Yearly Archives: 2008

2009 Season, Roster Management

Dombrowski talks payroll and closer

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Jon Paul Morosi is covering the GM meetings from California and he caught up with Dave Dombrowski. Among the nuggets Dombrowski spoke about the 2010 closer situation and the payroll.

On a closer for the year-after-next, Dombrowski believes the candidate is in house. Given the college-reliever heavy draft this summer, that isn’t surprising. Among Ryan Perry, Cody Satterwhite, and others (Casey Fien, Joel Zumaya, Freddy Dolsi) I’d hope that’s a safe bet. It also makes it unlikely, as Morosi points out, that the Tigers are going to go after a top shelf free agent closer who will command multiple years.

Dombrowski also revealed that the 2009 payroll would not see “a significant difference” from 2008. With the team already committed to spending a little over $100 million on 11 players, that means the Tigers have about $25 million left to find a shortstop, a catcher, resign Justin Verlander, bolster the bullpen and rotation, and fill in the rest of the spots with league-minimum players under club control (like Matt Joyce).

At GM meetings, Dombrowski says Tigers have in-house closing candidates for 2010 | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Free Agents, Roster Management

Let the offseason begin

66 Comments

With the World Series officially over after the longest game 5 ever, I half (actually more than half) expected the Tigers to make a trade today.  When I saw a press release come across I thought my intuition was correct.  Instead it was a compilation of roster moves and the hiring of a bullpen coach.

The Tigers rehired Jeff Jones to be the bullpen coach after firing him at the end of the season.  I don’t find it that surprising or awkward.  Jones had been all but assured a role in the organization and his firing was more related to the dismissal of Chuck Hernandez.  I’d imagine Rick Knapp had the freedom to look elsewhere, but decided to stick with Jones.

The Tigers also announced that Dane Sardinha and Gary Glover had been outrighted and both decided to  become free agents.  As I imagined when Virgil Vasquez was claimed, he was one of several the team were pruning.  Eddie speculates on the motivation for the Tigers keeping Eddie Bonine and Mike Hessman on the big league roster.

Another spot on the 40 man roster was freed when the Tigers formally declined Edgar Renteria’s option.  This is hardly news though since Dave Dombrowki indicated as much a month ago. 

Declaring free agency was Freddy Garcia.  Garcia is still in the long toss stage after leaving the last game of the year with tightness in his greater shoulder area.  Don’t read too much into this as it is merely a formality. 

In addition to the Tigers getting their house in order, there is speculation about potential targets.  Jason Varitek’s name has gained some steam.  Mostly due to a Ken Rosenthal report that Scott Boras is shopping Varitek to Detroit.  But I have to agree with the consensus that this would not be a good thing.

Now Chad Cordero on the other hand…that’s worth considering for the right price.  And while the Tigers, like many teams, would be hesitant to offer much in the way of guaranteed money they can offer a wide open bullpen situation.

Links

links for 2008-10-29

38 Comments
  • BaseballAmerica.com: Prospects: Ask BA
    BA looks at the best lefty/righty combo's in the minors. Casey Crosby and Rick Porcello put the Tigers on the list at 10.
  • FIP+: American League Central – Beyond the Box Score
    Six of the top seven Tigers in FIP+ were bullpen pitchers (and one was Jason Grilli). And the bullpen was pretty bad. Yeah, it wasn't a good season.
  • Kenny Rogers talks like he's not finished with baseball | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
    This is a couple days old now, but Rogers hasn't decided if he's retiring. I'm very thankful for what Kenny did in 2006. But 2008 was awful and I can't see a role for him on the 2009 edition. And don't say pitching coach. He got a lot of credit for that stuff in 06, but he wasn't able to help in that regard at all in 2008 – much like Chuck Hernandez.
  • Tigers Service Time
    For those wondering about how much big league service time Tigers have accrued. It is listed as x.yyy where x is the number of years and .yyy is the fractional part of the year expressed as the number of days. So 7.109 would mean 7 years and 109 days (there are 180 days in a big league season).
  • Beck's Blog: Tigers, Renteria set to move on
    Beck spoke with Renteria's agent and the Tigers haven't had any additional contact. Renteria is looking towards pointing himself in a different direction.
Roster Management

Virgil Vasquez claimed by Red Sox

2 Comments

The Tigers placed Virgil Vasquez on waivers and he was claimed by the Red Sox today. Vasquez had a strong showing in the AFL in 2006 and got a couple shots to start in 2007. However he struggled in 2008 for AAA and even the pitching starved Tigers didn’t call him up.

The timing of this is a little odd. Could it be that the Tigers were clearing 40 man roster space to announce a trade at the completion of the World Series? If so why not just jettison Dane Sardinha or Macay McBride (who also could be on waivers, we just don’t know it)? Most likely this is roster pruning heading into the offseason. With Vasquez they probably would have liked to have kept him, but not at the cost of a spot on the 40 man.

2008 Season, Defense

Defensive Projections

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Chone Smith has compiled defensive projections for the 2009 season. He’s used 5 years of data (combination of Stats Zone Rating, Revised Zone Rating, and Total Zone), and weighted it such that the most current season receives the most weight. He also regresses the results and uses the Fans Scouting Report. The more data available the less regression, and when data is scarce the scouting report carries more weight.

