There are a lot of hard feelings toward the Tigers right now among their fanbase. If you need evidence of this, add yourself as a fan of the Tigers on Facebook and read the comments in the Tiger FanFest announcements. They are nearly unanimous in the tone of, "No thanks, my favorite Tigers are gone." The point of what follows is not to belittle the feelings of these fans. I'm on record as saying I'd have been a bigger fan of accepting the rumored Scherzer for Edwin Jackson deal and keeping Curtis Granderson.

It's true, I suppose, there are going to be fans who just tune out because they don't care to invest the time to get to know a Tiger team that looks very little like the 2006 Tigers they loved so much. I suspect, however, no regular reader of this site is in that population. Readers of this site are all in for the Tigers. I have to believe most people reading this site are doing so because when they get done devouring all they can about the big league club, they want more. (I know that's why I started following the minors and writing this site.) Chances are you're at the very least kind of obsessed . Losing guys like Granderson may hurt, but I have to believe you are fans of the Tigers above all else. Essentially, if the Tigers are playing, you're going to watch.

Well, for you, I'm going to make some effort to get your mind off what the Tigers have lost and turn your attention to who they're adding. I'm not talking about a series of posts. Frankly, I'm not confident at this point I know who's going to be in Detroit on Opening Day. Another reason is I have a history of jumping the gun on these type of stories. In other words, if I write about the Tigers' fresh blood now, just about everybody will have forgotten about my pieces when February and March roll around and everybody is linking to things being written about Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer, etc. It's not all about the hits, but there's something to be said for striking while the iron is hot.

Be that as it may, I'm going to take one for the team and do a post about a player fans will soon be familiar with at a time when it probably won't optimize my traffic. The player I'm going to focus on today is Scott Sizemore. Why Sizemore? Well, because when I saw all the lamenting over the losses of guys like Placido Polanco and Curtis Granderson and their being replaced by rookies, I had to laugh. I laughed because while they don't know Sizemore right now, he is precisely the type of player they will love once they see him play.

It's funny because when Polanco was brought in, it was seen by some fans and players as the Tigers sending up a white flag on the 2005 season. The Tigers were giving up their closer, Ugueth Urbina, for a player who was only sort of a major league starter, forced out of Philly by the emergence of Chase Utley. Four years later, it's easy to imagine some of those same fans are probably saying adding Polanco is one of the few things Dombrowski has done right in the past few years.

It's funny because Curtis Granderson was once seen as a player who didn't really do any one thing great, but was going to get a shot because he did everything pretty well. Prospect watchers were on record as saying his defense was good, but probably not good enough for center. Conversely, his bat was pretty good but maybe not good enough to hold down a spot as a corner outfielder. But, who knew, he was a hard worker and a likeable kid so maybe he'd still turn out to be a good major leaguer.

When the 2006 season opened, was he on the team because the Tigers liked him or because he was the best option for a center field job that had recently been held down by underwhelming talents like Nook Logan, Alex Sanchez, Gene Kingsale and Hiram Bocachica? It's easy to forget he went into Spring Training 2006 with the perception that he was fighting for a job with Nook Logan. Four seasons later he was fighting with Brandon Inge and others for the title of most beloved Tiger.

I view Sizemore as being in the same early position those departing players once found themselves in. Having seen him play and watched his numbers these past four seasons, I feel confident he will win fans over in a similar way. First, let me speak a little bit about the intangibles that commonly lead to players finding a place in the hearts of fans. The first minute Sizemore walks out onto that green Comerica Park grass in that crisp white uniform, he's going to help his cause because he's the kind of player who looks at home on the field.

Toughness and a willingness to work hard are more qualities fans seem to cite when they are talking about their favorite players. Well, Sizemore broke his leg staying in there to try to turn a double play in the Arizona Fall League. The previous season he fractured his wrist in the middle of a frustrating season to end his 2008 campaign. In 2009, he came back and answered questions about his prospect status by having his best season as a pro. I don't think those things happen without toughness and working hard.

When fans like a player and are asked what it is they like, another standard answer is that he does the little things right. I don't know if this is just because there's a quality they can't put a finger on or if they actually notice him doing those little things. Well, I've seen Sizemore do those little things. He's not the defensive equal of Polanco, but I've seen him go to his left on ground balls when a runner is on first, scoop the ball up and get it out quickly enough to start a double play when just a force out seemed likely.

It's not because of a shortstop's range or a cannon arm. The last two seasons he's been caught stealing 35 times and was caught just seven times. This is despite not having blinding speed. He just has good instincts, and that's something else that leads to playing the kind of smart ball fans will eventually notice.

