In Right field, for your Detroit Tigers … Johnny Damon?
So here it is. My first official post on the brand new “Tiger Notes” website. And it’s about a guy that, when he was mr. Long Haired idiot, with the Boston Red Sox, i loved. Now clean shaven and a former Yankee, he doesn’t smell as good as he used to.
Johnny Damon wants to be a Detroit Tiger.
Now, what I wonder is this. Does Damon want to play here – or has his dreams of another 15 million dollar paycheck blown up in his face and now he’s left with no attractive suitors (i.e: Boston, NY, Anaheim, etc) and Detroit is the prettiest girl in the room left ?
Damon is on the down side of a pretty good career. He’s famous for having a sissies arm in center field, but the boy can straight up rake in Comerica. But at what cost? Do the Tigers offer him an incentive laden contract; or maybe a 2-year, 20 million dollar payday?
Fact is fact. We need someone at the #1 spot in the lineup. We need a left handed bat like nobodies business. We need to plug the offensive hole we created when we traded Curtis Granderson to the New York Yankees (subsequent-illy, pushing Damon out of NY) But do we need another veteran who could break down in the middle of a contract?
One thing is for sure, Tiger GM Dave Dombrowski isn’t giving up his hand in this game. “It’s a situation for us where we have not discussed free agent players in public,” Dombrowski told Booth Newspapers today. “And I don’t see any benefit in doing that in this situation.”
Always the politician, Mgr. Jim Leyland said “Johnny Damon’s been a really good player for quite awhile, and it’s flattering he would consider Detroit. But I don’t have anything to do with that.”
Tags: Curtis Granderson, Dave Dombrowski, Free Agency, Jim Leyland, Johnny Damon