Injuries

Carlos Guillen injured his calf during last Saturday's game and in the same game, Magglio Ordonez broke his ankle. There seemed to be some question as to whether he would have had to go on the disabled list at all if the team weren't in such dire straits in terms of big league personnel. However, they quickly determined they couldn't afford to have a three man bench and it's probably just as well. Choose your cliche to describe how the season is getting away from the Tigers. If Guillen was sitting on the bench and technically available, it may have been tempting for both him and the team to test the calf before it was ready. 

Maggs' injury is much worse in just about every way. The injury itself is more serious, shelving him for an expected six to eight weeks. The Tigers aren't as well equipped to absorb the loss of his middle-of-the-order bat or to fill his position. They've taken to batting guys like Will Rhymes and Ramon Santiago ahead of Damon, who's been manning the third spot in the order. Nothing against Rhymes and Santiago, but they're essentially replacing Ordonez in the top part of the order and it's a huge step down. On the field, the remedy has been to press Raburn into near full-time duty and with Damon DHing most nights, that leaves them short on outfield replacements and the bench almost completely punchless. 

The final effect is mostly a pain to Ordonez's bank account. His injury is going to prevent his $15M option for 2011 from vesting. It will be interesting to see how the Tigers handle that situation. I wouldn't be totally surprised if they just picked it up anyway, but that would likely amount to paying several million dollars as a premium for the fans' appreciation of him. What I think is more plausible is them telling Maggs, "We can't afford $15M (and you won't get that on the open market) so how about if we give you a similar amount over two years." I could see that working, but that will depend on what angle Scott Boras takes as Maggs' agent. 

Getting back to the injuries, Nate Newman was placed on the disabled list with what MiLB.com classified as a sore shoulder. Shoulder problems are always ominous to me, we'll wait to see what comes of it before we start worrying about labrums or rotator cuffs. 

Signings/Releases/Retirements/Trades

The heading for this category usually doesn't include trades, but I figured I'd add them this week since we had a trade but only one of the other three kinds of transactions. As you know doubt know, the trade was acquiring Jhonny Peralta for Whitecap lefty, Giovanni Soto. The Tigers seem to be protecting their young players from being a pivotal part of what's looking like a second half spiral. Instead of sliding in some combination of Don Kelly, Scott Sizemore or one of their shortstops at third base while Inge is hurt, they decided to get a veteran who could do it. Based on what Peralta has done so far this season (.246/.308/.389, 32 BB, 60 K, .307 wOBA in 373 PA) I'm skeptical that the on-field results will be all that different. 

Perhaps I'm just pessimistic because of the Tigers' recent history with deadline deals. Last year, we were picking up an injured Jarrod Washburn and a "clutchy" Aubrey Huff who had done well in a little over 100 at bats with runners in scoring position. The year before, we were shipping Pudge to New York for a second go-around with Kyle Farnsworth. In fact, with Sean Casey being the crown jewel of the Tigers' deadline deal over the past few years I'm beginning to wonder why Tiger fans look forward to what the Tigers might do at this time of year. Anyway, with this recent luck I'd imagine Peralta will make it a very easy decision for the Tigers when it comes time to opt for giving him $7.25M for 2011 or paying his $250K buyout and letting him get what he can as a free agent. 

The good news in this trade is the Tigers have historically been pretty good at picking the prospects they let go in trades. Dombrowski has taken a lot of heat for moves he's made the past few years, but outside of giving up Jair Jurrjens for Edgar Renteria he's had very few prospects come back to haunt him. We'll see if Soto is able to buck that trend. The book on him seems to be that he is young enough and thin enough that it seems reasonable that he could add some velocity when his body matures. That would go nicely with the pitchability and control that has made him successful in West Michigan this year. The Tigers are either betting against that happening or betting they can find a comparable pitcher in the three to five years it would take him to get to the majors. 

I mentioned there was one other move in this category besides the trade. That was the release of Billy Buckner. Buckner was acquired for Dontrelle Willis and he seemed to step into Willis's cloud of bad mojo. He made eight starts for the Hens. Two were good and the rest were pretty much disasters. There may have been an injury somewhere in there because there was talk of one when we has held out of a start just before being released. As far as Tiger fans are concerned, it doesn't really matter at this point. 

Re-assignments

This section is going to be pretty lengthy as the Tigers have an air of desperation as they try to find useful pieces to fill out their roster. When Guillen and Ordonez went down, the Tigers called up Will Rhymes and Jeff Larish. Considering they had lost their right fielder and second baseman, I wasn't sure how Jeff Larish fit into the equation other than he was the Hens' best bat and left-handed. Apparently, the Tigers weren't too sure where he fit in either because he only played three games in the week he was a major leaguer. Yesterday, he was designated for assignment in favor of giving Jeff Frazier a shot at being the lightning they're trying to catch in a bottle. That is a grim assessment of Larish's future with the Tigers. Sure, he was DFA'd a while back but at the time, that felt like a calculated risk. This time, he's being exposed to waivers in order to give major league time to a player who has a very slim chance at sticking as a major leaguer. 

This makes Larish's promotion last week all the more puzzling. If they would have just promoted Frazier last week, they wouldn't have had to expose Larish to waivers. Maybe they feel it's unlikely he will be claimed, and it seems possible they don't care. But if they value him so little, why was he called up last week? What changed in their assessment of Frazier compared to Larish in a week? Is it really because Frazier is hot at the moment? Are the Tigers really taking "trying to catch lightning in a bottle" to that extreme? I shudder to think decisions are being made based on what a guy has done over the past week. For Larish's sake, I hope he gets claimed because he obviously isn't going to get another real shot with the Tigers. Even if Larish doesn't get claimed, he won't be able to rejoin the Hens for the ten days between his DFA and his outright to Toledo. That, coupled with Wilkin Ramirez's DFA to make room for Peralta means the Hens will have to continue to assemble lineups like this. 

As I mentioned, Rhymes was the other player called up with Larish. This was predictable at the time the Tigers made the move. They had already called up Sizemore to help fill in for Inge and Rhymes is having a pretty good sesaon while Brent Dlugach - really, the only other option - isn't. The part involving Rhymes that wasn't predictable in my opinion, was choosing him over Sizemore once the Tigers added Peralta. Actually, when they added Peralta I said with a sigh, "I bet they send down Sizemore instead of Rhymes" but the move shouldn't have been that predictable. It feels to me like the Tigers are again trying to ride the hot hand instead of just going with the better player. It's possible that's not accurate, though. Maybe they feel Sizemore's hip doesn't let him play every day like they need him to. Maybe they feel Rhymes' defense is that much better than Sizemore's. As one of my reader's suggested, maybe they know Guillen is coming back very soon and they're okay with Rhymes staying on the bench but want Sizemore playing every day in Toledo. Maybe. It still feels like another ill-conceived and desperate move to me. Of course, Rhymes has two hits in each of his last three games so what do I know? 

Before I get to all the moves that were the ripple effect of the Guillen and Ordonez injuries (as well as some other non-related moves), I'd like to point out I have no problem with Frazier getting promoted. He's hitting the crap out of the ball and if he's ever going to get a shot now is a reasonable time. After all, he's been one of the International League's best power hitters this season and the Tigers can't be blamed for wanting to tap into that reserve. My issue is only with the fact that they didn't try to tap it last week instead of pointlessly promoting Larish. I wish Frazier the best of luck while he's with the Tigers. 

Okay, disclaimers aside, we still have moves to cover. When Larish and Rhymes were promoted, the Hens obviously needed to fill in for them. To do that, they looked to Audy Ciriaco and Cesar Nicolas. Unfortunately, Nicolas was then almost immediately suspended for fifty games for testing positive for amphetamines and Ciriaco was put on the disabled list with a broken left hand. To help out the Hens' depleted pitching staff, Josh Rainwater was promoted back to Toledo. In a nice twist from the norm, he's actually stayed despite Casey Fien being outrighted back to the Toledo roster. With the Hens losing Ciriaco and Nicolas almost immediately after their promotions (not to mention losing Larish and Ramirez for at least ten days while they are on waivers) they were forced to call up Chris White and Shawn Roof. Both are completely out of their depths in Toledo, and should return to their previous assignments once Ramirez, Sizemore and whoever is cleared to make room for Guillen return. The good thing about Roof going to Toledo is it allowed the Tigers to call Brandon Douglas up to Erie. Considering Douglas likely would have started the season there if not for injury, this is a welcome and unsurprising move. 

