Yearly Archives: 2008

Trade Rumors

Tigers set to send talented outfielder to Tampa for guy who throws hard

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I‘m having a hard time even writing about the rumored deal that will send Matt Joyce to Tampa for Edwin Jackson. Joyce might flame out, but Jackson has yet to even burn.

Jackson has a fastball that averages in excess of 93 MPH. That’s fast, but he doesn’t seem to fool a lot of people with a K rate last year that was lower than Nate Robertson’s. At least he made up for it by walking 77 hitters in 183 innings. Marcel projects him to have a FIP ERA of 4.64 which is a considerable improvement over the 4.89 he’s posted over the last 2 years. Jackson is also a flyball pitcher meaning he won’t benefit from the new left side infield defense. Jackson will only be 25, but he is out of options.

In exchange the Tigers surrender a their most promising left handed hitting prospect. A solid defender who posted an .831 OPS as a 23 year old making his big league debut. He’s blocked, sort of, this year but has 2 options left. And his being blocked is contingent on the health of Carlos Guillen and Gary Sheffield. In essence he was only going to be blocked in 2009 and even then it’s questionable.

I don’t know how Jackson fits in, whether he will be a starter or reliever. Oh yeah, and he’s eligible for arbitration. Good luck Rick Knapp. I don’t get this one at all.

DRays Bay loves this deal, as they should.

UPDATE: This is official as Friedman and Dombrowski have met with the media. Joe Hamrahi of Baseball Digest Daily was in there and posted these notes in his twitter feed.

So his role as starter or reliever is undetermined.

Free Agents, Trade Rumors

Winter Meetings – Heading to Day 3

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I had so much hope after the first day of the winter meetings. The Tigers had two holes filled with plenty of money to fix the bullpen. Things aren’t going according to my plan.

Francisco Rodriguez was never an option for the Tigers, but he’s with the Mets. Kerry Wood was a very attractive, no compensatory draft pick, choice. But Wood chose the Indians.

The Tigers are still interested in J.J. Putz, but so are the Brewers. The Brewers have a better system and I don’t want the Tigers to get into a bidding war. Already Matt Joyce AND Jeff Larish AND Luis Marte have been discussed. That’s way too much for a guy with elbow ligament issues. It would be reminiscent of the Renteria trade in which the team instantly gets older. Joyce can’t be part of that deal.

But it sounds like the Mariners aren’t finding any matches and it’s unclear of the Tigers met with the Mariners today.

Brandon Lyon is a secondary arm I’d like to see the Tigers add. He’s talking to the Red Sox now.

Yes, Brian Fuentes (Rosenthal says the Tigers are interested in Fuentes) and Juan Cruz are still out there. Either would mean parting with the second round pick in next year’s draft.

Meanwhile the Tigers don’t like the Bobby Seay-Clay Rapada-Nate Robertson possibilities as lefties and continue to pursue Joe Beimel. Beimel is suitable as a LOOGY, but he wouldn’t be paid or used that way. The guy has walked more right handed batters in his career than he’s struck out. Don’t be fooled by the low ERA last year. Other than an ability to limit homers he isn’t a good pitcher.

If they can’t get Beimel then John Parrish is the back-up plan. Parrish has walked 6.10 batters per 9 innings over his career. Yippee. The walk numbers have been more mediocre to not good as of late, but the K-rate has gone the same way. He strikes me more as a spring training NRI than someone worthy of a 40 man roster spot.

Here’s hoping tomorrow is a better day.

UDPATE Wednesday 5:58 a.m.:

UPDATE Wednesday 7:43 p.m. Thanks to everyone for participating and keeping the rumors flowing today. Sheffield and Smoltz? Huh.

2009 Season, Trade Rumors

Winter Meetings – Heading to Day 2

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With the Tigers being fairly active today, there won’t be a lot of speculation about those catcher and shortstop holes. But there still are items of interest on the relief pitching front. Here’s the buzz as I get ready to sign off for the night. This will be our day 2 rumor repository as well.

