Newz Forum: BASEBALL: Tigers land All-Star catcher Rodriguez with $40M deal

The Detroit Tigers are looking to turn things around this season and they start by acting like the Yankee's. Monday, Ivan Rodriguez signed a 4 year $40 million dollar contract to catch for a team that lost an American League record 119 games last year. Pudge is going to have to work hard to see if he help the Tigers get back to winning. Detroit has not had a winning season since 1993. A single high-priced talent is not enough to make a team great, Detroit still has a lot of work to do.

News Source SportsLine.com
Why would he go from the World Series champion Florida Marlins, to the worst team in baseball, the Detroit Tigers?

"The owner showed me respect, and that is the reason I'm here," Rodriguez said Monday after finalizing a $40 million, four-year contract.

"Everybody is saying I'm going from a World Series team to a losing team, but I don't think of the Tigers as a losing team. I think the Tigers just had a bad season. It's going to be completely different this year," he said.

The Tigers -- who haven't had a winning record since 1993 -- lost an American League-record 119 games last season. They were one loss short of baseball's post-1900 record for futility, set by the 1962 New York Mets.

Yeah, owner Mike Ilitch showed Rodriguez respect allright. He showed him the money, and thats all Ivan wanted. This just backs my feelings on athletes these days. It's all about the money. Nothing else matters.

This has happened before. A-Rod when to Texas. Texas was going to be great. A-Rod is doing awesome, but his fellow minimum wage players just can't get the job done around him.

I don't blame Pudge for taking the money. But if you are going to do it, the least you could do is not lie to us about why you took it. Rodriguez signed with Detroit because they flashed the cash. Please don't say "The owner showed me respect", when we all know the owner basically threw money at you.

I will say this though, if you are going to have high priced talent, a catcher is what you want. Someone to keep those young pitchers calm, cool, and collected.


[Edited on 2/3/2004 by Ben]

when isnt a player all about the money?

All players want is money to show how good they are. Pudge could help this team out with his verteran ability. But they arnt going to improve much this season, maybe instead losing 100 games.