Monthly Archives: August 2009

2009 Season, Trades

Tigers acquire Aubrey Huff

73 Comments

The Tigers have acquired Aubrey Huff from the Orioles for Brett Jacobson.  Joel Zumaya has been moved to the 60 day DL. “Huff is a quality major league hitter, who adds a lefthanded bat to our lineup and brings versatility to our club with his ability to play numerous positions,” Tigers President, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager David Dombrowski said. He has batted .324 (34×105) with runners in scoring position this season. An announcement on the move for the 25 man roster likely won’t come until tomorrow when he reports.

Conference Call Notes:

  • DD: Huff adds left handed middle of the bat type hitter to the team. They’ve worked on getting a bat for awhile
  • DD: Huff can play first, third (spell Brandon), DH, and left field. Hasn’t played left since 2006. Huff is happy to play any position and play in a pennant race.
  • Huff will be a free agent after this year (currently Type A)
  • DD: Brandon Inge isn’t going on the DL
  • DD: no correlation between Jacobson move and possible Turner/Oliver signings
  • DD: not sure how much Guillen can play in the field but would like to have both bats in the lineup against right handed pitching
  • DD: Huff passed through waivers – he wasn’t claimed by Detroit
  • DD: Tigers are taking on the remainder of Huff’s salary
  • DD: Magglio is not the corresponding roster move

More to come…

Analysis

While Aubrey Huff is having an off year, it’s hard not to like this move. Mike Rogers has done the math already and it works out well for the Tigers with Huff likely adding a fraction of a win over the last 7 weeks of the season.  It’s not an earth shattering amount, but he can fit this team well for the stretch run and the price was certainly acceptable. Brett Jacobson was the 4th round pick last year and stands a decent chance of playing in the bigs by next year or the year after. But he was one of he bevy of relivers the Tigers took last year and he isn’t Perry/Satterwhite/Weinhardt.

Huff is a couple years removed from playing 3rd base, and while Dombrowski didn’t have specifics on his playing situation (that’s up to Leyland), I’d venture a guess that he gets about 4 starts a week and that one of those come at third. The others will likely come in the outfield meaning less time for Clete Thomas (presuming he doesn’t draw the short straw), Marcus Thames, and…perhaps Magglio Ordonez.

Since the beginning of August Leyland has gone away from the platoon arrangement, and instead has been trying to rotate at-bats through his different options. Clete wasn’t holding up his end of the platoon anyways and this move may help in the Ordonez-not-vesting scenario. Look at how these PA’s breakdown:

  • Guillen -60
  • Thomas – 54
  • Ordonez – 46
  • Thames – 38
  • Raburn – 29

Guillen will still DH against all righties, but there is room to spread a lot of those at-bats around. And I really think Thomas sticks because I think they prefer Thomas’ glove in the outfield in late innings at the very least.

Expecting Huff to produce isn’t a pipe dream given his track record. Lee notes he is a streak hitter, I didn’t know this about him but I’ll trust Lee’s info because I trust Lee.

Mostly though I like this move because there is so little risk involved. Huff is a pending free agent. I doubt he gets an arbitration offer if he is a Type A because chances are high he’d accept because I don’t know that he’d get a more favorable deal on the open market where the receiving team would have to cough up a first round pick. If he slips to Type B there’s a good chance the Tigers net themselves a sandwich pick.

Links and such

2009 Season

Draft Deadline Stuff

20 Comments

UPDATE: The Detroit News notes that the Tigers signed 30th round pick James Robbins, a lefty power bat from Washington who gave up a commitment to WSU

UPDATE: BA says the Fields deal is $1.6 million

UPDATE: Keith Law says the Andrew Oliver deal is $1.495 million

UPDATE: Baseball America has the details on Jacob Turner’s deal. It’s a big league deal with a $4.7 million bonus. Total value could hit $7 million depending on when he reaches the big leagues

UPDATE: The Tigers get Daniel Fields per Jason Beck – 7 figure bonus. Big, big get and he’s a top 10 prospect in the system now.

