Lets all be Dave Dembrowski for a moment...what would you do in a couple weeks when the FA season starts?

I would sign Alfonso Soriano (assuming he would sign here) to play LF everyday (and back up Polanco when he rests).

Then I would trade Monroe and Sanchez for Texeria or another very good 1B.

Dump Perez.

Trade Thames, Infante and a second Pitching prospect (not Miller) for young SS/3B and Catching prospects.

Bring back Casey as a backup 1B and backup DH.

Sign a better DH.

Sign a cheap backup OF (unless Mayben is ready to be a backup part time).

Batting Order:
1. Soriano - LF
2. Polanco - 2B
3. Texeria - 1B
4. Ordonez - RF
5. Guillen - SS
6. FA - DH
7. Pudge - C
8. Granderson - CF
9. Inge - 3B

Bench:
OF - Clevelen, Gomez, ?
IF - (prospect 3B/SS), Santiago, Casey
C - Wilson, (prospect C)

Pitchers:
Rogers, Verlander, Bonderman, Robertson, Maroth/Miller

Bullpen:
Maroth/Miller, Zumaya, Jones, Minor, etc

I'd gladly re-sign Sean Casey and Matt Stairs. 2 Big left handed bats we could use. Soriano of course would be AMAZING, but I doubt we can lure him here.

It's quite possible we end up trading Jeremy Bonderman, if we do, we are going to need another starting pitcher.

We could also move Guillen to first base permanently, and go grab a shortstop. Inge and Monroe for Miguel Tejada?

I'd gladly re-sign Sean Casey and Matt Stairs. 2 Big left handed bats we could use. Soriano of course would be AMAZING, but I doubt we can lure him here.

It's quite possible we end up trading Jeremy Bonderman, if we do, we are going to need another starting pitcher.

We could also move Guillen to first base permanently, and go grab a shortstop. Inge and Monroe for Miguel Tejada?

Tejada would be a good alternative to Texaria. Then when Texiaria becomes a FA next year we could sign him and DH Guillen (provided we missed out on Soriano, since that would be a lot of money to spend in a couple years).

Problem is if we were to grab Tejada, we would be short a 3rd basemen.

My dream off-season would however consist of trading Inge and Monroe for Tejada, moving Guillen to first. Then moving Infante to 3rd. While Bringing back Stairs and Casey for DH purposes. Then signing Soriano. That would be a VERY dominant lineup.

You get great hitters in Soriano and Tejada along with the power we lack. Have 2 good left handed DH's, one with power in Stairs. And you lose a bit in the field with Infante, but not much. His .290 batting average would more than make up for the loss of Inge's fielding. Let's be honest, a 3rd basemen hitting .250 isn't that appealing, even if he's great in the field.

Problem is if we were to grab Tejada, we would be short a 3rd basemen.

My dream off-season would however consist of trading Inge and Monroe for Tejada, moving Guillen to first. Then moving Infante to 3rd. While Bringing back Stairs and Casey for DH purposes. Then signing Soriano. That would be a VERY dominant lineup.

You get great hitters in Soriano and Tejada along with the power we lack. Have 2 good left handed DH's, one with power in Stairs. And you lose a bit in the field with Infante, but not much. His .290 batting average would more than make up for the loss of Inge's fielding. Let's be honest, a 3rd basemen hitting .250 isn't that appealing, even if he's great in the field.
Would we have to trade Inge to get Tejada? I'd like to see Inge stay (he's a good bat in the #9 hole and is a very good 3B fielding wise too). Infante is just ok for me. He's as inconsistant as Inge at the plate and doesn't have the HR power Inge does. Inge has a lot of clutch hits too, so his average doesn't hurt you as much as his numbers suggest. I'm not sure Infante has a good enough arm to play 3rd either. Has he played it before?

I'd like to see someone like Rickey Henderson brought in to teach Granderson how to steal bases too. 8 SB for his speed is bad. Imagine if he could steal 30-40 bases.

No way would the Rangers trade Teixera for Monroe and Sanchez. I'd love to see it, but they can get much much more. I don't even know if we have anything we can offer them, at least unless they were for some reason sure they wouldn't be able to re-sign him. Even then they'd wait till the trade deadline to deal him. He's one of the top 5-6 young hitters in the game, guys like that don't usually get dealt in their prime unless it's a real blockbuster.

