The Pressbox

The Tigers have not yet made it official, but the team has agreed to an eight-year, $152.3 million contract extension with Miguel Cabrera. That’s a ton of money (the fourth-largest contract in baseball behind Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez), but it is an investment the Tigers had to make.

Cabrera is one of the brightest young stars in baseball. They could not afford to let him walk away after trading so much of their future to get him.

The deal also speaks to the change of atmosphere in Detroit. A few years ago, the Tigers had to overpay to get free agents to even think about playing for them. Now, Cabrera says he is happy with his new team and wants to play in Detroit for “a lot of years.”

Is anyone else concerned that there has been little or no talk about a contract extension for Miguel Cabrera?
The Tigers were quickly able to get Dontrelle Willis to agree to an extension after the blockbuster trade with the Florida Marlins.
I like the trade if they can get Cabrerra locked up longterm. But if it turns out to be Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin for Willis and a brief rental of Cabrera, I don’t like it nearly as much.

I also posted this message at www.letstalktigers.com. Check out that new Evening News site for the latest Tiger talk.

Michigan State’s basketball team could have been playing at a Regional Tournament in Detroit. But the Spartans came apart in the second half of the season and wound up getting exiled to Denver.

I have no idea what to expect from this team. MSU could lose in the first round or make it to the Final Four again. Neither would surprise me. This is a strange team.

Does anyone have a clue how the Detroit Lions operate?

Running back is one of the team’s weakest positions, so Thursday they release their most talented player at that position. That’s Lion logic.

Yes, Kevin Jones has been injury prone during his career. But what would it have hurt to keep him on the roster to see if he can recover from his current problem?

The move probably has something to do with cap space, but there is other dead weight on the roster that they could have sliced off.

Hey all you wrestling fans:

I just wanted to let you know I’ll be posting results from the Individual State finals at the Palace of Auburn Hills. There are eight wrestlers from the Monroe County Region in state championship matches - Dundee’s Chris Rau (103), Chris Eggert (160) and Jimmy Rowe, Monroe’s Zac Stevens (125), Bedford’s Alex Ortman (160), Airport’s Deven Brown (145), Ida’s Nick Smith (119) and Erie Mason’s Jordan Dusseau (145).

The teams are milling around the mats at Kellogg Arena right now. It is about a half hour until the state finals begin. The stands are filling up pretty well and occasional cheers roll around the arena.

Starting weight for the semifinals is 285 pounds.

Bedford sends out Mason Cole against Tyler Benson of Lake Orion.

The teams are lining up for the Grand March at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena.

Dundee’s state semifinal match against Saginaw Swan Valley will begin in about 15 minutes.