2009 Season, Former Tigers

Tigers I have known

41 Comments

A quick look at some former Tigers and their performances in their new homes:

Gary Sheffield

Sheffield is in the midst of that bounce back season that many were hoping for, and few were expecting. He has a 292/433/521 line and is walking in one out of every 5 plate appearances. And Mets fans are loving it. 

I wasn’t in the camp that “Sheffield was done” in the sense he couldn’t hit anymore. But I was (and still am) in the camp that said Sheffield couldn’t stay healthy anymore. Fortunately the Tigers are winning and offensive struggles haven’t been prolonged or else we’d be hearing about what a mistake it was to let Sheffield walk.

Matt Joyce

I like Matt Joyce. I like him a lot. I don’t like him like him, but I do think he’s a very good player. He has toiled primarily at AAA where he has a 315/408/530 line. He was just recalled to the Rays and he homered yesterday. He only has 15 PA’s at the big league level but has homered twice already.

Guillermo Moscoso

The centerpiece of the deal that brought Gerald Laird to Detroit was just called up to the Texas Rangers. In his first appearance he went an inning allowing 2 hits with 1 strikeout.

He had been pitching fairly well for the Rangers Double A affiliate. He had a 7.7 K/9 rate and fanning 2.5 for every batter he walked. He only allowed 1 homer in 42.1 innings.

James Skelton

The little left handed hitting catching prospect was selected by the Diamondbacks in the Rule 5 draft. Arizona didn’t want to keep him on the big league roster and the Tigers didn’t want him back too much (they got Brooks Brown as compensation). He’s playing for the Arizona Double A team and has a .376 OBP. But he’s only hitting .221 and with only 7 extra base hits his slugging is south of .300.

41 thoughts on “Tigers I have known”

  2. Lets see what Sheff has done in his final line – by October 3rd ish. Also where were you going to make room for him? I’ve enjoyed our three speedster CF – Thomas and Anderson patrolling besides Grandy, and Maggs DHing.

    What about, as Chris alluded to, Jair? What about C. Pena?

    Sadly Chris Shelton is bashing MiLB pitching with nearly a .900 OPS. Then again who cares about red pop?

    What about Francisco Cordero?
    He has a 1.71 ERA in that bandbox of a park in Cincy. Maybe we are too far removed.

      1. I wasn’t trying to imply that you did. I just think that before we even start to ponder if he is a comeback player of the year candidate we should wait for his final line come October.

    2. One tidbit about Carlos Pena–since I’m not sure if this has been mentioned or not–but even though we got Pena along with Bonderman from the A’s in the Weaver deal (actually at the time I think it was more that we got Bonderman along with Pena), Pena was not a product of the A’s system.

      They had obtained him via trade just months before…when they got Carlos Pena from the Rangers for Gerald Laird

  3. Pena, Cordero and Shelton are a bit far removed. John Smoltz has 200 wins and 150 saves, you know. 😉

    2. Don’t forgot about the guy who we couldn’t even trade for a Ham Sandwich. He’s currently hitting .247 with a .666 OPS.

  5. Most of last season I was 100% behind Sheff. But he just had too many piss poor games for us in the past 2 years for me to even care about him anymore. He was virtually untradable and he was just stinking it up in every situation. After his poor Spring, I thought he was done for sure. He was a complete joke. Sheff couldn’t of gotten off to a worse start either. After we dropped him, He was hitting about .170 heading into May. He was flat out terrible. He had a great May, I’ll give him that, but it still doesn’t make up for the past 2 years even if we did keep him.

    It all came down to who to drop. Sheff or Thames? Too bad we couldn’t put everybody on the DL for an anxiety disorder.

    1. LOL, yes . I called for his head late in 07 and then again Opening Day thread of 2008.

  6. Don’t be so quick to grant Sheffield a “bounce back” season. A little over two weeks ago he had a sub-.200 BA and sub-.700 OPS. I wasn’t convinced he was “done” either, but I’m going to need to see more than 15 games before I start regretting his release. I love the flexibility Leyland now has with the DH.

