Tag Archives: aquilino lopez

Chris Lambert to debut on Tuesday

Chris Lambert will get the call to start in Nate Robertson’s place, and in the process make his big league debut. The Tigers acquired Lambert in exchange for Mike Maroth last season. At the time, Lambert was spelling his last name a little differently, PTBNL.

Lambert was the Cardinals first round pick in the 2004 draft. He opened the 2005 season in high A ball and made 10 pretty successful starts before being bumped to AA. That’s where he languished. He walked 5 batters per 9 for 18 starts, and not surprisingly repeated the level in 2006. But the results were about the same. He started 2007 there as well, before being bumped to AAA. With the promotion came a move the bullpen where he gave up a lot of homers (10 in 57.2 innings).

He made one start for Toledo at the end of the 2007 season, and has made 26 starts this year. He’s posted a solid 7.5 K/9 while shaving a walk per nine off his career numbers to bring it to 2.9 for the season.

Another improvement leading to his 3.50 ERA is the drop in home runs allowed, with only 7 in 149.1 innings. Interestingly, or maybe troublesome-ly, is that all 7 homers have come on the road. Still, even looking at road only numbers means he’s allowing less than 1 per 9 innings pitched.

Lambert will be added to the 40 man roster, but he likely would have earned that distinction in the offseason to protect him from the rule 5 draft. Somebody will need to be sent down from the 25 man roster. Presumably this will be Aquilino Lopez who can be optioned out, and then recalled when the rosters expand.

Miner leaguer

Zach Miner paid the price for a 4 walk effort on Tuesday night with an assignment to Toledo. Aquilino Lopez who was being stretched out as a starter has been recalled to provide a strike thrower in the pen.

Both moves are warranted, but my first thought when hearing of this was Denny Bautista. The Tigers thought they were better off ditching Bautista than optioning Miner or other optionable pitchers.

Bautista isn’t going to make or break this team so I don’t want to make too much of it. And his qualifications as a strike thrower were dubious at best. I just don’t understand what changed that dramatically that Miner couldn’t be sent down 2 weeks ago.

Rodney activated, Lopez to Toledo

So that’s one decision. Fernando Rodney is back with the team and Aquilino Lopez was sent to Toledo. But the demotion is with a plan. They are going to try and stretch Lopez out into a starters role. This comes as a little bit of a surprise to me, because I didn’t think that Lopez had an option. I thought he would need to be removed from the 40 man roster, meaning he’d need to go through waivers.

Lopez has started before, but not since the 2002 season when he made 11 starts for Tacoma in the PCL. He has turned in several solid long relief outings, most notable was a 4 inning, 3 hit effort against the White Sox.

Color me surprised though that the Tigers would be in a position this season to send out a reliever who is striking out better than 3 batters for every batter he walks.

UPDATE; Just received confirmation that Lopez had an option left. He’s still on the 40 man and wasn’t exposed to waivers.

Tigers option Dontrelle Willis to Lakeland

The Tigers optioned the struggling Dontrelle Willis to Lakeland. This is something that had to happen after what happened on Monday night. Willis had the right to refuse an assignment to the minors. I give him credit for swallowing some pride and doing what ultimately is best for himself and the team.

I’d guess he’s going to Lakeland rather than Toledo more due to instruction than the actual level.

Aquilino Lopez is set to return from bereavement leave and will likely assume Willis’s spot on the roster.

UPDATE: The Freep is reporting that Eddie Bonine is likely to take Willis’s spot in the rotation.

Tigers set 2008 Opening Day Roster

It’s done. After 6 weeks of simmering, the Tigers now know who will be heading North. Clete Thomas gets the last position player spot. Yorman Bazardo and Aquilino Lopez round out the bullpen. The additions of Thomas and Lopez require both to be added to the 40 man roster which now stands at 37.

It also means that Casey Fien won’t be coming with the team. Going from Low A to the big leagues would be quite the jump, still he caught the skippers eye meaning that he’d be on a short list of potential call-ups.

The organizational tree and roster pages have been updated accordingly.
Continue reading Tigers set 2008 Opening Day Roster

Junkballing: Cuts like a knife

With spring training winding down, things are getting ironed out throughout the organization. For some players their dreams may be coming true, while others receive a sobering wake-up call.

Minor issues

My blogging brethren has done the heavy lifting on this, but there are a number of cuts and roster machinations taking place. (As an aside it’s amazing to me the number of sources to turn to for information on the Tigers minor leagues. And all of these blogs are well informed and authored by logical, thoughtful folks. Tremendous resources one and all) The Lakeland Flying Tigers blog I believe was the first to report that Jeff Frazier, the player the Tigers sent to Seattle for Yorman Bazardo, is now back in the organization. Detroit Tigers Thoughts and Take 75 North both examine the Erie and Toledo roster implications of the signing, as well as the additional cuts that came down today (Jason Perry, Colin Mahoney, Eleazar Aponte, Chris Homer, Chris Maples among others).

DTT also notes that Randor Bierd, the reliever the Tigers lost in the Rule 5 Draft, has made the Orioles roster.

Also of note, Mike Hessman was outrighted to Toledo today. By my count, the Tigers only have 35 players on their 40 man roster meaning they have quite a bit of flexibility going into the season – and few high level prospects ready to contribute.

What a Fien

LFT Blog is also hearing that Casey Fien has made the roster. While Fien has made an impression on Leyland, this one would really surprise me. I’m not saying LFT is wrong, but it’s just surprising news. If he has made it, I’d assume it is at the expense of Aquilino Lopez. Lopez is only a minor league contract, so there are no implications for him not making the team. The other strong bullpen candidate is Yorman Bazardo who stands a high likelihood of being claimed when the club would have to place him through waivers to remove him from the 40 man roster.

In case Fien makes the team, Detroit Tiger Tales has a profile already put together.

UPDATE: Moments after publishing this post, the Tigers announced that the last two bullpen spots would go to Lopez and Bazardo.

More links

  • View from the other side: Ian was interviewed by Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star. It’s a great read and actually part of a 2-way interview as Ian interviewed Sam as well. Check out both interviews.
  • Changes coming to MLB Gameday: I love the Gameday app and it appears to be getting even better. The one piece missing from the pitch f/x element was pitch identification. The new version has it. Tonight’s Tigers game was played in Houston, and it used the new system. It looks like they’ve done a nice job, and there are still more changes to come.
  • Consolo passes: Long time Sparky Anderson assistant coach Billy Consolo passed away due to an apparent heart attack.