The Luke Warm Stove Is About To Get Hot

I can’t say that my perception has actually been reality to this point, I flat out haven’t done the research to back up the claim I am going to make here. But doesn’t it just seem like this baseball off-season has a much slower pace to it than last year? I have no doubt that part of that reason is that our hometown team, the Tigers, are taking their sweet time making a move, or simply just holding things really close to the vest. All of the rumored names the Tigers have been interested are just speculation at best, and publicly GM David Dombrowski is cautioning fans not to expect much.

Of course, I wouldn’t expect less from a baseball GM. Besides the Marlins, I am not sure that many GM’s are all that transparent in what they are doing, especially when the Tigers are expected to look for trades to improve the team. Starting tomorrow though, I suspect there is going to be some wheeling and dealing going on in baseball at the GM meetings.

Today, word has come out that two of the 2nd baseman on the free agent market are now off the board, Aaron Hill went to the Diamondbacks, and Mark Ellis went to the Dodgers. I’m not particularly fond of either, so this barely made a blip on my radar, except for the fact it just lowers the free agent 2B market by two guys. It makes the Tigers improving 2nd base through a trade more likely.

What does this mean to the fans of the Tigers?

I think it means that the speculation of the Tigers working to acquire Martin Prado is probably going to increase. We have already talked about Prado on our site, and he might be the best option out there. But for 2nd base? His best positions, at least defensively, are two other question marks on the Tigers team, left field, and 3rd base. Could the Tigers be making an effort to deal Delmon Young to the Braves as well as someone else for Prado? Time will tell on that one.

I suspect once the GM’s, agents, and others all start getting together; eating, drinking, and talking about players and baseball, we will start seeing more moves happen in the next couple of weeks. Maybe we might even see a deal in the next couple of days involving our Tigers. We can only hope.

Let the speculation begin….errr…..continue.