As a fan of the Detroit Tigers I saw a couple of headlines today that have me a bit worried. As a team that is still "rebuilding", I guess I shouldn't be too concerned with what other teams are doing, but I am.
The fact that the Yankee's are meeting with two World Series all-stars, probably doesn't bode too well for my team from Detroit. Even though they are in the East Division and we are in the Central Division, we seem to face off against the Yankees a lot.
On top of that, if by some miracle we were able to make it to the playoffs, we would potentially have to go through the Yankees to get to the World Series.
Now, I realize that is a lot of "what-if's", but it is still a bit concerning as a Tigers fan. It's probably not likely that New York would pick up both Strasburg and Cole, but then again, you never know.
This is the team that is known for huge payrolls. There was a significant amount of time that they had the largest payroll in all of major league baseball. Players like A-Rod, Jeter (my brother in law pitched against him in high school by the way), and Sabathia didn't come cheap when they were in their prime.
I know they are supposed to be considered one of "America's Teams", but I personally can't stand the Yankees. I see them as a team that basically buys championships and while I know that is kind of the norm these days, it still gets under my skin a little bit.
Plus there is the fact that the fans were pretty much horrible during the playoffs last post season. There are countless stories about the fans crossing the line in terms of heckling and shouting racial slurs at the opponents players.
Perhaps the MLB needs to impose some stricter rules on spectator conduct like the NBA just did.
In any event, as free agents Cole and Strasburg will pretty much have their pick of the century as to where they end up. Hopefully they will use their better judgement and end up somewhere besides the Yankees.
