The Detroit Tiger Weblog

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  • Tiger Roundup

    The Tigers moved to 2-0 during grapefruit league action after outslugging Cincinnati 17-10. Danny Knobler reports that Justin Verlander was shaky at first, but managed to pitch his way out of it. And he did it without a visit from Jim Leyland or pitching coach Chuck Hernandez.

    Leyland isn’t against mound visits, but he’s also big on individual responsibility. He wants players to think for themselves, and he wants to see how they react in tough situations.

    “Get out of your own jam sometime,” he said this morning, before Verlander even took the mound. “Figure out how to do it.”

    Former Tiger pitching coach Bob Cluck has found a job. He’ll be a minior league pitching consultant for the San Diego Padres.
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  • Salary Mapping

    I’m a pretty big fan of treemaps. I’ve used them here on several occasions to graphically display win shares values. So when I found this tool that treemaps salaries, I just had to share. (hat tip to Catfish Stew) Below is a screenshot of the AL Central.
    Salary Map
    American League Central,salaries,baseball,treemap

  • Easing the transition

    There’s an interesting article by Jerry Crasnick about the difficult transition for Latin American baseball players. The article mentions the Tiger organization’s processes for helping the players.

    The Detroit Tigers have a director of Latin American operations, Manny Crespo, who ensures there’s uniformity of instruction throughout the system. The organization’s young Latin players are drilled on the same cutoff and relay plays that are used at Comerica Park.

    Off the field, Laurie Soltman, the Tigers’ coordinator of international player programs, makes sure that young players receive English instruction and helps them with the fine art of navigating supermarket aisles or ordering dinner in a restaurant. The Tigers also help young Latin players with the tax ramifications of their signing bonuses.

    “You do the best you can to make the transition as easy as possible,” said Al Avila, Detroit’s assistant general manager. “It doesn’t guarantee that a kid is going to make it, but it gives you a better shot if you help him along.”

    While it is great that Detroit is helping with the transtional elements, I’m happy to hear about the uniformity of instruction throughout the system.

  • Voice of the Turtle

    For, lo, the winter is past,
    The rain is over and gone;
    The flowers appear on the earth;
    The time of the singing of birds is come,
    And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.     Song of Solomon 2:11-12

    Play Ball!

    For those who aren’t aware, this was how Tiger fans were greeted after a long cold winter. Ernie Harwell would read the scripture passage before the first spring training game of the year. Now this year, the first broadcast isn’t until Saturday, so we wouldn’t hear it today anways. Nonetheless, the the Tigers kick off the Spring Training season today against the Reds. They unofficially began yesterday with their traditional exhibition tilt with Florida Southern. Carlos Pena picked up where he left off last season going 1-2 with a home run as the Tigers edged the Moc’s 4-3.

    In other news, Magglio has been under tremendous pressure from his country-men to play in the WBC. So, I can’t really blame him for changing his mind and deciding to play.

  • Nine more sign

    The Tigers signed nine more players today. The group includes

    • Roman Colon
    • Jason Grilli
    • Kyle Sleeth
    • Wilfredo Ledezma
    • Nate Robertson
    • Omar Infante
    • Chris Shelton
    • Nook Logan
    • Marcus Thames

    Detroit has now signed 39 players on the 40 man roster. If my records are correct, the one member of the 40 man that hasn’t signed is Craig Dingman. Dingman of course has the artery issue in his arm and he’s unlikely to pitch anytime soon. It will be interesting to see if the Tigers sign him, or let him loose. Even if they sign him, he is likely to be headed to the 60 Day DL meaning that there will be another roster spot to play with.

    Similarly, Troy Percival will be going on the 60 day disabled list meaning that there will most likely be two spots available.

  • The young and the retired

    Feeling sick, need sleep, short post…

    • While there has been plenty of talk about prospect rankings, what about the players who broke in last year. Who are the sophomores to watch? Bryan Smith at Baseball Analysts has compiled the top 20 sophomores. Detroit Tiger Curtis Granderson checks in at #12.

