Category Archives: Minors

2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 4/6/07

Toledo 2 Louisville 8
Interesting night for starter Virgil Vasquez. He faced 18 batters, and only 5 balls were in play. He fanned 8, walked 3, and allowed 2 homers in 3 2/3 innings. With that many K’s and walks his pitch count ran up to 76. It continued with reliever Ron Chiavacci who recorded 3 of his 4 outs with strikeouts, but allowed 4 runs on 4 hits.

The offense only managed 2 singles. Shelton, who also walked, had one of them. David Espinosa had the other.

Erie – PPD

Lakeland 2, Tampa 3
Strong start for Burke Badenhop who allowed 2 runs (1 earned) in 5 innings on 6 hits, no walks, and 3 strikeouts. Michael Hernandez and Dusty Ryan each had 2 hits, including a homer for Hernandez. Cameron Maybin walked, stole a base, and struck out twice.

West Michigan – snowed out

Other News

2007 Season, Managing & Strategy, Minors

Postponed linking

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Definitely a bummer that there is no game today, but maybe it is for the best. Even yesterday I remember looking out at Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, and Pudge Rodriguez standing on base waiting in the cold for a pitching change and just hoping that none of those 6 hamstrings tightened up during the delay.

On to some news…

The shuffle

Last year Jim Leyland kept his rotation intact up until the All Star break. Already in 2007 he’s shuffled the deck. Justin Verlander and Mike Maroth will take their scheduled turns, but then Jeremy Bonderman and Chad Durbin will switch spots. This may be to actually help Durbin, who otherwise would be facing the Royals twice in his first 3 starts. Not that the Royals are especially intimidating, but it could help keep the Royals hitters from getting a read on him. Now he’ll face the Orioles on Monday (their home opener), the Blue Jays, and then the Royals.

Sheffield claims another famous number

I’m still not used to seeing someone other than Alan Trammell wearing number 3, but now Gary Sheffield will be one of the major leaguers wearing 42 on Jackie Robinson day. MLB asked each club to select a player, and the Tigers asked Sheffield.

More M&M accolades

Ryan McConnell writes a milb.com piece highlighting the talent in hi-A ball this year. Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller of course enter into the discussion.

Other stuff

  • Fernando Rodney says he feels out of sync. Kind of a “no kidding” but it’s better than feeling pain.
  • The Lakeland Flying Tigers finally posted their roster yesterday, so all 4 rosters are complete now.
2007 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap – 4/5/07

It’s opening night in the minor leagues, so the wrap is back. If you’re new to the site, I do this most nights and I tend to focus on either remarkable performances, or the top prospects.

Toledo 4, Louisville 5 (10 innings)\
Zach Miner earned the Opening Day start and did okay. He allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, including a homer, and 2 walks over 4 innings. He also struck out 5. Tim Byrdak retired all 7 batters he faced in relief, 4 via the strike out. Corey Hamman took the loss by loading the bases, and subsequently allowing the winning run in the 10th. Ryan Raburn homered, singled, and walked twice. Chris Shelton had a hit, but he also struck out on 3 pitches with the bases loaded in the 9th, one of 2 on the night for him.

Altoona @ Erie – PPD

Tampa 0, Lakeland 3 – 4 1/2 innings
Andrew Miller threw a complete game shutout, well it became a complete game when it was called due to rain. He only allowed 3 hits while inducing 11 ground ball outs and 3 punch-outs. Cameron Maybin was 0 for 2 with a strikeout. Justin Justice provided the offense with a homer.

West Michigan 2 Dayton 3
Chris Cody started and threw 5 scoreless innings fanning 5, walking 2, and allowing 6 hits. Josh Rainwater struggled pitching 2 innings and allowing 3 runs. Ryan Strieby hit a solo homer and Brennan Boesch knocked in the other run with a sac fly. Gorkys Hernandez was 1 for 3.

2007 Season, Minors, Roster Management, Spring Training

Tigers announce 10 more cuts

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The Tigers optioned Mike Rabelo and Brent Clevlen to AAA Toledo. There was some question (at least in my mind) whether they would have Clevlen repeat AA given his struggles last year. I wonder if this is any indication that they may be moving Cameron Maybin to Erie to start the year.

