Amazing. Absolutely couldn't have turned this one down. Nice to see a GM and Owner that won't sit on their hands all offseason.

Now we need to make a play for some bullpen help.

First of all Maybin and Miller were not our two best prospects. Off of his showing since we signed him Porcello had moved ahead of Miller on the prospect charts.

Secondly, the Tigers didn't give up half their farm system. We have had a very deep and good draft the last two years and have a lot of excellent talent at the low levels which most teams in the bigs would die to have.

Thirdly - Maybin in my opinion is way over rated. He is very injury prone which at only 20 is a physical disaster waiting to happen when he gets older and I don't mean not until he is 40 plus. He also strikes out a lot. He also gets terrible jumps on on the ball in the outfield and is basically a mediocre outfielder at best. The Tigers did the smart thing in getting rid of him when his value was still high and found a sucker in the Marlins to take him.

Miller has big time mechanics problems with his pitching motion. He sling shots the ball and as a result has a very difficult time with finding and maintaining good location. This is probably fixable, but Porcello will most likely be a far better pitcher.

Fourthly - "Might be the best lineup in baseball next year" Are you kidding. This could possibly be the best lineup in the majors in the last few decades at least especially if Leyland plays Raburn along with Cabrera.

Fiftly - Chris Harris is ignorant of the Tigers farm system.

Sixth - Deveny - I don't know anything about this guys background and he does have a point but a weak one. Yes the Tigers could do better than Seay, Rodney and Jones in the 8th and 9th, but the winter isn't over and the Tigers have Thames and Inge and maybe even Raburn to offer for a top notch reliever, so we shall see. I am not counting on Zumaya contributing in 2008. If he does and is effective I will consider it a big plus.

I am more concerned about the catching. If Wilson doesn't make it back in 2008 then that leaves Inge as Pudge's backup unless the Tigers trade him. Too much is riding on Pudge, which 5 or even 3 years ago would not have been a big deal, but his defense definitely deteriorated last year, despite any awards he might have won and at his age I will be happy if we can get 110 games from him behind the plate. However, the winter is not over so hopefully the catching problem will be addressed. I would not be opposed to see Inge go back there as a backup but I don't know if he is willing and the Tigers are even considering it.

One paper mentioned moving Cabrera to right field and keeping Inge at third. This would probably be a better defensive alignment, as Cabrera is purported to be a sub-par fielder at third. Then again, Cabrera is also purported to be working out in the off season, to have lost 15 lbs, and to be focusing on his defense.

I was never impressed with Miller and that funky wind-up of his. Willis is a proven winner on the major league level.

And even if everying works out perfectly with Maybin's development, and he matures into a dominant major league hitter, chances are he will still never be as good a hitter as Cabrera.

Great trade.

Cabrera has played left and right field. However, I think that there might have been a typo on playing him in right field, (I saw that too), because Mags is in right field and if Mags becomes the DH then Shef is out. So I can only see Cabrera in right field if Shef can't come back from the surgery and on days when Leyland wants to give Mags the day off. So instead of doing the stupid thing he did last year and play Shef in right when Mags was resting, which resulted in that outfield collision which messed up Shef's shoulder, Cabrera would play right field on days that Mags was resting. However, I don't see Cabrera being the regular right fielder unless Shef can't come back from the surgery or Mags gets injured. More likely, Cabrera might play left field.

The the question is what to do with Jones, Thames and Raburn? We shall find out.

If Cabrera plays third, the the question is what to do with Inge.

Personally I prefer to see Inge at 3rd. We have enough offense that I would like to see his glove at 3rd and not Cabrera who even on good day couldn't come close to Inge with regard to defense. Inge still makes some bad throws and what not but he makes a lot of spectacular plays that stop big innings and save games for us.

I always have thoughts of Juan Encarnacion when I hear all the hype over Maybin. We gave up Luis Gonzalez in order to play the young, over-hyped, five tool Encarnacion. That was a mistake.

We perhaps avoided making that same mistake in moving Maybin favor of Cabrera.

Agreed. I think the best option would be Inge at 3B, and an outfield of either Cabrera in RF and Ordonez in LF, or Ordonez in RF and Carbera in LF.

I guess Jones, Thames and Raburn would have to compete for the 4th outfield position. That would be a nice luxury to have players of that quality on the bench.

Perhaps Raburn could be traded for some bullpen help, as he is too good a prospect to let sit.

Lee, it looks like we are going to need some rotations help here.

The window for this team is not that big and it was a right move to bring in players that put Tigers closer to getting to the World Series. Pudge is on the down side, Sheff is coming off another surgery and he's not getting any younger, Rogers is 43, Jones is 39, and Maggs, even though he had a huge season is turing 34 in January. The team still has lots of young talent for the long time, especially if they can re-sign Cabrera and Willis who are 24 and 25. As far other pitching goes: Bonderman is 25, Verlander is 24, Robertson is 30, and we have Tata (26) and Porcello in the minors for the starters. Miner (25) and Bazardo (23) showed capacity in the bullpen in addition to hopefully Zoom (23) getting his injuries behind him. We have the centerfield position filled with Granderson (26). Rayburn (26) could be a contributor in the outfield as well. And if Tigers continue to draft well, they should be restocked in the minors in 2-3 years when all the "older" players are going to be leaving the team. And, in addition, with all those guys leaving, it will free up some salaries to go after the available free agents who will be quite a bit more interested in Tigers with all the success the team is having.

__________________
I think the Washington Wizards have got to be the dumbest team in the history of civilization. - C.Barkley

LOL.

Any lineup that still has Inge in it is flawed. The guy is worthless at the plate. An outfield of Jones/Thames, Granderson, and Maggs is pretty solid.

Here is a tape of some Tiger games that may help. LOL

Amazon.com: MLB Vintage World Series Films - Detroit Tigers 1945, 1968 & 1984: DVD: Al Kaline,Kirk Gibson,Hank Greenberg,Mickey Lolich,Denny McLain,Darrell Evans