The Tigers made some roster moves a couple of days ago and the big one was the non-tendering of Marcus Thames.  That makes him a free agent and it ends his somewhat bizarre career as a Tiger.  At times, he looked like he could belt 40 in a year but at other times, he looked lost at the plate.  99 of his 101 career home runs came in a Tigers uniform and his best season was 2006 when he broke out in the Tigers championship run.  He finished with 26 home runs that year but his second half batting average was .199.  In 2008, he finished with 25 home runs, but 10 of them came in the month of June and once again, he struggled in the second half.

A lot of people thought Thames never got a chance to play everyday and now it looks like we’ll get to see if  he deserved it or not because you’d have to think Thames would go to a team who’d play him everyday.  It’d be nice if he left the division so we don’t have him haunting us for 20 games every year but it’ll also be interesting to see what kind of ballpark he’s hitting in.

Matt Treanor was also cut loose but this wasn’t a surprise.  His career with the Tigers lasted all of four games before he hit the disabled list for the season.  The Tigers also moved Michael Hollimon off of the 40 man roster to make room for Jay Sborz, who would have hit the minor league free agent circuit other wise.

Rick Porcello won the Tigers Rookie of the Year award, which wasn’t a huge surprise.  The Tigers exclusive negotiating window began on Thursday so it’ll be interesting to see who’s coming back and which holes the Tigers have to fill during the offseason.

Permalink | Posted in 2009 Tigers