Injuries

Carlos Guillen injured his calf during last Saturday's game and in the same game, Magglio Ordonez broke his ankle. There seemed to be some question as to whether he would have had to go on the disabled list at all if the team weren't in such dire straits in terms of big league personnel. However, they quickly determined they couldn't afford to have a three man bench and it's probably just as well. Choose your cliche to describe how the season is getting away from the Tigers. If Guillen was sitting on the bench and technically available, it may have been tempting for both him and the team to test the calf before it was ready. 

Maggs' injury is much worse in just about every way. The injury itself is more serious, shelving him for an expected six to eight weeks. The Tigers aren't as well equipped to absorb the loss of his middle-of-the-order bat or to fill his position. They've taken to batting guys like Will Rhymes and Ramon Santiago ahead of Damon, who's been manning the third spot in the order. Nothing against Rhymes and Santiago, but they're essentially replacing Ordonez in the top part of the order and it's a huge step down. On the field, the remedy has been to press Raburn into near full-time duty and with Damon DHing most nights, that leaves them short on outfield replacements and the bench almost completely punchless. 

The final effect is mostly a pain to Ordonez's bank account. His injury is going to prevent his $15M option for 2011 from vesting. It will be interesting to see how the Tigers handle that situation. I wouldn't be totally surprised if they just picked it up anyway, but that would likely amount to paying several million dollars as a premium for the fans' appreciation of him. What I think is more plausible is them telling Maggs, "We can't afford $15M (and you won't get that on the open market) so how about if we give you a similar amount over two years." I could see that working, but that will depend on what angle Scott Boras takes as Maggs' agent. 

Getting back to the injuries, Nate Newman was placed on the disabled list with what MiLB.com classified as a sore shoulder. Shoulder problems are always ominous to me, we'll wait to see what comes of it before we start worrying about labrums or rotator cuffs. 

Signings/Releases/Retirements/Trades

The heading for this category usually doesn't include trades, but I figured I'd add them this week since we had a trade but only one of the other three kinds of transactions. As you know doubt know, the trade was acquiring Jhonny Peralta for Whitecap lefty, Giovanni Soto. The Tigers seem to be protecting their young players from being a pivotal part of what's looking like a second half spiral. Instead of sliding in some combination of Don Kelly, Scott Sizemore or one of their shortstops at third base while Inge is hurt, they decided to get a veteran who could do it. Based on what Peralta has done so far this season (.246/.308/.389, 32 BB, 60 K, .307 wOBA in 373 PA) I'm skeptical that the on-field results will be all that different. 

Perhaps I'm just pessimistic because of the Tigers' recent history with deadline deals. Last year, we were picking up an injured Jarrod Washburn and a "clutchy" Aubrey Huff who had done well in a little over 100 at bats with runners in scoring position. The year before, we were shipping Pudge to New York for a second go-around with Kyle Farnsworth. In fact, with Sean Casey being the crown jewel of the Tigers' deadline deal over the past few years I'm beginning to wonder why Tiger fans look forward to what the Tigers might do at this time of year. Anyway, with this recent luck I'd imagine Peralta will make it a very easy decision for the Tigers when it comes time to opt for giving him $7.25M for 2011 or paying his $250K buyout and letting him get what he can as a free agent. 

The good news in this trade is the Tigers have historically been pretty good at picking the prospects they let go in trades. Dombrowski has taken a lot of heat for moves he's made the past few years, but outside of giving up Jair Jurrjens for Edgar Renteria he's had very few prospects come back to haunt him. We'll see if Soto is able to buck that trend. The book on him seems to be that he is young enough and thin enough that it seems reasonable that he could add some velocity when his body matures. That would go nicely with the pitchability and control that has made him successful in West Michigan this year. The Tigers are either betting against that happening or betting they can find a comparable pitcher in the three to five years it would take him to get to the majors. 

I mentioned there was one other move in this category besides the trade. That was the release of Billy Buckner. Buckner was acquired for Dontrelle Willis and he seemed to step into Willis's cloud of bad mojo. He made eight starts for the Hens. Two were good and the rest were pretty much disasters. There may have been an injury somewhere in there because there was talk of one when we has held out of a start just before being released. As far as Tiger fans are concerned, it doesn't really matter at this point. 

Re-assignments

This section is going to be pretty lengthy as the Tigers have an air of desperation as they try to find useful pieces to fill out their roster. When Guillen and Ordonez went down, the Tigers called up Will Rhymes and Jeff Larish. Considering they had lost their right fielder and second baseman, I wasn't sure how Jeff Larish fit into the equation other than he was the Hens' best bat and left-handed. Apparently, the Tigers weren't too sure where he fit in either because he only played three games in the week he was a major leaguer. Yesterday, he was designated for assignment in favor of giving Jeff Frazier a shot at being the lightning they're trying to catch in a bottle. That is a grim assessment of Larish's future with the Tigers. Sure, he was DFA'd a while back but at the time, that felt like a calculated risk. This time, he's being exposed to waivers in order to give major league time to a player who has a very slim chance at sticking as a major leaguer. 