  7. I second Mr. X. Where’s the update on the ham sandwich? Is he doing better than an actual ham sandwich? Remember the actual ham sandwich does not make errors (unless of course he gets hit by the ball, in which case a trip to the DL is called for, assuming Miggy doesn’t get to him first) and has an on base percentage of 1.000, thanks to a non-existent strike zone. The drawback is he/she/it needs a pinch runner after each at bat.

  8. To echo Skiman: 2 weeks does not a season make. Sheff will be back to what we’d grown accustomed to seeing before long…
    And the Tiger lineup, as noted above, is tremendously better without him clogging up the DH spot (and I suspect the clubhouse may be a little more relaxed as well).

    As for others noted, it would be nice to see Skinny Skelton get going…he has potential to be a fan favorite kind of guy.

    And even though it was a few years ago, I still hope Shelton gets another shot somewhere….

  10. Neat follow up, it’s always interesting to see how guys perform once they leave. I will admit to checking in on Sheff’s numbers occassionally, but I had no idea about the other guys. I would have to say at this point that given who we got to replace these guys, we are waaaaaaaaaaay ahead (thank YOU, Edwin Jackson).

  11. With Dusty Ryan and Alex Avila, I can certainly see why the Tigers felt that Skelton would be expendable. The Tigers already look to have a light hitting defensive specialist as a catching prospect in Sardinha. As several above have pointed out, none of these moves the Tigers made are likely to haunt them long term the way that the Jurgens deal will for years to come.

    BTW, It’ll be tough for Urbina to get another shot someplace, since he won’t get out of prison until 2020 or there abouts.

      1. I can’t link to that – is it the one where Craig Monroe gets hit in the nuts? High comedy.

  12. Don’t forget Pudge. He’s hitting .264/.305/.444 for Houston. 5 Hrs.

    8 GIDPs in 144 AB would tie him for the Tigers’ lead.

    1. I think you’re selling Pudge short–the Tigers have had more baserunners than Houston, so I assume more GIDP opportunities. I think Pudge would have at least 9 here.

      3 more GIDP for Pudge moves him into a tie with Rusty Staub and Brooks Robinson for 9th in career GIDP.

      The top 10 active GIDP has a pleasantly familiar feel to it, including:

      1 Pudge Rodriguez 294
      3 Gary Sheffield 228
      6 Edgar Renteria 214
      10 Magglio Ordonez 205

      As the youngest in the top 10 at 33, Ham-Sandwich Renteria has the only reasonable shot at reaching Pudge-like numbers…

  13. Yeah, it’s neither here nor there, but I would have figured a way to get Sheff a 100 abs in 2009 before cutting him. I know Sheff sucked the last two years, but I’ve never been a Thames fan. He hits a lot of HR’s and I know he’s got a high OPS but he just seems awfully one dimensional. If Craig Monroe was a Chevette, Thames is a Citation. (Sheff would be the Camaro that only started every other Wed, but when it did, it burned rubber).

    1. Dude! Camaro? Try Trans-Am! (with custom flame-details on the side)…by the way, I don’t recall, did we ever come to a consensus on what model of car Polanco is?

        1. For some odd reason I can actually imagine him with the nickname “skylark.”

          1. I think of him more like a Crown Victoria. Has something to do with ‘Crown’ relating to his rather bulbous head, I think.

    2. Sheff would be sent off to the scrap heap, to be salvaged for what few usable parts are left.

  14. You know, I’m happy to see Jurrjens do well, but I don’t see him as being as good in the AL. Just my gut feeling.

    1. It’s also not a given he would have done AS well on the Tigers at any rate, remembering that he would have been breaking into the rotation in the botched 2008 season–the pre-Knapp 2008 season. In addition he himself has mentioned how nice it is being in an organization with so many Caribbean ties, and to be able to speak his native language now and then.

      1. Ha! I call shenanigans, as Jurrjens is a Curacao native. I don’t think the Tigers have anyone who speaks Dutch or Papiamentu on the roster…if only they’d have signed Andruw Jones, JJ would still be here!