      Do the Tigers really appreciate what they have in Granderson? Are they really considering starting Nook Logan at centerfield this season? In 2004, Granderson broke out at one of the minors easiest stadiums to hit a home run in. His numbers were helped by an August that was disproportionate to the rest of his career. He was an anomaly, but this year, showed that his breakout was for real. Granderson might not be the next great Tiger, or even a consistent All-Star. But for a team like Detroit, that has been “rebuilding” for so long, he’s the long-term answer at one position. PECOTA loves him, but I don’t see enough power developing for a superstar to shine through.

    • Does speed kill or does it annoy? I found some research from Cyril Morong about the impacts of base stealing. He used Scott Podsednik as his case study. He found that the value from Podsednik’s stolen base was outweighed by his below average offensive showing. Now there are other elements to speed, such as scoring from first on a wild pitch, but…you guys all know where I’m going with this.
    • It’s old news now, but Troy Percival has retired – sort of. He’s retired in the sense that he’s not playing anymore, but not in the sense that he still isn’t under contract and earning $6 million this year. Fortunately the Tigers will get some insurance relief (I want to say I read $3 million somewhere but I can’t find it now). Brian and Sam have wrapped up Percival’s career pretty thoroughly. I was pretty positive about the Percival signing at the time, as the idiocy in the following paragraph will show:

      The other reason I

  • The Optimal Tiger Lineup

    On Friday, Lee aggregated various projections for Tiger players to find the average projection. On Saturday, David Pinto web enabled a script written by Ken Arneson based on work by Cyril Morong that optimizes lineups. On Sunday, I do the easiest part of all and stick Lee’s numbers into David’s tool.

    First some lineups, and then some explanation. I first put in what would probably be the most common assortment of players the Tigers would use. I’m guessing this would be Rodriguez/Inge/Guillen/Polanco/Shelton/Monroe/Granderson/Ordonez/Young. Various combinations of those players would average 5.330 runs per game. Here are the best and worst variations on that lineup
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  • Tiger Links

    Some Detroit Tiger related links from the last few days that you might have missed:

    • Baseball Analysts on the Central: Aaron Gleeman and the Cheat join Rich and Bryan to break down the AL Central. The consensus was that the Tigers are probably the 4th best team in a pretty good division.

      Aaron: Right. Detroit doesn’t have any real stars, but I could see them being average or better at every position.

      Bryan: Seems to me the Twins and Tigers will be battling for having the third and fourth offenses in the division, but the Twins strength in pitching puts them way ahead.

      Cheat: I’d rate the Tigers offense ahead of the Twins, but your point still stands. The difference in pitching is too much to overcome.

      Bryan: It seems funny to say that in the AL Central that a good offense and mediocre pitching staff doesn’t have a ton of hope for third. That’s new.

      Aaron: Yeah. This Tigers team could have competed for the division title a couple years ago.

    • Love for Craig Monroe: Greg Eno is a big fan of Craig Monroe and would like to see him inked to a long term contract.

      So DD better stop fiddling around and keep Monroe in a Tigers uniform for years to come. He has the strength to muscle the ball over Comerica Park’s distant walls in left and left-center field. He doesn’t drop the ball with his glove, and can throw it with some accuracy and zip. He is also another rarity among Tigers players of late: he is not baseball stupid.

      Now I like Greg as a writer, and I like Craig Monroe, but I can’t agree here. Monroe’s production is fairly typical, not extraordinary. He has two more years of arbitration eligibility and there is no need to sign him to a long term deal. I love his work ethic, his attitude, and I have no desire to see him leave. However, he is probably also one of the more replaceable players on the roster.

    • Former Tigers, current Nationals: Jason Beck writes about the former Tigers who find themselves with the Washington Nationals. The contingent includes Robert Fick, Damian Jackson, Mike DiFelice, Andrew Good, George Lombard and Brandon Harper.
    • A Rockies fan bashes Detroit: Bad Altitude, a member of the Baseball Toaster family has been preparing Hastily Assembled Previews for various teams. He’s not big on Detroit to say the least:

      It’s almost besides the point to try and predict a record or finish for the Tigers in 2006, because for teams with no chance of contending records are looked to for signs of progress. If the Rockies win 75 games this year, that’ll be a nice little accomplishment and pats on the back will be due all ’round. If Detroit wins 75 games in ’06, or 84, or 64, who cares, because it’ll be the exact same story in 2007. And the year after that…and the year after that…. They’re duking it out with Baltimore for the coveted title of Worst Organization in MLB (Kansas City is disqualified as they haven’t been actively trying to field a major league team for some time now). I kind of wish they were in our division.

