Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Tigers Farm System Ranks Near Bottom in MLB

By Sean Gagnier

ESPN's Keith Law recently ranked all of the farm systems in Major League Baseball, and the Detroit Tigers didn't fair that well. Law had the Tigers ranked as No. 24 out of the 30 teams and their farm systems; there were only two redeeming parts of the farm system that kept it from falling lower than 24th.

The Tigers, Law said, were similar to the Philadelphia Phillies farm system, but are even thinner. There are quite a few prospects at the lower levels, but trades have erased most talent in the upper levels. There is raw talent to be had in the Tigers system, but aside from two exceptions, none of it is finished or nearly finished.

Just two prospects saved Detroit's farm system from slipping even lower than it did; Nick Castellanos and Jacob Turner. Turner, 21, is ranked No. 29 among all prospects. The right-handed pitching prospect has had the uber-prospect thrown on him in the past, but several MLB outings have proved that he is in need of more time in the minor leagues.

Castellanos, 20, is ranked as the No. 37 prospect in all of the MLB. He has torn up the minors at every stop he has made in his young career, hitting over .400 in Single-A Lakeland this season and batting over .300 at Double-A Erie. Castellanos is one of the most highly regarded Tigers prospects ever, with comparisons being drawn to Evan Longoria. If he can turn out to be a Longoria, the Tigers will be incredibly lucky.

He has been playing some games in the outfield lately for Erie, but is still considered to be a third base prospect and Dave Dombrowski says that is where he plans to play him for the foreseeable future. It wouldn't be the first time a highly touted third baseman made a transition to the outfield (see Ryan Braun), and that didn't turn out all that badly.

Detroit needs to address positional deficiencies in the system in the draft and consider stopping the nearly constant flow of prospects out of town for rental players for the major league club. If they're going to trade prospects away, they need to be signing the major league players they get in return.    

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Lay Off Leyland

By Sean Gagnier

So you think you know more about the Detroit Tigers than manager Jim Leyland? Are you sure about that one?

Last week was the first time I spoke to Leyland in person and his knowledge about the game was stunning. The man knows what he is doing, he just doesn't always show it.

You know what Leyland did on Wednesday night after the game with Minnesota before the day game the next day? He stayed up until the early hours of the morning trying to decide whether to play Quintin Berry or Ryan Raburn, and then he slept on the couch in his office.

Leyland genuinely stresses over each decision that he has to make when it comes to his lineup and his ball team, and yet all he does is catch flak for it. I admit, I have been one of the people who has called for his job in the past, but after hearing exactly what goes into one of his decisions, I no longer believe his job should be in jeopardy.

When asked about Ryan Raburn Leyland had this to say,

"I had to toss and turn with it today whether to play Berry or Raburn and I ended up playing Raburn. The thought process is, if Raburn doesn’t help us against left handers, then we got issues, so you give him the benefit of the doubt to see if you can maybe get him going a little bit. Peralta, Young and Raburn gotta do something against left-handed pitching, it’s that simple. It’s that simple, Jhonny Peralta, Delmon Young and Ryan Raburn gotta do something against left-handed pitchers, it’s that simple"

Now does that sound like a person who doesn't know what their talking about? Not at all. Leyland is smarter than people give him credit for; he knows that his players are struggling but he also knows that he only has three extra players on the roster, one of which is a catcher. He is doing everything he can with what he has.


Leyland isn't  a stranger to being called out though, he talked about a story where he was at his own pool and someone began telling him that he was screwing up the Tigers because he wasn't batting Brennan Boesch second in the order.


"The guy kept saying Boesch hits better in the two hole. Well, it seems to me that wherever I play him Boesch keeps hitting .238, so he's going on about how Boesch needs to hit second but I told him, my stats show that hitting him second or f%&#$ing third or eighth the guy is hitting .238," Leyland said. 


The guy understands statistics and he knows that his team is scuffling, but he isn't just sitting around doing nothing, he is trying everything he can to get this team on a roll and in doing so he may make a misstep, but what do you expect? He's working with what Dave Dombrowski gave him.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Tigers Nick Castellanos Must Stay at Third Base



Originally published on http://blog.detroitathletic.com/

By Sean Gagnier

It’s no mystery that the Detroit Tigers have a gaping black hole at second base, with no sign of anyone being able to fill the void. The Tigers have tried using Scott Sizemore (although they gave up pretty fast), Will Rhymes, Ramon Santiago, Brandon Inge and Danny Worth and none of them have been able to step in and take control of the position. It is because of this that Tigers fans are grasping at straws trying to find some fix for second, but they’re favorite “solution” just won’t work.

No matter how much Tigers fans pine for and argue for it, Nick Castellanos will not and should not become the second baseman in Detroit. Yes, he is having an incredible offensive season, but he has never played second base, and contrary to public belief, it isn’t exactly an easy job to just start doing.

