The Tigers have been snatching up some minor leaguers, pretty much like they do every year. Most of these signings don’t turn out to mean much. If you’re a fan of the minor league teams, they may end up helping the Mud Hens, though.

Enrique Gonzalez, a right-handed pitcher who was with the Red Sox last year, signed with the Tigers. He threw 106 innings with the Diamondbacks in 2006, but has played for three different teams the last three years and thrown a total of nine big league innings.

Those innings came in relief, but he’s spent most of his time as a starter - or at least a swingman - who gives his Triple A teams pretty close to league average innings. As you may expect, he accomplishes that by putting up pretty average rates in all his peripherals.

Mark Anderson of TigsTown.com tweeted that the Tigers also signed Ryan Ketchner, Kory Casto and Phil Dumatrait. Ketchner is a lefty who gave the Tigers good innings in Lakeland last year and even chipped in late for the Mud Hens.

Don’t pay any attention to his 1-4 record or 4.66 ERA in Lakeland. Both are deceptive because of a .367 BABIP and nearly half the baserunners he allowed scoring. I’d focus on his 33 strikeouts against six walks and allowing just two homers in almost 40 innings. Let’s not get overzealous, though. He’ll be 28 early in the season and has a little over 100 innings as high as even Triple A.

Kory Casto was a long-time National minor leaguer who used to be one of the better prospects in a bad system. Now he’s 28 and the Tigers probably scooped him up because they don’t want their third base duties to be a mishmash of whatever middle infielder isn’t playing second or shortstop that day. If that’s not the purpose, he can also fill in for the corner outfield spots.

He doesn’t have a lot of power but he draws walks and while he’s not exactly a contact hitter, he doesn’t strike out a ton. I hate to always come back to the idea of improving plate discipline in the system, but his career numbers make it seem like he could help in that respect.

Finally, you have Phil Dumatrait. Dumatrait is a lefty who was Boston's top draft pick in 2000. He hasn’t really fulfilled those first round hopes, but he should be a serviceable arm for the Hens if he’s healthy. He only threw 41 innings at five different levels for the Pirate organization last year. That sounds like time lost and some rehab assignments.

However, he was on the major league club for all of 2008 and did decent work for Louisville (Cincinnati) in 2007. He doesn't have great control, but he's gained some control after a lot of problems early in his career. It's not surprising - considering he's a minor league vet at this point - that the strikeouts don't come in bunches. If the Hens are lucky, they may have picked up two members of their rotation in one day.