It appears that the Tigers are calling up another young outfielder. The rumor has it that Casper Wells has been called up to the 25 man roster.
There likely won’t be an official roster move until tomorrow, but my guess is that Jim Leyland would like another position player on the bench the next two days. Ryan Raburn isn’t eligible to come back (barring a DL trip for somebody) until he’s spent 10 days on optional assignment.
Here’s how I think things will play out:
- Wells will take Alfredo Figaro’s spot on the roster effective tomorrow.
- Armando Galarraga will be recalled to start on Sunday. Otherwise somebody would be pitching on short rest (either Jeremy Bonderman or Rick Porcello). Galarraga last started on Tuesday so Sunday would be normal rest for him.
- When Galarraga is activated Wells will be sent down.
- Galarraga will likely be returned to Toledo after his start and another position player will be called up until Raburn can return. My guess would be Wilkin Ramirez at that point.
Wells has been struggling this year with a 191/268/374 line but he does have 5 homers.
What happened to Willis?
He’s pitching Saturday.
The 6th starter scenario makes more sense than starting Brad Thomas again, especially with Scherzer going Friday, they might need him early.
It’s interesting how they have used Toledo as an extended bench the last couple of years.
Tigers need to find a solution for the bottom of the lineup. We have no power, or hits for that matter, being generated after the fifth spot in the lineup. Guillen playing in the infield would make sense, if he can do a satisfactory job. Then, the question is, who do we move down to the minors? Sizemore? Everett? Or do we make a trade? Personally, I would love to see them make a move to get rid of one of their middle infielders and look for someone that would be willing to trade a sorely needed bat. This is all supposing Boesch stays, which he needs to.
Also, Tigers have plenty of options at other positions. This is one thing I absolutely love about our Tigers team this year. They have many players that are ready to compete at the major league level now (i.e. Thomas, Ramirez, Galarraga among others). The Tigers are deep and have an excellent minor league system setup for a bright future. What we need is a few stronger players at a couple positions to put us at the top of the AL Central. If we are aggressive in the post season and get one additional starting pitcher and go after a good hitting and fielding shortstop and left-fielder, this team will make a run in 2011.
After the way Jackson and Boesch have played, you can’t blame them for trying their luck with a couple more guys…Wells? Hey, who knows, what the heck, why not?
As far as all the angst over the 6-9 spots, relax. We’re, what, 2nd in the AL in team OPS? We’re hardly suffering offensively…yes, Jackson, Boesch, maybe even Cabrera will cool off…and Everett and Laird will not continue to hit .150 or whatever…it will even out–it doesn’t matter where the hits come from (except in fantasy leagues of course), and in fact it works out better, in my opinion, to have them clustered at the top half of the lineup.
To me the only real disappointment has been Raburn. Not only has he played left like he had a gold glove–literally–but he has seemed lost at the plate, like Inge in one of his awful phases. If he was hitting like 2009 Raburn our offense would easily be best so far in the league.
Also, with the front of our rotation returning to form, and an awesome bullpen (where would we have been in 2009 with 2010 Zumaya by the way?)…well, let’s just say this could be a decent year to be a Tiger fan.
We don’t need another bat, ironically what we need is some defense. It is the post-steroid era in baseball, where instead of shortstops hitting 30 plus homers a season, there are only a handful of corner outfielders hitting 30 homeruns. Teams like the Sox, Mariners and supposedly us, have been tinkering with their rosters and concentrating on pitching and defense. Cabrera’s and Jackson’s hot start, along with Boesch’s emergence, has allowed us to cover up the fact that we lead the league in errors, and consequently are among the leaders in unearned runs. The starters look to be coming around, and so when the hot bats settle down a bit, our poor defense is going to rear its ugly head even more.
Very true
The real issues for this team are pitching and defense, I know we can’t win every game 1-0, but the tigers need to keep the opponents closer on nights the hitting isn’t clicking 100%
Jackson definitely cooled off in this series so I’m anxious to see if he breaks out of his mini-slump against the Bo-Sox.
The moves sound about right Bilfer. My question though is: Guillen’s 15 dl stint has passed so do they have to re-up another 15 if he’s not back on the active roster or can he just stay on the 15 and be eligible to come off anytime after that 15 days has passed?
I think Gage said he saw him running doing some drills at the park the other night and looked better. I don’t think he would be back in time for Wells to not come up on Monday but maybe in time for that next transaction.
Corrected the source: it was Jason Beck