Over the summer, work prevented me from posting as much as I’d like.  Now that I have the time, there’s been little to talk about.  The winter meetings are a distant past and the Tigers have been pretty quiet when it comes to the free agent market.  While the Yankees have made their splash, the biggest signing the Tigers have made so far has been Adam Everett.

Oh wait, one piece of news is the Tigers bloated salary last year cost the team $1.3 million via the luxury tax.  The Angels and Red Sox have also crossed the threshold in years past and unless I’m missing a team, the Tigers are now the fourth team to make a payment.  Of course the fourth team are the Yankees, who have been perennial donors to the luxury tax pot.

It looks like the Washington Nationals are in the same boat that the Tigers were back in 2005.  The Tigers made several offers to high profile players like Carl Pavano and Steve Finley only to have player after player decline their offers for greener pastures.  Now it’s the Nationals, who made a huge offer to Mark Teixeira, who are being snubbed.  According to this story, the Nationals offered a slightly larger amount then the Yankees did and were willing to go even higher, but the idea of playing for an instant contender must have pushed Teixeira to the Bronx.

It seems like between my work for Tigers Corner 2009 and the Hardball Times Annual Season Preview 2009, I’ve beat the 2008 season to death.  Still, Jason Beck does a nice job in this piece of going through the carnage of what was the 2008 Tigers season.

The MLB Network kicks off on Thursday.  Unfortunately, because I’m too cheap to pay for digital cable, I won’t get the station.  I did get a nice new toy for Christmas though so I’m happy despite the fact I won’t get to see Don Larsen’s perfect game on New Years Day.

The Tigers are close to signing former Marlins catcher Matt Treanor to serve as their backup backstop to Gerald Laird.  Treanor has spent five seasons with the Marlins and not once has he topped 70 games.  His best season is 2007 when he hit a career high .269 with four homeruns.

For now, it looks like Dusty Ryan is going to find his time for the Mud Hens.  That’s not a horrible move because it’ll give Ryan the chance to work every day.  Treanor’s deal appears to be for just one year ($705k salary) so if Ryan performs as expected, he should slide into at least the backup role in 2010.

And while you’re over at MLB.com, there’s also a good column on Fernando Rodney.  I think to rely on Rodney to close all season is a risk but for now, that’s the hand we’ve drawn.

The Tigers finalized a one year, $1 million deal for shortstop Adam Everett today.  While I’m still not interested in seeing him at the plate, having both he and Brandon Inge on the left side of the infield should be fun to watch.

There’s still no indication how he’ll be splitting time with the freshly signed Ramon Santiago but it wouldn’t surprise me if Leyland goes with the hot hand from week to week. Everett is right handed where as Santiago is a switch hitter so that’ll mean something as well.  We probably won’t find out exactly what happens until spring training.

Things have been quiet since the winter meetings have ended but the Tigers have been rumored to have talked with Derrick Turnbow.  The right hander was the Brewers closer in 2005 (when he was very good) and 2006 (when he wasn’t) before being relegated to a middle relief role in 2007 (when he was okay) but he was out because of a bad shoulder for most of 2008.

A couple of other teams have been interested, but it looks like at least for now, no team has been willing to give him a major league contract.  This report talks about him having a throwing session in January, but by then the cat will be out of the bag and you wonder if it’d make sense to pull the trigger now before the rest of the league sees what he can do.

The Tigers inked shortstop Ramon Santiago to a one year, $825,000 deal that means the Tigers will avoid arbitration.  Santiago is a slick fielder with good range and it looks like he’ll share time with Adam Everett, who the Tigers signed earlier this week.  Everett has been deemed the starter, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Santiago gets his share of starts if he shows he can do what he did last year with the bat (.282 average and four homers in 124 at bats).

The non-tender deadline is tonight and Jason Beck reports that the Tigers might not have any this year.  If there is one, it’ll probably be Aquilino Lopez.  Like Beck talks about in the column, what’s just as important is who’s a non-tender from other teams (with Takashi Saito being one player who could hit the market).

For one last tidbit, Jon Paul Morosi runs down Wil Rhymes fantastic season in the Arizona Fall League this year.  It still wasn’t good enough to get him on the top ten prospect list though.

***UPDATE***

The non-tender list is out, and the Tigers have none so they must have made an offer to everyone, including Aquilino Lopez.  There are some interesting names on there, including Dodgers closer Takashi Saito as well as a slew of starters like Denny Bautista, Chuck James, Tim Redding and Chris Capuano.  Also making the list was former Tiger Wil Ledezma.  The Rays gave up on Jonny Gomes and the Rockies, who dealt for him just a couple of years, failed to offer a deal to Willie Taveras.

