Tag Archives: instructional league

2009 Season, Minors

Tigers Minors News

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Just because the regular minor league seasons are over doesn’t mean there isn’t news coming out about the Tigers prospects. The instructional league is in full swing, the Arizona Fall League is starting, and post season awards are being handed out.

Instructional League

Jacob Turner credit-Roger DeWitt
Jacob Turner

The IL games are underway. Mark Anderson of TigsTown is on site and filing daily reports. The first one was free, but the subsequent ones are premium content. Based on the 2 reports so far Audy Ciriaco has been a star.

The IL is also a chance to see many of the Tigers 2009 draftees in Tigers uniform for the first time. Lakeland resident Roger DeWitt has been hanging around the fields and posting his pictures on Flickr. As has been the case the last few years, Roger was the first to get shots of the Tigers first round picks in action and he has Jacob Turner throwing on one of the practice mounds.

Arizona Fall League

The Tigers have had to make some adjustments to their AFL roster due to the arm problems of Cody Satterwhite and the lingering wrist problem of Ryan Strieby. In a surprise move (at least I was surprised), 2nd round pick Andrew Oliver will take Satterwhite’s spot.

What isn’t known is if Oliver is going because he has really impressed so far and the Tigers want to see what he does against advanced competition in preparation for an aggressive assignment next year, or if he is going by default.

Casper Wells will take Strieby’s spot, but that isn’t so much of a surprise.

Player of the Year Honors

Congratulations to Scott Sizemore and Casey Crosby who took home organizational Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year honors. (As predicted by Take 75 North).

Both had outstanding seasons. Crosby was kept on the 75 pitch limit which did hold down his innings but he still managed 117 strike outs in 104.1 innings. I’d imagine he’d start out in Lakeland next year with an 85-90 pitch limit but he could very well end up at Erie before the year is out.

Sizemore just raked the ball all season. He hit in Erie and continued hitting as he spent the 2nd half of the year in Toledo and he may be pushing Placido Polanco out the door.

Front Office, Minors, Trade Rumors

What are they talking about?

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Leyland and Dombrowski
Dave Dombrowski, Jim Leyland, and Chuck Hernandez took in some instructional league action today. Everybody is in Lakeland this week for organizational meetings so they could have been discussing anything.

Maybe they were talking about the way that the ball explodes out of Rick Porcello’s hand, or maybe the kid’s follow through.

Perhaps they were discussing how much David Eckstein would be worth if he left the St. Louis Cardinals. Would 2 years and $14 or $15 million be too much for a player with declining skills?

It could be they were thinking bigger and deciding if it is worth dealing with everything besides the money it would take to get Alex Rodriguez signed. That negotiation certainly wouldn’t be a picnic (thanks MetsBlog.com!). Would you want to deal with this?

‘All these things have to be part of the deal or there’s not a deal,’ including an office at the stadium for his marketing person, a luxury box where he could host people, and after the game people come down to the clubhouse and get things signed. That he had become so big he can’t fly commercially, so he’s going to need charter airfare. That he wanted to meet with ownership and go through the scouting reports in the organization, since he’s making a long-term commitment, of who is coming up in the farm system to know there’s a bright future to play with around him. He wanted to have a tent in spring training to sell A-Rod apparel. He wanted to know what the team marketing plan was going to be around him as he joined the team. I think that’s about everything.

Or maybe they were just talking about Cameron Maybin’s 2 homer night in the Arizona Fall League.

Really, it could be anything.