Game of the Week: April 11: MIN @ DET

[Commissioner Erick]

Minnesota Twins (1-5) @ Detroit Tigers (4-3)


MIN: Ervin Santana (0-1, 6.14)
DET: Buck Farmer (0-1, 3.00)


After constantly deferring the future, the Detroit Tigers finally had their string of credit run dry. With an aging, expensive roster and a barren system, the Tigers could have conceivably hung around the middle of the pack hoping for a wild card spot this year.

Instead, Detroit cashed in its best future assets, young studs Daniel Norris and Michael Fulmer, to get more youth and draft picks into a depleted system. Andrew Suarez and German Marquez are now two of the four best players in the Tigers' minors. They came over from San Francisco and Colorado. The Tigers have an extra first and second round pick this year as a result of those deals. Detroit's system is currently ranked in the 20's, but with a number of top prospects around the league set to graduate, and an influx of picks this year, Detroit's future could look very bright this time next year.

It's not unreasonable that the team can remain competitive this year. Their pitching staff is held together with duct tape and Justin Verlander, but their top-end hitting can compete with any lineup outside of Cleveland's. Miguel Cabrera hasn't missed a beat, hitting .409 in the early going, while the Tigers have gotten two home runs each from Martinez' Victor and J.D.

However, if that offense sputters, the Tigers will be hard-pressed to trade their veterans for prospects. Cabrera is on the books for eight more years. Justin Upton is under contract for four, if he opts in this winter. Jordan Zimmermann and Verlander are on the books for three more season. All the years mentioned above are for over $22 million. With those contracts likely being negative assets, it forced the Tigers to trade their younger players to get future return, an often unseen strategy.

The Tigers take on a Twins team on the other end of the contention cycle, building up with youth, but still not very good. They're already fourth worst in pitching despite facing the White Sox and Royals to begin the year. Ervin Santana was stretched a little too long in his first start, giving up two runs in the eighth inning of a 5-4 loss, despite pitching well through the first seven.

Minnesota's best players have bushels of potential, but haven't put it together yey. Byron Buxton is still figuring out what to do with his prodigious tools. Miguel Sano is trying to learn the strike zone well enough to maximize his power. Outside of Jose Berrios though, the system isn't great, so there's a lot of pressure on the kids to get it together. If they hit, the Twins can be possible contenders. If they don't, the rebuild may take another half decade.

Questions for the GMs:

For Eric Murray, you have a handful of veterans on the team, but some of your most intriguing players are young. What will be your course of action this year? Keep building around the kids, or make a play for the playoffs?

Ervin Santana was left out to pitch in the eighth inning and was burned for it in his first start. Will you go with more relief work later in games or try to have your starters go as deep as possible?

Joe Mauer is beloved in Minnesota, but he’s older and his contract expires after next year. What is your long term plan for the veteran?

For Steve Meyers, trading away your young studs signals that you’re in this for the long haul. Do you trade away your veterans at all costs or see how they’re doing this year before moving them?

Talk about the pieces you received in the Norris and Fulmer deals. Is there a player you got back that you’re very high on?

Buck Farmer had a nice outing against the White sox in his first start of the year. What do you expect to see from him tonight?

[erictwins]

The plan for this year is to play every game and hope for the win each and every day. That obviously didn't happen the first week. It's still early though. This team has plenty of potential but we may be a year or two away from seeing the results on the field. We're very excited for the young core that we have in the majors with Sano, Buxton and Kepler. We also have veteran leadership on this team with some guys that have been in the big leagues a while.

We're going to look to get as much as we can with this rotation. Ervin is one of the leaders of the group so in a close game where he's pitched well and we don't feel he's tiring, we will leave him in there. We have confidence in Ervin and if we start yanking the veterans early we may lose them in the locker room. We are a little thin in the pen but have some guys coming up so it's important to have guys who can eat innings like Ervin, Phil (Hughes) and Kyle (Gibson) do what they do best. Get guys out and pitch late into contests.

Joe is the man in Minnesota. End of question. He's the undisputed leader of this club. Long term we will see. At the end of the day, you're always looking for guys that can improve your ball club. If Joe is still helping us into next year, we would hope we can come to terms with him and his agent on an extension.

[tigersgm_Steve]

Q1. trading away your young studs signals that you’re in this for the long haul. Do you trade away your veterans at all costs or see how they’re doing this year before moving them?

Trading Norris and Fullmer was a forced move driven by the lack of interest in the pricier veteran players (Miggy, JV, VMart, etc.). There is no point in giving them away without a player return and they will offer some consistency and high level of play that we need to put some W's on the board. With the picks and younger players we'll try and parlay them into a core group 3-4 years down the road. A long wait? Yes, but we are paying the bill now for the years preceding 2017. And, who knows how this group will play this season. We think we have a shot at a wild card, not a good one, but stranger things have happened.

Q. 2 Talk about the pieces you received in the Norris and Fulmer deals. Is there a player you got back that you’re very high on?

Fabian, Shaw, and Perez all have a chance at being solid players. Will all 3 make it? Probably not, but if we can catch lightening in a bottle with 1 or 2 then it was a good deal for us. And, of course, the 2nd round pick allows us to look for a diamond in the rough.

Castellani and Marquez both have stamina, 3 good pitches, and good control. Throw in the first round pick and maybe we get yet another player. But, make no mistake about it, giving up Fullmer was not easy to do as he will likely have a long, award worthy career for the Rockies or whoever he ends up playing for.

Q. 3 Buck Farmer had a nice outing against the White sox in his first start of the year. What do you expect to see from him tonight?

No expectations of brilliance from Farmer. If he gives us a QS we will be happy.

[Commissioner Erick]

Twins-Tigers PPD


The Tigers-Twins game scheduled for the evening has been snowed out. Snow is in the forecast for the week, perhaps with a reprieve on Wednesday. The Tigers will attempt to get two games in tomorrow.

Minnesota made a move before the game, trading Kyle Gibson for two reasonable prospects, SP Jose Mujica and C Jonah Heim. Tyler Duffey will likely be called up to work in the Twins' rotation.