Seekay

When he plays,,

252 .351 .410 .761with 53 homers over his career, that's not horrible (and he kills lefties). His def efficiency in CF was average but better than Maybin's or Gose's, I think if he was in LF he'd be above average though. I'd rather have Fowler than AJax for sure. Considering Fowler is coming off a year where he set career highs and turned down a one year 15 million qualifying offer. It's going to take more than a few million more to sign Fowler over Jackson.

Fowler is basically only a platoon guy. He is horrible against RHP and graded low in defensive range. Span dont strike out a ton. Brings some speed to the lineup. Could help Gose along the way. I wouldn't be surprised if Austin Jackson is brought back.

I am with you there. JD's contract extension should come first. I am sure Avila has that in mind also. Also apparently Norris, Fulmer and Tigers young pitchers are off limits in trades. (and have been asked about this offseason) AA talking about grooming one or two arms for the pen, thinks we might have a Future closer there, For once it's gonna be exciting to see some young guys process and get better and not sent away in quick fix trades for marginal bullpen help.

Iwakuma is 5 years older than Zimmerman and hasnt had a complete season in three years. ...which is why the commitment to him is $65 million less. I just don't like the way Zimmermann's season went last year, plus he was the league's worst division, facing pitchers and is a few years removed from TJ. He'll probably be the best of the three this year and he might be next year, but I think all 3 of Happ/Iwakuma/Zimmermann are in danger of seeing their numbers fall off a cliff, so the 5/110 would be scary as hell to me as a Jays fan, where the owner isn't dying and there are (artificially) limited resources. Also 2015 ERA/2015 FIP/'16 Steamer ERA/'16 Steamer FIP - not a huge gap here. Iwakuma 3.54/3.74/3.39/3.46 Zimmermann 3.66/3.75/3.82/4.07 Happ 3.61/3.41/3.97/4.17 Let's be honest...for the most part the Nationals were a train wreck last year. As a team they never the team everyone claimed they would be. I guess we will see about Zimmerman. Considering the total invested in Zimmerman was half the amount Price is getting paid. I think it's more than a fair contract and in fact is under market value. As for those streamer number 3.97 ERA for Happ? Looking over his body of work the last 5 years. Maybe for a season and a third out of 5 he was that type of pitcher. So all of a sudden at age 33 He is going to outproduce his career numbers? Especially Rogers Centre for half his games? I like Iwakuma and as a Tigers fan he was someone I would of been interested in, but like I said he is 34 currently. Not sure if I want to be paying him 15 million a year at 37-38 years of age. Then again Dodgers have money to throw away.

Iwakuma is Iwakuma is 5 years older than Zimmerman and hasnt had a complete season in three years.

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2015/12/07/the-tigers-are-looking-at-yoenis-cespedes-and-alex-gordon/ This is somewhat unexpected: Jon Heyman says that the Detroit Tigers are considering Yoenis Cespedes or Alex Gordon as free agent options. Maybe Cespedes is someone Illitch would see as a luxury. I know they liked him a lot when he was coming out of Cuba. If they can get him at a good price I say go for it. Gordon might be the better fit though as he is a left handed bat. Avila seems to be more aware of the amount of money his is dishing out then Dombrowski.

I think Fister and Pelfrey are similar pitchers make up wise. Maybe they could get Pelfrey a little cheaper. I do recall one game he pitched against them last year he shut them down

Zimmerman signing seems even better now after Greinke has signed. Dodgers would of been a team interested in Zimmerman, maybe even the Giants. Tigers win by getting him at that amount. Zimmerman might of list out cause I am sure he would of got more.

Dombrowski had his strengths but I dont see him as this cream of the crop GM some in the baseball world make him out to be. The bullpen had been piss poor for a long time. The excuses of "we spent the money in other areas"... dont go with Ilitch's "I dont care about money... I want players" attitude. Maybe it was more so Dombrowski trying to show everyone how smart he was by bucking the trend.. while everyone else was building deeper bullpens, he was pulling guys off the scrap heap. I think Dombrowski gets credit for Ilitch's working relationship with Boras clients. What I like about Avila so far.. first he got rid of his son and is open to using Advance Stats information in player scouting. Also signing Zimmerman.. he was their #1 guy on their board. They could of easily overspent to get him, especially trying to land him before really any other big names were signed. They got him at fair market price even though they had to give him a no trade clause for 3 years. I think if Dombrowski was GM Zimmerman would of got a bigger deal.

Remember also starting this year (2016-20)we are paying Texas 30 million total to eat Fielder's contract.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/tigers-sign-perfectly-fine-zimmermann-to-perfectly-fine-deal/

I didn't know Simon was a free agent. As for Price I was talking about the total sum of the contract. Price 200 million.. They also need another starter. Shane Greene cant get out lefties. Sanchez cant stay healthy for an entire year.

Got him for half as much as Price wants. Now they can move Simon to the bullpen.

I didnt write the article I just posted the link. I dont work for Yahoo but thanks for the credit.