NFL Draft Rumor: Browns Linked to Buckeye Mike Adams?
January 25, 2012Report: NBA Owners Discussing Revenue Sharing
January 25, 2012I spent all of yesterday on the road, going in an out of meetings. I emerged from a two and a half hour ordeal in a good place. We got a lot out of this customer visit. Little did I know how quickly my mood would change. As I looked down at my phone, I saw an email from a friend of mine with the subject “Prince?” I open the email and it simply reads “Prince to the Tigers…This can’t be true. Tell me this can’t be true.”
I had seen on Twitter earlier in the day that the top prize of the baseball free agent class (sorry Albert Pujols), Prince Fielder, could be considering large money, one-year deals and that the Tigers and Dodgers could then enter the fray if this happened. The thought of this one year with Fielder as a Tiger had me very concerned. That was just a one-year deal I was worried about. So I began to open the series of emails that are bandied about all day by the WFNY crew. I came to find out my nightmare was even worse than I thought.
The Detroit Tigers, the Indians chief rival for American League Central supremacy, had swooped in out of nowhere, and signed the 27-year old power hitting first baseman to a nine-year, $214 million contract with no early opt out clause. So let me get this straight; a team in our division, who already has a payroll over $100 million, arguably the best right-handed hitter in the game (Miguel Cabrera), and the best starting pitcher in the game (reigning AL Cy Young and MVP Justin Verlander), loses its switch hitting, 100+ RBI Designated Hitter to a torn ACL (Victor Martinez), and replaces him with Prince Freaking Fielder less than a week later without batting an eye?
Yes, this really happened. Only in Major League Baseball, where if you have a billionaire owner who doesn’t care about spending, you have a major advantage over three-quarters of the league. 82-year old Mike Illitch wants a World Series ring in the worst way. The man has money to spend and a penchant for signing Scott Boras clients. Boras knows it, and loves to go to “Mr. I” at the end of the process and create magic for his clients. Just ask Pudge Rodriguez, Kenny Rogers, or Johnny Damon.
Who knew that our old friend Victor tearing up his knee would be the worst thing that could have happened to the Indians this offseason, not the Tigers. As of last Wednesday, Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski said he was flatly not pursuing Fielder, even after losing Victor. Reports had Carlos Pena a big target of theirs to replace Victor for one year. Instead, Pena went back to Tampa Bay where he thrived two years ago. Johnny Damon and Juan Pierre were also thrown out as replacements.
Instead of going cheap in the short term, the Tigers went big. Real big.
As the news broke, my Twitter timeline was full of angry Indians fans, giving me the business that my team has no chance under these rules. Lets not get crazy here. There are serious problems with how this sport is run, but things aren’t going to change anytime soon. You have to play the cards you are dealt. Do the Tigers have a better shot of winning the AL Central and/or the Wild Card than the Indians do? On paper, absolutely they do. Its this simple to most people – the Tigers can go out and buy Prince Fielder to replace another double-digit million dollar-a-year player while Indians, in dire need of a first baseman, can’t seemingly afford a guy like Carlos Pena on a one-year, $7 million deal.
I know you are all frustrated. But you know something, games aren’t played on paper. Sure, the Tigers lineup now features Miguel Cabrera followed by Prince Fielder (yikes), a rotation headed by Justin Verlander, and a closer coming off a perfect season in Jose Valverde, but things can change quickly. Injuries happen. Under-performing happens. Does anyone really see Jhonny Peralta repeating his 2011 campaign (.299/21 HR/86 RBI)? Is Delmon Young going to carry over his one good month in the last three years of his career over into 2012? Are Rick Porcello and Max Scherzer going to make that big leap that many are expecting them to make? Will Valverde be able to match the best year of his career?
Before you jump all over me, I know the Indians are full of question marks of their own. All I am saying is that you never know what can happen. Did anyone expect the Tribe to be in first place essentially through August last season, doing so without major contributions from Grady Sizemore and Shin-Soo Choo among others? Just take a deep breath and know that the Indians still will field a quality young team in 2012, even if they keep their current roster and don’t add a first baseman. The rotation is solid. The bullpen is back and deep. The lineup top to bottom, if healthy, has a ton of potential.
The truth is, the system stinks. Teams like the Angels, Yankees, Tigers, Red Sox, and now Rangers can all spend over their mistakes. The Indians cannot. But things don’t always turn out as they are expected to, especially in baseball. Who saw the pre-season World Series favorite Red Sox missing the playoffs last year while the Tampa Bay Rays won the wild card after letting their closer (Rafael Soriano), 30 homer 1B (Pena), and all-star OF walk (Carl Crawford), revamping the entire bullpen, and trading one of their horse starting pitchers (Matt Garza)?
Make no mistake, the Fielder signing is a huge blow to the Indians drive for their first division title since 2007.
Speaking of said season, days like yesterday make me even more ill about the way 2007 and 1997 for that matter turned out. No need to rehash those finishes, but you cannot blow golden opportunities like those, especially in a market like ours where there is such a small margin for error. You can’t just get there and not close it out.
21 Comments
where are they both going to play? I have heard talk of Cabrera going back to third, but he runs like he has a refrigerator strapped to his back…you’re telling me he has the reflexes and reaction time to play the hot corner? This year it’ll be ok because they can take turns dh’ing and playing first, but once Victor comes back, they’re going to have 3 expensive players for 2 holes. Unless Victor somehow catches more often after tearing his kneee up…which doesn’t seem likely.
This just seems more “splashy” than anything else. In the 90’s we saw our terrifyingly good lineups shut down time and again in the postseason. And no matter how gaudy the regular season numbers, they are no help in the postseason when there’s a runner on third, 2 outs and you are down a run.
