Johnson goes to the Padres for one year and $8 million.
I have no idea what’s going to happen in the A-Rod case. Both sides have embarrassed themselves as thoroughly as they possibly could, and as a Yankee fan and a baseball fan I want him to go the fuck away, but I’m not sure what will happen. The Yankees are keeping Brendan Ryan, which is a good idea, and they are supposed to be interested in Stephen Drew as a backup SS/3B. They’re willing to let Curtis Granderson go, which I am not sure I really agree with, and they’re looking at Carlos Beltran among others. I think they will eventually keep Cano, but the sides are far, far apart. He wants $300 million, and at this point I really think nobody’s going to come close to that. Both the Angels and Dodgers appear to be out of the market (the Dodgers signed a Cuban infielder, as I recall).
I’m amazed they managed to dump Fielder that quickly and easily. I’m guessing the Tigers will be paying around half a shitload for the privilege of getting rid of him.
I read the trade on CBS.com , and came here to post it. I saw Ulf had beat me to it and posted my little comment. Then went to the bar as I am wont to do on occasion*. I mentioned to the regulars I know there that we had gotten rid of Fielder.A table behind me jumped up and started demanding answers, how did I know this, what were the terms, was it just a rumor, etc. Then they all got on their phones.
Turns out it was a group of Tiger office people/peons, and I had just given them info on what was going on I got many handshakes, and several beers bought for me as the bearer of good news. Seems Prince was despised but the folks in the office. One girl even danced a little happy jig that he was gone.
It’s surprising how opinion among Tiger fans has changed on Fielder. When he first came over, people were absolutely giddy about it. He was going to bring the team to the promised land. Now, after shitting the bed for the past couple years, they would tar and feather him and ride him out of town on a rail. Unlike Juan Gonzalez, he actually wanted to come to Detroit but his limitations quickly became evident.
I liked Fielder all season, then he frustrated the hell out of me in the post-season, but then he lost my respect in his final presser after their Game 6 loss to Boston: “It’s not really tough, man. It’s over. I got kids I got to take care of, I got things I got to take care of. It’s over.”
Sort of cemented in my mind that this guy ain’t hungry and his multi-million dollar day job doesn’t mean much to him. So fans put out their hard-earned money all season to pay his insane salary only to hear him to say this loss wasn’t really tough? Good fucking riddance. Lazy, out-of-touch out-of-shape asshole.
If he came back, I’m pretty sure he’d be hearing a chorus of boos every time he stepped to the plate at Comerica next season.
I’m not sure I’d sour on a man for being honest. I mean, really, that’s what every single player in the clubhouse thought. They lost a playoff series, not a loved one. Most ballplayers don’t win the World Series every year. They’re used to losing. It’s not the end of the world.
Fielder and Kinsler are both really good but not great ballplayers; to my mind both teams are trading a risk and assuming a risk. Fielder is enormously fat; relative to his age he is by far the fattest position player to ever play MLB ball well. (Others have been fatter, but never in their 20s.) His chances of productively finishing his contract are probably worse than one in a hundred. I think he’ll bounced back a little in 2014 as he apparently had some family issues in 2013 but he’ll decline thereafter.
Kinsler, conversely, is in great shape but is a bit older and as good a player as he has been in the last he hasn’t been THAT great lately. His OPS+ over the last two year is about 100 even. He’s a 31-year-old second basemen and second basemen often break down early.
Defensively this is obviously a significant upgrade for Detroit; it opens first base for Cabrera, who God bless him does the best he can at third but he sucks at it and he really needs to be moved to first, and now I’m presuming Omar Infante’s gone though he played really well in 2013 so Kinsler fills in there. I’m not sure how the infield now shakes out, though.
For Texas, the move adds what could be a huge power surge in the short term. Mitch Moreland played really badly in 2013 so they needed a first baseman. Now who plays second base? Some say they’re going to offer Robinson Cano a bag of money but my suspicion is that this simply gives them a chance to get Elvis Andrus and Jurickson Profar into the same lineup every day.
It became evident that he was a check-casher, with no burning desire to win. And that just doesn’t play well in a place like Detroit. We bit our tongues on Fedorov, who was the same way, but he still helped us win the cup. But there were no tears at all when he finally left.
Fielder actually hurt the teams chances with his half-ass playing, so see ya asshole.
I hope Castellanos is finally ready. He has been the super prospect for so long, but every time he sees real pitching in Spring training or expanded callups he hasn’t looked good at all.
