Speculating About the Offseason

…Inge for about 3 to 5 mil and Bondo from anywhere between 5 and 8 depending on how he does…So id say those 2 will resign 8 to 13 mil between them…We will sign a catcher and try and get a guy ike Jason Werth I hope anyway.

…Goes down from 18 mil to 15 mil….So another 3 mil in savings,

You believe they will part with Laird, Everett, Willis, and a couple of pitchers who aren’t playing because they are hurt or traded? Every year there is a good deal more turnover than that. Look at this year in which the tigs are without Grandy, Nate, Lyon, Rodney, Poly, EJax, the River Thames, and the fleet of backup catchers. I doubt that BInge will be back and I think it iffy that Mags will be (I think it likely that he’ll get hurt and miss the AB to vest his contract). They can fill from within, but DD likes to make a splash so they likely will bid on a mid-range FA for SS. He likely will trade one or more of the MaL or MiL relievers (sell high while you can), perhaps to fill the left side of the infield.

As great as Werth is, we need another left handed bat.
That being said, if not Crawford, then bring back Damon. He can split time between LF and DH.
We really need to sign a solid SS.
I think you don’t worry as much about the lack of offense at the catcher spot and third base if you get a short stop that can both hit and field.
Jose Reyes seems interesting to me because he is having a down year by his standards. Beyond Reyes though there really isn’t much out there.
I hate to say resign Inge but if it is at a big discount then why not. I fail to understand why people love the career .230 batter to death. However, his glove is solid and the F/A class at third base isn’t very strong. Especially since A. Ramirez seems to be falling of the face of the earth.
It will be interesting to see what happens though. I think Mr Illitch is hungry for a championship and he might spend more cash than reports suggest.

but I think Damon and Miner come back (remember JL loves Miner). Boesch will come down to Earth and Guillen will retire when he fails to stay healthy being the full time DH (after he gets hurt on his first play at 2B). DD will then make a big splash and trade for a big time SS like Hanley Ramirez and … wait, I’ll call myself crazy.

We traded AJax for a high quality SS, the put Wells out there. He’s a solid defender in CF, and can mash. It might not be popular to dump your star CF two years in a row, but I think Wells is just about on par with Jackson, and we are desperate at SS/3B.

I’m not buying as much retention as this post is predicting. The guys we might want to re-sign (Bondo, Inge?, Damon) are total free agents, capable of signing with whatever team they wish for whatever contract they wish. Statistically, we have a 1 in 30 chance of signing them. I agree that Inge may lean toward the Tigers, but I don’t know the man personally. Maybe he wants a change of scenery…maybe the O’s want a 3B and it gets him close to home…who knows. Maybe Inge has always had dreams of the West Coast and bails…maybe someone agrees to pay him 2 million more than us or offers him a 4 year deal. I really think our upcoming free agents should be considered free agents. I think that Damon will hold less loyalty than Inge or Bondo and I think it’s highly probably the Bondo (if he continues his decent 2010) could very well cash in better elsewhere.

I can’t see our organization paying big bucks for an outfielder; Crawford, Werth, or otherwise. The strength of our organization, position-wise, is the outfield. We’ve got Jackson, Maggs, and Boesch on the radar for next year. We also have Wells, Streiby, Raburn (ugh!), and Wilkin Ramirez.

I’m not sure which SS are on the market, but I don’t think it’s a strong class. I think you’ll see Santiago, Worth, Dlugach, Guillen, and Sizemore as middle infielders. The first three all have enough glove to play SS and will provide us decent defense while meeting or exceeding this years offensive (Long O sound, stress the 2nd syllable) production from SS. One or two of those guys will obviously end up in Toledo or elsewhere, but I think 3 or 4 of them will be with the big squad.

3B will be interesting…I think a one or two-year offer to Inge is in the works, but I don’t know if he’ll accept. Without him and with the weak class at 3B, we may try to promote from within using Worth or Larish or maybe someone from AA (is Ciriaco playing 3B?). Beyond that, Cantu is reasonable or another similar player.

I see them signing a SP and C (perhaps a backup if they hand the job to Avila).

