Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Tigers sign Prince Fielder to 9/yr deal

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported it first, the Detroit Tigers have inked Prince Fielder to a nine year deal worth $214 million to play first base. The deal breaks down to pay out Fielder $23.78 million per season over the life of his deal.

After the injury to Victor Martinez earlier the Tigers were looking around for someone to fill his role, some reports had the Tigers interested in Fielder but that he did not want to follow in his father's footsteps and come to the Motor City. After that conversation, it seemed that Fielder went on the back burner while General Manager Dave Dombrowski turned his sights elsewhere.

But it appears as though Tigers owner Mike Illich wants to win a World Series, now. He gave Dombrowski the reins to get Fielder at any cost and that cost was $214 million. The Tigers will now have a 2-3-4 lineup of Brennan Boesch, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. In order to go, righty, lefty, righty in the lineup.

Heyman has also reported that Fielder will play first base for the Tigers and Cabrera has been consulted and will move to another position in the in-field, most likely back to his original third base. Look out Brandon Inge.

Detroit will be a formidable force in 2012 with Cabrera, Fielder and Verlander but the rich get richer in 2013 when Victor Martinez returns from his injury and provides another boost to this Tigers lineup.

The Tigers now boast the third highest payroll in Major League Baseball, behind only the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. It's clear that it's World Series or bust for the Tigers.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Victor Martinez tears his ACL - what now for the Tigers?

He signed a four-year, $50 million deal with the Tigers last season to become their catcher, but the emergence of Alex Avila relegated Victor Martinez to the role of the designated hitter. Martinez took to that role well, hitting .330, .400 with RISP and drove in 103 RBI.

Martinez became a major cog in the Tigers offense as the every day DH and became a role model for the young Avila. But Martinez suffered a knee injury rounding third base that aggravated him for the majority of the second half of the season; driving Avila to catch most of the games consecutively.

The Tigers had hoped that this off season would get their DH healthy and return him to the lineup in the same form that he had been in the dog-days of summer. He served as excellent protection for Miguel Cabrera forcing opposing pitchers to choose between the two of them - he usually made them pay.

But during off season workout routines Martinez was doing shuffling drills when his right leg slipped causing his left ACL to tear. The injury will require surgery as soon as possible. When asked if there was hope for Martinez to avoid ACL surgery, Tigers General Manager Dave Dombrowski responded, "not likely."

While Martinez may be able to return late in the season, Dombrowski said that is not something they can count on and the Tigers must now turn their sights to replacing Martinez before the season begins.

The biggest name on the free agent market is Prince Fielder - who's agent is Scott Boras mind you. It has been suggested that the Tigers go all in on Fielder and shift Cabrera back to his original third base and drop Fielder in at first.

First off, Fielder is looking for a multiple year contract worth upwards of $150+ million - that kind of money is not something that Dombrowski or owner Mike Illich would like to part with. To further dispel any rumors of Fielder coming to Detroit, Dombrowski said that they have no intentions of moving Cabrera to third base in order to pursue a first baseman.

Cabrera has worked very hard to make himself into an above-average first baseman while maintaining a .300 BA and hitting 30 HR's a season. Detroit has no need to mess with a good thing and Cabrera is a very good thing. Fielder is a no go.

Another likely option is for the Tigers to shift LF Delmon Young to the DH role and to up their offer to Cuban expatriate Yoennis Cespedes. Cespedes is still trying to establish his citizenship in the Dominican Republic but the Tigers had been considered one of the leading candidates prior to Martinez's injury so they could very well up their interest.

Cespedes had astounded MLB scouts coming out of the Cuban League but has struggled in the Dominican going just 2-19 to date - which could help drive his asking price down. If the Tigers were serious about acquiring him before, they should really be serious now. Their offer could top even their previously reported max of $50 million in order to secure Cespedes. If they manage to steal him out of the Dominican he could fit nicely in LF while Young took over the DH duties.

Or Detroit could go the free agent route and pursue OF Juan Pierre. Pierre was not offered arbitration by the Chicago White Sox after last season and is a Type B free agent. While he is 34 years old Pierre was able to steal 27 bases, draw 43 walks, hit .279, drive in 50 RBI while maintaining a .329 OBP. During the 2011 season with the White Sox, Pierre posted a 2 oRAR, meaning that he drove in two more runs than his replacement.

Should the Tigers choose this route, they would be able to shift Young to DH and place Pierre in LF right away. Pierre would be able to lead off and provide the much needed speed on the base paths that the Tigers have been missing. He would also be able to cover the vast LF at Comerica Park better than Young would be able to do.

If the Tigers sign Pierre, this would be the best lineup they could trot out on a regular basis - in my opinion.

1. Juan Pierre LF .279
2. Austin Jackson CF  .249
3. Brennan Boesch RF  .283
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B  .344
5. Delmon Young DH  .298
6. Alex Avila C  .295
7. Jhonny Peralta SS  .299
8. Ryan Raburn / Ramon Santiago 2B  .256 / .260
9. Brandon Inge 3B  .197

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Joel Zumaya signs with the Twins

The time has come...the Legion of Zoom is no more in the city of Detroit. The oft-injured but still spectacular Joel Zumaya has reportedly signed a contract with the Minnesota Twins for the upcoming season, ending his roller coaster career with the Tigers.

He will reportedly receive between $800,000 and $1.7 million depending on incentives from the Minnesota Twins as reported by Jason Beck of MLB.com.

Zumaya literally burst on the scene in the 2006 season, thrilling Tigers fans by hitting 103 mph on the radar gun on a regular basis and dousing one of Detroit's finest in champagne following the Tigers walk-off American League Championship victory that same year.

After the 2006 campaign however, many Tigers fans feared they were seeing something out of the past that crushed their spirits before when Mark Fidrych injured himself after a phenomenal rookie season and was never the same. Zumaya injured himself playing the video game, "Guitar Hero" then had boxes fall on him while he was trying to help his parents evacuate their Californian home ahead of a wildfire.

Several years and several injuries later Zumaya had only worn the "Old English D" 126 times in the past four seasons - not consistent enough to offer him any guaranteed money. General Manager Dave Dombrowski had told Zumaya that he would offer him a spring training invitation but would not offer him a contract until he saw something he liked - he also told him if he was offered guaranteed money to take it, even if that meant going somewhere else.

Prior to the 2011 Winter Meetings Zumaya held a workout for scouts and other officials where he was hitting the mid-90's with his fastball with consistency - the Tigers were not one of the teams that attended that event.

There's no telling which Zumaya the Twins will get this season, the phenom from 2006 who went 6-3 with a 1.94 ERA in 83 games or the oft-injured reliever who has had four surgeries, two since 2010, to repair his pitching arm. The Twins hope they will get the former - and to some extent so do the Tigers, they don't want to see another Mark Fidrych.