No way would the Rangers trade Teixera for Monroe and Sanchez. I'd love to see it, but they can get much much more. I don't even know if we have anything we can offer them, at least unless they were for some reason sure they wouldn't be able to re-sign him. Even then they'd wait till the trade deadline to deal him. He's one of the top 5-6 young hitters in the game, guys like that don't usually get dealt in their prime unless it's a real blockbuster.

How will gary Mathiews factor into it? Would they trade Texeria to clear space for Matthiews? Or would signing Matthiews cause them to lose Texeria next year? I would suspect they would wait till the last minute (trade deadline next year) if Texeria hinted at leaving, but I can't help but try.

If they're smart, they won't break the bank for Matthews. The guy had a good year but he's 33 and when a 33 year old has a good year after 8 mediocre to crappy ones there should be alarm bells going off all over the place. I think he's a nice player and definitely an asset but the chances of him repeating his 2005 are probably relatively slim so no need to pay him like he will. If they can get a decent deal say 2-3 years around 9-13 mill then it's worth it.

I'm almost positive they'll pony up what it takes to keep Teixeira in the fold unless they know something (HGH??) that we don't. Even in an off 2006 he still had 33 homers and 45 doubles and played gold glove caliber first. Hicks has never been afraid to spend if he thinks it's worth it and a face of the franchise guy like Teix will probably be considered worth it.

More interesting to me will be whether or not they'll pony up to keep Carlos Lee around. I think they're much better off spending the cash on pitching but that's never stopped them before.

Sorry to get this thread way off track, I'll try and post some of my Tigers offseason thoughts later tonight.

Keep Alfonso Soriano as far away from this team as possible.

Here are a couple names that haven't been mentioned.

Priority #1 - sign Juan Pierre. Seriously. Granderson is simply too streaky for my liking. Pierre doesn't draw as many walks, but the strikeouts, my gosh. Granderson had 174. Pierre had 38. Can you imagine the numbers Pierre would put up with the gaps in Comerica Park? And we would keep a lefty lead-off man who is guaranteed to steal 50+ bases and manufacture runs.

Priority #2 - sign Jason Schmidt. Ok, I realize pitching is not our weakness by any means. But Schmidt gives us another veteran pitcher and he could join Rogers, Verlander, Bonderman and Robertson in the lineup. He can handle the bat when we face NL teams in their stadium and he won't fall apart mentally.

Priority #3 - a real 1B/DH power threat. Sign Soriano if at all possible. That solves this problem. (I would re-sign Casey for the 1B role). Soriano plays in left as mentioned before and Thames is the DH. Soriano can also DH from time to time and backup 2B if needed.

These signings open the door to deal Monroe, Granderson, Miner, Maroth and a utility infielder. It leaves us with one available roster spot to get the best we can at the big league level. I would also pursue a top 5 minor league catcher with that trade bait, setting the team up for the future demise of Pudge and Vance.

If a team anywhere is shopping a younger RP with a lower ERA than Jones but a somewhat established track record, jump on that, too. Jones was better than I gave him credit for, but is a weak link nonetheless.

Here is what I would do:

Trade for Ichiro Suzuki - Ichiro is entering the final season of his contract in 2007 and reports are that he is unsatisfied with Seattle's lack of a competitive team. We could offer them a package of Maggs, Humberto Sanchez and maybe a reliever like Colon and/or Grilli.

Sign Barry Bonds - Bonds is exactly the kind of hitter the Tigers need. For all the talk about him being finished, he still put up a .270/.454/.545 line last year. Even in his "down year" he was better than every player on the Tigers roster.

Sign Akinori Iwamura - Iwamura is the 27-year-old slugging lefty third baseman that played for Japan during the WBC. He hit 311/.388/.543 this year with 32 homers, 27 doubles and 77 RBI (8-for-9 in steal attempts, 128K, 70BB in 546 at-bats). I would try to see if he can play SS effectively and move Guillen to 1st. If he can't play SS, stick him at 1st base.