***ANOTHER UPDATE***

Now it looks like Lopez wasn’t offered a deal after all.

The Tigers picked up a new player and then consequently lost one in the Rule 5 draft earlier this afternoon, which typically marks the end of the winter meetings.  Kyle Bloom will get a chance to show his stuff for Detroit this spring.  The fifth round pick by the Pirates back in 2004, Bloom has been slow in developing for Pittsburgh.  He’s 25 and spent the entire season with Altoona, the Pirates Double-A affiliate and while he struck out 93 batters in 109 2/3 innings.  He did pitch very well in Hawaii though and he finished 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA in seven starts with 32 strikeouts in 30 innings.

Bloom will get a chance to show what he can do out of the pen but like all Rule 5 picks, there’s not a lot of risk here.  If he doesn’t make the team this spring, he’ll get shipped back to Pittsburgh but the Tigers must have thought something of him to at least give him a shot.

James Skelton is the Tigers who’s on the move and it’s the Diamondbacks who choose him in the draft.  Skelton has been a fringe prospect for the Tigers since they drafted him in the fourteenth round of the 2004 draft.  He had a solid season last year for mostly Lakeland and partially Erie.  He doesn’t have a lot of power and his biggest knock has been size.  You don’t see too many 5′11″. 165 lb. catchers these days.  Still, I wish him the best of luck in what can be viewed as a big opportunity.

The Tigers traded left handed outfielder Matt Joyce for Rays hurler Edwin Jackson.  Joyce, despite a solid rookie season in 2008, would have been hard pressed to find a spot on the team after it was announced that Carlos Guillen would be moving to left for the 2009 season.  That would have put Joyce no better then fifth on the outfield depth chart so he would have either spent a lot of time on the bench, or a lot of time in Toledo.

Edwin Jackson was a top prospect for the Dodgers at one point but after a solid September callup in 2003, he never quite got it done and was eventually dealt to the Rays.  Even there he never quite put it together until this past season when he finished 14-11 with a 4.42 ERA.

This worries me a little bit if the Tigers are relying on Jackson to just step right into to one of the open rotation spots.  Some of his past seasons, namely 2007, have been pretty poor and he’s never logged more then 184 major league innings in a season.  The good news is, Jackson is still young so if 2008 was a step on his way to pitching maturity, this could be a good value play.  As always, we’ll have to wait and see.

The Tigers also lost out on J.J. Putz.  It looks like the price tage was too high and he now finds himself with the Mets in what could be one of the best one-two punches in baseball with Putz and Francisco Rodriguez.

Day two of the winter meetings is winding down and while the Tigers weren’t nearly as busy in the press today, they were linked to a couple of relief pitchers.  First up is the Tigers have talked to the Mariners about J.J. Putz.  It wasn’t that long ago that Putz was one of the best relievers in the American League but he spent some time on the shelf last year and had a down season.  It looks like the price tag is going to be either Matt Joyce or Jeff Larish, neither of whom would be a huge loss to the team.  I’ve alway liked Larish, but he’s a man without a position and he has little to prove in the minors.  Joyce is also an odd man out but the Tigers would probably have more use for another left handed outfielder then they would a left handed infielder.

The Tigers also appear to have their eye on Joe Beimel.  This isn’t an either/or either because Beimel is a free agent and the Tigers could easily pull the trigger on both guys and instantly bolster their bullpen.  Beimel is a left handed specialist and could be a good complement to Bobby Seay.

If the Tigers can make either or both of these moves, I like the way things are shaping up.  Of course they still have some holes in the rotation, but even there they have stopgaps in the event they don’t sign a middle tier free agent.

The Tigers made a couple of different moves today and the end result is, the Tigers now have a full slate of position players.  Move number one came this morning when it was announced that the Tigers had send minor leaguers Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo to the Rangers for Gerald Laird.  Up until 2006, Laird had served as a backup to Rod Barajas and finally got his chance to shine in 2007 as a starter.  Unfortunately, he fell flat and finished with just a .627 OPS.  In 2008 he was written off as trade bait because the Rangers had acquired Jarrod Saltalamacchia in a trade deadline deal for Mark Teixeira but won the job after an impressive spring.  His season wasn’t spectacular, but he logged 24 doubles and a .398 slugging percentage in 95 games.

