Category Archives: Trades

2008 Season, Contracts, Trades

Jones’n a day late

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The Tigers make 2 moves, and my internet connection flakes out that night. As such, I’ll just wrap the analysis into one post. Before getting into the individual evaluations I wanted to note that with the Todd Jones signing, the Tigers payroll has eclipsed the $100 million mark. I have it pegged at $102 right now (not counting the relief the Cubs are sending in the Jacque Jones deal.

Todd Jones

I can definitely see some merit in this signing. It’s a one year deal and at $7 million it is certainly palatable – even if it’s over market value. With a healthy Zumaya, this deal makes all kinds of sense. The veteran comes back for one more year to help transition to the young gun. Trouble is, we don’t know now if that gun will be firing bullets or blanks or anything.

Because of the uncertainty surrounding Zumaya, I feel the Tigers should have gone after Francisco Cordero. The Tigers very well may end up in a situation where they will be looking for a free agent closer next year anyways if Zumaya can’t comeback or isn’t ready to assume closing responsibilities. In a year that the Tigers were clearly in “go for it” mode, getting a top shelf closer would have fit the bill. If Zumaya does come back, you have a pretty solid bullpen – especially as Fernando Rodney becomes a free agent in 2010.

Bill James projects Cordero to throw 61 innings with a FIP (fielding independent pitching) of 3.15. Assuming a league average FIP of 4.43 that would make Cordero worth about one more win than Todd Jones. Jones projects to a 3.77 FIP.

Still, Cordero isn’t a sure thing. He had a bad year in 2006 when he blew 11 saves. It’s probably an anomaly, but it’s out there. Also, Cordero would have wanted to come to the Tigers. It isn’t the laughable proposition it was 3 years ago, but there are no guarantees.

There is value in the Tigers moving quickly to fill a need. Plus Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland have a penchant for the familiar making them comfortable with Todd Jones. As for the $7 million, the Tigers probably overpaid. Jones is about one win above replacement level. Assuming a win in the free agent market is worth $4.4 million then Jones salary should be about $4.8 million (you need to add the major league minimum to the base).

As long as Todd Jones can continue to keep his slugging against south of .400, and if he can limit the walks, the should be okay in 2008.

Jacque Jones for Omar Infante

My initial reaction to this trade was that I liked it, and that has held up over the last day. I like Infante, and at age 25 there is a still a chance he could be a productive major league player. But it was clear that isn’t wasn’t going to happen for him here in Detroit. Plus he’ll be in his second year of arbitration. Plus, the Tigers have a couple players who could fill the utility role for cheap. So even though Infante may have some value to some club, he didn’t have a lot of value to the Tigers. That they got a real major leaguer in return is a coup.

That major leaguer of course is Jacque Jones. The stuff to like about Jones is that he is a solid defender who can play all 3 outfield positions. But his arm has him better suited to center of left. He’s also left handed, which is helpful for the Tigers.

If the Tigers deploy him as part of a platoon, they have the makings of an acceptable offensive outfield. Jones against righties has hit 294/342/483. Meanwhile Marcus Thames against lefties is 263/333/512. For a total cost of $5 million or so a combined 280/335/490 line would fit nicely in this lineup.

The concern with Jones of course is that his slugging fell off the map last year when he only hit 5 homers. It was a Sean Casey-ish year, but it wasn’t nearly as conspicuous as he played a large chunk in centerfield. Whether it was an anomaly or aging remains to be seen. It’s also worth noting that Jones posted the best walk to strikeout ratio of his career last year. For what it’s worth James projects a 278/332/433 line but without facing lefties he has a chance to better that.

So I give the trade a thumbs up. Still, I’ll miss Infante’s salsa at-bat music this season.

Other stuff

  • Craig Monroe is now a Minnesota Twin. Best of luck to Craig. He always has mashed in the Metrodome where he’s hit 305/351/520 for his career so this could be a good fit.
  • The Tigers completed the Roman Colon trade by acquiring Danny Christensen from the Royals. Christensen is left handed and 24. The former appears to be his most dominant trait. He struggled in AA last year as he gave up a ton of hits, 23 of them for homers in 140 innings.
Trades

Tigers Acquire Edgar Renteria

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The Tigers traded for Edgar Renteria. They’ll send the Braves Gorkys Hernandez and Jair Jurrjens.