The Ciriaco, Nicolas and Rainwater moves required similar promotions to fill out the Erie roster, so the Wolves saw the return of Bryan Pounds and Ramon Garcia in addition to Double A debut for Billy Nowlin. It'll be interesting to see what Nowlin does with this opportunity. He seemed slow to make necessary adjustments in Lakeland and I wonder how he'll fare against more advanced pitchers. Naturally, these promotions left Lakeland needing some bodies and their replenishments came from Connecticut in the form of Matt Mansilla and Chris Sedon. To help out the pen, they turned to one of their GCL pitchers, Dan Gentzler. 

That just about covers the moves since my last roster moves post, but not quite. Patrick Cooper (14th round pick from 2010 draft) was promoted to fill Soto's spot in the Whitecap rotation. Keep an eye on him. He is a Cape Cod vet who has shown good stuff in the past and won't turn 21 until later in August. Kevan Hess was promoted from Connecticut to West Michigan, presumably to fill-in for Nate Newman. Finally, Samir Rijo was moved from the GCL to Lakeland. Hess had pitched well in Connecticut, but Rijo looks to be filling out the roster for Lakeland rather than being someone who played his way into the promotion.

This is the next step in the series of posts in which I am briefly looking at each player at each position. You can read about the catchers, first basemen and second basemen in the first three installments. I remember doing similar looks at each position the last couple years and trying to figure out if things looked worse at catcher or third base. The Tigers might finally be making some headway at catcher, so let's see what we find at third base.

Detroit

Jeff Larish

I thought the Tigers might play Larish at third to try to pack as much offense into the lineup as possible. Since his callup, though, he’s only played in two games and neither has been at third. Between that and the Tigers going with Sizemore when Inge was injured, I get the feeling the Larish at third experiment hasn’t come to a point where the Tigers are comfortable with it at the major league level.

That’s bad news for Larish because we know first base isn’t an option - he’s six months older than Cabrera - and he’s not the kind of hitter who can be a full-time DH. It’s not all bad news for Larish. He was hitting well when he was called up (.275/.372/.497, 45 BB, 84 K in 352 PA) and even though he is walking less and striking out more than he did while he was in Toledo last year, he’s hitting for much more power.

If he were given a consistent chance in the majors, I wouldn’t be surprised if his lefty bat  would allow him to be a serviceable bench player. I just don’t think that chance is going to come with the Tigers.

Toledo

Audy Ciriaco

I was going to include Cesar Nicolas in this bunch since he was recently promoted and has played third most often when he wasn’t the designated hitter. However, his 50-game suspension for testing positive for an amphetamine pretty much wraps up his season. It wouldn’t be surprising if he was done with the Tigers as well.

That leaves just Ciriaco, and even he just played his first game in Toledo (in 2010) Wednesday. His promotion was part of the scramble to fill in for the Hens’ promoted players and it will be interesting to see what he does in Triple A. It’s probably not reasonable to expect a whole lot, considering he was hitting .244/.266/.421 in Erie with eight walks and 49 strikeouts. The power he’s put on display is the best of his career, but it doesn’t make up for the low average or the fact that the calendar sometimes turns between walks.

He’s still young, though, and physically he’s supposed to be one of the Tigers’ top position prospects. He’s made some strides in putting those skills on display between the lines, but he’s either going to need an epiphany at the plate or a lot of dedication to further development.

Erie

Bryan Pounds

Pounds was the Tigers’ 34th round pick in the 2008 draft, so it’s a little surprising to see him in Erie just two years later. A few things make it less surprising. He was one of the older players in that draft and injuries and other players’ promotions have left the Tigers a little short at third base. Finally, the Tigers’ depth at third base was lacking before Brandon Inge was injured.

These things make it less surprising that he’s in Erie despite hitting just .269/.355/.331 in 203 plate appearances in Lakeland and losing some time to injury. Making the jump hasn’t awakened the bat, either. With the Wolves, he’s hitting .170/.241/.358 in 58 plate appearances with five walks and 17 strikeouts. I’m sure he’s happy to be in Erie, but between these numbers and his time lost to injury it seems like it’s been a long season for him.

Lakeland

Francisco Martinez

Last season, Martinez hit .222/.251/.320 in the GCL. This season, when he surfaced it was with Lakeland and after that 2009 showing, I assumed it was a temporary assignment that would show him just how much more work he needed to do. There’s still work to be done, but Martinez has stuck in Lakeland and fared much better than I would have thought.

He’s hitting .284/.332/.368 with 12 walks and 41 strikeouts  in 217 plate appearances. What’s better is after looking lost where the strike zone is concerned in May and June, he’s walked seven times and struck out eight in July. He’s also been hitting for a little more pop lately. I’ve always kept an eye on Martinez because he signed when he was 16 on international signing day back in 2007. The Tigers didn’t sign all that many players that early back then, so it suggested there was something in him they liked. Now that he’s holding his own as a 19-year-old in Lakeland, we may be seeing signs the move was a wise one.

West Michigan

Wade Gaynor

Gaynor was sort of like Martinez last season in that you had a young third baseman in the low minors who you hoped might some day provide the Tigers with a major leaguer. Like Martinez, the results made you think, “Well, maybe not.” Like Martinez, Gaynor is illustrating (like we should already know) you just can’t put too much behind those low minors stats. He’s come around at the plate in a big way after a slow start to the season.

He’s been a little better each month and the steady progression has him sitting at .282/.348/.436 in 405 plate appearances. He’s showing relatively good power considering it’s the Midwest League and at 22, he’s not pushing around a bunch of kids. A possible caveat? His defense could need some work. Coming out of the draft, the reviews were not raving and he already has 21 errors this season. It makes me wonder if a move out to a corner outfield spot might be in his future.

Connecticut

Josh Ashenbrenner
Matt Perry

I’ve never seen a kid who’s name caused so much disagreement over how it was spelled on draft say. I think I saw three different ones (Hosh as his first name and Ashtenbrenner as his last), but this seems to be the spelling everybody has settled on. He’s from the same school as Brent Wyatt, NAIA powerhouser, Lewis-Clark State. He’s showing a lot of patience in the early going of his career, walking 14 times in his first 120 plate appearances against just five walks. That’s led to a .267/.367/.356 line, which would fit a little better with a middle infielder but we’ll see where he goes from here.

I’m loathe to admit I made a Friends joke when I first saw the Tigers drafted a kid named Matt Perry. Sue me. Perry is another player who’s actually played DH more than anything else, and in the early going he’s made the choice seem fairly wise. He’s hitting .310/.396/.345 in his first 103 plate appearances. That’s just about zero power so far, but he’s drawing walks (13) at an even higher rate than Ashenbrenner. The difference is he’s also struck out 16 times, which still isn’t a bad rate. He’ll just need to develop some power behind all that contact.

GCL Tigers

Javier Azcona
Edgar Corcino

Azcona was the DSL starting shortstop last year, but it would appear he’s been pushed off the position by Dixon Machado, the VSL starting shortstop last year. He’s played quite a bit at both second and third, but he’s still hitting like a slick fielding shortstop. I’ve already discussed how much these small sample, low minors stats mean but you’d still prefer not to see these kids putting up ugly numbers like .202/.237/.326 with three walks and 28 strikeouts in 94 plate appearances.

The approach at the plate is a little scary, but when he makes contact he seems to be putting a decent charge in the ball. Six of his 18 hits have been for extra bases. At 6’1” and 185 pounds, he sounds like he might have the kind of frame where he could continue to hit for power. They just need to point out how that will go better if he’s swinging at pitches in the zone.

Corcino was drafted in the 26th round last year, but the Puerto Rico product was still very young. He’s in his second turn in the GCL and he just turned 18 on June 7th. Maybe that’s why the Tigers are easing him into his role. He’s only played about half the Tigers’ games so far and the early returns show he’s struggling (.200/.273/.250 in 44 PA).

Overall Summary

The Tigers clearly lack a blue chip third base prospect. They may add one if they sign Nick Castellanos, but until that happens we’re stuck hoping for the development of Ciriaco, Martinez and Gaynor. Obviously, even when they sign Castellanos, he’s likely to be a good four or five years away from the majors since he’s just a high schooler. There’s no guarantee he’ll be able to stick at third, either.