Moscoso was the jewel of the trade for the Rangers.  He broke out in a big way last year and struck out 122 batters in 96 2/3 innings pitched between Erie and Lakeland.  The downside for Moscoso is he’s already 25 and has played just half a season above High A but you can’t argue with those numbers.  He also just made the top ten Tigers prospect list by Baseball America.

There’s not a lot on Carlos Melo as he hasn’t played in the United States yet.  He won’t turn 18 until February and in his one season in the Dominican Summer League, he was 3-3 with 61 strikeouts in 49 innings pitched.

So there’s your catcher.  The Tigers also picked up at least a stop gap at shortstop when they reportedly signed Adam Everett to a one year deal.  I talked about this yesterday, but Everett was the latest in a string of no-hit, good field pickups the Tigers were rumored to be involved in.  Odds are Everett is kept on a short leash and if he gets off to a rough start, the Tigers won’t waste much time in going to Ramon Santiago.  Both will most likely make the roster and whoever isn’t starting will be the Tigers utility middle infielder.

The Tigers just solved their catching problem. More on this later tonight.

It looks like the Tigers haven’t exhausted all of their no hit, good fielding options at shortstop.  According to Jason Beck, the Tigers might have their eyes on Adam Everett, who spent the season as a backup for the Twins last year. Everett has spent most of his time with the Astros and when he was playing full time, he probably warranted a gold glove or two.  The problem is, he’s never had a slugging percentage above .400 in any given season.  I still think they should give Ramon Santiago a shot (not that he’s all that great of a hitter) and use the money they save somewhere else.

Rick Porcello was picked as the fourth best prospect in minor league baseball by MiLB.com.  The Florida State League player of the year should make his debut at Double A next year and depending on how the rotation turns out, there’s an outside shot that Porcello works himself into a thin rotation in the second half of the season.  Ironically, Cameron Maybin was picked as the fifth best prospect in all of baseball.

Carlos Guillen isn’t wasting any time as he transitions from third base to left field.  He’ll train with with the Magallanes in the Venezuelan Winter League.  It looks like he’ll start playing around December 15th and it’ll be the first time since 2005 that he’s played winter ball.

It looks like Dave Dombrowski isn’t a betting man and I think the fact that the Tigers didn’t offer Edgar Renteria arbitration was a wise one.  Had the Tigers offered Edgar arbitration and he refused and signed elsewhere, the Tigers would have gotten two draft picks.  Of course the gamble is, he takes the bait and the Tigers are forced to go with Renteria for another year at short.  Instead, the Tigers just chose not to take the draft pick bait and cut ties with the shortstop.

Now, the Tigers have to figure out what to do at shortstop.  They’ve all but written off Ramon Santiago as a full year option saying he’s not durable enough to man the spot for an entire season.  The problem is, none of the names that have been thrown around in a trade haven’t been all the appealing.  Julio Lugo, Alex Cora nor Jack Wilson really sound all that appealing.  There’s really no immediate help in the system.  Cale Iorg has been pegged as the shortstop of the future, but he still hasn’t even made it to Double-A yet (where he’s expected to play in 2009).  That puts him at least a year away unless he’s an even bigger surprise and lights it up in the minors.

It looks like once again, the Tigers are courting the Pirates about Jack Wilson.  I’m not quite sure why the Tigers have such a hard on for this guy.  They looked at him as an option in 2007 when they were in the middle of a playoff race with the Indians and since then, Wilson has only missed a lot of time due to a calf injury.  I know the Tigers have said they’re worried about Ramon Santiago holding up for an entire season, but why go outside when you already have a good field, mediocre hit shortstop.

The Tigers set their 40 man roster last week and they kept a couple of spots open for the Rule 5 Draft.  Wilkin Ramirez, Casper Wells, Alfredo Figaro, Guillermo Moscoso, and Zach Simons all made the cut and were put on the 40 man roster, hence protecting them from the Rule 5 Draft.  Will Rhymes and James Skelton weren’t added so we could see them in a big league uniform if someone is willing to take a flyer on them in the Rule 5.

The next big date is December 1, when teams have to offer arbitration to any free agents in order to be eligible for compensation picks.  This could bring Edgar Renteria back into the fold.  If the Tigers offer him arbitration, he could bite and be back in a Tigers uniform for one more year.

The latest edition of the Hardball Times Annual is now in stock.  I have my usual Business of Baseball year in review column in there but, like in year’s past, this is packed full of solid articles from a lot of the usual suspects.  You can also help out the site by ordering directly from the ACTA page that’s linked.  It’s a few more dollars, but the folks at the Hardball Times get a bigger slice of the pie and it helps keep the site as, in my opinion, the best free baseball content site out there.