The Tigers assigned Craig Dingman, Dennis Tankersley, Joey Eischen, Brent Dlugach, Mike Hessman, Kevin Hooper, Cameron Maybin and Brandon Watson to minor league camp.

Don’t read too much into Maybin. He wasn’t going to make the team, and it’s about getting him more playing time at this point.

2007 Season, AL Central, Minors

AL Central now and in the future

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It’s kind of an American League Centric day. This morning I woke up to be greeted by Baseball Analysts annual Two on Two divisional preview of the Central. The hosts select two bloggers, this time it was Brian from Tigerblog and one of my favorite Twins bloggers (the Twins may have the best group of bloggers in baseball) Seth from Sethspeaks.net. The four couldn’t come up with a consensus, except for the Royals finishing last.

And over at Baseball Prospectus, Kevin Goldstein takes a walk through the minor league systems of each of the five AL Central clubs. On a Tiger note he thinks Brent Clevlen could be an attractive bargaining chip for a midseason trade – especially if Cameron Maybin continues to impress.

2007 Season, Minors, Previews, Spring Training, Tiger History

One of those link round-up posts

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Andrew Miller
credit Roger DeWitt

Miller Time

John Sickels has another prospect smackdown, this time it is Andrew Miller vs. Adam Miller. Sickels gives a very slight edge to Adam Miller.

Maybe a SLIGHT edge on intangibles for Adam Miller, Andrew gets a slight edge on tools, Adam gets a slight edge on current polish and performance, even on projection. I rated Adam at Number Six on my pitching prospect list, and Andrew at Number Seven. It’s really, really close but overall I think Adam is just a HAIR better.

What’s up with Leyland?

Apparently Jim Leyland doesn’t want to talk about Mike Maroth not being on the playoff roster. I can’t blame him because that was a long time ago. But it appears to be a sore subject and I’m not sure why.

“That’s kind of a sore subject with me,” a testy Leyland said when asked if the Maroth issue had been resolved this spring. “I don’t think that in my opinion, he was playoff-pitching fit. I guess that’s the best way to say it. I don’t want to get into it, but I’ve read some comments, I know it was disappointing and everything for him, but, particularly with his situation, he really wasn’t a relief pitcher.”

I don’t remember Mike Maroth ever making any comments in the press that criticized or slighted Leyland at all, so I’m really not sure where this is coming from. Maroth has always struck me as a team player, but anyone in that situation would be disappointed. Heck, while I didn’t think he should have been on the roster, I was disappointed for him.
Continue reading One of those link round-up posts →

2007 Season, Minors, Pitching, Spring Training, Statistics

This time it counts…a tiny bit

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So while yesterday was the exhibition to the exhibition season, this one was against the New York Mets, a bona fide big league club. And the Tigers won. Mack Avenue Tigers has the wrap-up so I won’t duplicate it here. I will just point out good games for Marcus Thames, Curtis Granderson, and Andrew Miller and a pretty rough game for Neifi Perez.

Because of research and video blogs and interviews, I’m a full week behind on links and such so I’ll try to catch-up.

Scott Sizemore
Scott Sizemore – credit Roger Dewitt

Pictures

When the big club is away, the kids will play. Roger DeWitt caught some of the action so if you want to see the possible Tigers of the distant future, you can see Dallas Trahern, Jeff Larish, and Audy Ciriaco (who I’m hoping has a big year) sporting Tigers road garb.
Continue reading This time it counts…a tiny bit →

2007 Season, Minors, Roster Management

Larrison outrighted to Toledo

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Preston Larrison – credit Roger DeWitt

Preston Larrison had his contract outrighted to Toledo today. He’ll be a non-roster invitee to the major league camp. Larrison was designated for assignment last week to make way for Yorman Bazardo.

As Brian wrote Larrison was out of options. He was a longshot to make the club which meant the Tigers would have had to go through this exercise sooner or later anyways. By getting it done now, it may have increased the team’s chances of keeping him. If he’s a late season cut maybe someone looking for help takes a flyer on him.

