Okay, so what's happened to Valverde? Did anyone pick him up yet? The problem with Valverde is his 9M salary expectation. At age 34, with his better days behind him, two pitches everyone has seen over the years, and his battles with his weight, I don't see anyone having interest. What if the Tigers were to resign him under a fat-arse/performace based contract like the one Delmon Young recently signed with the Phillies? Sign him to a 2M base contract with incentives for making weight under AMA guidelines, not blowing games, and other performance based bonuses. Regardless, I don't see him making anywhere close to 9M next season.
One thing the Tigers won't miss during 2013 is Delmon Young's plodding around in Left Field and his lackluster performances at the plate during the regular season.
One thing the Tigers will miss during 2013 is how Delmon Young turns into the hitting machine come playoff time (ALCS MVP). Overall, I kinda liked the anti-semite, hate-spewing, twinkie-eating, racist bastard.
Okay, how many games will our closers blow during 2013? Given the Tigers hitting and starting pitching, you just know we're going to have a bunch of 1-3 run leads going into the 8th inning. We shall see. At least we'll have some room for Rondon to develop.
I was sad to see Don Kelly being moved down to Toledo since I feel he is a valuable utility man to have on the bench. Yeah, he's not a great hitter but he can play every position with credibility. At least we can call him up when needed.
Laird has a surprisingly good year backing up Alex Avila. Now that he's gone I am someone concerned who will handle the backup duties since there is no way Martinez steps behind the plate in 2013.
Ryan Raburn (aka Gene Rayburn) and Dan Schlereth are gone, which is an improvement.
I see Boesch getting little playing time on this years team.
Folks under the gun: Rick Porcello and Brennan Boesch.
