sportsjabber.net

It’s Wednesday and “The Stack” has a lot of different sports headlines and storylines from Tuesday to choose from. As promised, we will talk about one of the many Super Bowl storylines. So let’s see what else made “the stack” for today, Wednesday, January 25:

1. Detroit Tigers land Prince Fielder.

This move was certainly a surprise to me as it was to many others. The Detroit Tigers landed the biggest (literally and figuratively) free agent on the market as they signed Prince Fielder to a nine-year $214 million deal. Very few people, if anyone had mentioned the Tigers as possible landing destination for Fielder. Most indications had Fielder going to either the Texas Rangers or Washington Nationals. Where were the St. Louis Cardinals who lost Albert Pujols to the Anaheim Angels? Where were the Chicago Cubs? It is a bit of a head-scratcher. Perhaps they just thought Fielder wasn’t worth the money. But this move is still a little curious from the Tigers side. As one of my friends pointed out to me, they have a first baseman. It’s Miguel Cabrera. He will now move to the DH position. The Tigers made this move because Victor Martinez is going to be out perhaps all season with a torn ACL. But what do they do when he is healthy and ready to return the lineup? That’s what my friend said and he’s right. Will there be a chemistry issue? Who will be expendible? Presumably it will be Martinez. Perhaps someway the Tigers will find a way to make it work. It is a bit of a gamble, a big gamble for the Tigers to bring in Fielder for that kind of money. But it is a good gamble to take. And now they’ve put the rest of MLB, most notably the AL Central on notice. They’re in it to win it.

One other bit of baseball news to get to is that the San Francisco Giants avoided arbitration with pitcher Tim Lincecum signing him to a two-year $40.5 million deal. Lincecum is one of the best pitchers in baseball and the Giants have a strong pitching staff, but really in my opinion ill-afford to lose Lincecum. Glad they got him to a signed to a deal.

2. Where will Peyton Manning land?