Notes from TigerFest
I can’t write a full story until after the event ends, but I wanted to drop a few quick notes while I had a minute or two …
- There’s somewhat of a sense of awe amongst some players about the team they’ve assembled here. Todd Jones said that when a lot of the players got together, it looked like some sort of All-Star squad or a barnstorming tour, not a bunch of guys on the same team.
- During Dave Dombrowski’s morning session with fans, he approached the idea of the Tigers not being able to trade Brandon Inge like it was a strong possibility and not just a scenario to worry about. "We have made a lot of efforts and a lot of phone calls," Dombrowski said.
- As for what role he would play, Dombrowski said, "He’s a very good athlete. He can play a lot of positions. My thought process would be to take advantage of that."
- That includes catching. "If I was Brandon Inge’s friend," Dombrowski said, "I would tell him, ‘You should catch.’"
- Inge was not at TigerFest, nor was he scheduled to be. However, that appeared to be a mutual decision between player and team to avoid the barrage of questions that would follow him if he showed up.
- Dombrowski said Gary Sheffield’s rehab from shoulder surgery is going "tremendous." He’s expected to be swinging a bat when spring training begins and should be ready in time for Opening Day. That includes the ability to play the outfield.
- One poignant observation from manager Jim Leyland: "We haven’t won anything. We haven’t done anything. People don’t like us right now in baseball, I can tell you that. I think we’re almost to the point of the Red Sox and Yankees right now where people say, ‘Aw, they’re spending money.’ That offends some people, and I understand that. I’ve been on both sides of it. I’m not going to get trapped into all that stuff."
- Miguel Cabrera said he’ll let his agent worry about a new contract. Asked if he thinks this could be his home for a long time, however, he said, "I hope so."
- Carlos Guillen on Cabrera: "I think he wants to stay here. He likes to win. And he knows baseball. He knows we have a good team."
- Guillen pretty much agreed with fans’ expectations for this club. Asked about the expectation to win the World Series this year, he basically agreed. "We’ve got the talent," he said. "We’ve got guys who play with passion. We’ve got guys who have been to the World Series before and know how to win. The front office has done their job. Now we have to do ours."
- Arguably the story of the day comes from closer Todd Jones, who was taking pictures with fans in the clubhouse when an older lady had an odd thank-you for his save situations. "She goes, ‘Thank you for making my heart race all the time,’" Jones said. "I didn’t really know how to take that. She said, ‘No, I use that for exercise.’ I was like, ‘All right, I’m glad I could help with your cardio.’"
I’ll be out on the winter caravan Sunday, capping the day with a stop in Toledo for the Mud Hens event. Hopefully those of you who couldn’t get tickets to TigerFest have a chance to see the team on one of the stops.
Jason Beck
Hey, that’s some real insight there regarding DD and Inge. Speaks volumes. Seems to me that if Brandon was ready to re-acquire catching as one of his options, his value would double. Probably a good thing about not being there for the inevitable barrage of questions. I just wish Brandon would have stayed quiet on his trade wishes.
Is anyone going to spring training? I’m all set with a week’s worth of games in mid-March. I haven’t been down for this since the mid 90s and am looking forward to it.
–Rich
yeah so this season for the tigers gives me goose bumps thinking of the world series win they SHOULD have.
just hope the pitching staff holds up and theres more conditioning going on with the extra month of non october ball. too many injuries.
i think zumaya is done. his velocity, returning, if he can, will be low 90s. no more zoom. he’ll have to rely on learning new pitches which will involve some farm time.
hope to **** rodney can carry the load. he scares me… very much
GO TIGERS!
Jason, Does it appear that Cabrera has been able to shed the 15 pounds we heard about?
Dan, I was not able to go to Tigerfest even though I very much wanted to however I did listen to the radio and Dan Dickerson and Pat Caputo were running a forum in which they talked to Dombrowski, Leyland, Cabrera and Porcello.
Leyland and Dombrowski had some interest items to talk about. But one of the thing to answer your question is that yes Cabrera has lost a bunch of weight and looking rather buff from what I understand. They did interview him and he has rather a heavy accent, I think and he sounds very excited to be here in Detroit.
And in all fairness to Brandon, I know for sure that it was not him who first disclosed that he wanted to be traded it was infact the Tigers. And I like Dombrowski would tell Brandon if here were my best friend to stay in Detroit. I still think that he can find some playing time. We all know how Leyland likes to give guys rest, and frankly we don’t know how Vance Wilson is going to come back, or when. I think that someone mentioned a last week that we play something like 20-21 straight games in April and if Vance isn’t ready then they are in a huge amount of hurt, Pudge really cannot probably play that many straight games.
GO TIGERS, I am like a little kid before Christmas, I can not wait to get this started. I like hockey and basketball and Detroit is doing well there too, but baseball is my love.
Also Dan, if you GOOGLE 1270 which you probably know is the local station that airs the Tigers, if you go to their podcasts you can listen to all the interviews of everyone they talked to on the radio. Worth a listen I think, if you want, especially Leyland and Dombrowski.
Honestly, it’s hard for me to say how thin Cabrera looks. He was wearing a jacket today over his shirt, and I never really saw him firsthand while he was carrying a spare tire. From what I could see, he appeared to be in shape. Dombrowski estimated that he had lost about 20 pounds. Cabrera wouldn’t guess a number on how much weight he had lost.
TigerFest was pretty fun this year, despite the long lines for autographs and pictures. I like that story about the lady thanking Todd Jones for helping her heart race. The highlight of my day there was when Maggs came in the autograph area that was in the beer hall, and almost all the women that thought he was cute started screaming their heads off…talk about temporary hearing loss and a mild headache! I saw you guys out there at your tigers.com booth I stopped by , tried my hand at the trivia and looked at Tigers.com (Still didn’t know that Alan Trammell was 19 when he made his debut)
GK, thanks for pointing out that it was Dombrowski who released the information that Inge preferred being traded. I had that completely wrong. I was actually at sea during that time and getting the news from a bad internet connection. I just now went back and looked up Jason’s story and found this paragraph:
“Dombrowski told WXYT-AM 1270 Friday afternoon that he spoke with Inge by phone earlier in the day. After discussing the team’s situation and where he fits in, Inge discussed his preference with Dombrowski.”
My apologies to Brandon for ripping him and to everyone here who read my comments.
–Rich
Two thoughts on the 3 players for 2 slots issue:
1.If Inge were the back up catcher, all three could make the team. At this point, I’d rather have any of the 3 over Wilson.
2. If we trade any of the three, it should be for good prospects. At this point we need more help rebuilding the farm than on the major league club.
I don’t know about that, Vance Wilson was a pretty darn good back up catcher.
Bought my ticket package today, wasn’t able to get as good of a seat as I had last year, slightly disappointed, but thats okay, I am still feel extremely fortunate to have what I did get though. GO TIGERS. Cannot wait to get it going.
Yesterday I took the day off and went to one of the stops of the Caravan. Saw Jim Leyland, Willis, Bondo, Robertson, Rapada, and Jones (the bullpen coach). It was fun. Glad I did it.