That's not to say Sizemore is necessarily going to need to rely on "the little things" in order for fans to like him. I think Sizemore is going to hit for the kind of average people look for from their second baseman. He'll complement it with enough power, plate discipline and baserunning to keep fans of the kind of stats we discuss here happy as well. There very well may be those rookie jitters, and it may take time for him to adjust, but when he does I think Sizemore will settle into a level of production Polanco only approached when he was hitting well over .300. To clarify, I'm not saying he's going to match Polanco's highest batting averages. I'm saying he'll match - and maybe surpass - Polanco's production by taking more walks and hitting for more power than we could expect from Polly.

Put all these skills, talents and traits together and I think you'll have a solid major leaguer who's the kind of player Detroit fans will appreciate. In a couple years, when Polanco is 36 and almost inevitably showing more signs of age, Sizemore should be hitting his stride and entering the peak of his career. This is a move - just like the one we did to get Polanco - fans will learn to appreciate over time. I do admit a wild card in this pep talk and how Sizemore is perceived are the kind of flukey first impressions it takes people years to get over.

He could drop a popup in his first game and it could be September - if ever - before people allow themselves to believe he's anything but a nightmare on defense. He could strike out with a man on third and one out and fans all over Michigan will talk about how Polanco would've figured out a way to get that guy home. Hell, he could even be a bust in the majors. It's certainly happened to higher regarded players. If happens, though, it's not going to be because he's unproven or because he's a rookie. It'll probably be a thousand little things combined or just a failed attempt at projecting the rest of his career. That can happen just as easily because of age as it can because of inexperience.

It's true that Polanco and Granderson are gone and for a lot of fans, that means they lost their favorite Tiger. How about if we keep an open mind about who we let step into that void? After all, every favorite active Tiger you've ever had has one thing in common with the others. He was your favorite active Tiger until your next one came along.

I made 30 starts last year and didn’t have to go to the DL. Every pitcher has risk going forward; I’m one of them. So the violent delivery, whatever knock you want to come up with for me, that’s fine, I’ll go out there and pitch, and I’ll have success.

Max Scherzer in azcentral.com, as printed in this article

I love the confidence. Any chance of a strutting contest between Verlander and Scherzer? Anyway, I read this and Ice T lyrics immediately popped into my head for some reason.

You don't know me....fool
You disown me? Cool

Ice T, Colors

Yeah, Ice T was rapping about LA gangs. So what. It works and my favorite piece in the trade just got a little favoriter.

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.

If you'd like to subscribe to the Take 75 North newsletter - what a Christmas gift! Only $4.20! - you can do so by clicking on this button. The next one will have brief profiles of all the non-catcher infielders in the Tigers' minors. I know the button says "Donate" but that's only to avoid a recurring charge. If you'd like a free copy, let me know and it can be arranged. Just make sure I can see your email when you let me know.

I’ve thought about the trade a lot ever since it first looked like it was a done deal. I’ve had a lot of little mental bullet points. The first ones, of course, were the kind of emotional fan feelings. Some were along the lines of what I mentioned yesterday and then there were more about little this and that thoughts.

At one point, it occurred to me to try to think of the last thing I remembered Curtis Granderson doing with the Tigers. I was annoyed that I couldn’t think of it and then annoyed that this means of departure kind of robbed us of the ability to appreciate his last days with the team. Of course, so did the outcome of his last days with the team.

Once I went down this road, I realized these were the kind of thoughts you have when you’re grieving and I felt a little silly. I’ve grieved for real and my team making a fairly reasonable trade in the hopes of improving themselves in the long run shouldn’t really get me to that place.

The realization kind of snapped me into looking at the trade from the baseball perspective rather than as a Granderson fan. I guess you could say the Tiger fan wrestled the wheel away from the Granderson fan. I started looking at who the Tigers received, rather than fretting about what they gave up.

I’ll discuss those players in the order of how excited I am about each.

Max Scherzer

There is word that the Tigers could have traded Edwin Jackson for Max Scherzer straight up. These concerns me for a number of reasons, but let me voice three. First, if we are to believe this is a good trade we need for Scherzer to be better than Jackson. I think he is and when you throw in money, I don’t think it’s particularly close. But why doesn’t Dave Dombrowski think so, if this story is true?

That’s my first reason for concern. That story calls into question, for me, Dombrowski’s thoughts on value. It does so because it means he essentially traded Granderson for Austin Jackson, Phil Coke and I guess a little less than Daniel Schlereth (since part of Schlereth evened out the Jackson deal).

