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.

Figaro has been formally recalled and Ryan Raburn has been optioned to Toledo where he’ll stay for at least the requisite ten days unless a DL stint is required. It could be longer however if Carlos Guillen is ready to return. Presumably Figaro is here short term just to get through the doubleheader with Thomas unavailable and the team probably preferring to give Bonine the day off as well.

With the double header scheduled for Wednesday, it appears that Alfredo Figaro will be joining the team in Detroit. Dontrelle Willis was reportedly still sick today, and the team is probably concerned about getting thin if Rick Porcello and Jeremy Bonderman struggle to put up innings.

It’s unclear at this point if Figaro has been activated or if he will just be in Detroit and available should the need present itself in game 2.

Jeremy Bonderman and Dontrelle Willis have secured the final two spots in the Tigers rotation, and Nate Robertson secured a spot with the Marlins. The Tigers today traded Robertson and $9.6 million of his $10 million contract for Marlins left handed prospect Jay Voss. For my thoughts on the trade, well, just look back a couple days.

Robertson outpitched his two competitors not only this spring, but last year as well. The stats say that Robertson should be in the rotation. It has to be a tough pill for Robertson to swallow.*

But, it is important not to make too much of spring stats, or even last year’s stats due to the limited sample sizes in play. Scouting reports should play a role as well and the Tigers are encouraged by the stuff that Willis and Bonderman have shown this spring.

On Willis Dombrowski said:

He’s throwing strikes. His ball has had quality movement. He looks more confident on the mound.

And on Bonderman:

He’s come back. He’s continued to progress. His arm strength is average to a tick above. It looks like he’s sinking the ball well. His slider has been good. He continues to work on his change — he’s thrown some good ones. I don’t want to say he’s got exactly the same stuff, because he used to throw 96-97 m.p.h. But it’s solid, major league stuff. He’s aggressive. You can tell he feels confident.

I’d have more faith in the Willis report if we hadn’t heard this before, like before the extension was signed prior to the 2008 season.

It would be one thing if there was salary relief in play today, but the only difference between cutting Robertson and the trade is Jay Voss (no disrespect intended Mr. Voss). They could have just cut any of the three really.

Eddie Bonine, Alfredo Figaro, Phil Coke, and Zach Miner all just became more important with today’s transaction.

*This isn’t really analysis, but Robertson is one of the Tigers I’ve had a chance to talk with. I’ll gloss over the “he’s a good guy” part because it’s cliche (but it’s also true). But Robertson did appreciate being a Tiger. He identified the Tigers as his team. He knows about the history and the places that legends such as Ernie Harwell and Al Kaline hold in our hearts. In that regard it makes me sad he’s leaving. Yes it is a business and he’s getting paid handsomely, but he’s also a person.

The Tigers have activated Alfredo Figaro from the DL. There is no word yet on his role but with the Tigers down to 3 healthy starters and Eddie Bonine filling in already one could presume he’ll be used as a starter.

Louisville 5 Toledo 0
Scott Sizemore doubled and walked. Brooks Brown left after 3 innings, and 3 runs. Freddy Dolsi and Zach Simons each pitched perfect innings.

Akron 3 Erie 1
Deik Scram went 2 for 4. Danny Worth walked 3 times. Jon Kibler allowed just 1 hit in 6 innings to go with 7 k’s an d4 walks. Alfredo Figaro pitched 1 inning of relief with a walk and 2 K’s. Cody Satterwhite took the loss allowing 3 runs in his inning of work.

Lakeland DNP

West Michigan 5 Lansing 4
Jordan Lennerton and Joe Bowen each had a double and a single. Robert Waite pitched 6 shut-out innings allowing just 4 hits and a walk while fanning 2. Brandon Hamilton coughed up the lead with 3 runs on 4 hits (including a homer) in 1 inning.

Staten Island 6 Oneonta 7 (11 innings)
Alexis Espinoza had 3 hits including 2 doubles. Rawley Bishop walked 3 times and doubled. Jose Siso allowed 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks with 4 K’s in 5 innings.

Oneonta 1 Staten Island 2
Rawley Bishop singled and walked. Luis Angel Sanz walked 5 but allowed just 1 run in 5 innings.

GCL Tigers 10 GCL Yankees 0
Chao-Ting Tang homered, singled, and walked twice. James Robbins, Francisco Martinez, and Londell Taylor all had multi-hit games. Giovany Soto pitched 5 shut-out innings on 4 hits, 1 walk, and 4 K’s. Marcos Nunez went the other 4 innings and he also allowed 4 hits and fanned 4.