The fact that he’ll be the Tigers’ best third base prospect the instant he puts his pen to paper speaks both to his potential and the Tigers’ struggles at developing players at this position. If we’re comparing the position to what we were looking at last year, however, this year is all sunshine and lollipops even without Castellanos. After all, last year it was largely the same cast (except for all the guys who were released) and Martinez and Gaynor had down years. The improvements at the position may be called marginal (without considering Castellanos), but I’ll take movement in the right direction.

When Matt Joyce hit a grand slam to break up Max Scherzer's no-hit bid in the sixth, I came upstairs to continue my series of looks at each position in the Tigers' minors. When I discovered Matt Garza finished his no-hit bid, I figured I'd better finish this post so you Tiger fans would have something to read about other than the Tigers getting no-hit. So, I give you the third installment in my series.

Obviously, second base is a little bit of a mess right now in the Tigers’ system. You had Sizemore called up when Inge’s hand was broken and then they had to call up Will Rhymes after Guillen’s trip to the DL. It’s a bit of an all hands on deck situation. As usual, that caused a ripple effect and now the Tigers’ two most advanced farm teams - who were both in last place already - are feeling the sting of the Tigers’ desperation. Those good times, they’re just a rollin’ aren’t they?

Detroit

Will Rhymes

I didn’t include the major leaguers when I did catchers and first basemen, but I’m making an exception for Rhymes because he’s obviously part of the Tigers’ depth considerations since he’s currently on the Tigers. I don’t mean to sell him short, but that’s more a function of the Tigers’ situation than an indicator of his status as a prospect.

He’s certainly hitting better this year than last, but the improvement is owed almost completely to a jump in his batting average from .260 to .304. That’s a big jump, but it’s owed to fewer strikeouts and more hits falling for him than a big jump in his secondary skills. His walk rate is up just 0.5% from last year (7.9 to 8.4) and his isolated power has gone from .094 to .110. He’s been a valuable member of the Hens this year, and improvement is good of course. It’s just that despite hitting more fly balls and a few more line drives, he’s very much the same hitter he’s always been. That's one who's too dependent on batting average and who will be stretched to succeed in the majors.

Toledo

Justin Henry 
Max Leon

Henry was actually called up to the Hens when Scott Sizemore went back to Detroit, but like Rhymes his promotion is about necessity. While you can make an argument Rhymes is being rewarded for a good season (they did choose him over Brent Dlugach), Henry seems to just be going where he’s needed. He’s hitting .260/.371/.355 for the SeaWolves and he’s just not the kind of hitter who can afford to be hitting for that low of an average. Looking on the bright side, he hit well for Toledo (.353/.476/.412 in 22 PA) in limited time so far.

Leon is playing the role of utility man for the Hens, and has actually been a designated hitter more often than anything else. That’s not really where his value is when you consider he’s hitting .241/.318/.353 in his 215 plate appearances. He’s filled the role because players more suited for it are trying to learn new positions.

Erie

Alden Carrithers
Shawn Roof

Carrithers tore through the Florida State League when he was down there, and earned the promotion he received after the end of the FSL’s first half. The success he enjoyed has come to a screeching halt in Erie. He’s amassed 112 plate appearances and has just 17 hits to show for it, leading to an ugly line of .185/.330/.207. You can see he’s still drawing walks (16 BB, 15 K), but he’s hitting with almost no power. I would have thought he was just pounding the ball into the dirt, but he’s actually hitting more fly balls since going to Erie. He must either be getting under them or just lacks the power to make them hurt. Whatever the ball is doing off the bat, it’s not doing damage and while he’s not going to continue to carry a .221 BABIP, there’s clearly work to be put in.

I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Roof was putting in his last season. He’s about to turn 26 and is hitting .227/.271/.287 with just seven walks and 42 strikeouts. He’s also put in the better part of the last two years at the Double A level and this year’s gone worst than the last.

Lakeland

Brandon Douglas
Pat McKenna
Chris Sedon

When the Flying Tigers lost Carrithers after the first half, I was less concerned about them replacing his production than I was about their losing Kody Kaiser or Rawley Bishop. That’s not because those guys were more productive than Carrithers. It was because he was being replaced by Brandon Douglas as the team’s starting second baseman. When Douglas has been healthy, he’s hit and this year has been no different. He doesn’t drive the ball, but he makes contact and legs out a lot of hits. He’s 25, though, so he’s going to have to prove he can continue to do that at higher levels in pretty short order.

McKenna was a 27th round draft pick last season and his ultimate role in the organization was made pretty clear when he was assigned to the GCL for a second time after coming out of college. He’s not hitting like he’s accepting the role that suggests, though. He hit .326/.415/.587 in 55 plate apperances in the GCL and not that he’s getting some time with Lakeland, he’s hitting .444/.524/.611 in his 21 plate appearances there. I doubt it will change his ultimate role, but I bet it’s fun for him while it lasts.

Sedon spent a little time trying to earn a job as the Whitecaps’ second baseman but soon found himself back in the NY-Penn League. The good news for him is he already has almost as many extra base hits this year (2) in 18 plate appearances as he did last year (3) in 155. The bad news is he’s back in the NY-Penn League.

West Michigan

Jimmy Gulliver
Corey Jones

Gulliver was one of the players added to the Whitecap roster when they made their first major overhaul and released Mike Gosse as a part of it. Last year’s 20th round pick hasn’t offered much of a solution, hitting just .240/.290/.302 with eight walks and 28 strikeouts since being given the assignment.

Thankfully, Corey Jones has been a little more opportunistic since taking over as the team’s starting second baseman. He’s run into a bit of a cold spell since starting his time with the Caps on an 8 for 14 tear, but for the Tigers’ 7th round pick from this year’s draft it’s likely his job to lose. On the season, he’s hitting .297/.395/.405 in 45 plate appearances with four walks and eight strikeouts.

Connecticut

Alexander Nunez

Heading into the 2010 season for Connecticut, I would have thought Nunez and Robbins were the team’s two best position prospects. It’s therefore a little disappointing that Robbins has 36 strikeouts and six walks and Nunez has 35 strikeouts and four walks. With that awful ratio, it’s surprising they have been as productive as they have. Nunez less so, but he’s hitting .252/.285/.366 and over a third of his hits have been for extra bases. In terms of batting average and slugging, he’s right at the league average and that’s not bad considering their home park is tough on hitters. He’ll still need a steep improvement in how he handles that strike zone if he’s going to stay relevant as a prospect.

GCL Tigers

Peter Miller

Miller was the Tigers’ 40th round draft pick and is the son of Tigers’ scout, Barney Miller. So I’m not sure if it would have been more appropriate for him to be drafted by the team that employs his dad or by the Marlins (Fish). Yes, that’s an awful joke that many people won’t get but I don’t have a lot to say about him. He’s logged the third most time at second for this squad, but McKenna was promoted and Javier Azcona has more time at third. That leaves on Miller. So you get bad Barney Miller jokes and a mention of the fact that in his first 53 pro plate appearances, Miller is hitting .225/.415/.300. How’s he putting up that enigmatic line? Thirty of his 53 trips to the plate have either been a walk or a strikeout.

Overall Summary

For a while now, the Tigers have been deep at second base compared to what they've had to offer at other positions. I’ve always found that odd given the lack of depth at the position in the minors as a whole, but they have now dug beyond their depth. They just don't have enough after the loss of Placido Polanco, the temporary need to fill in for Carlos Guillen and Scott Sizemore being called on to fill in at third base. I think the best we can hope for is either Carrithers or Douglas will provide enough secondary skills to be a utility man in the next couple years and that they catch a break with either Jones or Nunez developing. Sizemore remains their best shot at being a true major leaguer, though, and if he can get comfortable in his big league skin he’ll prove just that.

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As we take a look at the first basemen in the Tigers’ system, it’s important to remember how hard it’s going to be to matter as somebody in that role. Miguel Cabrera is going to be the center piece of the Tiger lineup for a long time. That fact has already forced the Tigers to try Jeff Larish and Ryan Strieby - their best first base prospects - at other positions. Let’s face it. If you’re a first base prospect in the Tigers’ system, you’d better either be young and patient or able to move a notch or two up the defensive spectrum. I suppose not being too attached to the Tiger system wouldn’t hurt either.

