Detroit Tigers begin building the 2015 roster

Detroit Tigers General Manager Dave Dombrowski has begun to build out his  roster for the 2015 season. Attending the annual GM meetings Dombrowski has acted quickly once again this off season. His first move was to resign Victor Martinez to a four year 68 million dollar deal. He then traded the top prospect in the Tigers' farm system, Devon Travis, to the Toronto Blue Jays for OF Anthony Gose. There are no rumors that the team is shopping C Alex Avila.

With these moves we start to see what the 2015 Tigers will look like. Once again the Tigers are in win now mode. They are hoping they can win a World Series title before their championship window slams shut. They are closer to that, and to being the Philadelphia Phillies (minus a ring of course) then they are as legit contenders for said title.

This is a roster that is still too top heavy, and that might be good for ticket sales, and that might be just good enough to win the division, However after four straight divisional titles, and four post seasons that do not end with a win how much longer will Tigers fans be content with simply winning the division. The simple truth here is the two things that help a team win in he playoffs are the two things were this roster continues to be deficient. Those two things are of course team defense and a strong reliable bullpen.

I am more than sick of hearing how this team is built for the post season. If that is true why do the Tigers lose in the playoffs so GD always!! Every other team minus the Cleveland Indians have won a World Series title since the Tigers last one won. The Kansas City Royals just won the AL pennant, the way the Tigers have been going about this clearly doesn't work.

The simple fact here is the roster is too top heavy. This was certainly true last year when they dealt away Prince Fielder. It remains true after trade deadline deals and the beginning of the hot stove season has seen the team deal away a number of its top prospects. Granted prospects in baseball are hardly known commodities but as good as the stars on this team is exactly how bad the bottom of the roster is and they need more balance to truly be considered legit contenders for a World Series ring.

Gose is fast, and he looks to be a legit Center fielder. The plan looks like he will platoon with Rajai Davis out there. However he has no bat, and he strikes out far to often to be considered a legit leadoff guy. So in effect the Tigers have added another bottom of the order guy, and it seems like he main plus to this situation is he will make the minimum salary over the next two seasons.

I am not as concerned about losing Travis as others. Since Ian Kinsler is likely going to be here for the foreseeable future and the club also has Hernan Perez. I would like to see Perez play 2015 in Toledo continue to develop while Jose Iglesisas and Andrew Romine man the middle infield in Detroit. I am ok with that situation.

It is far to early to start predicting the job Dombrwoski is doing to build out the roster for 2015. A big chunk of that will be what winds up happening with Avila. It would be nice to add another bat to the middle of this lineup.

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Detroit Tigers position by position review: Catchers

We are at the end of the 2013 baseball season. Now the game turns from the field into the front office and team work to resign, upgrade, and build their rosters for 2014. A lot of this process is on hold as the Detroit Tigers work to find their next skipper, but it is time to take a look at our Tigers see where they can save a little money, upgrade, and become a team that can get over the hump from where they are now.

We begin this look with the catchers.

Of course we already know that Brayan Pena will not be back. He made under a million dollars as the back up catcher for 2013 and after a pretty good season is in line for a raise. Usually GM Dave Dombroswski holds a press conference to announce moves like this but his time is likely been eaten up with the managerial search.  I think this move is a clear indication that Dombrowski is getting payroll wherever he can to resign Max Scherzer for 2014 at least. It seems very likely Max will command at least 15 million dollars as his value will be hurt some given the fact that he is under team control for one more season.

What that means is Alex Avila likely returns as the starter and the Tigers elevate Bryan Holiday to be his backup. Now let the debate begin. Avila made just under 3 million in 2013 and hit just .227 with 11 home runs and 47 RBI. Clearly that is not enough production in the bottom of the order, and it seems Catcher is one of the spots where this team could choose to improve itself. The hang up there is Alex's dad just happens to be the assistant General Manager. Will he do what is best for this team and urge the Tigers to pursue a free agent upgrade here or keep his son employed? That is the question.

There are options out there. If the tigers decide to go all in, to become a luxury tax team they could go out and get Brian McCann or Jarrod Saltalamacchia. That is gonna take another major investment by Mike Illitch. The payroll for 2013 was 150 million, the Tigers have 107 committed right now and that is without Scherzer. Will Illitch go all in for 2014? Three million people have come through the gates of Comerica Park the last two seasons so it seems likely he is making his money back. However, the Tigers are limited in ways the other big spenders are not with their local TV deal.

In baseball you have to spend money and spend it wisely to win. Case in point the final four teams from 2013 all had top 11 payrolls as of opening day. I think this is a lesson Illitch has learned and much like the Detroit Red Wings teams he owned in the late 1990's and early 2000's Illitch is willing to spend the money to get him his ultimate goal of a World Series title.

I think it is very unlikely, however that Avila will not be back with this team. In fact I think nothing will happen till the Scherzer situation gets resolved be that a one year deal or a trade. If the Tigers want to upgrade other things outside of the starting rotation it might mean sacrificing Scherzer for the long term good. He would likely bring back at least one star player and a quality prospect. that would give the Tigers another chip to trade to make an upgrade somewhere else.

We will have to wait and see what the Tigers payroll will be for 2014, but catcher is a place they could use an upgrade. I hope that they choose to upgrade here, but to be frank there might be bigger holes. To be fair Avila's value to the Tigers is how he handles their staff, and that cannot be overlooked.

