Archive for the '2008 Tigers' Category

Mike Cassidy at Tigers Minors provides some commentary on the recently unveiled Top Eleven Prospects column by Kevin Goldstein.  Things are a lot thinner after that trade with the Braves for Edgar Renteria but there’s still some interesting names to keep an eye on down on the farm in 2008.

The Tigers picked up Danny Christensen from the Royals as the player to be named later in their trade of Roman Colan last summer.  Christensen had a tough season last year at the Royals Double A affiliate and he doesn’t show up as even a top 20 prospect according to John Sickels so this isn’t something to get too excited about.  The Tigers designated him for assignement upon getting him so he either has the choice to report to the minors or become a free agent.

Also, the Tigers couldn’t sign Kenny Rogers before the Tuesday deadline so he can now talk to any other team in the majors.  It looks like a return to the Rangers is a possibility but my guess is, the Tigers give Rogers enough of what he wants to bring him back into the fold. 

A lot of people, myself included, tend to get attached to players from successful teams.  Todd Jones was one of the guys who helped get us there in 2006 and it’s easy to look past a player’s fault and want to relive a great season like the Tigers World Series run.  So I firmly believe that just about anyone who’s excited about this deal is one of those people who are clinging to that near championship season.

I think the Tigers overpaid quite a bit for Jones here.  I know he’s a “closer” and guys like Mariano Rivera will command $10+ price tags but Jones isn’t your stereotypical closer.  He pitches to contact and while he doesn’t give up many walks nor does he give up many homeruns, he also doesn’t strike many guys out.  The strikeouts in and of itself aren’t that disconcerting but Jones just has these times where he melts down.  In looking at his splits after the fact and Jones is quite good where he picks up a save (.195/.236/.233) but downright horrible when he took a loss (.625/.690/.917).  So you have a pitcher who, with four losses and three other blown saves (he had six total, but three of those he also took losses), will come out and give you a rock solid outing six out of seven times and blow the game the seventh.  If you can live with that (not sure how that compares to other closers), then maybe the $7 million is warranted.  I just think $7 million for 70 innings is a but much.

I still take heat for this, but I still feel that if Jones were made for any role, it’s closer which is why I would have been critical of a guy like Joel Zumaya taking over the role with Jones still in the pen.  Having Jones come in with a lead and nobody on base is preferable to having him come in with the score tied and runners on base.  If Jones gives up a hit or two (like he has a tendency of doing), it usually won’t hurt him.  So in short, I’m not disappointed the Tigers signed Jones, I just think they gave up too much for him.

I picked this up from The View From the Bleachers but it looks like the Tigers shored up their outfielder by trading Omar Infante to the Cubs for Jacque Jones and cash.  Jones looks like he’s on the downswing but he’s also been sort of the odd man out in the Cubs outfield.  He’s been surrounded by trade rumors pretty much since he got to Chicago.  He had an off year in 2007 but he was a solid 20 homer/75 RBI guy orior to that and he’s a career .280 hitter.  His upside is probably his 2006 season but I’d be happy with what he gave the Twins back in 2005.

I’ve always been a big fan of Omar Infante but it just didn’t seem like it was going to work in Detroit.  He had a breakout season in 2004 when Fernando Vina went down with an injury and he earned the starting second base job in 2005 but he struggled early.  He then lost his job when the Tigers traded for Placido Polanco and since then, he’s spent time both in the minors and as a utility player (he can play outfield and infield).  He fell out of favor last year and the Tigers eventually went with Ramon Santiago down the stretch and after they signed Santiago yesterday, it was probably just a matter of time before Infante was gone.

Still, Infante is only 25 and while that breakout season is three years removed, it’s there.  I don’t know what the Cubs have planned for Infante but you wonder if Alan Trammell’s presence on the team had anything to do with this deal.

The Tigers inked Ramon Santiago to a one year, $575k deal this year and it’s expected that Santiago will provide the Tigers with a decent late inning defensive replacement in the infield.  Santiago’s infamy has nothing to do with his weak stick but more to do with who the Tigers got for  him in a trade.  Back in 2004, the Tigers trade Santiago to the Mariners for Carlos Guillen after the Mariners stole Rich Aurilia from the Tigers on the free agent market.  The rest is history and Santiago rejoined the team in 2006 as a free agent.

With Santiago in the fold, it’ll be curious to see what happens to Omar Infante.  Omar is a better hitter but he fell out of favor late in the year in 2007.  They might keep him around because he can also fill in out in the outfield but that spot is getting crowded too.  Jason Beck speculates in his column that Infante might be dealt because of his arbitration eligibility.

