Can the Spartans hang with Georgia?
I like to think of myself as an open-minded sort. I try to leave room for surprises.
In sports, especially, there should always be an accommodation made for the unexpected.
But I really don't expect much of a surprise Thursday at the Capital One Bowl between Michigan State and Georgia.
I think the score will be something close to gruesome for the Spartans: Georgia 48, MSU 10 is a gut feeling that won't seem to fade.
This is not a reflection on the Spartans as much as it's a belief that Georgia has no real business playing in any game south of a BCS bowl berth. The Bulldogs are loaded. They lost three games, two of which were to teams that would annihilate just about anyone else in the country: Florida and Alabama.
Michigan State is still growing. Still figuring out how to add the muscle and speed that are in the wheelhouse of BCS-grade teams.
The Spartans handled themselves smartly against the Big Ten in 2008 and in the brunt of their non-conference games. But they perished against Ohio State and Penn State.
There was a reason for that, of course. The Spartans couldn't match up, physically. And they can't match Georgia on Thursday, unless the Bulldogs decide to take the day off, which isn't likely no matter how disappointed the Bulldogs are at missing the BCS parade.
How much will Joyce's departure hurt Tigers?
I thought the Tigers paid appropriately but not harshly for the players they've added during the past eight days: catcher Gerald Laird, shortstop Adam Everett (free agent), and right-hand starter Edwin Jackson.
The two pitchers they sent to Texas for Laird -- right-handers Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo -- could end up as All-Stars or Hall of Famers, for all we know. But right now, the price appears to have been right for a solid catcher the Tigers absolutely required.
The guy whose departure hurts the Tigers most, at least initially, is obviously Matt Joyce.
I think Tampa Bay knew what it was doing in dealing for Joyce. It would not be shocking to see Joyce hit 25, or even 30, home runs in a season. He has a terrific swing with power to spare. He also runs well and is solid defensively.
But to get a 25-year-old starter with Jackson's power repertoire is not easy. Nor is it inexpensive, which is why Joyce had to be dealt. It's simply easier for the Tigers to replace an outfield slot than to find a starting pitcher who could make all the difference for manager Jim Leyland's team in 2009.
I know fans get attached to young players. Joyce made it easy to do so. He had that breathtaking ability to hit a baseball a long way. He was also a plus, on the field and off.
But, all issues considered, I thought the Tigers made good deals last week and did so with a minimum investment on their part -- Joyce notwithstanding.
Interesting stuff from Jim Leyland
Jim Leyland talked with the national media for a half-hour today, taking his turn as do all the managers during the Winter Meetings.
What he mentioned several times was significant. He talked about conditioning -- how Edgar Renteria and Nate Robertson didn't show up in peak condition at the start of the 2008 season.
Leyland wasn't harsh in his assessment there. He believed Renteria had to play his way into shape, which he did by mid-season, while Robertson he seemed to imply never quite was in optimum condition during a year when Robertson was mostly abysmal.
He mentioned something else. Something that could be perceived almost as self-criticism.
"We need to get that confidence and that professional swagger back," Leyland said. "I think we lost that last season."
Managers assume a certain responsibility for their team's comportment. Leyland mentioned during spring training in 2006 that his team "smelled like Old Spice" -- that it didn't play with the bravado or aura that he was accustomed to seeing from good baseball teams.
It's one of the things the Tigers will be trying to turn around in 2009 -- and don't be surprised if it begins with a manager who set the tone for Detroit's 2006 surprise and clearly sees the need to change things around in 2009, beginning perhaps with himself.
In defense of Adam Everett
Any team investing in Adam Everett is bringing him aboard for one reason, and only for one: defense.
The Tigers are about to announce that Everett is their new starting shortstop for 2009. Medical paperwork should be wrapped up today that prods the Tigers to announce that Everett is signing a one-year deal for roughly $1 million.
Fans should be forewarned that Everett is not a hitter. In eight big-league seasons he has a .246 batting average. He has hit 37 career home runs. He has 234 RBIs.
So spare me your June e-mails complaining that Everett left another four runners in scoring position in last night's 4-3 loss to the Indians.
What he provides Detroit is sensible, inexpensive insurance at shortstop. It doesn't mean Ramon Santiago won't be used extensively at short. Santiago might even beat out Everett for a regular job. But it is more than coincidence or bias that the club believes pretty much across the board that Santiago is best used as a backup -- that his hitting would steadily weaken if he were used regularly at short.
We'll see. Everett will be an offensive dud, guaranteed. But his glove should be so dependable in tandem with Brandon Inge's wizardry at third base that the Tigers can expect to play shorter innings at critical points in plenty of games that will in turn lessen pressure on their pitchers.
The Tigers are about to transform their up-the-middle infield. Cale Iorg, the prized infield prospect, could be ready by 2010. That's important when the Tigers will also be staring at the likelihood Placido Polanco will no longer be around after his contract runs out at the end of 2009.
