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A lot is being made about Carlos Guillen’s move to first base and what should be a decrease in stress on his knees because of the move.  Seems like this might be a myth because Will Carroll still gives Guillen a red light in a column on surprising red and green lights and he talks about how most of the stress on the knees comes from standing, not running.  He’ll be doing just as much standing first and he’ll have to get used to a newer position, hence the chance that he lands on the disabled list isn’t really diminished.  Still, the move makes sense with Edgar Renteria being the at least moderately slightly superior fielder at shortstop.

Drills started today and Rick Porcello marveled at how well Kenny Rogers fields his position.  Some great stuff and if Porcello can learn a thing or two from the gambler, he’ll be well on his way to a fruitful career.  Also in the piece, there’s yet more on Brandon Inge’s role with the Tigers this spring.

Tigers’ pitchers and catchers reported yesterday as the 2008 spring training season kicked off.  Some year soon, I’m hoping to make it down to Lakeland to see some spring training action.  Right now though, I’m just happy baseball is on the horizon.

Brandon Inge is the big talk of camp.  Jim Leyland said it’s likely he’ll still be traded but in the meantime, he’s going to revert back to his 2004 roles as a utility player.  According to this report by Tom Gage, there’s only two spots he won’t see action at this spring.  Pitcher is the obvious one and first base, where Carlos Guillen will be making a permanent move too, is the second.

John Lowe reports that Gary Sheffield will be entering spring training pain free after offseason shoulder surgery.  There’s no doubt an effective Sheffield would be huge in an already stacked lineup and imagine how good of a season he’ll have if he doesn’t have to go through his April 2007 DH growing pains and his injury filled August and September.  Sheffield is a borderline Hall of Famer and in my opinion, he’s going to have a season that puts him into the definite Hall of Famer category. 

Lowe also comments on Joel Zumaya, who’s expected to be back in July.  It’d be great if we could get him back before the trading deadline because an effective Zumaya might mean we don’t have to go out and deal for relief pitching.

With spring camp just days away, one of the big questions in March will be what the Tigers do with their bench.  Lynn Henning touches on this and a lot depends on whether Vance Wilson will be ready to start the season or not.  If Wilson is healthy and ready to assume his duties as the backup catcher, then Marcus Thames, Brandon Inge, Ramon Santiago and Ryan Raburn will all fight for three spots on the roster.  I think Thames is a lock based on talent and Santiago will make the team because he fills a vital need as a backup middle infielder.  That leaves Inge and Raburn, who basically could fill similar roles.  They’re paying Inge and he has the pedigree so that leaves Raburn sitting at Toledo until somebody goes down with an injury.

Of course the wild card would be if the Tigers can shop Inge.  Then the next question would be, would any player(s) they get in the deal also compete for a bench spot.  Unless a team loses a third baseman this spring, I don’t see the Tigers getting a good enough deal for Inge meaning Raburn is the odd man out.

In a lot of ways, this is the most anticipated Tigers season since I’ve been alive.  We’re two months removed from the blockbuster deal that netted the Tigers Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera and now we’re within a week from spring training kicking off.  After a long offseason, baseball is finally back and reporting day is this Thursday.

I had an interesting conversation the other day about what the Tigers lineup would look like.  When I threw out Edgar Renteria hitting ninth, I got an initial scoff but after going through the players, it might be the only spot to hit him.  Or, you could see Renteria hitting ninth against lefties righties and Granderson ninth against righties lefties.  We both agreed that Ivan Rodriguez should probably be hitting ninth, but also thought it wouldn’t happen just based on his reputation.

Sometime in the next couple of weeks, the Hardball Times Season Preview 2008 will be hitting the shelves.  If you bought the inaugural edition last year, you’ll find a ton of new things in this latest installment.  You’ll get projections like in last year’s book but you’ll also find more detailed on your informtion on your favorite teams including player capsules.  I was fortunate to write the Tigers section, which with the anticipation of the 2008 season mounting, was fun to do.

