Upton

[StriveGreatness]

Money isn't a problem for this franchise and I don't think Upton's contract is all that bad:

2013: 9.75
2014: 14.25
2015: 14.5

Adding his contract would be the equivalent of adding someone like Hunter or Swisher.

If Sanchez wants that, he most likely won't get it but there's still some guys on the market we could bring in to fill the back end of the rotation like Brandon McCarthy or Ryan Dempster.

Also, the depth has been poor for awhile now but that's because DD has built this team off trades and FA signings:

Miggy - Trade
Peralta - Trade
Jackson - Trade
Infante - Trade
Scherzer - Trade
Fister - Trade
Sanchez - Trade
Coke - Trade

Fielder - FA signing
Dotel - FA signing
Benoit - FA signing
VMart - FA signing

Home grown talent that produce? JV, Dirks, Porcello, Avila..

[lionsfanphil]

Do the d backs have a decent sp that could get thrown in the deal. They said it would prolly be upton and someone else coming as well. If we lose smyly and sanchez I will def worry about our rotation.

[Old_English_D]

If Arizona wants to trade Upton for Boesch and Smyly then i do that all day long... But seriously doubt Arizona would make that trade.. I mean if you were them would you make it? I doubt it.... But hey if they want to do something like that then pull the trigger in no more than 2 seconds

[Mattpaw24]

Money isn't a problem for this franchise and I don't think Upton's contract is all that bad:

2013: 9.75
2014: 14.25
2015: 14.5

Adding his contract would be the equivalent of adding someone like Hunter or Swisher.

If Sanchez wants that, he most likely won't get it but there's still some guys on the market we could bring in to fill the back end of the rotation like Brandon McCarthy or Ryan Dempster.

Also, the depth has been poor for awhile now but that's because DD has built this team off trades and FA signings:

Miggy - Trade
Peralta - Trade
Jackson - Trade
Infante - Trade
Scherzer - Trade
Fister - Trade
Sanchez - Trade
Coke - Trade

Fielder - FA signing
Dotel - FA signing
Benoit - FA signing
VMart - FA signing

Home grown talent that produce? JV, Dirks, Porcello, Avila..

I get what you're saying, and I do agree that for a high payroll team like us who isn't afraid to sign big free agents or take on big contracts in trades, the farm system is less important than for a team like the Indians or Royals. But a lot of those trades you mentioned were only able to happen because we had quality prospects to trade. Maybin and Miller for Cabrera. Turner and Brantly for Infante and Sanchez. Martinez, Wells and Furbush for Fister. I'm okay with trading young, unproven prospects for proven big league talent that can help us win now, but if we continue to make a habit of it the well's going to run dry and we won't be able to make moves like the one's we've made in the past. I'm not saying that means we absolutely shouldn't trade Nick C or Garcia, but I think we need to make sure we do so wisely because prospects like these don't grow on trees.

[sc8581]

I get what you're saying, and I do agree that for a high payroll team like us who isn't afraid to sign big free agents or take on big contracts in trades, the farm system is less important than for a team like the Indians or Royals. But a lot of those trades you mentioned were only able to happen because we had quality prospects to trade. Maybin and Miller for Cabrera. Turner and Brantly for Infante and Sanchez. Martinez, Wells and Furbush for Fister. I'm okay with trading young, unproven prospects for proven big league talent that can help us win now, but if we continue to make a habit of it the well's going to run dry and we won't be able to make moves like the one's we've made in the past. I'm not saying that means we absolutely shouldn't trade Nick C or Garcia, but I think we need to make sure we do so wisely because prospects like these don't grow on trees.

Well said. IMO Smyly has proven that he's a big league pitcher, Garcia has proven that he's at worst a 4th outfielder, and Castellanos is one of the top prospects in all of baseball, so I wouldn't make that deal.

