I'm more than a bit conflicted at the moment. I'm just not sure what the Tigers should do. The patient side of me thinks the Detroit Tigers should do the smart thing and be frugal with their cash, bypassing multi-million dollar gambles like A.J. Burnett, and wait for their farm system to build a nucleus to the ballclub. Once an established, young, talented core is assembled, then go out and add free agents as needed.
The more realistic side of me also wonders if the Tigers should even do that. They are not able to keep pace financially with the Yankees, Red Sox and other baseball super-powers nor can I envision a day when they will be. This leads me to think that the Tigers might be better suited to follow the same path as the Oakland Athletics.
The cash strapped A's have perpetually contended for the American League West by bringing up a nearly endless string of top flight prospects. Big names come and go in Oakland, but the A's maintain their ability to play quality baseball and not break the bank. Alas, this is about the time the other half of my brain kicks in.
There is a part of me that says baseball is like a high stakes game of poker. If you can't afford to play with the big boys, maybe it's time to admit your stuck at the nickel slots. If the Tigers can't afford to get into the game, perhaps it's time we just concede that sustained success probably isn't going to come Detroit's way.
In listening to sports-talk radio today, I came across two types of callers. Each group accurately reflecting one of my conflicting sides. One side demands the Tigers stay the course. They want the team to wait for the prospects because free agency is a failed plan and not financially reasonable for the team. They view the long term path to success as having a viable minor league system. It's hard logic to argue with and normally the course I would purpose. Of course, there is the opposite view.
The callers representing the contrary perspective lament the Tigers woeful state. They look back at twenty years of failed can't-miss prospects and say "Enough!". If you want to win, you must spend. If you intend to go with a roster of guys like Pudge Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, Placido Polanco and Dmitri Young--all over thirty, injury prone and making decent to great coin--you've got to make a run at this thing right now. You aren't playing for the future with so many guys that old.
They argue that failed prospects outnumber those that live up to the hype by an astronomical number. If you are waiting for the next core group of young Tigers to lead the franchise, you may be waiting forever. Sure, Billy Beane and his A's have done a great job, but keep two things in mind. First, the A's haven't won the World Series since the Steroid, I mean, Bash Brothers were together. Second, who, besides Oakland, is really having that kind of sustained success by relying almost totally on their farm system? The answer might be no one.
The baseball geek side of me almost always opts for the patient, farm building, adding an occasional free agent approach. It's the direction I'm sure a great many of my fellow baseball fanatics prefer. However, while we may like to play fantasy GM and debate prospects and hope for the best, Dave Dombrowski has another more pressing problem.
It's true that the baseball geeks amongst us may still buy tickets simply out of our love of the game and our desire to watch prospects grow (once they get here, of course), the majority of fans aren't as diehard as we are. They are going to need to see results. Maybe not all the time, but often enough to convince them that the team is worthy of something more than their annual trek to Comerica Park for a single contest.
I'm guessing the majority of fans, or should I say would-be ticket buyers, need to believe the Tigers are a good baseball team. They need hope that the Tigers are not only going to win during their traditional appearance, but probably win more often than they lose all season long. Without that hope, they are probably going to come down for their Opening Day beer or mid-summer hot dog and head back home to wait for next year. This is the group Dombrowski has to find a way to appease.
It's this larger, more apathetic group the Tigers have to juggle. They are much more likely to drop the Tigers if the team doesn't give them something to grab hold of. It's called creating a buzz. It's the reason the Pudge Rodriguez signing was so big. It's the reason the Tigers are not peddling the future Hall of Famer are current clubhouse problem for a can of corn.
The nerdy baseball types are right now cringing at the mere suggestion that the Tigers do something as foolish as "creating a buzz" to make a few ill-informed fans temporarily happy.
Don't they understand it's could actually hurt the team in the long run, they wonder?
The answer is no and they aren't interested in the kids at West Michigan. They are interested in their baseball team. The one their grandfathers and fathers watched. The one in the Olde English D, not the single A franchise outside Grand Rapids. What they so ardently desire is for their team to win. And win now.
My fellow geeks would counter that they, too, want to win right now, but don't want to sacrifice the future by tying the club down with huge contracts that can't be moved. They don't want to lose prospects that could provide the prolonged success that acquiring veteran big leaguers can't. After all, one of those youngsters with the Whitecaps could become the next Alan Trammell or Lou Whitaker, building blocks for the next twenty years.
The immediate satisfaction crowd might concur, but would counter that neither approach is guaranteed and waiting for the last twenty years has brought losing, apathy, empty seats and the Tigers only on cable television. They would point to the payrolls of the most successful teams and argue that the big winners are the big spenders. If the Tigers aren't capable of spending with Boston, both New York clubs, Baltimore and the other big money teams, the Tigers are, at best, destined to become little more than a feeder team for them. It's not a concept they are going to warmly embrace. It's certainly not one they are going to pay to watch.
It's just not an easy proposition, is it? I don't envy Dave Dombrowski. He entered into Detroit with a minor league system void of prospects and a big league club equally short on talent. He's trying to fill the Tigers farm system with talent while attempting to make the Major League club competitive again. It's nearly an impossible balancing act.
The heart of Tigertown is patient. They are the fans Dombrowski and Mike Ilitch don't have to cater to. We are along for the ride. However, as a business entity, both men have to realize that those on the fringe of Tigertown aren't going to plop down more time or cash on the Tigers until they are motivated to.
This group of alienated fans, turned off by the years of failure and baseball's labor strife, are the folks who bring attendance to over two million a season. They are the folks who might buy a twenty-one game package if the Tigers can do anything to rekindle the old flame for baseball in their hearts. They are the fans the Tigers will consider when deciding what to do with the Tigers roster this winter.
On the surface, it doesn't make much sense, financially or in baseball terms, to appease those on the fringe with flashy moves that some would call more style over substance. Yet, after the years of sub-standard baseball this is where the Tigers find themselves--trying to find the fine line between long term and short term success while keeping the entire fanbase happy enough to open their collective pocketbook. It's a complicated matter. One that leaves even a baseball geek like me baffled as to what the Tigers should do in the coming days.
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