I somewhat tuned out the LaRussa talk in the middle, but it was nice to hear both guys praise Leyland at the end.

He made another reference to having Delmon and Boesch in the corner OF positions.
Given his lineup that he laid out in the presser on Thursday, that would mean that the DH is “Dirks, Thomas, Kelly” batting in the 8th spot. The mind boggles.

Yes, absolutely. Next year is when the fun really starts. A Jax, Boesch, Cabrera, Fielder, V Mart, Avila, Peralta (possibly), Raburn, Santiago (?)… Wow.

My favorite baseball team is the Detroit Tigers.
My favorite type of baseball is great defense.
I see lots of ups and downs in my baseball viewing this season.

There has been much hand wringing in the media about the cost of Prince’s contract in later years. Reports I read show that the salary per year quickly gets to $24M and stays there in contrast to Puhols’s contract which grows each year. Note that in 9 yrs $24M will be the equivalent of $18.3 M in 2012 dollars. Certainly can buy a lot of hamburgers for that, but the constant salary works in the tigers favor economically.

I can’t see Cabrera spending most games at 3B this year when he and Fielder can rotate between 1B and DH at least until VMart comes back (if he does in 2012) and Inge and Kelly provide much better defense at 3B. It makes sense for Cabrera to have more experience at 3B so he is prepared for VMart’s return, for games in NL parks, and for hopefully the WS.

However something will likely have to give, perhaps in 2 yrs as the logjam could get more tight. VMart is signed through 2014 (4 yr deal signed in 2011) and that also may be the ETA of a certain 3B Nick Castalanos. Maybe he moves to LF. Having Cabrera at 3B might slow the progress of Castalanos up the minor league ranks (this would be a good thing if it allowed him to progress based on his development not based on a need at the ML level). Potentially a much better problem to be trying to fix than how to find offense from amongst Streiby, Clete, Kelly, Iorg, et al.