The Tigers, Indians and White Sox are choked up with too many expensive players with “DH/1B” defensive skills. (The Yankees also have this problem but this is a central division post.)

Twins management is laughing again. (Not that the Twins get it right every year, but they won’t risk getting stuck with expensive non-bopping big boppers that have no secondary skills.)

Lester!!

They mortgaged their future for a present

I take issue with that line. Miguel Cabrera is 25 years old and has put up a 150+ OPS+ every year for the last three seasons. This guy isn’t an aging veteran; he’s an MVP-level talent who’s just now begining to enter his prime.

It’s funny how teams always seem to think some players will “bounce back” (hello, Richie), but then always just pencil in players who played better than expected (hello, Turbo) for the same performance again. Pudge, Guillen, Rogers, Sheffield and Ordonez: was there any rational scenario where less than three of them was going to collapse this year? Maggs is hitting okay, but not at the stratospheric levels of last year. Renteria isn’t a kid anymore. Todd Jones was running on fumes all last year anyway and is like 65 years old.

While no one expected Bonderman and Verlander to suck (and who had Felix and Bedard at a combined 5-6?), this Tigers team has more in common with the 1973 Tigers (and the 2004 Mariners) than it does with a pennant-winning club.