Typically once a year I try and get feedback about the site. I realized I hadn’t done that this year, so here’s your chance to rip me or praise me.

I’m currently working on a redesign, so any comments related to layout would be appreciated. What do you like about the current layout, what don’t you like? Do you mind that there are ads on the site? Are they too prominent or don’t you notice them? Is the site readable? Is the text to big or too small? Is navigation easy or not the least bit intuitive? And any other comments are appreciated as well.

Also, I’d love to know what you think of the content. What are your favorite types of posts? Would you prefer I did more short posts, or do you like it better when I save up a couple days worth of things? Do you like the numbers-heavy posts or simply the commentary.

As always, I won’t promise that I’ll implement everything that gets suggested. However, I appreciate all of you and value your opinions. I also take a lot of pride in the site, and want to make it as useful to the reader as possible.

Thanks for indulging me in this non-baseball activity. Feel free to leave any comments, or if you’d prefer you can email me at bill at detroittigersweblog.com. And in case you were wondering, here is the design I’m currently working on:

I apologize for the technical difficulties regarding the Todd Jones post. Blogger was acting up last night, and things got screwed up. Also, if you left comments on one of the superflous posts, those were obliterated also. Again – sorry about that.

But a comment that was posted was that Todd Jones was not offered arbitration so the Tigers will not have to cough up a draft pick.

The St Louis Post Dispatch has an interesting article about baseball acadamies, corruption, and buscones in the Domincan Republic. Quoted in the article is Detroit Tigers assistant GM Al Avila.

Article:STLtoday – Sports – Special Reports

As a long time Tiger fan I spent many a night listening to the Tigers on the radio while growing up. Those of you who read my interview with Ernie Harwell, know my affection for the old time Tiger broadcasters. That other broadcaster who was with Ernie Harwell for so long was Paul Carey, and wouldn’t it be great to see him in the Hall of Fame as well? Throughout the month of November you can vote for broadcasters to be placed on the final ballot for the 2006 Ford C Frick award. I’d love to see Carey get in and I encourage all long time Tiger fans to go vote for Paul.

AJ Burnett
This falls under the category of not surprising, but the Tigers have contacted Burnett’s agent, Darek Braunecker. At least according to this article some interest may have waned with the September shenanigans, but the Tigers are listed alongside the Rangers, Mariners, and Blue Jays as teams who are still interested. Of course any agent worth his salt would keep as many teams in play for as long as possible. As for my thoughts on Burnett, I’ll get into that in a seperate post (basically I’m still doing my research).

2006 Projections

Last week Tiger Tales posted the projections from the Bill James book (aff link). Today, commenter Walewander (awesome name) pointed out that Baseball Think Factory has posted their ZiPS projections. I won’t copy their work here, but I will recommend you check out the projections for Shelton, Pudge, Verlander, and Zumaya. Shelton looks very promising, and Pudge projects to decent production. ZiPS thinks Verlander will be a stud. Zumaya on the other hand looks to struggle like a first time starter – but that wouldn’t be bad production given his age. Take the projections for what they are – educated guesses (albeit with some pretty good math behind them).

BA’s Top 20
Jim Callis posted his top 20 long term prospects. Justin Verlander was the lone Tiger rating number 11, which is probably fair. The nice thing is that you could make a legitimate argument that a second Tiger prospect could have been included. Things are looking up in the minors.

Earlier in the week, DIBS announced Placido Polanco as its choice of Tiger of the Year (as well as pitcher and breakout player). We seem to be in pretty much complete agreement with the Detroit Chapter of the Baseball Writers of America as they announced Polanco yesterday. (I want to thank my DIBS brethern for so enthusiastically embracing DIBS.)

Other awards that were announced include the AL Gold Gloves and the Tigers were shut-out. Pudge Rodriguez picked-up a gold glove he didn’t deserve last year, but he was unfairly shut-out this year. Rodriguez shut down the opponents running game. He threw out over half the attempted base stealers (to be fair I think some of Maroth’s pick-offs were included in there), and that’s not the most impressive part. Of catchers with over 1000 innings caught, only Joe Mauer had fewer attempts. Runners didn’t even try against Rodriguez. Jason Varitke, the winner, threw out only 24% of stolen base attempts. Pudge had 4 passed balls to Varitek’s 7, and 4 errors to Varitek’s 8. This isn’t even really close.

Other Tiger related news

• Former Tiger stud prospect Torey Lovullo was named manager of Cleveland Indians AAA affiliate Buffalo. This gets a little more relevant when I mention that former Tiger hitting coach Bruce Fields will be taking on the same role for Buffalo
• Alan Trammell, who made Paul Depodesta’s short list for the Dodgers job was informed he is no longer in the running for the Tampa Bay job. And with Depodesta out, his status for LA remains to be seen.
• The Tigers completed the John Macdonald trade from earlier this season by sending cash considerations to Toronto. I know everyone is relieved to finally have this settled.

Site News
I’ve done some more tweaking on the site, but I don’t think it is too noticeable. I’ve shrunk the logo slightly, as well as my picture and the fonts in the sidebar. I’ve also added Chitika eMiniMalls as another revenue source. I point all this out because in case something isn’t working that means I recently broke it and I’d appreciate if you let me know.

I’ve got a ton of stuff to write about, it’s just finding the time. However, next week I plan a post combing through the roster in preparation for the hot stove season. Also, I’m still working on wrapping up the 2005 season (I’m intentionally spacing this out – it’s a long offseason) taking a look at the pitching staff from a DIPS perspective.

At the end of the season, eleven web sites that write about the Detroi Tigers voted on a Tiger player of the year, pitcher of the year, and breakout player. Today, DIBS (Detroit Independent Baseball Scribes) announced the winners. Placido Polanco took home player of the year honors, Jeremy Bonderman won pitcher of the year, and Chris Shelton was the breakout player.