Toledo

Jeff Frazier

You might see Frazier’s birthdate - coming up on 28 years ago - and dismiss him as a career minor leaguer. I think the assessment is probably accurate, but I don’t want to cast aside what he’s done for the Hens this season so quickly. In his first full season in Triple A, he’s putting up numbers that are right there with the best of his career. He’s already set a career best in homers with 20 and when you throw in his 30 doubles, it’s clear he’s well on his way for setting a high water mark for extra base hits as well.

Perhaps first base suits him. This is, after all, the first time he’s spent a significant amount of time there and he’s now in his seventh season as a pro. The power he’s producing looks to be coming at a price as he’s walking less (23 BB) and striking out more (67 K) than his career norms. Still, he’s lifting the ball much more this season and the result has been a career high in isolated power (.241), dwarfing even his time in High Desert back in 2007.  I don’t think he’s suddenly a candidate for the 40-man roster, but I think his contributions this season are notable.

Erie

Mike Bertram
Rawley Bishop

Bertram is currently on the disabled list with a lower back injury he aggravated the other night, but he’s been a reasonably productive hitter for the Wolves this season. He leads the team in RBIs and is second in runs, but we don’t really care about those stats here at T75N. It’s much more important that he’s struggling badly with the strike zone (25 BB and 94 K) and isn’t coming close to the amount of power he showed for the Wolves last season. My guess is he’s pushing up against his ceiling at the Double A level.

Bishop has been able to earn some attention this season. He was promoted to Lakeland from Oneonta to start this season and handled the challenge well enough to earn another in-season, hitting .301/.383/.462 in Lakeland. The production hasn’t come as easily in Erie (.253/.351/.389), but one thing that’s interesting is his walks are up and his strikeouts down since coming to Double A. That makes up for some of the power he lost in moving up to Erie, but the main thing sapping his productivity is fewer hits falling in (.394 BABIP in Lakeland, .309 so far in Erie). Bishop being able to handle this quick move to Erie reasonably well is admirable, but his age and position will make hit difficult to push through into the big leagues.

Lakeland

Jordan Lennerton
Billy Nowlin

Lennerton was promoted to Lakeland about the same time Bishop went to Erie. He’s been fine (.246/.323/.421 in 65 PA with Lakeland) but the promotion has seen Lennerton take a dip in BABIP similar to Bishop’s (.399 BABIP in W. Michigan, .300 in Lakeland). That’s made him less productive at this level despite having a similar walk rate, fewer strikeouts and more power. Of course, his time in Lakeland has been very brief so we should be careful about giving much leverage to what he’s done there so far. One thing he’s not done is lift the ball. He has a ground ball rate of 55% since moving up to Hi A, and that’s something he needs to correct. As for his long-term outlook, it seems clear to me Lennerton is a minor league first baseman whose career path will probably follow a route similar to Chris Carlson or Ryan Roberson.

Billy Nowlin would be more accurately grouped with designated hitters, but I think he’d have little company in such a post. Having that as his primary role, though, means he needs to hit the bejeezus out of the ball. It’s been surprising to me just how much bejeezus he’s left in the ball this year. He was very slow out of the gate, seeming overmatched by FSL pitchers. Then he seemed to right the ship as the season moved on. First came the walks and the power seemed to follow, leading to an excellent June. I expected the productive Nowlin to stick and be the linchpin of a second-half lineup decimated by promotions, but he seems to have hit the skids again in July. Overall, his .258/.339/.383 line with 31 walks and 58 strikeouts shows some promise but certainly nowhere near what I expected. He needs to make the necessary adjustments again, and they need to come faster if he’s going to follow his bat to higher levels.

West Michigan

Clay Jones
Tony Plagman

When I see Jones as a 36th round pick who’s playing more designated hitter than first base, I can’t help but expect him to fall in line with the first baseman I mentioned above (Lennerton, Carlson and Roberson). He’s hitting pretty well in the early going (.279/.354/.395 in 96 PA) but you can see the power hasn’t really been there. That’s probably because he is wearing out the grass in minor league infields with a 78% ground ball rate. I’m actually impressed that he’s been able to clear the fences a couple of times with fly balls being such a rarity. I have to believe that ground ball rate will come down to earth with more at bats, but it will need to come down a LOT for him to be a productive hitter.

Plagman will soon be 23, so he’s not going to make his case as a prospect in the Midwest League. Let’s not sell him short, though. He’s hit very well in his time in Grand Rapids. In 118 plate appearances, he’s hitting .286/.364/.505 and his only real blemish so far is an ugly line against lefties (1 for 17, so far). That has fluke written all over it, though, so let’s accentuate the positive. He’s drawing walks, not striking out a ton and hitting for good power without an inordinate number of hits falling in. This 9th round pick out of Georgia Tech seems determined to show he won’t follow a road that leads to him petering out in Erie. I was a little surprised the Tigers took a senior first baseman as early as they did, but maybe he’ll be able to prove it was a wise pick.

Connecticut

James Robbins

We finally get to a player who’s young enough to where it’s conceivable he could play first base for the Tigers some day. He’s only 19 and it’s not too far a stretch to think that if he’s ever ready for the majors, Cabrera might be ready for a move to designated hitter. First, Robbins has to do a lot of development ahead of him. Right now, he’s in short season ball and he’s walked just five times this season while striking out 34. That’s something he’s going to need to work on, because he’s had to hit .300 this season to be productive and that’s going to be nearly impossible in the future with his current approach at the plate.

We have to remember he’s playing mostly against kids out of college, so that might explain why he’s struggling with the strike zone. There’s also a noticeable lack of power in his game so far this season. Of his 34 hits, just nine have gone for extra bases and none have been homers. That could  be owed to a league and home park that are kind to pitchers. Judging by the Tigers’ springing for a six-figure bonus last August, I’m going to assume he has the skills to make some of these corrections.

GCL Tigers

Juaner Aguasvivas

Aguasvivas showed big enough power in the DSL to lead that league in home runs in 2009. Now in his first season stateside, he’s doing a pretty good job of bringing his power along as 11 of his 24 hits have gone for extra bases. That’s led to a line of .273/.333/.466 in 96 plate appearances. The fact that we know he has power is more important at this level, but I still like to see it surface come game time.

One thing he’ll have to do is figure out to keep that power while making better contact. He’s already struck out 31 times against just six walks, and much like Robbins in Connecticut, his production doesn’t really go with that profile. I certainly doubt it would hold up once he gets to the full season leagues.

First Base Overall

I think it’s pretty clear some things will need to break the Tigers’ way for this group of first basemen to be relevant at the major league level. There are a lot of guys who were never expected to contribute in the majors and the others are a long way from the majors both developmentally and in terms of their current assignment. Of course, the ones who still stand a  chance of rising to that level have little chance of playing first base in Detroit as long as Cabrera is around. For the foreseeable future, any scenario that doesn’t include Cabrera means something has gone horribly wrong for the Tigers.

I'm going to interrupt the looks at each position to knock out the roster moves we saw over the last week. Like I almost always remember to say, go to Tigstown.com if you want to hear about these moves when they happen. I just comment on what I see. 

Injuries

When Brandon Inge was hit on the hand, my wife and I both said it was awfully loud and both feared something was broken. When they showed the pitch in slow motion and you could see his hand was caught between the ball and the bat, I opined that I was even more certain it was broken. Yet, there at first base was Inge pulling his hand away and giving Kevin Rand a "you gotta be kidding me" look as the trainer tried to inspect it. At this point, I'm fairly certain his tough guy, "I'm not coming out of this game" routine isn't an act. That doesn't mean it's not dumb and it doesn't mean it's beyond tiresome. 

Why am I cranky about this? Just look at his knee surgeries over the offseason. Inge was commended for fighting through the pain all through the second half of last season. However, his ineptitude after hurting his knees last season coupled with the Tigers' unwillingness or inability to replace him at third base quite literally cost the Tigers a spot in the postseason. I can't blame for Inge for playing as long as the Tigers would put him in, but somebody should have grabbed that bull by the horns in that situation. Fast forward to this season. Inge hurried to get back in the lineup for the start of the season. He came out of the gate hitting pretty well (.265/.337/.494 in his first 92 PA), but when the numbers started heading south (.227/.277/.336 in his next 141 PA) and then rebounded (.307/.421/.446 in his final 121 PA before the injury), we heard that the knees had been bothering him but were finally healed and he was finally 100%. Is anybody else tired of this? 