Word came out this afternoon that the Tigers were considering sending either Nate Robertson or Dontrelle Willis to the Red Sox for shortstop Julio Lugo.  It’s an interesting move to fill a hole but it definitely comes with some risks.

Lugo is a speed player.  He doesn’t hit for a ton of power and most of his seasons have found him south of the .400 mark as far as slugging.  He does have 184 career steals with 33 coming in 2007.  Of course one big problem is, Lugo is coming off a leg injury (quad) which could tap him of his speed.  If a guy like Lugo loses a step, it’s pretty much the end of the road.

On the other hand, neither Nate Robertson or Dontrelle Willis are locks to make the rotation even though the Tigers have a couple of holes to fill there.  Giving up one, after rough seasons in 2008, might not be that risky if it means we get a new starting shortstop.  It’s also a low risk move because if Lugo doesn’t pan out, option number two is waiting in the wings in Ramon Santiago.

After consecutive years where Tigers walked away with two gold glove awards, no Tigers won the award in 2008.  No surprise, as the Tigers were below average as a team in defensive efficiency.  Former Tiger first baseman Carlos Pena, often heralded as a slick fielder in his time with Detroit, won his first award this year.

Centerfield was the one positions I had to check because I’ve always thought Curtis Granderson was on par, if not better, then Grady Sizemore.  I was surprised by the numbers for a couple of reasons.  First, Granderson had a pretty mediocre year in the field this past year.  His Revised Zone Rating of .921 put him in the bottom half, although it was better then Torii Hunter’s .889.  So Sizemore not only had better range (.932) then Granderson did this year, but he also made eight more plays outside of his zone.

The other surprise was how good of a year Carlos Gomez had in the field and how he should have probably walked away with an award.  He led all starting centerfielders with 104 plays outside of the zone and he was second to just Adam Jones with a .946 RZR.  What probably hurt him were the eight errors, but I’d rather have a guy chase down 352 balls and misplay eight of them then, like Sizemore, make 309 plays and miss two.

Still, that’s how the Gold Gloves always go.  You can always make an argument for a handful of guys who didn’t win, and put them in place of a few guys who aren’t deserving.

The Tigers look like they’re going to start near the top in their search for a new shortstop and as reported by Billfer, they’re going to at least talk to Rafael Furcal.  What’s ironic is, the Tigers old shortstop, Edgar Renteria, eventually replaced Furcal in Atlanta when Furcal went to the Dodgers in a three year deal.  Furcal has a ton of upside but he’s had a hard time putting it all together for a full season lately.  He’s topped the 150 game mark just three times in his career but despite that, he had a stretch of seasons where he scored at least 100 runs from 2003 through 2006.

Based on the Tigers budget limits though, I find it unlikely that Furcal would sign.  His price tag is too much and you’d have to think the injuries the last couple of years would prevent the Tigers from going all out to sign him.

If I could pick a favorite minor league player in the Tigers system, it’d be Jeff Larish.  He finally got his taste of the big leagues last year and he might stick in a reserve role next year depending on how the spring shakes out.  He’s a lefty (like me), has a good eye (235 walks versus 329 strikeouts) and can hit for power.  Up until now though, he’s lingered in the bottom half of the top ten prospects list and he’s hoping to make the jump with a good showing in the Arizone Fall League.  More importantly, he’s learning to play third base, which would give him an even better chance of sticking with the Tigers next season.

The diary idea has now gone to the NBA.  My NBA sistersite, Pistonsblog, has started a 1988-89 Pistons Championship diary.  These are the guys who got me hooked on the NBA for a while and if you were in your teens during that time, the read should be nostalgic.

Jason Beck provided us with a pretty general “state of the Tigers” piece and while there’s nothing earth shattering in here, it’s a great summary of what the team is facing as things head into the Winter Meetings.  The Tigers have holes at shortstop and catcher and they could use some work both in the rotation and in the pen.  I’d say Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman and Armando Galaraga are all locks to make the rotation but after that, it’s a crap shoot.  If you follow the money, Nate Robertson and Dontrelle Willis will be in the mix but I doubt Jim Leyland will make the same mistake he made last year in sticking with those guys for too long.

Vance Wilson is going to test the market. At 35 and two season’s out of the league, my guess is he’s going to end up making backup catcher money somewhere, but he’ll probably be a late signee if he holds out for a major league contract.  I see the Tigers signing him to a minor league deal if they choose to go in that direction but Wilson has a ton to prove.

