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Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

Well, he's running out of joints to injure. I'll go with wrenched knee during batting practice, please.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

MaizeRage said:
And he's already been designated for assignment to make room for Brad Penny.
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That is a bizarre move. My guess is that he'd refuse an assignment to the minors and become a free agent instead. There's some teams out there really hurting for back-end starting pitching.

Leyland said today that he's not sure if Carlos Guillen is going to be ready for spring training. I've said it before, but I'm not sold that he's with the ballclub in any capacity on Opening Day. Sure, it's a hefty contract to eat, but they've done it with worse contracts, and his is just about the last bad one we have.

New thread and new format comes approx. March 1st.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

It's tough to say, but it sounds like negotiations with Penny weren't going well, so they signed Galarraga as insurance/bargaining leverage and a couple hours later, Penny caved in and signed.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

MaizeRage said:
It's tough to say, but it sounds like negotiations with Penny weren't going well, so they signed Galarraga as insurance/bargaining leverage and a couple hours later, Penny caved in and signed.
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I thought they had already agreed to arbitration with G a few weeks ago, and started dealing with Penny before the number came in. It just happened to come in on the same day.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

I don't like the fact that we have 2b du jour, no third catcher and not much depth behind our starting outfielders. Short might be a defensive sieve. The bullpen looks stronger on paper and this is the season that Porcello gets his stuff together. Not sure if Coke is a starter. Tom Gage printed a list of players that won't return, and I can't say I'll miss any of them: Laird, Damon, Seay, Miner, Bonine, Bonderman and probably Galarraga. I liked Miner, but he was erratic. Bonderman was a bright star in 2006, but unfortunately his injuries ended things.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

I agree about 2B. That's been a problem for 2 years now. I'm not as worried about a 3rd catcher. We didn't seem to have one last year, either. I think we're okay in the outfield between Ordonez, Jackson, Boesch, Kelly and Raburn. As for the left side of the infield, I'm not overly pleased at all. I wanted an upgrade at one of the positions at the minimum, and Jhonny Peralta wasn't quite what I had in mind.

The rotation is now officially a concern of mine. I'm going to assume Verlander continues to be the Justin Verlander that we know and are used to, and that Max Scherzer will be fine as well. But Porcello has put an awful lot of innings the last two years on that 22-year-old arm. Phil Coke is a converted reliever (and a pretty darn good reliever at that), and Brad Penny is coming off an injury that took away his last 4+ months of last year's season. That's our starting 5 at the moment, boys. Behind them, Andy Oliver is still an unproven rookie, and.....yeah. There's not much that's quite ready yet, and I don't want Jacob Turner anywhere near big league camp quite yet. I would not be opposed to giving Jeremy Bonderman an invite to camp to see if he can win a job. If nothing else, he's another arm in camp.

It's easier to look at the young arms on the way (Turner, Crosby, Oliver) when they're a luxury at the moment. But we're only a couple of bumps in the road to those arms being luxuries, and becoming a necessities. It's at that point where we can get into trouble in a hurry.
 
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Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

Hammer said:
I agree about 2B. That's been a problem for 2 years now. I'm not as worried about a 3rd catcher. We didn't seem to have one last year, either. I think we're okay in the outfield between Ordonez, Jackson, Boesch, Kelly and Raburn. As for the left side of the infield, I'm not overly pleased at all. I wanted an upgrade at one of the positions at the minimum, and Jhonny Peralta wasn't quite what I had in mind.

The rotation is now officially a concern of mine. I'm going to assume Verlander continues to be the Justin Verlander that we know and are used to, and that Max Scherzer will be fine as well. But Porcello has put an awful lot of innings the last two years on that 22-year-old arm. Phil Coke is a converted reliever (and a pretty darn good reliever at that), and Brad Penny is coming off an injury that took away his last 4+ months of last year's season. That's our starting 5 at the moment, boys. Behind them, Andy Oliver is still an unproven rookie, and.....yeah. There's not much that's quite ready yet, and I don't want Jacob Turner anywhere near big league camp quite yet. I would not be opposed to giving Jeremy Bonderman an invite to camp to see if he can win a job. If nothing else, he's another arm in camp.

