Dawn of the Rebuild

My Detroit Tigers are about to go through a new period for the franchise, a rebuild. Most fans dread the word, but as a Tiger fan, I am glad that they are going to finally commit to it.

They honestly should have started a few years ago, instead of signing Justin Upton & Jordan Zimmermann, they should have made a serious attempt at resigning Max Scherzer first (and I'm not speaking of the $142 million extension), then once that did not work out, did small signings or extensions elsewhere. They waited too long (like the Philadelphia Phillies did) and are now facing a long rebuild, they need to get the max amount of the pieces that they are trading away.

I happened to be in the 4th row behind the visiting dugout at Comerica Park, as the Detroit Tigers won in extras, with a walk-off walk to Miguel Cabrera on July 16th; In that game, fan favorite J.D. Martinez homered to right field, it would be his last home run as a Tiger, as the Arizona Diamondbacks would acquire him two days later.

I was stunned to hear the return of J.D., I felt we were low-balled in that trade, I feel we should have gotten back a better package of prospects from Arizona. The Tigers acquired Dawel Lugo, Sergio Alcantara & Jose King -- All infield prospects. We should have tried to acquire back Domingo Leyba, that would have been really nice. Lugo had the most upside, was Arizona's #4 prospect, and falls to #12 in Detroit's system according to MLB.com.

We ended up trading Justin Wilson & Alex Avila to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Jeimer Candelario & Isaac Paredes (minors), plus a player to be named later or cash. Avila has hit 2 HR's for both of his hits with the Cubs so far, while J.D. has hit 7 HR for the Diamondbacks already in 19 games of play.

My favorite player in all of Baseball is Justin Verlander, and as much as I love seeing him wearing the old english D, it's time that we get something for him while we can; I am a Detroit Tigers fan first & foremost, so if it betters my Tigers, I think we need to definitely deal him. He didn't go anywhere at the Trade Deadline, but there is still a small slim chance he could be acquired by someone in August, on a waiver wire trade.

Verlander has been red-hot, 3-2 record with a 1.91 ERA, 1.021 WHIP & 50 K's in 47 innings, during his last 7 starts.

Don't be surprised to see someone like Houston swoop in later for Verlander, possibly Milwaukee, very likely the Tigers will still have to eat some contract.

We need to rebuild the farm system & go from there, I knew realistically our championship window closed during the 2013 American League Championship Series, when "Big Papi" David Ortiz smashed that ball over the fence (with Torii Hunter along with it) that it was the dagger moment. Now it's time for a new group of guys, hopefully not too far down the horizon to lead the Tigers to that elusive World Championship that they have been thirsting for since 1984.