Tiger Notes

We’re still around. Just waiting to get the season under way. That’s when I’ll begin posting live game updates. Patience.

Love is in the air, babies. Gifts are being bought, dinners being ate and relationships being rekindled. The same could be said of baseball lovers. We’re on the brink of rekindling our obsessions with our favorite teams. We can look forward to no less that 162 dates  - but hopefully more.

At the end of this courting, we hope to see a ring. What to wear, what to wear in November.

Here are my valentine gifts for the Detroit Tigers:

Justin Verlander: 20 wins and 300 strikeouts, young man.
Rick Porcello: You don’t have to do anyone elses laundry, anymore, sophomore.
Scott Sizemore: Hey, Scott, Rick is looking for you. He’s got something for you.
Austin Jackson: Forgive the Granderson fans, they’ll come around.
Max Sherzer: I’m buying you contacts, because, buddy, your eyes freak me out a little.
Brandon Inge: Healthy legs and no Home Run Contest this season.
Magglio Ordonez: Your long hair back. But not like this.
Gerald Laird: A batting tee.
Carlos Guillen: A book, “How to pass time on the bench, while DH’ing”.
Joel Zumaya: Guitar Hero 2. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

And finally:

Ernie Harwell: There is nothing I can give you that would ever do you justice sir. You are my childhood, in a little box with one speaker and a clothes hangar for an antenna. You are the voice of God, the voice of reason, the voice of baseball.

Last season was a tale of two very different seasons for Detroit Tiger outfielder Magglio Ordonez. He started the season with his customary long black locks, but gone was the power that was a signature of the Venezuelan born Ordonez.

Through the first 57 games (and 242 plate appearances) Ordonez had just two home runs and twenty-two RBI with a .273 batting average. Compare that to just one year before, Maggs was sitting on nine home runs and thirty-seven RBI with a .322 batting average in his first 57 games (239 plate appearances).

The plate appearances are key. If Ordonez made it to the plate 1,080 times over the course of 2008 and 2009 seasons his contract would automatically vest. He ended the season with 1,141 plate appearances, for a pay day of 18 million dollars.

Even the most ardent fan was irate over the vesting of the contract. But lets examine what Magglio did in that second half:

In 76 games he hit .337 while driving in twenty-nine RBI with seven home runs. Basically a return to what he was doing in the first half of the previous season. Or before everyone was complaining about the vesting of the contract.

Why am I bringing this up? I’m bored, mainly. I’m really at a point where I’m tired of the coffee table GM’s worrying about Mike Illitchs money. Seriously, if Illitch didn’t want that contract to vest he would have made it known. And had he made it known, and it had vested, Dave Dombrowski would be out of a job right now – well, at least out of Detroit.

So say Magglio (who is our second best hitter, behind Miguel Cabrera) gets off to a HUGE start, driving in runs, etc. Do you still worry about vesting? Do you still worry about Mike Illitchs money?

Would you rather lose, then spend 18 million dollars of someone Else’s money?

“The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated”

- Mark Twain

It began last season when Magglio Ordonez reached the vaunted at bat that vested his contract for 2010. Detroit Tiger fans scratched their heads in mystery, some jumping the very bandwagon they called home after Magglio hit the famous HR to send Detroit to their first world series since 1984.

We’re going to have to cut a lot of dead weight now, they’d type angrily at various message boards found on the world wide web.

And then the fateful day of December 8th, 2009. Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson, two very important pieces to a second place team during the regular season were traded. Detroit got lefty reliever Phil Coke and outfield prospect Austin Jackson from the Yankees, plus touted young pitchers Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth from Arizona.

The fall out was fierce.

Granderson, 28, has a very loyal fan base with the Tigers. The fans, to say the least, were not happy with the deal.

But than it began; “They are cost cutting”, “Giving up on 2010 for a run in 2011″. And sure, in the epicenter of this hurricane was a lot of things that proved this theory correct. Why would Detroit send a beloved Tiger (this generations Willie Horton?) away WHILE also trading a guy that had just won 13 games for the organization.

But few looked at the arms Detroit stocked with this move – nor did they think about the possible future of highly touted Yankee prospect Jackson. And I understand why – broken hearted fans don’t see clearly right away.

But then something happened.
Something big.

The Tigers committed 80 million dollars to superstar-ace Justin Verlander over the next five years. How’s that for cost cutting? Verlander was coming off easily his best year, statistically. The move made a lot of people happy – but now their was the seed of doubt planted … why sign Verlander to this deal now?

Aren’t we supposed to be cutting cost?

And now reports are coming out that Detroit has officially made an offer to Johnny Damon. No one is sure if its 1 year, $7 million or 2 years $14 million. But the offer was authorized by Mike Illitch.

You know, the owner of the club.

So ask him, if this team is cutting costs.

So if Detroit does sign Johnny Damon, many speculate this will take away a lot of playing time for Carlos Guillen.

And I hate to be critical of any one wearing the Tiger uniform … but if that’s the case … good.

His defense has been a liability for far too long. So much so that Manager Jim Leyland – who is a HUGE Carlos Guillen fan – would bench him in late innings for defensive purposes.

My breaking point with Guillen was after the one-game playoff with the Twins. Guillen was pulled for defensive purposes. Not happy about this, and siting that you don’t treat a former all-star like this, he publicly criticized Leyland.

Strike three Pudg…er, Guillen.

Is he capable of being a decent DH? Maybe, if he can stay healthy, which isn’t a given. In the six years he’s played in Detroit, Guillen has missed significant time on the DL four of those years. At 34-years old, I don’t see that trend coming to an end anytime soon.

So, if it means Guillen playing less – or even being traded – I’m all for the signing of Johnny Damon.