That leads right into my second concern. Is there something Dombrowski knows about Scherzer we don’t? Is he concerned about his ability to be a long-term starter or his health concerns? I hope not, because in 2010 Scherzer is the one who has the best chance of making this deal look smart.

Finally, the rumor about Dombrowski turning down the Jackson-Scherzer trade leads me to believe there was a hint of a money concern involved in making this decision. I go to that conclusion because that doesn’t really sound like a lot for Curtis Granderson to me. Maybe the Tigers did need to cut that $10 million out of their payroll? I hope not. I hope the Tigers’ people really like Austin Jackson and their projections have this deal working out fine when all is said and done.

Where was I? Oh, Max Scherzer. Some people are going to see the 9-11 record and the 4.12 ERA, compare it to what Edwin Jackson did in the American League and say Jackson is only a year older and is a better pitcher and a proven pitcher.

Bull. Max Scherzer threw 44 less innings than Jackson last year but struck out 13 more batters. Scherzer had more strikeouts than innings pitched and he did it with a great fastball, a very good slider and a changeup that needs work.

There are some injury concerns, as he’s already had Tommy John. Evan Brunell covers concerns beyond that very well in this article, but A.J. Hinch sure seemed to like the young pitcher he just gave up in this interview. There seems to be a consensus that he needs to develop a third pitch, but doing that and staying healthy will make him a superstar pitcher. Right now, we’ll just have to settle for a very good one.

Austin Jackson

This deal really turns on Austin Jackson. He is, after all, the one we’re going to see out there where Granderson used to be. He’s going to be remembered as the guy who replaced Curtis Granderson until he becomes the player who makes us remember Austin Jackson.

A funny thing about Austin Jackson is when I was researching what kind of player he is, I stumbled across a quote from Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus when Goldstein was discussing the good side of the young outfielder:

Jackson's tools rate as average or better across the board. He works the count well, has enough power to hit 15-18 home runs annually, and the speed to play a solid center field while stealing 20-25 bases a year. He earns raves for his makeup, effort, and competitiveness.

To me, that sounds like it could have been an incredibly prescient scouting report of Granderson circa 2004 or 2005. Of course, scouts are mixed on what Jackson will become. Some say he will be more like a passable center fielder and maybe even something more like a fourth outfielder.

This deal turns on who’s right between that guess and that of his supporters. When that kind of disagreement exists, I usually hope for the numbers to be a little more promising that what we saw from Jackson in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year. He hit .300/.354/.405 with 40 walks and 123 strikeouts and a .390 BABIP. The good news there is that was as a 22-year old playing Triple A ball.

What the Tigers need is for him to develop some of the power people see in his projections and for him to get his walks and strikeouts back down closer to the 1:2 ratio he had in Trenton the prior year. If he keeps hitting for average, plays a capable center field and one of those things happen he’ll be a good player. If they both happen, he could be very good.

Daniel Schlereth

Schlereth was the college teammate of Ryan Perry. The Tigers popped Perry with the 21st pick of the 2008 draft and the Diamondbacks plucked Schlereth at 26. We know what happened to Perry. Schlereth blasted through the minor leagues, striking out 60 batters in 39.2 innings.

That strikeout ability landed him in the majors in 2009 despite the fact that all those strikeouts also came with 23 walks. Once he was in the majors, things were pretty predictably rough for him. In a hair over 18 innings, he struck out 22 and walked 15. The Ks are great, but that walk rate needs to be cut about in half for him to be the reliever the Tigers want.

If he finds that control, he could be special. He throws hard, very hard for a lefty, and uses a power curve a lot. That gets him a good number of swings and misses and early returns also have the mix leading to a lot of ground balls. Lots of strikeouts and ground balls is a fine way to go through life, son.

Phil Coke

Coke is definitely the least discussed player included for the Tigers in this deal. He’s another hard-throwing lefty but he’s also 27 with one full season in the bigs. His 2009 season ended up looking pretty average as the lefty specialist ended with a 4.50 ERA.

His peripherals looked good, though. He only allowed 44 hits in 60 innings, walked just 20 and struck out 49. That would have made for a season much better than average if he hadn’t given up ten home runs. Luckily, seven of those came at home so we’ll have to hope Comerica helps that problem a bit.

The other good news is he was still very effective against left-handers. Well over half the batters he faced were southpaws and he held them to a line of .195/.218/.366 with just five walks against 32 strikeouts. The big isolated power against him comes from six long balls.

