Comments on: Tigers pick up Pudge’s option

By: K-Man

K-Man — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:02:46 +0000

Pudge will become a free agent after the 2008 season. Because of that, I look for him to have a big year next year so he can get that one last huge contract, either from us or somebody else. Look for a .300 average, 20 homers, 80 ribbies and dare I say it? More walks!

By: Rings

Rings — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:04:54 +0000

Don: great post this morning and right on the money.

Ron: Rabelo has a chance of being decent, but could also end up Torey Lovullo – such is the chance one takes on young players. Despite his low OBP, Pudge is still better as of today.

Jojo: are you related to Pudge or Scott Boras?

By: Jojo Sun Devil

Jojo Sun Devil — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:57:09 +0000

This was a great move:

The Tigers need Pudge. He is their on-field leader, and more than that he is their pitching coach. I know Chuck Hernandez has the title, but Pudge manages these young pitchers in-game. These volatile pithcers like Juurjens, Verlander and Miller, they need a veteran presence like Pudge that teaches then how to throw the right pitches and instills in them that competive mentality.

Then as for the hitting. Pudge has struggled, but he is still capable of hitting .300. But even if not, his on-field leadership is priceless.

And he is still the best defensive catcher in baseball.

Worth every penny.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:50:39 +0000

Leave Rabelo play all the time. With the experience, he’ll be fine. Now we have to put up with a guy whose best days are waaay behind him.

By: BobS.

BobS. — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:15:14 +0000

I think,for several reasons(with performance being only one of them)retaining Pudge was the best of the poor options which were this years free agents as well as our current backups.I’m not sure we have to weigh the deal in terms of opportunity costs inasmuch as this deal would not have been done without strong input from Illitch,who seems to have a tendency to lead with his heart-the money will still be there for whatever deal Dombrowski can make.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:09:46 +0000

If Rabelo had played all season, he would have had the same stats as I Rod.

By: Kyle J

Kyle J — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:48:23 +0000

What exactly does it tell you, Ron? That the team wasn’t willing to give Vance Wilson and Mike Rabelo the chance they deserve?

By: Kathy

Kathy — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:33:26 +0000

I think they’ll go one more year with this group plus a SS and try to win it all. After that we should start seeing some of our younger guys like Gorky and Cameron and a few others whose names I don’t know. I’d trade Inge and Infante in a heartbeat.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:33:13 +0000

Keeping Pudge tells me everything I want to know about this club next year barring a blockbuster trade involving a few pitchers.

By: don

don — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:13:28 +0000

kyle brings up a good point, giving a 30 year old pitcher a five year deal is a bad investment 80% of the time, no matter who it is. not so for a hitter with a track record, who won’t have nearly the injury risk as a pitcher of the same age. The margin of error for pitchers is way slimmer – get a sore elbow and you pitch like bondo did august/sept, magglio/guillen/pudge/sheff were able to play through minor injuries, usually effectively enough.

By: Kyle J

Kyle J — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:41:12 +0000

Don is right on. The aging hitters of the Tigers are certainly a concnern, but it’s better to have to sign hitters through free agency than to have to sign pitchers. One need look no further than the Bronx for evidence of that.

By: don

don — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:01:24 +0000

Few things:
(1) Adam Dunn is not an option right now. He’s going to have his one-year option picked up by the reds, which triggers a no trade clause until next summer. He’s not a free agent until 2008 and if we want him at the deadline we’d have to give up top prospects.
(2) Pudge is the least bad of available catchers. FA catchers: loduca, barrett, kendall, torrealba, castro. You’d have to give multi year contracts to any of those losers to come here, it’s a no-brainer to bring back pudge for $10m and see what happens next year.
(3) You have to DEVELOP young hitters. The hitters on this team are old because the tigers have been unable to develop hitters. Only granderson and inge are homegrown starters. The price – in trades – of acquiring decent hitters before they’re eligible for free agency is absolutely through the roof. We have a couple/few good hitting prospects on the farm – maybin, gorkys, maybe raburn – but nobody at SS/C/1B and nobody ready at LF.
(4) Guillen is at first because the other options are terrible: FA 1B this year: piazza, hillenbrand, klesko, sweeney, tony clark (hmmm…). He’s not moving to third because then we’d have to replace SS and 1B and the defensive downgrade from inge to guillen would almost wipe out the offensive upgrade.
(5) LF – yuck. Rowand? Coming off a career year will make 3 times what he’s worth. Jose Guillen? Meh. Torii hunter? Career year, past his prime, pass. Bradley, patterson, wilkerson, lofton, sanders, nixon, stairs. Uh, nothing’s really jumping out at me. Nobody worth a multiyear deal. Could do a lot worse than one year of Lofton though, he could bat leadoff and we cold move granderson back into an rbi slot. Hopefully maybin would be ready by the time lofton’s gone in 09.
(6) How does the team win in 09-11? With a few great homegrown hitters *crystal ball* granderson, maybin, gorkys, a one or two big time FA hitters, and a few random hitters who don’t hurt you – in the inge/casey/monroe/infante mold. Plus awesome starting pitching. 09-11 will see a rotation of verlander/bonderman/miller/porcello, which has a very, very good chance of being the best in baseball since the early 90s braves. I think DD’s strategy is to tread water with the old guys for a year or two, see how miller/porcello/maybin/gorkys come along and then save the big moves for when he thinks the starters are ready to make a big run.
(7) Let’s not forget that if we avoid even half the injuries to rogers/bonderman/zumaya/rodney/sheffield, we’re in the playoffs right now. There is absolutely no reason why this same exact same team couldn’t win 92-94 games next year if we get a few breaks. Would anyone here trade everyone in our organization for everyone in anaheim or cleveland or colorado or arizona? (Don’t ask me boston). Stay positive, I think we’re in the middle of a nice big window for winning baseball in detroit.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:29:50 +0000

I agree with Rings.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:36:10 +0000

This unfortunate move is an indication of one thing: the Tigers have become committed to spending loads of cash on aging players well into their decline. And this team should get very little from such spending.

A list of 2007 MLB team payrolls(http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=2007) shows no little correlation between money spent and competitive success. Three of the bottom eight spending teams are currently in the final four of the MLB playoffs. And one can argue that all three of those teams should be more competitive than the Tigers next season. They all have young talent on the incline of their careers, while the Tigers have aging expensive big named players.

The problem I have with resigning Pudge is not the money spent. It is the fact that with this money we could have players who could do a lot more. For the price of Pudge plus whatever small-ball left handed hitter that the tigers are likely to get in left field or SS, we could have Adam Dunn’s 40 home runs. And that is a shame because an Adam Dunn inserted into this lineup would make this team the most feared offensive team in the league for ’08.

By: Mike R

Mike R — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:30:11 +0000

We’re not going to move Inge of 3rd base. Not happening. They committed to him when they gave him $24 million. So even getting excited about moving Guillen to 3rd base isn’t worth it (it’s intriguing and his offensive numbers are good for a 3B).

Joey, I’m not trying to plug my own stuff because it’s mine, but I think it’s really interesting. But I I crunched the numbers and Jack Wilson is actually putting up numbers, combined offensively and defensively, that would be an overall upgrade. All of the options save for Cesar Izturis are an upgrade over Guillen at SS. And since he’s an offensive upgrade over Sean Casey, that overall helps our team. Tejada, Renteria, Wilson, and Vizquel even with their different defensive concerns — Tejada’s diminishing range, Vizquel’s virtual zero range — they all were in the positive in terms of runs defensively where as Guillen was in the negative (+ = preventing, – = costing team runs). I’ve come around on Jack Wilson — even at $6.5 million next year.