Quote:
Originally Posted by Westheim
Watching the Red Sox broadcast right now, and they mull over how the Tigers went from one albatros contract that was weighing them down to another, except that Miguel Cabrera was still universally revered/liked/appreciated when he couldn't really move anymore because he was generally likeable and had already put down a HOF career, while Javier Baez is none of that. He just plain sucks. The last bit there was adlibbed by me.  |
The idea that any contract was weighing down a multi-billion dollar organization is exactly the mindset the owners want people to have as they go into upcoming labor negotiations. Still, for discussion sake, I will defend the Cabrera contract. Never liked him as an individual, but that bat played, and at the time everyone knew what the end of that contract would look like. The team was shooting for a title and if they had won one it would have been easier to swallow. It's revisionist history if people think otherwise. People were more than okay with that deal.
Javy was a different story. That created a bi-polar fanbase. Some loved it even though the signs were there from his days in New York. Others of us hated it but were hoping to be proved wrong. Sucks that we were right.
I think the Tigers dodged a bullet with Bregman. I wanted him here until the number got way out of hand. Ultimately, his swing profile doesn't fit Comerica and he made the right move for his career to go to Boston where he can play wall ball for 81 games a year. Once again though, even though I figured his offensive numbers would go down they would still be better than anything we would trot out there internally. Also, don't forget that Bregman can field the position so it would have been a net gain for the right price.
Super happy for the spring Tork and Mize are having because without any depth whatsoever offensively, a productive Tork will all of a sudden be very key. Lets hope he keeps it up. With Mize, same idea. Somebody will get hurt and even though pitching depth is a strength of this team you can never have enough. That adage is true.