Burn It To The Ground

The first big piece has moved out of Detroit.  The Tigers sent JD Martinez to Arizona for three prospects.  The immediate reaction from the twitterverse was less than favorable we'll say.  Al Avila's virtual head is on a pike outside of Comerica Park at this very instance.  Of course we as fans are upset over it.  No one really likes to see a fan favorite like Martinez get traded, but this is how you rebuild your farm system and major league club.  The fact that the Tigers haven't done this in recent years is in part to why there is tremendous backlash.  It's going to get worse, a lot worse, before it gets better.  The whole thing has to be burnt to the ground in order to rise again.  Get ready for some 2003 era type baseball to be played in Detroit folks. 

Here is the one thing that I think people need to keep in mind:  JD Martinez wasn't going to be playing for Detroit next year.  He is a free agent at the end of the year and is going to garner a lot of attention in the offseason.  He is going to be looking at a multi-million, multi-year deal.  This is something that the Tigers front office said going into this season that they are going to be moving away from.  They are getting 'younger and leaner' (Al Avila's words).  With the passing of Mike Illitch, the win now mentality that brought the big names and big contracts is gone.  It is now time to watch the team draft and trade for young talent and develop the team.  This has already started after Dombrowski was let go/fired after the 2015 trade deadline.  Avila is doing a good job in drafting and we are starting to see the draftees make their way up through the farm system.  Get familiar with names like Manning, Burrows, and Funkhouser.  Eventually those guys are going to be the core of the pitching staff. 

Patience is required for the next three to four years.  We won't see it from the fans, but that is what is needed.  Anyone with half a brain knew that this day was coming.  The major players are getting older and contracts are expiring.  The young talent might be forced into playing time before they are ready, but that happens when you are rebuilding the organization.  As great as it was to see the Tigers get big name players and be very successful over the past decade, it came at a cost.  They sold the future for the present.  While it didn't bring a World Series to the city, it made them relevant.  Avila was left holding the reins while Dombrowski went to Boston and has been gutting their farm system. 

We won't know if this trade was a good trade for another three or four years.  The guys they got back in the trade are 22, 21, and 18 years old.  The highest level any of them have played in is Double A.  They might not end up being blue chip, big name players.  But getting three players for one, even if two of them end up being just every day mediocre players, isn't that winning the trade?  Especially if you get these young players for five or six years of Major League play.     

Personally, I'm excited about the rebuild.  I know it is going to be painful to watch, but when it's all said and done, if the team becomes successful when the young players come up it'll be fun to see the bandwagon fans come back.  The people that are pissed that the organization is trading away players that they can no longer afford could come back into the fold.  Homegrown talent is what makes baseball fun.  You get to see the guys that are drafted by and then produce for the organization.  Even these young guys that are traded for early on in their careers will be seen as an organizational guy. 

Surprise Book

Last week, my wife and I went to a Barnes & Noble because she has run out of books to read.  I always offer her any number of my books to read, but all my books aren't good (her words, not mine).  Sometimes you just need to go out and buy a new book.  I suggested going to Half Price Books, but the selection isn't always wonderful.  Half Price Books is the place to go if you want to take a risk on a book you've never heard of and won't be mad if you don't end up liking the book.  If you are looking for a new release or a book you want to buy and know you'll enjoy, places like Barnes & Noble is the place to go.

Whenever we go to the book store, I don't ever know what I want.   I don't have a lot of authors that I read on a constant basis.  I usually wander around and hope that something catches my eye.  Not much does.  Then I came across this display. 

A post shared by Michael Litzner (@melitzner) on Jul 4, 2017 at 1:14pm PDT

This is such a cool idea!  All different kinds of options and topics to choose from I didn't really know where to look.  I picked up the book that was wrapped and labeled as 'Blind date with an assassin'.  The notes they had for the book:

• Revenge
• Romance with a touch of magic
• Exciting fight scenes
• Strong Female Protagonist
• Unputdownable 

I loved the 'unputdownable' note.  The fun thing about this idea is that it can introduce you to an author you may have never heard of or a subject you might not have read.  And this book could end up being a dud, but who cares?  It was like opening a gift on your birthday or Christmas.  The book I ended up with is titled 'Poison Study' by Maria V. Snyder.  Of course I hadn't heard of it, so I looked it up online and it's the first of a trilogy.  So first off, thanks Barnes & Noble for putting the first of a trilogy in the mystery game.  Although it would have been smart to put the second or third book of a trilogy because you know most people want to read the whole trilogy.  Will I like this book?  Maybe.  And who knows, I might end up buying two or three more of these blind date books if Barnes & Noble keeps this display up.  I would petition the company to keep this going. 

Indie Ball

Whenever you think about a sport like baseball, you automatically think of the major league.  Professionals that get paid millions of dollars to do the thing that they love and the thing that we love to watch them do.  You also think of overpriced tickets, overpriced souvenirs, and overpriced food and drink.  You might also think that the players get overpaid.  Personally, I think all of those things from time to time.  Yes, they have worked their entire lives to get to this point and their talents and efforts have paid off.  But what about the guys that never make it to the show?  What about the guys that haven't quite given up on the dream?  The guys that are playing just to play and maybe have an outside chance of signing with an MLB team?  Those are the guys that are playing just to play. 

When we bought our house I couldn't help but notice that we are about a ten minute drive from such a team.  The St. Paul Saints.  They built a new stadium in 2015 in the Lowertown historic neighborhood of St. Paul moving away from Midway (which is for the best).  I also noted how dangerous this could be because the tickets are normally pretty cheap unless it's a holiday weekend.  

The Saints play in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball league.  A bit of a mouthful.  Basically it's independent league baseball and encompasses teams from Texas to Canada in the central part of the continent.  There is a lot that goes on because these games aren't to be taken too seriously.  They do a lot of little fun games in between innings with the fans.  Lots of interacting keeps things fun and loose. 

I'm sure that I've written about this before, but my all time favorite memory revolving around baseball happened at a Saints game several years ago.  It was a Friday night game so they had fireworks like plenty of teams do.  It wasn't anything crazy extravagant and didn't go into the wee hours of the night, maybe twenty to thirty minutes.  In the process of the fireworks going off players from both teams, still in their uniforms, after playing a full game, came out of their locker rooms to watch the fireworks.  Just a bunch of guys coming out to watch the fireworks.  It was like that scene in the Sandlot when they were playing baseball on the 4th of July and Benny hits a home run and all the players look to the sky to watch the ball then stop to watch the fireworks instead.  And Ray Charles' version of 'America the Beautiful' plays.  It was magical. 

Here's a shot of the new stadium.  It's very open.  It still has the new stadium smell. 

A post shared by Michael Litzner (@melitzner) on Jul 1, 2017 at 5:13pm PDT

I even bought a hat to support the team!  It's my first non-Tigers organizational hat.  This is a big step for me.  I figure as long as it isn't a team the Tigers play against I'm not breaking my self imposed rule of not buying non-Tigers gear. 

A post shared by Michael Litzner (@melitzner) on Jul 1, 2017 at 8:36pm PDT