Tigers Rumored To Be Pursuing Stephen Drew

By Sean Gagnier

After the Oakland A's turned down their $10M option on Stephen Drew, the free agent began popping up on several team's radars, including the Detroit Tigers.

Oakland is not out of the hunt for Drew though, they just want to ink him to a less rich deal. Other teams in the hunt are the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, although both teams see Drew more as an excellent insurance plan for their everyday shortstops.

Detroit however, despite picking up the option on Jhonny Peralta after the World Series, consider Drew to be a starting shortstop and are rumored to be pursuing him.

Picking up Drew doesn't add much to the Tigers roster, it is not a positive move, but more of a horizontal one. In 2012 Peralta hit .239/.305/.384 in 585 appearances while Drew turned in a .223/.309/.348 performance in 327 appearances.

Drew however, was coming off a year of rehab from a severe ankle injury, something Detroit believes held his numbers down.

If Detroit does indeed sign Drew, they will likely shop Peralta who has drawn interest from several teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks. Should Drew don the "Olde English D" then the Tigers could trade Peralta quickly to get a prospect or two in return.

Lamont's Call to Send Fielder in Detroit Tigers Loss to Giants Was the Right One

By Sean Gagnier

Yes, the Tigers are down two games in the World Series. Yes, they are struggling to score runs. And yes, I am not the biggest fan of Gene Lamont. But his call to send Prince Fielder home in the second inning of Thursday's Game 2 was the right call.

Everyone knows that Fielder isn't the best guy on the base paths, but he isn't completely incompetent either.

On the play, Delmon Young scorches a ball down the left field line that pulls the left fielder, Gregor Blanco toward the corner of the field. Before the ball reaches the left field corner however, it ricochets off a cutout and takes a weird hop into left field. At this point, Fielder is around second base and is looking to Lamont at third for direction.

Just as Fielder hits third and begins his sprint toward home, Blanco comes up with the ball and fires it over the cut-off man, where Marco Scutaro takes the throw and has to make a perfect throw to the outside of the line in order to both avoid hitting Fielder and give catcher Buster Posey a shot at tagging him out.

Here's where the defense of the call comes in. Lamont knows that this team is struggling to score runs and he knows that getting one there could give Detroit momentum, so he takes a gamble.

Keep these things in mind when thinking about this play. 1. Scutaro needed to make an absolute perfect throw to the outside part of the plate to even give Posey a chance. 2. Posey does not block the plate anymore after suffering a broken ankle blocking the plate a few years ago.

Now imagine that you're Lamont with Fielder charging to third base. You know both of those things and you know that your runner is a biggun who has an awful lot of kinetic energy heading toward the plate. Keeping those things in mind, sending the runner is the right move.

The blame, if there must be some assigned, lies with Fielder and Jhonny Peralta. Peralta was in the on-deck circle during this play. As the player on-deck, you are responsible for moving behind the plate and helping to tell the runner when and how to slide to avoid any tag at the plate.

Peralta moved to the plate too late and didn't give Fielder any signals on where the throw was coming from. Because of the lack of help from Peralta, Fielder opted for a hook-slide in the middle of the plate rather than a straight-slide on the outside part of the plate.

Sure, if Lamont holds Fielder at third then the Tigers have runners at second and third with no outs and Peralta at the plate. You would assume that at least one of the next two batters could at least lift a ball to the outfield to score Fielder, but that wasn't the case.

If Lamont holds Fielder and the Tigers fail to come up with a hit, likely as they only had two, then it becomes a mistake to have held Fielder. Either call is a good one for different reasons, but this is the World Series, you have to go big or go home.

Is Mud Hens Cale Iorg Criticizing Peralta After Verlander's One-Hitter?

From the Toledo Blade

By Sean Gagnier
@SeanGagnier 

Story updated May 19 at 11:12 p.m.

It's hard to find anything wrong with Justin Verlander's one-hit performance from Friday night, so Mud Hens short stop Cale Iorg found fault with someone else on the Tigers; Jhonny Peralta.

In the world of social media athletes can find themselves compelled to talk about the things that they would never say if there was a microphone in front of their face, but when it's a cell phone screen or computer monitor, things are different.

