Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Tiger Prince: Fielder Bolts To Detroit

Eventually, we knew Prince Fielder would sign somewhere for exorbitant amounts of money and years that his new team would likely regret in the future. Well folks, we've found our sucker! Prince will be suiting up for his daddy's old team in the motor city. The Tigers were able to sign the former NL hitter to a measly 9-year, $214M contract.

It's laughable, these contracts that players are getting lately. While the average American is either losing their job or getting pay cuts, baseball players are signing contracts worth $214M. It does offend me slightly. It doesn't offend me enough to not watch, because as a poor American clinging to her job, I need an escape. Baseball is my escape. I don't calculate paychecks (for the most part) during at-bats. I don't want to think about it. I just want to enjoy it.

Regardless, it seems that the fashionable thing to do this season was to be an NL hitter that jumped ship to the AL. Pujols and Fielder are now suiting up for the Angels and the Tigers respectively. Not saying that the NL doesn't have any major talents left, but the AL has definitely gotten scarier. Time will tell how well these truly talented players adapt to life in my favorite league.

The Tigers sign Fielder, and we sign Cody Ross. Something seems slightly off to me...

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Cody Ross or Tim Thomas: Who Has More People Talking?

Clearly, Tim Thomas does. He opted not to meet the president. People are very upset at his decision. I'm not.

I didn't care when Manny did it, and I don't care that Timmy did it. These are sports figures, folks. They're not foreign dignitaries. They're not royalty, or memebers of Congress, or key political figures of any kind. They do not have to attend the White House ceremony if they feel they do not want to be there. I know sports figures are generally held high on a pedestal and expected to act exactly how we want them to, but they are not contractually obligated to appease our expectations in all facets of their lives. If Timmy has strong political objections to the way this country is being run, he has the freedom to express those objections by opting out of the White House visit. Despite how we personally feel about these players, they owe us nothing except to put all of their effort into every game they play... and they don't really even owe us that. They really owe that to the people who pay their paychecks. That's just how it is. If the Bruins have a problem with him not attending, they will fine or punish him, but I still stand by his decision. That's all.

Now, Cody Ross. So we cleared up $6M from Marco Scutaro to turn around and hand half of it to Cody Ross? Don't we have enough utility players already? I thought that money was going towards making a bid for Oswalt? Apparently, we are just in the process of collecting the throwaways of all the other teams. Weird, I feel like we've tried this before and it didn't quite pan out. Cody Ross seems like a very nice guy, from what I've read thus far, but I'll tell you what he is not. He is not a shortstop. He is not Roy Oswalt. Maybe he is an every day right fielder, but we had Josh Reddick and we let him go. Do you know what he is? He's a more expensive Josh Reddick. I love making claims like this with absolutely no data to back it up.

This is how the season is going... trade Lowrie, sign more expensive version of Lowrie.... trade Reddick, sign more expensive version of Reddick. Pile up a bunch of midrange arms and hope that lightning strikes.... or hope that lightning doesn't actually strike because a bunch of lightning stricken pitchers isn't going to do us any good. I'm only being negative because I'm feeling negative, folks. I guess this is my problem... I don't really know WHAT I want the team to do, so I'm going to be unhappy no matter what moves they make. You know, at least until the season starts and it's all sunshine and baseball once again. And hey, there's pretty much zero chance of Keebs bringing back Lugo, so I've always got that. Happy Tuesday everyone.

Monday, January 23, 2012

We Did What?!: Sox Trade Scutaro? WHAT?!

I've been MIA, I know. There's not a whole ton going on with the Sox right now. I've got a lot on my plate. Full time job, wonderful boyfriend who deserves a lot more of my time than I can give to him, demanding family, new puppy, and Patriots in the playoffs (Superbowl! We totally didn't deserve to win that game, but we won! Wooo!), so I figured I would sit back and wait till Spring Training started up. But I'm not happy.

I'm not sure I've been happy with any of Keebler's moves. I know Scut was making $6M, but he was steady, and he was one of the three people who actually bothered to hit in September. Why can't we just stick with a shortstop?! This ridiculousness is exactly the type of thing that prompted this blog. Enough with changing shortstops. You want to PLATOON Mike Aviles and Nick Punto? Just stab me in the eye now. This is dumb. This is dumb, and I don't like it, and I am finding less and less to like about this team. I can't even say the team. It's the management. I cannot figure out what the strategy is.

Forgive me if I'm coming off as whiney. I'm not really feeling well, and I liked Scutaro. I'm really not sure I'm comfortable with what Keebs is doing. I guess we'll have to wait and see if it pans out. I'll miss you, Marco. I wish you nothing but good things, and maybe if the next time we play the Rockies, you hit a ball and it manages to hit Keebs in the stomach somehow, I would not disapprove. Good luck!