          1. Really, I was just looking for an excuse to use ‘Papiamentu’ in conversation…

          2. Yes, although I know a few bits of Papiamentu myself…because–why not? Loke no ta konosi no por ta keri, as they say…

  15. I was just thinking it was time to revisit the Sheff move… After all, Ilitch is paying him to play in New York.

    Can’t blame them for cutting him, but let’s see where he is come the All-Star break.

  16. I think DD has done a great job overall at keeping the top prospects here in Detroit. Most of the ones we traded haven’t panned out at all (except Jurrjens) , but the ones we’ve held on to have been excellent so far.

    BA’s Top Prospects 2005
    1. Curtis Granderson, of
    2. Kyle Sleeth, rhp
    3. Justin Verlander, rhp
    4. Joel Zumaya, rhp
    5. Humberto Sanchez, rhp
    6. Tony Giarratano, ss
    7. Jeff Frazier, of
    8. Ryan Raburn, 2b
    9. Eric Beattie, rhp
    10. Eulogio de la Cruz, rhp

    2006-
    1. Justin Verlander, rhp
    2. Joel Zumaya, rhp
    3. Cameron Maybin, of
    4. Brent Clevlen, of
    5. Wilkin Ramirez, 3b
    6. Humberto Sanchez, rhp
    7. Jordan Tata, rhp
    8. Tony Giarratano, ss
    9. Jeff Larish, 1b
    10. Kevin Whelan, rhp

    2007-
    1. Cameron Maybin, of
    2. Andrew Miller, lhp
    3. Brent Clevlen, of
    4. Jair Jurrjens, rhp
    5. Jordan Tata, rhp
    6. Eulogio de la Cruz, rhp
    7. Gorkys Hernandez, of
    8. Dallas Trahern, rhp
    9. Jeff Larish, 1b
    10. Scott Sizemore, ss/2b

    2008-
    1. Rick Porcello, rhp
    2. Cale Iorg, ss
    3. Scott Sizemore, 2b
    4. Michael Hollimon, 2b/ss
    5. Yorman Bazardo, rhp
    6. Jeff Larish, 1b
    7. Matt Joyce, of
    8. Danny Worth, ss
    9. Francisco Cruceta, rhp
    10. Brandon Hamilton, rhp

    2009-
    1. Rick Porcello, rhp
    2. Ryan Perry, rhp
    3. Cale Iorg, ss
    4. Casey Crosby, lhp
    5. Jeff Larish, 1b/3b
    6. Wilkin Ramirez, of
    7. Scott Sizemore, 2b
    8. Cody Satterwhite, rhp
    9. Dusty Ryan, c
    10. Guillermo Moscoso, rhp

  17. Man, I’m really bored this morning. Really looking forward to this Boston Detroit series.
    On the topic of Sheff, I’ll looked up his performance vs team performance.
    Sheff has the ability to carry a team, but he also seems to brings much of the team down with him when he’s doing bad.

    In April 2009, the Mets went 10 -12 and Sheff hit .167
    In May 2009, the Mets went 19-9 and Sheff hit .348

    Now to the Tigers when Sheff was around.
    In April 2008, the Tigers went 13-15 and Sheff hit .186
    In May 2008, the Tigers went 10-17 and Sheff hit .246
    In June 2008, the Tigers went 19-8 and Sheff hit .286 (only 28 Ab’s)
    In July 2008, the Tigers went 13-13 and Sheff hit .235
    In August 2008, the Tigers went 11-17 and Sheff hit .211
    In September 2008, the Tigers went 8-18 and Sheff hit .231

    In April 2007, the Tigers went 14-11 and Sheff hit .200
    In May 2007, the Tigers went 16-12 and Sheff hit .321
    In June 2007, the Tigers went 16-10 and Sheff hit .337
    In July 2007, the Tigers went 15-12 and Sheff hit .301
    In August 2007, the Tigers went 11-18 and Sheff hit .185
    In September 2007, the Tigers went 16-11 and Sheff hit .172

Comments are closed.