Author Archive

MLB.com beat reporter Jason Beck recently answered readers’ questions in a mailbag column.  He touches on everything from Jordan Tata to waiver transactions to the fact that the Tigers have four west coast swings in 2007. 

Justin Verlander turned 24 today.  It seems like quite some time when the players were all older then me.  Now, a vast majority are younger (I am younger then Barry Bonds though).  Anyway, happy birthday Justin.

It’s funny how these things work out.  Three years ago, Ivan Rodriguez was one of the biggest signings the Tigers had ever made and the Tigers took a chance on him despite his injury history.  Now, the deal looks like a huge bargain and Rodriguez is finishing up his four year deal in 2007.  Rodriguez recently said he’d like to play until he’s 40 and he’d like to retire a Tiger.  With no heir apparant at catcher in the Tigers farm system (not a single catcher even shows up as an honorable mention on Sickels’ Tigers prospect list), it looks like a prudent move to get Ivan Rodriguez locked up for another year or two.  Preferably sooner rather then later.

My only concern is it seems like Pudge is living on borrowed time.  The linked article talks about his training regimen, which sounds solid, but a freak injury, which isn’t uncommon amongst catchers, could make any potential extension a waste of money.  PECOTA has Pudge posting a solid .287/.320/.423 but he has a collapse rating of 32% and an attrition rating of 26%.  And if you look at his five year projections, there’s a big drop off in 2008 and then another one in 2009.  So if Pudge does play until he’s 40, he’s even more special then he’s already indicated as a future Hall of Famer.

Probably the best one stop source for Tiger spring training updates is Beck’s blog.  Jason Beck is the MLB.com beat writer for the Tigers and he’s the author of all of those great MLB.com columns.  He hasn’t posted an entry yet for today but you get a nice set of notes on the happenings at camp that day.

This is a nice story by Jason Beck on Wil Ledezma, who could provide the Tigers with a variety of different roles in 2007.  He could be the heir apparant to the rotation if someone goes down or if there’s a trade or Mike Maroth isn’t fully recovered from his injury but in the meantime, he’ll provide the Tigers with a left handed long relief specliast.  Ledezma has been one of the guys I’ve been excited about for a couple of years yet he still hasn’t panned out.  He suffered through a tough 2003 season as a Rule Five pick, had a nice season at Double A in 2004 to make a name for himself, floundered in the Tigers rotation before getting sent down to Toledo in 2005 until finding a spot on the team as the fifth starter down the stretch in 2006. 

Probably his biggest moment was in game four of the ALCS.  With the game tied, Ledezma came into the game with two outs and the bases loaded and got Mark Scutaro to pop out.  Then he pitched a shutout ninth that set the stage for the Tigers to win it with Ordonez’s walk off homerun in the bottom of the ninth.

I took quite a bit of heat last year for declaring that the best place for Todd Jones was at closer.  Many think Joel Zumaya or Fernando Rodney should have gotten the job after Jones had a horrible stretch in early June but Jim Leyland stuck with him and got some solid production from Jones in the second half.  In 30 second half innings, Jones posted a 1.80 ERA with a 1.07 WHIP.  He then threw 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball in the playoffs.  Now Jones is the spotlight of this interesting Detroit News article.

My logic behind having Jones be the closer is that normally he comes into a game and usually gives up a hit or even two.  If he comes in with nobody out and he gives up two singles in the ninth, it gets our blood pressure up but it usually doesn’t cost us the game.  If he were to come in with men on first and third and one out, it would be a recipe for disaster because in that kind of situtation, you’d want a guy like Joel Zumaya to come to get a strikeout or a weak grounder.

Jones biggest strength is that he doesn’t normally walk many batters.  He had eleven last year in 64 innings.  Now Jones can look to build on that second half (remember he was injured to open the season) and hopefully earn his keep as the Tigers closer for at least one more season.

This time it’s the Dodgers.  If you liked the coverage so far over at Detroit Minors, a similar website has started that will cover the Dodgers’ minor league affiliates.  Whether it’s keeping track of a great farm system or if you just want to keep tabs on the Dodgers new minor league affiliate in Midland, MI, you can do all this and more at the Dodgers Minor League Baseball Blog.  I’m hoping to check out the Great Lakes Loons in their new digs in Midland this year, especially when the Whitecaps roll into town.

