I think it’s clear that the Tigers bullpen situation will be an on going saga. It’s been the lead story leading up to Tigerfest and will likely hold that distinction throughout spring training (unless of course someone gets injured in the World Baseball Classic). Without an established and healthy closer available, anyone that is brought in to help the pen wouldn’t be a lock to close games anyways.
Continue reading Like sands through the hourglass
Monthly Archives: January 2009
Tigers sign Thames and Rodney
The Tigers signed Marcus Thames and Fernando Rodney to one year deals. Both were arbitration eligible. Terms weren’t disclosed, but I’ll guess that Thames gets $1.8 million and Rodney gets $2.1 million. It looks like Rodney gets $2.7 million.
That leaves Gerald Laird, Edwin Jackson, Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya, and Bobby Seay as the arbitration eligible players left to be signed. The Tigers have not gone to arbitration with a player since Dave Dombrowski took over.
Tigers NRI list
Yesterday the Tigers announced this year’s crop of non roster invitees. These are the players who aren’t on the 40 man roster, but will participate – at least for awhile – in the big league camp. It’s usually a passel of catchers, used to spread out catching duties, and a bunch of journeyman arms who will provide some depth at the AAA level. Then throw in a couple of position players who just haven’t fit in other teams plans and a prospect or two and you have your NRI’s. It’s how the Tigers picked up Jamie Walker, Bobby Seay, Tim Byrdak, Chad Durbin, and Marcus Thames. But this year’s group of players has a different look.
The Tigers NRI’s are:
Rudy Darrow
Alex Avila
Cale Iorg
Alexis Gomez
Casey Fien
Jeff Kunkel
Don Kelly
Jon Kibler
Dane Sardinha
Will Rhymes
Ryan Perry
Max St. Pierre
Scott Sizemore
Fu-Te Ni
Continue reading Tigers NRI list
Tigers 2009 Caravan Schedule
With Tigerfest right around the corner, that means the Winter Caravan is about to hit the road too. This year the team is sending out a Metro Bus and a Detroit Bus. Some events are open to the public, as denoted by the “open to the public” phrasing. So if you want to see some Tigers before the season starts and you can’t get to a sold-out Tigerfest, here are some opportunities.
Continue reading Tigers 2009 Caravan Schedule
links for 2009-01-10
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Tigers sign 3 minor leaguers
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Looks like Ian at BYB has himself a regular radio gig. Congrats Ian!
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When is a line drive not a line drive?
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RLYW is simulating the 09 season and the Tigers look to be about .500 – which is 2nd in the central.
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Think the Tigers swung at too many first pitches last year? Did you know they were middle of the league in this regard?
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WAR projections for the whole AL Central. Tigers are in the hunt.
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How do things like temperature and wall height and foul territory impact park factors?
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John Sickels top 20 list.
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Thoughts and prayers to Mac Thomason, blogger at bravesjournal.com, who was just diagnosed with cancer.
Tigers sign Fu-Te Ni
The Tigers have turned to the Pacific Rim to bring in another reliever candidate (yeah, here’s the nearly as confusing translated version). Fu-Te Ni is a lefty reliever from Taiwan. What we can ascertain, thanks in large part this comment and this post from East Wind Up Chronicle, that he will be starting in AAA.
Commentor Yu-Hsing Chen did all the lifting on this on, including digging up some YouTube-y goodness:
Ni is 26 and from the above video his fastball appears to top out at 87 mph. It looks like he has a breaking ball that sits in the mid 70’s. It appears that he had garnered some interest from the Mariners as well. Ni is billed as The Taiwanese Okajima.
This is the second Taiwan signing for the Tigers in the last 2 years with Chao-Ting Tang debuting in the GCL this year.
Tigers relief options dwindling
As we move closer to spring training, the Tigers bullpen still remains highly questionable. This hasn’t bothered me for the most part due to the number of options on the market. And while still not bothered, I am growing more concerned as two more of those options are close to signing deals.
Trevor Hoffman doesn’t appear to be an option as he mulls over a one year offer from the Dodgers amidst reports that he is close to a deal with the Brewers.
Another intriguing possibility, Michigan native John Smoltz, is set to sign with the Red Sos for a $5.5 million base and incentives that could push the deal to $10 million.
I don’t know how excited I would be about either option, but knowing they were out there made me feel better about the Tigers situation. The market for relievers isn’t barren yet. Juan Cruz is in compensation pick purgatory and Brandon Lyon is still available. But the only Tigers rumor floating is that they will watch Chad Cordero throw, along with a third of the league. For a bullpen that has exactly one member who is both productive and not a huge injury risk (Bobby Seay), that doesn’t really instill the warm fuzzies.
Tigers sign Alexis Gomez
Normally the Tigers signing an outfielder to a minor league deal wouldn’t elicit a post from me, but these are slow news times and this is Alexis Gomez. Jason Beck points out that Gomez is left handed and an outfielder, the kind of player that Matt Joyce was but without the upside (I know, let it go). The hope here is that this move is inconsequential. I have nothing against Gomez per se, but I do worry about the ways in which Jim Leyland may ultimately misuse him.
Not pounding the zone
Way back in 2008 I started to run a series using pitch f/x data to look at strike throwing tendencies. Sadly this is the slowest moving “series” of posts ever. Nonetheless, it’s time for part 3 where we look at how teams do when they get strikes outside of the zone. For this exercise I’m not looking at those generous calls off the corners, but for those strikes when hitters go fishing.
The first table we turn to is the fish rate, or the percent of pitches outside of the strike zone that hitters swung at. This is presented by count. As for the pretty shading, red are lower numbers and green are higher numbers.
links for 2009-01-03
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Showing how much teams should be paying for those wins above replacement we've been talking about.
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Curtis Granderson took in the Winter Classic. Hat tip @behindthejersey
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A couple days old now, but the Indians picked up Mark DeRosa. It's a nice trade that gives the Indians a lot of flexibility in the infield, like moving Peralta to third and Cabrera to short. I had the Indians as a narrow favorite in the division, and this makes it less narrow.
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Guillen plays just enough to get his feet wet, but with good results.
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And the 2nd base rankings. Polanco=good
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Lee has started aggregating the defensive rankings. Cabrera=not that bad.