It's admirable to fight through injuries (I suppose). However, it gets a little grating when you're so willing to let everybody know you're doing it and then tie your performance so closely to the status of the injury. If you're playing the role of the tough guy, please go all the way. When you stink, say you're battling and trying to figure things out. The injury is either a factor or it isn't. If your struggles are because of the injury, that's what the DL is for. Now that he's on the DL with the broken hand, Leyland is speculating that Inge might get back before the four to six week timeline we've heard since the injury was announced. This makes me want to punch somebody, as I can already hear the hand being the explanation for why he is without an extra base hit in his first three weeks back. Please, do us a favor, Brandon. Get healthy, but don't hurry back. Come back when you're ready. Let me rephrase that. Come back when you can honestly look at yourself in the mirror and say you can play baseball without your hand hurting. 

Tigstown has Billy Buckner as having gone on the disabled list back on July 19th, but MiLB.com doesn't mention the roster move. I'm trusting Tigstown here since Buckner's turn in the rotation has come and gone. Of course, when you give up nine runs in two-thirds of an inning in your most recent start, there could be more than one reason for missing your turn. 

Running a close second behind Brandon Inge as far as bad injury news is Casey Crosby being told to rest his arm for the rest of the season. You can read the link for the explanation. This means Crosby has essentially lost two of his three seasons as a professional to elbow injuries. It's encouraging that Dr. Andrews says it doesn't require surgery, but if he's healthy for next season I'd imagine he'd have pitch and inning limits again to make sure the elbow holds up. Since he was going to have a less restrictive workload this season, this setback could have him pitching in a situation similar to last season. Anybody who knows that's not necessarily the case can feel free to set me straight on this line of reasoning, because I'm relying solely on logic rather than a specific knowledge of the injury or Casey's situation when I theorize this setback could be more like two years than one.

Signings/Releases/Retirements

We didn't have any signings or releases this week, but we did have a couple of retirements. The well-traveled utilityman, Carmelo Jaime, hung up his cleats as a player but will now be suiting up as a coach for the GCL Tigers. That's not an easy path to predict, but his deciding to end his playing days as a 25-year-old with less than a full season's worth of plate appearances isn't a surprise. The other retirement news comes from lefty reliever, Tyler Conn. Conn was taken in the 14th round of the Tigers' "Draft of Relief" in 2008, which saw them load up on relief pitchers that included current Tigers Ryan Perry and Robbie Weinhardt. You might think Conn's 3.53 ERA for Lakeland doesn't look too bad, but he had given up 50 hits in 35.2 innings with 22 strikeouts and 13 walks. 

Re-Assignments

Okay, as usual, this heading is where I earn my money. Well, it would be where I earned my money if I were making money. Anyway, the point is this section is where we get to the meat of the roster moves. We'll start with the repercussions of Inge's injury. After a couple of days of going with Don Kelly, the Tigers are going to give Scott Sizemore another shot at a starting job in the bigs - this time as a third baseman. I think it's kind of funny that everybody keeps mentioning that he'd only played third base four times for the Hens this season. What doesn't get mentioned is the fact that three of those were when he slid over to third while Carlos Guillen was rehabbing with the Hens and preparing to play second base. As for Sizemore, it sounds like he's still battling his hip injury a little bit, so the Tigers' approach will be to spread the time at the hot corner between Sizemore, Kelly, Raburn and Worth. I'd imagine it's Sizemore who has the first opportunity to seize the starting gig until Inge gets back. To replace Sizemore on the Hens' roster, the Tigers moved Justin Henry back up to Toledo. 

Moving on to Buckner's injury, there's not quite the solid connection between his injury and the moves that followed. Gilberto De La Vara stepped into his last rotation spot and there's also Scot Drucker filling in as a starter. However, Charlie Furbush has since been promoted to Toledo from Erie so I'm going to tie that to the Buckner thing. You are probably aware that Furbush leads all the minors in strikeouts this season. That made his promotion to Erie feel long overdue. Now that he's been promoted to Toledo after just five starts with the Wolves, it almost feels like the Tigers are making up for lost time. Actually, it feels like they are checking to see if they have another option should Galarraga or Porcello falter again. Oliver clearly needs some more seasoning and, fair or not, I doubt anybody gets excited when Figaro is called on to make a start for the Tigers. To fill Furbush's spot in Erie, the Tigers gave Brayan Villarreal a well deserved promotion. He wasn't having quite the season Furbush was, but he's struck out better than a batter an inning and nearly four times as many batters as he's walked. The better news to me is the fact that the Tigers promoted him likely means he's over the injuries that shelved him earlier in the season. 

Where does that leave Lakeland? Their rotation takes a hit, but it seems to be set with Kibler, Putkonen, Sorensen, Turner and Wilk. If they're not comfortable with any of those guys, I guess they could go with Ramon Garcia. He's back in Lakeland and had been taking starts with Erie. He wasn't successful as a starter, but maybe moving down to Hi A would cure what ailed him. 

I guess you could argue Andy Oliver and Armando Galarraga switching places between Toledo and Detroit is more significant than Furbush and Villarreal's promotions, but it can't be tied to a previously mentioned injury so the promotions came first. Oliver clearly has the arm to pitch in the bigs. He's just going to have to work on hitting the strike zone more consistently. He walked 13 in 22 innings and when he had to resort to pumping in his fastball to make sure he'd get strikes, bad things happened. Is this a bad sign for Oliver? I don't think so. He'd be a truly fantastic pitcher if he could go from a struggling college pitcher to a successful big leaguer in a little more than a calendar year. Showing the progress that led to the opportunity he just had is a major victory for both him and the state of the Tigers' system. What about Armando? I think we know what Armando is at this point. He's a guy who has the goods to be a fairly reliable fourth or fifth starter compared to other pitchers in that role. 

That brings us to the moves I would term as less significant. Casey Fien jumped up to Detroit for one game to help out with a tired bullpen, got shelled, and was sent back down to Toledo. Similar to Fien, Josh Rainwater was called back up to Toledo from Erie, but after one appearance in Toledo was moved back to Erie. Jose Ortega was promoted from Lakeland to Erie and Michael Torrealba was moved from Connecticut to Lakeland. That led to Sean Finefrock being promoted from the GCL to Connecticut. Finally, presumably as a result of Jaime moving to the coach's box, Pat McKenna was promoted from the GCL to Lakeland. 

Bonus Injury

Well, it's not really a good kind of bonus since it's an injury, but in researching all the stuff above I noticed Mike Bertram is listed on MiLB.com as having been moved to the disabled list. Of course, they also have Nicolas listed on the DL and he's been back for about a week. So make of that what you will. If Bertram is in fact, injured, there may be roster moves to follow.

The Tigers are in the midst of their darkest point in the 2010 season. They just lost their starting third baseman for four to six weeks and that may be the position where their farm system is most ill-suited to help out. This Cleveland series was supposed to provide a little padding in case they fell on hard times against a rough upcoming schedule. Instead, they were swept in four games and all of the sudden you have people talking about selling for the trade deadline rather than building up for a playoff run. Who it is they are supposed to sell I’m not entirely certain.

I doubt teams watching Carlos Guillen come tantalizingly close to soft ground balls into right field are going to approach their owner about picking up the rest of his 2010 salary and the $13 million he is owed next year. The same goes for Johnny Damon. Teams wouldn’t pony up more than five or six million before the season. Are they going to offer meaningful prospects for a left fielder/designated hitter now that he’s hitting .279/.370/.425?

But I don’t come to bury the Tigers. I come to celebrate them. Well, to talk about their farm anyway. It’s not been immune to the bad news. That’s for certain. They don’t have a single farm team with a winning record (whoops, Connecticut just won to improve to 16-15). Not only that, their top lefty starting prospect, Casey Crosby, has been shut down for the season due to recurring swelling in his elbow. For a pitcher who seemed to emerge from Tommy John in top form last year, that is just terrible news.

I’ve often said, though, that the beauty of following the minors is that there are always good stories. You simply can’t have 200 players go through a season without somebody showing a glimmer of hope. For this reason, instead of doing lackluster recaps of the Hens and SeaWolves seasons so far - abbreviated version: gasp! - I decided to look at what the Tigers are getting from each position. If you’ve followed this site, you should know by now that when I do these position by position looks, I start with the catchers.

Toledo

Robinzon Diaz
Max St. Pierre
Mike Rabelo - DL

It wouldn’t be honest to pretend the catching situation in Toledo has been anything short of a disaster. The Hens have had five different players crouch behind the plate and do you know how many home runs they have hit as a group? One. Diaz is hitting .241/.265/.302 and has just five walks and six strikeouts in 171 plate appearances. That’s an impressive amount of contact with a dreadful amount of results.