It's easier to look at the young arms on the way (Turner, Crosby, Oliver) when they're a luxury at the moment. But we're only a couple of bumps in the road to those arms being luxuries, and becoming a necessities. It's at that point where we can get into trouble in a hurry.
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I think the Tigers gambled that they could get one more year out of Guillen. Tough to win when your not as strong up the middle- sans Jackson.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

streaker said:
I think the Tigers gambled that they could get one more year out of Guillen. Tough to win when your not as strong up the middle- sans Jackson.
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Well, I don't see how we're appreciably worse up the middle than we were last year. We've got the same 3-headed mess at 2B, and while Peralta is a step down defensively, he's much better with the bat then Danny Worth and Ramon Santiago are. A tree stump is an upgrade from Gump, and Austin Jackson is Austin Jackson, although I'm expecting a slide from him offensively.
 
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Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

Hammer said:
Well, I don't see how we're appreciably worse up the middle than we were last year. We've got the same 3-headed mess at 2B, and while Peralta is a step down defensively, he's much better with the bat then Danny Worth and Ramon Santiago are. A tree stump is an upgrade from Gump, and Austin Jackson is Austin Jackson, although I'm expecting a slide from him offensively.
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At least auto-out gump could throw out runners occasionally. Martinez better not be a bust because he can't hit the broad side of a barn with his arm. I'll wait until you post the new thread to do any Lynn Henning stick your neck out predictions.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers just announced at Tigerfest that they will be honoring Sparky Anderson this season:

1. The team will wear a commemorative #11 patch
2. They will fly a special flag to honor Anderson
3. They will retire the #11

Where I wished they would have done this while he was alive, this is a special honor.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

It's about *ing time. This should have been done a long time ago. To wait until after the man has died is absolutely shameful.

Now they need to quit playing around and get 1, 3 and 47 up there as well.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

Armando dealt to the D-Backs for a couple low minor pitchers.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

bronconick said:
Armando dealt to the D-Backs for a couple low minor pitchers.
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Arizona's ballpark (Chase Field, formerly the 'BOB') is a launching pad. Good luck nibbling the plate there.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

Well, good for him that at least the Dodgers and Padres don't have much pop in their bats. But I'm not sure Gibby is going to enjoy watching him pitch in Coors Field, either.
 
Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

Gage nails it

Especially the middle part. I'm betting that Bonderman is invited to camp. They're going to need another arm in that rotation somewhere along the way.

On other related news, I see that Keith Law (whoever the hell he is) from ESPN (nevermind. A magpie from ESPN. Go figure) rates us as the 25th best farm system. Needless to say, I disagree. We've got pitching on the way in the form of Crosby, Oliver and Turner, never mind the Latin pitchers in the system. We've actually got some catching in the system for the first time in about 25 years, since we drafted 8 of them last year. We've got outfielders in reserve in case Boesch and Raburn can't handle LF. We've got a couple 3B prospects in the high A - AA range. About the only thing we're missing is another middle-of-the-infield prospect in the high minors.

Are we a top-5 farm system? Probably not. A top 10? Maybe, but I wouldn't exactly bet on it. But if there's 24 teams that have better farm systems that we do right now, baseball's due for a golden age that will rival the 30's and the 50's.
 
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Re: Detroit Tigers 2010, Part 2: Wanted: Hitting. Gerald Laird need not apply

Hammer said:
Gage nails it

Especially the middle part. I'm betting that Bonderman is invited to camp. They're going to need another arm in that rotation somewhere along the way.

On other related news, I see that Keith Law (whoever the hell he is) from ESPN (nevermind. A magpie from ESPN. Go figure) rates us as the 25th best farm system. Needless to say, I disagree. We've got pitching on the way in the form of Crosby, Oliver and Turner, never mind the Latin pitchers in the system. We've actually got some catching in the system for the first time in about 25 years, since we drafted 8 of them last year. We've got outfielders in reserve in case Boesch and Raburn can't handle LF. We've got a couple 3B prospects in the high A - AA range. About the only thing we're missing is another middle-of-the-infield prospect in the high minors.

Are we a top-5 farm system? Probably not. A top 10? Maybe, but I wouldn't exactly bet on it. But if there's 24 teams that have better farm systems that we do right now, baseball's due for a golden age that will rival the 30's and the 50's.
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Sounds like Bondo is being signed by Cleveland.

I agree with you about our young arms. I hope they don't get wrecked like a certain phenom in Washington did.
 
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