Tiger Notes

“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.

Old friends reunited in the Big Apple. Marcus Thames signed a non roster invite with the Yankees this afternoon. Thames started his career with NY in 2002.

I won’t say I was a huge Thames supporter. He was a one dimensional player – but often times wasn’t given a chance to get into a rhythm.  He avereged 20 home runs over the last four seasons. He seemed to all but disappear in the second half of the 09 season.

I hope he catches on with the Yankees. He seems like a good guy.

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The Tigers released their TV schedule this morning. 156 games are on the docket.  I updated the season schedule here. Email me if you see any mistakes.

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It was announced that the Royals have named Zack Grienke their opening day pitcher. So it should be Grienke vs. Justin Verlander to open the season. Let’s hope Grienke has some early season rust to contend with.

Earlier this week, Scott Boras contacted the Detroit News and told the paper that Johnny Damon wanted to play for Detroit, and believed he could turn Detroit into a winner. I found it funny that Boras would contact the newspaper instead of contacting Dave Dombrowski.

I sensed fear in the act.

Dombrowski stated matter-of-fact like that the Tigers hadn’t discussed such a move; and wouldn’t talk about it via the media had they. So, case closed, right?

Word coming out now is that the Atlanta Braves are now interested in the services of Damon. One wonders was this the plan all along? Was Detroit the worm to another big pay day – that was slowly dwindling – for Damon?

I’m still not convinced that Damon will end up in Detroit. This new twist in the plot further cements that theory.

How much of this “Johnny wants to play for the Tigers” is just an orchestration on the part of super agent Scott Boras? From everything that I’ve read, Detroit really hasn’t shown much interest. They haven’t outright said “HELLS TO THE NO”, but … I feel like it’s just a magician, attempting to pull a rabbit from a Tigers hat.

Buster Olney agrees:  “Some folks working for teams had the same reaction … as I did: This is an effort by Scott Boras to reach out to Mike Ilitch …”

If he does end up coming in, I’ll be quite surprised.

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.”