July 2nd kicks off the feeding frenzy for international players. With the Tigers not spendng as much in draft, it’ll be interesting to see if they make more of a splash this go-round.
Big League Stew, a blog by Kevin Kaduk deserves a spot in your daily reads due to the nice blend of information and entertainment. He’s been doing a review of stadiums and he covers Comerica, with some contributions from me.
I 2nd guessed the timing of the DL stint. What I didn’t know at the time is that Inge aggravated the injury pillow wrangling. That’s one thing about being on the road, hotel pillows are a lot less aggressive.
The Tigers spent a lot less on the draft this year. Is it because of the talent? Is it because of the big league payroll? Is it because there is some money allocated for international signings?
That old question, should Zumaya move to the rotation? Not this season of course, but it has to be a consideration with the Tigers taking a pile of relievers in the draft.
These are my favorite types of Lynn Henning pieces where he explains some aspect of how the organization works. This time it is minor league promotions.
Bondo goes under the knife on June 30th, but the Tigers haven’t announced details of the surgery. Removing a rib had been a possibility, but Kevin Rand says Bondo is looking at a 3-4 month recovery period which doesn’t mesh.
The odds are up to 90%. I’m not against it, but why not use Fossum? He’s stretched out, you don’t need 3 lefties in the pen, and it saves you a roster move when Rodney comes back? (and it’s not because I’m a big Fossum fan)
He lists ten pitchers who could be made available in the coming months – and no Tigers on the list. So it doesn’t sound like he’s expecting a sell strategy.
I’d guess that Cruceta would need about 4 days on a minor league assignment if everything goes right. And Beltran and Bazardo both cleared waivers and were assigned to Toledo.
A look at high ceiling guys Audy Ciriaco and Wilkin Ramirez. I’d put Alexis Espinoza in this group but he’s hard to evaluate at this point with no state-side track record yet.
This won’t be the only time I post about this, but I wanted to get something up this week. Here’s a great opportunity for Detroit sports fans. It’s an integration symposium and a bus tour of baseball points of interest in Detroit.