Polanco gets some Gold Love

At least one Tiger is assured of some post season hardware. Placido Polanco won his second Gold Glove for excellence in the field of fielding. Polanco had a very fine defensive season and he was one of a handful of players (Mark Ellis, Dustin Pedroia, Aaron Hill) who were deserving at second base.

Polanco was the only Tiger to notch the honor. Gerald Laird was deserving at the catcher position and Brandon Inge could have made a case to be in the discussion at the hot corner. Joe Mauer and Evan Longoria took home the award though at their respective positions.

But back to Polanco’s candidacy. Rob Neyer wasn’t a fan of the choice grouping Polanco with Derek Jeter, Torii Hunter, and Adam Jones as the players that the voters “flat out blew it.” I’m not really sure how Polanco fits in that group. Polanco fared well on both conventional fielding metrics (only 2 errors) as well as the more advanced measures as Detroit Tiger Tales summarizes. Using most objective measures Polanco was a legitimate winner so I don’t know what Neyer is exactly looking for.

As an aside, props to Tigers MLB.com beat reporter Jason Beck who referenced Polanco’s UZR number in his story. It’s great to see the mainstream guys helping to go to the newer stats and it’s the only way that these will gain more traction.

Links for 2009-11-10

Brookens returns to the big leagues

The Tigers announced yesterday that Tom Brookens would be the new first base and outfield and base running coach. Brookens is an organizational soldier and it’s nice to see him get the opportunity to don the Old English D again. But it does raise the question about the qualifications or importance of positional coaches.

Brookens of course knows baseball. The former 4th overall pick in the 1975 draft had a 12 year big league career and has managed in the Tigers organization at Oneonta, West Michigan, and Erie. But very little of that career came in the outfield. Very little.

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Culling the Bill James Handbook

One of the few positives of the end of the baseball season is the Annual Bill James Handbook (aff link) arriving on my doorstep. At one time it was the only place to easily find a number of uncommon stats. Sites like Fangraphs and Baseball Reference and the rise of Pitch F/X data make some of these stats easier to come by, but the Handbook is still a trove of baseball stats.

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Tigers announce bevy of roster moves

The Tigers made a handful of roster moves today to prepare for the offseason. They are:

  • Mike Hollimon was outrighted to Toledo
  • Marcus Thames and Matt Treanor have been removed from the roster and are now free agents
  • Jeff Larish and Joel Zumaya have been reinstated from the disabled list
  • Jay Sborz had his contract purchased from Toledo

Thoughts

The Hollimon move isn’t surprising. He very may well still have a role in the organization. He has a 260/361/478 line in his minor league career which is solid for a middle infielder. He’s also 27 and has been injured much of the last 2 seasons meaning that he wasn’t going to get claimed.

The Matt Treanor announcement isn’t surprising either. Treanor will unfortunately finish his Tigers career without a hit but he does have the distinction of catching Rick Porcello’s debut.

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Free Agent Filing Begins

Now that the World Series is over the 15 day free agent filing period is underway. The period gives teams an “exclusive” negotiating window in which players can talk to other teams, but not talk contract parameters. So we won’t know exactly what will happens with the Tigers quartet* of impending free agents for awhile, except that they will go through the procedure of filing for free agency.

Steve Kornacki of Mlive did some catching up with a few of the possibly future former Tigers and got their thoughts on returning.

Fernando Rodney would like to stay in Detroit but is looking for a 3 to 4 year deal. It’s safe to say that he won’t get a 3 or 4 year deal from anyone (maybe 2 years with a club option for a 3rd) so that doesn’t really clear things up.

Of course the Rodney situation is in some ways tied to Brandon Lyon’s status. Understandably Lyon would like some clarification on what his role would be if he were to sign with Detroit.

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Inge has his surgery

The Detroit Tigers announced third baseman Brandon Inge underwent surgery on Tuesday to address the chronic patellar tendinitis in both of his knees that plagued him throughout the 2009 season, a procedure performed by Dr. Stephen Lemos at the Detroit Medical Center.

The procedure involved the debridement and repair of the patellar tendon in both his left and right knees.

Inge will be non-weight bearing for the first six weeks as he regains full range of motion. At that time, he will begin a strengthening and rehabilitation program to prepare him for Spring Training and the 2010 season.

According to the projected timetable, Inge is expected to be ready for the start of Spring Training in February.

