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It's been a little while since we've done a transaction update other than the brief reviews I put in the weekly recaps. It was a slow week until today, but that doesn't mean there weren't significant developments before today. Part of the reason I say that is the return of Lester Oliveros from the disabled list. He had two trips in a short time and I always stay skeptical of a pitcher being truly healthy for a while after something like that. He'll be one to keep an eye for two reasons. First, to see if he pitches well and stays healthy and secondly as opposed to there being a long-term problem. The second reason is because he was pitching like one of the Tigers' best relief prospects before these issues arose. The same day Oliveros came back, Jimmy Gulliver was sent back down from the Lakeland squad to extended spring training. We never found out Gulliver's intended role on the team because he never got into a game. More on him later, though.
The next move involved another of the Tigers' top relief prospects, Robbie Weinhardt. He pitched to just one batter on Monday before coming out of the game with an injury. Hopefully, this is something he can bounce back from pretty quickly. The Tigers' bullpen has been great but Perry's nightmare outing on Wednesday shows how fragile even a good bullpen is. It felt like he should have been pulled after either the two-run homer or the near homer that put the go-ahead run at second. However, the Tigers' other options were limited. They're not pitching Zumaya on consecutive days, so he wasn't available. Bonine and Thomas are low leverage, multiple inning guys who shouldn't be put in when even seemingly harmless contact could have been quite damaging. Coke and Ni were available, but they're lefties who would have been at a platoon disadvantage against the next hitter. Personally, I would have preferred Leyland pulled Perry and put in Valverde but Valverde hasn't been put in before the ninth all season and he would have had to get ready quickly after the Sweeney homer. Let's not get into the argument of saving your closer for save situations, though. The point is your solid bullpen can be exposed quickly in the right situation. Therefore, it's nice to have as many guys like Weinhardt in your back pocket as possible.
To fill in while Weinhardt is on the disabled list, Brendan Wise was moved up to Toledo and Matt Hoffman was moved from Lakeland to Erie. Wise is an extreme ground ball pitcher - I mean extreme; his GB% is at 73 percent - who can use that asset to overcome underwhelming strikeout numbers. A look at his 2009 numbers - 50 hits in 38 innings - shows how dependent such pitchers are on good fortune and the defense behind them. Hoffman has been excellent in relief for Lakeland (22. IP, 17 H, 2 BB, 18 K, HR) but he'll be hoping to avoid an experience similar to last year when he dominated in the Midwest League before taking beating after beating in the FSL. Hopefully, trying to make the jump as a reliever will be the remedy he needs to avert a repeat of that unfortunate adventure.
Yesterday, Ruddy (yes, two "d"s and it's still pronounced Rudy) Lugo came back from the disabled list. He took a line drive to the head a little over a month ago and the Tigers were careful to make sure he was ready before putting him back in the rotation. Regardless of his standing as a prospect, it's a relief to see him able to take the mound again. There was no corresponding move, and I assume that's because of a roster spot being open with Dumatrait's contract being sold to Korea.
Friday we had a whole host of moves. The one everybody is going to be talking about is Carlos Guillen returning as the starting second baseman. It's unbelievable how much better the lineup looks than it did Wednesday, now that Cabrera and Guillen are back in it. We’ll have to wait and see what having Guillen at second means for the pitchers. I think everybody expects his bat to outplay his defensive deficiencies. Danny Worth was sent down to make room for Guillen. The Tigers may miss his slick defense, but I think his bat was already being exposed. After finding a lot of holes on the infield early, he was starting to take some ofers. That's not acceptable when you're too rarely hitting the ball out of the infield. He did seem to make an impression during his short stay, though. My only fear about this move is how Guillen will handle another move if Sizemore forces his way back onto the major league roster.
We generally don’t see a lot of movement in West Michigan. As I’ve explained before, the injury cascade generally stops in Lakeland because they can replace players pulled up to Erie with players in extended spring training or on the GCL squad, depending on the time of year. Well, that rule was broken yesterday as the Tigers must be trying to give the team a boost.
Luis Palacios, Elvin Soto, Melvin Mercedes and Luis Sanz were all sent down to extended spring training. They were replaced by Chris Sedon, Jimmy Gulliver, Jared Wesson and Zach Samuels. It’s pretty easy to see why the move was made. Palacios was hitting .191/.255/.245 in a reserve infielder role and Soto was about as bad, hitting .130/.273/.283 as the backup first baseman. In Palacios’ case, it would have been nice if he could have given the Caps a good bat off the bench when they wanted to give a struggling Hernan Perez or Mike Gosse a break. Instead, they had to pretty much punt on getting offense from the position when one of those two were rested. As for Soto, there’s simply no reason to keep around a first baseman who doesn’t look like he’s going to hit any better than the line cited above.
On the mound, Mercedes has had a rough go at it after a fairly strong start to the season. He seems to have completely lost his control, which was never fantastic, but he at least was able to work around it in the early going. Now, outings where he gives up multiple walks, hits and runs have become all too common. That’s led to an ugly line (19.2 IP, 11 R, 16 H, 19 BB, 12 K) and this demotion. Sanz wasn’t expected to be a high leverage pitcher like Mercedes. He was expected to come in and give multiple innings and all too often things spiraled out of control for him and his stats (25.1 IP, 18 R, 28 H, 16 BB, 20 K) reflect it.
Now, it should be interesting to see what these players’ replacements can provide for the team. I would expect Jimmy Gulliver to step into Luis Palacios’ backup infielder role, but to provide a boost for the team he’s going to need to find his swing. He hit .196/.285/.223 for Oneonta last season. About the only good thing about those numbers is his wllingness to take a walk. That should be welcome on a team that’s down near the bottom of the league in that category.
Sedon will probably be stepping into the starting second baseman role because the one move I have yet to mention is the release of their previous starter, Mike Gosse. That’s not terribly surprising. He’s 24 years old and was hitting just .226/.289/.336. Like Gulliver in the utility infielder role, though, Sedon doesn’t offer a sure remedy. The 10th round pick from last year’s draft hit .137/.221/.165 in Oneonta last year. The separation between batting average and on-base percentage may suggest a good approach, but it’s mostly due to him getting hit five times in addition to ten walks (against 57 strikeouts).
Wesson and Samuels are a couple of non-drafted pitchers who showed some promise while filling in for the GCL Tigers last season. Wesson’s ERA (6.23) and hits (22 H in 17.1 IP) from last year aren’t pretty but he was able to strikeout 27 batters in that short time. Samuels didn’t have Wesson’s gaudy strikeout rate, but was able to keep a pretty ERA (2.56) by limiting walks and homers (17 BB, 3 HR in 56.1 IP).
These moves obviously aren’t going to turn around the Caps’ season. What they should do is help the Tigers evaluate these new roster members ahead of the infustion of personnel they will get next week from the draft. For the players who were demoted, they can get back to an instructional environment where they can work on whatever was ailing them. Of course, at the same time they will be making their case for staying in the organziation.
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