I know this is old news by know, but I haven’t had a time to update this blog in a while. Anyways the Tigers have been somewhat busy (well, busy for the Tigers anyways) and they traded Juan Encarnacion and Luis Pineda to the Reds for Dmitri Young. Will this make the team better? Maybe. Will it hurt the Tigers? Probably not. Regardless, it is nice to see them trying to do something. I’m nervous that Young is another about-to-be free agent, and the Tigers have a history of poor negotiations with recently acquired talent. Hopefully, with Dave Dombrowski on board that will improve. Young is a gap hitter who is actually excited about Comerica’s dimensions which is a refreshing change. What is somewhat troublesome, is the Tigers have brought in another 1b/3b/OF player which is already a set of positions that has a glut between Dean Palmer, Robert Fick, and Eric Munson. Apparently this signals that Munson isn’t ready for the pro’s yet, and it looks like Brandon Inge will get another season in the minors to try and find a bat.

After the trade the Tigers made offers to Craig Paquette and Ricky Gutierrez. Paquette signed with the Tigers, Gutierrez signed with Cleveland. To make room for Paquette, Deivi Cruz was designated for assignment. This leaves Shane Halter as the only SS on the roster. To me it looks like the Tigers want Halter to fill the role for a year until minor league prospect Omar Infante is ready to make the jump.

Now that Gutierrez is unavailable, the Tigers are turning their attention to signing a relief pitcher. Originally, they wanted to sign Gutierrez as their shortstop, and then trade Shane Halter to Colorado for reliever Jose Paniagua. Now however, the Tigers are looking at signing Todd Jones to come be a set-up man.

In other news…
…The Tigers also agreed to terms with Steve Sparks for a two year contract.
…Lance Parrish will join Frank Beckmann in the booth for games televised on UPN 50.
…And as kind of an in your face, Roger Cedeno signed with the Mets for the same offer (one additional year) that the Tigers offered.