It’s no secret I am no fan of our current slugging duo of Laird and Avila. Hence, even with his age, I would love to see us target Victor Martinez. (unless they resign or already have resigned him) He calls a great game and hits for average and power. He alone would make the Tigers 4-5 games better, easily. Resigning Damon is super important! IMO Damon is less selfish and a better team player than Crawford, and hits a better avg. His noodle arm is justified by the DH, platooning with Maggs there. (Crawford is acceptable to me as a swap here as well) Lastly, sign Cliff Lee. With that signing, we easily become the best rotation in the AL central. Verlander, Lee, Porcello, Bondo (assuming we resign him), and Max. I would be thrilled with 2 of the 3 of these moves.

Miner is guaranteed to be back. He is hitting his second arbitration year and is not FA eligible until after the 2012 season.

.258 avg 6 hr 20 rbi? You do realise that’s about the same avg if you ADD Laird and Avila togeather, more HR than adding them togeather and same with the rbis, right? I will take it in a heart beat, plus he will swing for a better avg. by year end he should be closer to .300.

I hope the Tigers avoid any big $ free agents this offseason. That’s just setting up another round of bad contract oblivion down the road.

First off, do we actually have evidence that Adam Everett’s defense is declining? I’m not an Opie fan by any means, but I don’t want to turn into ESPN who just makes up story after story because it’s convenient (not directed at the BYB writing staff in any way, keep up the good work guys). Yeah, Opie sucks something awful behind the plate but it’s not why he was signed in the first place. If we can find actual concrete evidence that he’s declining in the field, then there’s no reason to keep him.

As for the whole Victor Martinez talk: NO. Putting VMart behind the plate would turn Denard Span (and basically any other reasonably fast guy in the division) into Rickey Henderson on the basepaths. I don’t care how well he “calls” games. If you listen to Mario and Rod, Laird does a pretty fair job at calling games himself. Both him and Avila are miles ahead of Martinez defensively and both (yes, even Laird) have much more tread left on their tires than Martinez does.

Inge and Bondo will likely both be re-signed because I don’t see other teams taking a big chance on either guy. Inge is about six months removed from major knee surgery, while Bondo is coming back from a serious injury himself. There’s no reason to think they won’t be back next year at discounted rates.

We saw so much turnover last offseason because the goal was to get younger and cheaper. Other than continuing to do that by getting rid of more bad contracts, there probably won’t be too many big splashes. There may be a couple of head scratchers from DD, but odds are they will be cheap head scratchers.

1) Austin Jackson CF
2) Carlos Guillen 2B
3) Magglio Ordonez RF/DH
4) Miguel Cabrera 1B
5) Jayson Werth LF (5 years/ $90 million)
6) Brennan Boesch RF/DH
7) Alex Avila C
8) Brandon Inge 3B (2 years/ $7.5 million)
9) ? SS

Utility:
Santiago
Raburn
Wells
Kelly

SPs:
Verlander
Porcello
Scherzer
Bonderman (2 years/ $15 million)
? 5th Starter

RPs:
Valverde
Zumaya
Perry
Coke
Ni
Schlereth
Bonine

I have a feeling that Dombrowski will go after Werth hard in large part because there really are no other great fits in the upcoming FA class or the 2012 offering (at least when I glanced through the list). Cabrera will be 28 years old next season and you can expect his peak years to go through the age of 33/34, same with Verlander. That gives the Tigers a 6-7 year window as of today to get this team a WS victory (of course a lot could change between now and then, but with the current players on our roster I find this reasonable).

Maggs has been solid at the #3 spot so far this year and I’m optimistic that he can produce around that level through the 2011 season (maybe even back on a 1-year deal on ’12), but if the Tigers are truly serious about making a run to the WS we need another big bat. Werth fits that profile. His age and adjustment to the AL I suppose would be the largest concerns. As far as re-signing Inge and Bonderman, it makes sense as of right now, but a lot could change by October.

The Rockies hate Chris Ianetta, who happens to be a more than serviceable big-league catcher. DD needs to get on the phone and dial 1-303-something something.

Khalil Greene as a short-term solution, at least until someone in the minors pans out or a better FA class?

Just throwin’ around ideas.

I realize it is very early in Mr. Figgins’ contract, but with the Mariners already 8 games back, I wonder if a trade for Chone could be worked out either midseason this year or in the offseason… IF we were to let Inge walk (which I have very mixed feelings about), Figgins could be a good trade to pursue. He is owed a ton of money, and we will have a ton of money to spend. He plays 3B/2B, we need help at 3B.

Methinks DD has the phone number to the marlins.

Miggy needs some protection. Think Albert and Holliday in STL. He needs another big bat around him