UPDATE: Peter Gammons says that GMs have said the Tigers have inked Turner ($6.7 million) and Oliver ($1 million) but that the league office is holding the announcements.

Jason Beck writes that Turner/Oliver/Fields all had physicals this morning.

It is an off day for the current big leaguers, but the Tigers will be spending the day trying to beat the midnight deadline to bring some big league hopefuls into the fold. The Tigers have yet to sign their top 2 picks, Jacob Turner and Andrew Oliver, who are both rep’d by Scott Boras. Also on the radar are 6th round pick Daniel Fields, 8th round pick Craig Fritsch, 12th round pick Matt Thompson, and 15th round pick Mark Appel among others.

I’ll try and keep this updated at various points throughout the day as information comes in. In the meantime here are some links from the local beats:

And some places to bookmark for breaking info:

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/16/09

Toledo 7 Louisville 2
Don kelly doubled and singled. Wilkin Ramirez homered. Brent Clevlen went 3 for 4 with a double. Scott Sizemore doubled and walked twice. Nate Bump went 7 innings and allowed just 1 run on 7 hits, no walks and 5 K’s. Casey Fien fanned 5 in 2 innings but also allowed a run on a hit and a walk.

Erie 6 Connecticut 5
Brennan Boesch, Deik Scram, and Santo De Leon all had 2 hits. Thad Weber went 5.1 innings and allowed 5 runs on 5 hits, 1 walk, a homer and 5 K’s.

Lakeland – Cancelled

South Bend 5 West Michigan 7
Billy Nowlin homered twice. Mike Gosse went 3 for 4. Brent Wyatt had 2 hits. Anthony Shawler pitched 7 innings and allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks with 5 K’s.

Oneonta 1 Brooklyn 2
Jaime Johnson and John Murrian each doubled. Jose Diaz went 5 innings, fanning 5 and giving up 2 runs on 2 walks and 7 hits.

GCL Tigers DNP

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.117: Royals at Tigers

104 Comments

PREGAME: The Tigers have answered their 3 game losing streak with a 3 game winning streak, let’s keep it going today.

I love going to Comerica Park, and I enjoyed myself down there the last two nights. I’m happy to be watching this one in “crystal-clear HD” from the comfort of air condition. It is a scorcher today and many eggs could be fried various flat heat gathering surfaces today.

Throw in the fact that there are two run-preventionally challenged starting pitchers today and there could be much offense given the temperature and breeze and it could be a very long day.

A illness weakened Armando Galarraga will take the mound for the Tigers. I can’t imagine he’ll last long either due to the heat and fatigue or maybe just getting bludgeoned.

Kyle Davies is on the mound for the Royals. Earlier in the year when Davies was pitching good, the Tigers still beat him up twice scoring 12 runs against him and chasing him in the 6th inning both times. He was since demoted and in his 2 starts since returning to the rotation one was effective (5 IP, 1 Run, 3 W, 6 K) and one not so much with the effective (3.2 IP, 8 R, 2 W, 3 K). But he hasn’t allowed a homer in either of those starts.

The lineup gets a little bit of a shake up today with a lot of righties against Davies, who has struggled with righties this year. This might not be an optimal defensive configuration.

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Thames, LF
  4. Cabrera, DH
  5. Guillen, 1B
  6. Ordonez, RF
  7. Raburn, 3B
  8. Laird, C
  9. Everett, SS

Kansas City vs. Detroit – August 16, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I think it is safe to tally this one under the column of “bad loss.” The game was there for the Tigers the whole time. Kyle Davies was nothing special as the Tigers repeatedly put runners on base. But their failure to do anything with those runners was somewhere between comical and pitiful. Let’s rehash it:

3rd Inning: Adam Everett leads off with a double. Curtis Granderson who routinely pulls ground balls to first or second manages only a pop-up leaving Everett at second. Polanco and Thames follow with grounders to the left side and Everett doesn’t move.

