Tiger Geist

Today will be Alex Avila’s first start; its actually a pretty exciting time for Detroit and the Avila family.  Note:  FIVE, count them FIVE, catchers have started a game for Detroit this year (Gerald Laird, Matt “Misty-May” Treanor, Dane Sardinha, Dusty Ryan, and now Avila).  Thats not exactly murderer’s row, and its depressing since Treanor is the only player to bow-out due to injury.

I thought Matt at Take 75 North pretty well summed up the Avila promotion — its not that I’m against it, its just that it doesn’t make sense.  Its like Tiger management looked at the roster and said “hey, I really really like this roster, its playoff ready.  You know, however, if we ONLY had a left handed backup catcher… is there one in the Org?  Hey, Al, your son is a catcher right?  What?  He bats left handed? No shit?  How’s he doing these days?”

I hope Avila is able to play enough to make this move work for his continued development;  I think he’s a talent.  I commented on J Ellet’s blog last month that I still thought Dusty Ryan’s ceiling was more likely to be a backup to Avila, or if he can hit, a Victor Martinez type 1B / C split due to his size.