OT: Carl Crawford agrees to massive deal.

Submitted by dieseljr32 on

As per ESPN, Carl Crawford has supposedly agreed to a 7 year, $142 million deal with the Boston Red Sox.  This is good for him but bad for the Tigers.

If Tigers fans have been following the offseason then they will know Detroit was working with something like a $61 million salary cap and was looking to sign big name free agents.  They landed Victor Martinez and Joaquin Benoit but are still looking for more particularly in the outfield.

So far they have whiffed on Adam Dunn, Jayson Werth, and now Carl Crawford all potential prospects.  This pretty much blows.

MGoDubs

December 9th, 2010 at 1:03 AM ^

Wow finally after over half way down the page I finally read post that has to do with baseball and not this guy bitching about Detroit sports being talked about. A team from the state of Michigan....but yes I would hope we bring back Mags. Pay him the money before there isn't any options left out there and we leave a weak bat either in front of Miggy or behind. We def need another bat and Mags is just that.

formerlyanonymous

December 9th, 2010 at 7:46 AM ^

All comments on whether or not Detroit sports should be posted were deleted (~50). The policy is big news for Detroit teams or open threads. Because I came in so late to the party, I will just freeze this instead of deleting this, just so people have their reminder of policy.

I don't particularly like the policy as much as the any other non-Detroit fan, but it is what it is.

As far as this thread is concerned, not signing a player is not big news, and that's why I would have deleted it.

david from wyoming

December 9th, 2010 at 12:08 AM ^

Money does buy happiness, if happiness happens to be a f'ing stacked baseball team.

Also, why does this blow for the Tigers? Landing Martinez plus another huge name would have been hard. We have had a great offseason so far, getting the best two players at positions of need. Things are going to be okay.

david from wyoming

December 9th, 2010 at 12:23 AM ^

His power is going to keep going down, but if he can hit ~.300, play decent defense, play the veteran role in the clubhouse and not whine when he splits starts with some random white outfielder that was just brought up from the mudhens...I'm happy with Magglio coming back.

Not trying to sound racist about the white outfielder part, but there are so many that seem to come up from AAA, crush the ball for a month, then fade back into the minors. They must be growing lanky white outfielders in pods in Toledo.

hockeyguy9125

December 9th, 2010 at 12:09 AM ^

I thought Crawford was heading to Anaheim...

Secondly, Werth is WAY OVER PAID, no big deal that the Tigers did not get him...I never thought they really had a chance at Crawford...Not getting Dunn was not the end of the world...but fuck, him ending up on the South Side really hurts...

The Tigers have to get another bat to put in right field...then they will have a good shot at the division

fucking baseball...it really is a joke sometimes (ok alot of the time)...

busoflove

December 9th, 2010 at 12:09 AM ^

I love baseball, but the Sox giving Crawford $142 million and the Yankees about to give Cliff Lee about $150 mil. This is a joke. There is no competitive parity in baseball. Every few years we see a "cinderalla" team. Teams like the Braves should be rewarded for developing talent.

david from wyoming

December 9th, 2010 at 12:12 AM ^

Atlanta does get rewarded by making the playoffs. I'm not sure what else you want, should teams get handed a set of world series rings for developing talent? Also, the red sox and yankees develop talent as well.

Sorry, not trying to be snarky, I don't like it either.

AAB

December 9th, 2010 at 12:43 AM ^

2 of the last 3 years, despite being in one of the smallest markets in the country, having one of the lowest payrolls in the country, and being in the AL East.  The Giants just won the world series over the Rangers.  The Red Sox didn't even make the playoffs.  The Mets and Tigers missed the playoffs despite having some of the highest payrolls in the league, and the Twins make the playoffs like every year.

How can you say there's no parity?

winterblue75

December 9th, 2010 at 12:10 AM ^

Crawford was never coming to Detroit.

Werth was way overpaid after the Nats lost Dunn, good for Detroit not stooping to that level of absurdity.

Dunn wasn't an option after VMart was signed, where would he play? The OF? HAHAHA Dunn sucks in the field. 1B? Nope. DH? How many do the Tigers need?

busoflove

December 9th, 2010 at 12:14 AM ^

It sucks for Werth because Strausburg wont pitch next year and Bryce Harper (#1 pick) wont be in the majors next year. The Nationals next best player will be Ryan Zimmerman or someone else very mediocre. He obviously was just chasing money (don't really blame him).

