him to even be in the ballpark of his numbers with the Tigers last year you'll be disappointed. He's likely to be a better-than-average starter but his numbers with the Tigers would make him better than Verlander, which, no. Reasonable to think Scherzer and Porcello could be better than last year though, and fortunately for the Tigers the rest of the AL Central pretty much blows again this year (I wouldn't be surprised to see everyone else below .500 again) so it's really about having the guns for the playoffs.
January 24th, 2012 at 4:11 PM ^
They also have one of the top 5 pitching prospects in the game in Jacob Turner. He may not be any better than average this year but he projects as a top of the rotation starter for years to come.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:52 PM ^
I absolutely love Jacob Turner, but he's not one of the top 5 pitching prospects in all of baseball. Just off the top of my head, Matt Moore, Dellin Bestences rank higher but there are more. Doesn't take away from his potential good #2 starter potential, but a top 5 he is not
January 25th, 2012 at 5:16 AM ^
Doug Fister is going to be a viable #2 starter for the Tigers. He obviously won't put up those kind of numbers for the entire season, but he will be good enough to win 15 games next year.
Blah blah blah, wins =! having a statistically great season, but if all of your starting pitchers win 15 games you're probably headed to the playoffs.
Comerica and Safeco aren't that different, and whatever differences there are, the run support the Tigers can give him in comparison to what he got from the Ms more than makes up for it.
Besides, a lot of statheads were harping on how he would underperform when he got to the tigers and he vastly overperformed. Small sample size, but yeah, the saberevolution is still in its infancy.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:52 PM ^
If we don't win one in the next 5 years then Verlander will be on the backend of his career, as will cabrera. You also don't know what the yearly breakdown is. For all you know, his last 4 years could be worth 12, 10, 8, and 6 million, making him pretty easy to trade as a DH if he can keep his batting numbers up.
January 25th, 2012 at 5:24 AM ^
Our rotation is fine. What teams in the AL who are going to compete for the pennant have a better one (I'm not saying the tigers have the best, but who is really that better? The Angels? OK, that's one. The Rangers? They just lost their ace. The Yanks? That's debatable. The Sox? LOL.)
January 24th, 2012 at 3:31 PM ^
If baseball had a cap you may have a point, but it doesn't - which makes money an issue only to the owner. If Mr. I wants to spend the money, I can't think of a better middle of the order replacement for V-Mart for this year and a Miggy, Prince, and V-Mart trio for years after.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:38 PM ^
I don't like the length of the deal, but I'm assuming it'll be front loaded. As for "old school stats".....really? How about some new numbers:
2011 NL
offensive WAR - 4th
adjusted batting runs - 2nd
adjusted batting wins - 2nd
offensive win % - 3rd
win probability added - 1st
AB/HR - 1st
adjusted OPS+ - 4th
OPS - 3rd
Slugging - 3rd
on base % - 2nd
Not to mention the actual old school numbers. The guy averages 32 doubles, 37 HR's, 92 BB's, and is a career .282/.390/.540/.929 hitter. He has 3 seasons in a row with 100+ walks and has hit at least 30 HR's in 5 of 6 seasons, and the one that he didn't hit 30 he hit 28 as a 22 year old in his first full season.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:46 PM ^
but his defensive numbers and the fact that he can only play 1st base/DH puts a real limit on his value. Focusing exclusively on offensive stats is misleading.
January 24th, 2012 at 4:04 PM ^
I'll take it. Offensive stats are the only measure for a DH.
Would you rather have a team full of weak hitting utilitymen who can play 4 or 5 positions? Come spend a summer watching the Cleveland Indians and you'll change your opinions.
January 24th, 2012 at 6:00 PM ^
You need to be banned from baseball threads.
Remember when ya thought CC Sabathia should have won the Cy Young over Verlander this year? HAHAHAHA.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:12 PM ^
January 24th, 2012 at 3:16 PM ^
MLB Trade Rumors is reporting it:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/
Edit: WOW! What a pickup. I never thought this would happen. This year, it seems to make sense that either Fielder or Cabby will DH, while the other plays first. Once V-Mart gets healthy though, maybe we'll see Cabby become the everyday third baseman?
January 24th, 2012 at 3:39 PM ^
I sure as shit hope not. Let's just become the worst defensive team in baseball and call it a day.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:12 PM ^
follow the story on bless you boys:
http://www.blessyouboys.com/2012/1/24/2730218/prince-fielder-to-detroit…
January 24th, 2012 at 3:13 PM ^
Wow I love the hitting for next year. But nine years? What about defense? Does he or Miggy eventually go to third? Lot of questions to be answered. It will be a interesting year.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:18 PM ^
Fielder is absolutely not going to third nor is Cabrera.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:22 PM ^
Miggy broke into the majors at third and only switched to first since becoming a tiger. Not saying it is 100% but it isn't as crazy as you make it sound. What we do know is that we have a lot of people at dh and both Fielder and Miggy play first. So where do you put them thats the big question.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:29 PM ^
There's no way Miggy has the mobility to play 3rd now, not at an effective level anyways
January 24th, 2012 at 3:32 PM ^
The reason the Tigers moved him to first base was because he was already becoming terrible defensively at 3rd. Although they haven't changed his listed official weight in years, he's at least 30 pounds heavier than when he broke into the league, and that's a low estimate.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:42 PM ^
LOL at Prince playing third
January 24th, 2012 at 3:53 PM ^
I don't follow the NL much so I wasn't sure if this was a possible or not. I know Prince is a big guy is his D very suspect?
January 24th, 2012 at 7:44 PM ^
Well, I don't follow the NL much either, but I have to believe that the laws of inertia apply to fat men in that league as well as they do in the AL.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:49 PM ^
This is incorrect. Cabrera will play 3rd this season, along with some 1B and DH. Reports are saying that the Tigers told him to get in shape to play 3B "just in case" at the beginning of the offseason, and Boesch said on the radio today that he's doing just that. I strongly believe Cabrera will surprise everyone at 3B
January 24th, 2012 at 3:21 PM ^
Miggy or Fielder at third = worse defense than Ryan Raburn.
January 24th, 2012 at 4:30 PM ^
January 24th, 2012 at 3:57 PM ^
I don't know if Cabrera can put up the offensive numbers of the Tigers' current third baseman though. Those numbers will be tough to replace.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:18 PM ^
Dombrowski does it again
January 24th, 2012 at 3:44 PM ^
Illich for sure on this one. he had to approve it. any idiot can offer the contract.
January 25th, 2012 at 5:30 AM ^
Early reports are that Boras (Fielder's agent) went over Dombrowski's head and straight to Mr. Ilitch.
Ilitch has known Prince since he was a youngin' hanging about the Tiger's clubhouse with his dad, and has always felt highly of him. Smart move by Boras. He got his client the best deal possible.
January 24th, 2012 at 4:13 PM ^
Yeah this was Ilitch all the way, Dombrowski said they were searching for a short term solution when asked about V-Mart's contract
January 24th, 2012 at 3:16 PM ^
Mlive has it as they call it unofficialy official. http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2012/01/detroit_tigers_reportedly_sign.html
January 24th, 2012 at 3:16 PM ^
I'm absolutely shocked.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:19 PM ^
MC to play some 3rd.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:22 PM ^
YES PLEASE!
January 24th, 2012 at 3:23 PM ^
You can't waste Cabrera and Verlander's prime years. A shrewd move.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:47 PM ^
now we have arguably 2 of the top 5 hitters in the game and possible the top pitcher. we don't need to worry about defense.
reminds of eddie feigner and the king and his court days.