Jerry Green

Liar's poker is game that is tricky and requires lots of bluffing and a smug look with an occasional lifting of the eyebrows. It's a rather innocent game. Basically, the players wave dollar bills in their hands, scrutinize the serial numbers and try to fool their opponents with true or fake bids.

Such as, "I have four threes and a four and . . ." says one player.

And the other guy guesses. Right or wrong. Is it a bluff – or for real?

Winner takes the buck.

Loser fishes out another dollar.

We usually played with George Washingtons.

Too bad Uncle Sam no longer prints Woodrow Wilsons for the high-stakes artists.

Woodrow Wilsons were the $100,000 bills that were in circulation nearly a century ago. Then the government stopped issuing them.

Nowadays million-dollar bills might work well in some quarters.

Such as the just-concluded winter meetings conducted each December by Major League Baseball.

The meeting is an actual bazaar where athletes are swapped by general managers, and agents dicker and bicker while auctioning off free agents.

It's similar to liar's poker.

"Could we get better? Yeah," says Tigers president Dave Dombrowski in a quote delivered by Chris McCosky in The Detroit News. "But we're not going to get somebody because we think have a gaping hole."

Dombrowski is trader-in-chief of the Tigers. Poker-faced, he is outstanding at the game. I He is noted for Tigers' acquisitions of Miguel Cabrera and Max Scherzer in prior winter deals. Those deals never hit the rumor mills. Dombrowski is that skilled in playing the game

Now, this past week, while rejecting the notion that the Tigers had a gaping hole in their outfield, Dombrowski is working on two trades. The trades tend to fit snuggly together — a starting pitcher for an outfielder; then some excess ballplayers for another starting pitcher.

Deals done, Dombrowski announces the acquisition of Yoenis Cespedes to plug a gaping hole in left field — and the batting order — and the swapping of Rick Porcello to the Red Sox. This time Dombrowski does not manage to elude the rumors. But they have originated in Boston. And there go the 15 victories Porcello proved that he was capable of contributing last season.

The usual foot soldiers go along with the main targets.

And then Dombrowski announces the acquisition of Alfredo Simon to replace Porcello on the Tigers' starting pitchers staff. Simon, previously a journeyman, likewise had 15 victories for the Reds in 2014. This time the Tigers give up a couple of young players, including Eugenio Suarez, who played with mild success in 2014 as a shortstop.

Trade No. 2 never carried even the hint of a rumor.

No longer needing to bluff, Dombrowski sums up his poker receipts in a quote again posted for The News' readership by McCosky:

"Boston had approached on a 1-on-1 deal a couple of weeks ago, but we never had the desire to pursue it for the simple fact that we didn't want to give up starting pitching at the time. But when we started talking about some different ideas and the possibility of acquiring another starting pitcher, it allowed us to make this deal."

The Red Sox, urgent for Porcello, seal the deal by tossing in some supernumeraries.

So when the game ends and Dombrowski leaves San Diego for Detroit, the Tigers have gone tit-for-tat in exchanging 15-game winners. Plus his finesse has delivered more power and production for the outfield.

Summarizing his feelings about plugging what was once not a gaping hole in the Tigers' outfield, Dombrowski fills in News sports columnist Bob Wojnowski:

"Cespedes is a premium player. You certainly fear him at the plate."

Quite slick — except Porcello vis-à-vis Simon does not truly add up to tit-for-tat.

Meanwhile, billeted in the same structure is an agent-provocateur surrounded by newspaper wretches, TV stars — and the national trade-rumor quacks who flop for every bit of gossip they hear.

Scott Boras is extolling the abilities of available-to-the-highest-bidder Max Scherzer.

Scherzer had five brilliant seasons in Detroit. He was a 20-game winner and became the Tigers' ace and excelled in postseason games. He is the best pitcher on the free-agency market.

Better than the over-publicized Jon Lester, whose signing for $155 million for six years by the Cubs becomes the benchmark of MLB's liar's poker proceedings.

"Max is a No. 1 Peyton Manning kind of guy," says Boras, as quoted in The News by Tony Paul. " . . . He had a great experience in Detroit. He certainly left that door open."

Boras had already started his liar's poker match with the Tigers. He and Scherzer had famously rejected before the 2014 season the Tigers' offer of $144 million for six more years.

Now the agent and pitcher are playing on the open market — with rumors everywhere — New York, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago.

Even Detroit, with Dombrowski's current denials that the Tigers are not in the bidding for Scherzer.

"There's not one thing that's changed from a Detroit perspective," he says to Detroit reporters before he heads home, as quoted in The News by McCosky. "Our situation has not changed. I'm not sure where various rumors get started but our situation has not changed whatsoever."

CBS' website adds to the Tigers' — supposed — indifference, quoting Dombrowski: "… we're not in active pursuit of that situation at this time."

Dombrowski returns home to Michigan, still wiggling.

Jerry Green is a retired Detroit News sports columnist.