Change!

You know what I miss?  Baseball.  The other day, Fox Sports North rebroadcast a game from last year.  It was awesome!  I got a little baseball fix and moved on.  Each time they do this, which is infrequently, it makes me miss baseball even more during the offseason.  Opening Day is slowly approaching and Spring Training feels like it is just around the corner.  Sadly, it is still a few months away.  But teams are just a month away from reporting for Spring Training!  So there's that.  After seeing this exciting news, I realized I didn't touch the Detroit Tigers offseason moves at all.  Again, I went into a downward spiral with writing last year and I wanted to write about it, but didn't feel like it.

The Tigers have a new manager.  I love Jim Leyland.  I will miss him.  I will miss yelling at him from my couch each time he trusts a pitcher for one too many batters.  I'm glad he is sticking around with the organization because I feel like they want to win a World Series for him but they know they couldn't win one with him managing.  If they win a World Series when he is still working with the organization and Leyland is not thrust upon the shoulders of players, I will cry.  And here's why they couldn't win a World Series with Leyland managing.  I think that he was too stuck in his ways of winning games by out slugging the other team and didn't want to play small ball or running.  You know, the way teams win games when their power hitters go cold.  Yes, you can bash your way through the season and yes, you can bash your way through the playoffs.  But what happens when your team runs into another team with great pitching and more well rounded hitters?  You lose in the playoffs a couple of times and lose in the World Series a couple of times.  With a new manager at the helm, Brad Ausmus, they can try something new.  And in a few major moves, they have done so.

With the big trade involving Prince Fielder and Ian Kinsler, you could tell the organization was looking to revamp.  I enjoyed Fielder's short time with Detroit and I hated the fans that were booing him in the playoffs.  He worked hard one hundred percent of the time and enjoyed playing the game (see:  taking nacho from fan, having runners tag themselves out when he was standing between them and first base, his constant smile).  He hustled all the time.  He played hard all the time.  He is what is good about the game.  Everyone knows he is going to rake down in Texas and I hope the Tigers don't run into them in the playoffs in the future.  And I hope that when he plays his first game back in Detroit, he is cheered and not booed.  Be classy Tigers fans.  Please.  We aren't Philadelphia.  I love Kinsler's game.  He brings a solid glove to second base which the Tigers have been missing since Sweet Lou retired.  He brings a great running game and solid bat.  He's like Placido Polanco with stolen bases.  And I loved Polanco when he played in Detroit and I still do.

The trade that made most everyone mad was the Doug Fister trade.  I was thinking that when he was traded that Dombrowski was pillaging their farm system and found out that was not the case.  Then I thought it was to free up salary to sign Max Scherzer to an extension and that does not seem to be the case.  It was for a utility player and two pitchers.  Hmmmm.  I get nervous talking about it because it seems like a one sided trade in favor of the Nationals on paper.  I hope that, if anything, Ian Krol becomes a solid pitcher and then it will seem like a fair trade.  And we'll see what they can do with Robbie Ray.  I will give this trade three years to see where it goes before I totally weigh in on it.  But, for now, I am uneasy.

The Fister trade I thought was to free up salary for Max and then the Tigers signed Joe Nathan (Yeah! A solid closer!) and then Joba Chamberlain (ummmmmm....).  Then I looked at how much Fister was owed and didn't realize he didn't take up as much salary as I thought he did.  Whatever.  The pitching rotation does take a hit with losing Fister, but it is still solid front to back.  I am most interested to see what the offense will be like this year.  It appears to be more contact oriented and focused on base running.  It'll be like watching a small ball team with thump in the middle of the lineup to keep people on edge.  Personally, I have always enjoyed watching a team that hits and runs.  That is what the game is about (to me).  Home runs are always just an added bonus and batting lineups should not be based around power hitters.  The infield defense which has been a sore spot over the past few years is much much better.  On paper, this defense can win games for the team.  Rick Porcello has been okay since he started, but should see an upswing in wins and a lower ERA because of the defense.  I just hope there isn't a case of the injury bug this year.  If there is, I don't want to see players try to play through it.  I want to see them get healty in a timely manner.

So who knows how the season will turn out.  I still think the Tigers are going to control the AL Central.  It helps to be in a division with lesser teams.  But those lesser teams are closing the gap.  The Royals, continual basement dwellers and overall laughing stock of the MLB, are getting better and better each year.  They scare me more than the other AL Central teams.  It won't surprise me to see them and the Tigers neck and neck throughout most of the year in the next few years. 

3/120