Despite just suffering the worst losing streak of the season (seven games) Tigers Team President and General Manager believes that the Tigers are contenders and are playing for now according to Bob Wojnowski of the Detroit News.
“Yes, we are a contender,” Dombrowski said before Wednesday’s game. “There’s no question we have a chance to win our division, no question we’re competitive. It’s amazing, everyone sees a losing streak and everything seems worse than it is. We haven’t been playing well, nobody’s happy, but my belief is, we’re a much better club than this. We don’t use those terms — buyer or seller. If you can help your club, you do it. If you can’t, you don’t.”
Even when Wojnowski asked him if he would deal veterans at the deadline, Dombrowski was thinking something totally different…
“We’re not looking to move our veteran players,” he said. “We’re looking to win.”

The Tigers need to be smart when approaching the deadline. It is my belief that if they go into the deadline doing the right things they can truly set themselves up to be really good for a long time.  This means being true contenders for years to come (and not just this year). Remember, they are going to have roughly $50MM coming off the books next season. I wouldn’t jump into trade situations either that are going to cost you good young cheap talent. I thought it was great that they didn’t get Cliff Lee (since it would basically take a Jacob Turner and Wilkins Ramirez plus another prospect to get him) not to mention Lee will be a free agent next season and there are not guarantees that he would even come back to the team. This is the same with Ted Lilly. If it takes the entire farm system to get him, thanks but no thanks Chicago, if we want him that bad we will talk to him during the off season. Dan Haren is someone who I like. He is still relatively young, he is signed through next season (this is also a bad thing which I will mention in a second) and he has some really good stuff. The downside is he is making a lot of money, about $13MM next season and he has horrible second half’s. Almost every year since 2005 his ERA after the All Star Break has been above 4.oo.
Proceed with caution Tigers, you could have many good things to come if you are patient.

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