For now, it's all about defense. A shabby defense hurt the Tigers immeasurably in 2008. The lesson was learned. And that's why Adam Everett is about to join the Tigers, his hitting woes notwithstanding.
A necessary deal by the Tigers
The Tigers made a trade Monday in which they did pretty much what they've done the past three off-seasons: They gave up young pitching to get a position player of need, in this case catcher Gerald Laird from Texas.
This makes the ninth and 10th young pitchers the Tigers have traded since November 2006.
And yet I don't know how they could have avoided making this trade with the Rangers. They had to have a reliable everyday catcher, which is the toughest position on the field to fill in 2008. Good, everyday catching is beyond scarce, and it was going to command a hefty price.
I don't know what to make of the two young pitchers the Tigers coughed up, although if I were the Texas Rangers I'd be pleased. Moscoso was considered a good shot to be in Detroit's rotation by 2010. Carlos Mela is all of 17 years old, but he is big (6-foot-3) and, by the time he begins shaving regularly, he could end up as a whopper of a right-hander.
Still, I know the Tigers considered both pitchers replaceable (just as they did Jair Jurrjens). I also know they probably couldn't have counted on a tender, 24-year-old Dusty Ryan to catch full-time in 2009.So, I'm not going to overly second-guess the deal. Having a reliable starting catcher is almost as important as fielding a dependable everyday shortstop, which also happens to be a shopping-list priority at this week's Winter Meetings.
Early outlook for 2009
What I think will happen with the Tigers in coming weeks:
1. The Tigers will first find a shortstop and a catcher. They will continue to have discussions with Pittsburgh about Jack Wilson but will ultimately back off because the Pirates want more than the Tigers can offer. They will end up signing a low-key free agent.
2. Detroit will have similar problems finding a catcher, as if that's anything new. They will end up signing free-agent Gregg Zaun. And if that doesn't inspire you to buy a season ticket, you're forgiven.
3. The Tigers will get busy with their bullpen in January, after the big-name free agents have landed with their 2009 teams. The Tigers will make their lone big trade of the winter in a deal for two pitchers, one a big-leaguer, the other a Triple A prospect. Most likely big name to be involved: Magglio Ordonez.
4. The Tigers will find no takers for either Nate Robertson or for Dontrelle Willis. The Tigers' surprise is that one of them will pitch effectively in 2009.
5. If events similar to the above take place, the Tigers will end up with the same record in 2009 they had in 2008: 74-88. The silver lining is that 2009 will be a big year for their farm-system pitchers. And that will make 2010 a whole different story for a team that learned the hard way not to go crazy in trading its pitching depth.
Coverage that we could have done without
Random thoughts on a cold day in December:
1. Never have I seen so much coverage devoted to an event so meaningless as the saturation attention that followed Plaxico Burress' gun incident in New York. You can say it was all because of a player's NFL profile, a self-inflicted wound, and the dangerous and illegal conduct displayed by a Super Bowl performer, and still I can't believe how it dominated the airwaves.
2. A sad farewell to Pit Martin, the former Red Wings star and NHL All-Star. I had a chance to play golf with Martin a few years ago during Red Wings training camp in Traverse City. He was super friendly, enjoyed a quip, and was a very good shot-maker. Just a lovely guy. And then, to have him die so horribly when his snowmobile fell through the ice in Quebec.
3. The question in South Bend should not be whether Charlie Weis returns. He should not. But who are the Irish going to choose as his replacement? Notre Dame has had as much difficulty picking a football coach as Michigan State once had during a similarly unnecessary era of bungled decisions.
4. Those of us who grew up during an era when boxing offered a parade of big fights -- Liston, Ali, Frazier, Hearns, Hagler, Leonard -- can't tell you how much fun it was when the build-up began and fight night arrived and the drama built by the moment. Sadly, it seems as if that's ancient history.
5.Four months until the Masters. Four months until Tiger Woods' return brings about the same brand of drama and anticipation that those old Ali-Frazier fights delivered.
Slow times for the Hot Stove
Dave Dombrowski's tendency is to act fast during off-seasons when the Tigers president and general manager has a shopping list intact.
And Dombrowski's must-do docket is no mystery: relief pitching, shortstop, catcher.
The problem is that everything is moving at super-slow motion a day before Thanksgiving. Big free agents -- C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Manny Ramirez -- are taking their time, expecting that more teams and more money will come their way, which is probably right.
What it has done is put the brakes on everyone else's moves. Until the big free agent sign, nothing happens below. It's a line of dominoes that all begin to spill as soon as the heavyweights begin to settle in with their new (or old) teams.
It is difficult to imagine that the Winter Meetings, which begin Dec. 8 at Las Vegas, won't be the scene of some heavyweight horse-trading. Inside of two weeks, some of the superstar free agents will be zeroing in on deals.
And as soon as Ramirez, Sabathia, and Teixeira have landed on a particular team's roster for 2009, the teams that have been waiting in line to spend less money and make less dramatic deals -- hello, Tigers -- will get busy.