Magglio Ordonez and Placido Polanco both won Silver Slugger awards this year.  I’d have to check and see how rare it is, but Polanco’s season was particularly impressive because he won both the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove.  It’s the first time two Tigers have won the award since Mickey Tettleton and Travis Fryman won it in 1992.

I thought Curtis Granderson made a stronger case for a silver slugger then Ichiro did but outfield is one of those tough spots to call because you could probably find a handful more players who would in that class as well.   Granderson was third amongst American League outfielders in OPS but Manny Ramirez was right there as well.

No major surprise here considering Magglio Ordonez will probably finish second to Alex Rodriguez in the American League MVP voting.  We all know what Mags did this year.   First batting title by a Tiger since 1961 and more then 50 doubles for the first time since the 1950s.

Jason Beck reports that while Kenny Rogers has decided to pitch at least one more year, he’s not dead set on coming back to Detroit and his agent (yes, Scott Boras) has said that he’ll test the free agent market.  It’ll be interesting to see whether this is just Boras’ way to squeeze a little bit more out of Detroit or whether Rogers actually does go and talk to other teams.

In other news, the Tigers lost Matt Walbeck yesterday.  He was hired by the Texas Rangers to be their third base coach.  Walbeck led the West Michigan White Caps to a league title in 2006 and he put together a nice season in Erie as their coach last year.  You hate to see these successful guys go but if you remember, Alan Trammell left the Tigers for a while before coming back to be their manager.  It wouldn’t surprise me if, when Jim Leyland steps down, Matt Walbeck is on a list of guys being considered for the job.

Ivan Rodriguez and Placido Polanco walked away with gold gloves today.  While neither was a surprise, it’s the omissions from the Tigers that are somewhat glaring.  Still, Pudge is Pudge and he’s going to win gold gloves until he shows serious signs of deterioriation while Polanco went the entire season without making an error while posting the second best zone rating in the American League.  It’s hard to argue about either one of these guys.

Things get odd when you look at the outfield.  Ichiro won and he was probably the best fielding outfielder in all of baseball so there’s not much of an argument there.  Torii Hunter won again and while he was only decent this year, he had six gold gloves prior to this season and he was good enough to where, like Pudge, he’s going to win an award or two well past his prime out in the field.  The oddity is Grady Sizemore.  Sizemore, who was eighth in the American League in zone rating which is hardly spectacular and the only thing you can really say about him is he led the league (tied) in plays.  And if you don’t like zone rating, Baseball Prospectus actually has Sizemore at 7 fielding runs below average so Sizemore actually cost his team almost a game compared to what an average centerfielder would have given his team.

Curtis Granderson’s season in center this year was nothing short of spectacular and in my opinion, he got robbed.  He led the league with a .921 zone rating and his 85 plays outside of the zone were second to Ichiro and almost double the amount Sizemore had (45).  Baseball Prospectus had Granderson at 26 runs above average so the difference between Sizemore and Granderson was more then three wins in favor of Granderson.

The other guy who probably got the shaft was Brandon Inge.  Adrian Beltre walked away with the award and he probably should have won it last year.  Instead, the managers punched Eric Chavez’s ticket again so Beltre lost out.  In what looks like an attempt to make up for it, they gave the award to Beltre this year.  Inge was second in the American League with .712 zone rating (Beltre was seventh with .668) and Inge made just one play less then Beltre did outside of the zone.  Inge finished the season with 16 fielding runs above average  where as Beltre had just two fielding runs above average.  So while we’re not talking about as significant of a difference between Granderson and Sizemore, we’re still talking about more then one win between the two in the field.

I’m still convinced Inge will win a gold glove in his future.  Granderson might have a tougher time but you have to be impressed with a guy who was pegged as a corner outfielder just a couple of years ago.

Jason Beck filled in what’s turned out to be a void of Tigers news with his regular mailbag column.  Most of it deals with how Renteria fits into the big picture for the Tigers and he addresses why Omar Infante turned into the odd man out at the end of last year.  Good stuff as always from Mr. Beck.

Also, Kevin Goldstein included some good news about Scott Sizemore in his Monday Morning Ten Pack.  After a tough 2007 season, Sizemore has lit it up in the Arizona Fall League and he’s doing it at shortstop no less.

Preston Larrison, Aquilino Lopez, Gabe Benetiz, Erick Almonte and Nick Trzesniak all signed minor league deals with the Tigers.  Lopez actually got some time with the big league club when the Tigers were looking to fill holes in their bullpen while Preston Larrison, once one of the Tigers top pitching prospects in what was then a thin farm system, had a solid season for the Hens last year.

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