My only nit-pick is that Edwin is another right-hander leaving the only viable lefty options being Dontrelle Willis and Nate Robertson, and I’m not certain Willis is really that viable currently. Edwin’s 2008 season was quite a bit better than previous seasons and saw his walk rate drop and strikeouts rise.

Ramon Hernandez (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0)

1. He’s due at least $9M over the next two years, $8M in ’09 with a 2010 Club Option worth $8.5M ($1M buyout). Baltimore signed Ramon to a 4 year $27.5M dollar deal after the ’05 season. His first year after the signing was his best when he hit .275/.343/.479, and has regressed a bit in each the last two years hitting .257/.308/.406 last year in 133 games.
2. He’s blocking Matt Wieters whom was recently placed as the #2 prospect in all of baseball by MILB.com. While Wieters has not played above Double-A, he is widely eyed by O’s fans to be on the team when they break spring camp.

The Tigers are certainly not planning on taking on that type of salary burden, however Baltimore has signaled that they’re willing to eat quite a bit of that salary to move him. Depending on how much they’re willing to eat, a trade might not look much different than one for Laird who’s arbitration eligible and due to get ~$3M and potentially much more in 2010 before he’s a free agent. Baltimore’s needs aren’t much different than the Texas Rangers in they both very much need starting pitchers:

“We’ve made it clear that solidifying our rotation is a priority,” said Orioles manager Dave Trembley. “The groundwork has been laid. We’re going to see what we can do.”

Hernandez is a more veteran presence who would be better in platoon with Dusty Ryan and give Detroit a cheap option for 2010 if prospects James Skelton and/or Alex Avila aren’t quite ready. I, for one, have high hopes for Skelton who’s ability to take a walk has impressed. Laird is in a different position as he prepares for potential free agency in 2010 and will look to be very aggressive with his agent Scott Boras.

One issue that might get in the way is that Detroit is part of his limited no-trade clause. However, with a powerful switch-hitting youngster behind him and not many in the market for catchers this season he might be persuaded to take a starting job here.

“We know he’s going to miss at least a start, and we don’t want to take any chances,” club president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said. “Hopefully, in 15 days, he’ll be ready.”

We can only hope he returns in full health and with all control issues figured out as the team needs it. For now Detroit will be filling his rotation Armando Galarraga who will be making only his second major league start. The Tigers acquired Galarraga from the Texas Rangers this past February, sending Michael Hernandez to Texas. A small trade that looks good now since Galarraga will be helping the big league club this year, Hernandez would not have been. At the time Dombrowski was positive on Armando as well:

“Galarraga is a quality prospect with a quality arm,” Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said in a statement. “His acquisition adds depth to our roster, and he is a pitcher we feel will be able to help our club in the future.”

Thing is, Armando Galarraga isn’t exactly what I’d term a prospect any longer, and if so certainly not a top prospect. He started off with the Montreal Expos organization in 1998 as a nondrafted free agent. He did rather well when not injured and injuries continued to be his major issue through even the last few years. He gets a large number of strikeouts, something that followed him to the few innings he pitched in the major leagues but also something that makes him a bit more suited for the bullpen. Additionally, his splits don’t show a major difference between right handed batters and left handed batters but, unfortunately, aren’t great for either as well.

PECOTA (subscription) is far from positive on Armando and the same goes for Chone and ZiPS projections systems which put his projected ERA at 6.25 and 5.65 respectivly. I was surprised to see him selected to fill the rotation instead of other pitchers who Leyland has liked in the past such as Virgil Vasquez, but both have done very well in Toledo thus far.

Tigers will need him to pitch deep since we know that there isn’t the bullpen to continuously fill an entire nine innings.

Looking back in the crystal ball, having Willis pulled from the game was probably for the best, at least for this particular game. I’d never wish an injury on someone to be pulled from the game but Willis was not pitching well and struggling to find the strike zone even before the injury. The injury, however, might make the win not worth it.

Detroit is not in a good position to handle an extended outage from any of the starters. Billfer from the Detroit Tigers Weblog has outlined some of the possible replacements if it comes to that. Another option was Macay McBride, who the Tigers acquired in a trade for Wil Ledezma last year, was recently lost for the season due to surgery to repair torn ligaments in his elbow. McBride was part of the Tiger bullpen last year but was being moved to a starting role with the Toledo MudHens, likely to handle situations such as the current one.

The bullpen, consisting of Aquilino Lopez, Jason Grilli, Denny Bautista and Todd Jones, pitched the entire game and pitched very well. But with the struggles as of late, the last thing the team wanted was to have them cover a full nine innings. Which makes it all the better that they performed well as not to rely on further bullpen arms.

He’ll report to Lakeland, where he’ll pick up his throwing and prepare himself for games. Once he reports there, the Tigers have 30 days to evaluate him, after which they’ll have to decide whether to add him to their 25-man roster or outright him, since he’s out of minor-league options.

