Take a Spin on the Rumor Mill

You may have thought the ride was over now that Spring Training is in full swing, but no...the rumor mill has not ceased operation.  Listen to what I heard today, and see if it doesn't get you feeling a bit woozy.  

I was listening to Karsch & Anderson this noon, who were broadcasting from Lakeland.  One of them says that he's heard that perhaps the Tigers will dump Sheffield and his $14 million dollar contract to ensure that Jeff Larish has a spot on the roster.   

To be honest, I don't put a whole lot of stock in this news, thunderous as it may be.  My jaw did drop, true, at its hearing, but actually believing it is a whole other thing.  Their current proximity to the Tigers does not really serve to enhance the veracity of the tale.

Also, as if to prove it wrong, Sheff busts out with two homers in today's game against the Yanks.

In the concrete news realm, Verlander walks four in two innings, and allows 4 runs (2 earned) with two strikeouts.  Oh Justin, is efficiency out of reach?  Are Tiger starters (other than Porcello) incurably addicted to the base on balls?

As if Tigers fans needed more news to prompt ledge-seeking, Marcus Thames has an abdominal strain.  Both Curtis Granderson and our team Venezuela representatives made it through to round two of the WBC, so we are a little short on player personnel here, you know?

Let's look at it this way, maybe we're getting out all the bad stuff here in the pre-season, and we'll be injury and walk free during the regular season.   Wishful thinking, I know, but my workplace doesn't have any ledges, so I've got to keep positive somehow.

Prospects and Problems

You may have heard by now that the Mesa Solar Sox lost 10-4 in the AFL Championship to the Phoenix Desert Dogs, who garnered their fifth straight title.  Our Tiger prospects performed well, however.  Jeff Larish hit a two-run homer, and Casper Wells had an RBI double.

The Detroit Free Press has nice pieces on both Larish and Wells in today's paper.  

My resolution to remain unflappable in the face of troubling hot stove rumors has been tested early on.  Ian over at Bless You Boys reports that the Pirates may be trying to obtain catcher Matt Treanor from the Marlins and then package him with Jack Wilson in trade to the Tigers.

Um, why are we continually linked to players that do not fit the needs we have?

Lugo, Wilson?  Are the Tigers going to buy me a wig when I pull all my hair out?

I've posted this comment before, and I'll repeat it here.  I'm stating the obvious here, but apparently these facts are not crystallized in our management's mind.  WE NEED DEFENSE AND SPEED.  Since DD and Leyland are mysteriously hung up on Santiago's durability and refuse to give him a go, then in my mind, we should pursue someone like Cesar Izturis, who would be in our price range, and is stellar defensively and is speedy on the base paths.  I know his offense isn't much, but we aren't going after top tier SS free agents.

That's all I'm going to say on this subject, for fear of breaking my vow not to be caught in the malevolent rumor maelstrom.

AFL Finale

The Mesa Solar Sox are playing in the AFL Championship game tomorrow at 2:30 pm Eastern.  The game is being shown on MLB.TV.  The lineup, which features three of our Tigers prospects, was voted on by the players. 

Jeff Larish is playing 1B and batting cleanup, Casper Wells is out in right and batting 7th, and Will Rhymes rounds out Tiger representation at 2B, batting 9th.  It's possible that Casey Fien would make a relief appearance in the game.  He last pitched Nov. 18, and allowed no runs, no hits over one inning, with 2 strikeouts.

The Sox are playing the Phoenix Desert Dogs, which are attempting to secure their fifth straight AFL championship.

The starting pitcher for the Sox is Braves youngster Tommy Hanson, who boasts a sick 5-0 record, with a 0.63 ERA, 1.05 opponent batting average, and 49 strikeouts over 28 2/3 innings.  

AFL Player of the Week: Casper Wells

Detroit prospect and outfielder Casper Wells has been named Week 6 POTW for the Arizona Fall League.   He's also seen some time (5 games) at first in the AFL, although that isn't very relevant for the Tigers, since we've got a certain young slugger entrenched there already, along with an abundance of other first base "types," not the least of which is Jeff Larish, another prospect and AFL Solar Sox teammate of Wells.  Nice run-on sentence, and notice how I refer to the Tigers and myself as "we," as if the club consults me often on matters of great importance.

