Renteria says Tigers 'like a dream team'

Post #1 » by **HMFFL** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:23 pm

im Leyland gathered the 2008 Detroit Tigers together for the first time, addressing the full squad standing in a semicircle.

"We've got a good team, but don't get in a trap by bragging," Leyland told the players Wednesday morning. "We're going to go about our business as professionals."

Before hearing the message, though, Edgar Renteria couldn't help himself.

"It's like a dream team," Renteria said.

Potentially, it certainly looks like it.

The Tigers have seven All-Stars in their lineup, one of baseball's best pitchers to lead the rotation and a closer who has averaged 38-plus saves during the last three seasons.

They are not, however, flawless. Not with Joel Zumaya missing from the bullpen.

"I don't know that we have many questions to answer, but that one is a big one. It's huge," Leyland acknowledged.

Two years ago, Detroit reached the World Series for the first time since 1984. Las

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ctabaczy · Post #2 » by **ctabaczy** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:39 pm

we just gotta wait until the season and see how the all-stars mesh and hopefully they will be great, but i dont wana start saying dream team stuff

Post #3 » by **Snakebites** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 7:14 am

The beautiful thing about the Renteria trade is that the Tigers upgraded two positions in one move, with Renteria taking over for Guillen at shortstop and Guillen improving the first base position.

If healthy, the infield the Tigers will sport will be the best in baseball, and the outfield isnt exactly a weakness either.

Too bad none of these new additions can pitch relief, though. :uhoh:

Post #4 » by **GYBE** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:05 pm

Pistons#1 wrote:If healthy, the infield the Tigers will sport will be the best in baseball, and the outfield isnt exactly a weakness either.

Well, there is one weakness.

Post #5 » by **Snakebites** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:12 pm

^Very true.

But Ordonez has improved his fielding and we've still got Curtis. I wouldnt say the outfield as a whole is a weakness, and between Maggs and Granderson we shouldnt be lacking in production from the outfield either.

Post #6 » by **GYBE** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:16 pm

Defensively it should be fine. Jones is actually a pretty good defender, it's his free swinging and terrible offense that made us Cubs fans so angry at him. I mean, we traded for Craig Monroe hoping he would be an upgrade at the plate.

Then again, the offense should be the best in the league even with him and Pudge. It's so deadly from hitters 1-7.

ctabaczy · Post #7 » by **ctabaczy** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:53 pm

Jacque Jones will be fine batting 9th and not having to be a go to guy like he was on the north side

Post #8 » by **Snakebites** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:46 pm

ctabaczy wrote:Jacque Jones will be fine batting 9th and not having to be a go to guy like he was on the north side

Basically. EVERY player in the lineup doesnt have to be a threat from the plate. As long as he keeps his defense at a reasonably high level he shouldnt hurt the team that much.

Between Curtis, Placido, Miguel, Sheff, Maggs, Carlos, and Edgar theres more than enough run support to go along.

BTW, how anybody know how exactly the lineup is gonna work this time around? We've got a number of guys who would be suitable fits for more than one spot in the order. The only clear one to me is Granderson at leadoff. My guess would be that Maggs bats 4th and Polanco stays at 2, but Im not sure about anybody else.

m23uza1hem36 · Post #9 » by **m23uza1hem36** » Tue Mar 4, 2008 2:28 am

Pistons#1 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

Basically. EVERY player in the lineup doesnt have to be a threat from the plate. As long as he keeps his defense at a reasonably high level he shouldnt hurt the team that much.

Between Curtis, Placido, Miguel, Sheff, Maggs, Carlos, and Edgar theres more than enough run support to go along.

BTW, how anybody know how exactly the lineup is gonna work this time around? We've got a number of guys who would be suitable fits for more than one spot in the order. The only clear one to me is Granderson at leadoff. My guess would be that Maggs bats 4th and Polanco stays at 2, but Im not sure about anybody else.

From what I've seen/heard is that Granderson leads off followed by Polanco, Cabrera, Maggs, Sheffeild, Etc...I'm probably wrong with the Placido being 2nd.

SportsWorld · Post #10 » by **SportsWorld** » Tue Mar 4, 2008 2:57 am

The Tigers are going to be fun to watch this year. Hopefully I can get some tickets to see them at the Cell this year. I expect Jacque Jones to hit 30 home runs and hit .300 since we got rid of him.

Post #11 » by **Snakebites** » Tue Mar 4, 2008 4:05 am

SportsWorld wrote:The Tigers are going to be fun to watch this year. Hopefully I can get some tickets to see them at the Cell this year. I expect Jacque Jones to hit 30 home runs and hit .300 since we got rid of him.

Seems to me theres some serious hate for Jacque Jones amongst the fans of his previous team.

Seems to me he's not so bad unless you're counting on him for big time run support.

But I dont recall him ever being advertised as somebody who could provide that.

I guess theres a distinction between not being a run producer and being an outright liability.

But given the Tigers offense was just fine with strikeout machine Brandon Inge and a Pudge Rodriguez who never takes a free base, and given who the Tigers added in the offseason, seems like we'll be fine even if Jacque is every bit as bad offensively as he was with you guys.

I am excited to see the new guys play, and Id love to see a Tiger game live this year. Guess Ill have to look into getting Angels tickets this season, thats the only AL option out here in the wastelands of Southern California.

SportsWorld · Post #12 » by **SportsWorld** » Tue Mar 4, 2008 4:15 am

Jacque sucked during the first half of the year and if you go over to the Cubs board here and view some of the past threads we all had a hatred for him. But Jacque really turned it on after the All-Star break.

Low-Ki · Post #13 » by **Low-Ki** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:48 pm

Anybody else feel a certain sense of buyers remorse with the Renteria trade? I know hindsight is 20/20, but I for one believe that DD wouldn't have made the Renteria deal if we knew we'd land Cabrera and Willis later in the off-season. Given the potency of our line-up is Renteria at seven versus Santiago at nine going to make that much of a difference given that we had to give up Jair Jurrjens and Gorkys Hernandez to bring in Edgar.

Jurrjens and Gorkys would both be much more valuable chips in getting us relief help right about now.

Post #14 » by **Snakebites** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:49 am

^Thats something that needs to be considered, to be sure. The bullpen WILL be a liability this year, its a simple matter of how big a liability itll be.

We don't REALLY need Edgar's bat, but you can never have too many good offensive players, especially when you have as many wildcards in the starting rotation as we do. And assuming he doesn't tank it like he did in Boston, he's an upgrade in the field out there as well.

But yeah, those chips would have been nice to net something that fills more of an urgent need, to be sure, but I still don't feel that its all bad.

I might sing a different tune if Renteria turns out like he did when Boston forked over big bucks to land him, but we'll cross that bridge if we come to it.

In the meantime pray we have some little known diamond in the rough in our relief staff. Real shame what happened to Zumaya, I dont trust anyone in the pen now.