Quote Originally Posted by 401don View Post
Who exactly are the star players the Tigers traded? Stars are guys like Altuve, Lindor, Judge, Harper, Stanton, Trout, Machado, etc. Every one of those guys was a prospect on their team before becoming a star. I guess the Tigers should have kept 35 yr. old Ian Kinsler and his .235 batting average or paid JD Martinez 25 million per year for his below avg. defense. Why hasn't he received a contract anywhere? Maybe they should have forced Verlander to stick around at 28 million a year even though he said he wanted no part of a rebuild? Had we kept those guys with our current pitching we would be lucky to play .500. This team should have been broken up two years earlier but, understandably, Mike Ilitch wanted one last shot before he passed even though I'm certain he knew it was a long shot. The Tigers tried to build a championship through free agency twice in the last 12 years and came close but without a core of young players from their farm system they came up short. I guess you want Chris Ilitch to spend 300 million on payroll.
When Casey Stengel was managing the Yankees, he said, better to trade a guy a year early than to trade him a year late."