Forget the Carl Crawford pipe dreams. The only way the Detroit Tigers improve their current roster is going to be through trades or lower cost free agents. I'm not going to get too much into it because I've described who I would go after. The problem I see with the Tigers is they want to operate like a big budget club. They don't have big budget dollars though. Then when things go terribly bad (see 2007) they end up having to cut costs.
My soultion is still to take flyers on low cost one or two year deals. Someone like Orland Hudson, Lastings Milledge, or Xavier Nady isn't going to cost you too much to see if they can play and cut bait if they can't. The team itself isn't getting any younger. I know they're trying to win now, but they need to be wise with their money. If they break the bank and fail then you have to start from square one and the Tigers don't have youth down on the farm to start over.
My soultion is still to take flyers on low cost one or two year deals. Someone like Orland Hudson, Lastings Milledge, or Xavier Nady isn't going to cost you too much to see if they can play and cut bait if they can't. The team itself isn't getting any younger. I know they're trying to win now, but they need to be wise with their money. If they break the bank and fail then you have to start from square one and the Tigers don't have youth down on the farm to start over.
By Chris Edwards