2007 Season, Minors, Tiger History

Aircraft carriers, outfielders, and other news items

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A whole pile of links, plus another great shot from spring training…


Al Kaline chats with Justin Verlander
credit: Roger DeWitt

What are they saying

That would have to be an interesting conversation. What do you think they’re talking about? Maybe Kaline saying, “Listen kid, I know you were rookie of the year, but by the time I was your age I had 4 All Star games and finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 3 times…”

Best Young Outfield

You probably wouldn’t expect a Tigers outfield consisting of exactly one player under the age of 30 to rank among the league’s best outfields, but the Tigers do according to Baseball Prospectus. At least according to their PECOTA upside score the Tigers rank 3rd behind only the Mets and Devil Rays. The centerfield triumvirate of Curtis Granderson, Cameron Maybin, and Gorkys Hernandez has the forecast for the Tigers long term outfield as sunny.
Continue reading Aircraft carriers, outfielders, and other news items →

2007 Season, Minors, Roster Management, Trades

Tigers acquire Yorman Bazardo

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The Tigers today made a trade with the Seattle Mariners for right handed pitcher Yorman Bazardo. In exchange the Tigers have sent the Mariners outfielder Jeff Frazier.

Bazardo will turn 23 in July. Last year he had a solid season in AA with a 3.64 ERA over 25 starts. For his career he has a pretty meager strike out rate of 5.54 per nine innings but with decent control (2.31 BB/9). He had a solid winter pitching in the Venezuela. He appeared in 21 games with Aragua in the Venezuelan Winter League following the season, posting a 2-0 record, 1.78 ERA (30.1IP/6ER) and one save. Additionally, Bazardo saw action in two games with Venezuela during the Caribbean World Series, fanning six batters in five scoreless innings of relief.

John Sickels rates him a C+ and as the 9th best prospect in the Seattle organization.

Jeff Frazier is coming off a pretty brutal season for Lakeland in which he posted a 625 OPS. Prior to that he posted a nice final line in pitcher friendly West Michigan of 287/349/453.

To make room on the 40 man roster for Bazardo, Preston Larrison was designated for assignment.

Minors, Playoffs, Roster Management

Beane, Prospects, and Options

  • Athletics Nation interviews Billy Beane. Beane comments on the ALCS and the Tigers:

    Blez: You mentioned the series against the Tigers. I felt as though the Tigers changed their fundamental batting approach and sort of gave the A’s a taste of their own approach in being very patient with our starters. The Tigers weren’t exactly known to be patient hitters.

    Beane: I think that’s exactly what they did. They were coming off a pretty emotional win against the Yankees and they had a very talented team. They were swinging the bats kind of like when we played the Reds back in the `90 World Series. They had a lot of self-confidence and when they got down a run or two it didn’t seem to bother them. We caught them at a bad time. The better team won that series and that needs to be said. I don’t think anyone should’ve walked away thinking, oh we should’ve won that series. We got boat-raced.

  • Keith Law has his top 25 prospect list(insider). A big component of his list is proximity to the Majors and he also qualifies that players should have a full season of pro ball experience (so no Andrew Miller). Cameron Maybin comes in 15th with these criteria.

    15. Cameron Maybin, CF, Tigers
    More tools than Home Depot, but lacks the polish of Fernando Martinez or the discipline of Jose Tabata. With development, he could easily be one of the top three or four prospects in the game next winter.

  • Jon Paul Morosi notes that despite Zach Miner’s success last year his option years might keep him in the minors in favor of an out-of-option player like Roman Colon or Chad Durbin. Larrison is also out of options, but if he makes the team out of spring training I’d have to imagine things have gone horribly wrong. Morosi also clarifies a couple other option rules:

    Correcting an earlier item in this space, also relating to options: Infielders Omar Infante and Ramon Santiago each have at least one option remaining, but would have to clear waivers to be sent to the minors. (Reason: Three calendar years have passed since their first appearances in the major leagues.) Neifi Perez has options remaining, as well, but can refuse any minor league assignment because of his service time.