If you really want to help out the Hardball Times site, order the book here.  You’ll pay a few more bucks then you might have otherwise, but you’ll be maximizing the amount of money that goes to the site.

After guiding the Erie SeaWolves to a spectacular season in 2001, Pujols was then pushed up into a major league managing role in 2002 after Randy Smith and Phil Garner were abruptly fired just six games into the season.  There, he became a bit of a joke with the penultimate being him batting a player out of order during a game.  He was eventually fired and he then went to serve as the Giants bench coach for Felipe Alou (who also was the Tigers bench coach in 2002 and who was blamed for the batting order gaffe).

Now he’s come full circle and he’s managing the Double A Corpus Christi Hooks.  He talks about his minor league experiences in this interview over at MiLB.com.

The Tigers traded minor league outfielder Michael Hernandez to the Rangers today for minor league starting pitcher Armando Galarraga.  Hernandez led the Flying Tigers last year with 20 homers and between High A and Double A, he belted 24 homers but at the age of 24, he has just a .320 career on base percentage.  He did drive in 106 runs in his two stops and he looks like his ceiling could be similar to a guy like Craig Monroe.  He won’t hit for average or draw many walks and while he’ll strike out his share of times, his power will give him some solid RBI numbers.  I think the Tigers can do better so I’m not too upset to see him go.

Armando Galarraga was signed by the Expos (yes, the Expos) way back in 1998 and he’s spent eight seasons in the minor leagues.  He was dealt to the Rangers in the Alfonso Soriano trade back in 2005 and his 2006 season was an odd one.  He looked very good at Double A with 114 strikeouts and 47 walks in 127 2/3 innings but when he got bumped up to Triple A and eventually to the Rangers, his control left him and and he struck out 27 while walking 29 in 33 1/3 innings in those two stops.

After a critical review in last year’s book, John Sickels lightens up on the most recent installment of the Baseball Prospect Book.  He doesn’t predict stardom but he gives him a C+ grade (Hernandez received a C) and said that best case, he could see some time at the back of a major league rotation.

Here’s why I like this trade.  Michael Hernandez wouldn’t have seen the light of day with the Tigers anytime in the next few years.  The Tigers took him as a non drafted free agent and dealt him for a mid tier pitching prospect who, at some point in the next couple of years, could actually help the team.  It wouldn’t surprise me if, after an injury or two  in the pen, we see Galarraga in a Tigers uniform in 2008.

The Tigers locked up centerfielder Curtis Granderson to a five year deal today.  While this isn’t unprecedented, giving a long term deal to a guy who isn’t even arbitration eligible is rare but the Tigers felt ponying up $30 million+ (I haven’t seen a final dollar figure, but the rumor is $30.25 million) was worth it after Granderson’s historical season.

There was little doubt that Granderson was not only the centerfielder of the present, but also of the future.  Top prospects Cameron Maybin and Gorkys Hernandez were both dealt this offseason and that just further entrenched Granderson in his role for the forseeable future.

The Boston Red Sox signed Sean Casey to a one year, $800k deal yesterday as the former Tigers first baseman will now play for the defending champions.  It’s been a while since Casey has served as a backup but after a mediocre season in 2007 for the Tigers, it’s not a huge surprise that the market for him as a starter didn’t exist.  Still, I always liked Casey and he seemed like a top notch guy.  The Red Sox may be getting a guy near the end of his career but Casey could definitely prove to be a positive influence in the club house.

Las Vegas Sports Consultants recently recently their World Series odds and while the Tigers were fifth overall, they were just ahead of the Cleveland Indians with 8-1 odds.  There’s no surprise that the Red Sox top the list at 9-2 but now it’s the Mets who put themselves in second after the Johan Santana trade at 5-1.  The Yankees and Angels were three and four just ahead of the Yankees.

Come in at the bottom are the Washington Nationals at 200-1.  I thought the Florida Marlins would be closer to the bottom after dealing Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis but they came in at 25th at 125-1 odds.

