This year the biggest move was to send Avisail "Little Miggy" Garcia over to the Red Sox to pick up their current name of the week middle infielder Jose Iglseias. I was familiar with him due to having him on my fantasy team for about 3 weeks earlier in the season when he was still hitting over .400 after about 150 ABs. Obviously, I knew he was going to be dropped off my team sooner rather than later, and had dropped him at least 3 weeks before the Tigers acquired him in the deal. His minors numbers as a hitter are unspectacualar, and his BABIP was at insane levels where there was no fantasy benefit in the guy anymore because he brought no power,m speed, or run production for being at such a high average. You don't get points for defense in fantasy so it wasn't much of a decision to drop him after the average started to slip. Still hitting around .330 when he got to Detroit many were a bit over-excited I thought,b ut it was still a move that needed to be made in light of a possible suspension looming for Jhonny Peralta that could come at any time. Plus he was in his final year so it was a move that gave us a guy under control for a few more years at a very reasonable price much like the guys we got in the Granderson deal.
In a separate deal, the Tigers acquired relief pitcher Jose Veras from the Houston Astros for minor-league outfielder Danny Vasquez and a player to be named later.
While some may claim that the Tiges had a better team last year I highly disagree. At least from a playoff roster anyways. The pitching depth on this team is far better than it was last year and the lack of Big Potato as the closer makes a big difference. One of the best moves of the year, and I wanted this from the start, was to keep Rick Porcello. That allowed us to have 6 rotational starters on the roster with Smyly in the bullpen as a lefty that could go long relief if needed,or to spot start. This will make a huge difference in the playoffs I think as it did for teams like Texas when they have beaten us in the past. This is the year for the World Series ring rather than just ceramic rings.
Here's what ESPN.com's Jayson Stark had to say about the Tigers' moves:
"Every year at the deadline, it never ceases to amaze us how difficult it seems to be for half the GMs in baseball to make a trade -- and how easy Tigers maestro Dave Dombrowski makes it look. 'He did what he always does,' one of his admiring peers said of Dombrowski. 'He did what he needed to do. Dave is your classic old-school GM. He says, "I'm going to fill my holes." And then he did.
"He resisted the temptation to overpay, on every level, for a big bullpen name like Jonathan Papelbon and instead reeled in Jose Veras to set up for Joaquin Benoit. And with his shortstop, Jhonny Peralta, in danger of disappearing down the Biogenesis sinkhole, Dombrowski roared in quietly at the last minute and traded for Iglesias, a massive defensive upgrade for an infield in serious need of a massive defensive upgrade.
" 'I know everybody wanted them to go get some big name to pitch the back end of the game,' one NL executive said. 'But if they lose Peralta and they don't have a guy like this to replace him, that's just as big. I thought they got exactly what they needed. And I know they actually wanted more [bullpen] pieces and tried like hell to get one. But they've already done well. And I'm sure they'll be shopping that waiver wire next month.' "
