Tiger Geist

The Jeff Larish era begins this evening. I haven’t read any of the official reasoning, but based on Sheffield going to the DL, and hemmorroids going to Guillen’s backside, detroit calls up Jeff Larish. No idea if he’s playing tonight (Guillen to DH, apparently putting Inge (or possibly Raburn) at third). I imagine Larish gets the call due to Hessman’s roster issues. Go team.

Bugger. Damn it all. Damn it all to hell

I’ve written that I think Mike Hessman should be called up; I think many people are thinking that right now. I’ve finally realized why it isn’t such an easy answer (at least in my understanding of player movement and this article)…

Hessman no longer has player options available — when Detroit sent him to the minors during spring training, he had to pass through waivers. If Detroit decides to call Hessman up, they had better be sure, since it is doubtful the AAA leading home run hitter (who can play multiple positions) would make it back to Toledo. This makes a Hessman call-up for a current 25-man-roster-player-heading-for-the-DL difficult. Actually nearly impossible… the 15 day DL player still counts against the 40 man roster limit. And… wait for it.. wait for it… Hessman isn’t on the 40 man roster. So they can’t demote Ryan Raburn (who has options) to Toledo and bring up Hessman… to my knowledge, they also can’t bring up Hessman if they put Sheffield on the 15 day DL. To purchase Hessman’s contract, they’d have to drop a player from the 40 man roster entirely… which… I don’t know what this means. It can’t be good (a player on the 25 man roster would have to be designated for assignment immediately… not sure what happens if they drop Brent Clevelen from the 40 man roster).

In these instances, Detroit limits their roster flexibility even further with a Hessman callup. Frustrating — he basically has no value to the team unless it can move Brandon Inge (at which point they’re left without a backup catcher, so another move would have to happen). Jeff Larish? Forgedaboutit. He’s probably stuck in Toledo as well, though he IS available in the case of a player heading to the DL. They’re more likely to release Sheffield outright then play Larish over Cabrera.

NOTE: Roster management is very confusing (more confusing in the off-season). Feel free to correct me; i’m trying to dig into my resources at ESPN to find out more.

UPDATE:  Detroit doesn’t have 40 men on its 40 man roster.  Only 37.  So the only real issues here are the inability to move Hessman up and down between Detroit and Toledo… I guess.

As much as I’m against it, but does Ryan Raburn’s recent struggles at the plate, combined with Carlos Guillen’s struggles at third (two errors yesterday), with Gary Sheffield’s muscle strain / weak hitting require a move?  Could this be the time for Mike Hessman to get called up?

Hessman gives the team another third baseman, another first baseman, and a much-needed power bat.  It would allow Inge to resume his position as a backup outfielder and backup catcher, and give more options for the DH spot.  The other move to make would to designate Thames for assignment and keep Raburn on the team.  But Raburn isn’t hitting well and has minor league options left.

Detroit needs to make a move.. and something involving either Raburn or Thames would not drastically alter the team’s core, or cost significant money.  Raburn has more value to the team (in my opinion), but there is a question about the role Thames has on next year’s team.  With the summer months coming, Detroit has to at least pretend that it cares to keep the fans flocking to the ballpark.

I don’t know much about Jeff Larish, but, if possible, he’d be smart to learn how to play the outfield.  He seems like a long shot to play in Detroit… ever… but if they could sneak some first base and DH at -bats to him this year, it might help his trade value.