St. Pierre was hitting quite well for the SeaWolves when he got the call to Toledo, but since moving up to Triple A he’s regressed to a line of .269/.298/.346 after a pretty hot start. As for Rabelo, he was hitting .143/.167/.286 when he went down with an injury but at least he’s responsible for the group’s sole long ball.

So if the Hens are getting such miserable offense from their catchers, what about the defensive end of things? It’s not too bad. Their 13 passed balls are second worst in the International League, but the pitchers’ 30 wild pitches are good for fifth fewest. They have also caught 36 of 115 base stealers, good for 31% and the fourth best percentage in the league.

Erie

Andy Bouchie
Jeff Kunkel

The catching situation doesn’t improve a lot when you move down to Erie. The two catchers on their roster have OPSs of .611 (Bouchie at .196/.232/.379 in 166 PA) and .618 (Kunkel at .200/.293/.325 in 92 PA). That may save the manager from gnashing his teeth over who to play, but those lines aren’t helping the team break free of too many slumps. 

It’s hard to get too disappointed over these performances, though. Bouchie was playing independent ball last year and Kunkel is not expected to provide a lot at the plate. He’s one of the system’s best defensive catchers and it’s shown in Erie where he’s cut down a third of the runners who have tried to run on him and has yet to give up a passed ball. 

Lakeland

John Murrian
Bryan Holaday
Billy Alvino

Now we start to get to some of the guys for who we’re still holding out hope as future big leaguers. Murrian came to Lakeland after spending 2009 in Oneonta, so it wasn’t a big surprise when he struggled to start the 2010 campaign. The extent to which he struggled (.174/.208/.283 in April) caught me a little off guard. When he went down with a wrist injury for a month-and-a-half, things seemed to get worse. Thankfully, he’s come back from the DL with a vengeance (hitting .338/.416/.506 in about 90 PA) and has brought his season line up to .274/.341/.419. That’s well above average in the FSL and would be an impressive season line for a 22-year-old catcher.

Murrian better not let up, either, because a catcher from the 2010 draft looks to be taking a run at the system’s best story at the position. Holaday led his TCU Horned Frogs deep into the College World Series and has maintained a torrid bat despite switching over to wood. Holaday received a surprising and aggressive assignment to Lakeland, but is still hitting the ball as if his bat went ping. Nobody’s going to get too excited about 38 plate appearances, but I doubt anybody is complaining about him hitting .406/.500/.625 in his brief time as a pro.

Alvino was a non-drafted signee last year, so it’s not surprising his playing time has been sparse since Holaday joined the squad.

West Michigan

Rob Brantly
Luis Sanz

The Whitecaps are having a dreadful season, but at least their catching tandem is interesting. Brantly was the Tigers’ third round pick of the 2010 draft and has handled being assigned to a full season squad at 20 (he just turned 21 last week) pretty well. He’s only hitting .225/.321/.310 in 82 plate appearances, but he’s drawn nine walks against just six strikeouts and is quickly improving his batting average as the hits are starting to find the holes. That’s to be expected since he was said to have an advanced bat coming out of college, but it seems he has struggled behind the plate so far. He’s already had four passed balls and has caught just 5 of 27 runners. It’s nothing to be too concerned about this early, but it could be something to work on.

Luis Alberto Sanz is the brother of Luis Sanz, the pitcher. Playing time has been sparse for the 19-year-old spending his first season in the States. He’s been with the Caps for a hair over a month and has played just seven games. I’m not sure if he can be stamped an organizational player yet, but it’s pretty safe to say he takes a back seat to Brantly.

Connecticut

Tyson Kendrick
Julio Rodriguez
Eric Roof

The Tigers have three company men here. Rodriguez has been shuttled to three different teams this year (totaling .229/.264/.312 in 185 PA between the three). Roof was bumped down to Connecticut from West Michigan when the short season league started. He’s hitting well down there (.268/.323/.411 in 65 PA) but I believe the demotion makes the bigger point. Finally, Kendrick was a 49th round pick in this year’s draft and has played four games in the three weeks he’s been on the team. These are not the early years of big league resumes.

GCL Tigers

Patrick Leyland
Gabriel Purroy
Byron Aird

Leyland is pulling down the starter’s reps at catcher after being taken in the 8th round of the draft. Unfortunately, he’s not putting up a starter’s line at the plate. He’s hitting .162/.192/.162 in 74 plate appearances. He’s having some bad luck on balls in play, but the fact that he has yet to get an extra base hit tells me he’s not making strong contact. That’s okay, though. He was known to be a project when he was drafted as nearly every report I saw said he could have used his three years in college.

Purroy is backing up Leyland behind the plate, but the Tigers are starting to make sure they get his bat in the lineup a little more. In his first 12 games, he’s hit .283/.298/.478. He’s only walked one time in 47 trips to the plate, but he’s also only struck out four times. It may be too early to say he’s a hacker at the plate, but it’s probably not too early to commend his apparent bat control. There also seems to be some leverage in that swing, because he’s already smacked a couple of homers. I’m not sure where Purroy rates defensively. He had 15 passed balls last season in the VSL, but he also threw out 47% of the 61 basestealers who ran on him. What I am pretty sure of, however, is that he has a bat that will convince the Tigers to work with him.

It looks like Aird may have to wait until next year to really get his feet wet. The Australian is playing just a couple times a week.

Catchers Overall

I know the numbers at Toledo and Erie are just awful, but the discouragement there is really tempered by what was expected of those players. Robinzon Diaz may have been expected to be a possible backup in the majors, but other than that you have minor league vets who are probably being counted on mostly to help along the pitching staffs. 

Once you dig down into the system, I don’t know how you can’t be encouraged with what you’re seeing. Holaday and Brantly are taking well to aggressive assignments. I know it’s far too early to shop for suburban Detroit apartments for them, but either one could easily have looked overmatched at their respective levels and that hasn’t happened. I discussed the progress Murrian has shown, and Purroy may look better than any of them by the time he’s reached their current ages. 

I think it’s felt like a bad year for the Tigers’ minor league system, but I also think it’s been a good one for their depth at the catcher’s position.

Injuries

There wasn’t a lot of disabled list activity since we last checked in on roster moves. Shawn Roof was placed on the disabled last Thursday, but he’s already come back. Audy Ciriaco re-emerged from the disabled list last week, but I covered that in some detail in my last post. One bit of injury news that caused some other roster moves was Max St. Pierre coming off the disabled list. He had been out since June 3rd with a broken finger. We’ll get the impact that had on others below. My final injury note is to point out that Kyle Peter has started a rehab assigment with the GCL Tigers. This is Peter’s first action since June of the 2009 season, when he went down with what the Tigers' media guide called a shoulder strain. If he's fully recovered, he's likely to bring Lakeland speed, on-base percentage and excellent center field defense.

Signings, Releases and Retirements

The Tigers signed their 10th round pick, Cole Nelson, and assigned him to the GCL. We’ll see if he actually stays there. He hasn’t actually pitched in a game yet. They were also able to sign their 28th round pick, Jack Duffey, who’s a high school pitcher and I assume will eventually go to the GCL Tigers as well.

Their final signing over the last week or so was Gilbert De La Vara, who had been pitching for the Yuma Scorpions of the Golden Baseball League. The Tigers have pulled quite a bit of talent from the GBL lately, as that’s where their former outfielder Ben Johnson, catcher Andy Bouchie and Erie Manager Phil Nevin all played or coached. De La Vara has played affiliated ball, though. He was a 15th round pick of the Royals back in 2004 and in 338.1 innings of minor league ball, he’s amassed 287 strikeouts, 124 walks and allowed just 20 homers. Most of that has come as a reliever, the role he’ll have with the Hens.

That’s the end of the guys receiving good news. The Tigers released pitcher, Frank Penalver, who you may remember making the fringes of the news by getting suspended for a positive drug test. Angel Flores never had such issues that I know of, but he had bounced around as a fill-in catcher since being signed back in 2004. When St. Pierre came back from the  disabled list, Flores was released.

Jon Weber also ended his time with the Tigers, although his time with the organization had been brief and was ended on his own terms. The 32-year-old outfielder decided to hang them up. He had thought he had a shot at a big league roster coming into 2010 and I’d imagine he must have decided that shot wasn’t likely to come at this point of his career.

