In my opinion, they’re the team for whom shelling out ludicrous bucks for K-Rod makes sense. The Mets and Angels make sense, too, to a degree. But the Tigers have a win-now core and a disastrous bullpen.

I’d blow up the team and start over. There are a bunch of veterans with movable contracts— Guillen, Ordonez, Bonderman, Polanco, etc. Unload those contracts, restock the farm system, and then wait a few years. Use waiver claims and Rule 5 to rebuild the bullpen while focusing the trade acquisitions on guys with the potential to hit at a very high level.

And if all else fails, deal Granderson. He’ll bring back an enormous haul of talent— probably more than any of the trades last offseason, and that’s saying a lot. You could get most of a farm system for him.

Bottom line, the current “core” is a failure. You can keep upping the risk level higher and higher by trying to somehow sign enough pitchers to fill out your rotation on the free agent market, or you can admit defeat and try again. But remember, it’s better to rebuild a year too early than a year too late.

They will focus on relief pitching and defense and hope that the starting pitching and hitting bounces back to normal.

The owner wants to compete next year. My guess is the team will try to shore up the defense to help the pitching, and they have done this already by moving Inge to 3rd and declining the option on Renteria. I would suspect a weak hitting glove man will get a lot of time at SS. The bullpen has to be dealt with; I would expect 2 significant signings below the KRod/Fuentes level. I would expect Garcia to be re-signed to go with Verlander, Bonderman, Galarragga, and Miner. They will absolutely not count on Willis, Robertson, or Zumaya for anything in their off-season plans.

Verlander, Rodney, Zumaya, Sheffield, Inge, Renteria, Robertson, Willis are all guys who performed about as poor as anyone could have thought in 08; improvement by several of these players of their replacements combined with a few bullpen signings and the return of Bonderman should give the Tigers a chance to contend next year in what looks like a crapshoot of a division, as their top 5 hitters (Granderson, Polanco, Ordonez, Cabrera, Guillen) are still very good.

1. Re-sign Garcia
2. Let Renteria go
3. Keep Inge at catcher, Guillen at short, Thames and Joyce in left
4. Sign a bunch of low-risk, high-reward pitchers like Bartolo Colon
5. Call up Porcello late in the season
6. Sign Fuentes
7. Tell Leyland he can go if he doesn’t agree

The Tigers put themselves in serious financial ruts in 2008. Many expected them to dominate the 2008 season, and some had them stamped for the World Series. However, they traded away their farm system for old players and the injuries and lack of performance that followed was as out of the blue as it seemed.

Solutions for the Tigers to get back on track:

- Trade Placido Polanco! He has one year left on his contract, and with a relatively unattractive FA lot, a team may be willing to trade for Polanco’s .300 average. Polanco’s return will indefinitely be more valuable to the Tigers than his .350 OBP from 2B. Potential takers could include the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Cardinals, Padres and others
- Trade Gary Sheffield for Joe Inglett. Inglett can produce as much as Polanco can, but has less value on the trade market
- In the event that Cabrera takes to DH, the Tigers should consider Richie Sexson as a solution at first base, who obviously has some potential with the stick and a handy glove at first.
- Sign Rafael Furcal. He is a great defender, still has wheels and a little more ability to hit then Renteria
- The pitching staff needs an obvious boost, and they should keep Dontrelle in the bullpen to aid there. The Tigers would need to entertain a number of short term signings, possibly including Brandon Lyon, Rafael Soriano, or Jeremy Affeldt, whichever is affordable, to aid their dead rotation and bullpen
- Sign Rich Harden
- Keep Brandon Inge at catcher where he’s most valuable.

Lineup:
SS Furcal
CF Granderson
RF Ordonez
DH Cabrera
3B Guillen
LF Thames/Joyce
1B Sexson
C Inge
2B Inglett

Rotation:
 
Verlander
Gallaraga
Harden
Bonderman
Miner

Bullpen:

Lyon/Soriano
Zumaya
Rodney
Affeldt/Seay
Willis
Lopez
Robertson

The big improvements really are in the fielding just by having Cabrera at DH, and the Bullpen

This is a tough one. I don’t think you can really push hard to dump a ton of payroll, because you don’t have the farm system to recover from it. I think you have to go with a three year plan to remove some of the bloated contracts from the team. You have about $23M coming off the books with Renteria, Rogers, Jones, and Farnsworth gone. But you have about $15M in raises due to various players as well, meaning a net gain of only $8M. To shed some more salary, you need to move three guys: Polanco, Sheffield, and Ordonez.

Polanco has one year left at a reasonable $4.6M, so he’ll be a decent alternative to Hudson or Ellis on the FA market, and a big improvement over a guy like Castillo on the trade market. There should be multiple teams lining up to deal for him, but for this exercise we’re gonna say they trade with St. Louis. Allen Craig and a low level prospect come back my way, with Craig stepping in at 3B for hopefully the next 6-8 years. This pushes Guillen to 1B, which should improve the INF defense some. This also puts Inge back behind the dish. I’d sit him down and say for the good of the team, the one paying you $6M+ a year, you’re going to catch this year and next. If he’s going to be an offensive black hole, he’s going to do it behind the plate. This also means that MCab moves to DH, which is probably best for everyone.

