This man is not on the block

Dave Dombrowski forcefully put an end to speculation that the Tigers might trade Miguel Cabrera:

"I think it's absurd, absolutely absurd," Dombrowski said Tuesday night prior to the Tigers' series opener against the Angels.

"We have no interest in trading Miguel Cabrera," Dombrowski said. "We have had no talks regarding Miguel Cabrera. Not only is it one of the last things we would ever consider, we have an owner [Mike Ilitch] who would never let that happen. This is our core player who's our foundation."

The thing about it is that this wasn't your typical rumor in which someone heard from a source that it could happen and was relaying the information along. Rather, it was based on the idle speculation of ESPN talking heads -- in this case Tim Kurkjian and Peter Gammons -- that Detroit might unload their best hitter because of the bad Michigan economy. Bar talk, really, in the course of an unexpectedly long edition of Baseball Tonight occasioned by the Cubs-Cardinals postponement. Which is fine because, hey, you gotta fill time somehow.

But then you read about just how much David Ortiz is fighting it, remember that he isn't going to last forever, and you go hmmmm . . .

I'd never do it if I were Detroit, not even if I was definitively out of the race come June, but as non-rumors about never-gonna-happen trades go, this one is far more fun to think about than most.