Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera
Thursday marked the last day of baseball’s annual offseason Winter Meetings. Surprisingly, the Florida Marlins found a taker for Dontrelle Willis and his declining numbers. Not surprisingly, the Marlins found a taker for Miguel Cabrera, aka Alex Rodriguez part deux. Surprisingly again, the same team took both.
It’s been said that the Marlins probably wouldn’t have been so eager to trade Cabrera if he wasn’t so overweight. Sure he possibly might have weighed 250 plus whiling playing third base. Sure he had 23 errors. Sure he hit .320 with career highs in HRs (34) and RBIs (119). Wait, isn’t that last part a good thing?
Those numbers are especially good when looking at how much the team has regressed from the 2006 season. If anything, the team should have been more competitive with Cabrera and (in some circles the best player in MLB) Hanley Ramirez on the left side of the infield.
But their young pitching failed them (some say it’s the fault of the coaching) , which was supposed to be a strength. How else do you explain the decline of Willis, the poor health of Anibal Sanchez, and Josh Johnson? When one young pitcher goes down with a season-ending injury, it’s a tragedy. When that number rises, it’s probably organizational-related.
The two main attractions for the new Marlins are super talented OF Cameron Maybin and SP Andrew Miller. It’s one thing that the Marlins do have are amazing talent scouts. They certainly know which players to trade for in deals… just ask the Boston Red Sox. Of course, no one doubts the potential of Maybin and Miller, but it’s the other four prospects that might have the Detroit Tigers kicking themselves in a few years. We’ll just have to wait and see on Mike Rabelo, Dallas Trahern, Eulogio de la Cruz, and Burke Badenhop.
Let’s just say if the team had at least a winning season, despite the certain $10 million salary for Cabrera next year, it would have been worth it because they had quality pitching.
____
Here’s a cool image of might possibly be my favorite film of 2007: Danny Boyle’s Sunshine.
