Tiger Geist

Not a huge surprise, with Guillen out a few more days and a fifth starting pitcher not needed until after rosters expand, but Jeff Larish returns to Detroit to help at third (and probably first and DH).  Interesting here that they didn’t call up Mike Hessmen, who is not on the 40 man roster (and probably won’t be, with other players needing to be protected this winter).

Found this pretty interesting… Larish’s college stats at ASU.  Interesting having your name alongside Barry Bonds (always a good thing, as long as it isn’t a federal indictment).

I heard an interview about Bonds going back to his college days.. and it wasn’t pretty.  I’m not sure if the interview related to a book, but a search on amazon.com with “barry bonds was an asshole even in college” didn’t return the desired results.

Now I’m starting to get concerned about next year.  The Chris Lambert Experiment went about as well as I expected — not well.  His miner league numbers aren’t fantastic, at least, nothing that said he would fare well against the hot Indians.  But whatever, I didn’t watch the game, maybe those home runs weren’t so bad.  Maybe not lasting four innings is acceptable, given the defense behind him.  Given the situation, maybe Leyland should have given Lambert better surroundings (Inge at third, Rayburn in left, a more comfortable catcher who he’s worked with before in Sardinha)… Who knows.

Other concerns I have:

• Marcus Thames is starting to show how he would be a good DH and part time outfielder, not the other way around.
• Gary Sheffield will be on the 2009 Detroit Tigers
• Our starting rotation in 2010 might be very good.  Not helping 2009, however.
• Joel Zumaya might have to be a starter in 2009.
• Carlos Guillen’s knees might not be the only body part failing him
• Toledo’s stars are in a giant slump (Thomas, Larish, Clevlen)
• The only way to make multiple improvements to this team is to trade Ordonez;  I’m not sure if we could get enough for him to make it worthwhile
• I’m fearful of the player Ordonez and Guillen will be in the last year or two of their contracts.  If overall team defense was an issue this year… they can’t all DH.  And I’m not sure Guillen will hit well enough to DH either, if he doesn’t slow his physical decline.

Concerns I don’t have:

• Extending the contract of Polanco by another year or two.  He’s awesome.
• Cabrera.  Though I’d love him to lose 20 pounds.
• Kenny Rogers.  He really has no trade value, and its not like we have another pitcher to take his place for his last 4 or 5 starts.  Let him finish out his career as a Tiger.  Someone mentioned New York as a possible destination for him for September — after his 1996 and 97 seasons there, which he seemed to dislike, i can’t imagine that happening.

Concerns I’m on the fence about:

• Nate Robertson.  I think he sucks; he’s always sucked.  But I’m undecided if i think he can return to his mediocre-ness or not.
• Brandon Inge.  He’s playing like poop as a catcher.  He’s hitting like poop all year.  I’m not sure if he’s a ‘game changer’ at third or not.  He’s regressed so much in his hitting that his contract is really hard to swallow.
• Bullpen.  Don’t really care at this point.  I think most of it will be revamped by the middle of next year, with a combo of a free agent or two, and some youth infusion (Rapada, Fien, 2008 draft choices).
• Translating minor league numbers into big league production.  Seriously, as excited I get about Jeff Larish or Clete Thomas… why?  Hitting .250 in Toledo doesn’t mean they’ll hit .275 in part time play next year.  I think Clevlen has the potential to have Matt Joyce type impact.  I’m hoping Larish can play third as a backup as well (good news on the Arizona fall league news).
• Matt Joyce.  It seems like many teams have prospects come up to have a major impact (and he has been one of Detroits top 10 players this year in my mind), only to come back to earth in May of the following year.  As well as he’s hit, there is a chance he has a minor league return next year.  Hoping it doesn’t happen  (see Francoeur, Jeff)