4th Inning: Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen single so Ordonez his hitting with runners on first and second and nobody out. And he hits a 6-4-3 double play. Ryan Raburn catches the Royals off guard with a bunt that Kyle Davies fumbles. Cabrera was also caught off guard as he doesn’t budge off of third. Gerald Laird lays down a beautiful bunt but gets jobbed by a bad call at first by Country Joe West. The inning ends. At least Raburn and Laird gave the team a chance to score.

5th Inning: The Tigers are now down a run but Adam Everett leads off with a single. Granderson once again fails to advance him by striking out. A hit and run puts runners at the corners and fortunately the Royals incur a wild pitch allowing Adam Everett to score. The Tigers have the go ahead run at second but a K by Marcus Thames and a Cabrera ground out means once again he doesn’t move.

6th Inning: Carlos Guillen leads off with a hustle double. An Ordonez ground ball would be helpful here, but instead he flies out to shallow center. Guillen tried to take matters into his own hands and steal third which was unsuccessful and costly as Rabun singled.

7th Inning: Adam Everett again gets on base, this time via HBP. Once again Granderson can’t advance him, but Everett moves up on a passed ball while Polanco is batting. Polanco at least hit a grounder to get Everett to 3rd. The second time that Polanco actually advanced a runner. But he’d go no farther as Thames grounds out.

8th Inning: Cabrera reaches base via an error and then steals second! Guillen hits a ground ball to get him to 3rd (silver star for Carlos). But Ordonez strikes out and Raburn hit the ball deep to right center but it was easily tracked down by Josh Anderson.

9th Inning: Alex Avila walked with 1 out. Not that exciting as Granderson once again didn’t advance a runner and the inning ended quietly.

Yes, Ryan Raburn completely blew the 10th inning by biffing two routine grounders and undoing a very effective stint by the bullpen including 2 innings from Ni, 1 from Perry, and the 2nd inning from Rodney. But the truth of the matter is it never should have gotten to the 10th inning. This was a collective effort. It wasn’t just the inability to get a hit with a runner in scoring position (0 for 16) it was the collective inability to even advance runners save for Placido Polanco. In the end the Tigers wasted a very solid starting performance from a sick Galarraga, a great bullpen effort, and even all the offense that they did generate to start innings. And they wasted a chance to add an a win.

  • Granderson failed to advance runners with less than 2 outs in 4 different PA’s. But he did make a tremendous catch and sacrificed his body crashing into the wall.
  • If Brandon Inge is in the game at the end this one might have turned out differently, or at least it wouldn’t have ended in the 10th. But the guy is hurting and this was a chance for 2 full days off. I can’t fault Leyland for holding him out…but let’s be consistent. Don’t bring him in as a defensive replacement in a blow out game (like in Texas).
  • I thought the Avila pinch hit move was curious. I thought that after Laird fouled the ball off his leg perhaps Leyland was going to take him out of the after the at-bat and I thought the move made sense because you might as well get Avila an AB if he’s coming in anyways. But it didn’t so much play out like that.
2009 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/15/09

Toledo 1 Louisville 4
Brent Dlugach doubled and singled. Nate Robertson allowed 3 hits and a walk in 3 scoreless innings with 3 strikeouts. Jeremy Bonderman allowed a solo homer with 1 K in his 9 pitch inning.

Erie 2 Connecticut 3
Brennan Boesch, Cale Iorg, and Deik Scram each had 2 hits. Jonah NIckerson allowed 3 runs on 6 hits, 3 walks and a strike out in 6.2 innings. Jared Gayhart finished the game and didn’t allow any baserunners.