      Now the author qualified it as a hastily assembled preview, and if I tried to put quicly put together several hundred words about a team outside of the Central I would struggle. Still, I’m not impressed with the work here. He criticizes the Tigers for overspending on Rogers (which they probably did), for sticking with the mainstays in the rotation (Bonderman, Robertson, Maroth), and for rushing Verlander and Zumaya. I’m really not sure who he invisions pitching in Detroit. They can’t use their highly touted prospects, they can’t use the average, cheap, homegrown players they have, and they can’t sign free agents.

      Dombrowski and the Tigers are certainly open to criticism. The Rogers, Jones, and Ordonez contracts all fall in the category of excessive no matter what your criteria is. However, at least in the case of Rogers and Jones the length of the contracts don’t seem to prohibit anything else (spending, player promotions/development). If you want to call them the worst organization in baseball for the totality of the last 12 years that is fine, and difficult to argue. To base it on the last 2 seasons just doesn’t make sense.

    • BA’s Top 50 Okay, so you probably didn’t miss this one. In case you hadn’t heard, 3 Tigers made the top 50. Justin Verlander checked in at 8, followed by Cameron Maybin at 31, and Joel Zumaya at 35. I happen to think that Zumaya is probably ranked a little low, but at the same time I don’t know enough about other teams prospects to really complain to much. In any case, 3 players in the Top 50 is probably pretty good for one of the worst organizations in baseball.

  • Park Factor Central

    Thumbing through the The Bill James Handbook 2006(aff link), I came across the section on park factors, and compiled the following table for the American League Central.

                          AVG          R      2B       3B      HR
Comerica Park          102         96      82      176      95
Jacobs Field            96         83     103       46      83
Kauffman Stadium       103        101     116      113      73
Metrodome               98        102      93       85     110
US Cellular            101        104      96       82     139

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  • The Big Three

    John Sickels has a “Prospect Smackdown” with the big 3 righthanded prospects for 2006: Chad Billingsley, Matt Cain, and Justin Verlander. Sickels ranks them

    1. Verlander
    2. Cain
    3. Billingsley

    He gives the edge to Verlander due to Justin’s fastball’s higher peak velocity, physical stature, and minor league performance last year.

    All 3 pitchers are pretty comparable, and it’s really a matter of who you ask as to how they rank. Baseball Prospectus ranks them Cain/Verlander/Billingsley. On the other hand Baseball America ranks them Billingsley/Verlander/Cain. Meanwhile, Bryan Smith from Baseball Analysts has it at Cain/Billingsley/Verlander.

    Whatever the case, it’s just nice to have a Tiger in the mix for a change.
    prospects, detroit tigers, baseball

  • Tigers sign 5 more

    Detroit agreed to terms with five more players today. Franklyn German, Fernando Rodney, Curtis Granderson, Don Kelly, and Kody Kirkland are now all under contract. Terms weren’t disclosed, but it is a pretty safe bet that German, Rodney, and Granderson all received contracts in the $350,000 range (give or take $10,000).

    The Tigers now have signed 30 or the 40 members of the major league roster.

    detroit tigers

  • It’s a sunshine day…spring training round-up

    There is nothing like the spring training for hope to spring eternal. This hope come across stronger than ever the first week of camp when the beat writers are relishing the sun.

    • Add Magglio Ordonez to the list of players who have reported to camp looking better. Ordonez has also said he doesn’t want the WBC to interfere with his preparation for this season. Danny Knobler also notes that Polanco will be Leyland’s #2 hitter.
    • Lou Whitaker is back in camp as an instructor. Lou has always been my favorite Tiger, so it was interesting to hear how Leyland was involved in moving Lou from third base to second.
    • Apparently the the bullpen competition is a little lighter due to Craig Dingman’s rare injury. Dingman put together a pretty good season last year, and this is certainly a sad story if his career is over. Sam has done a ton of research on the matter, which is difficult since this is relatively unknown. Here’s hoping he’ll be alright.
    • And of course we’re all waiting to see the new slimmed down (or at least slimmer) Dmitri Young. In the meantime we’re left with this quote: “I’m single now, I can’t be fat.”