I’ll have more on this later when I digest it, but wow. Renteria is a nice player and affordable, but the Tigers just traded 2 of their top 4 prospects for a shortstop on the wrong side of 30. This team just got a lot older.

Renteria of course has ties to Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland, and Dombrowski has shown a preference for the familiar. Renteria was signed as an amateur free agent in 1992 by Dave Dombrowski (I think Al Avila was a scout at the time, but not sure if he was the one who signed him). And of course Renteria was part of the 1997 Marlins team managed by Leyland.

UPDATE: It appears that the Braves are sending some cash to the Tigers. I find this odd, since the contract is fairly manageable with $9 million owed next year and an $11 million option for 2009. Are the Tigers going cheap now, saving money for another big free agent, inking Granderson/Verlander long term? Odd for cash to change hands in this one.

More later…

It’s later…

Analysis

I continue to waffle on this trade. All along I liked picking up Renteria, but was having a hard time getting comfortable with the price. Granted Jurrjens was likely a 3 or 4 guy in a rotation, but since when did that designation carry an “only” with it? Especially for someone that comes cheap for the next 6 years. But that’s only half of the price.

The Tigers also shipped Gorkys Hernandez, their 2nd best positional prospect. A guy who held his own in the Midwest League at the age of 19. He’s someone with Granderson’s feel in the outfield with Cameron Maybin’s speed. Granted he doesn’t project with a ton of power, but for his age and the park he played in the .391 slugging doesn’t bother me.

Now I can try to balance with my natural fan tendency to overrate my own team’s players by drawing on the negatives in Jurrjens and Hernandez’s profiles. Gorkys needs to add some walks and some power, plus he shouldn’t be expected to contribute at the MLB level until 2010. Jurrjens has dealt with some neck issues each of the last 2 seasons. Maybe it’s a chronic thing?

And I can also justify it by looking at all the Tigers are adding.

More offense?

So in the lineup the Tigers are essentially swapping Sean Casey for Renteria. I’m not too worried about Renteria’s one awful season in the AL. I don’t know if it was a Boston thing, or just a bad season. Either way at this point I’d call it coincidence.

Renteria is coming off the second best season of his career with an impressive .332/.390/.470 line good enough for a 125 OPS+. Since it was an exceptional year, maybe it makes sense to look at Renteria’s performance over the last 3 years which was 298/360/437 – still a nice line. It is 264 runs created and 5.9 runs created per 27 outs.

Sean Casey had 197 runs created over the same span, but battled some health issues so his RC 27 is 5.5. Now I used the quick and dirty TB*OBP calculation, so the difference is probably a little greater when you factor in Renteria’s 37 stolen bases (and 12 caught stealing) versus Casey’s 4 stolen bases and 3 caught stealings.

So the difference in offense between Casey and Renteria over 145 games is about 1 win.

More defense

Acquiring Renteria was necessitated by Carlos Guillen bottoming out defensively. He appeared to have decent range early in the year but various errors (botching routine plays, errant throws, bobbling the transfer) and knees that turned creaky later int he year torpedoed what range he had.

Ultimate Zone Rating data which was released in July had Guillen rated at -26 runs per 150 games. Edgar Renteria at the time was rated at -13 runs per 150 games. Of course Guillen would be a longshot to make it 150 games at short, but if he did the result would likely be worse than -26 runs. And in 2006 Renteria was +6, but in 2005 he was -14. So perhaps the -13 wasn’t a sign of a trend. The fans scouting report rated Renteria a 61 in 2007, but only a 53 in 2006 so I’m not sure where the truth lies. But for the sake of argument let’s use the partial season data rated at 150 games and call it 13 runs or a little more than a win.

Net impact

So in terms of performance the Tigers have added 2 to 2.5 wins. For a team that is on the playoff bubble though that isn’t inconsequential. And Renteria comes with an affordable price tag with $12 million guaranteed over the next 2 years which could go to $20 million if the Tigers exercise a club option. Nate Silver has broken down the dollar implications of the deal and says both teams won in this trade.

Yay or Nay

A tentative yay. I like the acquisition but I don’t like the cost, but I’m not alone in that sentiment. I also agree with Lee who notes that this is a trade we could be talking about for years to come.

