Awesome feeling, just an unreal experience watching that game and the great comeback and walkoff homer by Magglio. There is no "one" player on the Tigers who has to step up, all nine starters and even some bench players, Alexis Gomez anyone, can do it. Not to mention the excellent starting pitching.
BTW shark, when are your A's gonna tie it up and win it in 7 again?
What's so amazing about buying a championship? The Tigers are making me like baseball less because they're a prime example of what's wrong with the pro game.
How big of a name was Carlos Guillen, arguably our best hitter overall in the regular season when he got here? How about the ALCS MVP Placido Polanco, who was the Phillies second choice at second base by the time he was dealt?
How big of a name is our most clutch player Craig Monroe? Or Marcus Thames, whose 26 home runs kept as afloat when the aformentioned Monroe went down with injury. Did you know Brandon Inge used to be our catcher before becoming one of the best defensive third basemen in the league?
What about our pitchers? Bonderman was a nineteen game loser and was acquired before anyone knew about his filthy slider and excellent fastball. Verlander is a rookie as is our best bullpen pitcher in Joel Zumaya. Did you know who Nate Robertson or Fernando Rodney were before this season began? Do you now?
Such a stupid argument, we paid big money for three players in Kenny Rogers, Magglio Ordenez and Pudge. And that was when we were trying to become respectable again. ALL major league teams who are perennial losers want to sign a key free agent who can spark a turnaround and are willing to overpay. See Baltimore Orioles with Miguel Tejada, Atlanta Hawks with Joe Johnson, etc., etc.
The Tigers are not the Yankees, but they aren't not penny-pinchers either. And you know what. They are the AL Champions and they got there because Dave D. had a great plan of mixing veteran stars with young talent that worked.
Yeah, I don't understand the claim that they're "buying a championship", either. Here's the Tigers organizational tree... Like Cochise says, the only big free agent pick-ups on the team are Ordonez, Pudge, Kenny Rogers, and maybe Todd Jones (assuming $6 million/year even makes a you "big time" FA anymore). Here's their 9 best players by Runs Created:
Name Pos RC
guillen,carlos SS 112.5
ordonez,magglio OF 98.5
granderson,curt OF 87.1
rodriguez,ivan C 79.2
monroe,craig OF 79.0
inge,brandon 3B 77.2
thames,marcus OF 62.5
shelton,chris 1B 58.1
polanco,placido 2B 53.8
infante,omar 2B 29.7
young,dmitri 1B 20.7
wilson,vance C 19.6
casey,sean 1B 19.0
gomez,alexis OF 12.5
clevlen,brent OF 7.9
stairs,matt 1B 5.6
santiago,ramon SS 4.9
perez,neifi SS 3.3
pitcher P 0.6
hannahan,jack 3B 0.0
hooper,kevin 2B 0.0
rabelo,mike C 0.0
Most of the top contributors were either drafted, traded for in minor deals, or undrafted FA's/etc. Here are the Tigers' salaries:
Magglio Ordonez $ 16,200,000
Ivan Rodriguez $ 10,616,410
Kenny Rogers $ 8,000,000
Dmitri Young $ 8,000,000
Todd Jones $ 5,792,956
Carlos Guillen $ 5,000,000
Placido Polanco $ 4,600,000
Brandon Inge $ 3,000,000
Craig Monroe $ 2,800,000
J. Bonderman $ 2,300,000
Mike Maroth $ 2,300,000
Matt Stairs $ 1,350,000
Jamie Walker $ 1,250,000
J. Verlander $ 980,000
Vance Wilson $ 750,000
Chris Spurling $ 725,000
Nate Robertson $ 402,500
Omar Infante $ 385,000
Fernando Rodney $ 385,000
Ramon Santiago $ 375,000
Bobby Seay $ 375,000
Chris Shelton $ 365,000
Jason Grilli $ 350,000
Marcus Thames $ 342,000
C. Granderson $ 335,000
Jordan Tata $ 327,000
Joel Zumaya $ 327,000
Not exactly the Yankees. I think Detroit is a great model for economical team-building. Sure, you get some big names, but you also get undervalued guys like Guillen, and draft well. That's really the key. Prospects in the Yankees organization, on the other hand, rarely make it to The Show in pinstripes, having been dealt somewhere along the way, compromised in the name of their veteran fetish. So, in other words, the Tigers are kind of the anti-Yankees, and I don't think they've "bought" a WS berth at all.
