Dombrowski: Tigers looking at SS options

Tiger fan here, I am all for dumping Robertson or Willis to help at SS but I do not want DD to sacrifice any money or prospects for this deal or any for ****. DD thinks Cale Lorg will be a stud in a year or two and we have to many bigger needs for me to want to see us sacrifice anything significant to help at SS. Santiago and Inge would make a strong left side of the infields which will help out our pitching a lot more than the combo of Cabrera and Renteria did to start last season. If both can play good defense and hit 8 and 9th in the order that is fine with me. The top six in our line-up should produce if healthy. I do not want to see DD make our defense any worse for only a mild offensive improvement.

i've kinda always thought lugo was trash, but i guess Willis hasn't been doing so well. If the sox can resurrect Willis, that would be a great deal for them.

Lifelong Tigers fan who is now living in Boston.
I will puke if DD makes this move. Robertson and Willis are bad but Lugo is THE WORST ss in the league. If the tigers are stupid enough to not give renteria a second chance and take Lugo instead they deserve the horrific offensive output and the most errors at ss in the AL.
Lugo is awful!!!

I too am a lifelong Tigers fan (living in Boston). Lugo is pretty horrific both offensively and defensively (Lugo committed as many errors as Renteria -- in 50 less games). A lot of Tiger fans were disappointed with Edgar mainly because of who the Tigers gave up (Jurrjens, Hernandez). If he was a FA signing @ 9M it wouldn’t be so bitter. Lugo would be a lateral move and if the Tigers really believe one of their young players can take over in 2010, then having Lugo around for another year doesn't make sense. Better to sign a good glove/no stick SS for 1 yr then have an albatross for 2.

NATE ROBERTSON is a class act . a lefty who can win 20 games in the right fit. willis is the one who sucked last year . its not like the tigers have 5 great starters anyway ! please keep nate . i would even like to try him in a closer role !!!

I say we give Santiago a shot. He is defensively very solid and that is what they lacked. Robertson had an off year and with a better defense behind him his stats will be much better. As for Willis there sure are a lot of people raggin on the guy for having a bad year are these the same people that would say Verlander should be traded just because his numbers were not what we have come to expect? I doubt that. If Willis can regain his normal form then we are way better off. Any offense that we can get from Santiago would be a bonus, you have Maggs, Granderson, Guillen, Cabrera, Sheffield, and Polanco, I think we are getting greedy asking for 9 offensive powers, we need a solid left side of the infield and with Inge and Santiago you have that and with that you get more innings out of your starters and have to use your bullpen less thus reducing the strain on it. I would love to get a little more pitching, but I think we have some young guns coming up through the system so not to give them away. Let's hope that Bonderman comes back, that is a big key for us and then maybe get Rogers back for one more year to mix in with all those power arms and we shall be set. I would focus on a catching solution, or even give Ryan a shot with little pressure for offense since we have enough to be good.

LLTF here also...The Lugo deal makes NO sense. I Strongly believe LUGO is a downgrade from Edgar. In my opinion we have only 1 scenario that makes sense with 2 possible scenarios.....

Offer Renteria arbitration and 1 or 2 things will happen:

1. he accepts, we give him a 1 year contract (he has made it clear that he feels he has unfinished business in Detroit) and he is the bridge to either Lorg or Worth in 2010. I think it is VERY SAFE to say that his offensive #'s will greatly improve from last year as his second half of '09 was much improved. Defensively, Inge will be able to cut off a lot of the balls that Renteria wasn't able to get in the hole.

2. He doesn't accept arbitration. We get 2 supplimental (sandwich) picks in the '09 draft and Ramon Santiago is our opening day SS. His glove is Very good. With Inge, Polonco, and Santiago we would have 3 gold glove "calliber" infielders and while Cabrera lacks a bit in range, his glove was respectable last year and should improve going into the season.

Offensively, Santiago is a contact hitter and can do the little things(sac bunt, hit behind the runners) out of the 9 spot. He can also go from 1st to 3rd on a single which is something we need more of!

The concern is that he may wear down in an everyday situation. If this happens, bring one of the young guys up in July and let them split time......

MAKES SENSE TO ME, WHAT DO YOU THINK???????

Tigers fan living in Boston here. The team would be much better off with Santiago at short. I've seen alot of Boston baseball and Lugo is as good as trash. At least Willis and Robertson have potential while Lugo does not have, and will never have, any potential. Let Santiago play until the prospects are ready.

Also a life long Tigers fan and the Lugo trade makes little sense because statistically he is actually a downgrade from Renteria. Lugo also makes 9.5 million next year and as far as being a defensive upgrade, that's probably not true because of his nagging injuries last year. theoretically he would be able to steal 15 to 20 bases in a year, but because of the injuries, i doubt he will do that. I don't agree with this trade at all, because Robertson and Willis have potential to bounce back and Santiago seems like a logical fit, but I have to trust in Dombrowski. He took us from the embarassing 119 loss season in 2003 to the world series in 2006 making risky moves like this. Besides trading Jurrjens, but that's another story, he makes incredible moves, so all we can do is trust he's right.