I still have faith that the Tribe can be competitive this season, even though I find the situation where we cannot afford an above average first baseman incredibly frustrating.
On the positive side, my family is going to be a Nielsen family very soon. I plan to help improve the ratings of STO…maybe they can get more advertising $ from the higher ratings, which may get the team more money…at least that is why I agreed to be a Nielsen lab rat. If it doesn’t work, at least I tried
Well said. The only way to have prevented this disappointment would have been for the Indians to have tried to sign him – which was impossible. We’ve played the role of giant-killer before. (Why, Skinner? Why???) We’ll just have to do it again – and we certainly have plenty of chances to do it this year. The Tigers still have to play those games.
Come on, LaPorta!! (tongue firmly domiciled in cheek there – I do hope we make some improvement on paper at 1B).
Not sure why this is a “system is inherently unfair” situation. This ain’t a big market v. small issue. Cleveland has the same chance as any other city to be blessed with a generous, billionaire owner who doesn’t need to fret over these levels of loss margins. The city already has two such owners. This is more like 1960s-1980s, before the huge cable revenue: the Indians sucked because their ownership couldn’t sufficiently fund the organization from the top down to the scouting and farm system. You can call it a lot of things, but not unfair.
I like your approach. I throw my money at the MBL Extra Innings every year and just wish that I could direct that payment and “TV attendance” directly toward the Indians.
(Do you have to change your name to “Nielsen”? I know some Nielsens, and they are great people, but I’m not sure it’s worth the name change.)
Fans are discouraged when a division rival, in a city on the same economic footing as Cleveland, goes for broke and the home team is faffing about w/ depth guys w/ hopes of catching the proverbial ‘lightning in a bottle.’ This in a time when the Tribe traded 2 top prospects in a ‘go for broke’ move that was to keep them in contention for a two-yr window.
The avg CLE fan doesn’t know (or care) about the population of metro Detroit as compared to Cleveland and how that impacts payroll. They will continue to stay away from the Prog in droves and continue to give Larry Dolan a reason not to spend. The Tribe is in awful place PR-wise and it will take a winning season and a change in Dolan’s business philosophy to bring fans back. If Dolan can’t afford to spend then he needs to sell to someone w/ a Gilbert-like ego and the deep pockets to back it up.
It’s true that you never know what will happen when they get on the field, but the outlook is not so good for the Tribe.
Obviously, Detroit trades Victor back to us for a low-level A pitcher who will never see MLB.
why not dream 🙂
the Tribe can’t just have 1 winning season. after 2007, our attendance still didn’t drastically increase. and, that is before the back-2-back trade deadline years.
I think the Tribe needs to be pretty darn good (90+ wins) for at least 2 seasons in a row to really bring the casual fans back. and, that is going to be awfully tough.
agree, mgbode. Fans now conditioned to view one promising year as an enjoyable fluke which probably won’t be sustained, so why invest in season tix for next year when you can walk up and buy good seats if they happen to be entertaining again. Sure, the local economy sucks but I know former season tix holders who cancelled only because they have zero faith their fav players will be here next year. And losing those who can still afford season seats is a death spiral for the Dolans. Sometimes it takes money to make money.
For whatever it’s worth the Indians’ NL imports have kept Fielder in the yard. No homers off either Jimenez or Lowe. In fact you could say Lowe owns him: 217/333/217 in 27 PAs.
I was really bummed about this. Until I read Kipnis and vinniep52 ‘s latest tweets.
http://twitter.com/TheJK_Kid
Love the Bravado I’m seeing from the youngsters.
got a card in the mail one day, apparently its a random process. However, back in 1986, when I was 9 or so, we were selected as a Neilsen family as well. I wish I could randomly win the lottery twice instead
Ok, so add this to the “even year” effect for Prince along with the “no left handed hitter has hit more than 14HRs in season at Comerica” and the odds are starting to stack against the Tigers (ok, not really, but still a bunch of fun facts to play with).
It’s good they learn those qualities while here, before they ship out to a club that can pay them. It’s all part of the process.
“In the 90’s we saw our terrifyingly good lineups shut down time and again in the postseason.”
Good point. And thanks for the painful reminder (ha ha). Pitching wins championships. We don’t have a Verlander, but we have two top end guys that have the ability to be Cy Young candidates.
Last March, nobody expected us to be in the playoff hunt in late August/early September. But we were. To use an old, worn out cliche, “that’s why you play the games…”
Only if they eat a big chunk of his contract in the process. We already made the mistake of paying a DH 13 million a year.
I like his swagger, but Kipnis also Tweeted “#whereugoindetroit” right before they ran away from us. Maybe he should put down the Twitter for awhile. 😀
Great photo from SI.com:
http://tumblr.com/ZSOmHxFI-ng7
Detroit is twice the size of Cleveland. And hockey’s new revenue structure allows Ilitch to use the Wings to subsidize the Tigers.
This is the best thing that could happen to the Indians…. All the pressure is off their back and on Detroit. I would rather be an under dog. Anyone recall when the Indians were front runners in the Central in 2008 after that 2007 season?
I’m truly amazed that the Tigers actually seem to be serious about shifting Miggles over to 3B full-time. Cabrera was a bad third baseman back before he got grossly fat and had 3 years of rust from playing 1B. He will be mega bad in the field, and probably completely negate the positive runs that Fielder would provide vs Victor Martinez.
Hope the Tribe is going to be practicing their bunting big time in spring training. Send them at Miggles all day and watch him waddle around trying to field. It’ll be funny.