I’ve spent quite a bit of space on this site, and on various message boards defending Alan Trammell. I’ve probably been a little more vigorous in defending him because 1. I wanted him to succeed because of his playing career and the fact he is truly a “good guy” 2. I thought he received way more criticism than he deserved. While some of it was fair, a lot of it was nonsensical.

I found myself disagreeing with his managerial moves on a somewhat regular basis, but I didn’t think the moves were wrong. I could see the reasoning for making the decisions, even if I didn’t agree with them. Sure there were a couple times that I thought were really bad errors in judgement (the Chris Spurling/White Sox incident was probably the worst), but by and large I had a hard time finding instances where he outright cost the team games.

With that in mind, I had a hard time thinking he should be fired. Part of it is because I don’t think that managers in baseball really are that important. I think that in baseball more than other sports, the manager is more dependent on the talent that he is dealt. There is only so much scheming a manager can do to overcome a poor offense or poor pitching.

I don’t buy the argument that the record should be better because the payroll is so high – at least from the standpoint of holding that against Trammell. He didn’t allocate the payroll, and he didn’t put 27% of that payroll on the disabled list.

The second half of the season he was working with a bullpen that was depleted to say the least. I don’t blame the collapse on the Kyle Farnsworth deal because the Tigers traded away their closer. The lack of a closer down the stretch was far from the Tigers biggest problem – but it did significantly diminish the talent available in the late innings.

What was probably his final undoing was the reports out of the clubhouse. Some reports said the lockeroom was hell, while others said it was overblown. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

I think Trammell deserved one more year. I don’t think any manager could have accomplished much more than Trammell did. Dave Dombrowski spoke of “getting to the next level” but I’m not really sure what that means. Is he talking contention or a winning record? Both would have been a stretch given the circumstances this season. That being said, I understand the move. As a Tiger fan part of me is eager to move forward, but part of me is extemely saddened at the same time. Alan Trammell has endured a miserable final month wearing the Olde English D, and yet he’s done it as a true professional with tremendous class and dignity.

Jim Leyland is already in town being interviewed, and an annoucement this week wouldn’t surprise me. Dombrowski has already interviewed Bruce Fields and Juan Samuel for the position – despite stating that he’s looking for a veteran manager. That should alleviate Bud Selig’s concerns about interviewing minorities which should further expedite the process. Whoever the next manager is I wish them the best of luck.

As expected, Alan Trammell is no longer the manager of the Detroit Tigers. He has been offered a position within the organization as special assistant to the GM.

Here is Dombrowski’s quote from the press release:

Here’s a full page ad that is running in today’s Detroit News sports section:

It’s a nice gesture and classy move towards a city that hasn’t treated him so well the last few years. Higginson went from a blue collar fan favorite up through 2000 (Darren McCarty on a baseball field) to a scapegoat for all the teams problems since then.

From the start of his career through the 2000 season, Higginson hit 291/367/489 line with 134 homers. In 1996 he posted an OPS+ of 146 (for those unfamiliar with OPS+ essentially his season was 46% better than average – a significant amount). He followed that up with seasons of OPS+ of 133 and 114 before struggling through an injury plagued season in 1999.

In 2000, which coincided with his free agent contract year, he rebounded for an OPS+ of 132. In the process he hit some of those magical seasonal milestones – .300 batting average, 30 homers, and 100 RBI. Bobby cashed in and signed a 4 year $40 million contract with a no trade clause so he could stay in the Detroit. He built a house in Detroit, and for quite awhile was the only Tiger to live in Detroit year-round.

The story was going perfect. A hard working Detroit athlete that embraced the city looked like he’d finish his career here. The team was coming off a relatively strong season, and were set to take the next step forward – especially after clubhouse cancer Juan Gonzalez was gone. But things didn’t go according to plan.

In 2001 the team regressed to 66 wins, and Higginson’s performance slid to an OPS+ of 116. It was a decent season, but the .277 average, 17 homers and 71 RBI weren’t the All Star numbers that were expected just weren’t there. More tough seasons the next couple years for the team and Higginson left a lot of people frustrated. As the highest paid player on a bad team, Higginson was an easy target. The fact that he was plagued by injuries did nothing to alleviate the criticism. He drew even more ire from the fans when he asked for a trade – but was unwilling to renegotiate his contract to facilitate a move.