John Perrotto over at Baseball Prospectus runs down what he things teams will end up doing in the offseason.  His prognosis for the Tigers isn’t all that earth shattering and the only name he mentions is Freddy Garcia.

It took only three innings of play yesterday, but with another win, the Philadelphia Phillies were crowned World Series champions.  Cole Hamels walked away with the MVP in yet another short series.  The last time we saw more then a five game series was the year the Marlins topped the Yankees in six games back in 2003.

With all of the talk about the Cubs and their streak, many people forget about the Phillies.  This is a team that’s just historically bad.  Up until 1980, they were worse then the Cubs because they hadn’t won a single World Series.  They’re the only franchise with 10,000 career losses and from 1918 through 1948 (that’s 31 seasons), the Philles had just one winning season and even then, they were just 78-76 in that one winning season.  They lost 100 games 12 times and keep in mind this was when just 154 games were played.  Twice they lost 109 and one of those seasons was 1942 when they played in just 151 games.  With a 162 game schedule, they could have easily lost 115+ games.

Of course at least this year, that all gets thrown out the window.  What’s also interesting is over the past few years, several teams have ended their World Series droughts and while I haven’t done the math, the Tigers 25 years is probably in or near the top five.  I know the Cubs, Giants and Pirates have all been longer and there’s probably a few expansion teams like the Astros and Padres but needless to say, it’s been a while for Tigers fans.

With the end of the season, we now have the beginning of the Hot Stove league.  Mike Jacobs has found his way over to the Royals, which makes them a bit stronger, and Freddy Garcia has filed for free agency.  Jeff Jones lost his job at the same time as Chuck Hernandez but new pitching coach Rick Knapp has brought him back as the bullpen coach.  And to round out the Tigers news, the team bought out Edgar Renteria’s option, which wasn’t a huge surprise.

After the Tigers put him on waivers, the Red Sox claimed hurler Virgil Vasquez.  While never a top five prospect, Vasquez put himself on the map with a strong finish to the 2006 season at Erie.  He got off to a nice start for Toledo in 2007 and then got five appearances at the big league level over a pair of promotions.  He would have probably competed for the fifth starter spot in spring training but then the Dontrelle Willis pick up happened.  He took a step back and had a pretty poor 2008 season with the Hens.

I’m not completely surprised the Tigers gave up on him.  He’s right handed, and he’s never shown a great propensity towards striking out hitters and we all know how Dave Dombrowski likes power arms.  He’ll be 27 next year and outside of 2006 and 2007, his minor league career was pretty unspectacular.

For now, it’s unclear what the Tigers are going to do with that final spot on the 40 man roster.  As Jason Beck talks about in the article, the Tigers need to find room for Jeremy Bonderman, Joel Zumaya and Vance Wilson but that will take care of itself when the free agents hit the market.

It seems like I’ve had more then my share of off time this year on the blog.  This time it was a double whammy with work picking up and a big vacation down to Disney Land.  I hate advertising the fact that I’m going out of town since it’s not too hard to find me so I just live with the fact that the handful of readers I have are left wondering why there haven’t been updates.  The trip was a lot fun and my son Devin had a blast although I got the news near the tail end that my grandfather passed away.  It wasn’t a huge surprise so I was a little prepared but he was my last living grandparent.  Back in the day when I was growing up, Tigers games were on a lot less frequently with the bulk of them being on over the weekend.  We spent most Sundays at my grandparents so I have some pretty fond memories watching games over there.

Now it’s back to reality.  I still have some lingering projects I need to finish (yes, I’m talking about you, Dwight Lowry) and there’s a couple more on the horizon.  Work will be tough for a couple more weeks but as always, things will manage to get done.  I did wrap up my piece for the Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2009 before I left as well as a few other things. 

The Tigers hired a pitching coach and I like their choice.  I like the fact that they’re going with a rookie because the guy should work like he has something to prove.  The Twins have had a lot of success with home grown pitchers and at least some of that success can be pegged with Rick Knapp.  Leo Mazzone was out there and I wonder if he was even considered.  Anyway, he’s already been talking about what he wants to start doing with the staff.

I’ve missed most of the series so far, although I regret not turning on the television last night because I would have caught the tail end of a good game.  Hopefully the Rays will win tonight, and that will ensure the series will go at least six games and I’ll get my year end fix before baseball goes bye bye.

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