Lakeland – DH was suspended

South Bend 12 West Michigan 3
Gustavo Nunez and Billy Nowlin each had 2 hits. Victor Larez was touched for 6 runs in 4 innings. Brandon Hamilton allowed 2 runs in 2 innings. Eric Crichton surrendered 4 unearned runs in his inning.

Oneonta 2 Brooklyn 1
Keith Hernandez doubled and homered. Alexis Espinoza doubled. Jose Siso pitched 5 shut out innings allowing 2 hits and 3 walks while fanning 3.

GCL Pirates 7 GCL Tigers 2
Chao Ting Tang went 2 for 3. Jacob Cruz and Francisco Martinez each doubled. Zach Samuels fanned 3 in 4.2 innings of no run ball. Gary Perinar was torched for 7 runs in 4.1 innings despite striking out 7.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.116: Royals at Tigers

56 Comments

PREGAME:  The Tigers haven’t allowed a run since the Freddy Dolsi 5th inning horror show on Wednesday night. That’s 21 innings and counting. Let’s keep the streak going.

Edwin Jackson will be tasked with keeping the Royals off the board. He’s only lasted 4 innings in 2 of his last 3 starts, but in between he shut out the Orioles for 8 innings and then gave up a 2 run homer in the 9th as he went for the complete game. Maybe the every other thing will work in Jackson’s favor tonight.

He’ll be opposed by Luke Hochevar. Hochevar has been giving up a ton of hits, and subsequently a bunch of runs. But he’s also striking out quite a few and not walking many, so he’s probably been a little unlucky. In his last 3 games he’s allowed 15 runs in 18 innings, but he’s fanned 16 and walked 6. In the 2 starts prior to that he fanned 22 and walked none over 13.1 innings. He’s clearly capable of being dominant.

Hochevar has limited lefties to a 234/316/430 line but righties have hit him 293/338/503.

Kansas City vs. Detroit – August 15, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

Links

links for 2009-08-15

2 Comments
2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/14/09

Toledo 0 Louisville 4
Don Kelly, Jeff Frazier, and Brent Dlugach had the only hits. Brooks Brown allowed 2 runs in 6 innings on 7 hits, 3 walks, and 2 K’s. Clay Rapada allowed 2 runs on 4 hits in his 2 innings.

Erie 5 Connecticut 6
Ryan Strieby had 3 doubles. Danny Worth singled and tripled. Andy Dirks went 4 for 6. Brennan Boesch went 3 for 5. Pat Stanley allowed 4 runs in 5.1 innings on 5 hits and 2 walks. Robbie Weinhardt took the loss on an unearned run in the 10th that came off a walk and a hit.

Lakeland PPD

West Michigan 9 Dayton 7
Ronnie Bourquin was a triple short of the cycle. Jordan Lennerton homered, singled, and walked. Avisail Garcia and Gustavo Nunez each had 2 hits. Brayan Villarreal fanned 5, but allowed 5 runs in 4.1 innings.

Oneonta 5 Brooklyn 6
Alexis Espinoza doubled and singled. Carmelo Jaime had 2 hits. Clemente Mendoza walked 3 and struck out 3 in 5 innings. Mike LaLuna allowed 4 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks in 1 inning.

GCL Blue Jays 5 GCL Tigers 3
Edgar Corcino homered. Londell Taylor doubled. Jared Wesson fanned 7 and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings. Richard Zumaya allowed 1 run on 4 hits and 4 K’s in 2 innings.

GCL Tigers 0 GCL Blue Jays 1
Reyni Guichardo allowed 1 run on 4 hits and 4 walks with 8 K’s, but he lost because Dennis Tepera pitched a no hitter and he allowed just one walk.

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.115: Royals at Tigers

79 Comments

PREGAME: The Tigers come home and they get to face Zach Greinke People have been saying that Greinke is fading some. I just don’t see it. In his last 3 games he does have a 5.50 ERA, but he still fanned 21 and walked just 6 in those 3 starts. Six of the 11 runs in those 3 starts came in one bad outing where  he allowed 10 hits in 5 innings. I think that is more of a hiccup than a fade.

