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Preston Larrison – Out of Options

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.



Larrison was designated for assignment last week after the Tigers picked up righty Yorman Bazardo in a trade with Seattle. Not sure if that means he’d be around in a ‘extra arm brought over from minor league camp’ capacity or not.

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Posted by ozz on February 14th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

[…] As Brian wrote Larrison was out of options. He was a longshot to make the club which meant the Tigers would have had to go through this exercise sooner or later anyways. By getting it done now, it may have increased the team’s chances of keeping him. If he’s a late season cut maybe someone looking for help takes a flyer on him. […]

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Posted by The Detroit Tiger Weblog » Blog Archive » Larrison outrighted to Toledo on February 15th, 2007 at 6:02 pm


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