Whatchoo Talkin 'Bout Willis??

As most of you may know,the first major trade of the baseball offseason has occured and like anything that has to deal with baseball, I have an interesting take on this that may shock you.

Wow, the Tigers got HOSED on this deal!!! I mean what the hell were you thinking Detroit??? You gave up 2 VERY solid prospects in Andrew Miller and Cameron Mayban. You also let go of some VERY solid minor leaguers. If Florida baseball has taught us anything, they can turn water into wine and well, and well, you gave them Lake Michigan!

First off, You replace a 20 homerun guy in Brandon Inge. Inge is a strikeout guy with a poor average, but he provides offense and lots of it when its needed. He is a poor mans Adam Dunn. Inge can play every position but every other position is filled with solid starters. This was unneccessary move in my opinion.

Second, Dontrelle Willis has hit his peak. Every team knows what this guy is capable of and has easily adapted. I think he will have a productive 2007 season but everything beyond will be subpar. Detroit- You traded a major league ready 22 year old for someone with identical, if not lesser, skills. All I see out of this move is regret and remorse.

Florida looks EXTREMELY good with this trade. Aaron Boone will solidify 3rd base now. Sure he isnt what he used to be but he is solid and a veteran. Also, they can convert Gall into a 3b and platoon him with Almanzega if need be. Florida's weakness has been the Outfield, and this is where Cameron Mayban fills the need. He is quick, has pop in his bat, and has some major league experience. He may not start the season in the pro's but he will be in the lineup come June im sure. As for the other players involved, Mike Rabelo, Dallas Trahern, Eulogio De La Cruz, Burke Badenhop. Mike Rabelo has an incredilbe amount of talent and could possibly steal the starters role from Miguel Oliva come April.

Not only do the Marlins have a good future ahead of them, they save roughly 25 million in salary per year. Now we all know that the money wont be reinvested in the lineup but that is the Marlins MO. They trade talent for new talent and rotate that philosophy every 3 years. Results seem to be pretty good; 2 World Series in 10 years.

My projected Florida Marlins lineup:
SS- Hanley Ramirez
CF- Alejandro De Aza/Cameron Mayban
2b- Dan Uggla
1b- Mike Jacobs
LF- Josh WIllingham
RF- Jeremey Hermeda
C- Miguel Oliva/Mike Rabelo
3b- Aaron Boone/Alfredo Almanzega

SP- Andrew Miller
SP- Scott Olsen
SP- Ricky Nolasco
SP- Sergio Mitre
SP- Anibal Sanchez
CL- Kevin Gregg

Now let the debates begin.......

Dews Baseball Thoughts

Ok, so the Hot Stove league is in full swing now and all us Baseball junkies are not quite getting the shakes yet (since football is around still thank GOD), but those purists out there that don't watch Football I'm sure are already tearing their hair out (My Grandfather in particular I'm sure).

Some random thoughts on some of the big names out there after news of the Lidge to Philly trade went through this morning.

First off, lets look at this first deal in particular:
Astros give up Brad Lidge, sometimes awesome closer for Michael Bourn (Former CIA Hitman turned outfielder), 3B prospect Mike Costanzo, and Geoff Geary.

Other then Bourn, who projects as a 4th outfielder, or perhaps a Dave Roberts without any chance of hitting anything higher then a single "type", the Astros really didn't get a heck of a lot back on this trade. That being said, Lidge is a head-case that is known to allow big time batters to get in his head (Albert Pujols is his daddy).

Surprising move in that Lidge was a name we all heard at last years deadline, but quite honestly wasn't on my radar screen going into this offseason as trade bait.

The big fish out there currently though, is the ever expanding Miguel Cabrera of the Girardi-less Florida Marlins. This guy has "stupid" talent, in that he could quite honestly be the best or runner up for basically every batting stat possible for the next 20 years if he so chose.

Knowing this, and the fact that he is all of 24 years old, the Marlins want to trade this guy? Worse yet, the rumors had been circling around the Yankees of all places for him to go...

Only place to me that makes sense for this deal to go down, would be SayHey's Dodgers. They've got a treasure chest full of upcoming stars they can deal to make this happen, its just a question of what combo they'd be comfy with. If they included Kemp on the deal, they would be nuts, but as we've all seen the Dodgers are quite capable of doing a lot of things that make no sense.

The deal I'm hoping and praying for is of course the Tejada to the Dodgers for Kemp and Billingsley.