Whoops. They did sign some big names, so I can see where somebody might say that they bought I title, especially potentially embittered Cleveland fans. Oh well. At least you get a nice salary table for the Tigers. Always good.
Young was cut so I don't know if he would still be on there. Magglio and Pudge wouldn't have chosen to come to the Tigers if we hadn't blown them out of the water and I am pretty sure both of their contracts could be cut if either one had a major injury issue (for Pudge his back was an issue coming in but really hasn't been ever since.)
I'd say quite a few of our players are, however, underpaid (Bonderman, Granderson, Verlander, Zumaya, Thames, Rodney, Robertson and Monroe.) This is due a lot to the fact that many of those players are young and on first contracts while others had their coming out season this year.
As for Magglio's 16.2 million, I'd say his two home runs today were well worth it as were his team-leading 100+ RBIs in the regular season. Pudge's leadership and direction to our young pitchers is also a big reason we have the best postseason, and regular season in the AL, ERA right now. And Todd Jones and Kenny Rogers have really added more veteran leadership to our pitching staff (Kenny in particular has thrown 15 straight scoreless innings in the postseason. I'm sure any team would pay him eight million to do that.)
The point is that aside from the released Young, there isn't a contract on there the Tigers regret.
BTW that is a pretty old listing as we added Casey and Neifi Perez and got rid of Young. I think both have expiring contracts though.
I was actually kidding, but I didn't make that very clear and I apologize. The Tribe had Top Ten (even Top Five) payrolls when they were major contenders in the 90s, so it's not like I could actually fault the Tigers for signing a few key agents (the negligence that killed the tribe this year see here). I'm just ticked the Tigers went from worst (the Royals don't count) to first so quickly. although I don't think they'll win in the Series no matter who they play.
Seriously just drop it. I think sports fans are a part of their sports teams because without fans no teams would exist in the first place. I try to write "The Tigers" in as much as I can.
BTW I used to be a batboy...does that count?
I disagree. People. Pitching always defeats hitting. Prime example is Tigers vs. Yankees. If the Tigers were able to contain the best lineup ever, then what makes you believe they will lose to the Cardinals or the Mets?
1) Experience 2) The two NL teams have a lot more to prove, the Tigers are thrilled to be in the Series and have a long time to party and be happy just to have gotten that far, they won't be as hungry as St. Louis (who I think they'll be playing)
What you aren't accounting for is that we do have a manager who is experienced, Leyland won a World Series with the Marlins in 1997. It also helps that our catcher, who keeps our young pitchers in check, also has won a World Series title with the same team, a couple years later of course.
The only reason the team is partying hard is cause they have a week between games, but I expect them to be fully prepared to take on whoever comes out of the National League. I really don't believe in teams ever being "just happy to be there." You could say the same thing about those Marlins Pudge was on.
Talent-wise the Cardinals, if thats who we face, have the best, maybe, pitcher of the two teams and the best hitter. Outside of that we have them beat in almost every area of the game. As for the Mets, if their pitching can't contain St. Louis, they won't contain us.
BTW I also remember EVERY single columnist in the country saying the same thing before the playoffs started, that we were just happy to be there. Not one "expert" on Yahoo, ESPN, SI, or any other major sports site had the guts to pick us then. Even after we beat the Yankees we were still deemed as an inconsistant, inexperienced team who would lose to an A's team that wanted it more. We were picked to lose every game we won, but it hasn't happened yet.