Speaking of hiccups and/or fades the Tigers send out Jarrod Washburn. Washburn has allowed 11 runs in 11.1 Tigers innings including 4 homers. He last faced the Royals in May and held them to 2 runs (1 earned) in 7 innings.

Kansas City vs. Detroit – August 14, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I’m going to defer to my friend Ian’s intro to his game recap:

The Detroit Tigers have apparently found their formula for winning.  Don’t allow the other team to score any runs, and then wait for the third baseman to do something awesome.

You kind of got the sense in this one that it would take somebody “running into one” because there wasn’t a lot of manufacturing to be done. The Tigers had a couple of scoring chances, but those both came with 2 outs.

The Royals didn’t have any scoring chances until the 8th inning, but Washburn pitched out of that. (despite walking his former teammate Yuniesky Betancourt…really…Yuniesky Betancourt…the only guy he walked all night…Yuniesky Betancourt). In fact they didn’t get a hit until 2 outs in the 5th. That’s the Washburn we were looking for.

But all of that just set the stage for Brandon Inge’s heroics. Of the bat it looked to be hit well, but the David DeJesus seemed to be slowing down to track it. Fortunately he was just slowing down to time a fruitless jump at the wall.

  • Granderson didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with Greinke notching a single, a double, and a walk
  • Clete Thomas on the other hand, 3 K’s. Ouch
  • Miguel Cabrera made a very nice sliding stop on a grounder and then got up and beat Billy Butler to the bag. Gerald Laird used the opportunity to go talk with Washburn, and let Cabby catch his breath
  • Brandon Lyon with another 1-2-3 inning of relief.
2009 Season, Interviews, Minors

Get to know Adam Wilk

5 Comments

Adam Wilk was Detroit’s 11th round pick from the 2009 draft. The left handed junior from Long Beach State was assigned to Oneonta where he fanned 34 and walked 5 in 37.1 innings spanning 7 starts. When Mauricio Robles was traded Wilk was part of the domino of promotions and he was bumped to West Michigan where he hasn’t missed a beat posting the same gaudy peripherals in his first 3 starts for the Whitecaps. Wilk was kind enough to answer some questions for DTW.

Adam Wilk pitches for the Whitecaps. cr Wendy Smith
Adam Wilk pitches for the Whitecaps. cr Wendy Smith
DTW: You signed quickly. How important was it for you to start playing right away?
AW: Thats right. I signed only a few days after the draft and was flying to Oneonta the next morning. It was very important for me to start right away. My college team did not make the playoffs so I had not been playing competitively since late May. I had been able to play catch and throw bullpens, but there was no competitive play. I was also very excited to get out and start my professional career.
DTW: What’s your scouting report, what do you throw?
AW: I throw a five pitch mix. 4-seam fastball and 2-seam fastball, the curveball, changeup, and cut-fastball.
DTW: What has been the biggest adjustment to professional baseball?
AW: The biggest adjustment so far in professional baseball is playing everyday. In college we have games 4 days a week, practice the other 2, and then were required to have 1 day off of no baseball activity. That was a big day to relax and for me go to the beach and recuperate my body each week. But in professional baseball I am playing everyday, and starting every 5th day, rather than every 7th day in college. Another great thing though is that playing everyday allows you to get right back after it if the next day if your previous day was bad, rather than waiting sometimes one or two days like you had to in college.
DTW: You mentioned in a TigsTown.com interview right after the draft that you were interested in building strength to gain velocity. Does the organization have you on a program yet or is that more a task for the offseason.
AW: Right now we are on a strength maintenance program. They want us to maintain our strength during the season therefore we have tailored lifts to do that. Once we are in the offseason is when we have our strength building program to put on muscle and weight.
DTW: In your first 10 starts you’ve dominated despite being bumped up to West Michigan. What’s been the key to your early success?
AW: The biggest thing for me being a left-handed pitcher that does not have really overpowering stuff is to keep the ball down. Pitching down is the key for all pitchers but especially for pitchers who don’t throw extremely hard it takes keeping the ball down very consistently to be successful. The other big thing to my success so far is throwing strikes. Strikes early in the count and many strikes gives me the advantage over the hitter when they are consistently in the hole, rather than me having to pitch in hitter’s counts.
DTW: Is there another professional pitcher that you’ve modeled yourself after.
AW: I love watching left handed pitchers. I feel that I can pick something up from many of them by just watching how they pitch. There are a few left handers though that I have watched a lot while growing up. I always went to Angel games when Jarrod Washburn pitched because the stadium was very close to where I lived. I watched Tom Glavine many times, Andy Pettite, Mark Mulder, and Jamie Moyer are just a few to name. But I always watch left handed pitchers.

