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Polanco
Special player, special chemistry.....JL: "Comes to play, is a gamer..." Polanco hits in the 2nd slot as well as anyone, hits behind runners, moves 'em up and rarely K's. His defense is superb even at 34. The only drawback is that he is aging some and just simply will not be quicker, with the bat or on his dogs. I can put up with slower, as long as it isn't a complete dropoff like Maggs. Will Sizemore fill his cleats? DD might be willing to take that chance if he thinks we can't win it all anyway in 2010; likely that would be his thinking. Might as well break Sizemore in because we're screwed in any case. Soooo, seeing Polanco back in my opinion is about 50/50 and I sure wish it weren't so. Sizemore does need a chance to prove his worth...Fortunately, I am not Mr. I's age with a yen to win now because I can't wait any more. In a few years though, I might not be buying green bananas either.
Knowin' THEN What You NOW Know (Or, Where's Your WHAT?) III
Here's flip your way, U.P. If you're tu-nin' in to-night, guy by the name o' "Bradshaw" is gonna be ma-shin' the but-tons for the W squad. Keep an eye (the good 1) on him. NO GAME TONIGHT.
Polanco
"..hitting in the No. 2 slot. His slugging pct is irrelevant." Strongly disagree. No matter where you are hitting, extra base hits (which slugging pct. measures) will create runs. Do you really believe that all of A Trammel's doubles and home runs were of no value added during all those years in which he held down the second spot in the order?
Polanco
All of the comments about keeping Polanco are persuasive, and mostly logical.
But they fail to point out one thing. His age. If one had a crystal ball and could tell me that PP will continue to perform in '10 and '11 the way he did the second half of '09, then I'd agree to bringing him back.
But middle infielders entering their mid-30's typically regress, and it's my opinion we'll be seeing more of the first half Polanco next year, then the second half Polanco.
I know, that's only opinion. But it's only opinion for those that want to keep Polanco that the opposite will occur.
Offer PP arby and sign him for another year? We could do worse. But a 2 or 3 year contract? Hello Guillen redux.
Polanco
Middle infielders play a primarily defensive position. Polanco is one of the best defensive second basemen.
His OBP is .351 for three years prior to 2009, and .357 for the second half of 2009. Clearly, the aberration was the first half of 2009.
The Tigers have their second baseman hitting in the No. 2 slot. His slugging pct is irrelevant. He hits .330 with runners on base, and he moves runners as well as any No. 2 hitter. That's his job, not slugging.
Every team needs a second baseman, and every team needs a no. 2 hitter in their lineup, not just the teams that have one eligible for post season awards. Unless you go at least 14 deep on the charts, your results are necessarily incomplete.
If the Tigers are going to replace Polanco, they have to replace the No. 2 hitter in the lineup, get a hitter that can move runners, and replace his glove at second base. Sizemore can do none of the above as well, and he isn't likely to log a .350 plus OBP in the short term, so they'll have to get a shortstop or a player at another position to replace what Polanco has provided in the lineup, and they'll take a hit defensively regardless.
There is a reason that Polanco is a Type A free agent. He is one of the best at his position.
DD Negotiations
I still maintain DD is downplaying Polly and lifting up Mister Broken Ankle, as a negotiation ploy to try to get Polly and his agent to lower their asking price and number of years. I still feel, Polly can continue to play at the level he's been at for the past 2 seasons, for the next 3 years because he takes good care of himself. Yes, he's had injuries but not for the past 3 years, where's he's given the Tigers 629 or more plate appearancesin each of those years.
I disagree Polly is a 310 to 315 hitter, but I do think he's a low 300 hitter. I actually thought that he was going to pull off a big average rise in the last month or two in 2009, like Maggs did. As I recall, Polly did get up over 290 for a game or two, then finished at 285. But again, I really do think that this is all a big negotiation ploy by the Tigers. Don't be surprised if Polly signs back on with Detroit for 2 years, with a club option for a third season, at 6M a year, of if DD has played his cards right, 5 to 5.5M a year. Still a pay raise over the 4.6M Polly made in each of the last 5 seasons, 1 in Philly, 4 in D-Town.
I saw one poster yesterday say Polly is a good double play turner. We found out a few weeks ago, that Mister Broken Ankle is not. How many times over the last 4 years have you seen Polly get wiped out by a runner, barrelling into second, but Polly still got the throw away cleanly to first, completing the double play. He was second among league second basemen in turning DP's this season with 115. I've seen teams in the past flounder badly because they could not turn a double play!
Many have railed on all of the "ground ball" pitchers the Tigers had this year, which would raise Polly's assist totals, to where he was second in the league. Well, I saw only one sinker ball pitcher on the Tigers, a snot nosed kid named Porcello and Porky's presence was not going to raise Polly's assist total to the highest of his 12 MLB year career. It was also not going to raise his double play totals significantly. It's negotiation time folks and that's just what DD is doing, negotiating in the media.