Re-assignments

In our last look at roster moves, the Tigers had signed a few early picks and those players have now been placed. Bryan Holaday has been assigned to Lakeland and is off to a fantastic start (.524/.600/.810 in 23 PA) to his pro career. After a very brief stay in the GCL, the Tigers put their 6th round pick, Corey Jones, in West Michigan and where he is serving as the team’s starting second baseman (and is 8 for 14 with three doubles in his first three games). Yes, it is a little confusing to have 2010 draftees Corey and Clay Jones on the same team. Alex Burgos was placed in the GCL, but like Cole Nelson he hasn’t pitched yet. Burgos is a JUCO pitcher, though, so I’d assume his staying with the GCL Tigers is a little more likely than Nelson doing so.

Those moves were basically just 2010 draftees getting their proper assignements. The rest of these are re-assignments driven by other roster moves. For example, De La Vara’s signing spurred moving Josh Rainwater down to Erie and Jay Voss down to Lakeland. Rainwater is a good control, contact pitcher and that just hasn’t played too well in his time with the Hens. He gave up 67 hits in 51.2 innings and 24 of those went for extra bases. Voss’s season so far makes Rainwater’s look like a breakthrough. He’s walking too many, striking out too few and allowing too much hard contact. He was a ground ball pitcher in Marlins’ system, but that’s not held up in the move to Erie and it shows in his six homers allowed in 39.1 innings.

St. Pierre coming back from the disabled list caused not only the release of Flores, but the re-assignment of Jeff Kunkel back to Erie. Kunkel had something of a hot start with the Hens, but he has a fairly well established track record as a hitter so his returning to those levels of output (.239/.263/.307 in 95 PA in Toledo) wasn’t all that much of a surprise.

Other re-assignments were Ben Guez being moved from Lakeland to Toledo, Bryan Pounds going from Erie back to Lakeland, Chris Sedon moving from West Michigan to Connecticut and Alexander Moreno returning to the GCL after spending some time with Lakeland. Guez is no doubt filling in for the departed Weber. I would like to have seen Andy Dirks get that call, but they must prefer to see Dirks in a starting role in Erie rather than serve as a fourth outfielder in Toledo. Pounds seemed to just be filling in for Ciriaco when he was on the disabled list and then Jordan Lennerton when he was briefly on the inactive list. Sedon was moved to make room for Jones and Moreno could have been moved to make room for Peter’s eventual return from the disabled list. That’s speculation, though, since there’s no obvious corresponding move tied to Moreno going back to the GCL squad.

Audy Ciriaco is one of the Tigers' top prospects at his position whether you think of him as a shortstop or a third baseman. You can make of this statement what you will. Either take it as a testament to his considerable talent or roll your eyes and deride what that says about the Tigers' prospects at those two positions. Do both since to some extent, they're both right. Whatever your thoughts are on Audy Ciriaco, it's hard to argue his 2010 season to this point has been...interesting. If you look at his numbers for the raw data, it looks like yet another disappointing season from a Tiger prospect on the left side of the infield. After July 12th, he was hitting .250/.266/.434 with just five walks and 42 strikeouts. There's nothing there to make me think the Tigers will confidently let Brandon Inge walk away via free agency. If anything, there's more there to suggest they'll soon let Ciriaco walk away as a minor league free agent. I'd like to dig into the numbers a little bit, though, to see what you think when I'm finished. 

Let's start with the walks. They are not just a red flag. They are a red flag run up a flagpole with a siren and flashers on top of it and an angry pit bull chained to the base. The man hasn't drawn a walk since May 31st. You may say that's an unfair way to put it since he's missed some time, but even with him having missed some games it's still a remarkably long time. It's been over 100 at bats since he's heard the ump call "Ball four". It's absurd and as far as I'm concerned, the biggest weakness in Ciriaco's game. His walk rate of 2.3 percent is the lowest of his career and it's obviously going to be difficult for him to be successful if he can't resist the urge to unleash the lumber so often. I hope for his sake his lack of patience is owed to his wanting to get swings in after losing time during three trips* to the disabled list. His wrist injury caused him to start his season almost two weeks later than the team and he's gone on the DL a couple times since.

Here's the interesting thing about that wrist injury, though. Ciriaco is hitting for more power this year than he ever has in his career. I'm of the understanding that wrist injuries tend to sap power but his current isolated power of .188 is a career high. That number also far outpaces the Eastern League average of .135. That's obviously great news, as we have been waiting for what seems like years for Ciriaco to turn what Jim Leyland might call 5 o'clock power into the 7 o'clock power we'd prefer. This boost in power is all the more impressive not only because he's fighting through obvious wrist problems, but because he's playing at the highest level of his career. Unfortunately, where he's playing also offers a caveat to this good news. At Jerry Uht Park, Erie's home field, Ciriaco is hitting .279/.296/.523. On the road, he's hitting just .218/.233/.337. There's the possibility his boost is the result of playing half his games in a hitter friendly park, but we learned from Brennan Boesch progress can't be dismissed simply because he hit well at home.

That's two aspects of his game, and I've mentioned his wrist problems in discussing both of them. I think you have to discuss that wrist when you mention Ciriaco because as I mentioned before, it's put him on the DL three times this year. How he's responded each time he's come off the disabled list is one of the reasons I'm writing this profile. I noticed when he started the season he was hot early and seemed to cool off until he eventually landed on the disabled list. The second time I didn't watch him all that closely, but the overall trend seemed the same. This third time emerging from the disabled list, he's started off 8 for 17 with two triples and a homer. I thought it was worth a deeper look. 

Here's what I found: 

First week back: .313/.343/.642 with 10 XBH, 3 BB and 11 K in 67 plate appearances 
Second week back: .240/.255/.300 with 2 XBH, 1 BB and 11 K in 50 plate appearances 
Third week back: .185/.200/.241 with 2 XBH, 1 BB and 11 K in 54 plate appearances 
Fourth week back: .244/.244/.512 with 5 XBH, 0 BB and 9 K in 41 plate appearances 

Before I talk about these numbers, I just want to say you have to remember that over the course of a season there are all kinds of peaks and valleys. You could probably break many players' seasons down by calendar weeks and get all kinds of variation. This very well may be the kind of small sample extrapolating all my favorite websites discourage and I realize that. Because of that, I'm not trying to present this as rock solid evidence he's a great hitter when he's healthy. This is just a pattern I find interesting and I'm wondering if there's something to it. So far this season, he's come back from the disabled list three times and each time it's been with all guns blazing in that first week. He's in the midst of his third "first week" so we've yet to see how his second, third and fourth weeks go in this third piece to his season. However, you can see the first couple times his second and third weeks saw a pretty drastic reduction in his output. In fact, my hypothesis held up pretty well until just before he went on the disabled list in late June. 

June 24th was his last game before his third trip to the DL and on that day he was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. In the prior five games, though, he was 8 for 19 with two doubles and three homers. That's the stark reminder that players rise and fall regardless of their injury situation and it gives me pause in trying to frame Ciriaco's season in terms of the health of his wrist. I still think it's something worth watching, though. He's gone on the disabled list three times this season and so far there seem to be some discernible patterns. Not only has he been hot in the first week, he's yet to make it past that fourth week. Twice, he's returned, played just about every day for four weeks, and gone back on the DL. That is a pattern that may be just as important to break as the slumps that have followed his first week. We need to see if that wrist can hold up for longer than four weeks if he's playing every day. 

As I wrap this article up, I want to reiterate that I'm not trying to sell you on Ciriaco as a prospect. I'm not trying to use his wrist injury to explain away all his shortcomings. I'm trying to point out a couple of things. In regards to Ciriaco, there may be some subtle signs of progress as a prospect. In the bigger picture, it can be very difficult to get a clear picture of progress or regression when you're looking at a prospect. Of course, another point that can't be ignored is injury problems don't always go away. Even if Ciriaco is making big progress as a hitter when he's healthy, the fact that he's gone on the disabled list three times with essentially the same problem is a huge concern. What if it just never heals to the point where he can last through an entire season? I obviously don't know how serious the problem is or what it's long-term effect on his development and career is going to be. I do, however, think it's a problem you need to be aware of when you think of this still young left-side infielder. I also think the things I've highlighted about Ciriaco will earn him some additional patience with the Tiger organization. I certainly hope that patience pays off in the end.

