Heavy Corners

Every single Tigers fan had their hopes dashed because of Victor Martinez's ACL tear.  I wrote that they should just deal with a down year and stick with the team that they have.  Especially with all the names that were thrown around.  A bunch of hitters beyond their prime.  Then my sister texted me on the 24th of January with a message that really confused me.  'Prince Fielder + Tigers = Mind Blown'.  I was out skating and found my way to the boards and started quickly thumbing through my smart phone to corroborate the story.  Finally, I made my way to Twitter and read through the story.  And just like everyone else, I was immediately stoked.  After a few days, I started to think about the deal that they made.  Nine years, two hundred and fourteen million dollars.  That's a whole lotta zeros. 

When I first let this settle in, my thoughts were that Fielder and Cabrera would rotate between first base and designated hitter (the first time I was really excited about the DH being around).  It would still be okay, there would still be lots of athleticism on the field.  Then there were rumblings about Cabrera saying that he would move to third base, where he played when he started out with the Marlins.  He was also about forty or fifty pounds lighter.  I know that both Brandon Inge and Don Kelly cannot in any way equal the offensive output of Cabrera, but they both are far better defensive players than a one Miguel Cabrera.  And having either of them play third base over Cabrera for the year would make me happy.  But Jim Leyland seems to be in support of the Cabrera to third move.  It makes for some heavy corners in the D.  Between the two players, that is over five hundred pounds of player.  Not good.  I think that they both need to hit the gym right quick and lose some weight to help out the infield defense.  But that is just who I am from time to time.  Trying to find the negative in a positive. 

With the batting lineup I don't actually think that a few bad defensive plays will turn the game around in favor of the other team.  For the most part.  What happens when they get caught up in a one run pitcher's duel?  There are two big factors in a pitcher's duel:  the pitcher and the defense.  And if the two biggest players on the team are on the corners of the infield, where a hard hit grounder can get past them and rattle around the corner of the outfield, the defense will be the liability of this team this year coming up.  The outfielders will need to be on their toes for all one hundred and sixty two games.  And what is Leyland going to do with defensive substitutions?  You can't pull Cabrera out for Inge or Kelly just to get some better defense in the seventh or eighth inning. 

So us Tigers fans will have to get use to both cheering loudly for the offense and groaning sadly for the defense.  Unless they can both prove me wrong, which I hope they do.