Tiger Geist

At the end of the year, you get tons of ‘top 10 X’ of the year.  This new years’ we will probably see a ton of “best of the decade”.  I wanted to explore decisions Detroit should have made this year, knowing what we now know about the entire 2009 season.  I’m keeping this to general themes, not the “Don Kelly should never have been playing left field in the Metrodome in that one game in that one inning…”.  Detroit missed the playoffs by one game;  I don’t want to focus on one particular game decision, rather decisions that, over time, may have generated that extra win.  Or, playing devil’s advocate, knowing Detroit wasn’t going to make the playoffs, maybe some moves they could have done to improve the team in 2010 and beyond.  Let’s look at five hindsight decision:

1) Trade(s) that should never have happened: Jarrod Washburn / Aubrey Huff.

This is a two way tie.  First, the Washburn trade.  Detroit sends Pitchers Lucas French and Mauricio Robles in exchange for Washburn.  Washburn was generally ineffective in Detroit, eventually being shut down due to an apparently pre-existing knee injury. Why it shouldn’t have happened? Washburn had high ERA and had an excellent defensive outfield in Seattle; there was little chance he would keep up his run in Detroit.  The biggest issue,  as I wrote early September, Washburn’s knee injury was a known issue to everyone except the Tigers front office.  Based on the info available to the team at the time (and re-enforced by hindsight and what should have been a physical), the trade shouldn’t have been made.

Second trade:  Detroit sends pitcher Brett Jacobson to Baltimore for Aubrey Huff.  No sugar coating this one, Huff was awful for Detroit.  Why shouldn’t this have been made?  Huff did not play one inning in the field for Detroit.  Detroit was already full of DH’s playing out of position, and they didn’t have room for a backup third baseman for the ailing Brandon Inge.  The trade made sense for Detroit if Huff was brought in to make some starts in the field.  He did not.

Last condition of the trades:  From the way it was reported, Detroit picked up the rest of both player’s salary for the year.  That’s approximately 35% of Washburn’s $10million, and 25% of Huff’s $8million.  A lot of money for a team that appears shedding salary.

2) Trade that should have happened: Placido Polanco at the trading deadline.

This assumes that we knew Detroit wouldn’t have made the playoffs, that Detroit wouldn’t offer arbitration to Polanco, and Polanco would sign a long term contract in the offseason (all of which, of course, happened)  If you were San Francisco, would you rather have Placido Polanco or Freddy Sanchez?  If you were Detroit, would you like a chance to have Tim Alderson in your minor league system?

3) Player who should have had less playing time / Player who should have been promoted: Brandon Inge / Scott Sizemore

Brandon Inge had bad knees.  While he still seemed to play solid defense, he hit .186 after the all star break.  Detroit’s best minor league player (and apparent starting second baseman in 2010) never got a call up, not even in September.  Initially most of us thought “ok, that makes sense, Detroit has an awesome second baseman, no need to sit Polanco for Sizemore in a pennant race”.  It was also assumed that playing Inge was a necessity, since Detroit didn’t have a suitable replacement.

Well, hindsight shows this logic went out the window.  According to a 3-year, $18million contract signed this off-season to play third base with Philadelphia, Detroit already had someone able to pick up a few starts at third.  By shifting Polanco to third, Detroit would have found a few at-bats for their top-hitting prospect at Toledo.  If Sizemore’s defense was still a concern, Santiago could have been used as well (or as a late inning defensive replacement).

4) The Roll the Dice move: Keep Gary Sheffield, cut Marcus Thames.  Or cut both.

Look at their numbers… Gary Sheffield and Marcus Thames had nearly identical production in 2009.  Sheffield had a better on base-percentage and struck out less, albeit in an inferior league.  Given a re-do, I’d roll the dice on this one and keep Sheffield and cut (or attempt to trade) Thames.  Knowing now that Thames isn’t a 40 home run hitter, Detroit could have made a major marketing push in the early season for Sheffield’s 500th home run.  Or they could have just cut / moved both, if Detroit needed to find a roster spot for decision #5:

5) Find a backup corner infielder.

If we assume that Ryan Raburn is a decent fielder if he can focus on one area (infield or outfield, but not both), this could have helped out on more then one occasion.  If we assume that Brandon Inge could have used a rest, or the team could use some more offense from third base, or maybe Miguel Cabrera could use a day off…

There’s five.  Any others?