Justin Verlander gets 5 year, $80 million deal with Tigers

Michigan

He has proved his worth to them and big things are expected as they should be.

digicat

Sigh. Most teams know how to pay their super-star ace pitchers. The Giants are waving $8m in Lincecum's face and saying "We know what other teams pay their star pitchers, but your 2 Cy Young Awards are only worth this."

Pay the star like he's a star already!

MantleMarisFordBerra

Hmmmm...I hope this works out for the Tigers, but $80 mil? That's A LOT of $. I agree the Giants need to pay The Freak, but I think he's worth it. Verlander? I don't see it. To be fair, I don't really follow the Tigers on a day to day basis so perhaps I'm missing something. Maybe it will work out in the end.

lanemyer85

doesn't really matter, after Felix Hernandez signed for 5/$78M, Verlander's market was set. The Tigers will shed a ton of payroll over the next two years with Mags, Willis, C.Guillen, Inge, Bonderman, Robertson etc all FAs...so the $ isn't a problem.

RoarIn84

Lincecum=Fidrych...... as long as they keep him churning out all those innings. with a delivery like that, and as young as he is, his arm will be blown about halfway thru a 5yr contract.... I'm not too much a fan of the modern game of pitch counting, but you had better protect the young guys!

as for Verlander, i'm glad he will be locked up for 5yrs!! he IS the franchise and the Tigers are gonna have one helluva staff. they will match the vastly overrated White Sox pitch for pitch!! They just gotta be careful with the powerful MIN lineup with all those lefties, cause all the Tigers have in the rotation are righties.....

lanemyer85

the Tigers are gonna have one helluva staff. they will match the vastly overrated White Sox pitch for pitch!!

yeah I don't know about that...possibly, but Gavin Floyd is a pretty good #4 SP, and in the Tigers' rotation, Scherzer is probably the #3 behind Verlander and Porcello, and Scherzer is a 5-6 inning pitcher right now. You guys are going to need for one SP from the from the Bondo, Gallarraga, Willis, Robertson, Figaro or whomever else group to perform like a #2 or #3 SP like Edwin Jackson did last year...but right now, the final two rotation spots are question marks. I wouldn't want to be banking on any of those guys quite honestly. I think it's pretty evident the front office is looking towards 2011-12 in the D. 2012 a ton of payroll will be freed up and you'll be looking at a starting 5 of Verlander, Porcello, Scherzer, and top prospects Casey Crosby and Jacob Turner.