Cruceta had a good year with the Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks, a farm team for Texas Rangers. He pitched 65 innings striking out 70 and walking 40 with a 1.19 WHIP. A pitcher who can come in and get a strikeout when needed would truly help this bullpen. Maybe he could replace Jason Grilli in the ‘pen

Leyland said that when Rodney had his latest bullpen session Friday at the team’s spring-training base in Florida, he had stop to throwing because of pain in his shoulder. Leyland said the news on Rodney “isn’t good at all.”

This, obviously, puts a timely return by Rodney even more in doubt and raises questions of whether he will return at all. Fernando faced shoulder issues through the entire 2007 season which caused major struggles for the first few months. These lingering problems don’t seem to be subsiding so we shouldn’t be surprised if surgery is in his future.

Beltran saw limited action during Spring Training making appearances in 10 games in which he allowed 13 hits and 7 walks with only 5 strikeouts. His ERA was 1.42 but those peripheral stats are not impressive. Beltran has had a long career in the minor leagues after being signed by the Cubs in 1996 but has only seen 61.3 innings in the major leagues. We should keep our expectations low here with the purpose being to allow more rest for the other bullpen pitchers.

Fultz had an awful spring ending with an 11.88 ERA, 16 hits and 3 walks over 8.1 innings of work. This prompted the Indians to DFA him even though they had already picked up his 1.5M option for the 2008 season. Fultz had a strong start to 2007 then struggled after getting injured:

“He was a guy who, prior to the injury, pitched effectively for us,” Shapiro said. “He never really got back to that form after [the injury]. I’m sure he’s a guy who can still help someone in the big leagues, but our desire was to take that spot in the bullpen and use that spot as an area where we try to get better.”

Details of the contract are not available, that I can find, but it appears to be a minor-league contract. Low risk, high reward type of deal as far as I can tell. I’m sure that the Indians didn’t expect that team to be the Detroit Tigers. Fultz could add another lefty to the Tigers pen, behind Seay, if he can return to form.

Below is a look at each pitchers 2007 big league performance and 2008 projections. Not outstanding but, in the belief of Jim Leyland, it is enough with potential to significantly beat out the projections.

In other news, Tigers 2003 first-round draft pick Kyle Sleeth has called it quits. To me this feels much like the end of an era. When Sleeth was picked he was hung up as the Tigers future ace, the pick that was going to help save the organization. Detroit, for the lack of a better word, stunk at the time and hope was all we had.

Things have changed dramatically and while I don’t like seeing such a potential talent not live up to original expectations this has the feeling of an end to an era.

When asked if that meant there was no longer a chance the Tigers would make a last-minute deal, Leyland said, “My boss (general manager Dave Dombrowski) said it was OK to tell you that’s the team.”

For now the remaining bullpen slot will be filled with Aquilino Lopez who saw limited innings last year and spent most of the year with Toledo where he was dominant. This leaves Detroit with only one left-hander in the bullpen which points to changes in the future. Bobby Seay won’t be available everyday and will be called upon to pitch long relief from time to time.

The shocker, if you can call it that after the speculation the last few days, was the selection of 24-year old Clete Thomas to round out the the final utility role. Having never seen a pitch at the Triple-A level and spending the 2007 season in Erie where he struck out at a fair clip I’m surprised he was chosen. This decision likely had much more to do with his defensive and baserunning ability than prowess at the place. Leyland had glowing things to say about Clete, which threw me a bit off guard based on Jims usual statements:

“I told him, ‘You’re going to have a big-league career and probably end up playing every day,’ ” Leyland said. “But this will be a little lesson for you for later in your career when you slow down a little bit. You kind of prepare yourself now to make sure you’re ready (as a part-time player then).”

As one who enjoys monitoring the minor leagues and watching prospects I do look forward to seeing how Thomas handles the big leagues. As one who has high-hopes for this team and wants to see some wins I’m a bit stumped. I can only imagine the team believes that with the rest of the lineup as solid as a rock, that a few AB’s from a rookie won’t impact the team.

The Detroit Tiger Weblog has the complete roster.

…the Tigers put Granderson on the disabled list with a non-displaced fracture in his right middle finger. Granderson is expected to miss three weeks.

Curtis was hit by a pitch in yesterdays matchup with the Philadelphia Phillies, but by most accounts he was going to be just fine. I’ll assume that we will be seeing some of Ryan Raburn filling in to cover the large outfield at Comerica Park to start the season. Jason Beck also sees Raburn breaking camp with the team now. Ian also mentions Brandon Inge, unlikely in my option, or Freddy Guzman as potential replacements as well.

This has implications beyond who’s manning centerfield for the Tigers but for the Tiger lineup. Curtis had locked down the leadoff spot which now needs filled. I’d like to see Gary Sheffield be placed there since his hitting is in decline but he still is bringing a big OBP to the team. I don’t think that is likely and we’ll see Placido Polanco or Pudge (ugh) instead.

I’m hoping this is an early april fools joke along with speculations of a Dontrelle Willis injury.