Other stuff to consider:

  • This ends any A-Rod speculation before it barely got started. I was kind of looking forward to that. It also means that there will be no Jack Wilson speculation which I had my fill of this summer.
  • The tigers do have some shortstop candidates in Danny Worth, Mike Hollimon, and Cale Iorg and at least one of the three should be ready by 2010.
  • Renteria has the Carlos Guillen seal of approval so there shouldn’t be animosity about the position switch for Guillen.
  • Maybe this means that the Tigers are happy with what they’ve seen from other outfield prospects like Deik Scram and Matt Joyce. They aren’t nearly as toolsy as as Hernandez but maybe there is more there than I’m seeing.

Other Coverage

2007 Season, Roster Management, Trades

When PTBNL becomes P and other roster moves

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With the minor league seasons wrapping up, there’s no time like the present to name those players the Tigers acquired when dealing Mike Maroth and Craig Monroe.

In the Maroth trade the Tigers get back reliever Chris Lambert, who certainly doesn’t have impressive numbers. Lee breaks it down, but the best part about Lambert may be that he’s only 24 and still has time on his side to develop into something useful. So if you’re keeping track, the Tigers acquired Mike Maroth for Bryce Florie and in turn sent Maroth to the Cardinals for roster fodder. In the meantime they got nearly 900 innings at somewhere between replacement level and average production for cheap.

In exchange for Craig Monroe the Tigers pick up Clay Rapada. Rapada is 26 and has struck out better than 8 batters per 9 innings throughout his minor league career. However the lefty has walked 4 per 9 as well. He was placed on the 40 man roster and to make room Aquilino Lopez was outrighted.

Also, Yorman Bazardo, Jose Cappellan, Mike Hessman, and Omar Infante will be part of the roster expansion. And yet Chris Shelton remains marooned in northern Ohio. Bazardo could be in line for a spot start depending on how things shake out in the rotation.

Speaking of which, Virgil Vasquez has been tabbed to start on Friday over Chad Durbin. Not a bad move in my estimation, but it became more of a necessity when Robertson and Miller burned through both Jason Grilli and Zach Miner making Durbin the lone long man in the pen on Friday.

2007 Season, Injuries, Roster Management, Trades

Comings and goings: C-Mo a Cub, Miner a Hen

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The Tigers shipped Craig Monroe and some cash to the Chicago Cubs for a player to be named later. Later being before October 15th, and the player likely to be a pitcher on the 40 man roster according to Jason Beck.

With less than a million left on Monroe’s deal, I’m a little surprised that the Tigers had to send cash when what they are getting back is probably someone they don’t look to retain. My guess, is that the Tigers worked with Monroe and other clubs to find a team that Monroe wanted to go to and then made a deal work. It’s nothing the organization had to do, but it is a nice gesture to a player who was a big part of this team over the last few years. It’s the kind of thing that could pay dividends down the road. I also wonder if Trammell was an influence in the deal.

Also, as expected Zach Miner was optioned to Toledo to make room for Andrew Miller. From a roster management standpoint the move makes sense because Miner already is in an option year and can be recalled on September 1st. So you don’t lose anybody. From a performance standpoint, maybe it would have been wise to lose somebody though. I did notice that Jason Grilli wasn’t used in this series at home. I wonder if Leyland is looking to protect him, or if it was just the situations (Wednesday would have been the only game it would have made sense to use him – if you know what I mean).

Beck’s Blog: Craig Monroe to the Cubs
Miner optioned to Toledo – MLive.com: Detroit Tigers

2007 Season, Trade Rumors, Trades

Trade Deadline Day

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I’ll be doing my day job today, so if anything happens, I probably won’t be able to hit it until after the 4pm deadline. But if something does happen and you want to post it here and help the community, all the better.

As for the latest buzz, Morosi thinks if anything happens it will be with the Pirates and again he’s banging on the Jack Wilson drum. I don’t know if he’s advocating this, or merely pointing out a fit. Of course the fit would simply be the fact that the Tigers take on a lot of money for this year and next year for a guy that can’t hit a lick and would be available for free on waivers after today – kind of like Neifi Perez last yearjjj. Pointing out that he is an “expert defender” doesn’t comfort me when you look at his 641 OPS. And it’s not like he’s fast, he’s 0 for 3 on steals. This would be an awful move.

