Category Archives: Contracts

Analyzing the contracts of Detroit Tigers players.

2007 Season, Contracts

Tigers sign Timo Perez, Bobby Seay

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Jon Paul Morosi reports that the Tigers have signed Timo Perez to a minor league contract.

Perez will be 30 next season. He plays all out field positions and hits left handed. His major league career numbers are 262/301/373 with his best season coming in 2002 for the Mets when he hit 295/331/437. In part time big league duty since then he hasn’t topped an OBP of 301.

He was productive at the AAA level last year hitting 295/349/515 so maybe he can help the Mud Hens win another International League Championship.

Morosi also notes that Bobby Seay will be returning with a minor league contract as well.

Contracts, Free Agents

Loving the English D

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Could it be that Detroit isn’t such a bad place to play?

It wasn’t so long ago that the Tigers were begging players to come here. They were being rebuffed by marquee free agents such as Miguel Tejada, and having to settle for Fernando Vinas and Jason Johnsons. When they did attract the big names, it was more of as a last resort. But it wasn’t just desperation, it was because the Tigers were offering substantially more money and substantially more years. Pudge Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez came here because the Tigers were the only club willing to commit to long term deals.

Yet today the Tigers have managed to lock up a player ahead of free agency. Add Jeremy Bonderman to the ever growing list of Tigers who decided to sign at-or-below-market deals to stay in Detroit. Brandon Inge re-upped for 4 more years a couple weeks ago, just one year shy of free agency.

Placido Polanco spent less than 2 months in Detroit before deciding to stick around for 4 more years without even waiting for the end of the season – and this in the middle of a career year.

Polanco’s move wasn’t unprecedented because Carlos Guillen did the same thing in 2004 agreeing to a 3 year deal when he could have made much more on the open market after a career year.

Gary Sheffield agreed to be traded here…and with a reasonable contract extension.

Even Vance Wilson probably could have done better this offseason given the dearth of catching talent, but he signed an extension midseason as well.

Players, good players, players with options, are eschewing the monster payday for a fair wage in a place that they like. I don’t know if it is the team’s performance, or if Dave Dombrowski is just a good guy to work for, or if it is that the AL Central has 4 good teams who each have a shot at the playoffs, but players are liking it in Detroit.

Jason Beck quoted Bonderman saying:

“There’s always the idea of free agency,” he admitted, “but I love the guys here. I love the team. I love everything about playing for the Tigers right now. They’re a great organization.”

It echoes Inge’s comments

“Never,” he said. “It never (entered) my mind that I’d want to be anywhere other than Detroit. It’s all I’ve known. It’s all I really want to know.”

If this means the end of the Detroit Tax in which the Tigers are extorted for boatloads of money, or simply used as leverage on the way to bigger deals (ie Pavano), then this is probably the best news of the offseason for Detroit fans.

Contracts

Tigers lock up Bonderman

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The Tigers agreed to a 4 year contract with Jeremy Bonderman keeping him a Tiger through the 2010 season. I don’t have terms yet, but I’ll update when I learn more.

Signing Bonderman to a long term deal had to be one of the Tigers’ top priorities this offseason (at least it was mine). His peripherals have improved every year and he was 2nd to Johan Santana in K/9. I’m pretty excited and I don’t even know the terms yet.

UPDATE: According to the Cut Off Man, who is citing WDFN, the deal is for $38 million. This appears to be a great deal for the Tigers, and a nice big payday for Bonderman.

As a point of comparison, Johan Santana signed a 4 year $39.75 million deal last year which also bought out his last 2 years of aribtration. Bondo is no Santana, but given the inflation in the market this year this seems reasonable. Bonderman would be likely to make $10-12 million over his last 2 years of arbitration. So the Tigers essentially got his first 2 years of free agency for about $14 million per year. Bonderman will still get to be a free agent at the age of 28 so everyone wins.

UPDATE 2: The contract breaks down like so:
2007 -$4.5 million
2008 -$8.5 million
2009 -$12.5 million
2010 -$12.5 million
Continue reading Tigers lock up Bonderman →

Contracts, Injuries, Pitching, Players

Dombrowski on the Big Show

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Dave Dombrowski was interviewed today on WXYT 1270. There were definitely more insights than you typically hear in a team executive interview. The 12 minute interview can be found here, but I’ll break out some of the highlights.