*Note: Technically, I believe Ciriaco has only gone on the disabled list twice. However, between his two stints on the disabled list there was a period where he didn't play for two weeks and I believe it was related to the wrist again. That's not really a trip to the disabled list, but for the purposes of this article there's really no difference.

When the Tigers traded Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson for Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer, Phil Coke and Dan Schlereth I gave a heavy-hearted thumbs up on the deal. I said the deal turned on Jackson’s long-term success with the team but a big part of my reasoning was the idea that Scherzer was better than Edwin Jackson immediately. Having him for more years was gravy in my opinion. This was part of the reason Scherzer’s slow start aggravated me so much. I avoid giving definitive opinions that make it seem like I think I know what I’m talking about, and I hate it when I look stupid after having done so.

That’s why when the Tigers sent Scherzer down to Toledo after eight starts and Scherzer said he thought he had seen some things on tape he needed to work on, I was hopeful it was that simple. A tweak here and a tweak there and we’d have the Scherzer advertised in Arizona in 2009. I’m not sure anybody expected the tweaks to work out quite this well. You may have noticed that Scherzer made eight starts before he was sent down to Toledo and he’s now made eight starts since. That seems to me like a perfect time to do a comparative look. With the miraculous baseball-reference.com, this is incredibly easy to do.

In his first eight starts of the season (pre-Toledo), Scherzer’s results looked like this:

1-4, 7.29 ERA, 42 IP, 54 H, 16 BB, 26 K, 9 HR, .323/.392/.563 against

He went down to Toledo, dominated (15 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 17 K in two starts), and in his eight starts since (post-Toledo), Scherzer’s magically transformed into this:

5-2, 2.44 ERA, 51.2 IP, 39 H, 19 BB, 62 K, 4 HR, .217/.294/.328 against

I haven’t been keeping up with some of the cutting edge stats research going on, but I’m pretty sure that’s better, right? I am a fan of Bill James’ Game Score stat and if you order his first eight starts from best to worst, you get:

71, 58, 55, 36, 30, 30, 20, 4

If you order the most recent eight, you get:

77, 75, 71, 67, 65, 62, 51, 30

There's really not much you have to say about the difference in those two groupings. I will anyway, though. The median of the first group is better than all but his best start in the first group. It's just an amazing turnaround.

The nice thing about this is we’re not talking about smoke and mirrors. This improvement comes largely from a strikeout rate that has jumped from 13.8% all the way up to 30%. I’m usually skeptical of players saying their improved results are a result of Change X, but consider me a believer on this one. His velocity on the fastball has made an appreciable leap after fixing his release and all these improvements seem to have followed.

Scherzer has gone from pitching like a piece of number two to pitching like a number two starter, and only a number two because we have Verlander as a number one. I originally had the idea to go more into the differences by the numbers - talk about the change in velocity and all that in more depth - but I'm now fighting the inclination. The difference in results is so obvious I think it's better to just sit back and enjoy.

I went out of town for the holiday weekend and when I got back was struck by how quickly moves down in the minors can get away from you this time of year. Less than a week and I have some catching up to do. I need to think of a reusable catchphrase serving the credit for providing these transactions in one easy place to Tigstown.com and frequent commenter, Mark Anderson.

Injuries

As if things weren’t going badly enough for the Whitecaps, Giovanni Soto went to the disabled list with a strained elbow. I don’t know the extent of the strain or how long his rehabilitation will take, but he and the system’s pitching depth certainly didn’t need this. With promotions, he was among the only positive stories left in Grand Rapids.

The overall direction in the system, when it comes to the disabled list, is in the positive direction. Ryan Perry is back off the disabled list and for some reason, seems to have a lot of hope falling on his back upon his return to the Tigers. I understand somebody needs to step up, but looking at his time in the majors I’m not sure why so many seem so sure it will be - or even has to be - him. Joining Perry in emerging from the disabled list are Cale Iorg and Scott Sizemore.

I’ve tried to trust the skills when it comes to Iorg, but at this point, I’m firmly in the “believe it when I see it” camp. Be that as it may, he likely has a job at short in Erie for the rest of the season. As for Sizemore, it stinks for him to be an insurance plan for the Tigers but that’s pretty much what he is at this point. He’s going to keep raking in Toledo and is probably going to find himself in the unsavory position of having to wait for a trade or until Carlos Guillen goes down to another injury to get another shot at the bigs.

Re-assignments

Of course, players going on or coming off the disabled list requires further roster shifts. Perry finishing his rehab assignment meant the end of that big paycheck for Casey Fien. It was really nothing Fien did. It was just between him and Enrique Gonzalez and Gonzalez has pitched well (enough) and has more long relief capability. I really can’t get too jazzed up about who they pick for the seventh bullpen spot, to be honest.

I can get excited, however, over Robbie Weinhardt getting promoted to Detroit. With the Tigers needing almost eight innings from their bullpen on Monday and another extended effort on Tuesday, they realized Galarraga wasn’t needed again before the All Star Break and decided to help that bullpen. Weinhardt is the beneficiary of that decision and I’m personally hoping he makes the kind of impression that makes them look elsewhere when they need to make room for Galarraga again.

Weinhardt has strikeout capabilities, but has seen his strikeout numbers dip a bit this year in Toledo. Interestingly, he’s also seen a pretty large jump in his ground ball rate this season. It’s difficult to know if those two are related, if the dip in strikeouts coincided with the injury that landed him on the disabled list, working on his slider or even just random variation. In any event, strikeouts or no, he gives up almost no home runs (3 in three seasons as a pro) and has walked only four batters this season. If he keeps his head about him and retains those skills as a big leaguer, that should play.

Down below the Tigers, Soto’s injury required some scrambling. The Whitecaps received Luis Sanz from Connecticut, giving him a second chance against Midwest League hitters and a chance to play with his brother. Luis Angel Sanz is catching for the team, and I just can’t get over the fact that they’re brothers and both named Luis Sanz. Recent drafteed Tyler White was bumped up from the GCL to Connecticut the next day.

Of course, pitchers don’t get all the fun when it comes to this shuffling. Sizemore coming back meant the Hens had to move somebody out of their infield and that somebody was Justin Henry. Henry returning to Erie and Iorg coming back from the DL meant two players had to get the boot from the Erie roster and those players were the well-traveled Carmelo Jaime and Ben Guez. You may notice Guez is an outfielder, and that may clue us in on a utility role for Henry (as hypothesized by one of our T75N readers right here). Jaime’s return to Lakeland (already) caused Pat McKenna to return to the GCL. Ah, the life of the organizational soldier. I truly am in awe of these guys and their willingness to fill that role.

Signings and Releases

The big news in prospect-watching this week was the international signing day, when all the big international talent is free to sign with major league clubs. The Tigers typically don’t get caught up in the seven figure signings, but it sounds as if this year they may have indulged. They signed a 16-year-old out of Venezuela named Danry Vasquez. He’s a left-handed bat who’s apparently expected to fill a corner outfield spot in the future. Be patient, though. If things go well, he probably won’t be in the States until 2012 or 2013. There were some other international signings, but I typically don’t give ink to those guys until I review the system during the offseason. Vasquez gets the special mention because he’s a step outside the norm for the Tigers. We’ll have to wait to see if he represents a shift in philosophy or is just a talent the Tigers were willing to stretch to get.

There are more signings we’re waiting for than the international variety, though. The Tigers brought their fifth, sixth and seventh round picks, Alex Burgos (LHP), Bryan Holaday (C) and Corey Jones (2B), into the organization (both for $115,000 according to BA). I’ll be curious to see the Tigers’ plans for Burgos. He sounds like he has the repertoire of a starter with three pitches and a good head for pitching, but he’s small and may move faster in relief. His assignment may depend on which route the Tigers decide to go with him. If he's going to be starting, the Caps' rotation could certainly use him. With Murrian in Lakeland and Brantly in West Michigan, I assume Holaday is destined for a starting role in Connecticut. Jones, however, will see less resistance in West Michigan for a starting job at second base. For their fans’ sakes, I hope that’s where he goes.

That’s the addition portion of this section. On the subtraction side, we have the retirements of Elvin Soto (1B) and Nolan Moody (LHP) and the release of Ruddy Lugo (RHP). No surprises here, really. The Mud Hen rotation is suddenly a bit crowded. Soto hasn’t hit like a first baseman and the draft was kind of heavy on low ceiling relievers. These things made all three of these players a bit expendable.