POSTGAME:
Today mostly became about hoping that the Jack Wilson trade wouldn’t come to fruition. Bless You Boys found a report that a deal was nearly complete that would have sent Brent Clevlen to the Pirates for Wilson and all his salary along with reliever Solomon Torres. But the Pirates asked for Jurrjens instead and that nixed it. Taking on Wilson’s salary and contract no matter what the Tigers gave up would have been a disaster because he can’t hit and is only average defensively. And because he’s an old NL player I get the feeling he would have had way too much playing time. And that is an exorbitant cost for a guy that is replacement level.

But Dave Dombrowski said that it never got that close. He also mentioned that the Tigers did make a run at Dotel

which he believed came down to Royals GM Dayton Moore knowing Kyle Davies better from his time running the Braves farm system. “We were prepared to put up a quality player, who talentwise might even be a better player.”

Am I happy with the pen the way it is? I’m certainly not thrilled, but I also think that the Tigers didn’t have to make a move at all costs.

2007 Season, Trades

Tigers trade Roman Colon

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The Tigers have traded Roman Colon to the Royals for that famous PTBNL, aka the player-to-be-named-later. Colon’s rehab has been assigned to AA Wichita.

Impact: zero.

I’m actually surprised that the Tigers could get anything for Colon, what with the felonious assault indictment and all. One way or another he punched his ticket out of Detroit when he punched Jason Karnuth and broke his face.

The move does free up a spot on the 40 man roster. There isn’t a pressing need at this point, unless it’s a precursor for something else.

2007 Season, Trades

Tigers trade for Jose Capellan

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The Tigers traded for some bullpen help in the form of Jose Capellan. In exchange the Tigers sent the Milwaukee Brewers A ball pitcher Chris Cody.

Capellan is a 26 year old right hander who has spent parts of the last 3 years in the Brewers bullpen. Capellan has decent strike out numbers over his career with 7 per 9 innings. However he will walk his share at almost 4 per 9 and last year he allowed 11 homers in 71 1/3 innings.

Capellan certainly isn’t dominating or overwhelming. However could prove to be serviceable. And without letting go of a lot, serviceable isn’t a bad route to go in the short term.

As for Cody, he dominated at West Michigan this year before being promoted to Lakeland a couple weeks ago. He posted a 1.77 ERA and fanned a batter an inning while only allowing 1 homer and 15 walks in 91 1/3 innings of work. Of course at age 23 he was old for the league, but did everything that could have been asked of him. Cody was the 8th round pick from last year’s draft.

I’d assume that Capellan will join the big league club, and a corresponding roster move would need to be made. My guess is that the Tigers will try to send Jason Grilli through waivers.

2007 Season, Trades

Maroth traded, probably?

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So Ken Rosenthal says Mike Maroth was traded to the Cardinals. The Tigers deny the story. Then the St. Louis Post Dispatch says that league sources confirmed the rumor. According to the article it was for a player to be named later. The old PTBNL makes it hard to evaluate the trade. But I’ll update as more info becomes available.

This really doesn’t come as a surprise, it was more a matter of what they got in return.

I feel for Maroth who became the odd man out in a rotation crunch. He suffered through baseball hell in 2003, missed out on being on the playoff roster due to his injury, and now he’s going from a first place team to a team that is 5 games under .500. I wish Mike the best of luck with the Cards.

UPDATE:
A couple notes on PTBNL: The transaction has to be completed within 6 months. So it wouldn’t be a recent draft pick, because they can’t be traded for 12 months after signing (it could be someone drafted last year). It could be a player currently on the disabled list. DL’s players can’t be traded without permission from the league, but they can be included as PTBNL. This could give some credibility to the Braden Looper being said player because he’s currently on the 15 day DL.

UPDATE: Tiger players have confirmed that Mike Maroth has been traded.

UPDATE: It will be a minor leaguer. The teams have agreed on a list of potentials and the Tigers will make their selection later this summer.

I’ll reserve judgement on this trade until we find out who the PTBNL is. I’d caution that just because it is a PTBNL doesn’t mean that it won’t be someone of value. It won’t be a premiere prospect of course, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see it be someone near the bottom of the BA top 10 prospect list either.

Now the deal does nothing to help with the bullpen, but I really do think the Tigers are still waiting to see if Eulogio De La Cruz can be helpful and if Fernando Rodney can regain 2006 form. There’s still plenty of time until the trade deadline if those options don’t work, and the Tigers have been lockstep with the Indians and holding on to the wild card lead so there’s no need to panic.