The result is that today is the day many fans had circled on their calendars as a day of rejoicing because Higginson’s salary would come off the payroll. Since signing the contract, Higginson has hit 258/345/402 and 53 homers in 513 games.

Higginson’s career is most likely over. He has stated that he’d like to play for a contender, but I’m not sure what contender would want to pick up somebody with Higginson’s production who didn’t really play this season.

So it’s time to close the books on Higginson in Detroit. His career numbers as a Tiger: 272/358/455, 187 homers, 709 RBI, and 123 outfield assists. Higginson brought some of the ire on himself, but his biggest fault was being unable to live up to his contract. While he deserved criticism, he endured way more than he should have had to. It’s just a shame that he will be remembered more for his contract than he will for his contributions to the Tigers.

Good luck Bobby.

Just a couple of quick notes on the eve of the Tigers last home game…

• The Tigers should have topped the 2 million mark in attendance tonight. That would mark the first time since 2000 when Comerica Park opened. It will be interesting to see what the season ticket renewal rate is without the All Star incentive. What was most encouraging is that the Tigers drew quite well during July and August – regularly topping 30,000.
• The Tigers announced today that they have extended agreements with Erie and West Michigan. Erie will continue to be the Tigers AA club through 2008, and the Whitecaps will be the low A affiliate through 2010.

  Earlier this summer the team announced that Oneonta of the NY Penn league would continue to be the Rookie ball affiliate through 2010 as well.

• I’ll be heading down to the final game tomorrow with the family. I’m looking forward to it, and hopefully the Tigers can close out the home season with a win.

This was in Tom Gage’s game report from last night. It is nice to see someone in the clubhouse go on the record about Alan Trammell. But Inge’s comments got me thinking about Tram’s demeanor. One of the reasons people were skeptical about Trammell as manager as that he was too nice. Trammell couldn’t be a hard-ass, and guys might not listen to him. Inge’s comments seem to support that notion, but is it because Tram didn’t have the capacity to be harsh or was he not being harsh because he expected more from his players?

Think back to Alan Trammell the player. Do you think at any point in his career Sparky had to sit him down and tell him how to act? How to be a professional? Can you ever recall anybody questioning his effort, intensity, or preparation? Alan Trammell was the consumate baseball player because that’s who he was. Maybe one of the problems is that he expected his players to behave the same way. Or, he expected that he could be the quiet leader like he was as a player where guys would follow his lead. Unfortunately, while he was still putting on the uniform, he wasn’t able to step between the white lines and show them how to play.

Now during his playing days there had to have been some malcontents on those Tiger teams. By and large I would guess one of two things would happen to those players. One, they would be shipped out if possible. Trammell tried that approach this year. Alex Sanchez was cut. Omar Infante was benched. Carlos Pena was demoted.

In the cases where a player couldn’t be moved in the old days there were some other strong personalities (Gibson, Morris, Parrish) who simply wouldn’t tolerate it. There were enough leaders of like mind who grew up together that other players were forced to comply. Who are those guys on this Tiger team? Perhaps Trammell wasn’t harsher hoping that the players would police each other.

Now this is all conjecture on my part because I have no idea what happens in the clubhouse. This is just my take based on the various published reports.

I’m not trying to absolve Trammell. Afterall, it’s his job to lead this team and if he gave the players too much credit early on that proved to be a mistake on his part. But I’m not going to fault Trammell for being too nice. The fault as I see it is that he misread the personalities and situation in the clubhouse. Trammell couldn’t lead by example as manager the way he could as a player, and the group of strong personalities weren’t as cohesive as his days as a player.

The Tigers released their schedule for 2006. They open the season with in Kansas City on April 3rd. After the 3 game set they travel to Texas for four games before the home opener agains the White Sox on April 10th. April sees the Tigers play 13 games against the AL West including a 9 game road trip to the coast.

The most interesting homestand will bridge Memorial day weekend when the Tigers host the Indians for 3 games. Then Yankees (4 games) and Red Sox (3 games) make their only trips to Detroit.

The second half of June is all interleague play. The Tigers take on the NL Central this year. They host Cincinnati (in May), Houston, and St. Louis. They face Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and the Cubs on the road.