Moving Kinsler out to make room for Profar at second was a good move. Kinsler’s defense was quickly becoming a liability and his bat was beginning to only show up in “don’t care” places.
But, Fielder? Come on. That’s a big step back to the past for this team. Every time I see him at the plate, I remember when Mo Vaughn broke Pudge Rodriquez’s thumb when he lost his balance on a mighty (mighty clumsy) swing for the fence. I remember watching Pete Incaviglia waddling in from left field. I remember the defensive shift everyone used against Rafeal Palmiero - because it worked!
Great. Yet another un-athletic, one-dimensional player that is being added to the team because he will sell tickets.
You combine that honesty with his half-assed play during the last two playoffs, and honestly? He needs to go be a lazy fatass somewhere else. (And I actually liked the guy for most of his time here. I even have a Fielder t-shirt somewhere in my closet.)
Compare Fielder’s quote to Torii Hunter’s following the David Ortiz grand slam that he flipped over the wall trying to catch: "I was trying my best to just stop that ball from going over the fence. I’d sacrifice my body if I have to. I’ve done that my whole career. This is postseason. I’d die on the field for this.”
So maybe saying he’d die on the field is less honest than Fielder’s “It’s not really tough [to lose.]” But for fuck’s sake, when this town is still in the tail-end of a nasty economic downturn, and the fans are paying his 23-million per year salary by buying up every last ticket for every last game, and then watch him half-ass his way through the playoffs for the second year in a row, he should at least use a little more tact when describing how he feels about losing in the ALCS. Around here, it felt like the guys making one-tenth of what he makes cared more about the loss than he did, and busted their asses at work a lot harder than he did. He cashed his checks, now he’s got other things to do? Yeah, ok, go do them somewhere else.
Hunter’s post-game reaction reflected his play on the field, even if he was probably bullshitting a bit. Fielder’s post-series reaction also reflected his play on the field, even if it was honest, but it reflected a laziness and indifference that fans were getting sick of. A player making a million a year could get away with that shit. Not Fielder, even if he’s got domestic issues off-field to deal with. Good riddance.
A very small price to pay for what will hopefully allow Dombrowski make some *quality *moves. Fielder was overpriced from the get-go made by a desperate owner, it just took two years to become fully aware how overpriced he was. I hope the first move DD makes is to re-sign Scherzer.
I’m sure that’s one of their top goals, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen right away.
Fielder has produced and his body has held up well to this point, but he was making tons of money and likely to go over a cliff soon. The fact that he didn’t play well in the playoffs counts for something, but the quote really doesn’t mean much.
Well it does. After that is when the Fielder hate really kicked up around here, amongst fans publically, but I suspect it didn’t do him any favors in the front office either. And I don’t think he was traded because of a cliff that may be coming up soon, it had to do with what he’s done since he’s been here: shit the bed every post season. The Tigers organization hasn’t been content with just doing well in the regular season since 2006. He was signed to help them win the World Series; looking at his performance over the past two post-seasons, it was painfully clear that he was not going to do that. That’s why he was traded, not because of a looming cliff. I’m just grateful someone was willing to take him.
Good news for Boston. Texas was the likeliest other place for Napoli to go, so that’s out now. They may not want or be able to pay Ellsbury a Boras price now, either.
I wouldn’t put too much into what Fielder says about losing the ALCS. Nobody gets to the majors and stays there without a near-psychotic will to win. Losing gets more painful the deeper you go, and everyone has and needs coping mechanisms - if a guy tries to put the pain behind him by telling himself it wasn’t that important, well, that’s one way to do it. But he could still be just an ass, of course.
Aside, set off by Fielder’s mention of the postseason: I really dislike the word “postseason”, as if it’s just dessert and not the main meal. The October games are the ones that matter *most *, and the Series most of all. The so-called regular season is really just a long round-robin qualifying round before the elimination rounds start. Do Olympic soccer and hockey teams who go home without medals talk about all their great stats in pool play? Same thing.
Ok. Ultimately it’s just words; management may have objected but he played well for them. But if those statements helped lead to the trade I think the worst thing you could say is it’s the right move for the wrong reason.
That’s flawed reasoning since his play helped them get to the playoffs in the first place. But like I said- if that’s what they think, they still made a good move for an iffy reason.
I’m still stunned that Ron Washington wasn’t fired in Texas. Texas has been a disappointment for the past few years. I"m not sure that adding Fielder is going to help. At least he’s not as nutty as Josh Hamilton.
