I LOVE the move. I saw they posted this was about to happen over on the Tigers website yesterday morning but it was not official at that time and I thought right off the bat "I hope this is not just a rumor" and thankfully it was true.
Prince was a likable guy in his first year, and his regular season numbers were pretty good, but post season numbers suck big time. We've made it to the post season without him so what we wanted from him were post season numbers to help us and he just was not a post season type hitter, never was. So that $140 million was not a good investment.
The pros of trading him far outweigh any cons. By trading him with get a more "consistent" hitter, we free up money to be able to resign our Cy Young winner Max, we have Miggy up for contract in 2015 so this could be a move with resigning Miggy in mind. Miggy can now go back to 1st base where he belongs, Kinsler at 2nd and most likely a new 3rd baseman pickup, then with Iglesias now at shortstop I think our infield is going to be MUCH better now than it was this previous season. Not to mention the fact that we need some speed which Prince obviously had zero. Kinsler adds a bit more speed to our runners so now with Kinsler actually a guy that can steal a bag that's a new tool we have been lacking. Prince was very prone to striking out as well. Sure a big HR at the right moment is a good thing, but Princes HR's numbers this year were not what we expected from him either. Add in the fact that the guys attitude SUCKED big time and that is just pouring $140 mil down the drain if you ask me.
This move so early in the off season, as well as getting rid of ol' mumbles shows that DD and Illich are gonna do everything they can to get us back to the World Series in 2014 and I love that they are being so aggressive. It's still super early in the off season with a lot of trade/talks to be made I'm sure so I agree that there will most likely be another new power bat in the line up from somewhere before spring training.
And yes it was Avisail Garcia that cheated with Fielders wife, that was actually posted on the Tigers website in the message boards a long time ago. It was just a rumor at first on the Tigers message boards but then it poped up in a few other places and 2+2=4 so I'm pretty sure that was the reason Garcia was traded in such a hurry.