That didn’t take long. Alfredo Figaro is being bounced from the rotation and Luke French will make his first career start Friday night at the Metrodome. Figaro heads to Toledo, so he still ends up with a promotion in the deal.

Figaro did struggle in his 2nd start, and he pitched out of a number of jams in first effort. The optimist can look at his heat and the breaking ball he featured when it wasn’t being hung. The pessimist sees someone who doesn’t locate his pitches well enough to be effective. The two sides meet in the middle and say, maybe he just needs to refine his stuff a little in the minors.

French is left handed which could be a factor in this decision as well with the Tigers taking on Morneau, Mauer, and Kubel next weekend. (Kurt figured this out before the move was even made) French has also been pitching pretty good and has earned the promtion. He has quality starts in 5 of his last 6 outings, and the one where he didn’t it was 4 runs in 6.2 innings. Over those last 6 starts he has 41 K’s and 7 walks in 43.1 innings.

While the performances of the Tigers starters have been fairly unremarkable this spring, things are better at the back end of games. It looks like there are actual battles taking place, and in the favorable sense.

Brandon Lyon, Fernando Rodney, and Bobby Seay are locks for the pen leaving four spots open. Zach Miner is also a pretty solid bet, enough to pencil in at least. That leaves three spots open.

Joel Zumaya could alter that, but he is still dealing with issues with a neck cramp. He is apparently structurally sound, but he doesn’t feel good enough to throw yet. And today Jim Leyland said it was a gray area:

"I only say that because he really hasn’t pitched for two years," Leyland said. "If he had been pitching the last two years and then had a little setback like this, he might be able to get himself ready. But when a guy hasn’t pitched for that long, let me put it this way: It’s in the gray area now, unless something happens."

Now this may sound dire, but really, who was really planning on Zumaya prior to spring training? I also viewed him as a nice potential bonus.

So who are these candidates competing for the 3 spots? Ryan Perry, Casey Fien, Freddy Dolsi, Juan Rincon, Clay Rapada, Kyle Bloom, and Alfredo Figaro. In no particular order, the qualifications for each:

Ryan Perry

Certainly appealing with the 100mph fastball, and first round draft status, and the results to match so far this spring. 3.2 innings, 3 hits, 1 walk, and 4 K’s are nice. The next step is probably to get him involved early in a game against more starters.  Perry isn’t on the 40 man roster, which may work against him, or at least complicate things a little. But the Tigers are fairly aggressive in this regard and Macay McBride would likely be sacrificed.

Casey Fien

Fien was a late cut in last year’s camp due to his strike throwing ability. In his minor league career he only has 34 walks in over 160 innings. This spring he’s fanned 6 while walking none in 6 innings. He also isn’t on the 40 man, making it easy to assign him to Toledo. My guess is that’s where he starts, but would likely be a first or second choice if needed.

Freddy Dolsi

One of the incumbents, Dolsi has a couple things going for him. Big league experience, a good fastball, and a spot on the 40 man roster. Dolsi also isn’t walking guys with only one free pass in 4.2 innings, but he has given up 8 hits. Also likely headed to Toledo.

Juan Rincon

Rincon was signed as a minor league free agent and he’s doing exactly what the Tigers had hoped for. Rincon pitched a scoreless inning, his 8th of the spring today with 4 K’s and a walk. He’d also need to be placed on the 40 man roster, but I think he may be on the brink of making the team. Rincon hasn’t had success since 2006 so this may be fleeting. Might as well take advantage of it while it’s working.

Clay Rapada

Rapada stands a good chance of being the second lefty, if a second lefty is taken. Rapada also hasn’t walked anyone this spring, or been scored upon.

Kyle Bloom

Bloom only makes this run down because of his Rule 5 status. With a manager under the gun, Bloom really needed to impress to warrant a full year spot on the roster. He’s given up 6 runs in 4.1 innings and allowed 8 baserunners. Relievers can get hammered with numbers in such small sample sizes, but Bloom had little room for error. His spot on the 40 man roster will likely be used to add Fien or Perry or Rincon.

Alfredo Figaro

Figaro seems to be making an impression, especially after 3 scoreless innings in a spot start today (after Porcello was scratched for a fingernail issue – no biggie). Figaro has been a starter in the minors, but could relieve at the big league level. I was skeptical when he was added to the 40 man roster after some struggles when being promoted to Lakeland at age 23. But this spring he hasn’t allowed a run or a walk. Probably still a long shot, but doesn’t he have to be in the mix?

