I am a baseball fan.  As luck would have it, I live in Windsor, Ontario which is placed conveniently across the Detroit River from a major league baseball city, Detroit.  Unfortunately, I am not a Tigers fan.  I do, however, have the pleasure of being surrounded by Tiger fans and Tiger broadcasts and Tiger musings and…well, you get the point. 

You can only imagine how happy I was at work today when I flipped on the radio that the sports talk was about baseball.  Usually, at this time of year, Detroit turns it’s attention to football, basketball, and hockey.  Baseball is rarely spoken of again until March unless big news is being broken.  Thank goodness for satellite radio…too bad I can’t use satellite radio at work.  But I digress.  As I was dilligently working I had the pleasure of listening to hours of baseball conversation on the radio.  The topic: Granderson offers are being listened to in Detroit. 

Wow…this is big news.  Apparently, there have been discussions of Tigers’ centerfielder, Curtis Granderson, going to the Yankees, the Cubs, or the Redsox (which just happens to the team that I root for.)  Although these are the teams rumored to be the most interested, there has not been any discussion revolving around which players might be involved besides Mr. Granderson.

Very interesting.  Not only is this baseball news but it could possibly involve my beloved Sox.  The two radio hosts, of course, are complete Detroit slappies so they can hardly believe that the Tigers would dream of sending their centerfielder to another team but eventually they come to the realization that it could happen and started talking about acceptable (in their eyes) deals.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, they have made some poor decisions when it has come to contract time and they have a lot of players who are now past their prime or usefulness who will be collecting a lot of money next year.  One of the topics regarding this possible trade that was discussed was the possibility of attaching one of these cumbersome contracts to the trade so that the Tigers could free up some money to acquire some new talent.  This makes sense.  Maybe some team would take on an extra player (and his fat contract) in order to acquire Granderson.

The radio announcers discussed this and what it would take to pry Curtis away.  They decided that the Tigers, in return, should receive one major league player and a top prospect.  Then they moved onto what contract they would most like to get rid of.  Of course, there can only be one answer to the question: which Tiger contract would they most like to be rid of?  Dontrelle “D-Train” Willis.  It is too bad but Willis no longer has the ability to pitch in the major leagues.  He can’t throw stikes.  The D-Train has some sort of anxiety disorder that is preventing him from competing.  It is completely understandable that Detroit would love to be rid of his contract that will pay him $12 million next year.  Why Dombrowski would renegotiate his contract after reviewing his track record is beyond me but that does not change the fact that the Tigers will be on the hook for $12 million next year and probably won’t even see him throw the ball.

So far so good.  Now here comes the part that drove me crazy all day.  One of the radio guys says that, on top of the mlb ready player and the top prospect, the team that deals for Granderson should also have to take Dontrelle Willis.  Are you kidding me?  He justified this by saying that the teams showing interest have open wallets.  Yes, the Yankees, Cubs, and Sox all spend more than most other clubs (especially, the Yankees) but I really don’t believe that even a team with a wallet like the Yankees is willing to dish out a top prospect, a major league player, and pay out Willis’ $12 million pay check just to get their hands on one Curtis Granderson.

The worst part is that almost all of the listeners calling in seemed to be in complete agreement.  City of Detroit: wake up.  This is not going to happen.  You are going to be stuck paying out Willis.  Maybe you can shed some salary with some of your other overpriced talent but there is no team out there that is interested in paying $12 million for zero return.

On an interesting note, one of the deals that was discussed (I believe it was a Chicago sports writer’s idea) was Chicago sending over Marmol and Castro (minor league phenom shortstop with no power) in return for Granderson.  City of Detroit: take that deal if it is offered.  You will lose in the short term but next year will probably not be a good one anyway.  You will wind up with a guy who can replace Rodney and close out games and a guy who could be the shortstop of your future.  If this is the beginning of a time of rebuilding this is a move that helps you rebuild faster.