There are some bits of minor league news that came out of the Winter Meetings I haven’t covered yet.

Signings

The Tigers signed a lefty, Brad Thomas, who had pitched the last two years in Korea. Billferposted some video on him, but he’s 32 and his signing came before the Tigers traded for Daniel Schlereth and Phil Coke. I’m fine with these low risk moves, but I don’t expect much to come from this one. As a lefty reliever, I imagine he's behind both of those two, Fu-Te Ni and Bobby Seay. Of course, I don't understand why the Tigers would give Seay close to $2 million dollars at this point. So Thomas probably won't have to beat him out.

The Tigers removed Zach Simons from the 40-man roster to make room for Thomas, but that kind of turned out to be to make room for Adam Everett since they also traded Clay Rapada to Texas for cash and otherwise wouldn’t have had to DFA Simons. I would have thought the Tigers thought more of Simons than this, but with all their talent moving up in the system his window for having a job in the pen was small anyway.

They also picked up Robinzon Diaz, a catcher who spent last season in the Pittsburgh organization. He signed a minor league deal and hopefully was brought in to make sure the Tigers never again have to call up Dane Sardinha or somebody like him. Diaz hits for an okay average, but it’s not real easy to make him take a pitch as his career walk rate is about two percent. This piece on trying to figure out the value of a catcher's defense had him as below average behind the plate.

There is some speculation he could serve as the backup in case the Tigers decide Avila needs polish behind the plate to start the season. Personally, I hope Avila proves ready for a time share because I think the Tigers are going to need his bat in the lineup.

Trades

None that I can think of. Oh wait, how stupid of me. There was that Rapada deal.

Roster Moves

I was obviously joking about trades. The Tigers shipped out two players and received four, so they had to make room on their roster, which was full before the Granderson trade. They decided to make room by removing Freddy Dolsi and Dusty Ryan.

Neither move is terribly surprising. Jim Leyland clearly doesn’t trust Dusty Ryan behind the plate and strikeouts are a pretty big problem for him even when he is hitting. He had a .368 wOBA (.814 OPS, if you prefer) in Toledo but still struck out in nearly a third of his at bats.

Freddy Dolsi throws the ball hard, but has never been able to coax strikeouts from it and usually seems to have only vague guesses on where it might end up in or out of the strike zone. I’ve been frustrated at their apparent preference for him over other relievers for a couple years now.

Hiring

It sounds like the Tigers have hired Phil Nevin as the manager of the Double A Erie SeaWolves. Mark Anderson had the scoop on Twitter, but I’m a Twitter newbie and don’t know how to link to individual tweets yet so you’ll have to take me at my word.

Nevin played with the Tigers from 1995 to 1997, retired from baseball in 2007 and managed the Orange County Flyers, an independent league team, last year. Maybe they heard good things from former Tigers who played on that team, Robert Fick and Damian Jackson.

Seriously, though, Nevin doesn’t have a long resume but the Tigers must like something in him. They’re giving him a job that’s a very important stop for most of the Tigers’ best prospects. Or, you know, they could just like having ex-Tigers managing in Erie.

Drafts

The Tigers, their roster full, couldn't participate in the Rule 5 draft. They didn't lose anybody in it, either. Not even in the minor league phases. See? I told you it wouldn't be a big deal this year.

There is some draft news, though. The Tigers received a compensation pick when the Astros signed Brandon Lyon to a ridiculous 3 year, $15 million deal. Billfer hilariously pointed out that Lyon's agent was said to be looking for two years and $9 million. Clearly, Astro GM Ed Wade gave him an extra year and $6 million as a reward for his modesty. Tying this back to the Tigers, if they would have given Lyon even what his agent was reportedly looking for I would have had to just skip that news for fear of turning this blog into a site Rated R for excessive and creative profanity.

Dave Cameron undressed Ed Wade for this signing over at Fangraphs. He may go a little overboard, as I think relievers are the one area where I'm not all that confident in WAR valuations for salary. I'd like to see WPA or Leverage Index incorporated somehow. Still, he has good points and a team with holes like the Astros shouldn't be throwing excess money at Brandon Lyon.

There must be something about the Tigers' home whites that mesmerizes opposing GMs. Last year Edgar Renteria was signed to one of the worst contracts and it wouldn't be terribly surprising if Lyon's approached that neighborhood this year.

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