This makes Larish's promotion last week all the more puzzling. If they would have just promoted Frazier last week, they wouldn't have had to expose Larish to waivers. Maybe they feel it's unlikely he will be claimed, and it seems possible they don't care. But if they value him so little, why was he called up last week? What changed in their assessment of Frazier compared to Larish in a week? Is it really because Frazier is hot at the moment? Are the Tigers really taking "trying to catch lightning in a bottle" to that extreme? I shudder to think decisions are being made based on what a guy has done over the past week. For Larish's sake, I hope he gets claimed because he obviously isn't going to get another real shot with the Tigers. Even if Larish doesn't get claimed, he won't be able to rejoin the Hens for the ten days between his DFA and his outright to Toledo. That, coupled with Wilkin Ramirez's DFA to make room for Peralta means the Hens will have to continue to assemble lineups like this. 

As I mentioned, Rhymes was the other player called up with Larish. This was predictable at the time the Tigers made the move. They had already called up Sizemore to help fill in for Inge and Rhymes is having a pretty good sesaon while Brent Dlugach - really, the only other option - isn't. The part involving Rhymes that wasn't predictable in my opinion, was choosing him over Sizemore once the Tigers added Peralta. Actually, when they added Peralta I said with a sigh, "I bet they send down Sizemore instead of Rhymes" but the move shouldn't have been that predictable. It feels to me like the Tigers are again trying to ride the hot hand instead of just going with the better player. It's possible that's not accurate, though. Maybe they feel Sizemore's hip doesn't let him play every day like they need him to. Maybe they feel Rhymes' defense is that much better than Sizemore's. As one of my reader's suggested, maybe they know Guillen is coming back very soon and they're okay with Rhymes staying on the bench but want Sizemore playing every day in Toledo. Maybe. It still feels like another ill-conceived and desperate move to me. Of course, Rhymes has two hits in each of his last three games so what do I know? 

Before I get to all the moves that were the ripple effect of the Guillen and Ordonez injuries (as well as some other non-related moves), I'd like to point out I have no problem with Frazier getting promoted. He's hitting the crap out of the ball and if he's ever going to get a shot now is a reasonable time. After all, he's been one of the International League's best power hitters this season and the Tigers can't be blamed for wanting to tap into that reserve. My issue is only with the fact that they didn't try to tap it last week instead of pointlessly promoting Larish. I wish Frazier the best of luck while he's with the Tigers. 

Okay, disclaimers aside, we still have moves to cover. When Larish and Rhymes were promoted, the Hens obviously needed to fill in for them. To do that, they looked to Audy Ciriaco and Cesar Nicolas. Unfortunately, Nicolas was then almost immediately suspended for fifty games for testing positive for amphetamines and Ciriaco was put on the disabled list with a broken left hand. To help out the Hens' depleted pitching staff, Josh Rainwater was promoted back to Toledo. In a nice twist from the norm, he's actually stayed despite Casey Fien being outrighted back to the Toledo roster. With the Hens losing Ciriaco and Nicolas almost immediately after their promotions (not to mention losing Larish and Ramirez for at least ten days while they are on waivers) they were forced to call up Chris White and Shawn Roof. Both are completely out of their depths in Toledo, and should return to their previous assignments once Ramirez, Sizemore and whoever is cleared to make room for Guillen return. The good thing about Roof going to Toledo is it allowed the Tigers to call Brandon Douglas up to Erie. Considering Douglas likely would have started the season there if not for injury, this is a welcome and unsurprising move. 

The Ciriaco, Nicolas and Rainwater moves required similar promotions to fill out the Erie roster, so the Wolves saw the return of Bryan Pounds and Ramon Garcia in addition to Double A debut for Billy Nowlin. It'll be interesting to see what Nowlin does with this opportunity. He seemed slow to make necessary adjustments in Lakeland and I wonder how he'll fare against more advanced pitchers. Naturally, these promotions left Lakeland needing some bodies and their replenishments came from Connecticut in the form of Matt Mansilla and Chris Sedon. To help out the pen, they turned to one of their GCL pitchers, Dan Gentzler. 

That just about covers the moves since my last roster moves post, but not quite. Patrick Cooper (14th round pick from 2010 draft) was promoted to fill Soto's spot in the Whitecap rotation. Keep an eye on him. He is a Cape Cod vet who has shown good stuff in the past and won't turn 21 until later in August. Kevan Hess was promoted from Connecticut to West Michigan, presumably to fill-in for Nate Newman. Finally, Samir Rijo was moved from the GCL to Lakeland. Hess had pitched well in Connecticut, but Rijo looks to be filling out the roster for Lakeland rather than being someone who played his way into the promotion.

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