Zumaya is staying in the pen

Dombrowski stated very clearly that Joel Zumaya is not moving to the rotation. Prior to the season I would have been highly against this. I was all for trying Joel Zumaya as a reliever to get him some big league experience and take it easy on his arm at the same time. But I still thought at some point he should be given an opportunity to start. I’ve come around on this completely. Zumaya’s dominance combined with the continued strides forward of Nate Robertson and Jeremy Bonderman, the drafting of Andrew Miller, and the emergence of Zach Miner, Wil Ledezma, and Jair Jurrjens make me think this is the right move.

Zumaya likes video games

You remember that wrist injury that limited Zumaya late in the season? Apparently he’s a big fan of Guitar Hero 1 Bundle (with Guitar) and played it all the time. At least this is a correctable problem.

Inge isn’t moving to catcher

When Pudge Rodriguez is no longer catching for the Tigers, they aren’t going to turn to Brandon Inge. He doesn’t want to catch, and the Tigers don’t want him to catch, save for an emergency situation. He won’t be reporting to spring training early with the other catchers this year.

Extending Bonderman

Dombrowski said he’d like to keep Bonderman in the organization long term, but doesn’t feel a pressing need to get it done this season. I agree with this to a certain extent. That said, I’d love to be writing this winter about locking up Bonderman with a new 4 year/44 million contract with a 16 milliion club option for a 5th year with a $4 million buyout.

2007 Season, Contracts, Pitching, Roster Management

Tigers sign Jose Mesa

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Jerry Crasnick is reporting the Tigers have signed Jose Mesa to a 1 year $2.5 million deal. I for the life of me can’t figure out why. Not why Crasnick is reporting it, but why the Tigers would do it.

Mesa is 40 years old, and for the last 3 years he allows more than a hit an inning. He walks a batter every other inning, and he only strikes out a few more than he walks. He’s basically a 40 year old version of Jason Grilli at 6 times the cost.

One of my arguments for not keeping Jamie Walker was that he didn’t see enough high leverage situations for the Tigers to justify $4 million a year. I only hope that Mesa doesn’t see enough high leverage situations to justify his money. My fear is that like the Tigers other aging, $2.5 million bundle of joy, he will see significant time.

This one I just don’t get.

2006 Season, Contracts, Players

Inge gets a new deal – is he worth it?

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The Tigers appear close to a long term contract with Brandon Inge. The deal is believed to be for 4 years and $24 million. This certainly seems like a reasonable deal for the Tigers, even before taking into account the current free agent landscape. The Tigers don’t have anyone in the minors knocking down the door to play third, so he won’t block anybody for awhile.

Inge has posted OPS+’s of 108, 100, and 99 over the last 3 years. So he’s pretty much a league average offensive player at a position that typically is above average offensively, making him a little below average with the bat.

American League third sackers hit 269/338/442 while Inge hit 253/313/463 last year. I’d love more OBP, but he does compensates somewhat with extra power. He’s 29 so I don’t expect much improvement at this point, but given his body type and athleticisism I also think that level of production is sustainable for the length of the contract. While the article says the intention is for Inge to play third throughout the contract, there is also the added bonus that if the Tigers can’t find a replacement for Pudge Rodriguez, Inge is certainly equipped to fill that need as well.

But of course the lightning rod of Brandon Inge discussions always focuses on defense. Detractors will look at the high error total and say he isn’t any good. That he makes some spectacular plays but that doesn’t make up for the easy ones. Proponents of Inge’s defense – like myself – will say that even with the errors he still saves more than enough runs to make up for the minor deficiencies in his offense. And so we’ll do that again here.

Turning to the Probabilistic Model of Range, Inge ranked near the top of all Major League third basemen. (PMR looks at the rate at which fielders turn ball put in play into outs while adjusting for the type of hit, where it was hit, and handedness of batter and pitcher) Inge made 26 more plays than expected. This is includes all those errors on plays he didn’t make. Using a value of .80 runs for each play made means that Inge saved the Tigers 20.8 runs with his glove which is more than enough to make up for the slight deficiency with his bat.

As a little more proof, other advanced defensive metrics agree with Pinto. Inge came out on top in the AL in Chris Dial’s sytem. Dial had Inge saving 20 runs per 150 games played. In the Bill James Handbook John Dewan listed the +/- leaders at each position. (the +/- system involves people watching every single play and giving credit based on whether or not others had made a similar play, a +/- of 0 means you’re average) Inge led all third basemen here as well with a +27.

