There has been alot of talk lately about how the Tigers will have a significant amount of money to play with this offseason. Hefty contracts to players who haven’t been contributing do come off the books. However, it will cost the Tigers significantly more to keep their current players as many get raises or become arbitration eligible.

Damion Easley ($6.63 million), Matt Anderson ($4.3 million), and Danny Patterson ($2.8 million) make up about 20% of the Tigers’ payroll this year, and Danny Patterson is the only one to contribute anything. Add in a $500,000 buyout the Tigers made to Danny Patterson and that’s $14.23 million that Tigers can use to go out and get a front of the rotation pitcher or Carlos Beltran right? Not exactly.

Carlos Guillen is due for a $1.5 million raise next year. Actually, Guillen has already accrued enough plate appearances to garner $550,000 in incentives this year, and with another 75 plate apperances will gather another $350,000. Also, the Tigers will be paying Pudge an additional $2.9 million. Jason Johnson will get an additional $1 million next year, as will Urbina if the Tigers pick up his option (and it’s a $500,000 buyout if they don’t). Speaking of buyouts, to avoid paying Matt Anderson next year the Tigers have a $400,000 buyout on his option year. Setting aside Guillen’s incentive money, and assuming they pick up the option on Urbina, that’s $6.8 million eating into the FA money.

Then there is the case of the cheap young Tigers who won’t be cheap anymore. Mike Maroth, Alex Sanchez, Brandon Inge, Gary Knotts, Nate Cornejo, and Carlos Pena all become arbitration eligible I believe. Leaving out Cornejo who probably won’t be in line for a sizable raise those other 5 guys are significant contributors and make a combined $1.71 million. Now with Maroth there has been talk about him being dealt in the offseason. However, anybody taking his spot in the rotation will probably be making more than the $330,000 that he’s currently making. Alex Sanchez could be let go because the Tigers have a cheap option in Nook Logan. I don’t think uber-sub Inge is going anywhere, and he’s earned himself a raise next season.

As for Pena and Munson (Munson is also arb-eligible but is coming off a $1.5 million dollar contract already) the Tigers will have to pay a little bit more to keep both of them. Munson might get a little less, and Pena should get some more. However it appears that the Tigers (or Trammell) have given up on Munson completely. While Trammell has been playing the hot hands a lot lately, Munson has 18 AB’s since his two homer game on August 8th.

So while there are some large “dead” contracts coming off the books, and the Tigers will have a little more money to play with it will probably be more along the lines of $6-7 million instead for $14 million.

Now Mr. Illitch could always authorize Dombrowski to increase the payroll. That isn’t an unlikely scenario with the Tigers increase in revenue. Attendance should come in just under 2 million fans, which also brings in additional concession, parking, and merchandise dollars. Plus with the improved product on the field, and the fact that the Tigers season ticket holders are almost guaranteed to renew to get All Star tickets, the team can even raise ticket prices. TV ratings are up and commercial space is actually in demand which should result in a better contract next year.

Does this mean that the Tigers will be as agressive this year as last year? We can only hope. The difference is this year the Tigers won’t have to overbid just to get people to talk with them.

Miscellaneous:
-Thanks for your patience during this long blog drought. My move went well although we’re still not unpacked. At least I’ve had some time to watch the Tigers the last few nights.
-I have to say I was as thrilled as everyone with Jeremy Bonderman’s outing on Monday night. It ranked as the 9th best pitched game in the AL this year according to game scores. Remarkably, Tiger starters have 3 of the top 10 pitched games in the AL this year. Mike Maroth’s gem against the Yankees, and Jason Johnson’s duel with Johan Santana against the Twins are the others.

I’m sorry about the severe lack of posting over the last couple of weeks. A vacation, a move, some family illnesses, and a whole lot of work have kept me very busy. I’ve barely even seen the Tigers the last few weeks, let alone had time to write about them or do any analysis.

Just give me about another week, and I’ll get some more posts up here. I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t abandoned the blog or the team, it’s just sometimes life gets in the way…

In the meantime the Tigerblog crew has been posting regularly, and Brian keeps teasing us with some big project for next season. I just hope he doesn’t get so famous that he no longer has time to be my accountant.

Once again the Tigers started off the month on a down note by dropping their first 5 games. A tough one run extra inning loss to Cleveland was followed by an ugly sweep in Colorado. The Tiger bullpen absolutely collapsed in the thin air of Denver and the starters weren’t particularly effective either.

