Looking Ahead to 2009: Infield – Take 2
Six game winning streak is very nice, but I’ll still look ahead to next year. I really hope the Tigers keep this up, it’ll make the rest of the season much more enjoyable to watch. Hopefully the Tigers will at least be in contention into September, as this will greatly help attendance, which can only help the ball club as a whole.
First Base & Third Base
Read this post – http://oldenglishd.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/looking-ahead-to-2009-part-2-infield
Second Base
Placido Polanco. Done.
Shortstop
Edgar Renteria
Edgar has a $11 million club option for next season. This also has a $3 million buyout, which the Red Sox are on the hook for, as they were the team that gave Renteria the contract originally. Check out Cot’s Baseball Contracts – http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/detroit-tigers_21.html. Can the Tigers do better? Internally, not really. Ramon Santiago has always been a favorite of mine, but aside from slick defense and some speed, he lacks skills of a major league shortstop in today’s game, i.e. power. But is it worth it to lose Renteria’s bat in favor of Santiago’s glove and speed. Well, the $10 million difference in salary needs to be considered. Renteria is a quality player who has won in the past, 1997 Marlins, and appears to have a few good years left. Externally, the free agent market provides some names. Check out MLBTradeRumors.com fo a complete list of free agents to be this offseason. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/12/2009-mlb-free-a.html. David Eckstein, Rafeal Furcal, and Orlando Cabrera look to be the biggest names on the list. Cabrera is looking like a lock to not return to the White Sox, being in Ozzie Guillen’s dog house, a place where Magglio once called home. So what will happen this offseason? I suspect Renteria will be back, or if not a comparable free agent such as Orlando Cabrera. So in theory, save the possible big trade this summer should the Tigs fall out of contention, th infield next year should look similar to this years. Cabrera is the first baseman for the foreseeable future. Polanco is solid. Renteria is good, and Guillen is by default the third baseman, unless Inge gets the third base job, instead of being the starting catcher next year as I predicted previously. So there it is. The team which entered this year as favorites, and a true box office draw, appear to be headed into next season with pretty much the same crew in the infield. These guys will certainly help to draw fans to the park and hopefully wins to the Tigers record. Cabrera, in particular, will do both for many years. The others might only have another year or two to contribute at a high level. The time to win are these next few years. Heck, why not this year?
Tags: Cabrera, Detroit Tigers, Guillen, Infield, Looking Ahead, Polanco, Renteria, Second Base, Shortstop, Third Base, Tigers
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