Yearly Archives: 2009

2009 Season, Free Agents

Tigers sign Rincon

3 Comments

The Tiger announced the signing of Juan Rincon to a minor league deal today. Rincon will get an invite to spring training and will be given a chance to make the Tigers bullpen.

This looks to be a decent signing. Rincon was a stud in 2004 through 2006. But he was busted for steroid use. In 2007 and 2008 he saw his home run rate balloon. In 04 throuh 06 he allowed 9 homers total. He allowed 9 in 2007 and 8 in 2008.

Still, it’s a low risk move and the type of signing I’d hope the team would make several of as they try and build their pen on the cheap.

Juan Rincon » Statistics » Pitching | FanGraphs Baseball

Links

links for 2009-01-20

4 Comments
Fan Experience

Granderson’s Celebrity Shoot Out – 2009

5 Comments

Braylon Edwards, Drew Henson, David Terrell & Kirsten Haglund
It looked to be another successful event for Curtis Granderson and his Grand Kids Foundation. Depite some awful weather, there was still an impressive turnout of both fans and celebrities at Lake Orion High School.

Granderson assembled and impressive roster of celebs and athletes with Michigan ties. The biggest in name value was probably Kid Rock, who did his best Rumeal Robinson impression as he knocked down two free throws with no time remaining to tie the game. It was also his birthday and the crowd sang Happy Birthday.

Curtis served as referee and made sure everyone scored. Miss America Kirsten Haglund and Project Runway dude Joe Faris (who played basketball like you’d expect from someone on Project Runway) were allowed to shoot free throws until they made it. Dana Jacobson knocked down a shot on her own (yes I phrased it that way on purpose).

Lloyd Carr appeared to be really enjoying his time as a coach standing up and yelling directions. He was joined on the Blue sidelines by Marcus Thames who was also smiling (but he just signed a new contract so that might have been it). Braylon Edwards once again put on a show, throwing down some big dunks before losing to Jamal Springs Nelson in a overtime dunk-off.

I’m not sure what the attendance figure was, but it appears that the weekend was successful enough to set up a college scholarship in addition to supporting the work already being done in the inner city schools. If you’d like to donate, or for more on the Grand Kids Foundation, you can check out the website.

2009 Season, Trade Rumors, Trades

Like sands through the hourglass

22 Comments

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 →

2009 Season, Contracts

Tigers sign Thames and Rodney

19 Comments

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.

2009 Season, Spring Training

Tigers NRI list

17 Comments

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 →

2009 Season, Fan Experience

Tigers 2009 Caravan Schedule

3 Comments

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

links for 2009-01-10

3 Comments
2009 Season, Free Agents

Tigers sign Fu-Te Ni

12 Comments

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.

2009 Season, Free Agents, Pitching

Tigers relief options dwindling

38 Comments

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.

2009 Season, Free Agents

Tigers sign Alexis Gomez

20 Comments

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.

2008 Season, Pitching, Research, Statistics

Not pounding the zone

1 Comment

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.

Continue reading Not pounding the zone →