Sign Octavio Dotel/Kerry Wood - Given their injury concerns, we might be able to get one or both of them for a low-risk, incentive laden contract.

The lineup would become:

RF Ichiro Suzuki (L)
2B Placido Polanco (R)
C Ivan Rodriguez (R)
DH Barry Bonds (L)
SS Carlos Guillen (S)
LF Craig Monroe (R)
CF Curtis Granderson (L)
3B Brandon Inge (R)
1B Akinori Iwamura (L)

I would love to see Guillen bat in the 3 spot but if that's the case opposing pitchers will be less inclined to pitch to Bonds. Outside of that, this lineup still has a ton of power, especially in the middle and the lower part of the order. But unlike last year, this team isn't so heavily dependent on the homerun to win ballgames.

Keep Alfonso Soriano as far away from this team as possible.

Why would you say that? This team could use a 40/40 guy who hits .270.

Why would you say that? This team could use a 40/40 guy who hits .270.

This team could also use a guy who doesn't strike out 160 times a season and a guy who can get on base at a better clip than .325.

What this team needs is patience at the plate and Soriano doesn't provide any. He would just be another hacker on a lineup full of them.

Besides, given the season he had in 2006, he will be massively overpaid.

Valid point, I was unaware of the amount of strikeouts...

1) i wouldnt give kerry wood more than $0 a season. he's not worth the gamble.

2) siriano would be more of the same for us. he's just too much of a free swinger to break the bank on him (as noted).

3) magglio, i believe, is borderline untradeable. he came here cuz we would do what other teams wouldnt, and im not sure anything has changed. imo, we should make him our everyday dh and get the max out of him, which means...

4) bonds doesnt make any sense either. to start, he wouldnt field, and we can only have 1 dh. too much baggage, too old. the voyer in me says go for it, but that guy also said go for it on drafting mike williams.

5) ichero would be great if we could get him. he's one of my favorite players, and think about how many doubles he'd hit in the copa. i might be wrong, but i believe detroit was on his short list of teams he would go to when he came to america (could be confusing him with the asian pitcher we signed at roughly the same time, nomo?). anyway, i would move serious prospcts for ichero.

6) i'd keep monroe and granderson. monroe was one of the best batters we had in the second half (not saying much), and granderson won me over in the playoffs... allegedly he's a hard worker and coachable. he's got the tools, might as well hold on to a guy like that.

7) i definitly would hold on to bondo. wouldnt trade him for arod, wouldnt trade him for jeter, wouldnt trade him for damn near anyone. he's called a headcase now, but a few months ago he was considerd a workhorse and perhaps our most reliable pitcher.

Trade Maroth & Thames for a left handed right fielder with speed & Pop.
Get Mags the hell out of the outfield (DH/PH)... sign Barry Bonds as your left handed DH/PH)... maybe even some 1B... they would both get plenty of PT filling in for positional player injuries.
Jones moves to setup man... Zoom becomes the closer.
Andrew Miller takes over Ledezmas job as he's being groomed for a starters role.
All this national exposure should put our players in demand.

1) i wouldnt give kerry wood more than $0 a season. he's not worth the gamble.

Why not?

If Wood is willing to sign a one year contract worth $500,000 with incentives and option for 2 more years, the Tigers should go after him. I don't expect guys like Grilli to repeat their 2006 performances, so adding another BP arm would definitely help.


4) bonds doesnt make any sense either. to start, he wouldnt field, and we can only have 1 dh. too much baggage, too old. the voyer in me says go for it, but that guy also said go for it on drafting mike williams.

Why would we need Bonds to field?

We can just leave Maggs (assuming he isn't traded) in the outfield for another year and have Bonds DH. That way by the time Maybin is ready for the big leagues, Bonds will be retired and you can move Maggs to DH.

And as far as him being too old, he still had a better offensive year than every Tigers hitter. His OPS is 80 points higher than that of next Tiger. That's a very large difference.

I would definately take Ichiro over Soriano in a heartbeat. Imagine him and Polanco to start the top of the order. Possibly Guillen batting 3rd and you have a very good start there.

What about Nomar?

Bring back Higgy.

And use Bob Hamelin as a DH.

And use Bob Hamelin as a DH.
Co-signed!