And you may have noticed that the Tigers natural rivals – the Arizona Diamondbacks – are not listed as interleague opponents. I don’t know if MLB has modified or the dropped the rivalry aspect or not. In any case, I’ve never been so happy to not play a bad team.

Here is the full schedule.

Finally some good news for the Tigers. Nothing’s been signed, but the agreed upon signing bonus is $2.65 million. He should be starting the instructional league in a couple days.

Congratulations to Larry Parrish and the Toledo Mud Hens and their 2005 International League Championship. Toledo completed the sweep of the Indianapolis Indians at Victory Field last night. (Photo Credit: Phil Tesar/Toledo Mud Hens)

Marcus Thames, Jason Karmuth, Jason Grilli, and Mark Woodyard have already been recalled (with Bobby Higginson moving to the 60 day DL). Kenny Baugh probably would have been recalled but was experiencing stiffness. I am surprised to not see Ryan Rayburn among the call-ups.

After a couple of weeks of, I’m charged up and ready to go. Thanks for sticking around.

• Lynn Henning’s article yesterday has a number of quotes from Ivan Rodriguez. Essentially Rodriguez told a number of reporters that he is frustrated by the losing. I view this as a good thing. Nobody should be satisfied with the losing and they should want more.

  He also spoke about taking walks saying:

  “I hate walks,” Rodriguez said Saturday, to which most Tigers fans would respond: “No kidding.”

  “I’m aggressive,” he continued. “I’ve been in baseball 15 years and I’m going to continue being aggressive. I’m going to walk (when?), but for me to get a walk, that’s a hard thing to do because I’m a very aggressive hitter. I hit the ball hard pretty much all the time because I’m aggressive. If I go over there to just take walks, I might not produce the way I can produce.”

  I have no problem with Pudge being agressive, but he is sporting an OBA under .300 (and inexplicably has been holding down the #3 spot in the order). He is swinging at pitches that he can’t hit hard and making more outs in the process. His power numbers are down a little bit, and some regression isn’t expected out of a catcher at this point in his career. It’s the fact that his OBA is 50 points lower than his career average that is most troubling.

  He went on to bash the bullpen trades, which is really old news at this point. The Tigers problem isn’t the lack of a closer – although with the trades the talent in the bullpen has been depleted making it tougher to get to the closer.

  What I would have really liked to have seen is for Rodriguez to take some the responsibility. His offensive performance has been below his standards – and below what the team needs him to contribute. I’m not going to bring up his contract and say he’s not worth what they are paying him, because not a lot can be done about that. But if he wants out because he wants to win, maybe he should have taken a one or two year deal from a team that was closer to contention. The Tigers made a serious effort to add talent last year, and they did manage some upgrades. But they also are still in a position to have to overpay for guys who don’t view this as a great destination.

  I want Pudge back next year, and the Tigers need him back. Even at his lower performance this year, they’d be hard pressed to find a better backstop. I’d just like to see Rodriguez share some of the responsiblity.

• Jeremey, Justin, and Joel. Those three constitute what many hope will be a very bright spot in the Tigers future. Unfortunately none of the 3 are throwing right now. Zumaya has been shut down for the season with a tired arm, Verlander is just doing bullpen work due to shoulder tightness, and Bonderman is on the shelf indefinitely with elbow problems. Combine those injuries with the Tigers recent track record with Kyle Sleeth, Matt Anderson, Kenny Baugh, Justin Thompson, Rob Henkel, Nate Cornejo, etc. and it seems like the Tigers have a serious problem keeping pitching prospects healthy.

  Well, USS Mariner took a look at all major league teams to find out how they fared in keeping pitchers healthy. Here is the link to the summary, and here is the link to the Tigers page. It turns out that the Tigers are actually in the middle of the pack according to this research with 22% of pitching prospects from 1995-2004 suffereing a major arm injury.

  While I think he missed a couple surgeries (Henkel in particular) the research is pretty impressive. It also showed that the A’s pitching prospects never get injured, and Mariner prospects are most likely to be injured.