Cherry-picking out the Tigers (the numbers represent runs/150 games):

Outfield

  • Granderson: 13
  • Ordonez: -4
  • Joyce: (Corner) 7, (Center) -1
  • Thames: -5
  • Guillen: -3
  • Raburn (Corner) 4, (Center) -4

Infield

  • Inge: (3B) 10
  • Renteria: (SS) -6
  • Polanco: (2B) 9
  • Cabrera: (1B) -1
  • Santiago: (SS) -1, (2B) 1
  • Guillen: (3B) 0, (1B) 5

Now there’s a good chance Renteria isn’t back next year, so some shortstop free agents:

  • Orlando Cabrera: 1
  • Eckstein: -3
  • Everett: 19

Adam  Everett could be in a pretty steep defensive decline and even being +2 wins with his glove, his bat is so bad it probably can’t overcome it.  It’s not a great group that is out there, and one more year of Renteria if he can come cheaply might not be a bad bet.

2008 Season, Pitching, Research

Strike Throwing – Part 1 – Lots of Tables

12 Comments

The Tigers walked a lot of people last year. Along the way they threw a lot of pitches, and many seemed to be ill advised. The performance cost Chuck Hernandez his job, jettisoned in favor of an instructor whose students have gone on to gain some renown as strike throwing machines. Armed with a season’s worth of pitch f/x data I’m ready to start delving into this whole strike throwing thing. We’ll start today with some general league wide information.

For those unfamiliar with pitch f/x I’ll have some additional links to more information at the end of this article. The short explanation is a couple of cameras measure the direction and speed a ball is moving shortly in front of the mound. From this the pitch’s path is calculated to within an inch of where it crosses the front of home plate. And it draws the trajectory in the MLB.com Gameday application. On to the data…
Continue reading Strike Throwing – Part 1 – Lots of Tables →

Links

links for 2008-10-22

33 Comments
Links

Daily Linking – 10/22/08

53 Comments

Links of note, or stuff I find interesting, or stuff I think you might find interesting

Minors

Tigers Prospect Chat

15 Comments

If you’re into talking Tigers prospects, Mark Anderson of TigsTown.com will be fielding questions for several hours tomorrow at Motownsports.com. This would be a great time to check out a great Tigers message board/community as well as get you question about Tigers prospects answered by a true expert. Mark has contacts with scouts and coaches and recently attended part of the Instructional League. The chat will take place on Monday at 4 p.m.

Here is the direct link to the thread where the chat will take place: 2008 Mark Anderson/TigsTown.com Chat – Monday, 10.20.08 (4:00 pm EST) – MotownSports.com Message Board

Managing & Strategy, Pitching

Tigers name Rick Knapp pitching coach

71 Comments

The Tigers found their pitching coach, and they poached him from the Twins. He is Rick Knapp and he’s served as the minor league pitching coordinator for the last 12 years in the Minnesota organization.

I really like this move. The Twins have a tradition of producing striking throwing machines on a regular basis, and you’d have to think that Knapp gets some of that credit. The Twins have walked the fewest number of hitters in the AL in 4 of the last 5 years.

The trick for Knapp now is to see if he can translate his development skills to pro pitchers and get the Tigers staff throwing strikes. His biggest challenge of course is with Dontrelle Willis, who’s struggles are well known. He will largely be evaluated though based on his work with Justin Verlander to see if he can help Verlander regain his studly-ness.

I am excited about Knapp’s long term potential impact as he imparts his philosophies on the young pitchers in the organization. Plus he won’t be churning out those arms for the division-rival Twins anymore.

Google Stalking

  • Jeff Passan wrote an article in August and Knapp was largely the subject. But one takeaway was that the Twins control strength goes beyond instruction and it is an organizational philosophy that goes down to talent evaluation. It will be very interesting to see what Knapp does with guys who were largely sought out for velocity and stuff.
  • In an article about Kevin Cameron, Cameron mentions that one year there was a rash of shoulder injuries to many Twins minor league pitchers. I don’t like the sound of that, but don’t know enough about it to judge either.
  • Knapp was discussed in reference to some tools and techiniques he used in assisting David Bromberg. (h/t)
Pitching

Tigers look to Twins for pitching coach

17 Comments

The Tigers are interviewing 4 candidates this week, and one of them has been confirmed. Minnesota Twins minor league pitching coordinator Rich Knapp interviewed for the position today.

I have no idea if Knapp is a good coach, but the Twins continue to produce pitchers who throw strikes. In 2008 the Twins led the AL with only 2.5 walks per game. In 2007 they were second in the same measure behind the Indians. In 2006 they led the AL by nearly a half a walk per game. The story was the same in 2005. And in 2004 they led. I got tired of looking back at that point but you get the idea. As for Knapp’s tenure, this past season marked his 12th in the same role.

For a team with a bunch of pitchers who seemed to have difficulty harnessing their control, I like seeing Knapp as a candidate.

Other candidates haven’t been announced, but it is a safe bet that A.J. Sager will also get an interview. Sager served as pitching coach for the Mud Hens. Beyond that I’m not sure where the Tigers are looking. One candidate isn’t Leo Mazzone. He hasn’t been contacted by the Tigers, though he is interested.