probably no chance we can acquire Cabrera. They asked for Buch AND ellsbury for Granderson.
Boy. I'd love to negotiate against you. C'mon, that wasn't their real price. The Yankees paid about 20% of that to get Granderson. (Don't let Yankee fans tell you that Austin Jackson is a blue chip prospect. He isn't. The strikes out alot, doesn't walk and doesn't hit home runs, even though he tries to pull everything.)
We could argue the level of prospects endlessly. the fact is, the tigers wanted mlb ready prospects. if you look at our prospects, we dont have many of them (outside of buch, ellsbury (not a prospect anymore) and bard, I think Reddick may be the only one you could argue, and he isnt really mlb ready). People are all over the map on Jackson, but he was a top 15 (iirc) prospect in all of baseball. he is young, hits for avg, and is fairly toolsy. I agree he is overrated, but he isnt a bum either. the tigers also got scherzer and schlereth, two very good young pitching prospects (I know edwin jackson was included in this part, but who knows what the price would be for each individually)
The prize for the Tigers was Schlereth plus the salary dump, not Jackson.
Yankee fans used to jump up and down about Jose Tabata, too, until they traded him to the Pirates in the Nagy/Marte deal. Tabata has yet to see his first major league at bat, even with the pathetic Pirates, and he may never get to the majors.
I'd be willing to bet that you could get Cabrera for a lot less than you think, assumning the sox were willing to take on salary. The rumor is that the Tigers are unhappy with his work ethic: he likes to party and often shows up for work having gotten little sleep and with a hangover.
I would offer Casey Kelly and Jose Iglesias, and I bet the Tigers would take it.