• As for Bonderman’s injury in particular, there are various reports. Will Carroll indicates two things. First, that his mechanics were altered in his first start after the line drive. And second, that the elbow problems may be attributed to him learning a circle change. I’ll continue to be nervous, but I’ll console myself in that it is probably not a bad thing that this will limit his innings this year.
• As for the recent slide the Tigers have been on, how do you cope? For me, it isn’t so bad. I get to take my 4 year old (and this time the whole family) to a game. He wants the Tigers to win, but he is so enamored with the experience the final score can take a back seat. And for me, I get to watch my boy (and to a lesser extent my 2 year old princess) learn to love the game I love. We were in attendance last night, and made our way down to the third base line before the game to get some autographs.
  
  In the process, I gained a whole new appreciation for John McDonald. My son had his ball and pen out, but was pretty shy. Without even being asked, McDonald came over to him and started talking to him. Billy was too shy to say anything, but John made a point of paying quite a bit of attention to him. While my son didn’t say anything at the time, he sure did talk about it later on. There is no better way for someone to win over a parent than to be nice to their kid. No matter what John McDonald does on the field. The Billfer family will be pulling for him.

  Also, credit goes out to Placido Polanco, Chris Shelton, and Curtis Granderson who spent quite a bit of time signing right before the game. I understand that players get pestered all the time, and they get put in a tough spot. I’ve seen fans yell at players after they spent ten minutes signing, just because they didn’t get their piece signed. But it is so much fun to see guys that appreciate the fact they are professional baseball players.

I hate when bloggers apologize for not blogging for an extended period of time. However, I’m sorry that I haven’t posted this week. I’d like to blame it on work, or other committments, but I can’t. I just don’t have anything to write about right now. The team is fading, the pitching is nonexistent, and even some of the recent bright spots are returning to old ways (6 K’s for Carlos Pena in the last 2 games). And even September call-ups aren’t that exciting. The Tigers are waiting for Toledo to finish the playoffs before raiding the Mud Hens roster. In the meantime the Tigers recalled Doug Creek, and there isn’t much to analyze with the recall of Creek. So I apologize to those of you who came here all week looking for anything.

Various items of interest to Tiger fans…

• John Sickels always interesting and informative Minor League Ball has a prospect retrospective on the resurgent Carlos Pena. Given the way things have turned out, it is easy to forget that he was the centerpiece of the Jeff Weaver trade.
  Promoted to Double-A Tulsa in 2000, he broke out with an excellent .299/.414/.533 season, 28 homers, 101 walks, 108 strikeouts in 529 at-bats. He improved his walk rate, cut his strikeouts, and was an all-around devastating hitter. I gave him the rare and coveted pure Grade A rating, and rated him as the Number Seven prospect in baseball.

  Incidentally, if you ask Mrs. Billfer “Who’s your Tiger?” she will enthusiastically answer “Carlos Pena – he rocks”

• Speaking of the minors, Baseball America lists the rosters for the Arizona Fall League. The Tigers are set to be represented by Preston Larrison, Adam Peterson, Humberto Sanchez, Tony Giarratano, Don Kelly, and Curtis Granderson. However, Danny Knobler reports that Granderson will be headed to the Domican Winter League instead.
• The Toledo Mud Hens clinched a playoff spot tonight with a 10-2 victory over Louisville. Zach Miner pitched six innings and gave up both runs along with 4 walks, 4 hits, and 4 strikeouts. Marcus Thames homered.
• While Miner was effective for Toledo, the other pitcher acquired in the Farnsworth trade, Roman Colon had a very strong outing in relief for Detroit. In 3 1/3 innings he allowed 3 hits and no walks while striking out 5. Considering that he went longer than starter Sean Douglass, it maybe time to give Colon a shot in the rotation.
• Colon was available to pitch tonight because it appears that Jeremy Bonderman will not miss his turn on Monday. Apparently the wrist is doing well. I just hope that he is healthy enough that he doesn’t alter his delivery to compensate for pain in his wrist. I wouldn’t want to see him open himself up to an injury.
• And finally, Alan Trammell who going into Saturday night’s game had never won in Fenway as a manager. Tonight he took one for the team and got himself tossed. I tried looking to see if there is a “manager of record” or if manager wins is even an official stat. I couldn’t find anything, so I don’t know if Trammell or Gibson would get credit for the win. Interestingly enough, Gibby was given the reigns after Trammell was tossed. Wouldn’t that normally go to bench coach Bruce Fields?