2007 Season, Trades

Tigers trade Wil Ledezma, get Macay Mcbride

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I expected a left hander to get traded this week, but I expected it to be Mike Maroth. Instead the Tigers sent Wilfredo Ledezma to the Atlanta Braves for lefty Macay Mcbride.

Mcbride is a year younger than Ledezma, and I believe he has options left. That second option might be the bigger factor. Mcbride has posted high K-rates throughout his career in the minors – 8.38 per 9 innings. He’s translated that in limited experience at the big league level averaging a strikeout an inning over 85 innings. His problem is control where he has walked 3.27 per 9 over his minor league career and 15 in 17 innings this year. He has limited lefties to a .514 OPS at the big league level.

Me thinks Mcbride will be the bullpen arm who is sent down on Friday so we might not see him for awhile.

I’ve always been a fan of Ledezma and hard throwing lefties are hard to come by. But the stuff and potential just never seemed to materialize into consistent results. He’s 26 so he probably still has a lot of baseball in front of him.

This move also shows how much confidence Jim Leyland has in Bobby Seay and Tim Byrdak to hand lefty specialist duties over to those two.

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.

Trades

Tigers acquire Gary Sheffield

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The Tigers have traded Humberto Sanchez, Kevin Whelan, and Anthony Claggett to the Yankees for Gary Sheffield. The Tigers and Sheffield have also agreed on a 2 year contract extension.

Humberto Sanchez was probably the 3rd best prospect in the Tigers system behind Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller. Last year he put together his most complete season between Erie and Toledo, but once again it was sidetracked by injury. He fanned almost 3 hitters for every walk and allowed only 4 homers in 123 innings.

Kevin Whelan was drafted in 2005 with thoughts of becoming the Tigers future closer. He was pretty successful last year at Lakeland saving 27 games and fanning 69 in 54 innings. With Joel Zumaya moving to the bullpen for looks like forever, Whelan didn’t look to be counted on as a piece of the puzzle.

Anthony Claggett was very good for the West Michigan Whitecaps last year with a 0.91 ERA while striking out a batter an inning and only allowing 35 hits.

Meanwhile, the Tigers get perennial All Star outfielder Gary Sheffield. Sheffield will be 38 and is a career 297/398/525 hitter. He definitely fits the bill as the big bat the Tigers were looking for, except for the right handed part. The Tigers lineup is instantly better and with the 2 year extension, Ilitch and Dombrowski look to be making an effort to make the most of this 2-3 year window with Ordonez/Pudge/Guillen.

So the Yankees get a major league ready prospect and a couple other guys who look to have value. The Tigers get the big bat they needed while keeping their team intact. It is a little more than I would have liked to see the Tigers give up for Sheffield given his age, but it isn’t unreasonable. Given the fact that Sheffield got the contract extension he wanted it should help to keep him a happy camper.

Last year the Tigers got 258/309/460 production from the DH spot which was middle of the pack. It produced 81 RC. Sheffield’s RC the last 4 years are: 145/119/112/24. So the upgrade is pretty clear and dramatic. This is a good move for the Tigers in that it helps them in the short term without killing them long term. While I don’t know the details of the contract, I know it only extends out 3 years. If it helps the team maintain its status as a playoff team, the dollars will easily take care of themselves. The attitude issues are out there, but Sheffield sounds thrilled to be coming to Detroit. The fact that All Stars are ecstatic to be coming to Detroit speaks volumes about how far the Tigers have come.

Some nuggets from the conference call:

Jim Leyland – “I can’t tell you how happy we are.” … “I’m thrilled to death. It’s a great acquisition for us”

Gary Sheffield – “I’m more than happy to be united with guys I’m familiar with.” Sheffield also said he was ecstatic to be back with Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski.

According to Leyland, and he spoke with Sheffield prior to the deal, he will be mainly a DH with some playing time in right field. Leyland also said there are no plans to play him at first base.

The names involved in the trade were agreed to on Tuesday and they had 72 hours to work out the contract extension. There was a verbal agreement Thursday night and the deal was formalized after a physical Friday morning.

On being a DH Sheffield said: “I’m all for that. I thank Mr Leyland because he prolonged my career even moreso. I’m more than willing to do it, especially with a team that has been in the World Series.”

Dombrowski on other needs: He said this was the big bat they were looking for, but they are still looking for a first baseman.