[drewstantontime]

Justin Upton would do so much for this team. Hitting with Cabrera, Prince, and V-Mart would allow him to see some good pitches and allow him to be a statistics machine. He would be insurance also if V-Mart comes back and struggles. His defense is great and would really help our team defense to improve. Dealing away top prospects and MLB ready talent is steep, but even with Cabrera and Prince in the lineup our offense struggled this year at times. It would be nice to see them add a bg time bat to the lineup with speed and power. If Garcia, Smyly, and Nick C is the asking price, then I say do it. With Upton in the OF and Cabrera plying 3rd, we wouldnt have anywhere to put Nick C anyway

[lionsfanphil]

All I worry about is who will be our #5 if we let smyly go. I don't think any of the other guys in the minors are the answer. If we could resign Sanchez then I would def. do it.

[melissag]

That is way too much to give up for Upton (or for most any players honestly). What I think bothers me most is Upton has had 1 good season, the rest have been maybe a little better than mediocre. His career BA is around .275 (give or take) and he avgs like 70 ish RBIs a year. He's also young, did have a fantastic season and he's cheap (i think it's like 8mil/year through 2016) so if he's that good, and that cheap, why are they so quick and determined to unload him. They have been trying to deal him since the trade deadline in 2011, there has to be something wrong. If he really is the next superstar everyone is tripping over to get, why are they so bent on trading him? It makes little sense. There has to be something in the bigger picture that nobody is letting on about.
I would much rather have a Tori Hunter. He fill the corner outfield need nicely, he will be relatively inexpensive because of his age, and he brings a great veteran presence not only to the clubhouse, but to the outfield. He's a solid pick and doesn't cost us any of our talent. It also frees up some talent for the trade deadline if DD decides to go that route. I like Smyly and Garcia, and am interested to see what Castellanos will bring to the table when he's ready.

[Mattpaw24]

That is way too much to give up for Upton (or for most any players honestly). What I think bothers me most is Upton has had 1 good season, the rest have been maybe a little better than mediocre. His career BA is around .275 (give or take) and he avgs like 70 ish RBIs a year. He's also young, did have a fantastic season and he's cheap (i think it's like 8mil/year through 2016) so if he's that good, and that cheap, why are they so quick and determined to unload him. They have been trying to deal him since the trade deadline in 2011, there has to be something wrong. If he really is the next superstar everyone is tripping over to get, why are they so bent on trading him? It makes little sense. There has to be something in the bigger picture that nobody is letting on about.
I would much rather have a Tori Hunter. He fill the corner outfield need nicely, he will be relatively inexpensive because of his age, and he brings a great veteran presence not only to the clubhouse, but to the outfield. He's a solid pick and doesn't cost us any of our talent. It also frees up some talent for the trade deadline if DD decides to go that route. I like Smyly and Garcia, and am interested to see what Castellanos will bring to the table when he's ready.

Agreed. It would be different if there were no free agent options, but I really don't see the need to trade away our best prospects when there are some good free agent options out there. I think we should make Hunter an offer for a couple years. He's getting old but his numbers last year were better than Upton's. He can keep the outfield warm until Garcia or Castellanos is ready to take over. If not Hunter then I think we should make an offer to B.J. Upton. B.J. had more homers, RBI, and stolen bases than his brother did last year and honestly the more I think about B.J. Upton on this team the more excited I get. I wrote something yesterday about his average being awful the last four years, and that he would hinder our team in that sense, but now I'm thinking that his power and particularly his speed could be a huge asset for us.

[sc8581]

That is way too much to give up for Upton (or for most any players honestly). What I think bothers me most is Upton has had 1 good season, the rest have been maybe a little better than mediocre. His career BA is around .275 (give or take) and he avgs like 70 ish RBIs a year. He's also young, did have a fantastic season and he's cheap (i think it's like 8mil/year through 2016) so if he's that good, and that cheap, why are they so quick and determined to unload him. They have been trying to deal him since the trade deadline in 2011, there has to be something wrong. If he really is the next superstar everyone is tripping over to get, why are they so bent on trading him? It makes little sense. There has to be something in the bigger picture that nobody is letting on about.
I would much rather have a Tori Hunter. He fill the corner outfield need nicely, he will be relatively inexpensive because of his age, and he brings a great veteran presence not only to the clubhouse, but to the outfield. He's a solid pick and doesn't cost us any of our talent. It also frees up some talent for the trade deadline if DD decides to go that route. I like Smyly and Garcia, and am interested to see what Castellanos will bring to the table when he's ready.

