Fixed or improved semantics.
You say potato I say parsnips.
I say Joba, BBQ, and Krol are gone, multiple relievers with some real success, the save leader who is still in his prime.
Salty, Aviles, Maybin, Upton (did I say 5?)
4 fielders.
Salty isn't entirely a chump, and he's cheap, Maybin is trending up, Aviles is versatile.
Upton was the second best OFer on the market.
The pen was the a joke last year and the year before that. It is no longer that. It is above average, not much above but above.
Considering all that had to be done Avila did a lot, built redundancy, got a mixture of veterans and positioned hungry young guys to be at their heels.
Last year the rotations backup was Lober, Ryan, and Farmer all of whom sucked. This year it is Greene who started last year with a 24 inning 1 ER stretch, but then had a bad stretch followed by a good stretch (turned out he was injured), Boyd who showed some promise last year and is better than Lober/Ryan/Farmer, and prospect Fulmer who carved up AA last season.
In the pen, the garbage has been taken out. Now, maybe Lowe's resurgence will collapse, maybe one of the Wilsons will struggle, maybe Hardy or Verhagen aren't for real. But maybe Nesbitt will put it together, maybe Ryan or Farmer can't start but can pitch in relief, maybe Rondon will pull his head out of his butt, get healthy, and light it up.
The quality of the pitching reserves are higher.
Last year Gose was the starting CFer, a HUGE mistake. Maybin is better than Gose in every single way, and is trending up (he had a good start of the year last year, started to turn it back on after a drought, and then was injured).
Upton is BETTER than Cespedes and JD is JD.
Pelfrey is a ground ball hitter (I believe he often leads the league with up the middle grounders) who did okay with the Twins and their weak defense. The Tigers better d and middle infield combo will make him look really good. Oh, did I mention that he has the magic ability to keep the ball in the yard, an ability that has passed from statistically anomaly to statistically significant or real. A better D behind him should be able to take advantage of this tendency.
There are very good reasons to expect Pelfrey to have a career year with the Tigers.
Oh did I mention that Avila did the moves he had to do without gutting the farm system as Dumbo would've done?
The Tigers are deep, still a little shallow in pitching and they could use a touch more talent in the infield if you ask me. But Machado still exists and will be a car ride away. Gose will be in Maybin's review mirror and he will be trying to keep up with the two guys to his left and right who are better and 5 months younger.
I see Avila's thinking in putting this team together. There is logic. There is an effort to but the players in a position to succeed.
