The Tigers traded for some bullpen help in the form of Jose Capellan. In exchange the Tigers sent the Milwaukee Brewers A ball pitcher Chris Cody.
Capellan is a 26 year old right hander who has spent parts of the last 3 years in the Brewers bullpen. Capellan has decent strike out numbers over his career with 7 per 9 innings. However he will walk his share at almost 4 per 9 and last year he allowed 11 homers in 71 1/3 innings.
Capellan certainly isn’t dominating or overwhelming. However could prove to be serviceable. And without letting go of a lot, serviceable isn’t a bad route to go in the short term.
As for Cody, he dominated at West Michigan this year before being promoted to Lakeland a couple weeks ago. He posted a 1.77 ERA and fanned a batter an inning while only allowing 1 homer and 15 walks in 91 1/3 innings of work. Of course at age 23 he was old for the league, but did everything that could have been asked of him. Cody was the 8th round pick from last year’s draft.
I’d assume that Capellan will join the big league club, and a corresponding roster move would need to be made. My guess is that the Tigers will try to send Jason Grilli through waivers.
No no no no no no no! š
Nice move to shore things up a bit without giving up a lot. If he doesn’t prove reliable there’s always time to make a bigger move.
Grilli stated in an interview with the FP or DN that he would be meeting with Leyland in the next couple of days. Kinda makes you wonder if he’s the one.
I would imagine that the way Grilli has pitched would make him the one.
Hey, we all know when we screw up at our jobs and it isn’t any different with athletes. Grilli knows he has been part of the bullpen’s problems this season.
Capellan was a pretty hot shot prospect a couple of years ago. He was okay last year for the braves, but hasn’t seemed to get too much going this year. 3.86 era in AAA. Hopefully that translates into something around 4.50 for the Tigers. Which, sadly, would be an improvement over most of the bullpen.
File this under rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Grabbing a guy who has a career ERA of 4.70 in the National League and moaned about retiring when he got sent down to AAA in March is the equivalent of doing nothing. Shipping out Mesa, Ledezma, Maroth and, possibly Grilli for McBride and Capellan is like trading a Renault Le Car for an AMC Pacer.
stephen
funny comparison but also quite true. it is like the tigers are trying to get by without making a blockbuster move. they are staying near the top any maybe that is enough for them at this point. sometimes making a trade before the deadline not only gets you what you want but also prevents a competitor from getting what they want. i wish for a move earlier rather than later. my guess though is that most clubs needs are the same as the tigers and the prices might just be too high.
They are probably trying to tweak a bit, with 4 weeks to see results before making the big splash they are trying to avoid. This would be a lot different if the deadline was tomorrow, but as it stands, this is very smart.
Very smart in what sense? We get a guy from the Brewers who they didn’t want who might be serviceable as a mop guy? It neither dumb or smart, it’s just a time waster.
Very smart in what sense? We get a guy from the Brewers who they don’t want who might be serviceable as a mop up guy? It’s neither dumb or smart, it’s just paper pushing.
The “blockbuster” moves that we all would like to see would require this team to mortgage its future. Texas wants Maybin for one of its late inning guys, which of course is unacceptable. The price will come down, but it won’t come down until a lot closer to July 31st.
Randy Smith would have already traded Maybin, Jurrjens, and Thames for Otsaka. Then we’d have our blockbuster trade, whoopee (of course this is a lousy example as Randy Smith wouldn’t have the Tigers close enough to first place to think about making such a trade, but you get my point).
Stephens right. This isnt a big deal.
Course, I hope I end up being wrong in a good way
Capellan turned into a head case when the Brewers sent him down at the beginning of spring training. He had an emotional outburst and refused to report to AAA. After he did report, he suddenly decided to leave the team for a couple days to show his continued protest. All this might be forgivable if he had pitched well but his performance last season for the Brewers was mediocre. His stats this year at AAA were also mediocre. It is true that he was a very highly regarded prospect just a couple of years ago, but since then he has been a disappointment. He is basically just a fast ball pitcher with his breaking ball being spotty. He only has two pitches, when he does have a breaking ball, and this is why he was removed from a starters role.