Marinelli's accountability
Five sports topics that could determine nothing less than the fate of the world:
(1) Rod Marinelli is, demonstrably, a good NFL assistant coach and a poor NFL head coach. His clock management, decision-making, and overall stewardship, while earnest and devoted, are beneath the level a NFL team requires on its sidelines. But anyone who thinks the Lions' problem is coaching as opposed to personnel is as delusional as the Lions' front office has been for most of the past 45 years.
It's about making good roster decisions: drafting, scouting, signing, accruing. And the Lions' have never once figured out in all these years that a team on the field is only as good as the people in the front office.
(2)Kudos to Barack Obama for endorsing the logic of a college football playoff. It's not as if Obama doesn't have a few other more significant matters to tackle when he gets to the White House -- those have been acknowledged -- but the lunacy that keeps a game and a culture as important to America as college football from enacting a playoff system will only be truly appreciated as silliness when the playoff, inevitably, arrives.
(3) As long as we're delving into grotesque misrepresentations of policy and its place in society, I liken the Tigers' offseason situation to the U.S. economy. Everybody wants something for nothing. You can't have America's long list of programs and services that voters overwhelmingly favor (defense, Social Security, environmental protection, etc., etc.) and not pay for them. Likewise, you're not going to be able to add a shortstop, bullpen help, a catcher, etc., and not either (a) up the payroll, or (b) trade a valuable commodity. Which is it going to be, Tigers?
(4) The Red Wings are fascinating. They haven't even begun to play at six cylinders, let alone eight, and yet beating them is still a near-historical event that requires a fair amount of luck or flukishness, as Pittsburgh displayed in its wild victory last week. What a team. What a spring it will be for Wings fans if this team's health holds up.
(5) Michigan would have been in a bowl game this season if the Wolverines had been able to recruit even a modestly skilled freshman quarterback with a knack for playing a spread offense. Next year, the Wolverines will have that QB.
It will be up to coach Rich Rodriguez to show what might have been in 2008 if he had at the helm a quarterback he could have, in good conscience, entrusted to his spread. Michigan's defensive lapses are another issue for which Rodriguez must answer. But, fundamentally, the lack of a spread triggerman led to everything else collapsing in 2008. And for that the coach remains responsible. As stated before, Rodriguez gets one mulligan -- and only one.
Random thoughts (11/07/08)
(1) What the Lions should have known heading into this season is that it's one thing to say you want to run the football. But verbalizing an objective isn't what counts in the NFL. It's having the personnel to do it. And the Lions never for a moment had an offensive line that was going to enable them to control a football game on the ground.
(2)What a shame that Jason Hanson's splendid talents have been essentially wasted all these years. He has the leg and the mind of a Hall of Fame kicker, and because he was performing for a team so bad, much of his savvy has been vastly underappreciated.
(3)The Lions defense, from front to secondary, is an even greater indictment of bad personnel decisions that could hardly have been worse the past seven years. NFL personnel people -- and trust that there have been conversations here -- cannot believe how so many bad draft picks and signings could have been made so regularly.
(4) Michigan will be much better next season, as if the Wolverines couldn't improve on this sorry 2008 campaign. It will be rough breaking in a new quarterback, even a terrifically talented freshman, but there's no reason why U-M shouldn't be back with something like a 7-5 season and a bowl game. That should be the least that's expected, because it was the least that should have been expected in 2008.
(5) I've thought since mid-year that Magglio Ordonez would be traded by the Tigers for no other reason than I couldn't see -- and still can't see -- how they can ever fill so many needs without dealing him for at least a relief pitcher, shortstop, or catcher, or some combination of that group. He has a lot of money coming ($48 million), but he remains the kind of hitter who would be irresistible to a contender in need of another bat.
(6)Michigan State's quarterback, Brian Hoyer, has taken an inordinate amount of heat in 2008 for a man at the helm of an 8-2 team. But what I've seen for two seasons is this: He can make some big throws. And as a fifth-year senior he has learned to avoid bad interceptions. He simply lacks the accuracy demanded by an upper-level Big Ten quarterback.
(7) Yes, Hoyer has been hurt badly by young receivers who have dropped too many passes. But the above observation stands.
(8)Had Rich Rodriguez remained at West Virginia for one more season, what are the odds he would have been headed to Tennessee to replace Phil Fullmer? Are Michigan fans sorry Fullmer wasn't fired a year earlier?
(9) Ex-Lions receiver Roy Williams ended up at Dallas just in time for the Cowboys to be exposed. Specifically, when Tony Romo isn't at full throttle, the Cowboys are a very ordinary NFL team.
(10) The most miscast college football player in the land in 2008 has been Michigan quarterback Steven Threet, who never for a moment should have been running an offense for which he was not recruited and for which he is simply not equipped. That's not Threet's fault. It's part and parcel of the University of Michigan's collective failure in opting for a miserable transition that has been the product of choosing Rodriguez as head coach.