As for my ballot, I agreed completely. For player of the year, I gave consideration to Bonderman, Polanco, Shelton, and Craig Monroe. Monroe was the only one to spend the whole season with the team, but I chose to go with Polanco. Polanco’s OPS of 847 ranked among the team leaders, and he did it while playing flawless defense at an important position. Throw in the fact that by all appearances he was the consumate teammate, the decision was easy.

Among pitching candidates, had Kyle Farnsworth not been traded he probably would have had my vote. Bonderman’s second half slide made him an average pitcher for the year. However, given his age and experience his season was still impressive.

As for the breakout player, there was little question that Chris Shelton should win. In fact, he received the first place vote on all 11 ballots. While Curtis Granderson was very impressive whlie he was in Detroit, Shelton did it longer. In any case, both players were bright spots in what turned out to be a disappointing season.

So that’s my ballot, but what about these 11 websites and DIBS? The idea was spawned by myself, Ryan Sosin, and Brian Borawski last season. There are a ton of great internet sites covering sports – specifically the Tigers – that are flying under the radar. The intention of DIBS is to help improve and promote those sites. As a member of the Tiger blogging community, one of the great things is that the various sites aren’t competitive. We don’t snipe at each other, and we do our best to promote each other. If one of our sites gains exposure, we all benefit. And that’s really what DIBS is all about. We want to generate great content, and we want to get that content in front of as big an audience as possible.

There is a new addition to the Tiger blogosphere. Tiger Tales is written by Lee Panas, who if you spend time on various Tiger message boards you’ll recognize as Tiger337. I only know Lee from his comments on Motown Sports, but I find myself agreeing with him more often than not. So if you enjoy my site I’m sure you’ll enjoy his. Expect the site to be loaded with analysis. In only his first week he’s done some extensive work with runs created.

Quick Hits
-Continuing to highlight my Tiger blogging brethren, check out the artsy baseball pictures that Sam has posted on Blue Cats and Red Sox. I have a hard time appreciating art in general, but I have no problem enjoying this.

-Several people have emailed me about the Ugueth Urbina machete incident. If you’re interested in some more information, Phillies Nation has a pretty good collection of links covering the situation. As for my take, whether or not any of this is true doesn’t change my opinion that Ugie probably isn’t right in the head. On another note, what can possibly happen next to make the Polanco trade appear even better. First the Tigers get a productive player -who appears to be a stand-up citizen and teammate. Then he practically begs to sign an extension here. And then Urbina goes nuts. Short of Polanco cloning himself, and his body double playing for free, I don’t think this can trade can look any better.

The Free Press today indicates that the coaching staff is set – with the exception of pitching coach. The article focuses mostly on Andy Van Slyke as outfield coach. The rest of the staff, as has been speculated is:
Gene Lamont – Bench coach & 3rd base
Lloyd McClendon – Bullpen
Rafael Belliard – Infield Coach
Don Slaught – Hitting Coach

Leyland has brought together some guys with considerable coaching/managing experience, as well as some first timers. I like seeing McClendon on the staff, because similar to Trammell, I’d like to see what he could do with some talent.

As for pitching coach, there were reports that the Tigers offered Larry Rothschild a 3 year contract. It sounds as if Rothschild is debating the Tigers offer, or a one year offer to return to the Cubs. But in today’s Freep story, it doesn’t sound like the Tigers are close to naming a pitching coach at all.

Site Updates
I’m working on updating this site, and so you may see some changes. I don’t know if I’ll do an entire overhaul or not. What I have done so far is add Google Search to replace Atomz. The search box is poorly located at the very bottom of the page, but I’ll be working to find it a new home. I’ve also added this site to Feedburner, so in the sidebar you can now easily subscribe to the newsreader of your choice. And last, and most importantly, I’ve finally switched to individual pages for posts. I think all the images and links within this site should work. But if something isn’t working for you, please let me know.

According to John Lowe, the Tigers have asked for permission to interview Larry Rothschild for pitching coach. Rothschild has been the pitching coach for the Chicago Cubs for the last 4 seasons. And let’s look at his track record.

During that time the Cubs have lost Kerry Wood and Mark Prior for a significant amount of time due to inury. In 2005, Cubs pitchers Carlos Zambrano and Mark Prior ranked 2nd and 3rd in all of baseball in pitcher abuse points. Prior and Zambrano combined had 8 outings in which they threw more than 122 pitches. Zambrano has been in the top 10 in pitcher abuse points each of the last 3 years – he’s 25 years old. Prior was 4th in the league in PAP in 2003, as a rookie.

I don’t know if this is Rothschild’s fault or Dusty Baker’s, but considering the Tigers are trying to build a young pitching staff, this stuff scares me. Especially combined with Jim Leyland’s use of young pitchers in 1998. But in all fairness, Mark Prior thinks highly enough of him that he would like Rothschild back next year.

Also, in an interview with Baseball Prospectus, pitching mechanics guru Tom House had this to say when asked about the best pitching coaches in the game:

Other information I found about Rothschild is that he is a proponent of the change-up, much like Bob Cluck. It was something he stressed heavily during a managing stint in Tampa.

It’s nice to see some positive comments. However, given that the Tigers are staking a large part of our hopes to Bonderman/Verlander/Zumaya, I still find myself apprehensive.

Other Stuff
-David Espinosa is off to a strong start in the Arizona Fall League. In his first two games he’s gone 5 for 9 with 3 doubles and a stolen base. Other Tigers in the AFL are Don Kelly (0 for 4), Kody Kirkland (no action), Mark Woodyard, Adam Peterson (allowed 2 homers in 1 1/3), and Humberto Sanchez.