OT: Report: Tigers will be 'sellers' at trade deadline
According to multiple reports, Dave Dombrowski, with owner Mike Illitch's approval, will move to trade David Price, Yoenis Cespedes and possibly Rajai Davis and Alex Avila.
USA Today article (HERE)
The Tigers, barring a veto from owner Mike Ilitch, are going to surrender and be sellers within the next 10 days at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. For the first time since 2008, the Tigers have no choice but to inform teams that two of their marquee commodities will be dealt by the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. The Tigers, according to several people inside and outside the organization familiar with their strategy, plan to put ace David Price and power-hitting outfielder Yoenis Cespedes on the trade market.
Detroit News article (HERE)
The Tigers are in a unique position in that they have six free-agents-to-be — including two elite ones in ace David Price and slugger Yoenis Cespedes. Closer Joakim Soria is a shade below. They also have three pieces that could help the right contender in Rajai Davis, Alex Avila and Alfredo Simon. The market this year is as rich with buyers as ever, and the Tigers are the seller with the most appealing inventory.
the ability to hit below his weight, that's impressive
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
This season ended the moment Miggy pulled up lame. That was the end of it right there.
they already destroyed their ability to rebuild with the victor extension.
I'm fine with this strategy, especially if Mike I. is willing to be active during free-agency this off-season. Might as well pick up some cheap, young talent, then rearm with a key free agent signing or two.
As a small moral victory, please remember that Joe Nathan will be off the payroll next year.
Welp, I was torn, personally. As stuck in the mud as they are, the second wild card spot is right there, and if the WC game is against Houston I'd hate to miss out on it.
But we've seen enough of this team to know how unlikely it is for the pieces to suddenly fall into place. I'd be against resigning Price, so you either trade him now or keep him for a playoff push. Giving up is *probably* the smart move.
I'd listen to offers for any of our high priced vets. It would be awful to lose Cabrerra, but the game is getting younger and good young talent with years of club control are what this club needs.
For years DD has fueled the Tigers by trading prospects for expensive vets. Its fine till your team finally hits the upper end of its sustainable payroll. Crazy how fast our rotation went from an embarrassment of riches to just an embarrassment. But not only was this strategy unsustainable, it also masked the fact that DD has been pretty bad at working the draft. A healthy farm system has always been a critical piece of a successful franchice.
Detroit has to depend on the greatest losers in Detroit over the past half century for any success from the pro teams.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Larkin is NHLfutures number 5 overall player, and on top of that, the Wings have one of the deepest and most talented farm systems in the NHL. Number 4 overall in fact:http://www.hockeysfuture.com/team-rankings/
Conclusion: You don't know enough about hockey for those statements to be worth a damn
Having a strong farm system is nice, but until they show it in the NHL it really doesn't mean much.
but Pavel Datsyuk was a 6th round pick, #171 overall. The Wings have lots of guys drafted in the same position who if given their chance in the NHL might just be very very good.
The Red Wings have a fantastic history of turning their draft picks into very good NHL players. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr00005492.html
No the Wings don't have many "elite" players as you seem to define them, hard to do that without a top 10 pick in the last 25 yeas. That doesn't mean they don't have a few gems waiting in Grand Rapids.
Detroit: Nyquist is elite. Tatar is elite. Dekeyser is elite. Pulkkinen could be elite. Mrazek could be elite. All youngsters.
Grand Rapids: Larkin could be elite. Mantha could be elite. de Haas could be elite.
Hell, under Blashill, Kindl may turn out to be the top-2 defenseman we all thought he'd be. The main reason these young players haven't turned up yet? Babcock loves him some grindy vets.
I am an Angels fan, so my critique probably doesn't mean much, but it seems like the Tigers are about three starters and one more premium bat from being in the thick of things. Really, if Verlander can get back to being 85% of what he was, you'd just need a couple of solid, mid rotation types. Of course, if you guys had just kept Doug Fister...
Seriously, though: if the Tigers can turn those two into a couple of young starters, it seems like they could be one free agency away from being a solid team.
Don't think they need another bat, I think they need two more starting pitchers, on of whom would have to be pretty good. And I don't think they can get that in a trade without moving Costellanos, and then you have a gaping hole at 3rd.
If you want to buy, you'd better win at least 6 of those 8-9 games. If you play .500, like we have all year, all you've done is tread water while more games fall off the schedule. Then the mountain will really get taller.
