OT: Tigers sign Rajai Davis

I completely agree with you, but I doubt the Tigers are done adding players. It's also woirth noting that some baseball guys disagree with us.

Most of the critics talked about nothing but how bad the infield defense was and how slow the team was in the field and on the basepaths, and how bad the bullpen was.  DD apparently decided they were right.  I realize you may not have been one of them, but finding a guy with Peralta's bat and Iglesias's glove costs $18 million.

I would have liked to see them add another big bat (particularly Choo), but it's clear they didn't want to take on anymore large contracts at the moment. However, theyr'e revamping the roster away from a power-hitting lineup, to one with better defense, more speed and better baserunning. That suites CoPa better than the more stationary lineup they had before.

But to address your arguments... Kinsler/Infante is not a wash. Infante had a career year (or clsoe to it) last season. He has a career .721 OPS and has hit more than 15 HRs once in 12 seasons. Kinsler has a career .804 OPS and has hit over 30 HRs twice. In fact he has over twice as many career HRs (156) than Infante (74), in four fewer seasons. He also steals far more bases than Infante. Yes, Kinsler has had a down couple of yaers, but even then his numbers are better than Infante's (with the exception of last year). I like Infante a lot, but to argue that he was anything other than an average 2B offensively is silly.

Peralta is certainly a loss offensively, but I think a lot of Tigers fans overrate his 2011 and forget just how dysmal he was in 2012. He bounced back in 2013, but we're looking at a guy with a career .755 OPS and some nice pop for a SS. While not a defensive liability, he was losing significant range as he got into his 30s. Iglesias is a huge defensive upgrade over him, and still an extremely young and raw hitter.

The loss of Fielder's power certainly hurts, but hopefully it can be made up for with the improvements in defense and speed. This team is built completely differentlly than the Tigers of the past. They're going to be manufacturing a lot more runs, and hopefully the defense will save a lot of runs, too. I thikn Porcello will particularly be helped by it.

They really need to sign a few more arms for the bullpen, though. I'm hoping for Jesse Crain, at least.

but a platoon of dirks/davis may put up pretty good #s; very choo-like, for a fraction of the cost.  now, if DD goes out and gets a lefty hitter that can poke 15-20 HRs, i think the team is pretty much set to start the season.  the O will be down a bit, but the D will be much improved.  once the season unfolds a bit, DD will likely go out and fill any holes.  just my two cents.

You just said it, the basepath speed. 

But, I don't think they're replacing Dirks with Davis. They're going to platoon them. Davis hits lefties far better than righties, and provides significant speed on the basepaths and steal potential. If Dirks can be more the player we saw in 2012, I actually really like this platoon.

not true w/o fielder and peralta.  that said, i like their replacements for the improved D.  the fister deal still confuses me though.

Good article, thanks for the link.

it may be true regarding Cabrera, but a team is much better off having a good hitter behind a cabrera so he can drive in 100+ runs and make a team pay for walking him.

I thought it was pretty obvious we missed Peralta's power the last 50 games of the season.

Completely agree. I've always been mystified by Illitch building the ultimate ballpark for fielding and average, then consistently building teams that focus on power.

This will be huge for days we rest Hunter.

I'd gladly sacrifice 2 singles to get 8 doubles (out of 10 that is).  Especially from a guy like him, who can score on most hits outside the infield if he's on second base.

When on base he's probably. The biggest distraction in baseball. Helps hitters a lot. Very underrated signing.

about that Fister move...ya that one irked me a bit. I like Fister, agreed that we should have got more for him.

I agree with this. In Dombrowski I trust, but I really think he undervalued Fister, who is a solid #2 on a lot of teams.

Yup. That seemed to be a lopsided trade. I think most estimated Fister as one of the top 30 pitchers in all of baseball.