Probably because they know that a player like Upton doesn't have as much value as what he can bring back, superstar or not. It's kinda like how if DD knew what he was doing he would trade Verlander and Cabrera and be able to fill all of our holes with good players and add a couple nice players to our farm system as well.

[Mattpaw24]

Probably because they know that a player like Upton doesn't have as much value as what he can bring back, superstar or not. It's kinda like how if DD knew what he was doing he would trade Verlander and Cabrera and be able to fill all of our holes with good players and add a couple nice players to our farm system as well.

What would be the point of trading Verlander when he can win you a game all by himself? I get your logic of trading mega superstar players in the name of team balance, but it's a little different with pitchers.

You're idea about Cabrera is interesting, and you and I both will probably get lambasted for even mentioning this, but I do think it's intriguing to think about whether or not trading him, or any superstar player for that matter, would make our team better. It all comes down to the idea of whether it's better to have a few quality major leaguers or one amazing one. Let's look at a hypothetical situation. Let's say that the Rangers wanted to trade us Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus and Nelson Cruz for Miggy, would you do it? Would that make us a better team? It would solve all of our major issues. Shortstop and corner outfield are covered and we get better defensively at third. We could still go out and sign a Torri Hunter or BJ Upton to round out the outfield. I'm not saying I would do it, but it's interesting to think about.

I was thinking about this same thing when I watched the world series because I realized that the Giants really don't have any huge superstar players apart from Buster Posey and he's a home grown talent. But they also don't have any holes in their team like we do. Let's just say we were to do the above mentioned trade and then sign Torri Hunter:

Jackson
Andrus
Beltre
Fielder
Martinez
Hunter
Cruz
Avila
Infante

In all honesty I think that's a better lineup than we had this year. Less holes and more speed. It's important to note that this particular trade would never happen because Cruz is a free agent in 2014, Andrus in 2015, and Beltre in 2016 but it's been more of an attempt to show what trading Cabrera could possibly do for us.

[kokes]

don't get me wrong Miggy is the best hitter in baseball but there is NO WAY in hell Texas would give up 3 top players at their positions for him (nor would any other GM)...if they trade Miggy the best they could get is 2 good mlb players and a high prospect....but eh, if a GM was dumb enough to trade a Beltre, Andrus, Cruz type package for him then all DD better say is, HELL YES!!!

[Mattpaw24]

You're probably right. Maybe just Beltre and Andrus would be more realistic.

[melissag]

The Tigers are intent on making JV and Miggy career Tigers, along with Prince (that's why he was added) Those 3 should be retiring as Tigers and Miggy and JV for sure will be wearing the old english D heading into Cooperstown. I'm sure that with a couple of WS titles Prince will be going there too, I just don't see him as a cut and dry 1st ballot like the other 2. Sure they could probably get a couple of stop-gaps for Miggy or JV but plugging holes to make new ones isn't really a good idea. The Tigers are a force because of those 2 players, both players have the ability to turn it on enough to win games almost by themselves. Their presence creates enough intimidation to scare other clubs. Why would you even think of getting rid of that. Mr Ilitch wants a championship, maybe a couple. I'm sure his kids are willing to continue that belief for years to come. He did so much for the Wings for so long, it's his Tigers' turn to go on the 20 year playoff streak and those 2 are the biggest part of that thinking.

[Old_English_D]

Who cares if they give up the # 5 starter lol... If they sign Sanchez they they won't need a # 5... Plus you gotta give up something to get something.. Doubt Zona is trying to trade him for a couple Turds