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  • Tigers sign Miguel Cabrera to one year deal

    The AP is reporting that the Tigers inked Miguel Cabrera to a 1 year $11.3 million deal.

    The team is of course trying to sign him to a long term deal, and I wouldn’t view this as an indication there are any problems on that front. This is a matter of taking care of arbitration business (Dombrowski just doesn’t do arbitration). I’d venture a guess that the two sides are still working on a long term extension.

    Bobby Seay is the only arbitration eligible player not yet signed, but I think that gets taken care of quickly.

    UPDATE: Bobby Seay’s deal was announced today also. A one year contract, terms undisclosed.

    The Tigers payroll has now officially topped the $130 million mark.

  • Baseball America’s 2008 Tigers Prospect List

    There isn’t an official top prospect list, but BA’s is kind of the standard. Today they announced the Tigers 2008 top 10

    1. Rick Porcello, rhp
    2. Cale Iorg, ss
    3. Scott Sizemore, 2b
    4. Michael Hollimon, 2b/ss
    5. Yorman Bazardo, rhp
    6. Jeff Larish, 1b
    7. Matt Joyce, of
    8. Danny Worth, ss
    9. Francisco Cruceta, rhp
    10. Brandon Hamilton, rhp

    Rick Porcello is the clear cut stud, but after that things get cloudy. I’m surprised to see Cale Iorg rated so highly. While he may have all the tools, those tools haven’t really even been on display for several years. Plus a hamstring injury in the Hawaiian Winter League added to the lack of exposure to competitive baseball.I have a hard time rating him that highly, at least this year.

    I’m also surprised to see Scott Sizemore rated number 3. While I like what Sizemore has done, the AFL is his only exposre to players in his age range.

    The rest of the list is pretty much in line with who’d you would expect to see. As for the order, I don’t think there is a lot of separation so the composition is probably more important than the ranking.

    There are write-ups on the top 10, but they are premium content. I will point out a couple of items though:

    Bazardo

    It would come as no surprise if he opened the season as Detroit’s fifth starter.

    I’d be quite surprised given the rotation is set barring injury. I do like him as the 6th starter though and do expect him to make the team. (edit: in his chat, Morosi indicated that was written before the Willis trade)

    Hollimon:

    Second base would be his best position, but the Tigers have Placido Polanco under contract through 2009. Hollimon is athletic enough to play in the outfield, but Detroit has no plans to move him there this year in Triple-A.

    Hadn’t heard him listed as a potential outfielder before.

    Joyce:

    Joyce has moved swiftly since signing in 2005, and he’ll move up to Triple-A this season. If all goes well, he’ll challenge for a big league job in 2009.

    I’d like to see him at AAA, but with Timo Perez, Freddy Guzman, and Brent Clevlen the outfield appears full.
    Worth:

    Worth will return to Lakeland or Erie to begin 2008 and could move quickly in a system that lacks depth at shortstop in the upper minors.

    Brent Dlugach, Tony Giarratano, and Hollimon figure to provide depth. Not that Dlugach should block anybody, but he’s still depth. Plus Tony G is still on the 40 man.

  • links for 2008-01-18

  • Marcus Thames signs one year deal

    The Tigers avoid arbitration with another player and agree to terms with Marcus Thames on a one year deal.

    I’ll post details when I have them.

    UPDATE: Beck says it is a $1.275 million deal which is right in line with expectations. Congrats to Marcus on becoming a millionaire. The Tigers only have Miguel Cabrera and Bobby Seay as the remaining unsigned arb-eligible players.

  • Robertson extended for 3 years

    Nate RobertsonThe Tigers have signed Nate Robertson to a 3 year deal for $21.25 million. The Freep has the break down on the dollars.

    Robertson will earn $4.25 million this year, $7 million in 2009 and $10 million in 2010. He would earn $11 million in the third year of the deal if he throws a combined 400 innings in 2008 and 2009 or 200 innings in 2009.

    I’ll have more later.

