On What I'm Betting

take a step up in their game, 2011 could be special.

The Main Advantage with a youth movement IMHO is that if a prospect doesn’t perform they can be sent down, and another one tested out. There is pressure to play the 13 million dollar contract. Tigers can get stuck with a subpar Guillen for years but don’t have to with the 400K Worth, Sizemore or Rhymes. They can be replaced any game. Thats true of the DH, OF, 5th starter, and relief positions as well.

Illitch needs a solvent conservative business approach to arrange the financing to keep the Pistons in Michigan. The Tigers have 73 million coming off the books but lost 29 Million, have 13 million in defered payroll and about 10 million coming in raises. They seem to like backloaded contracts. So really its more like about 20 million to spend, unless some of the loss and defered are double counted. Figure 10-14 Million for Peralta and Inge and the rest will be eaten filling out the roster with cheap guys.

That said they need to sell season tickets, so they have to make a splash somewhere in a trade or free agency. I am hoping a Slugging 30+ hr DH and like Kenerko, Lee, Thome or Vlad with a 1 year contract for less than 5 million.

I Like Casper Wells best for the outfield postion. Great Glove, ARM, Range, 30 hr power and maybe a .260 hitter. Would rather see Casper/Boesh/Strieby in left rather than Maglio, Crawford, or Werth. If a position does not work out, they can trade before Aug 1st.

Dirks tore up Toledo…for 88 AB’s. He’s almost assured a starting spot for the Hens and I think he should have the opportunity to play every day against AAA pitching. There’s no room for him to get regular AB’s in Detroit with Wells, Boesch, Raburn, and Jackson (and I think we’ll add a FA outfielder as well.) If it’s June and he’s still on fire, he may see a call up if we have an ineffective OF or injury.

The same is true for Douglas. If 2b works the way I think it will, Sizemore and Rhymes will both be in Detroit while Douglas gets a steady diet of AAA playing time. I’d be surprised to see Worth, Rhymes, Santiago, and Sizemore all in Detroit unless someone is playing 3B (and I hope that’s not the case.) There’s just not enough roster space to carry that many middle IF sticks.

At SP and RP, I think we need to sign external candidates. Our best in the minors came up this season (Weinhardt, Sborz, Fein, Schlereth…) and didn’t exactly prove themselves major league ready. Weinhardt and Schlereth may be ready to step up in 2011, the the rest of the guys you mentioned are more raw and need the same sort of exposure that Weinhardt and Schlereth got this year…not regular gigs.

what do you guys think the ceiling is for 22yr old Seawolf relievers J. Ortega and Lester Oliveras? They seemed to progress quickly this year, jumping levels. Oliveras struck out 36 in 20 some innings, walked a ton, but if he had had control, like at privious stops, it would have been wow. Ortega whip 1.23 at hitter friendly Erie.

Maybe Detroit mid season or Sept. callup?

Am looking forward to spring training. Actually looking forward to the world series being over, to see what happens. Hate the Yankees except Derrick Jeter who it was rumored was one of the donors to the Kalamazoo Promise.

You here about the split sqaud double headers when a team is composed mainly of minor leaguers of one organization or another. The B game never seems to make the radio. The minor league facilty is apparently close to Joker Marchant stadium. They talk about games going on on the “back fields” quite often. Regretably, I’ve never been there, but maybe this spring…new cheap airline flights to FLA from Grand Rapids, think under $200 round trip.

Bet Alli or JAYRC know the detail.