With Spring Training getting started, it is time to get back to work...
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take the entire winter off after the World Series.
Actually, it was even too painful to write during the World Series as I go back and check the archives. Anyway, if the Tigers can do Pitchers Fielding Practice (PFP) in front of hundreds of onlookers, I can get back to baseball.
I waited 22 years for a season like that. 22 years of friends making fun of me for not getting up and leaving Tigers-Royals games on the television to do something "more important." 22 years of waiting to laugh in their faces. 22 years to have a summer like I did when I was just ten years old.
To be honest, at the beginning of last season, actually when Jim Leyland was hired, you could hear me saying things like "Go Mets" to friends all around. I was upset, to say the least. I felt Trammell didn't get a fair shot and I was mad that my team wouldn't let him at least have the one more year.
And to be quite honest, he should have gotten that one more year. But, the team made a decision, and I decided, after about a week of wondering what was next to happen to my favorite team, to stick with my childhood team and give Jimmy Leyland a chance.
Now, to be 100% honest, there will never be a way to know if it was the right group of players coming together, or it was Leyland's managing abilities. Could Trammell have done the same thing, or was it really Jim Leyland that made the difference? There is honestly no way to tell, but, as much as it hurts to say, I don't think the Tigers would have broke camp with Verlander or Zumaya had Trammell been at the helm. They may have actully broke camp with Bobby Higginson one more time as well.
I feel bad for Bobby Higginson. He was the best player on a bad team for a long time. He gave his soul to the game, and now he's into thin air. Granted, he likely didn't deserve to make the team last year, but he deserved the chance if he wanted it. I remember seeing him in Kansas City early in the 2005 season. He was on the bench as the fourth outfielder, and he had no idea that he had taken his last major league at bat. I wish I would have known. I wish he would have known.
Anyway, it is time to get back to business. PFP is out of the way, and now it is time to find a squad with which to break camp. We got a bona fide power hitter in Gary Sheffield, and lost a bona fide left handed specialist in Jamie Walker. What's funny is everyone said Sheffield was old when he signed with the Tigers, but no one said Walker was almost as old when he left them. The only thing saving Walker is that he didn't have to mop up as many games last year than in previous years. If Baltimore over-uses him, his career could be over before it starts there.
Sheffield will be fine. If he can handle being the Designated Hitter for about 100 games, and only getting about 40-50 in the field (a few at first base, maybe), he will be fine and he will hit 35 home runs. Ledezma can fill in for Walker. He was lights out in early innings, and then tended to get tired. Put him in for a hitter or two, or an inning or two on some occasions, and he will be fine as well.
Sean Casey will hit about .300. Polanco and Guillen will be fine if they don't get hurt. Inge is primed to break out and hit about .275/25/100. You still have Pudge, Maggs, Granderson and Monroe. Marcus Thames should get some at bats, or be excellent trade bait at midseason. If the pitching staff can hold it together, this year looks to be as good as the last. Except everyone this time is gunning for them...
