A quick look at some former Tigers and their performances in their new homes:

Gary Sheffield

Sheffield is in the midst of that bounce back season that many were hoping for, and few were expecting. He has a 292/433/521 line and is walking in one out of every 5 plate appearances. And Mets fans are loving it. 

I wasn’t in the camp that “Sheffield was done” in the sense he couldn’t hit anymore. But I was (and still am) in the camp that said Sheffield couldn’t stay healthy anymore. Fortunately the Tigers are winning and offensive struggles haven’t been prolonged or else we’d be hearing about what a mistake it was to let Sheffield walk.

Matt Joyce

I like Matt Joyce. I like him a lot. I don’t like him like him, but I do think he’s a very good player. He has toiled primarily at AAA where he has a 315/408/530 line. He was just recalled to the Rays and he homered yesterday. He only has 15 PA’s at the big league level but has homered twice already.

Guillermo Moscoso

The centerpiece of the deal that brought Gerald Laird to Detroit was just called up to the Texas Rangers. In his first appearance he went an inning allowing 2 hits with 1 strikeout.

He had been pitching fairly well for the Rangers Double A affiliate. He had a 7.7 K/9 rate and fanning 2.5 for every batter he walked. He only allowed 1 homer in 42.1 innings.

James Skelton

The little left handed hitting catching prospect was selected by the Diamondbacks in the Rule 5 draft. Arizona didn’t want to keep him on the big league roster and the Tigers didn’t want him back too much (they got Brooks Brown as compensation). He’s playing for the Arizona Double A team and has a .376 OBP. But he’s only hitting .221 and with only 7 extra base hits his slugging is south of .300.

It appears as if the Tigers have filled their hole behind the plate by acquiring catcher Gerald Laird from the Texas Rangers. In return the Tigers will ship out starting pitching prospect Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo. The move is expected to be formally announced later today.

Gerald Laird

Laird will be 29 next year and has played in parts of 6 big league season. He’s only had one really productive year offensively when he hit 296/332/473 in 78 games. In his only season in which he broke the 100 game mark he struggled posting only a 224/278/349 line in 2007. Marcel and Bill James projections have him at a .310-.315 wOBA in 2009 and in 2008 MLB catchers posted a .311 wOBA line so he stands to be average for the position offensively.

Defensively he’s well regarded posting caught stealing rates in excess of 35% in ’06 and ’07 while catching 28% last year. Tango’s fan survey rated him as an above average defender at 66.

The downside to Laird is that he’s a right handed hitter so there isn’t an opportunity to platoon with Dusty Ryan. Instead it would just be a timeshare.

Laird is entering his second year or arbitration and he made $1.6 million last year meaning he’ll probably earn a little over $2 million this year.

Guillermo Moscoso

Guillermo Mosocoso cr - Wendy Smith

Guillermo Moscoso became better known just recently when he made Baseball America’s top 10 list (at number 10) and when he was added to the 40 man roster. Moscoso may best be known for his perfect game at Oneonta in 2007, but should probably be better known for the 122:21 K:BB ratio he amassed in 76.2 innings between A and AA. At 24 he was old for A ball, but only a little old for AA ball. Contributing at the big league level at the age of 25 would still keep him legitimately in prospect range.

Moscoso hasn’t pitched a full pro season due to injuries. When healthy he has a low 90′s fastball and a change and curveball. Moscoso does have flyball tendencies though which usually isn’t a good recipe for Arlington.

Analysis

I haven’t been on board the Laird train this winter, but I can certainly get behind this trade. Laird is average offensively for the position and above average defensively and the Tigers picked him up for the #10 prospect in their system. Moscoso has value (the aforementioned strikeout to walk ratio) and was a decent bet to help on the Tigers big league roster at some point this season. But he also hasn’t topped 92 innings in a pro season and he will be 25.

The second player, Carlos Melo, may be terrific, but he is also 17 and hasn’t pitched in the states yet and is several years away from contributing at this point. His inclusion doesn’t swing this for me one way or the other.

Laird’s lack of a history of playing a full season is also concerning, but the Tigers have hope that Dusty Ryan could be their next catcher anyways. This is merely a way of taking some of that pressure of off Ryan.

In the end the Tigers fill one of their needs suitably with out outlaying a ton prospect wise or dollar wise before the winter meetings even kick off. It’s hard to be upset about that.

Jon Paul Morosi reports that the Tigers and Rangers may be closing in on a deal that would send Guillermo Moscoso to the Rangers for Gerald Laird.

The Tigers need help at catcher and Laird is established. The Rangers need pitching and Moscoso could be close the the majors after posting stellar strike out and walk rates at between A and AA this past season.

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…