Chad Cordero will meet with 5 teams. The Tigers are one of them. I wonder if Cordero gets a big league deal from anyone or he chooses the best looking minor league contract.

Brandon Lyon, a favorite target of mine, will be meeting with the Royals along with Kyle Farnsworth.

As for the closer market, the Tigers are still connected to J.J. Putz and Kerry Wood. Their price could be heavily dictated by K-Rod who received an offer from the Mets that is expected to be 2 and 24 with a 3rd year option. Not quite the $75 million people were expecting heading into the offseason.

On that front, division rival Cleveland met with Kerry Wood’s people this evening and are still interested in Brian Fuentes and Trevor Hoffman.

I’ll post more as I hear it. As always I recommend checking out http://mlbtraderumors.com as well as Twitter for updates on the winter meetings.

UPDATE: 7:30 p.m. Kerry Wood is off the market and to the Indians. Damn. He wouldn’t have cost a draft pick or prospects. The Tigers continue to pursue J.J. Putz but I’d just assume not get into a prospect bidding war with the Brewers for a guy who is coming off an elbow injury.

Jason Beck continues to report Joe Beimel rumors. Let’s just say that Day 1 seems better than Day 2 so far.

DTW-TV

Detroit Tigers Weblog Live – 12.08.08

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A very impromptu episode of DTW Live as we look at the day that was on the Tigers hot stove.

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for watching. The archived version is below:

With an fairly exciting, or at least productive, day of the winter meetings in the books, I look at the impact of the Everett and Laird deals and speculate about how the Tigers will spend the rest of their money. There is also an extended question and answer session and I get mocked about my choice of beer.

You can leave comments in the video if you like, just click that little plus sign in the player and the comment goes right at the specific point where you hit the plus.

Links mentioned:

Trades

Notes from Gerald Laird conference call

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Paraphrasing some comments from Gerald Laird during his conference call today:

  • Thoughts on the Tigers pitchers: looking forward to being on the same side as Verlander, Bonderman and other guys and catching them instead of hitting them.
  • Doesn’t really know the guys on the team that well aside from playing against them
  • Comerica is a great hitting park
  • Jimmy Leyland is one of the greatest managers in the game. Excited to pick his brain and learn.
  • Excited to play everyday. Was very frustrating in Texas not knowing whether or not he was the guy. He’s looking forward to relaxing and not looking over his shoulder.
  • Looks forward to working with a stable rotation – there was a lot of flux in Texas
  • He started getting text messages while at the Arizona Cardinal game and found out later that night
  • His priority is to get the most out of the staff and throwing guys out and making plays at the plate. The bulk of his preparation is defensive game calling.
Free Agents

Tigers agree to terms with Adam Everett

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Things are really starting to pick up for the Tigers after a slow start to the offseason. Ken Rosenthal is reporting that Detroit has agreed to a one year, one million dollar contract with some incentives. The deal is contingent on Everett passing a physical, but the Tigers must feel confident that his shoulder is healed after watching him workout yesterday.

Presumably Everett will split time with Ramon Santiago. Analysis will be forthcoming. In the meantime check out a wins-above-replacement analysis of the shortstops the Tigers were targeting.

The quick and dirty is: 1. Everett is a steal at one million 2. The left side of the infield looks to be very solid. 3. The bottom third of the order will likely be close-your-eyes bad. 4. Jack Wilson talk should subside until at least the trade deadline. 5. The Tigers have filled 2 needs and haven’t spent anything.

UPDATE: Despite an earlier denial by Dave Dombrowski this appears to be moving towards official. The denial is likely procedural until the MRI is done – which probably includes an MRI on the shoulder.

My thoughts haven’t changed too much, but in terms of value Everett is within a half win of Jack Wilson at a fraction of the cost. Or as Dave Cameron said in his analysis about the Tigers moves today:

This is a pretty massive steal for the Tigers, and along with the Gerald Laird trade earlier today, they’ve added something like three wins to their roster in 12 hours and spent a grand total of about $4 million to do so.

