MIKE ILLITCH: I NEVER STOPPED LOVING YOU

Unless you were in a coma today you heard. Tigers swept in as the "mystery" team in the Prince Fielder sweepstakes to sign the 27 year-old slugger to an astonishing 9 year $214 Million deal.

It's not your money. MLB has no salary cap. Shut up.

Sounding more and more like Miguel Cabrera is going to go back to play 3rd as well so we can hear Inge talking shit like he matters once again. HE just loves to yap when we sign all-stars like he belongs in the conversation as anyone the team should worry about. Welcome back to Toledo, Mendoza. Put on your scrub tops. Do something for that free money they give you.

Good stat:

@jaysonst
Jayson Stark
Did some checking on Prince's HRs. RF in Comerica is 339 feet. Shortest Prince HR to RF in any park last year was 363.

Cam Newton to Replace Eli in Pro Bowl

Since Eli is going to the Super Bowl he's not playing in the Pro Bowl. Cam Newton will replace him. Thank god.

Doesn't matter that Stafford should have been there before both of them Pro Bowl, All-star games, etc. are the most worthless games there are around. Never watch them, and probably never will. Don't care if my family is in one. I'd tell them not to play because it's a waste of time. I'd rather watch durham house cleaning service clean toilets.

Stafford not being in the Pro Bowl is the best news I could have heard. We got the guy for a full season finally and he threw for 5000 yards and 40 TDs. After 2 years of injury anyone that cares he didn't make it is nuts.

Victor Matinez Torn ACL; May be out for season

As you know I was a huge supporter of going out to get VMart last year, and was so glad they did. After everyone seeing him play last year I doubt anyone was disappointed with using him as our DH, which was ultimately the biggest reason most though tit wasn't a good deal. HE did as much as you could ask for of a DH except for hit 40 HRs obviously. He is a great pro hitter, and made that offense really work. Actually, he did a lot of the things that Guillen did for our lineup when he was in his prime back a 4-5 years ago. Really made the offense go.

It appears we may be without him this year. Reports claim he has a torn ACL and that he may miss the season. A devastating blow for the lineup for sure. Only losing Miggy would hurt us more and that's not even exaggerating.

I haven't heard anything real conclusive yet other than people claiming surgery would likely cost him his season. I ham highly skeptical of claims like this since players return from injuries so much faster these days that insane predictions like that are just way too overstated without complete analysis. We'll have to wait and see, but obviously he's going to miss a lot of time, if not the whole season sitting home watching his video baby monitor.

Lions Surprise Us All

Suffering through the 3 weeks of Stafford wearing that silly glove and throwing 9 INTs while only throwing 5 in the rest of his games combined, we see a whole new Lions team against San Diego last week. By far the best game they and Stafford played all year. At the perfect time.

Stafford went from throwing the 9 INTs to throwing 9 TDs and 0 INTs in the 3 crucial wins that clinched a playoff birth for the first time in 12 years. Now already in the playoffs they don't have time to look at free dating sites, but need to look at trying to win that 5th seed and avoiding New Orleans in the first round.

A Lions win on New Year's Day, or an Atlanta loss clinches the 5th seed and gives them the AFC East winner. Playing in Green Bay it is going to be a tough task. GB has nothing to play for at 13-1 so they may rest a lot of guys and the Lions could steal one. 11-5 could be in the mix. They play like they did against San Diego they can beat anyone.