DETROIT -- If you were wrong about the Tigers, at least you had company.
Not just from the no-nothings in the media, either. Don't blame us, because in a Sports Illustrated survey of nearly 500 major league players this spring, 45 percent of them picked the Tigers to win the World Series, too.
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| Gary Sheffield is the Tigers' loudest problem, but not their biggest one. (AP) |
As one rival executive said this week: "They need CC Sabathia, and they need K-Rod."
The best free-agent starter. The best free-agent closer.
And even then, the Tigers still wouldn't have a shortstop.
The Tigers spent nearly $140 million on a 2008 team that's four games under .500 and sinking fast, a team that is a lot closer to last place than to first. They already have $100 million committed to just 10 players for 2009, and that's before you add in arbitration-eligible Justin Verlander, who could get $5 million himself.
There's no shortstop in that group, either. And no closer.
There is, however, $53 million committed over the next two years to Gary Sheffield, Dontrelle Willis and Nate Robertson -- three players the Tigers would just as soon not have on their 2009 roster.
As if that's not bad enough, the Tigers traded 11 players out of their farm system the last two winters, and the only player they received back who is guaranteed to help them in 2009 is first baseman Miguel Cabrera.
Cabrera is settling in and looks every bit as great as advertised. But 11-for-1? No wonder the Tigers will have a hard time trading prospects for help in the coming months.
They do need help. Somehow, they have to find a shortstop to replace Edgar Renteria, who has been a huge disappointment. They have to rebuild the bullpen, which is 3-for-11 in save opportunities since the All-Star break.
They really ought to add one or two starting pitchers, too.
