Contracts, Minors, Statistics, Tiger History

The week in links

22 Comments

I’m way behind here, and some of this hardly qualifies as newsworthy anymore. But in the interest of completeness…

  • Gary Sheffield will wear Alan Trammell’s #3, and Trammell is okay with it. I have mixed feelings on this. First it is only a number and too much shouldn’t be made of it. But on the other hand it will be weird, to say the least, to see someone else sporting that number. Trammell is too classy to make a stink of it, but I can’t figure why Sheffield would even ask for it. It is sure to not endear him to Tiger fans, but that never seems to be an issue for him anyways. Even with 10 and 11 not available (and if 11 isn’t available is this to mean that Sparky’s # will be officially retired?), there were lots of other numbers to choose from. It almost seems intentional and calculated.
  • Lee has started doing a Runs Created analysis for the Tigers. It is a series of posts, here is the first. I love the runs created stat because it boils offensive production down to a value that all baseball fans can relate to.
  • This is actually 2 weeks old, but Beyond the Boxscores takes a look at former Tiger first round pick Scott Moore who is flourishing with the Cubs.
  • The Lakeland Tigers are no more. They are now the Lakeland Flying Tigers. This will be helpful for me when I write up my minor league wraps next year because I was never a fan of L-Tigers. More importantly, it will help the organization tie in the aviation aspect of the Tigers facilities in Lakeland. The complex is on an old aviation school.
  • This is a new link, but Alfonso Soriano is going to the Cubs for a mere 8 years and $136 million.

Gary Sheffield, Alan Trammell, Lakeland, Detroit Tigers

22 thoughts on “The week in links”

  2. Mike,

    Kirk Gibson wore #23 which was the # that Willie Horton wore and was retired in 2000.

    Andy

  4. LOL. Look me up the next time you’re in Casper.

    Next one, what Tiger Hall of Famer has the record for the most games played in a single season career?

  5. The Soriano deal helps put the Sheffield trade in context. The goal was to get a big bat. I’d much prefer to be locked into $40 million over three years to get that big bat than $136 million over eight years.

  7. I remember a Gary Sheffield story from Baseball Weekly circa 1994. Gary was with the Padres. A boy, I seem to remember about 10 years old, mailed Gary a baseball card with the request “would you please sign my card.” The reply was a form letter telling the boy how to join the Gary Sheffield Fan Club. The topper was that the kid didn’t even get his card back, signed or not.

    In fairness, I don’t know that every other major league player doesn’t do this. At one time the Tigers had Rick Schu (the player the Phillies moved Mike Schmidt to first base for). After a predictible hard time with the parent club he was sent to Toledo. I went to a Toledo game and tried to get some autographs. Mr. Schu totally ignored every fan that wanted a few seconds of his life while other minor league players stopped to sign, shake hands, and spend some time with the people that made their vocation possible.

    As far as numbers on paper, he might be just what this team needs. However, I worry about the attitude and how it might rub off on our younger players.

    Perhaps re-signing Sean Casey was for more than his .300 lifetime batting average left-handed firstbaseman. Perhaps the team sensed the need to stock up on good character.

    ==========

    Mike F., I’ll guess Sparky Anderson and his 152 games played tops your list.

    ==========

    Interesting tidbit about retired numbers:
    Jimmy Carson kind of had his number retired twice by the Red Wings. In 1991 he was wearing #10, which was then retired in honor of Alex Delvecchio; Jimmy switched to #12. At the end of the 94 season he went back to the Kings and during that summer the Wings decided to retire #12 in honor of Sid Abel.

  8. Isn’t that why they retire numbers, so future boneheads can’t wear it? Why isn’t Tram’s number retired already?

    Overall, I’m glad to have Shef’s bat (for now), but the guy has a long track-record as an idiot with seemingly little appreciation for the finer parts of the game and it’s history. Score another.

  9. Oh, and I’d personally take the 136 mil and have Soriano over the next 8 than have an old, caustic Shef for his twilight years.

    No doubt.

  10. I am definitely not OK with Sheffield wearing #3. I also think retiring numbers is kind of over-done, but at least give Tram a few more years before you start handing out his number to YANKEES. Or any other bone-head. Grrr.

  11. Really? You want Soriano’s age 37 and 38 seasons, you’re welcome to them. You want to downgrade the best defense in baseball? Go ahead. You want to add another undisciplined hacker to our K-machine offense? Hope you enjoyed the World Series.

  12. I was miffed when I first heard about the number thing, but the more I think about the more is seems silly. I love Tram, he is my all-time favorite player, but I don’t blame Sheff, the Tigers should have a)either retired his number already or told him it wasn’t available.

    I suspect they haven’t or won’t retire his number because how can you retire his without retiring Lou’s? (Tho I would be in favor of both) Plus now with the Tigs not only retiring #’s but putting up a sweet statue of the guy (which I like) they are out of room in left field.

    Plus Tram will be back managing in about 7 years, so they would just have to unretire the number anyway.

    We all know Detroit #3 will always be Tram, so who cares if Sheff wears it for a couple years.

  13. Really. I’ll take the best years of a 40-40 guy on the rise with a .350 OBP/.900 OPS over the dusky old Shef who, by the way, ain’t exactly Mr. D either (zone rating about identical last year). Further, you’d be hard-pressed to make me believe Soriano was any worse than Ordonez in the outfield by the end of last season. Given money is no option, I just see much less risk than a guy who’ll be 39 yr next year coming off a serious wrist injury. I sincerely hope Sheffiled makes me eat crow, and if he returns to his standard form he will.

  14. Soriano was actually decent as a left fielder, and not just because of the assists.

    As for risks, I don’t think you can say money is no object when you are committing $136 million to anyone. Soriano will significantly impact any teams spending over the better part of the next decade. That is the definition of risky.

    Is Soriano really on the rise, or did he have a career year when he sniffed free agency? I’m not sure the answer in this case, but Soriano is in his 30’s. The story is different if he’s 27.

  15. You both are right. I guess I’d have liked getting to wonder whether Soriano can put together a string of 40-40s (or even 30-30s) or not. I think it is much less likely that Sheffield will do the same over the next 3 years (or 8 for that matter). Perhaps not likely for Soriano either, but who knows — not us. It is possible he may have peaked last year, but he didn’t exactly play in a prime hitters park, either.

    Re: the money, I was stating from the perspective of pure production, i.e. not normalized for pay.

  16. I would certainly rather have Soriano over Sheffield, if money weren’t a consideration.

    But that contract the Cubs gave him is ridiculous and I have no doubt that they’ll be desperately trying to dump it in 4 years.

    Course we’ll probably be wanting to dump Sheff by the middle of 08…

  17. Neither one of them would have been among my top half dozen choices,especially at the price tags they come with.Right now,I lean toward Sheffield being the lesser evil given the duration of the Soriano contract.

  20. Here too.

    I hope this isn’t true. If Maroth is healthy, he is a 14 game winner making $3M. He should fetch more in spring training after showing that he is healthy. i don’t know why we would trade him anyway for a reliever.

    Walt

  22. I wouldn’t really hold my breath on it being true, looks like one of those message board rumors to me and it apparently started last night. Not a word from real media on it today.

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