Today is the deadline for the Tigers to announce who would and wouldn’t be protected from the Rule 5 draft on the 40 man roster. Below is the roster, and highlighted are the 5 players who the Tigers just added: Alfredo Figaro, Casper Wells, Zach Simons, Guillermo Moscoso, and Wilkin Ramirez. That brings the total to 38.

James Skelton - cr Roger DeWitt

There are two very surprising omissions from this list, James Skelton and Luis Marte (explanation). Both are eligible to be drafted and both would seem to be attractive picks. Skelton is a left handed catcher, that while small and lacking power, has ridiculous OBP skills (416 in his minor league career) and reached AA as a 22 year old. Marte was having a wonderful season, even overshadowing Rick Porcello at Lakeland, before an elbow injury slowed him. However he has been very effective in the AFL (22/6 K/BB ratio in 17.1 innings) but he has been battling shoulder pain. (The full list of eligibility is here)

Not surprisingly the Tigers secured Wilkin Ramirez who finally seemed to have the season in which the results caught up to the tools with a 303/371/522 line at the age of 22 in AA.

Casper Wells exploded late in the second half at Erie and has been on a tear in the AFL with 7 homers and a .316 average in 21 games.

Figaro saw action with both Single A West Michigan and Single A Lakeland during the 2008 season, but he was 23 and didn’t exactly excel when moved to Lakeland. I’m quite surprised he was kept over Marte.

Moscoso split the season between Single A Lakeland and Double A Erie at age 24 and had a 122/21 K/BB ratio for the year. And he had that perfect game for the O-Tigs in 2007.

Simons came over in the Jason Grilli trade and fanned 61 in 53 innings with a 1.11 WHIP for Lakeland. But in the AFL he was 7 walks and only 6 strikeouts in 13 innings of work.

Now the Tigers still realistically need room for a shortstop, a catcher, and more pitching (both starters and relievers). So they need space under the limit. I’m not sure how all those players are going to fit and am surprised to see Mike Hessman, Eddie Bonine, and Macay McBride remaining on the roster. I don’t really understand some of the guys that were protected and realistically I’d rather have the earlier jettisoned Virgil Vasquez than Bonine, Lopez, Lambert…

Toledo 8 Charlotte 1
The power duo of Mike Hessman and Jeff Larish were at it again. Hessman had two homers and Larish had one. Larish added two walks and Hessman added a single. Clete Thomas had two assists gunning down a runner at third and home. Eddie Bonine pitched a complete game on 104 pitches fanning 5, walking 1, and allowing 8 hits.

Harrisburg 4 Erie 3
Wilkin Ramirez singled and homered. Lucas French went 8 innings and allowed 1 run on 2 walks and 2 strike outs. Casey Fien blew the save allowing 3 runs on 2 hits, and two walks despite fanning 3.

Vero Beach 5 Lakeland 2
Cale Iorg singled and walked and stole 2 bases. Luis Marte fanned 6 and walked 1 while allowing 3 runs over 6 innings.

West Michigan 3 Lansing 7
Chris Carlson was a triple short of the cycle. Alfredo Figaro went 6 innings allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, a walk, and 5 K’s. Noah Krol didn’t record an out but allowed 4 runs.

Durham 2 Toledo 9
Jeff Larish went deep and added a single. Brent Clevlen was 1 for 3 with a walk and 2 RBI. Armando Galarraga pitched 5 shut out innings allowing only 3 hits and a walk while fanning 6. Aaron Fultz pitched a scoreless inning but allowed 2 hits.

Erie 8 Bowie 3 (11 innings)
Big game for Jeff Frazier who had 4 hits including a homer and 5 RBI. Wilkin Ramirez is playing again after his shoulder injury and he had 2 hits. Deik Scram had 2 doubles and Freddy Guzman added 2 hits and 2 stolen bases. Jon Connolly allowed 3 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks in 6 innings with no K’s. Matt Rusch had a blown save, but allowed only 1 hit and no walks while fanning 4 in 3 innings of work.

Lakeland 4 Tampa 5
Scott Sizemore homered to go along with 2 singles and a walk. Duane Below allowed 3 runs, only one of which was earned, on 3 hits and a walk while fanning 4 over 4 innings.

West Michigan 2 South Bend 1
Jordan Newton had catching duties tonight and had the only multi hit game, including a triple. Casper Wells struggled striking out 4 times. Alfredo Figaro allowed a single unearned run on 2 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings of work.