I’m heading off to work soon but I wanted to pose a question to everyone.  With Johan Santana’s departure from the division, that makes C.C. Sabathia the top pitcher in the American League Central.  After thinking about it, does that make Justin Verlander the second best pitcher in the division?  He’s had two solid seasons but this is probably the only division where he’d rate so high, at least as far as being a consensus number two.

Johan Santana is now out of the American League Central and good riddance.  The Mets dealt four prospects for the star pitcher and that makes the Mets one of the front runners to win the National League pennant this year.

The decline of the Twins helps the Tigers but it also means a team like the Indians should be able to keep better pace with Detroit because they’ll be getting a break too.  This just makes the division more and more of a two dog race.

Brandon Inge hasn’t backed off from his desire to find a team that would play him every day at third base but he’s now said that he’s preparing for a utility role with the Tigers for the 2008 season.  At this point, Inge doesn’t have much of a choice because the Tigers have pretty much said he’s not going anywhere until spring training and even then, it’s probably more likely that he’s not dealt until closer to the July tradining deadline.  Inge would be a nice guy to have and hopefully a hot start by the team will convince him that any role with this special team is better then a starting role somewhere else.

Andrew Miller isn’t a Tiger anymore, but here’s an interesting story about how he showed up to work out decked out in Tigers garb.  Miller should be a middle of the rotation starter for the low budget Marlins next year and I’m a little interested in following that team because they have so many former Tiger prospects.

After a historic season in 2007, the Tigers may be looking to lock up Curtis Granderson to a long term deal despite the fact that he’s not even eligible for arbitration yet.  This is one of those big win/potentially big loss kind of deals because while Granderson had the monster year last year, there’s not a long track record of success.  Still, it looks like the team hopes to sign him to a deal that would take him through all of his arbitration eligible years and then his first year of free agency.  I’ll hold judgement until it’s done and we see a number but I expect it to be a backloaded deal like a lot of these usually end up being.

Former Tigers radio broadcaster and Hall of Famer Ernie Harwell turned 90 today.  The last time I talked to Ernie was over the summer about a book project I was working on and he’s still sharp.  I still highly recommend his audio scrapbook.  You get four discs of baseball memories that at least I’ve listened to over and over and over again.

Former closer Matt Mantei was one of 21 players invited to Tigers spring training this February as he continues his attempt at a comeback.  The former Diamondback hopes to make an impact this spring after a couple of years off and while it’s not expected that he’ll make the team, it’ll be interesting to see if he can get anything done this spring to secure at least a spot at Toledo.  Timo Perez and Aquilino Lopez were also given an invitation as were a variety of other minor leaguers.

Jason Beck addressed Dontrelle Willis’ spot in the rotation and I like his answer.  The whole rotation order is a bit overrated and if the five starter does his job, he’s going to log as many innings as the number one starter.  It all comes down to production and if Willis can get the job done, he’ll get his time out on the mound regardless as to whether he gets the ball in the fourth Tigers game or the second.

Once again, the Tigers avoided going to the arbitration table as they signed their arbitration eligible players.  The big signing was a one year (yes, I the bet with myself when I said they’d sign a five year deal) contract for third baseman Miguel Cabrera.  The Tigers will pay him $11.3 million.  They must have thought with another year (Cabrera can’t file for free agency until after the 2009 season) that they could put off a longer term deal.  Still, $11.3 million is one of the healthier deals for a player two seasons away from free agency.

The Tigers also signed Bobby Seay but I couldn’t open the press release to see how much they signed him for.  Seay will join Tim Byrdak as left handers coming out of the pen in 2008.

The Tigers signed Marcus Thames to a one year, $1.125 million deal today and that gives the Tigers with an inexpensive homerun hitter coming off the bench.  I like the idea of Jacque Jones/Marcus Thames platoon because it plays to both players’ strengths.  There really wasn’t much urgency to sign Thames to longer term deal because he’s only eligible for arbitration in 2009 and 2010.

That leaves Miguel Cabrera and Bobby Seay as the lone arbitration eligible players to sign.  My bet is, Cabrera gets a five year deal and he becomes a cornerstone for this team for a long time. 

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