The move to make room for Jeremy Bonderman was the optioning of Ryan Perry to Toledo. I don’t think this is a bad move at all and it could be for no more than the minimum 10 days. The Tigers can’t continue with 6 starters and I think a decision on the rotation will be made after Dontrelle Willis’s next start. Someone will get bumped from the rotation which will then answer a question about the bullpen, and then Perry’s recall could be scheduled.
Category Archives: Roster Management
Thames to start Sunday
In his postgame press conference Jim Leyland announced that Marcus Thames will start on Sunday. With his activation from the DL, Jeff Larish will be optioned to Toledo.
I’m a little surprised to see Larish sent out over Raburn. The Tigers are flush with outfielders and with Cabrera’s hamstring hurting they are thin at first base.
You may remember a game in Anaheim last year where Thames took Joe Saunders (tomorrow’s starter) deep twice and to the wall another time. Maybe he can do it again and break the Tigers string of 7 straight games at Comerica without a homer.
Clearing up some roster confusion
The Tigers have some roster decisions looming with the imminent return of Jeremy Bonderman and Marcus Thames. In both cases there aren’t clear cut performance based decisions on who gets sent down so things like options come into play. There has been some confusion about the option status and service time of various players so let’s clear that up.
MLB roster rules are never simple and chuck full of exceptions. While salary data and service time data is generally findable, options are harder to find and often requires combing through transaction lists. Fortunately for Tigers fans Eddie Bajek compiled this information during the offseason.
Let’s talk rehab
There was quite a bit of Tigers injury related news today with fresh info from Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, and Marcus Thames. And on a related roster note, Magglio Ordonez will be back for Friday’s game (the surgery went well) and Wilkin Ramirez can tell his Mud Hens teammates what it was like to drive one deep into big league bushes.
Jeremy Bonderman
Bonderman made his second rehab start, this time for Toledo. Things were going swimingly for Bonderman through 5 innings as he was pitching a 2 hit shut out. Things kind of fell apart though in the 6th inning as it went: Walk – Sac Bunt – Double – Ground Out – Homer – Error – Stolen Base – Double – Double – Strike Out. The error certainly didn’t help and 2 of the 5 runs were unearned, but there were still 4 extra base hits that inning.
His final line was 6 innings, 6 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, 4 K’s 1 homer, 98 pitches, 62 strikes.
Marcus Thames
Thames will begin a rehab assignment for the Mud Hens next week. Jim Leyland would like to get him 30 or so at-bats.
Nate Robertson
So this isn’t particularly fresh, but Robertson was activated from the DL after Wednesday night’s game. Luke French filled in nicely for Robertson, but he is back with the Mud Hens now.
Wilkin Ramirez gets the call
With Magglio Ordonez on the emergency leave list the Tigers get to add a player to the roster. Detroit Tiger Tales has learned that Wilkin Ramirez will be the guy.
Ramirez has hit .394 with 4 homers, 4 walks, and 4 stolen bases in his last 10 games.
Juan Rincon DFA’d
To make room for Dontrelle Willis the Tigers are sending out Juan Rincon. Rincon pitched his way onto the team with a very good spring, but with a rough start to the season the Tigers deemed him most expendable. Brandon Lyon has been just as bad, but he’s owed more, and frankly has been better in recent years than Rincon and therefore has a better chance of contributing.
Given the fact that Ryan Perry threw 42 pitches tonight, I thought that was a signal that he was going to be optioned down. Instead he just won’t be available for a couple nights.
Clete Thomas called up
UPDATE: Per Jason Beck on Twitter Guillen hits the DL with shoulder inflammation. Also Jeff Larish is called up and Clay Rapada heads down.
The Tigers have called up Clete Thomas. A corresponding roster move hasn’t been announced, but with Carlos Guillen’s struggles and general injury-ness (achilles and shoulder pain) it is likely he is heading to the DL.
Thomas is only hitting 236/349/371, but he should provide solid defense. An outfield of Thomas/Granderson/Anderson with Ordonez DH’ing would provide some solid defense.
Tigers call up Clete Thomas | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Bonine out, Zuamaya in
This doesn’t come as a surprise at all because a)we knew that Joel Zumaya was coming back and b)Bonine hasn’t pitched well and he’s the candidate with options. Really, the only question now is how does Zumaya fit into the bullpen? Ryan Perry and Bobby Seay have combined to be the primary set-up men. Does Zumaya bump one (probably Perry the other right hander) or does he just get mixed in?
The other question is does Bonine head down to be a starter or does he continue to work from the pen?
Eddie Bonine demoted to make room for Joel Zumaya | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Jeff Larish is the 25th man
Steve Kornacki reports that Jeff Larish was getting congrats from his teammates today as he secured the last spot on the bench. Larish will be able to provide depth at the corners and be a lefty option at DH as well. He edges out Brent Clevlen who is out of options. The Tigers are probably looking to trade Clevlen or get him through waivers. I’d say there’s a decent chance he makes it through waivers and will report to Toledo.
Analysis: Breaking down today’s roster decisions
Today’s roster decisions pretty much wrapped up nearly 2 months (and in some cases even more) of speculation. There is one spot yet to be decided. That will go to either Jeff Larish or Brent Clevlen, though the Tigers are reportedly in trade talks with the Pirates regarding Clevlen. (ironically, or at least coincidentally, such a trade would displace former Tiger Craig Monroe) But with 96% of the roster decided we shift our guessing from personnel to performance.
Continue reading Analysis: Breaking down today’s roster decisions
Porcello and Perry make the team
It appears the Rick Porcello and Ryan Perry will be breaking camp with the Tigers. Details are still thin beyond that. I’ll update as more information floats North. Also, Mike Hessman was placed on outright waivers and Ryan Raburn was optioned to Toledo. That leaves 29 players in camp including Scott Williamson, Brent Clevlen, Jeff Larish, Eddie Bonine, Juan Rincon, Zach Miner, and Nate Robertson battling for one spot in the rotation, a couple in the pen, and one on the bench.
UPDATE: Juan Rincon and Eddie Bonine are also in. Dane Sardhina and Scott Williamson were assigned to minor league camp.
UPDATE 2: Clay Rapada was optioned to Toledo and your second lefty in the pen is Nate Robertson. It’s down to Brent Clevlen and Jeff Larish for the last roster spot.
So…the pitching staff looks like this:
Rotation: Verlander/Jackson/Miner/Porcello/Galarraga (I’m guessing on the order to start the season)
Bullpen: Lyon/Rodney/Seay/Rincon/Perry/Bonine/Robertson
Some more Sheffield stuff
I was going to just ammend the original post, but enough time has passed, and I ‘ve read plenty, and I have a number of thoughts about this, so we’ll start a new post.
Risk/Reward
When the Tigers acquired Josh Anderson on Monday I thought it was a very strong possibility that Marcus Thames career as a Tiger was over. I was apprehensive about that given the injury threat that Gary Sheffield and Carlos Guillen provided, another big bat on the bench would be nice insurance. As Jason Beck points out, the Tigers were also worried about injury. And the team decided that Thames was a safer bet to make it through the season than Sheffield.
And if the Tigers were going to keep Sheffield over Thames, they had better be sure they could get a good season’s worth of production out of him. Because it wasn’t just an Opening Day decision, but a longer-term decision. If Sheffield got hurt in late April, there would be no Thames to which to turn, unlike years past.
I still think a healthy Sheffield is a better hitter than Thames (the Tigers are giving up OBP skills), and I’d venture the Tigers may even admit as much. But they also probably didn’t like the odds that Sheffield could stay healthy.
Continue reading Some more Sheffield stuff