Polanco
Of 11 second basemen in the AL eligible for post season awards in 2009, Polanco was 9th in OBP, last in slugging, and last in OPs. That's bottom tier.
The Money and Paying the Piper
Make that 16 million plus Sheffield's 13.6 million comes off the books in 2010.
The Money and Paying the Piper
Tiger payroll was $129,598,000 in 2009, including the $ 4 million of Sheffield's salary that is deferred. $ 16 million comes off the books for 2010, with most of that eaten up by scheduled pay raises and arbitration increases, and another $ 65 million comes off the books after the 2010 season. Not that they'll spend any of it, but they can.
The Red Wings had an $ 80 million payroll before the owners busted the union and implemented a hard salary cap, setting payroll below $ 40 million and will adjust from there. For the Red Wings, that's pure profit.
We're led to believe that Illitch was in on the decision to let Magglio vest. If he does that, and won't spend to put a contender on the field in 2010, he's a lousy owner.
Polanco
Sorry,change that to knowledgeable.
The Money and Paying the Piper
TD: Ilitch is worth $1.6B.....okay, I get how big that is but the Tigers payroll is $140M NOT counting what it costs to run the front office, the entire minor league system and to pay for equipment and other expenses. I'm sure that's got to be at least 20% of Mr. I's net worth in a year. I haven't even gobbled on the Wings yet, nor have I gotten into what the economy has to be doing to the sports, entertainment and pizza pie biz. That's a lot of bread against only $1.6B. Uh? Astounding but he can probably shell out a few shekels or obloys for some better players over the winter. Have to agree with you that Polanco deserves to be re-signed. Rodney won't be because no idiot would re-sign a closer unless he was named Rivera for more than two years. Lyon is a better bet but they're both "closers" who have histories of tanking on one good year. Just look at Putz. Heck. I don't know. That's why I like DD......he does.
Polanco
The knowedgrable left coaster corrects the silly left coaster.
Sad
With tears in his eyes and visions of a misty day in May,David Dombrowski released Matt Treanor.
Polanco
Not even close to a "bottom tier" second baseman. Chris D's continued bashing of Polanco is factually incorrect and unsubstantiated by facts. The fact is that Polanco is a .310- .315 hitter, with a .350 plus OBP, as he has shown for the past three seasons and as he showed after the all star break again. He had a slow start to the season, that's it.
As a No. 2 hitter, Polanco ranked third in AB's, fifth in runs scored, third in hits, fourth in doubles, third in triples, eighth in homers, third in RBI, and according to fangraphs.com, he was still the best fielding second baseman in the league.
More to the point, there is no reason whatsoever to think that Scott Sizemore could nearly replace what Polanco gives the Tigers. His 21 errors in the minor leagues can not be glossed over. If the Tigers let Polanco go, their lie about signing Everett for his defense will be further exposed. Everett was signed because he was cheap. Same reason that they would let Polanco go. I have been an advocate for Sizemore for several years, but Sizemore won't put up a .350 OBP, won't play gold glove caliber defense, can't be the No. 2 hitter, can't move runners like Polanco, and can't replace Polanco either in the lineup or on the field. Comparing Sizemore to Whitaker is silly.
Tigers
It still sounds as if the Tigers won't go beyond 2 years for
Rodney----some team will offer a 3rd year. It is starting to
sound like they don't want Lyon as their closer either. Which
means they will have Perry and Zumaya, which isn't all that bad if Zumaya is healthy, throwing strikes--he seems to lose the plate at times,and perhaps bring in a salary-friendly pitcher similar to the amount they gave to Lyon last year.
Unfortunately, I say that because of the lack of offense, it
appears Everett will be back at ss. I was hoping the Tigers
would sign somebody like Orlando Cabrera but that doesn't look
likely. It is almost a foregone conclusion that Sizemore inherits second base beginning next season. Hopefully, the Tigers compensation for losing Polanco proves to be valuable. Prospects like Wells, Roesch, Ramirez, Weinhardt will get good looks during Spring Training but whether they
make the club remains to be seen. I still think they would
help the Tigers improve their offense and be better defensively, as well. Hopefully, Turner and Oliver will ready soon because the chances of Robertson and Bonderman
returning to respectable form are only decent at best. Bonderman if he does could still be one of their top
pitchers and he is still young.He could move up from making a decent return to being a top starter. If Robertson turns it around he would probably just go back to being an average pitcher. Can't help but to already think about the
Tigers after this season with the amount of money that won't be tied-up to players who are on their way out.
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