By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
January 20, 2016
When news broke on Monday evening that it appeared Justin Upton — the best free-agent still available on the market — was coming to Detroit to solidify left field I figured this INCREDIBLE news would be met with universal praise.
I was as giddy about the acquisition as Jared Fogle would be sitting at a table inside Jungle Java watching the kids gleefully play in the ball-pit. I mean, what was there NOT to like about this transaction?!!??!?!
The Tigers went from a left field platoon of Cameron Maybin, Tyler Collins and Mike Aviles to a dude in the PRIME OF HIS CAREER coming off a season in which he earned a WAR of 4.4.
And the best part of all this was it didn’t cost us anything but a THIRD-ROUND pick in the draft and a few crumbs off Mike Ilitch’s 5.4 billion-dollar stockpile of cash.
Not only that, this was the last move of an offseason where every other need had been addressed, either via trade or free-agency. Hell, some previous moves were probably rendered superfluous considering the eventual Upton deal (hello, Maybin) but this final piece of the puzzle fell into place following the acquisitions of Jordan Zimmermann, Francisco Rodriguez, Justin Wilson, Mark Lowe, Mike Pelfrey, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Aviles and Maybin.
Furthermore, none of the above-mentioned new talent cost the team any PRIME assets they had acquired during the July fire sale when David Price, Yoenis Cespedes and Joakim Soria were dealt for prospects.
Pissing and moaning about the Upton signing would be the equivalent of bombing Dairy Queen for offering free Blizzards because it would be insensitive to the lactose intolerant.
Yet there were some dumbfucks in this [Trout] awful town who didn’t like the signing. 97.1 talker Mike Valenti was negative about the move. A guy who I had never heard of until earlier this week who goes by the name of Mike Sullivan was all over Twitter poo-pooing the pickup.
(I later learned that “Sully” is Valenti’s producer and not a member of Whitey Bulger’s crew as I initially surmised.)
Then, of course, the disingenuous troll Drew Sharp chimed in by pissing all over the Upton signing. Of course, we can’t really be sure if those are Sharp’s true feelings or if the unrepentant PLAGIARIST just STOLE them from Valenti or Sullivan.
There was also some tea-bagger dipshit from Toledo sports talk radio who was against Upton’s Detroit arrival because he hit .251 last year with “only” 81 RBI.
Of course, it’s hard to argue sabermetrics with an imbecile who most likely believes the dinosaurs and man cohabited the planet 6,000 years ago.
(The fact that many in this town still live and die by pitcher wins, batting average and RBI is a testament to the total dumbing down of the baseball discourse by the media, from Condescending Baggins railing against WAR to the Virginal Manatee attempting to figure out how to calculate WHIP.)
Let’s be clear about one thing here. Up until Monday at around 9pm when news started breaking that the Tigers were on the verge of landing Upton, this team was pretty fucked in left field. Maybin’s not a very good hitter, Collins can’t field worth shit and his career OPS in Toledo makes you think he will forever be a 4-A player. Aviles?
He is Mike Aviles, for Christ’s sake.
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And while the signing of Upton is no guarantee of a playoff berth or divisional title, it is most likely worth three wins (conservatively) in the standings in 2016, which very well could be the difference between the postseason and sitting at home with our dick in our hands for the second year running.
Which leads us back to the insanely incredible job that freshly-minted GM Al Avila — with the help of his analytical team that includes Jay Sartori, Sam Menzin and Christopher Long — did this offseason.
That crew didn’t solve every problem the 2015 Tigers had but they sure did the best they could in ONE offseason. The front office added the best starting pitcher who was willing to take their money in Zimmermann.
They avoided the landmine of Scott Boras smooth-talking Ilitch about the benefits of adding another guy who SHOULD be a DH (Chris Davis) to the roster.
They even shockingly picked the correct left fielder in Upton over Cespedes, who is not only at least a couple years older than Upton — if you can believe Yo’s Cuban birth certificate — but is not as much of a threat to get on base.
Consider that in a career year — and a potential anomaly due to a contract push — Cespedes enjoyed an OBP of .328. Even in his worse OBP year ever, Upton was still at .336 in 2015.
And don’t kid yourself. The Tigers’ largest remaining hole as of three days ago was someone who could bat second in front of Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez.
And Upton at 28 years old is the much better option to set the table for Miggy and JD-Mart. It’s not even close when you look at the numbers.
And shut the fuck up about this narrative that the former #1 overall pick in the MLB Entry Draft is somehow on the downside of his career. His WAR of 4.4 was the second best figure he has put up in his career.
And what recent mega-money free-agent positional player signing hasn’t actually performed better in Detroit than in his previous stop? From Pudge Rodriguez to Magglio Ordonez to Victor Martinez, Ilitch is batting about 1.000 in adding big name bats during the winter even if you include Prince Fielder sans October.
I’ll give the Tigers the benefit of the doubt with Upton since we heard some of these same idiots say the same crap about CESPEDES last offseason!!!!
The other item that the naysayers seem to forget is while this team did finish in dead last place in 2015, it’s not like it was a last-place team. They rightfully quit in July at the deadline when they unloaded their best starter, their top reliever and a guy who got some MVP run in the NATIONAL LEAGUE.
If Dave Dombrowski hadn’t run this franchise’s minor league system into the ground, the Tigers probably could have been buyers at the deadline and ridden Price and Justin Verlander’s arms to a potential Wild Card berth.
But they had absolutely nothing to offer other teams if they were serious about fixing the starting rotation and bullpen for another postseason run. That is why it was the editorial position of this website on JULY 1ST to sell anything of value.
And the plan has worked out perfectly. They’ve played whack-a-mole with their shortcomings during the last couple of months without degrading their replenished minor-league system.
They probably even went a little overboard with the signing of Pelfrey when you could have given Shane Greene, Matt Boyd or Buck Farmer an opportunity to win the final rotation spot until Michael Fulmer is ready for that role — hopefully by the All-Star break.
Hell, Greene was penciled into the fourth starter role last offseason and he is currently a mere afterthought. And if the repair on his circumflex artery was successful and he can rebound to his 2014 levels that would be the kind of depth the team did not have last year.
Consider that the team doesn’t seem to be counting on either Greene or Bruce Rondon much at all entering 2016 and you have an idea that they might have more potential answers when the shit inevitably hits the fan.
They have added about a third of a team this offseason and the only non-draft pick asset they gave up was Ian Krol. And I use the word “asset” about as loosely as my bowels are after eating a few Hunter’s House hamburgers.
So if holes do need to be filled at the deadline THIS year, they should have enough to swing a trade.
And they were even fortunate enough to keep their 9th overall selection in this June’s draft — even after the free-agent splurge — due to the fact they intelligently gave up on the lost 2015 season and finished in the bottom ten of MLB standings.
As Hannibal Smith used to say ….
Yeah, yeah .. I know that Brad Ausmus is still the manager. And I am under no delusion that any of this will matter if Anibal Sanchez stinks again, V-Mart hits like Don Kelly for a second consecutive season and JV or Miggy spend a lot of time on the DL.
But I am just trying to be positive in a shitstorm of idiocy.