    Notes from the call

    • No Dombrowski on the call. He’s on his way to the owners meetings. John Westhoff spoke for the front office
    • Contract negotiations took place over the last 2 to 3 weeks
    • Club is happy that 4 of the 5 pitchers are under contract/control for the next 3 years and think it is important.
    • Nate’s excited to be on the best team he’s ever been part of, especially considering where they came from[2003].
    • Robertson scaled back on his off-season throwing to try and be fresher during the season.
    • It still hasn’t really hit him, a boy from a small town in Kansas, that he’s playing baseball and has a deal like this. He said it’s a humbling experience.
    • Apparently Nate has a reputation of being frugal, and when questioned it brought about much laughter. He retorted that he didn’t need a fancy car to feel good about himself.

    It’s later

    To me this is yet another deal in which the Tigers agree to a deal that seems to be very fair. Robertson is probably a slightly below average pitcher that accumulates at or around 200 innings per year. Not outstanding to be sure, but those types of guys are far from common as well.

    The Tigers are buying out Robertson’s last two years or arbitration eligibility and his first year of free agency. The way the contract shakes out it looks like the Robertson is giving the team a break of about $1 million dollars this year, but it looks like he’ll get it back in the 3rd year of the contract. Inflation will likely make the $10 million look reasonable, but Robertson will be 3 years older at that point and probably won’t be as effective while being more of an injury risk.
    (more…)

  • Talking Tigers prospects with Jonathan Mayo

    Jonathan Mayo covers the minor leagues and the draft as a senior writer for MLB.com. Mayo also has a book coming out that has some remarkable timing. It is a look at what it is like to face Roger Clemens and is appropriately titled Facing Clemens. The book was written and put to bed prior to the release of the Mitchell Report and will be available on March 1st, though you can pre-order it now.

    Regardless of your feelings about Clemens, steroid users, and their place in history, the book looks to be a fascinating read. Mayo interviewed many of the great hitters about what it was like to dig in with Clemens on the mound. Whether or not Clemens did it naturally doesn’t change what the batters experienced when squaring off against the Rocket.

    Mayo was kind enough to answer some questions about the now-depleted Tigers farm system as well as a look forward to the 2008 draft.

    Detroit Tigers Weblog: After the trades this off-season, the Tigers seem to be deepest in the middle infield. Of Scott Sizemore, Mike Hollimon, Danny Worth, Cale Iorg, Tony Giarratano, and Audy Ciriaco who do you see having the highest ceiling, and who is most likely to make it to the majors?
    Jonathan Mayo: From a pure upside standpoint, I think Ciriaco is still the guy. I know he only hit .224 in his full-season debut, but he’ll still be just 20 when the season starts. I think he has to start taking the raw tools and turn it into performance this year. As for “most likely to succeed,” I’d probably go with Worth or Hollimon at this point. I’ve seen Hollimon play several times and he just looks like a big leaguer to me. He also has the best bat of this group as of right now. Those kinds of offensive skills will play at 2B in the bigs. Worth, even though he hit when he got pushed up to Erie, will be a big leaguer more because of his glove. How much he can hit will determine whether he’s an every-day shortstop or a utility guy.

    (more…)

  • links for 2008-01-15

  • Take this Hall of Fame voters

    Sure, Ozzie Smith can do back-flips and Cal Ripken had some kind of streak or something, and Ryne Sandberg might have been on WGN. But have any of them ever been on Magnum PI? Yeah, I didn’t think so…

    Ed Note: This isn’t turning into a YouTube blog, merely coincidence with the back-to-back days. We’ll get back to talking about baseball shortly. And yes, I know I’ve posted this video before, but that was practically before YouTube.

  • Fictionalizing Jeter

    I’m sure many of you have seen the Gatorade commercial featuring numerous dramatic stills. It came to my attention when Ian blogged about it recently. The commercial is below. In the spot it appears that Jeter notches a game winning hit off of Todd Jones with Carlos Guillen turning away in disappointment.

    Through the wonder of Baseball Reference PI, we can see that such a hit never happened. Looking at each match-up between the two, there have been 16 in total, 12 while Jones was with the Tigers, and only 2 while Jones and Guillen were with the Tigers. As for the two at-bats in question Jeter had a ground out and a fly out.

    So I guess I still have the same question Ian did…why the Tigers and why Jones? Here’s hoping that at least Jones got paid for it. And I guess the implication is that if Jones would have had Gatorade things would have turned out differently.