After Colorado the worn out pitching staff headed to New York to face the Yankees. Nate Robertson was shelled early and often, meaning that the already tired bullpen had to pick up the slack. The Tigers had already lost 5 in a row and had two more to play in NY and 4 games in Minnesota before the break.

Jason Johnson gave the Tigers just what they needed with 8 innings of one hit ball and the Tigers had the first win of the season. They took the rubber match as well before heading on to Minnesota.

The Tigers dropped the first game despite a strong outing from Mike Maroth. He was done in by a combination of infield hits and bad fielding. Surprisingly the Tigers took the last 3 from Minnesota capped off by a complete game shut out by Jason Johnson.

After the break the Tigers hosted the Yankees for a 4 game series at sold out Comerica Park. In a even hard fought series the Tigers and Yankees split. The highlight was Mike Maroth’s one hit complete game shut out.

At 44-47 the Tigers were almost in contention. Unfortunately they dropped 5 of the next 6 against the White Sox and Indians. This eliminated any talk of the Tigers being buyers at the trade deadline. Fortunately they finnished the month by going 5-2 and pulled to within 4 games of the elusive .500 mark.

Comings, Goings, and Doctor Appointments
After his latest poor outing Gary Knotts informed the team that his shoulder was hurting. Knotts was placed on the 15 day disabled list and AA reliever Roberto Novoa was called to take his place on the roster. The recently recalled Wil Ledezma assumed Knotts spot in the rotation.

Danny Patterson both went on the disabled list and came off in the same month with shoulder bursitis.

The Tigers were short handed in the outfield while Craig Monroe and Alex Sanchez both saw time on the disabled list. Nook Logan filled in admirably for Sanchez until Alex was ready to come back.

July also saw the return of Chris Shelton and the demotions of Craig Dingman, Franklyn German, and Steve Colyer (twice)

By the Numbers
The Tigers managed to keep scoring runs, despite a sharp drop in batting average and on base average. Their slugging percentage remained high, and they hit 41 homers for the month.

The story is similar for the pitchers. They held opponents on base average down, but the power numbers were up and the results were more than 5 runs a game allowed.

Who’s Hot
Now that Carlos Guillen has made the Hot list every month this season, is he still hot? For the month he was .337/.405/.625. His month was topped only by Marcus Thames who like Guillen had 6 dingers to go along with .344/.391/.750.

Dmitri Young also had a solid month hitting .307/.379/.505.

Jason Johnson was tops among starters posting a 3-1 record in 6 starts and a 3.40 ERA over 45 innings. Unfortunately he was the only starter to have a really strong month. Mike Maroth was decent also picking up 4 wins with a 4.36 ERA.

After a rough start to the month, the bullpen really picked things up. Leading the charge was …Al Levine… Levine allowed only one run in 13 innings. Right behind him was Esteban Yan who allowed only 3 runs in 14 innings while striking out 11.

Who’s Not
After Pudge’s tremendous June, he has definitely slipped. For the month he hit .244/.313/.395.

Also struggling is Bobby Higginson who is hitting .207/.293/.299 despite still playing everyday (24 out of 28 games).

The young corner infielders continue to struggle as Munson and Pena have .684 and .617 OPS’ respectively while striking out a combined 38 times.

Jeremy Bonderman has had some bad luck lately resulting in short starts. That combined with 9 homers allowed left him with an ERA over 6 for the month.

Gary Knotts tried to pitch through arm problems and allowed 29 earned runs in only 24 innings.

While Levine and Yan pitched great, Danny Patterson and Jamie Walker both stuggled. Granted, Patterson only made 4 apperances, and the bulk of Walker’s troubles can be attributed to one bad outing.

Lowlight of the Month
Any of the three games in Colorado. They were all bad so take your pick.

Highlight of the Month
Without question it had to be Maroth’s one hitter against the Yankees in front of a sold out Comerica Park. The buzz coming out of that weekend was incredible and the Tigers were actually relevant after the All Star break. Good Times

Honorable Mention: Jason Johnson’s pitching duel with Johan Santana. Both pitchers were on top of their games, and it’s going to be one of the finest pitching match ups of the season.

Looking Ahead
The Tigers finally get a reprieve from playing Central teams, and instead get to play their next 15 games against teams in the playoff hunt. After hosting Texas and Boston the Tigers head out west for series with Oakland and Anaheim. They cap the road trip with 3 more games against the White Sox.

They’ll get a slight break with a series against the Mariners before hosting the White Sox (again). They finish up the month on the road against Boston and Kansas City.