On September 6th, the Detroit Tigers had a 7 game lead on the Minnesota Twins. Well, today those same Twins are preparing for game 2 of the ALDS against the Yankees. What happen to the lead? That question will never really be answered, but we can all speculate. Was it the lack of getting runs in with runners in scoring position? Was it the injuries to Washburn and having no one to replace him in the rotation? Or was it that the team just overachieved the entire season?
This team was predicted by almost every baseball expert, from ESPN to Yahoo! Sports, to finish fourth or even last in the Central Division this year. Despite this, they were in first place almost the entire year. With a payroll of $115 million it should have never come down to an extra game to decide the division champ. Many of the players on this high payroll however never contributed to anything significant. They had injuries to Jeremy Bonderman, Joel Zumaya, Armando Galarraga, Nate Robertson, and Dontrelle Willis. Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez didn’t contribute anything to the team until the second half of the season. We had to patch things together by playing players such as Clete Thomas, Wilkin Ramirez, Ryan Raburn, Fu-Te Ni, and Don Kelly. No matter whom we played, with the division lead all year we should be playing tonight not the Twins.
With that said, what changes can be made to get us to the playoffs next season? Well…not much. Many of the high priced salaried players that I mentioned earlier will still be on the books next year with an additional loss of key players. Fernando Rodney and Placido Palanco, two key cogs to this year’s success, will both be free agents in the off-season. Placido might cost you 3 years at $8 million per and Rodney will cost you at least $10 million a year after the great year he had. Let’s not forget Magglio Ordonez will get $18 million next season, and Granderson will get a $2 million raise. If you count all that, the payroll could go up to roughly $130-$140 million next year. If that’s the case, do not expect Ilitch to go out and spend lots of money to improve on this year. This could be our actual lineup next season: CF-Curtis Granderson, LF-Ryan Raburn, RF-Magglio Ordonez, 1B-Miguel Cabrera, DH-Carlos Guillen, 3B-Brandon Inge, C-Alex Avila, SS-Adam Everett (granted they resign him), and 2B-Scott Sizemore. If you think our team had no offense this year just wait till next.
I’m no baseball expert but all I have to say is, save your money for the 2011 season. Good Luck getting through next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment