Comments on: Tigers solve crowded outfield by trading for outfielder

By: Dave BW

Dave BW — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:58:36 +0000

Sheff says he’s “not even close” to retiring. Also, he wants to play for the Rays. Gary, we all want to play for the Rays.

By: Mr. X

Mr. X — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:41:12 +0000

Either Larish steps into the fulltime DH or Anderson starts in LF and Guillen is DH.

Glad Sheffield is finally gone. We gave the guy enough chances. Time for him to retire.

By: greg

greg — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:13:54 +0000

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I don’t see Thames benefiting much from this as Leyland has always been allergic to giving him more than the occasional start. Best case for him is the short end of a platoon with Anderson in left and Guillen moving to fulltime DH.

By: Chris in Nashville

Chris in Nashville — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:02:06 +0000

So…this is all speculation, and who knows if this is the end of all the moves, but as of now I would think Guillen is the DH, Anderson/Thames split time in LF? I think this saves Thames spot on the team, which I can’t say I’m sad about. You know what you are going to get with Thames and he can carry a team at times when he’s hot. Man, this threw me for a loop today. Didn’t see this coming.

By: Brenden

Brenden — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:55:59 +0000

I am shocked at the release of Sheffield. I would dare say that the only smart move now is to put Guillen at DH, considering that is most of what he did during the WBC. I’m not a big fan of a platoon in left though, because that is what happened last year and we saw how that worked out. I feel like we are going back to position roulette that we had to deal with all last year that screwed us up. Guillen at DH, Clevlen/Andreson/ or maybe even Timo or Ramirez in LF. Sheff is a big piece that I thought would be a important to the potency of our line up. Apparently I was wrong…

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:53:56 +0000

He’ll be put on waivers and would like to go to Tampa Bay near his home (Sheff that is). Someone will probably pick him up on the cheap unless their rosters are already filled. But he’ll be a cheap risk since he’s already getting his 14 million.

By: Chris in Nashville

Chris in Nashville — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:47:11 +0000

WOW….I didn’t expect to see this. Maybe Thames does stick around after all.

By: Mark in Chicago

Mark in Chicago — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:38:50 +0000

This is a good first step, now please move Guillen to DH and find a platoon situation for LF.

By: scotsw

scotsw — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:35:39 +0000

Here’s the report.

http://www.mlive.com/tigers/in.....y_she.html

I’m kinda stunned. All credit to Coach Jim!

Didn’t take long to prove me exactly wrong, LOL!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:32:16 +0000

Sheff just got released!!!! It’s true.

By: scotsw

scotsw — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:20:14 +0000

By the way, I want to make a comment about the Flavor-of-the-month-club mentality you see from a lot of fans. Leyland and Dombrowski both know they need to win games. And neither Clete Thomas or Josh Anderson is a suitable bat to replace Magglio Ordonez or Carlos Guillen. They’ve been playing at a high level for a long time — they’re simply much, much better players. End of story. And if Sheff is healthy and can even hit .250 (which is a modest benchmark for a .294 career hitter), he’s still a dangerous bat with a world-class eye for the strike zone. I would be flabberghasted if they released him. Leyland and Dombrowski put a lot of stock in track records — perhaps to a fault — but they’ve both been around the game long enough not to be fooled by a player with one good year or one bad year.

By: scotsw

scotsw — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:08:59 +0000

I dig all the man-love for Clete Thomas, and it’s hard not to like a guy named after Clete Boyer. He’s a hustler, he fights hard in there, and he’ll play more games in the majors before it’s all done. But let’s be realistic: Clete came up last year and made a nice, unexpected contribution. He got hot in camp, came out of nowhere, then tailed off and needed arm surgery, and can hardly throw at this point. In 40 games in The Show, he had 2 steals and an OPS of .771, with one dinger. He’ll remain with the organization as he rehabs, and could possibly work up to being a nice .300 hitter, but don’t look for great power.

Josh Anderson has 11 swipes in 61 MLB games, an OPS of .783. and 3 HRs. But his career average is 30 points higher than Clete’s, and with his speed and the power alleys in Comerica, he stands to raise that OPS a bit … He’s not coming off arm surgery… He had a bunt single against Verlander on March 27th… He’s out of options. He strikes out far more than he walks (39 SO vs. 13 BB), a stat I’m sure the Tigers hope to improve on. Moving him allowed Atlanta to promote their star prospect Jordan Schafer to start in center.

Sounds like a Clete upgrade who fills the Tigers needs for the position, and a fair swap of useful pieces.

By: billfer

billfer — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:23:32 +0000

Guillen and Ordonez are virtually untradeable because of their contracts, and they certainly wouldn’t fetch a pitcher of note.

As for not caring about OBP, I think DD has sunk quite a bit of money into Sheffield/Ordonez/Cabrera/Guillen/Granderson (all of whom have above average OBPs) so OBP is probably somewhat important to him

By: Coach Jim

Coach Jim — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:32:15 +0000

Bench? It looks more like this guys should be given every chance at a starting position. He has a history of being a .300 hitter consistently. That stat of 42/49 steals last year was minors only, he was also 10/11 for the Braves, making 52/60 total in ’08. I agree with Joel that he doesn’t draw walks (boy does he K though). This is consistent with Jimmuh and D’s track record…they just don’t seem to care about OBP.

I see Josh being the new leadoff hitter. Granderson drops to 3rd or 5th. This probably doesn’t affect Thames, it probably means goodbye to Maggs, Guillen, or Sheffield. The good news is, that probably means a new starting pitcher if we move Ordonez or Guillen. Sheffield can just be released.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:31:48 +0000

I totally agree with Chris, as soon as I heard about the trade my gut instinct was that Thames is out. Unfortunately, the ship has sailed as far as a possible trade. They should’ve made a move last year when he had his big homer run. Thames one tool no defense game isn’t as attractive to teams as it used to be, and he’s not going to get any better. I’d like to see Wil Rhymes up as a utility man for the same reason, Santiago is he what he is, below replacement level.

All in all a good deal for the Tigs, even if we have to cut Marcus. With Larish and Anderson we have 2 players on the bench and 2 bodies in Treanor and Santiago. Anderson can fill in for Guillen late in games or pinch run for Sheffield. A solid offense is our only shot this year so I’m all for adding the speed ingredient to the Tigs attack.