Jason Stark has a very nice column that pokes fun on how he and his fellow journalists made a big deal about pitchers’ fielding practice for the Tigers.  It’s a couple of days old but it’s pretty funny.

Here’s a nice column about how Jim Leyland has been impressed with young pitchers like Andrew Miller, Preston Larrison and Kyle Sleeth.  While all three guys are going to be headed to the minors, it’d be nice if all three could show us something this spring.  I think Miller is going to be solid, but Larrison and Sleeth have a little bit to prove before they get that prospect tag back.

John Sickels recently compiled a community projection for Jeremy Bonderman.   I’m a little more optimistic on his win/loss total if he finishes with a 3.86 ERA and I also see his WHIP being a little better.  A 189/62 strikeout to walk ratio I could definitely live with though.

A lot was made about the downturn in the White Sox rotation in 2006.  Many people felt that overwork in 2005 actually came back to haunt the team near the end of 2005 and it’ll be interesting to see, as a few Tigers set career highs for innings pitched, whether this will happen to the Tigers starters.

Justin Verlander was the first to admit that he hit a wall in 2006.  As Tom Gage mentions, Verlander wasn’t quite as effective in the second half and things really came to a head in the World Series against the Cardinals.

So it’ll be interesting to see how the Tigers and Jim Leyland compensate for this.  It might not hurt to throw Wil Ledzma in there as a sixth starter now and then to give everyone an extra day off and maybe narrow their start total down by one or two.

Kyle Sleeth was the Tigers first round pick in 2003 and the third player take overall in the draft.  So far though, Sleeth hasn’t lived up to the hype and he’s currently trying to come back from Tommy John surgery.  He had a rough comeback season last year and he’s hoping to continue things this year.   This is a great story on Sleeth and it’s well worth the read.

Also, the Tigers outrighted Preston Larrison today.  I touched on him in a column earlier this week and he’ll get an invite to spring training.  Now we’ll get to see if he makes it.  You can check out more of the details at Detroit Tigers Weblog.

At this point in time, Sean Casey is the Tigers 2007 starting first basemen.  He’s had his share of injuries the past couple of years and in Will Carroll’s latest positional health report, Casey comes in with a high risk red light.  So the question is, if Casey is an injury concern how should he be handled day to day by Jim Leyland.  While it’s not a certainly, I tend to agree with Carroll that if Casey starts day and in day out, his chances of hitting the DL are pretty good.  So the question is, do we keep Chris Shelton on the team or do we shuffle things a bit and move Carlos Guillen to first once a week and then give Ramon Santiago, or even better, Omar Infante, some time at shortstop.  If the Tigers keep 12 pitchers, there might not be room for Shelton, which would force them to do the shuffling.  I’ve also heard they might try giving Marcus Thames some time at first base, which could be another potential solution.

I guess I never realized it, but Magglio Ordonez has a solid throwing arm.  His range might not be up near the top, but in a column at the Hardball Times, Ordonez came in with the third best throwing arm amongst right fielders.  His kill rating was a second best 164 although his hold rating was a slightly above average 106.  Regardless, his arm saved about five runs last year. 

While Curtis Granderson was near the bottom of the centerfielder list, Craig Monroe came in fourth place amongst left fielders.  His 187 kill rating was best on that list while his hold rating was an average 101.  Expect to see those numbers close on one another as more people respect Monroe’s arm in 2007.

I finished a brief Bill Freehan retrospective over at the 1967 AL Pennant Race site.  Things have been a little slow over there but I’m going to urge the other writers to ramp things up leading into the regular season.  It should be a fun site and I’m looking forward to the actual season diary kicking off.

Also, Mike started his top ten Tiger prospect series with a look at third baseman/OSU grad Ron Bourquin.  He doesn’t provide a ton of details but you’ll at least get familiar with the players.