Heck of a day for Dave Dombrowski.

Trades

Tigers acquire Gerald Laird

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It appears as if the Tigers have filled their hole behind the plate by acquiring catcher Gerald Laird from the Texas Rangers. In return the Tigers will ship out starting pitching prospect Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo. The move is expected to be formally announced later today.

Gerald Laird

Laird will be 29 next year and has played in parts of 6 big league season. He’s only had one really productive year offensively when he hit 296/332/473 in 78 games. In his only season in which he broke the 100 game mark he struggled posting only a 224/278/349 line in 2007. Marcel and Bill James projections have him at a .310-.315 wOBA in 2009 and in 2008 MLB catchers posted a .311 wOBA line so he stands to be average for the position offensively.
Continue reading Tigers acquire Gerald Laird →

2009 Season, Free Agents, Injuries, Trade Rumors

Winter Meeting Eve Rumor Roundup

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Are Larish and Thames on the trading block?
Are Larish and Thames on the trading block?
UPDATED 12.08.08 5:08 a.m.

Tomorrow is the start of the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas and things are going to get crazy-stupid when it comes to rumors and people who saw people talking to people. It was at the winter meetings last year (a year ago last Thursday to be exact) when the Tigers traded for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. It was a move that came out of nowhere, so you never know what will happen. With that in mind, here is a cautious look at Tigers related rumors before the meetings begin.
Continue reading Winter Meeting Eve Rumor Roundup →

Defense, Statistics

Fangraphs now has UZR

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Fangraphs continues to become the stat site for sabermetric player stats. Today they announce the addition of MGL’s UZR fielding system which is widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated fielding systems available.

UZR has been largely unavailable for the last several seasons because MGL has been consulting for big league teams. He’s posted leaders and trailers the last few years, but now the full data set is available. The only difference is that this set uses Baseball Info Solutions data instead of STATS Inc.

You can find them on the player pages and leader boards on Fangraphs site. But I thought I would drop in a few of interest here. These are runs per 150 games.

Jack Wilson: 06: -2.8, 07: 12.7, 08: 2.2
Adam Everett: 06: 24.9, 07: 24.4, 08: 10.0
Cesar Izturis: 06: -10.8, 07: -2.5, 08: 12.5
Edgar Renteria: 06: 2.1, 07: -2.2, 08: 1.1

Free Agents

Tigers looking at Wood?

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Earlier today I lamented the type of players that the Tigers were being associated with. Mostly guys that were kind of blah. I also worried about the team’s financial situation given the Renteria and Wilson discussion. Perhaps my disappointment was premature, as there are reports that the Tigers are looking at Kerry Wood.

While happy at the thought of the Tigers pursuing someone who for his career has fanned 10.39 batters per nine innings, I’m also surprised in that earlier Dave Dombrowski said that Wood was out of the Tigers price range. But perhaps the recession is working in the Tigers favor in this case as Wood is only expecting a 2 year deal with a 3rd year vesting option.

Now the vesting part is important because Wood’s career has been severely hampered by injuries. If he’s healthy that the third year shouldn’t be a problem. But if injuries slow him any damage would be limited to 2010.

If the Tigers could add Kerry Wood, and maybe Brandon Lyon, now we’re talking a decent pen. If this is the reallocation of shortstop dollars, I’m on board. Of course these are just rumors of interest at this point, but it’s nice to be in on a good player.

DTW-TV

Detroit Tigers Weblog Live – The Pilot

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This is the DTW’s first foray into live web video. The show will kick off at 11 a.m. and you can watch it below. If you’d like to make comments you can head over to the ustream.tv page and join in the chat. I’ll be talking about the Tigers offseason, and the Jack Wilson rumors. Feel free to ask questions and I’ll try to tackle those as well.

I’ll try and archive this for later viewing after the show, and links I mention I will include in this post as well.

UPDATE: The archived version is now up below.

Continue reading Detroit Tigers Weblog Live – The Pilot →