Ok next up on the block is Sheffield. It’s not going to be easy to move him without eating his whole contract, but I’d rather give some AB’s to younger guys to see if they are going to be in our plans down the road or not. I’d see if Texas would give up Joaquin Arias for him. I’m not sure how good Raburn is defensively at 2B, but I’d try to cobble something together with Raburn and Arias at 2B, an offense/defense type thing if necessary. Hopefully between the two they can give you 75% of Polanco’s production.

Maggs is the last big piece to move, and he should be able to bring a decent return. I’d eat $8M of his salary this year and offer to cover the buyout for next year to get some better guys in return. I think the Braves make a good bit of sense here, as they could use Ordonez in LF and save a little extra money to try and land two SP in the FA market. Brent Lillibridge and one of the Braves myriad pitching prospects would suffice I think. Lillibridge becomes the starting shortstop, so the INF is now rounded out.

Granderson obviously has CF locked down, so in the corners we have some combo of Matt Joyce, Marcus Thames, and Brent Clevlen. I’m not sure if I’d give Thames full time AB’s, or just try and split the time up between them, but I want to see if Clevlen has a future with this team or not. In any event, let these guys get the AB’s out there and see what happens.

On the pitching side, Verlander/Bonderman/Galarraga are locked into the rotation. I’d bring back Garcia on an incentive laden deal, there should be some goodwill from this year I’d think. After that, I’d say the Miner probably has the edge for the 5th spot, but Willis and Robertson should at least get a shot at the 5 spot. The two losers of the rotation battle plus Zumaya and Rodney are the start of the pen. Lopez comes back for another long relief/middle relief option. I’d look to add two relievers to the mix probably, at least one that could close games for you. I’m not sure that Zumaya or Rodney is the answer at closer, yet I wouldn’t spend a ton of cash on guys like Fuentes or K-Rod. Dan Wheeler could be an option, but you may have to pay him close to closer money. Juan Cruz could be an option, although he might be too much like Zumaya and Rodney. Damaso Marte would be another option to consider, although LH closers aren’t the norm. It might make the most sense to grab two guys that could close and them battle it out with Zumaya and Rodney.

After this year, you should know what your OF will look like for the next few years, and should have the left side of the INF locked down. I would cross my fingers that either Willis or Robertson rebounds well and contributes and that the other performs well enough to have some trade value for next offseason. Trading one of them in 2009 and then Guillen in 2010 should help you get down into a decent payroll range, hopefully picking up a couple of prospects in trades and the development of Porcello should really have you ready for a run in 2011, while still allowing a team that can contend until then.

Here are the thoughts of a 43 year old, lifelong Tiger fan, still residing in Michigan.

Firstly, last winter, I asked everyone I could, why can’t Carlos Guillen play 3b? This was before they traded their future for Cabrera, Willis and Renteria. And, I was touting Timo Perez, who hit the cover off the ball anytime he played, as a great platoon for Thames in LF.

Ok…so let’s go back to Guillen. It was obvious to me, even before this year, the Tigers were too RH on offense.

LH hitting 1bman are pretty easy to come across. So, if Guillen played 3b, and you get a LH hitting 1bman(maybe a platoon), and you get a GOOD platoon in LF. As an aside, Carlos Pena would look pretty good at 1b, right now, eh?

Forget Brandon Inge. He’s a great defensive player, but he should be a utility guy. He has never shown the ability to hit for average, or be a clutch hitter. If he doesn’t want to be a utility guy, then send him packing.

So, if they had put Guillen at 3rd, they wouldn’t have needed to trade for Cabrera. Now, I can live with Cabrera, but that still is yet another RH in the lineup.

What they need now is Guillen still at 3rd, a GOOD LH platoon with Thames in LF, and a LH catcher.

And, I haven’t even started on Renteria….see below for that. They might have been just as well of with Santiago starting there all year. At least he’s a switch hitter. And, he couldn’t do much worse than Renteria.

That way they can get that lineup balance that good teams strive for. Plus, make them players that draw walks, as too many Tigers do not.

As far as pitching goes, I knew there might be problems. They put way too much faith in Rodney and Zumaya coming back strong. They were not givens, at all. The Tigers needed to get a couple of good relievers as insurance, but didn’t. Their bullpen was a disaster, all year long. The Mets bullpen looked good compared to the Tigers.

You couldn’t predict the rotation issues. But, my eyebrows raised when they traded Jurjens for Renteria. Jurjens put up one impressive outing after another later last year. And, they trade him? That was a major mistake, for a team thin in pitching. Having depth in pitching is vital, and they had very little.

Just think how bad it would have been if Galleraga and Miner hadn’t become dependable starters!

Lastly, I do not think Leyland is that good of a manager, even. Look at the year they lost the World Series to a far inferior Cardinals team. That collapse is on his head. And, they’ve underperformed since. I think they’ll not go anywhere until there’s a new manager in town.

As for Dombrowski, he made a lot of errors as a GM this past winter. But, he’s got a history of good moves. Galleraga was a good one. But, it’s hard to get past trading Jurjens. And, giving Robertson a long deal was a mistake of large proportions. He deserves to stay, however, and atone for his sins.

Forgive if some of this has already been covered. I didn’t have the time to read 144 posts! Zounds.