Thanks to Adam for taking the time and here’s hoping for his continued success as he progresses through the Tigers system.

2009 Season, Injuries, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 8/13/09

Toledo 3 Syracuse 4
Wilkin Ramirez homered. Wil Rhymes went 2 for 4 with a double. Josh Rainwater started and and allowed 3 runs in 4 innings with 4 hits, 3 walks, and 2 homers. Jermey Bonderman threw 1.1 innings and fanned 2, walked 1, and allowed a run on 3 hits. He threw 38 pitches, 24 for strikes.

Erie 0 New Britain 1 (12 innings)
Brennan Boesch, Casper Wells, and Danny Worth each had 2 hits. Jon Kibler fanned 7 in 6 shutout innings with 1 walk and 5 hits allowed. Brett Jensen tossed 3 shut out innings and allowed 2 hits and 1 walk to go with 4 K’s. Zach Simons allowed a run on 2 hits in the 12th.

Lakeland 2 Clearwater 6
Jeramy Laster went 2 for 4. Mark Sorensen was rocked for 6 runs in 5.2 innings.

West Michigan 14 Dayton 2
Gustavo Nunez went 4 for 5 with 2 homers. Ben Guez was a triple short of the cycle. Avisail Garcia and Billy Nowlin each had 2 hits. Luke Putkonen allowed 2 runs in 7 innings with 9 hits, no walks, and 1 strikeout.

Oneonta 10 State College 1
Michael Rockett went 3 for 4 with a double. Wade Gaynor is heating up after a slow start and he doubled, tripled, and walked. Luis Angel Sanz went all 7 innings and allowed a solo homer among 7 hits with 2 walks and 4 K’s.

GCL Tigers PPD

2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.114: Tigers at Red Sox

108 Comments

PREGAME: Talk about leaning on your ace. Justin Verlander simply has to come up big today, and that means rebounding from back-to-back 5 run outings. The Tigers faced Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz once last year and got to him for 10 hits and 5 runs. He has a WHIP of 1.97 and I hope he doesn’t “figure things out” at the Tigers expense.

Detroit vs. Boston – August 13, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: He’s got a way about him. I don’t know what it is. He comes to me when I’m feeling down. He inspires me, without a sound.  He touches me…uh…well…he doesn’t do that. But man does he bring it when it needs to be brung. The he of course is Justin Verlander who donned his ace cap today and put the team on his back, or his right arm and stopped a 3 game slide pretty much on his own. He also rescued a depleted bullpen.  And it’s not the first time this year.

You may remember a similar performance against the White Sox in the front end of a double header. It stopped a slide and rescued a bullpen. And like that other game he was spectacular again. A K an inning. Blistering velocity carried past pitch 120 (96.57 mph average on the fastball today).

Ryan Raburn was the offense knocking in both runs, and 2 ended up being more than enough as Fernando Rodney pitched a completely uneventful 1-2-3 9th inning for the save.

Great bounce back game before coming home.