Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 09:18 AM) The effective tax rate thing is a left wing myth. No "secretary" is paying more in effective tax rates than any millionaire. Present for you.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:50 PM) Abysmal career defining GM moves have to have more meat to it than this, have to show an error in judgment as they're happening (Soriano etc). Dunn's age wasn't an issue, and the contract was not bad value. Soriano was not an abysmal, career-defining move for a GM. It was exactly the kind of move management wanted.

QUOTE (soxfan3530 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:51 PM) That is a pretty safe bet. Only the Rays have a shot of throwing that off, which is unlikely. And I'll bet a good dollar amount that something surprising happens to at least 1 of those teams.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:42 PM) I didn't say we should. But if Kenny had delusions of competing this year, they just realistically took a hit. If he was waffling on a fair deal or not, I hope he's considering pulling the trigger. "Waffling on a fair deal" is a phrase I never, ever, ever, ever think will be applied honestly to Kenny Williams.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:41 PM) I'd rather have Thornton traded and get his salary off the books for peanuts instead of having him be a set-up man making a lot of money for a 80 win team at best. In my opinion, he was the only guy who was likely to be traded that I would have been fine with just a salary dump. Well, I guess it's not all that surprising you think no one on the roster will improve from last year.

QUOTE (bulokis @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:40 PM) Great, right on time for Soxfest. Great job by detroit but that is a lot of money. If this gets the soxfest crowd more riled up at KW, I'll call that a positive.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:38 PM) Many of us thought those players should be traded even before this addition. And if there aren't good offers on the table, this deal doesn't suddenly mean we should accept bad offers.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:37 PM) Clearly I wasn't talking about pitchers, cause the first person I said was Pujols/Bautista obviously and would have mentioned Halladay, Lincecum, Kershaw, Verlander etc. If you don't want people to read statements that suggest you think the Tigers added one of the top 5 players in baseball, don't write that the Tigers added one of the top 5 players in baseball.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:36 PM) With V-Mart out for the year, can't he just DH? What happens next year?

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:34 PM) Sure there are what ifs, but there are with every signing. I'm not proclaiming the Tigers to win the 2012 World Series, but let's not pretend this isn't a significant pick-up. I think you are downplaying his addition a bit. Because there's plenty of flipping out, "Trade Thornton and Floyd, bring out the tarp, cover the field, I can't watch this any more, it's over. Turn out the lights, bring in the bulldozers and let's turn this place into a parking lot" already.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:32 PM) Sure, a lot of people would pay Tulowitzki more money than Prince, but it doesn't mean that Tulo is a better hitter than Prince. Your original statement was "How does adding one of the top five players in baseball not make the Tigers better". I like how rapidly you backed off onto hitters.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:30 PM) Downplay it any way you want. Bottom line is that for the next 3-4 seasons, that is going to be one hell of a tandem. But it is not a reason to throw in the towel.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:22 PM) Well 1st base also happens to have most of the best hitters in baseball...so don't make it sound like we could grab 2nd basemen and do the same thing. He may not be top 5, but he is an elite player, which is the point. Yes he's an elite player. I won't dispute that. Currently he is an elite player. He's now being paid one of the top salaries in baseball though, and is being done so for such a long time that he's basically never allowed to age, otherwise he'll be a giant hole blown in the budget. And on that one, I was responding specifically to fathom's claim that he was one of the top 5 players in baseball, while I can think of multiple players in MLB who I'd rather spend $23 million on for the next couple seasons than him.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:21 PM) Prince is still quite a solid pickup in the short term. A 5 fWAR player will offset the loss of Victor and then some. Now let's also note though...he's been somewhat inconsistent in his career, bouncing between 6.4 WAR and 3.4 WAR over the last 3 years. Furthermore, he's also moving to a much worse ballpark for hitting, which has been known to affect big bats in different ways. And if Miguel Cabrera winds up spending time at 3b or DH, then Miguel Cabrera's WAR is going to go down because of position adjustments and deplorable defense.

QUOTE (SOXOBAMA @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:21 PM) KW should be on the phone now trying to trade Floyd, Crain, Thornton, Alexei and a few other players. This season is over Like when the Red Sox landed Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez last year. There's a reason why everyone picked them to win the AL East last year, that team was loaded.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:18 PM) @DKnobler We'll see how it works out, but don't be shocked if Miguel Cabrera ends up as Tigers third baseman.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:17 PM) Which hitters are considered better? Pujols obviously Just at the same position, I'll go: Albert Votto Cabrera And if he's healthy, Adrian Gonzalez. Over the last 4 years, Teixeira has put up similar WAR to Prince, while I'm at it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:16 PM) That makes about $65 million a year for just Verlander, Cabrera, and Prince. And another $13-14 a year on VMart.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:14 PM) How does adding one of the top 5 players in all of baseball not make the class of the division even better? It's not like that 80 million is tied up in bad players like it is with other teams (ie: White Sox). In what world is Prince Fielder one of the top 5 players in all of baseball? You could argue that he's something like the 5th best first baseman.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:13 PM) Very true, but that's why I only bring that out to respond to the specific post PolishPrince made. That he "drove the organization into the ground." What's happened the last few years is weak GMing, not total destruction. The huge miss that could've been avoided with closer inspection was Peavy, Rios was the bad but decent gamble (though it paid off decently in Rios' 2010 campaign), and Dunn was the sure-fire total shocker. Also through the recent years KW has had good moves Danks/Floyd/Alexei/Sale/Dayan/CQ that he fails to get enough credit for, it's just that the two worst ones have been bad enough to obscure several nice smaller moves Peavy was also a gamble that didn't pay off, and we really didn't give up much other than money to make that happen. There are 2 moves you're missing from the list though, and those are the 2 that I'd say really are hurting us...the Gio for Swisher deal and the Hudson for Jackson deal.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:11 PM) JonHeymanCBS Jon Heyman prince will be the first baseman, for anyone asking. cabrera will have to change role. #tigers The Tigers are spending ~$55 million on DH's next year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:07 PM) I can't wait for people to say we need to keep Thornton around in order to try and shut down Prince. I don't think the Sox are the losers here, the real losers in this are the Royals. If the Tigers dominate for the next 3-4 years, then the Royals young studs are going to be too expensive to keep around. This does not make the tigers a "3-4 year dominant team" any more than any other move they've made. I'm sure the freakout will make it seem that way immediately, but seriously, go look at the numbers. They're going to have something like $80 million tied up in 4 players through the end of 2014. Read that number again and think about that. The rest of their roster will have to earn less than the Marlins for that team to not lose a ton of money. And 3 of them effectively play 2 positions.

You pick. 10 years, $250 for Pujols 9 years, $214 for Fielder. I'll take Pujols.

Ok, I'll say it first. We need to figure out what Scott Boras did to Victor Martinez.

Jesus Christ, Detroit is nuts.