He’s acted immaturely and his progress has been disappointing. Hopefully, a change of scenery will be good for him and he’ll perform much better while acting more maturelly for the Tigers.
Capellan has potential. He’s 25 and at the ML level. Cody is a soft tosser with advanced command who is ting low A hitters like Jon Connolly once did. Cody is a very similar pitcher. Capellan may be good and may not, but he will likely be better than Grilli or Maroth. The bullpen is us. Good trade.
I see parallels to Rodney, both in stuff (pre-TJ) and attitude (sucks).
Let’s not stomp a guy simply because he has a 100mph fastball and was stuck behind two of the best relievers around in Turnbow and Cordero.
I like it. All he needs is a little Chuck H., and he’ll be fine.
Truthfully, anything other than Jason “Get Me Off The” Grilli is a serious upgrade.
I can’t remember any mid-season trade for a middle reliever ever being a blockbuster or really working out well for the Tigers.
Can anyone think of an example with another team? Mid-relief is so spotty and almost impossible to forecast success.
Look at the Orioles with Jamie Walker…all the analysts gave them rave reviews for “shoring up their bullpen” But Walker hasn’t been as good this year as he was last (a common theme in mid relief).
Was Farnsworth a trade or a signing? I don’t remember him lighting it up for the Braves after the Tigers traded him.
Farnsworth was traded:
February 9, 2005: Traded by the Chicago Cubs to the Detroit Tigers for Roberto Novoa, Scott Moore, and Bo Flowers (minors).
The reason middle relief is so spotty is because of the inconsistent situations. Sometimes guys are brought in when the score is out of hand and told “just throw strikes” to get the game over. Hence, they will give up more hits and their stats will suffer. Closers and setters generally don’t have to deal with this.
I’d like to see ERA when the game is within 3 runs.
I don’t know if Grilli will be the man to go. By trading a finesse pitcher for a fireballer, DD remains consistent with his style. Grilli usually tops 95, so I expect him to stick around.
De La Cruz was sent to the minors. No surprise there.
When will “Gates” Colon get released?
I’ve seen more and more references to Rodney’s “bad attitude” on this site and other Tiger forums. On what are people basing this charge? Are there any actual incidents, or complaints from teammates about Rodney? Or is this just an impression that people get from his demeanor on the mound?
“Iāve seen more and more references to Rodneyās ābad attitudeā on this site and other Tiger forums. On what are people basing this charge? Are there any actual incidents, or complaints from teammates about Rodney? Or is this just an impression that people get from his demeanor on the mound?”
some perceived sense of intuition; no; no; I guess
Nate:
Perception on the mound, mostly. He looks absolutley miserable everytime he pitches, like it’s the last place on earth he’d rather be.
I don’t recall who it was — I think either Joe Morgan or some other announcer — even made mention of it last time Rodney pitched.
I just wanted to make sure that I hadn’t missed any word-of-mouth stories about him throwing a cherry bomb into Leyland’s toilet.
I don’t want to start an argument about whether you can really know someone’s attitude from how they look while they play, because that strikes me as a religious question — either you believe you can or you believe you can’t, and there isn’t much point in arguing it either way.
I will say that it doesn’t seem like the team thinks he has an attitude problem: Dombrowski has dealt quickly with clubhouse malingerers so far in his tenure as GM (DY got his walking papers last year in the middle of a pennant race; Urbina was dealt quickly after his fight. He didn’t tolerate Weaver showing up his teammates for long, either). Rodney, on the other hand, continues to get the ball in key situations, despite all evidence that he can’t hold a lead this season. I’m not sure they’d do that if they thought his attitude, rather than, say, his tendinitis were causing his problems.
Christina Kahrl’s take on the trades is up at Baseball Prospectus:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6418
Be sure to click the “a pitcher who gave them good work in 2006” in her analysis of the trade from the Brewers’ perspective, for some statistical analysis that hasn’t been brought up here.