General Manager Dave Dombrowski has repeatedly said that Castellanos will continue to play third base in the minors, because that is what he is, a third baseman.

Some people point out that Castellanos is too big to play second. While he is 6’4” and 210 lbs, he isn’t the only big guy to have the option to play second; Cal Ripken, Jr. was a big guy too and he played shortstop.
But his size isn’t the factor; he’s just too good of a prospect at third base for them to be messing with. Think about Evan Longoria, and you have a good comparison for Castellanos. In 298 at-bats during the 2012 season (through late June), Castellanos has 113 hits, a .379 batting average, with a .421 on-base percentage, .544 slugging and .965 on-base percentage plus slugging.

He’s on fire this season, having moved up from Single-A Lakeland to Double-A Erie and hasn’t missed a beat. While he should not be hurried along to the majors any time soon, he is proving that he truly is the “can’t miss” prospect that the Tigers think he is.

But how do the Tigers use him when they are ready to have him in the majors? They have an All-Star in Miguel Cabrera at third base and another All-Star, who they just invested more than $200 million in at first in Prince Fielder. Where does Castellanos fit in? the answer? Right where he is – at third base.

Victor Martinez (remember him?) has two years remaining on his contract in Detroit, once that expires Tigers fans should expect to see Castellanos joining the major league club. When healthy, Martinez is a great designated hitter, hitting over .400 last season with runners in scoring position and filling in for Alex Avila early in the year to give him some rest. But Martinez will be 35, going on 36, in 2014 and will not be worth the amount of money he will want in a new deal.

Castellanos fills that hole left by Martinez for Detroit. The Tigers have seen that Fielder is, to put it nicely, not the best defensively at first base, and Cabrera is not much better at third. However, when Cabrera was at first base he fielded his position well, which is why he needs to be placed back there.

With Cabrera back at first base and Castellanos filling his vacated position at third base, that leaves Fielder without an every day job. While he has said that he does not want to be a designated hitter, his defensive play has shown that he should not be the everyday first baseman because he will cost the team runs. At DH he can contribute offensively, which he has been able to do this season, without costing Detroit runs in the field.

If that scenario plays out – and it’s the best path for the Tigers to follow – come ’14 the club will feature a lineup of Miggy at 1B, Fielder at DH, and Castellanos at 3B.

Monday, July 2, 2012

It's Time the Tigers Went Back to '68


 Originally published on www.detroitathletic.com/blog

By Sean Gagnier

Throwback fashions have become increasing popular in recent years, most notably the hideous snap-back hats from the 1990’s that looks terrible then and continue to do so now, but the throwback craze has also extended into the sports realm, and it’s about time it made its way to Detroit.
The Detroit Tigers have one of the most recognizable home uniforms in all of baseball, and one of the few that can never be changed, lest they incur the wrath of millions of Tigers fans. Both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are also included with the Tigers among those teams with classic home uniforms that can never be changed.
Notice the repeated use of the term, home.
The Yankees road uniform is the traditional gray with block navy lettering and white trim; it stands out against the gray and has been a staple for the Bronx Bombers for many years now. Until just a few years ago the Red Sox had sported a different look than usual on the road, their jerseys still had “Boston” spread across the chest in the traditional Red Sox font, but it was red and the sleeves were trimmed in red. It was a new look, but it wasn’t right.
Boston took a look at their uniforms and decided a storied franchise such as themselves needed to go back to a classic, throwback, look, something that fans could remember from their childhoods and something that others could build memories with.
Simple tweaks made the Red Sox road uniforms classic looking while being trendy. Boston changed the color of their word mark to black and removed the red trim on the sleeves. They also added a full color logo on the left sleeve that makes the uniform pop.
Detroit needs to take notice of the changes the Boston has made and make some of their own. Currently the Tigers are the only team in the entire league to have a color on their road uniform that does not appear on their home uniform; that being orange.
While the connection can be made, tigers are orange and so the color on the uniform makes sense that way, but why did they depart from the classic look of the 1968 jerseys? Those were gorgeous, they were a bit plain, but a move back to them would be similar to Boston changing their road uniforms.
The script Detroit logo, while nice, could use a change similar to that made in Boston. A change back to the simple block lettering of the ’68 jersey would be a throwback in one sense, but also a change for the better in another.
Much like the new Red Sox road jerseys, the ’68 Tigers uniforms are gray with simple black block letters. The one change that Detroit should make if they do go back to the ’68 look would be to add names to the back of the uniforms; the players are important and they deserve to have their names on their uniforms.
Instead of a color logo on the left sleeve the Tigers could go back and return the uniform number to the sleeve of each jersey, giving them a unique look that no other team in the league would have. In doing so, the Tigers could both update their lockers and return to a classic look while continuing to be unique.
What do you think? Do you like the current Tigers road uniform? Why do you like it or dislike it? If you don’t like them, what do you think Detroit should do to update their look? tell me in the comments below