Inge had a great start to the season and rode that hot start to an unexpected All Star game invitation. But his second half numbers were abysmal. On July 2nd Inge was sporting a robust 275/367/521 line spanning his first 77 games. Over his next 84 games he’d only muster a 189/266/309 line. The knees, which started acting up in mid June, were often blamed for Inge’s second half slide.

Roster Cutting

With the end of the 2009 season looming, the Tigers have some roster cutting to do. They currently have 44 protected players between the 40 man roster and disabled lists. They have to get that number down to 40 in the short term and well under 40 eventually to protect minor leaguers.

The Tigers need to reduce their roster to 40 players before the free agent filing period, which is the first 15 days after the end of the World Series). Matt Treanor, Mike Hollimon, Joel Zumaya, and Jeff Larish currently find themselves on the disabled list meaning that 4 of the current 44 players need to be removed any day now.

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Comerica is not doubles friendly

Why is it that people keep insisting that Comerica Park is a great park for doubles? Is it the large centerfield? The huge-mongous gaps between the outfielders? I just don’t know but it just ain’t true but now even the general manager is saying it.

John Lowe wrote about the Tigers lack of doubles as an indictment of the offense. I can’t really argue that point as the Tigers ranked 30th in MLB with only 245 doubles. That isn’t good at all.

What I will take issue with is that the number was remarkable because of their home ballpark. Lowe cites the fact that it was strange that the Tigers had more doubles on the road than at home. He quotes Dave Dombrowski on the subject as well:

“When you talk about the Tigers and our ability not to score runs and not hit the way we should, it’s the lack of doubles,” Dombrowski said. “We have a ballpark that is conducive to a doubles-hitting club. It has tremendous gaps.”

But here’s the rub, Comerica Park is a bad park for doubles.

doubles by year

The table shows the number of doubles hit by the Tigers and their opponents each year at Comerica Park, and on the road (don’t forget back in 2009 the Tigers had one extra road game). For each of the last 5 years – and I didn’t go back further because I think the point has been made – more doubles are hit other places than at Comerica.

The ratio, more commonly referred to as a park factor, routinely puts Comerica Park in the bottom third in the majors in terms of doubles. A value of 1 would be neutral, values greater than 1 mean the park would be favorable and values less than one mean it is unfavorable. Over the last 5 years it’s been about 6% harder to hit a double at Comerica park than at a typical stadium. So can we finally put to rest the notion that it is a good doubles ballpark?

For more on Comerica’s outfield and other park factor goodness, you may want to check out these posts from the archives:

Sizemore needs surgery

The early encouraging returns on Scott Sizemore’s broken tibia have been replaced with a cringe inducing MRI report. During his examination today, it was determined that the injury will require surgery.

Sizemore told John Lowe and the Freep:

“The torn tendons cause instability in the ankle,” Sizemore said. “They are going to put in a few screws to lock everything into place.”

The team isn’t commenting yet. It looked like a sure thing that Sizemore, the Tigers likely second baseman in 2010, would be fully healed in a matter of weeks and the injury would be a non-factor by February. The prognosis isn’t dire at this point, but there is a possibility he won’t be all the way back by the time players report to Lakeland.

Based on the information available in the Free Press article, Baseball Prospectus injury guru Will Carroll said in an email:

“My guess is he’ll be back for ST, but maybe not 100% while he figures out the ankle. It depends on how he heals. It shouldn’t be too much of a long term issue. I’ve never seen a 2B with this, so it’s tough to judge.

Color me cautiously optimistic

Tigers prospect Scott Sizemore needs surgery | Detroit Free Press | Freep.com

Tigers not tapped out? In on Chapman?

There are a lot of unknowns heading into the Tigers offseason, but one constant assumption has been that the Tigers are working on a limited budget. The only dispute has been how limited. Now there may be reason to doubt that assumption as the Tigers have interest in Cuban southpaw Aroldis Chapman.

Chapman is 21 and comes with a 100mph fastball and the type of price tag that those traits typically warrant. He could find himself getting a Daisuke Matsuzaka type deal. That would seem to limit his suitors to those flush with cash to spend.

Chapman likely won’t end up in Detroit. I can’t see the Yankees or Mets or Red Sox letting him get away. But the fact that the Tigers are even interested in a meeting given the price tag tells me things might not be as fiscally dire as they appear.