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Detroit Tigers week in review: week 21

The Detroit Tigers looked unstoppable over the weekend beating up on the hapless New York Mets. That brings their inter league record to 12-5 and once again the Tigers are able to take advantage of a quirk in the schedule. Having inter league games through out the season is a big benefit to them, and hopefully when we get to the last series against the Miami Marlins the divisional crown will already have been locked up and the Tigers can start a bunch of September call ups to beat Jeff Loria's so called team.

As always we look at he splits to see how this team is doing. The Tigers are 77-54 overall and are up 5.5 games over the Cleveland Indians. They are 6-4 over their last 10 including the loss last night at home to Oakland. The A's have given this team fits as the Tigers have just a 2-2 record against them this year. At home the Tigers are still an impressive 41-24, and have to be on the hunt for home field advantage for the post season. On the road they are still a very good 36-30 but this is a different team when they play at Comerica Park, and based on what we saw last year having home field advantage throughout has to be the prize they are after.

We are getting to the point of September call ups and one has to wonder who will be brought up. It seems a virtual certainty that Nick Castellanos will make an appearance in Detroit and hopefully for the post season as well. Maybe he an even have an impact like Avisail Garcia did last year.

The Good:

• Miguel Cabrera- Much like Ken Griffey Jr was, Miguel is able to put up big numbers and keep himself out of the PED argument. This cat is scary good, and he is the run away AL MVP right now today. He is having a way better season than he did a year ago when he won the MVP and the Triple Crown. He may accomplish that feat again but unlike last year no one can argue that this guy is the most valuable. He is hitting .359, with 43 home runs and 130 RBI. 
• The Starting Rotation- All five pitches have double digit wins, all five have at least 108 strike outs, and the highest ERA of the starting five is Rick Porcello's 4.49. All in a year where we could say Ace Justin Verlander has struggled. 
• Victor Martinez- Victor is now hitting .289 and he is even getting ready to play some catcher. Mostly in the NL parks I wold guess but with the Tigers catchers a little banged up having Victor to take a game here and there is nothing but a positive. So far Victor has caught two games for the tigers and getting him use to the pitching staff is necessary should he be pressed into post season duty as a catcher. 

The Bad:

• Alex Avila- I kind of hate to rag on a kid who is on the 7 day concussion DL but the simple fact here is still hitting under .200 despite the recent hot streak before his injury. that truly shows how bad he was in the first half and I don't see any improvement in this kid. He is what he is a guy who can handle the staff pretty well, but comes up short in offensive production. When the tigers decide they need to upgrade their lineup this is one of the positions where they will have to look at very hard. 

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Detroit Tigers 2013 week in review: Week 19

The Tigers won 12 games in a row till Friday when the lost to the New York Yankees in New York. They then spent the weekend dropping another and losing the series to the Yankees, and winding up the 2013 season 3-3 against those damn Yankees. We saw the highs went the Tigers won game #12 in a row and everyone was ready to elect Dave Dombrowski the king of baseball, and then we saw the lows as the bullpen he constructed went out and sort of dropped the ball in the Empire State. The thing to remember about baseball is to not over react to any one game or series, but Tigers fans have a very hard time accepting that truth of this sport.

The simple truth is the Tigers destroyed a division rival last week, are in first place by seven full games and as long as the offense does not fall completely asleep the Tigers will be just fine. And let us be clear this is an offense problem not a bullpen problem. In fact since the All Star Game the bullpen has performed quite well.

When we look at the box score from yesterdays game we see that the Tigers had 13 hits but scored only 4 runs. The good news is the Tigers offense has been scoring runs late in games in fact three of the four runs yesterday came past the 7th inning, but they are not scoring in the middle innings putting games out of reach. When they do score runs in the middle innings there W-L record is quite good, when they do not the late innings W-L numbers are a bit more uneven.

The news of the week is Alex Avila has been placed on the 7 day concussion DL, and the team is quite concerned about this development. Alex handles the pitching staff very well and so far in the second half of the season has had a hotter bat. Bryan Holaday was added to the active roster to take his spot for the week, this likely means we will see Brayan Pena a lot this coming week.

As always a quick look at the splits. The team is 69-47. At home they are 37-19 and on the road they are 32-28 when they play they way they are capable of plying they look unbeatable however the offense still has the annoying habit of going to sleep at key moments. Over the last ten they are 8-2 and if they keep that up the division race will be over before we get to September.

The Good:

• Speaking of Pena who is very solid behind the plate but over 146 at bats this season is hitting .299. He might not have a lot of power with just four home runs but 46 hits and 18 RBI are strong numbers for a bottom of the order guy. 
• Drew Smyly- He has pitched the most innings of any Tigers reliever so far this year and still has a Whip under 1.00, and a very good ERA of 1.98. Drew is the real deal, and let's hope he is not a one year wonder. 
• Max Scherzer- he is an unreal 17-1 with a 2.84 ERA and leads the team with 175 strike outs. Legit Cy Young numbers. 

The Bad:

• Phil Coke- it looks like Jim Leyland has figured this one out and will pick the spots were Coke pitches very carefully. It looks like he is once again the left handed specialist only and he will likely only see left handed batters for now. His 5.19 ERA is the reason why
• Hernan Perez- He is getting lots of playing time with Omar Infante still out. He has just over 30 at bats but is hitting just .214 The Tigers offense needs Infante's bat back. 

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