Verlander had mowed through the Pittsburgh lineup and gotten into the ninth inning with a no-hitter intact. He retired the first batter of the inning before Pirates' Josh Harrison hit a ball back up the middle, just out of the reach of Detroit's short stop Jhonny Peralta, for the Pirates only hit of the night.

Most fans were disappointed, and it even looked like Verlander mouthed the word "sorry" to the crowd following the final out, but most people attributed it to baseball being baseball and let it die. Not Iorg, who took to Twitter following the Mud Hens impressive comeback game.

At 11:04 p.m. Iorg posted this Twitter message;

That seems like a shot at Peralta by Iorg. Saying that Peralta didn't do enough to try to get to the ball to try to preserve Verlander's no-hitter. Iorg may say that now, but when it comes time to play the field in the ninth inning of a major league no-hitter, if he is so lucky, he may not be so sure about diving for anything "a few feet away."

Perhaps if Peralta had dove he may have been able to get the webbing of his glove on the ball and it may have slowed the ball down, but would he have been able to get up and gun it over to first in time to beat the runner? Maybe, maybe not.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and Iorg believes that Peralta should have at least attempted a dive at the ball. Tigers fans can think what they will about the game and the play, but Iorg may want to think before he presses send from now on.

A tweet was sent to Iorg asking for clarification on his original tweet, seen above. He responded with this tweet;

 

So perhaps he wasn't criticizing Peralta, but it sure sounded that way. Could just be chalked up to a young player getting excited after a chance at a no-hitter and not thinking before sending a tweet. Iorg is a solid young player and this is nothing in the grand scheme of things, he could be on his way to playing in the field in a no-hitter bid rather soon.

What Do Tigers Do With Nick Castellanos?

By Sean Gagnier
@SeanGagnier 

At the beginning of the 2012 season many Tigers fans were lamenting their team's defense, it was thought that the Miguel Cabrera experiment at third base wouldn't last 100 games because of his poor play - now that that has been proven false the Tigers are left with a problem, what to do with star third base prospect Nick Castellanos.

The Tigers are high on Castellanos, which explains why they drafted him 44th overall in the 2010 MLB Draft, but they drafted him as a third baseman and eventual replacement for Brandon Inge. Well, two things have changed. Inge is no longer with the team, and an all-star took his spot at third for the foreseeable future.

General Manager Dave Dombrowski has said in the past that they would continue to develop Castellanos as a third baseman, but that was before Cabrera showed that he could field the hot corner admirably. The question has continued to press on Dombrowski about Castellanos' future; he was moved from Single-A West Michigan to Single-A+ Lakeland this season and has tore the place up.

The Lakeland Flying Tigers have played Castellanos in all 34 games this season, at third base, but in those games he has had 134 at-bat's and has responded with a .403 batting average a .450 on-base percentage and a 1.009 on-base percentage plus slugging. In short, he's really good.

It is obvious that it is time to move Castellanos up a league to Double-A Erie, but when that move comes does he make the trip to Pennsylvania as a third baseman, shortstop or second baseman? With Cabrera occupying the hot corner at present and looking like he likely won't relinquish it any time soon it appears that Castellanos needs to be moved to a new position, but what?

Detroit just resigned Jhonny Peralta to a two-year extension, which means that shortstop is filled for the time being but that could change in the next couple of seasons. Castellanos has played shortstop in his baseball career, it was in the distant past, but not impossible for him to move one spot over.

Second base is where the Tigers have the overwhelming majority of their problems at the moment. Currently on the major league roster Detroit has three "second basemen," in Ryan Raburn, Ramon Santiago and Danny Worth. Raburn has set a new standard for poor play this season, so he is clearly no threat to Castellanos. Santiago has been, and remains, a utility player and backup at best, meaning that he is not and never will be an every day player.

Worth is still a bit of an enigma for Detroit as they have not gotten him enough at-bat's to be able to tell what they have in him, but even if he settles in and solves the Tigers problems at second for the time being, it would be hard to favor him over the kind of talent that Castellanos brings.

