A Difference in Terribleness

The next three or four years are going to be terrible if you are a Detroit Tigers fan.  Last year marked the end of an era.  They started the full rebuild process.  Well known players were shipped away and in return guys who won't sniff the MLB for another three years.  It's tough.  It is tough to give up on the level the Tigers have been at for the past ten or eleven years.  Coming to grips with how bad the Tigers are going to be for the next few years is going to be easier than when they were bad in the early 2000s.  For the main reason in that the future is bright.  Kind of.

The one main difference between the two terrible teams is that the 2018 Tigers are going to be launching off point for the future.  Yes, over the next two or three years the Tigers are going to be losing close to 100 games a year.  A good year will see them lose maybe 90 games.  This is not a positive outlook, I know.  The prospects that the Tigers got last year are so young and raw that they aren't on many peoples' radar.  It could be that they end up being just average players, but they could also be borderline stars.  They might just be what we fans are looking for.  They'll be labeled as the 'blue collar, lunch pail' guys that the city of Detroit will embrace.  This is how the Kansas City Royals did it.  Talented players but not super stars. 

The early 2000s Tigers were just bad.  There was no hopeful future.  Thanks Randy Smith.  It wasn't until Dave Dombrowski came in and started trading away prospects to get big name players that they started to get better.  They went out, they spent, and they are living with the contractual obligations.  The end of Victor Martinez's contract and career is dragging on the organization.  That'll be over after this year.  Same thing with Miguel Cabrera.  We all love Miggy, but it is getting close to the end of his career and he isn't who he use to be.

The times have changed though.  The days of seven and eight year, hundreds of million dollar contracts, for the Tigers at least, are done.  The young players are going to be around just long enough to get the Tigers back into the top teams.  Then, when free agency rolls around they'll leave to a team like the Red Sox or Yankees or Dodgers if they're good enough.  This is how baseball is now.  You develop the talent, use them to make deep playoff runs and then when it comes time to pay up big time, there are only a few markets that can oblige them.  Then it is back to square one.  This is where the Tigers cannot falter.  They cannot let up on drafting and developing young talent because as soon as the prospects they got last year are gone, the next group has to be ready for the Show.  This is what needs to happen in order to sustain long runs in the MLB now.