Tag Archives: Toledo

2008 Season, Minors, Pitching

Junkballing: Payroll, Minors, and more

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Good thing there’s no game today, because there is a lot to link to!

Tigers have second highest payroll

The Tigers official Opening Day payroll is $138.7 million which places Detroit in 2nd place – far behind the Yankees. My unofficial total of $134 million, which didn’t include some of the players making near the league minimum, isn’t too far off. Certainly within $2-3 million.

The Mets are not even a half mil behind the Tigers at $138.3 and the Red Sox are next at $133.4.

So yeah, there’s some pressure on the Tigers to win.

Minor League Rosters

The bevy of Tigers blogs covering the minors have been working on putting the rosters together. The Surge has the Whitecaps roster. Among the 2008 ‘Caps I’m most interested in are shortstop Audy Ciriaco and reliever Noah Krol.

LFT Blog has the Lakeland roster which I find quite interesting. The rotation features Rick Porcello along with Jonah Nickerson, Duane Below, and Luis Marte. The up the middle players feature top catching prospect James Skelton and the double play combo will be Scott Sizemore and Cale Iorg. Take 75 North points out that the team at the end of the season might not resemble this roster at all with a number of players who could be moved up if they produce.

The Seawolves roster features Wilkin Ramirez who was having a standout spring before injuring his shoulder. If his performance catches up with his tools he could become a top 10 prospect in the system (he already has been).

The Toledo roster is most interesting in the outfield. It’s Brent Clevlen’s make or break year, and we’ll see if Matt Joyce can build on his late season success at Toledo. Clete Thomas will likely join the team when Curtis Granderson returns to Detroit.

But overall, the system has been depleted. Baseball America’s organizational rankings place the Tigers 27th.

UPDATE: Right after hitting publish I see that Tigerblog announced that Tigers 2007 draft pick Andrew Hess will be blogging for Tigers Minors.

Interviews

Ian is determined to make a name for himself in Kansas City and interviews his second KC writer in a week. This time it is uber columnist and blogger Joe Posnanski.

Empty the Bench takes a turn interviewing Curtis Granderson.

Other stuff

I thought about labeling this last section garbage time, but didn’t want to offend anyone.

  • Tigers and Tim Byrdak are talking. The team is looking to sign him to a minor league deal. He’d join the recently acquired Aaron Fultz as lefties in the Mud Hens bullpen.
  • Wikio Rankings – DTW is 71!. This very site ranks 71st amongst sports blogs. It’s hard to believe how many quality, well regarded, sports blogs are out there. Being on the list is an honor.
  • Bad Bullpens. From the Copa notes that everyone is having pen problems.