According to Baseball America, Castellanos is the Tigers second best prospect in their system right behind Jacob Turner. He is also ranked as the best hitter for average and best power hitter in the Tigers entire farm system. The projections came out prior to the Prince Fielder deal and Cabrera's shift to third base, but Baseball America has Castellanos projected to be the Tigers 2015 starting third baseman.

The same projection of the 2015 Tigers has Santiago as the starting second baseman, meaning that Detroit has no other options at that position. So if Cabrera, who is projected to be the 2015 first baseman, will still be playing and Detroit has no better options at second than Santiago, then Castellanos may have just found his spot.

Castellanos is not built in the typical second baseman form, he stands 6'4" and weighs 220 lbs., quite big for a second baseman. Although it is not unheard of for a second baseman to be 6'4", Cal Ripken was also 6'4" and 200 lbs., it is rare. With his power, a switch to second would draw comparisons of Dan Uggla for Castellanos.

Uggla stands 5'11" and weighs 205 lbs., but a comparison of Castellanos to Uggla would be a fair one. Both are power hitters who can field their position. Both have extra base power, after 34 games in Lakeland Castellanos has 15 extra base hits and both have obscenely good OPS numbers.

At third base Castellanos has drawn comparisons to Evan Longoria. Longoria is 6'2" and 210 lbs. and possesses the kind of power that many players dream of. If Castellanos can draw comparisons to both Longoria and Uggla, the Tigers need to hold onto him and treat him like the once in a lifetime prospect that he is.

These Tigers Lack Leadership

By Sean Gagnier
@SeanGagnier

With expectations high and coming off a torrid start to the 2012 season the Detroit Tigers have fallen on hard times, winning just one game in their last home stand against the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners. In past years when the Tigers hit a slump they turned to their leaders in the clubhouse, notably Ivan Rodriguez, and until this past season, Carlos Guillen.

These leaders in the clubhouse were able to rally the team around them and break down the issues effecting the team. When the team would struggle offensively Rodriguez and Guillen would assemble the team and give them a kind of pep talk that only a teammate could give. A kind of players only meeting that would kick start the bats and propel the team out of the slump they were in.

The Tigers are in another slump, but this time, there is no leader to turn to. There is no player that can command the respect of the clubhouse and give this team the kick in the pants that they so desperately need. Manager Jim Leyland has tried everything under the sun to get his team to produce and nothing is working; what is needed is for a player to step up and take command of this team.

Typically the short stop becomes the captain of the infield and thus commands the respect of much of the team, but Jhonny Peralta does not seem to have the swagger and bravado needed to become the leader in the clubhouse that this team needs. He is the captain of the infield, but his leadership doesn't go much beyond that.

On many teams the star player is the clubhouse coach, Detroit has that in spades but their top player is Miguel Cabrera and he doesn't seem to have much interest in any leadership roles. After his DUI incident in Florida, Cabrera took an even more hands-off approach than usual. He is a quiet leader is the clubhouse, choose to lead by example than with his words. This team needs a vocal leader to get in their face and snap them out of their funk.

Outfielders are vary rarely the leader of the team, they are generally too far away from the action, in-game, to effect much change and as such their words don't usually carry the same weight as those coming from an infielder.

Prince Fielder is a big asset to Detroit, he provides a big source of power and a quality first base, but, like Cabrera he tends to be on the quiet side and shies away from the leadership position. Fielder would much rather lead others by going out and hitting one over the right field wall than to give a fiery speech in the dugout.

Justin Verlander is the face of this Tigers team, but he plays just once every five days and even then is not directly in the game, he initiates the play and then the rest of the team finishes the play behind him. Verlander could give some pep talks to the club, but they would not be all that effective given his position.

There is only one player that could become the leader of this team, Alex Avila. That is a lot of responsibility to place on the third year catcher as he already has to run the pitching staff and catch the majority of games. But he has proven that he has the grit that other players respect, playing much of the 2011 post season on one leg due to injuries.

Avila must step up and shoulder this next responsibility in order to improve this team. He has shown in the past that he is willing to do whatever it takes as long as it benefits the team as a whole, and Detroit needs this.