Uncategorized

Tony Giarratano called up?!

4 Comments

The Tigers have called up Tony Giarratano from AA Erie. Tony G turned heads during spring training by going 14 for 42 in 19 games. He got an extended look due to Carlos Guillen’s light spring work schedule. Giarratano hasn’t really been lighting up the Eastern League hitting 253/330/388 with 9 errors. He has walked 21 times, but also struck out 43 times in 170 at-bats.

John Sickels has Giarratano rated as the 3rd best prospect in the Tigers system and gave him a “B” grade. He also had this to say a couple weeks ago:

Tony Giarratano is a guy I have been plugging as a sleeper prospect for some time. He hit .376 in 53 games after being promoted to the Florida State League last summer, and I thought he would do well this year in Double-A. Unfortunately, that hasn’t panned out. Through 29 games for Erie, Giarratano is hitting .239/.336/.367. There is good and bad here. He is taking walks, with 17 free passes in 127 plate appearances, a decent ratio. But he is striking out a lot more than he did in A-ball, with 32 whiffs already. And his production is down across the board; he came into the season with a career .333/.392/.450 mark. My thinking is that Giarratano will heat up as the season progresses, perhaps finishing with numbers around .280/.340/.410 or so. We will revisit this prediction at the end of the year. Remind me if I forget.

Giarratano is a decent prospect who doesn’t appear to be ready. I can’t imagine the Tigers calling him up to be a back-up. First, at this stage in his development he needs regualr at-bats. Second, they are starting his service clock which means he’ll be reaching arbitration eligibility that much sooner. If he’s not going to be a back-up, that means they expect Guillen to not be playing shortstop much in the near term.

Jason Smith will be designated for assignment to make room for Giarratano.

4 thoughts on “Tony Giarratano called up?!”

  1. He has been doing well at Erie, and honestly, there is nothing to get excited about from either Gookie Dawkins or Ryan Raburn, the middle infield at Toledo. Raburn in particular is getting smoked by the IL.

  2. Reading the responses to Billfer’s post on Pena/Shelton have really depressed me. Despite the weekend sweep, this team comes out of last night’s game in disarray, and the recent moves by management don’t inspire confidence. I think the anxious tone of recent posts to this site reflect this. You guys aren’t doing much to make me feel better!

    Anyway, this latest move is really distressing and it appears that we may be seeing the end of Guillen in the lineup for some time. Mirroring questions raised earlier–why the hell is smith going down in favor of Martinez? Totally baffling.

    This year’s Tigers are running into the worst stretch of luck seen outiside the northside of Chicago in ages.

  3. I’d say the reason it’s Smith over Martinez is all money. I think Martinez has a guaranteed contract at 1.2 million. Smith’s is only for about $400k. Really, for the difference in actual performance, you might as well write-off the cheaper guy.

  4. I’m happy about this… if we’re going to be hurting for injuries we might as well give tony a chance to see some major league playing time instead of giving it to jason smith, who i regard as one of the worst bench players in the majors.

    In addition giarratano now gets the chance to talk to both tram and guillen and learn from them.

Comments are closed.