With Erie making the playoffs last year, and Toledo making the playoffs this year, I think it is time to give Randy Smith a little credit. He did manage to acquire some talent in the farm system during his tenure. However it remains to be seen whether or not these guys (Omar Infante, Nate Cornejo, Mike Rivera, Shane Loux, Andy Van Hekken, Eric Munson…) will be contributors at the major league level. These were all guys that Randy Smith traded for/drafted. In fact, Van Hekken was the “player to be named” in the Brian Hunter deal with Seattle. Based on Van Hekken’s performance last night, at least there is a glimmer of hope, if not for next year then maybe in two years.
Yearly Archives: 2002
Baseball America Online – Prospect Hot Sheet
In a few years, Dave Dombrowski could look like a genius with Carlos Pena at first, Jeremy Bonderman in the rotation and German slamming the door.
Lima: This place stinks (on his demotion to the bullpen):
“If I can’t pitch on this team — the worst or second-worst team in baseball — where am I going to pitch?” he said. “If I can’t start on this ballclub, I must be the worst pitcher on earth.”
Tigers call up Andy Van Hekken. He’ll make his major league debut on Tuesday.
And one more thing…The Detroit Tiger Weblog is the official sponsor of Lou Whitaker Statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
Also, I should probably apologize for my lack of posting over the last several weeks. Actually, I had written a couple paragraphs explaining my current posting plans, but the post was eradicated when I tried to publish it. Several factors have combined to reduce my posting frequency. The biggest two factors are probably that I’ve just been too busy, and that my apathy about this season is just too much to overcome. That being said, I will still try to post any news about trades/acquisitions, as well as commenting on September call-ups. (All this is predicated on there not being a strike). Outside of that, I will probably let the blog just coast into the off season when as Tiger fans we can once again have hope.
Well, my friends and I were tired of watching the Tigers lose at Comerica, so we made a road trip down to Cleveland to visit Jacobs Field. Well, the Tigers did get beat, badly. However, the Jake was a great place to watch a game. The sitelines were great, concessions were adequate, and it just felt better than watching a game at Comerica. I think part of what makes Comerica feel so unintimate is that there is no upperdeck in the outfield. I know the desire was to have a view of the skyline, but at the same time you lose that closed in feeling. Cleveland’s skyline was still accessible, yet the upperdeck in right field help to bring everything together.
The concourses aren’t as wide as Comerica’s, but I never felt crowded. Also, there were little to no lines for concessions.
We also decided to take the Jacobs field tour, which for $6.50 I thought was well worth it. It included a trip to the press box, visitor’s bullpen, the Indians dugout, and the batting cages/training area underneath the stands. In a funny twist (well, it’s not really funny), we saw the press area the day before the Indians named the visiting radio booth the Ernie Harwell Visiting Radio Booth.
Transaction Analysis: (On Jeremy Bonderman)
In short, he’s that rare high school pitcher that you want to take a flyer on early on in his pro career. It’ll be four or five years before he’ll get to the chalk board to erase Jeff Weaver’s name, but he’s an outstanding pickup.
The A’s sent righthander Jeremy Bonderman to the Tigers to complete the Jeff Weaver-Ted Lilly-Carlos Pena trade. Bonderman was 9-8 with a 3.61 ERA over 144 2/3 innings and he struck out a whopping 160 batters while walking 55. That’s an impressive performance for a 19 year-old in the hitter-friendly high Class A California League.
Tigers president and GM Dave Dombrowski now realizes he inherited one of the worst messes in all of the major leagues. That one player flew from Oakland to Las Vegas and back on the Saturday night between day games is still the move of the year in that visiting clubhouse.