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Covering the bases

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There’s a lot to touch on after this weekend, so let’s get right to it…

Jayson Stark’s Grumblings
Jayson Stark’s recent column had quite a bit on the Tigers. According to Jayson’s sources, the Tigers were the only team offering multiple years to Percival.

The Tigers had their reasons for handing Troy Percival a two-year, $12-million contract. But after a brief survey of other clubs shopping for closers, we’ve had trouble finding anyone else that was ready to guarantee him two years, especially at those dollars.

However, he also has a source from an AL front office that thinks the Tigers are just a couple players away from being contenders.

Stark also quotes Steve Finley’s agent as saying the Tigers have been “Extremely Aggressive” in pursuing Finley.

The 40 Man Roster
The Tigers also finalized their 40 man roster on Friday. The moves included activating Fernando Rodney, Chris Spurling, and Fernando Vina from the 60 day DL. They also added Mark Woodyard from Erie.

Woodyard will be 26 next season, and his highest level to date is AA ball. In a variety of pitching roles with Erie last season the righthander compiled a 6-4 record and 3.42 ERA. His K/9 of 4.84 isn’t particularly impressive, nor was his 3.25 BB/9. His most impressive stat would be the 5 homers in 102IP.

To make room for these additions, Nate Cornejo was activated and outrighted to Toledo. Matt Roney, Don Kelly, and Felix Sanchez were also outrighted to Toledo.

I was surprised to see Roney left unprotected. He’s a year younger than Woodyard, had a better K rate (6.01) last year, and has pitched at the major league level. Now Roney did allow 20 homers for Erie last year, and he didn’t really dominate when he was with the Tigers. However, he seemed like he could potentially provide some bullpen depth.

Felix Sanchez you may remember is the player the Tigers acquired in the Jon Connolly trade last year. Sanchez had 14 unremarkable apperances for Erie last year. Connolly went 9-5 with a 2.40 ERA in High A ball. He also improved his K rate (6.94 from 5.64 the previous season) and his BB rate (1.56 from 2.06 the previous season).

Arizona Hardware
A couple of Tigers fared extremely well inthe Arizona Fall League. Chris Shelton captured MVP honors while leading the league in BA, OBP, SLG, H, and RBI. He was also named to the all prospect team as a catcher, first baseman, and utility player. Curtis Granderson also received all prospect team honors as a centerfielder.

2 thoughts on “Covering the bases”

  1. Billfer, do you see the Tigers losing anyone to the Rule 5 draft? Do you think Roney could get scooped up?

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