So the 2009 season is in the books. The Yankees have won yet another world series. And somewhere Neifi Perez is eating a taco and telling a bartender that he won a gold glove once. But the real question on everyone’s mind, is who will the tigers drop and pick up before march.
The big story right now, for some reason, is NOT that the tigers are aparently not going to resign Placido Polanco (but I’ll touch more on that in a second). The real news is that the tigers have announced they are shopping Curtis Granderson around right now. Now, this does make sense in a way. The Tigers have a payroll that could make George Steinbrenner blush, and they desperately need to dump some payroll. Also The real fact of the matter is *GASP!* Curtis Granderson is really not that good (I know, I can already hear the angry crowd of CUGR’s Cougars coming for me).
But lets evaluate this for a second. Curtis is a career .272 hitter, which I know doesn’t sound that bad. But when you figure in that against lefties he’s batting .183 career, it doesnt really sound all that appealing. The fact of the matter is, that Granderson can’t, and has never been able to, hit lefties. which is a pretty big issue since every team has an average of 4 left handed pitchers. Secondly, Granderson is not the speedy leadoff hitter that everyone thinks he is. He only has 67 Career stolen bases. Jose Reyes stole more in 2008 alone. And you can say what you want for his defense, but he’s not winning any golden gloves out there. But the upside to all of this, is just like the average Tiger Fan, MLB teams think he’s really good. He hits homeruns, his flashy catches make TV announcers trip over their own words (It’s Gone!…No it’s not), and most of all, He’s one heck of a model american. He is the nicest, mostly polite, profession athlete you’ll ever meet. But honestly, your manners aren’t winning Commissioner’s Trophies in Detroit, so don’t be upset when you catch me helping you pack for the flight.
Now, it would be irresponsible of me not to mention that the only reason we have to discuss this potential trade, is because our General Manager likes to play this weird game where he takes large bags of Mike Illitch’s Money, and tries to see how much he can throw at washed-up players. Exibit A: The Tigers make a blockbuster trade for a young, future hall of famer in Miguel Cabrera. But Florida won’t give us Miguel unless we agree to take out the trash (read: Dontrelle Willis) for them. But then something extraordinary happened. Willis and Dombrowski sat down and Dave said “Dontrelle, I’m going to give you 29 Million dollars”. “Why, what have I done?” said Dontrelle. “Willis, you were runner-up three years ago in the Cy Young race” answered Dave. But Dontrelle replied “But I have a 4.02 carreer ERA and I’ve never pitched better th-” But Dave Cut in “I’ll hear nothing more! Take your 29 Million and have a good day!”
4 starts later, Dontrelle is taking his 29 million bucks and his 9.04 ERA strait down to single A-Lakeland, where he makes almost 29 times more than the teams ENTIRE PAYROLL INCLUDING COACHES put together. The moral of this story, kids, is that Dave Dombrowski is a bad GM. I know everyones gunna say, “Well Ryan, what about the young talent he’s drafted, or what about the time he traded for a nobody from Philly named Placido Polanco?” Well this is my response: Good, make him a scout then, cause thats what scouts do. They find good talent. But most importantly, thats all they do. Cause a scout cant give anyone any money, and because this scout was given that privilege, we can’t afford to keep Placido Polanco on our team anymore.