Seth9

December 9th, 2010 at 12:14 AM ^

We were never going to get Crawford after the Werth deal. And if Crawford didn't go to the Red Sox, then we would probably have been in a bidding war for Ordonez's services with them (they had expressed interest). As such, it's much more likely that we will now re-sign Ordonez.

david from wyoming

December 9th, 2010 at 12:19 AM ^

With Coke being switched to a starter, the front office is happy not going after more starting pitching. I'm not going to say it's a bad move, but it makes me nervous. On paper, we have enough starters...

jhackney

December 9th, 2010 at 12:33 AM ^

a shame. Verlander seemed to me to slump a little last year. Hopefully it was just an off year. They should go after once ace and a big hitter that can field a little too. Something to beat those embarrassing Twins that waste a AL Central spot every year in the playoffs.

jhackney

December 9th, 2010 at 12:57 AM ^

Interesting. Must have just been a perception I had. I think they are one or two players away from going back to the World Series. I thought we had enough hitters last year. I remember bitching about pitching a lot. It can never hurt to have another ace in the hole.

AAB

December 9th, 2010 at 1:01 AM ^

the pitching fell off a cliff, and Maggs and Austin Jackson were the only position players who put up particularly valuable seasons at the plate (Maggs was awesome, Jackson quite good but extremely lucky.  Maggs was fairly decent too). 

Factor in a probable bounce-back for Porcello and the rotation should be a bit better, but they're going to need Victor Martinez to outperform expectations to really compete I think. 

AAB

December 9th, 2010 at 1:06 AM ^

sorry, the first "Maggs" is supposed to be "Miguel Cabrera".  Typo.  Miguel Cabrera was the Tigers' most valuable hitter by leaps and bounds, and by pure hitting metrics, was probably one of the 2 or 3 most valuable players in the game last season.

Unfortunately his defense is f'in terrible and hampers his overall value.

ThWard

December 9th, 2010 at 12:17 AM ^

Not all UM fans are Tigers fans.  But... um... a decent amount of them are, no?  Our fearless leader, under links of note, has a section for "Teams of the D," no? [and yes, Captain Clevers, I realize he links to Big 10 blogs too... of course, I wouldn't complain if someone posted something relevant to, say, Purdue]

So... um... why is it that everytime someone posts something about Detroit sports, there are whining responses of "this isn't a Detroit blog, it's a UM blog."

 

This board is snarky.  Oh well.  Probably why I like it.

Blue_Sox

December 9th, 2010 at 12:18 AM ^

For a guy who is not in the top 10 in the league currently. This is a significantly overpaid guy now. He's a damn good player but not for that kind of money. He needs to take Jayson Werth out to dinner for setting him up for this.

But yes, Tigers didn't not do what they needed to do this offseason. 50 million for a DH who doesn't put up huge numbers. Overpaid so much for a reliever that the market for them has gone totally dead to correct for it. Can't say I'm upset about it.

GBOD79

December 9th, 2010 at 12:29 AM ^

Carl Crawford is only 27 years old and in the prime of his career. He is a 20 home run and 40-50 steals guy and plays good to great defense. He is definitely in the top 10 of the league right now. I dont know what youre smoking.

He is overpaid but all athletes are. No way in hell a football, baseball, basketball, or hockey player should be making more than teachers and emergency room doctors, but thats just my opinion.

Blue_Sox

December 9th, 2010 at 12:45 AM ^

Crawford has never hit 20 home runs in his career. Yes he will steal 40-50 bases and has a great on base percentage, but putting him in left in Fenway half the games of the season means you're effectively losing one of his greatest attributes because of the Green Monster. Is he a damn good player? Yes. Top 10? No.

Pujols, Cano, Hamilton, Howard, Lincecum, Lee, Halladay, Adrian Gonzalez, Felix Hernandez, Sabathia, Josh Johnson to name a few are all better.
So I guess you must be smoking something better than me.

AAB

December 9th, 2010 at 12:48 AM ^

in the AL last year.  Worth more wins than Howard, Cano, Gonzalez, Halladay, Johnson, Lincecum, Verlander, Herndandez, Lee, Johnson and Sabathia. 

Only guys on your list Fangraphs says were more valuable are Pujols and Hamilton.

ThWard

December 9th, 2010 at 12:30 AM ^

You're playing victim to a false aggressor.  Stop with the hyperbole.  Posting about the Tigers is not implying that UM fans (cue dramatic music) HAVE TO BE TIGERS FANS, TOO!!!

But to the extent that posting about the Tigers contains an assumption that more people that frequent this board will be Tigers fans and thus interested than, say, TB Rays fans, SF Giants fans, NY Yankees, fans, South Carolina Triple A minor league fans, etc.... that's probably a fair assumption.

 

In any event, lighten up.  I don't see any persecution of non-Tigers fans going on here.

mgochips

December 9th, 2010 at 12:31 AM ^

So here's my problem with this. Why did Dombrowski go throw a bunch of money to a reliever who is now significantly over paid (Benoit) who has injury history and complained of his shoulder hurting last year. Next if we have a gaping hole in our outfield which we do why wouldn't we go full force after Crawford and make him number one on our list? he's a good player in his prime. If we miss out on Victor oh well Avila will be capable avila/Crawford>victor/boesch/Rayburn/guillen