Hot Stove Heats Up

Well, the Marlins and Tigers pulled off the deal of the winter meetings, at least until Johan gets traded. This is a pretty huge deal that's gone down.

Miguel Cabrera is a masher. The guy is just a tremendous hitter, and the Tigers have really improved their lineup, which was already dangerous, by adding him. Granderson, Polanco, Sheffield, Ordonez, Cabrera, Renteria, Pudge, Guillen...I mean, that's a serious offensive force.
Defensively, though, Cabrera is a liability at third. Even before he gained all the weight, he really didn't offer much there with the glove. Now that Sean Casey is gone, Detroit would serve itself well to move Cabrera to first and move Carols Guillen, Casey's replacement at first, over to third. Move Inge to left, and here's what the Tigers lineup (if I was the one writing it out) would look like next year:

Granderson CF
Polanco 2B
Cabrera 1B
Ordonez RF
Sheffield DH
Renteria SS
Guillen 3B
Rodriguez C
Inge LF

Wow. That looks even better than I thought it would. It's Yankee-esque. I really like Cleveland, but this move puts Detroit slightly ahead of the Tribe in the AL Central.

Dontrelle Willis is another story altogether. I simply do not understand the fascination with this guy. Sure, he has a great personality and his youthful exuberance is nice, but he's a pretty lousy pitcher. When you're setting your friend up on a blind date, and you say, "She has a nice personality," what are you saying? She's ugly! And Willis' numbers are just that...UGLY. Even Mike and Mike were saying that he'd be fine as a third or fourth starter in the AL. I don't understand this. He wasn't good enough to be a third or fourth starter in the NL last year, really, and the AL is so offensively superior to the NL it's not even funny. I predict Willis will have an atrocious year and will basically become, within the next three years, a left-handed relief specialist (and not a very good one of those either).

The Marlins are a joke. Their payroll next year will be in the neighborhood of $8MM. A-Rod will be paid more in 50 games than the entire Marlins team will be paid for the whole season. And somehow they were supposed to be players in the chase for A-Rod? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Forget a salary cap...maybe it's time for a salary floor. Or, more accurately, maybe it's time to bid adieu to the sorry baseball franchise and their ridiculous mismanagement down in South Florida.

On a happier note, the Cardinals, who for some strange reason were interested in Dontrelle, will be saved from themselves, thankfully.

Tuesday Thoughts

A few thoughts from the last few days in sports:

BcS
The system which we use to determine who plays for college football's national championship is an absolute crock. I'll spare all my thoughts about how no one should be able to sit at home and watch everyone else put their seasons on the line and then end up in the championship game. I will say this: Two things are desperately needed for fairness in college football--1) Every conference's championship being decided in the same way (with a game or without one, but choose the way and make everyone follow it); and 2) a playoff of some kind. I'm not a big fan of people offering solutions without real suggestions, so, sometime between now and January 7, I'll detail what I think a playoff should look like.

NFL
There was a lot of interesting action in the NFL this weekend. Here are some thoughts on that action:

• As if there wasn't enough evidence, I believe Marvin Lewis has completely lost control of his team, and I'm also beginning to question whether he's a very good coach. He didn't challenge what to me looked like an obvious touchdown that was called incomplete. In fairness to him, I don't know whether he had any challenges left. The Bengals are, again, a laughable franchise.
• There is no huge conspiracy theory, but the NFL is dying for the Patriots to go undefeated. No way holding should have been called. And no way Jabar Gaffney caught that ball with both feet in bounds. Oh, and Rodney Harrison is a jackass. On the other side of the field, the Ravens are just a mess. Can someone get Bart Scott some anger management counseling for Christmas? And Brian Billick kissing at Harrison? Come on, coach. Grow up.
• The Browns really got hosed. I don't remember a more clear case of a guy getting forced out of bounds in the NFL, and the poor official just missed it. After the long review, the referee went and talked to the official who missed the call before announcing that the pass was indeed incomplete. I think he said, "Dude, you're going to get fined, and you probably need to enter the witness protection program, because you're going to have some fired up Browns' fans coming after you for that one."

Baseball's Winter Meetings
The John Santana Derby is officially underway, and I think it's a one-horse race, although I'd really like to see the Angels put something together starting with Jered Weaver and Brandon Wood. If all the Twins are waiting on is for the Red Sox to include both Lester and Ellsbury, I don't know what the Sox are waiting on. To be able to add Santana and basically not take anyone away from a team that won it all this year is an easy decision. I do think there are some concerns, and legitimate ones, about Santana's recent workload and health. But he's still Johan, and several years of him at 60-75% is really, really good.