Heading into the 2003 season, Preston Larrison was one of the Tigers top prospects and the teams second round pick in 2001.  In 2002, he had a solid season at Lakeland, and he even battled for a spot in the rotation in the spring of 2003 (yeah, 2003).  Not making the team, he then struggled in Erie.  He walked (59) more batters then he struck out (53) and while he did play in the Futures Game, it was more out of default because the Tigers farm system was so bad.  In 2004, he redid Double A and while he was better in 20 starts, he was shut down because of sore elbow and eventually needed Tommy John surgery.  He missed 2005 then attempted his comeback last year, once again in Erie.  He started slowly and he was eventually thrown into the bullpen, where he showed some improvement.  He continued to throw well when he got promoted to Triple A but a trip to the Arizona Fall League was humbling and the big right hander was knocked around (.327 batting average against) in thirteen relief appearances for the Desert Dogs.

Now Larrison is 26 and he’s out of options.  He’ll be one of the interesting stories this spring and with the addition of slider, Larrison could open a lot of eyes.  Regardless, the Tigers will have to make a decision on him.  If they don’t bring him up, then he’ll go on waivers and most likely lost.  If he makes the team, he could turn out to be an interesting story similar to Jason Grilli, who overcame an injury and eventually came back and contributed at the major league level.

This time it’s starting pitching and with the Tigers coming off of a season where they led the majors in ERA, it’s no surprise that they’d show up in a list of the top five best starting rotations in baseball.

And they’re in some solid company.  The Red Sox are highlighted, but four of the five (Yankees, Angels, Tigers, Red Sox) are all in the American League.  Which gets me to a question.  Is this THE most anticipated Tiger season in the last 20 years?  You could make a claim for 1988 because they were coming off of a division title in 1987 but that team had a different makeup (mostly veterans well past their peak seasons).

It’s definitely fun to be a Tiger fan these days.

Jim Moloney at MLB.com recently posted an article on who he thinks will win 20 games in 2007.  You’ve got the usual suspects like Johan Santana, Roy Oswalt and Roy Halladay, but in the mix of names is Tiger sophomore Justin Verlander.  As honorable mentions (which is a pretty long list), he mentions both Kenny Rogers and Jeremy Bonderman as well.

If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Bonderman.  After two years of showing up on breakout lists, I really think this will be Bonderman’s season to shine.

One thing this site has always lacked has been adequate coverage of the Tigers minor league affiliates.  For the past couple of years I’ve been trying to find someone to write about the Tigers minor leagues for the website and I’ve gone one better with the creation of the Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog,  New blogger Mike Cassidy agreed to take on writing for the site and I’ll probably be making a contribution or two through out the year.  I met Mike via email recently when we got to talking about the Toledo Mudhens and how long they’ve been with the Tigers and I finally convinced him to give blogging a shot.  He’ll be starting off with his own hybrid list of the top ten Tiger prospects so stop by and give him a shout.

This ESPN.com report speculates that the Tigers have the second best outfield in baseball.  While I like the Tigers depth (with Thames hanging on as the team’s fourth outfielder) and I like the starting three, I still think the Yankees and especially the Mets, with the addition of Moises Alou, have a better triumvirate.

This is a neat story about Nate Robertson’s visit to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt.

Jason Beck recently took a look at the Tigers bullpen and it’s hard not to like what the Tigers are bringing back.  It wasn’t that many years ago that the Tigers bullpen was a weakness, but not any more.  The Tigers boast a solid big three in Joel Zumaya, Fernando Rodney and Todd Jones and the supporting cast is solid as well.  I still don’t like the signing of Jose Mesa and I really don’t think he’ll be a factor by the end of the year.  I hope I’m wrong, but who knows.

Of course all the talk centers around a left handed relief pitcher with the departure of Jamie Walker.  Right now, Wil Ledezma will probably the primary lefty but his future is still as a starter.  I think a wild card will be Joey Eischen, who has something to prove.  Also don’t rule out Rule Five pick Edward Campusano.  He’s got a live arm but he’s never pitched higher then Double A.

Even with one lefty though, the Tigers pen will still keep them in games.  They’ll have some decisions to make after the 2007, but for now, I’ll just enjoy what the Tigers have.

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