Tiger Geist

Lynn Henning talks about the difficult decisions looming for Detroit and their outfielders; he speculates that a contract or two might be eaten.

I think he’s right in one respect — Marcus Thames won’t be around long.  I’m interested to see what ‘could have been’ with Marcus this year, but Detroit needs more D and speed and not another guy hitting .250.  Again, hopefully Thames can go somewhere that lets him hit.  Historically, Leyland has enjoyed veterans on the team (one reason that the Sheffield cut and the Porcello promotion were kind of surprising), and you have to wonder how much that will impact his decision on the club.  While Granderson’s amazing catch to preserve the win in Cleveland is remembered fondly, I wonder if Clete Thomas’ home run saving catch in Minnesota last week could have been made by either Thames, Guillen, or Ordonez.  That has to be looming in Leyland’s mind.

Looks like Wilkin Ramirez doesn’t get to start today, so he comes up to the big club and gets only 3 at-bats.  Not a bad debut; I really like how, even when he strikes out, he sees a lot of pitches.  I noticed this during spring training, so hopefully he can continue to improve.  Since Wilkin isn’t a demon in the field (though he is on the basepaths), he probably could use more innings as much as the constant at-bats.

I’ve been doing research on Ordonez’s contract and running numbers, and its pretty much a given that, barring major injuries, it will be guaranteed next year.  And since Rick Porcello shares an agent with Ordonez, its not like they can just cut him to save the cash.  But it will interesting to see if Detroit starts to think about limiting Magglio’s starts to protect against the 2011 clause (which includes a 2009 and 2010 combination).

So the team has to be aware of their payroll for 2010 already.  If they are in the division lead in late June/July, you wonder if they make a move to continue to improve the team.  Normally, thats a time that teams out of contention look to shed payroll and dump players.  However, can Detroit afford to take on more payroll this year?

I love the day games;  Detroit goes for their third straight series sweep today (that is, if you pretend the Minnesota series didn’t happen).