  • Message to Inge’s BFF

    Dave Dombrowski has some advice for Brandon Inge’s best friend:

    “If I was Brandon Inge’s best friend,” said Dombrowski, “I’d tell him ‘you should catch.’ I say that, not thinking he can’t play third, but because to me, this guy can be an All-Star catcher.

    Pointed words to be sure and you can dispute his All Star candidacy as a catcher, the message is clear. If Brandon Inge wants to play, be it for the Tigers or anyone else, his willingness leverage his athleticism is what will get him that playing time. Dombrowski also reiterated that he felt that they “owed it to him” to try and make a trade, but short of a trade they are a better club with Inge moving around.

    As for his absence at Tigerfest, that was the Tigers choice and not Inge’s. They recognized it would be an uncomfortable situation. Inge, who has been keeping quiet will make an appearance at a Grand Rapids Griffins game on January 18th. He’ll sign autographs starting at 6 p.m. and drop the puck. I’d have a hard time imagining he’d be able to duck the media. (As an aside, the Griffins and Whitecaps teamed up to offer a deal where you get 2 Griffins tickets and 2 Whitecaps tickets for $32. To get the deal go to griffinshockey.com/themenights and use username inge and password griffins0708).

    Cabrera’s waistline

    In other Inge news, Miguel Cabrera looks good and is excited that there were more people at Tigerfest (8500) than a typical Marlins game.

    Sheffield’s rehab

    I caught part of Dave Dombrowski’s interview from Tigerfest on 97.1 today and he said that Sheffield’s rehab was progressing nicely and that he should be able to swing a bat.

    The Tigerfest Experience

    If you were one of the 8,500 who went, I’d love to hear what you thought. The weather was certainly more favorable this year, but I was wondering if it seemed less crowded or better organized.

  • Tough Ticket

    As someone who went through his formative season ticket buying years (defined as: the time period shortly after college when I had an income and little responsibility) in the late 90’s and early 00’s, getting Tigers season tickets was a breeze. Where do you want to sit? No problem. What package do you want? No problem. The programs were great with liberal ticket exchange policies and other bonuses. Entering into the 2008 season things have certainly changed.

    Here we are on the day of Tigerfest, and today is the first day that the Tigers have promoted 27 game packages. The team had to wait on the mini-packages because ever since the Willis-Cabrera trade there has been so much demand for full season packages. The official word from the Tigers is that as of Wednesday they had sold 3,300 new full season equivalent (FSE) season ticket plans. And with the team just recently starting to sell the smaller packages, the bulk are probably actual full season packages.

    When I called the week of that trade to put down a deposit on a 27 game package, I encountered hold times of 10-15 minutes because of increased demand. I did manage to secure a pair of seats for the 2008 season, but the package doesn’t include a seat for Opening Day. With the additional full season purchases, combined with a high renewal rate of the 19,500 FSE from last year, there just aren’t the physical seats available to offer to those buying season tickets for the first time. The team is offering up a Yankees or Red Sox game as an alternate, which is really about the best they can do. Still, I’ve been to every Opening Day for a decade and it was a prime reason for the decision to go for a plan so I can’t help but be disappointed.

    The Tigers are encountering all kinds of challenges, but these are the kinds of problems you want. Much like Jim Leyland trying to figure out the best way to get 3 or 4 number 3 hitters fit into a lineup, the Tigers are challenged with cramming as many people into a park that now seems a little too small. Which is unfathomable for anyone who spent a September night with their own section back in 2003. The Tigers are at a point now where they have to:

    • Balance the desire to sell more full season ticket packages while offering the customer friendly small packages
    • Figure out how to allocate premium tickets like Opening Day and post-season to the tens of thousands of fans who have made a significant financial commitment to the team
    • Continue to reward those loyal fans with smaller, less expensive packages, but that have had them for many years.
    • Consider cutting off season ticket sales to allow for individual and group ticket sales

    Again, all good problems to have but challenges nonetheless.

    So if you’re on the fence about getting a package, you might not want to wait to long. Already, some packages are sold out for some areas and that was prior to the team even promoting them on the website.

    As for my Opening Day dilemma. I decided not to wait around and went the StubHub route. I got a pair in the right field grand stand for $130 a piece. Clearly more than I wanted to spend, but that’s the going rate right now and I don’t see it getting any cheaper. But with over 300 listings at least there is a decent selection.

  • links for 2008-01-11