Getting back into this wild card race is more difficult than it looks. It's almost an illusion.
They should sell Ausmus too. Though I doubt any team would buy him. Perhaps they may get a used ball sack for him.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sadly end of an era. So with Verlanders percipitous drop do you cut him after the season? Do you shackle Cabrera with a rebuilding team? So many questions, but clearly they need an infusion of youngsters.
JV's still owed $112 million over the next four years. There is no "cut" option. At least not a sane one. Now, a trade in the offseason? It honestly would not surprise me. But he's also 10-and-5 after this season, so he'll have complete no-trade protection.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
I would not mind seeing them deal Castellanos while they are at it. He has been very disappoionting his first 2 years as a big leaguer.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
I'm all sell, but I don't think this team is going to have "a lot of years of suck" if they do it right. There are a lot of good pieces on this team that aren't going anywhere next year. Sell for what you can right now, get some good prospects, and make some FA acquisitions and trades in the off-season to build around Iglesias, JD, VMart and Miggy (I don't see VMart getting dealt but who knows). That's a solid core lineup. Pitching is, well, atrocious, but that is something you can improve fairly quickly in the offseason. I'm not saying we're talking World Series or even division next year, but with the right sell strategy and off-season moves, we're looking at a younger, more consistent team that can make a run at the Central and at least make it entertaining.
Thats my thought. Not so much as rebuild as reload. I dont think we start a five year plan if we sell at the deadline. DD moves the roster pretty frequently. When we trade Price our starting rotation might be the worst in baseball, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way very long.
were they trying to accomplish here?
form of chicken
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
the position player group. This may have been the outlook for this team a year ago but it's not the case now as the one big positive to come from this season is that 4 of their 5 "younger" position players have took major steps forward.
McCann is the 2nd best 'under' age 26 offensive catcher in MLB. Gose is a very solid defensive CF who can hit RHP. Iglesias and J.D Martinez are both All-Star players in their prime. That's 4 players all under team control the next few seasons for cheap. Also not counting Castellanos who could still prove to be productive.
Victor and Miggy should continue to be top level hitters the next few seasons and even if they regress they should stay good enough. Kinsler does the little things to make him worth what he's owed plus his salary is actually going down.
Overall that makes 7 of the top 9 guys locked in for the next 2-3 years and the key here is that all 7 of those are proven guys who have performed at or above what their owed. That will open up for them to spend more money elsewhere. Also they will have a HUGE new TV contract coming after 2016 creating more revenue and bigger budget to spend.
This .500 season falls completely on an awful pitching staff. The Tigers offense is ranked in the top 3 in batting average, slug, ops, etc and even near top in SB in the A. L. Also is their best team defensively in a long time.
No doubt they need pitching and it be smart to use this free agent group to try and re-stock their staff because with better pitching this team already has the position player group in place to be very good the next couple of seasons.
Dombrowski bet on Verlander returning to form, then he got hurt.
I really don't know what he was thinking with bringing in Simon and Greene to round out the starting staff. Simon is exactly what he was the last few years and will only continue to decline as the years passes. Greene has been a major disappointment for sure.
Dombrowski's failure is in not improving the bullpen. He's put way to much pressure on the starting 5 to throw the nuts out of the ball every night because they know the bullpen sucks. When they had Smiley they had a reliable guy who go long stretches if they needed it. They don't have that now. Its July and Soria is the only guy with a set role.
This is a good team with a better pitching staff, no question about it.
I think he was hoping that would get them to "buyer" mode around this time and then see what rentals they could get for a run. That's generally Dombrowski's M.O., and it's worked well in the past, but didn't pan out this year for a lot of reasons.
And the other problem is, we're almost out of pieces to trade. Toledo is virtually barren, and you're not getting much with AA and low-A ball guys alone.
That being said, sell high right now. So we don't make the playoffs this year, big deal. A package deal of Price/Cespedes will get a lot in return. I know it's not likely, but there's a chance we could re-sign at least one of them as free agents. The Tigers still have a strong core with Miggy/Vmart/JD/Iglesias. Sell this season and make 2016 the year.
There's going to be a few decent FA pitchers at years end, without looking I know of Price, Grenkie, fister! And others. This season is done, but by selling we can make the future a whole lot brighter.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad