It was an interesting Winter Meetings like always for the Tigers. This year was a little more interesting being a seller instead of a buyer. The Tigers are the best at getting trades done. They are always open to listening to any deal and they needed to keep an open mind to get this one done. On that note I want to say goodbye to a couple of Tigers who are going to be missed.
Edwin Jackson is going to be missed. He had a bad second half but he gave us a great first half. This will always leave me wondering what the rotation would of been for years to come with Verlander #1 and Jackson #2. I am sure that Porcello would of made Jackson move to #3 sometime but I had no idea it would be this soon. Porcello's very strong rookie year made this trade very possible. I really think Porcello should of been the rookie of the year.
Now for the man we are all really going to miss. Curtis was the face of the franchise for some and he greatly impacted our community. He was one of those home grown stars that made the jump from Erie like Verlander that we tend to truly embrace. The guys like the Brandon Inge's out there that we were able to watch grow up through our minor league system. They help make us proud about the whole Tigers system from the top to the bottom. Unfortunately his poor batting against left handed pitching and what some say a poor year in the field made him be moved off the list of untouchables. This along with a salary structure that resembled a mortgage that is no longer legal.
I personally think that Granderson's biggest impact to our team was with our pitching staff. He went back to playing closer to second base like he did back in 2006 and we all know what happened to the Tigers that year. I had watched him talk about playing so shallow a few times in pregame interviews with good old John Keating. I hope that this strategy can be adopted by Austin Jackson. It takes away the bloop hit but Granderson still had enough speed to catch up to one hit over his head, unless it was a line drive. Granderson was the true meaning of a team player and he would of done anything that Leyland would of asked of him. Stealing a line from Larry Brown "He played the game the right way!"
Then it is off to the new guys......
I will not say much about the new guys because we have definitely heard a lot about them these last few days. You can mark my words, this trade was a great one for the Tigers. It was a little hard to swallow at first because we loved Granderson so much. He will be greatly missed but this trade will really help the Tigers. It is going to make us a competitive team while we go through weeding out some unwanted salaries. This will greatly help the Tigers in 2011 when the Tigers have an extra $50 mil to spend in free agency. It is as if someone talked to Joe D and asked him what his plan was for 2011 and they liked it so much they thought they would follow suit. It also helps to shore up our bullpen that we have needed some desperate help in and it brings us a true lead off man who is a great athlete. I heard someone say this week that we traded away Granderson and got someone that can only be as good as him. If Austin Jackson is as good as Granderson is someday, I do not see how that can be a bad thing.
Michigan Sports Guy