MLB.com reports that:

"The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Tiger prospect belted five home runs last week and drove in 12 runs while hitting .350 with seven extra-base hits and a 1.200 slugging percentage."

Wells average over 19 AFL games is .318, and he's got 7 HRs and 21 RBI.  Casper bats righty, by the way, so no lefty help for the big club there.

As for base-running, Wells swiped 25 bases last year (total between A West MI and AA Erie) and was caught 8 times.   In the AFL, he's got 4 steals, but has also been caught stealing 4 times.

Our Solar Sox prospects are shining.  Now if only we could charter a fan bus to Mesa for a fall league game.

So Many Questions, So Few Answers

We're still wringing our hands over the 2008 season, and chugging Maalox in anticipation of off-season moves.  A full buffet of names has been plated, chewed up, digested or spit out.  I guess we bloggers should be happy in the sense that it supplies endless fodder to fill our cyber-pages.  I'm weary already, and the winter meetings don't start until December 8.  I'm sorry that I'm so weak.  It's pathetic, I know.

Side note--winter meetings are in Vegas, so let's hope Dombrowski isn't tempted to do a lot of gambling.  Although, with our funds available, that may be a necessity.  Our player payroll was about $134 million in 2008, and it's expected to stay right around that level.  We've already got $100 million committed.  A lot of that is tied up in bad contracts (Inge, Robertson, Willis, Sheffield), further hindering our ability to do what we need to do.  This leads to the talk that the Tigers will have to listen to offers for Magglio Ordóñez.  A lot of folks have argued that he'll be difficult to move without eating some of his contract, so we'll see.  Marcus Thames and Jeff Larish (especially with his quality performance in the AFL) are also good bets for trade bait.

December 1 is the deadline for clubs to offer arbitration to their free agents.  December 7 is the deadline for the player to decline or accept it.  This deadline is right before winter meetings, so that may make things interesting for the Renteria scenario at short (as pointed out by Jason Beck in his Nov. 10 Tigers.com mailbag).

The hardest part for us (besides the limited payroll) is that we've got players who are very close, but not quite big league ready, so we're looking for short term solutions, while most free agents (who aren't older than dirt or coming off injury-riddled or underperforming seasons) are looking for long term contracts.   Farm talent ready to come in by about 2010 includes short, closer and starting pitcher.  Catcher Dusty Ryan may be ready this year, may not.  It all makes for gut-churning drama, which may not play out until the season is in full swing.  Better go buy more Maalox.

More Arizona Fall League

Some stats from our AFL players, playing for the Mesa Solar Sox.  Jeff Larish hit the spotlight in a piece on Tigers.com, trying to improve versatility so he can land on the 2009 big-league roster.

In his AFL blog, Zach Simons reports that Casper Wells must lead the league in HBP.  He also says that Jeff Larish has the hot stick after a bit of a slow start.   He now has 3 HR, and leads the league in RBIs.  Zach himself had 5 scoreless innings after his (not so great) first outing.

Hitting:

Jeff Larish:  playing 1B & 3B, 19 G, 81 AB, 21 RBI, 10 BB, 15 SO, .309 AVG, .494 SLG, .376 OBP, .870 OPS

Will Rhymes:  2B, 16 G, 71 AB, 7 RBI, 4 BB, 9 SO, .296 AVG, .310 SLG, .329 OBP, .639 OPS

Casper Wells:  CF, 13 G, 42 AB, 9 RBI, 6 BB, 13 SO, .286 AVG, .452 SLG, .455 OBP, .907 OPS

Pitching

Luis Marte, 2-1, 6.00 ERA, 4 G, 12.0 IP, 4 BB, 16 SO, 1.83 WHIP

Casey Fien, 2-0, 0.84 ERA, 8 G, 10.2 IP, 0 BB, 11 SO, 0.75 WHIP--no walks, he might deserve a shot based on that alone!

Zach Simons, 0-1, 3.86 ERA, 8 G, 9.1 IP, 5 BB, 4 SO, 1.50 WHIP

Rudy Darrow, 1-0, 2.89 ERA, 8 G, 9.1 IP, 4 BB, 13 SO, 1.29 WHIP

Again, it's difficult, because this remains a small sample size, and the season ends Nov. 20, and these numbers aren't put up against current big league talent, but it's still fun to check in on these youngsters.