Whether or not Inge is the best third basemen in the AL can be debated. Whether he is one of the best can not. Inge’s bat didnt’ earn him the contract. But his combined value with the glove and his versatility certainly did.

2007 Season, Contracts

Tigers sign Santiago

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Jon Paul Morosi reports that the Tigers reached agreement with Ramon Santiago on a one-year deal. The deal is for $500,000, or about $120,000 more than the league minimum. The Tigers probably could have signed him as a minor league free agent, but this is a low cost move that rewards Santiago for his contributions last year.

Santiago is quite good as a defensive replacement/pinch runner/designated bunter type of player. The thing is, the Tigers have 3 utility infielders. If this means Neifi Perez won’t be back I’m thrilled. Although with Perez being owed $2.5 million it will be nearly impossible to trade him so him going might mean an outright release. If this means there is no room for Omar Infante then I’ll be disappointed. Infante has the most talent offensively of the group and is competent defensively. At 24 years old he’s the youngest of the trio as well.

Contracts, Minors, Statistics, Tiger History

The week in links

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I’m way behind here, and some of this hardly qualifies as newsworthy anymore. But in the interest of completeness…

  • Gary Sheffield will wear Alan Trammell’s #3, and Trammell is okay with it. I have mixed feelings on this. First it is only a number and too much shouldn’t be made of it. But on the other hand it will be weird, to say the least, to see someone else sporting that number. Trammell is too classy to make a stink of it, but I can’t figure why Sheffield would even ask for it. It is sure to not endear him to Tiger fans, but that never seems to be an issue for him anyways. Even with 10 and 11 not available (and if 11 isn’t available is this to mean that Sparky’s # will be officially retired?), there were lots of other numbers to choose from. It almost seems intentional and calculated.
  • Lee has started doing a Runs Created analysis for the Tigers. It is a series of posts, here is the first. I love the runs created stat because it boils offensive production down to a value that all baseball fans can relate to.
  • This is actually 2 weeks old, but Beyond the Boxscores takes a look at former Tiger first round pick Scott Moore who is flourishing with the Cubs.
  • The Lakeland Tigers are no more. They are now the Lakeland Flying Tigers. This will be helpful for me when I write up my minor league wraps next year because I was never a fan of L-Tigers. More importantly, it will help the organization tie in the aviation aspect of the Tigers facilities in Lakeland. The complex is on an old aviation school.
  • This is a new link, but Alfonso Soriano is going to the Cubs for a mere 8 years and $136 million.

Gary Sheffield, Alan Trammell, Lakeland, Detroit Tigers

2006 Season, Contracts, Minors

Killing time

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After taking a couple days off, the Tigers will hit the field for a workout tomorrow. I’ll take today off as well, but I’ll hit the blog with more stuff tomorrow night.

In the meantime, for your reading pleasure…

Arizona Fall League

Last year I was watching Arizona Fall League games on gamecast and seeing Humberto Sanchez dominate. This year I haven’t even looked at a box score. Fortunately
Kurt’s got the update on Jordan Tata, Brent Clevlen, and AFL veteran Kody Kirkland.

Six of Jeter, half dozen of Polanco

Placido Polanco was a very deserving ALCS MVP. Tom Tango, esteemed sabermetrician and co-author of The Book, compares Polanco to leading AL MVP candidate Derek Jeter. Read the article to see who is more valuable, or at least who is more of a value.

The Ordonez contract, another look

Via Baseball Musings there is an article in the Pioneer Press that Magglio Ordonez is “worth every cent” of his contract. I said at the time of the signing that I didn’t think there was anyway that Ordonez would ever be worth his contract. Of course I didn’t expect him to help the team into the World Series in the 2nd year of his contract either.

Joe Sheehan points out (premium) that the Tigers now in the World Series, will benefit immensely from the additional revenue.

Now someone else making a lot less money may have been capable of similar production. But finding that player is always the tough part. The Tigers have what they have in Ordonez and that was enough to get them to the World Series. At the same time, it hasn’t prevented the team from spending money. They continue to add to the domestic and international scouting staffs and they drafted high-talent/tough sign guys and got them into the organization. Not all spending needs to be on free agents.

One other thing I said at the time of the signing was that it felt like an Ilitch move. I did that more to assign blame at the time. What’s fair is fair, and so the credit goes to him today.