Tigers sign Prince Fielder, petition for second utility slot

I wonder if the Dodgers would be willing to move Dee Gordon? He's the perfect fit for the Tigers as a speedy shortstop. Of course, it would cost the Tigers, but I'd be comfortable letting Jacob Turner go to the Dodgers.....Baseball America still has Turner rated the better long term prospect, so I'm sure the Dodgers would be enticed by putting him in the rotation with Kershaw. I think you could put Gordon in the leadoff spot vs RHP and Austin Jackson in the leadoff role vs LHP, and put the odd man in the 9 hole. That move would allow the Tigers to move Peralta back to 3B for this season and platoon Miggy & Prince at 1b/DH. Miggy could continue to work on his conditioning to eventually go back to full time 3b next season when VMart comes back. Peralta's contract would be up, and you'd let him walk. Looking even further up the road....VMart would only have two seasons left on his deal. By that time, you can go back to the Prince/Miggy platoon...Nick Castellanos would be ready to be the everyday 3b, and you thank VMart for giving his final good years as he goes off in the sunset. The biggest key to Gordon is he would give good range in the infield & speed on the bases...which would make us all feel a little better about some of the Tiger's biggest flaws. PIPE DREAM!!!!

I can see Fielder and Cabrera are going to make each other better already..Slugfest contest..and don't forget Delmon, Boesch, Peralta,Avila...this is gonna be a sight to behold..

(One sleeper I do like: whomever bats No. 2 in this lineup, in front of Cabrera and Fielder. Get healthy soon, Brennan Boesch.)

same thing with number 5... delmon young. prince miggy get on at over a 400 clip. He may lead baseball in rbi opps.

I think Leyland has just put his feet up on the desk lit a Marlboro and is thinking to himself what shall I do here..?

Everyone seems to forget that trades can happen at any time. Who knows who will be traded away and who get added. This will be an interesting year for the Tigers. They will have a much clearer picture of what to do for the '13 season with Martinez coming back.

Matt Kemp might be number 1 in a full player universe seeing as he stole 40 bases, hit 39 bombs, batted .324, scored 115 runs, and knocked in 126 runs. ON THE DODGERS. Easy #1 pick getting a major 5 tool offensive player.

NL pitchers have to be loving this offseason.

So is Votto the #1 pick in NL-only leagues now?

Good move by Detroit. Stockpile offensive talent first -- worry about where they're going to play later. Hell, you don't even have a pressing positional problem until 2013. There's no doubt in my mind that you just go ahead and let V-Mart completely recuperate this season and figure out the logistics of how he fits in next offseason (if his recovery time is longer than expected, maybe you even try to trade him?).

Cabrera to third is probably an experiment worth trying at some point just to see how things go (his replacement value for Inge would be off the charts). I actually don't mind the Tigers OF (when you have Fielder/Miggy, it doesn't have to be *outstanding*, just merely above-average, which I think it is), but it looks like they're pursuing Johnny Damon. I guess they want a proven leadoff hitter, which I suppose makes sense (I would not recommend a deal any longer than one year, however).

Nine years seems a little steep for Fielder for my tastes, but they probably did what they felt like they had to do to lock him up. I get the feeling that about halfway through his contract he's probably going to be resembling a DH, anyway, so at that point you can just move Cabrera back to 1B (perhaps they'll have developed a nice young 3B prospect by then). Martinez's contract will have been up by then, anyway (if they decide to hang with him for the entirety of it, that is).

This all seems pretty smart to me -- with a little luck, this is going to work out like clockwork. I don't really see how this qualifies as a prototypical "logjam" situation at all (here's one that I think actually does: the current Toronto outfield).

It will be interesting to see how many unearned runs the Tigers give up this year. Fielder is not a terrible 1B, but considering that entire infield is below average I can see this team losing some games due to errors or base hits getting through due to lack of range. They are still the best team in the AL Central by far.

I will have to stay away from Prince in FB this year, takes time to readjust to your new surroundings......Good luck to all

There is no such thing as "to much" of anything in baseball... having Migg/Prince/Vic all healthy is a "problem" every team would love to have!! I wish Sparky was around to see this!!!

Despite his size, Fielder's a pretty good defensive 1st baseman. Although not fast, he's athletic, quick and good at the position. I'd be surprised if he doesn't get the majority of starts there (I don't think you want to sit the big man at this stage of his career) and is not more of an asset than a liability in the field.

The Tigers will love the first half of this deal. They have 4 years to figure out what to do with Fielder then. That's a high class problem to have. Tigers win AL Central again this year - heaven help the league when Victor returns. Dombrowski did well here.

Fielder and Cabrera will end up spliting time at DH.

With technonlogy the way it is, players can hang around a lot longer than they used to. So I'm not worried about the length of Fielder's contract. Why does anyone worry about the Tigers spending habits? Stop. Enjoy the season. Hope it all works out and leave these problem issues where they belong...with the Tigers management!

Anyone saying the Tigers will eventually regret this are overlooking the ring or two or three Detroit will have won by then.

I could probably see miggy cabs at number one, especially if he gets that 3b eligibility. definitely a top 10 as is.

Fielder though, I'm not super big on, and definitely think he'll be generating more buzz than he's worth. Not to say he isn't good (he is), but he just came off something like a career year, the gap between highs and lows is too much. I'm waiting until the middle of round two to take him, which is where I woulda taken him if he were still a brewer.

Defense is overrated. When the Cards signed Berkman last year to play outfield after he struggled through the second half of 2010 as a DH for the Yankees, all the sportswriter laughed. Berkman was a big part of the reason the Cardinals won it all and even made the playoff in the first place. In 2010, Brian Sabean acquired to DHs to play outfield (Pat Burrell, Jose Guillen) and the added offensive punch pushed the Giants to the playoff and ultimately won it all. The Tigers clearly now have one of the best lineups in baseball. I don't care how bad their defense is. The Mets went to the World Series with Mike Piazza as their everyday catcher. Jim Leyland is an old school manager like Tony La Russa and he knows defensive metric is useless. The best defense is dominant pitching and the Tigers have Verlander. I don't know why the Tigers signed Gerald Laird when V-Mart (before he got hurt) and Brandon Inge could both play backup catcher to Alex Avila. The outfield is pretty weak (Austin Jackson, Delmon Young, and Brennen Boesch don't scare anyone). If I were the Tigers, I would move Cabrera to 3rd, plug Fielder at first, make Raburn the everyday second baseman, get rid of Laird, make Inge the super utility guy and backup catcher, and sign another veteran bats to DH and make some starts in the outfield (Hideki Matsui, Vladimir Guerrero, Johnny Damon, Magglio Ordonez, or Raul Ibanez) as a stopgap for V-Mart (I really don't want to see Young and Boesch to be in the lineup everyday).

Get back soon Vic!! Take a look at that LU..