I don't know if there is anyone among us bloggers that can understand why J.D. Drew would pass on 33 million dollars the next 3 seasons.  We know there is one among us, I'm just not one of them.

Here we have a 31 year old major league baseball player with a lot of talent who is prone to injury.  A guy who perhaps was overpayed the first time around when he originally signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  So we ask ourselves, 'Why would Drew do this?'.  Is it for the love of playing for L.A.?  Or does he really think it's for the money?

The other question to ask is, who in their right mind would pay J.D. Drew more money than he was getting from the Dodgers?  The answer is: Someone, unfortunately.  Unfortunate because somebody will overpay Drew for the next 4 or 5 years just to see him get hurt at least once and miss significant time.  Hopefully they won't have to see him try to go first to home when the guy in front of him gets gunned at home plate on the same play.  What was he thinking?

But assess how much you would pay him in comparison to the rest of the hitters.  What would you give him?  Is he worth 8 figures to your team?  Think about that.

You would think his agent, Scott Boras, believes he can get big money elsewhere.  Otherwise he would not hav allowed Drew to opt out of his contract.  Then again, two points must be raised: 1) He is also the agent of Jeff Weaver who turned down big money with the Dodgers last year, and 2) Drew has had a bit of time to think about this and Boras is perhaps convinced that Drew needs to get out of L.A.  I know a lot of people do not respect Boras, but what he does is he makes sure his clients are taken care of, financially or otherwise.

That's where the love for playing with the Dodgers comes into play.  Perhaps he just does not like to play in that town.  Maybe he has trouble with teammates, the coaches, the fans, or all of the above.  That remains to be seen.  Some players don't feel comfortable playing for a certain team despite the comfortable bank account.  As his situation this winter gets played out, we'll get our answer.

Looking at this move at face value, its a stupid move.  But, if this move isn't about the money and it has something to do with him not fitting in or having problems with L.A., then we'll all understand why he made this move.  To a point, that is, since he did sign on the dotted line just 2 short years ago. 

(To all the FoxBloggers checking out my radio show: Thank you for the support.  It means a lot to have passionate sports people like yourselves taking a listen.  Regardless if you like the show or think I suck, I appreciate it nonetheless.  Why?  Because the more people that tune in, the better for me.  Cheers and thank you once again.) 

I'm still trying to figure out how the Detroit Tigers got to 10th in the power rankings on Fox Sports. Hell, putting my Blue Jays 9th was a bit high. But Detroit? What did they do?

Get Todd Jones?

Until something miraculous happens this season for Detroit, they should thank the Kansas City Royals for allowing them to come in 4th. Maybe they can come 3rd, but 2nd? Cleveland cannot allow that with the talent they have on their roster.

Perhaps this is because of the return of Jim Leyland. Didn't anyone learn from the last time they blew his team up in pre-season? He coached the Colorado Rockies and they were slated to get to the playoffs thanks to the leadership of Leyland. That did not happen. Not even close. At least the Rockies at the time had made the playoffs within 3 or 4 years of Leyland's arrival. When has Detroit gotten close?

So Detroit is better than 67% of the major leagues. That is a really high percentage considering it is the Detroit Tigers. They have some nice players and so up-and-comers, but what this poll is saying is Leyland is going to steal a bunch of games that Alan Trammall did not. Not to downplay Leyland's managerial career but even this might be a level that cannot be obtained due to the talent Detroit has to contend with. What Fox is saying is Detroit wll win 90 games, at least. Let's see them reach 81 first and then go from there.

I will admit that making predictions is tough. Calculating what athletes are going to do in their performance for the upcoming season is one tough thing to do. I just thought it was easy to slot Detroit not near the top of the standings. I also saw D.L. Drew predicted as a runner-up for NL MVP. I didn't think that was possible either. Great thing about sports is many surprises usually occur throughout the course of one season. Maybe Detroit and Drew are some of those surprises.

I highly doubt it.

Other stuff: Want to say thanks for the support for my radio gig. Northsider, got your e-mail I totally appreciate it. I'll keep you all posted and Friday is blog/fantasy Friday so if you want some run let me know and I'll provide it. chevradionoise@gmail.com is the address, and it might change soon so I'll keep you all up to speed. Cheers.

It's not like Dontrelle Willis or Miguel Cabrera are sitting at 30+ years of age looking for one last shot at glory.  These two guys are relatively kids with a lot of years left in their promising careers.  With that said, wouldn't you go after one of these players?  Or both?

The first team I thought about was obviously the Toronto Blue Jays, only because they are my favourite team and close to home.  No, I didn't think of them as the team who would be at the front of the line to obtain these guys, but I looked at them and saw they have a deep farm system.  For the last few years GM J.P. Ricciardi has done some great work with the farm system and the drafting.  The Florida Marlins are looking for young talent and they are one franchise that has it.

But there are several teams around the league looking for talent to put themselves over:

- Oakland A's: This franchise likes to make a move for these kinds of players to get to the playoffs and (possibly) make a run through the playoffs.  Oakland could use a bat in Cabrera and an arm like Willis's to make a new Big 3 along with Barry Zito and Rich Harden.

- Milwaukee Brewers: You keep looking at this team and wonder just how they've steadily improved over the last two years.  Maybe the 2005 season was just a fluke and they'll come back to be the Milwaukee Brewers.  Or, they build from last year, get Willis and Cabrera, lock them up long-term and then possibly make a run in 2007.  Or if St.Louis get's old over this past off-season, contention could start now with those 2 added to the roster. 

- Atlanta Braves: They have a lot of good young players and they like to make moves like these (Hudson, JD Drew, Sheffield etc.).  This is a Braves kind of move, but Florida might not workout a deal with someone in the same division (though because Florida's terrible, why should it matter?).

- Cleveland Indians: They might want to upgrade their team to actually have a better shot at the post-season.  This is a franchise that has gone through the rebuilding phase and should have a good crop of players to deal to Florida.  They certainly need another arm and a bat to make themselves a dangerous team.

Blogger-Nation will have their say as to which team should go after them.  I could probably write in another 15 teams in this but I just went with a few just off the top.  Any team could improve vastly with both of these guys, especially if they just need to give up players who would not make an impact on their MLB roster this season.  If these 2 guys are on the trading block and your time to win is now, I'd be ready to throw the kitchen sink at the Marlins to get these two for this year.  So bring it on Blog-Nation.