Until he shows some progress against right-handers, he’ll probably remain a lefty specialist. But with the big left field in Comerica, it might not hurt as much to let him take a shot at a right-handed batter sandwiched between to lefties. I’d just prefer nobody was on base when they do it.

Elephant in the room

I know people are upset about losing Granderson, and believe me I'm right there with you. He was the one player who I allowed myself to just be a fan. Sure, I knew the numbers and could analyze what he brought to the team. But Granderson was the only Tiger who I allowed myself to over value a bit because, well, he was my Tiger. When I first started blogging about the Tigers at the beginning of the 2006 season, I said I was looking forward to seeing Curtis Granderson become my favorite Tiger.

He lived up to that hope and a good deal more. He is literally the only player on the team, in the organization really, where I knew when he was traded I would be sad no matter what the return. But I'm a baseball blogger and to be a good one I will need to write some thoughts about the trade. That can wait. You see, I'm a minor league blogger first so what I need to do is a lot of research on the Tigers' considerable haul. That is going to take me some time and it's a long offseason.

I will say one thing about it the trade right now. I'm pretty confident Max Scherzer is a better pitcher than Edwin Jackson right now. I'm very excited to have him in the organization for the next few years, and I have no idea what the DBacks are thinking. Okay one more thought. You know who should be happy about this trade right now? Scott Sizemore. For the rest of the offseason, the fact that the Tigers lost Placido Polanco is going to take a back seat to Granderson being traded. Sizemore should be able to do his rehab, come into camp, and show he's ready to take over at second with a lot less eyes on him than there would have been without this trade.

Regular Programming

Now, let's move along to the player I intended all along to write about today: Robbie Weinhardt.

Last week, I took a closer look via the Pitch f/x system at Casper Wells’ time in the Arizona Fall League. I concluded that despite his impressive slash line, there were some trends and tendencies that raise a little concern as to how he’ll handle major league pitchers.

This week, I’d like to dig into Robbie Weinhardt’s time in the AFL. Weinhardt, after all, had a fantastic showing as well. After getting shelled in his first appearance and then giving up a homer in each of the next two, he was a lockdown reliever for the Javelinas.

He threw 8 more games, spanning 13 1/3 innings, and didn’t give up a run over that time. He only gave up seven hits and two walks while striking out 21 batters. That doesn’t even include the championship game in which he struck out four batters and earned the win in two perfect innings of relief.

It was really quite a run and don’t think it didn’t earn some notice. Of course, it’s hard not to notice when you look at a league’s strikeout leader and realize he was pitching in relief. Granted, Weinhardt was only about ten innings shy of the league’s leader in innings. Still, his leading the league in Ks says something about the rate at which he was mowing them down.

So let’s try to figure out to what Weinhardt owes his success. He made 12 appearances in the AFL and 8 were thrown under the watchful eye of Pitch f/x. That’s good news for us because in those appearances he faced 61 batters and threw 251 pitches.

As with Wells, these are very small samples. However, when it comes to a pitcher’s pitch-by-pitch data I don’t think it takes all that long to get a feel for what they’re throwing.

It really doesn’t take long to get a feel for what Weinhardt’s throwing, because nearly three quarters of the time it’s fastballs. Of the 251 charted pitches he threw, 180 (71.7%) were either two- or four-seam fastballs. According to Baseball America, they averaged out at 93.4 mph and topped out at 95.2.

That’s a lot of fastballs, traveling at high velocity. Tiger fans know full well, though, that velocity alone doesn’t cut it. You have to look at what batters do with the pitches, no matter how fast they’re going when they cross the plate.

You have to make sure they cross the plate often enough and when they do, make sure bad things happen as little as possible. The first part - hitting the strike zone - is what is usually referred to as control. The second part - not getting killed for staying in the zone - is what is usually called command. The two sometimes get confused during broadcasts, but those are the definitions I’m working with.

I think it’s fair to say Weinhardt showed a fair amount of both in the AFL. By my count, about 55 percent of his pitches were in the strike zone. Admittedly, that is with a pretty squishy strike zone that gave him the benefit of the doubt a lot of times when the batter swung, but that is a very good percentage. He also was fairly good at getting batters to miss when the ball was in the strike zone, with batters missing about 21% of the time they swung at strikes. Again, taking the number with a grain of salt, that is a very good rate of swings and misses.

Let’s not fit him for the pretty home Tiger whites yet, though. There is some work to be done. His fastball looks like it is very good, but even though he throws it a lot (71.7% of the time, by my count) he’s going to need to make sure he can at least make them think about his offspeed stuff. We’ll come back to the fastball, but let’s talk about his offspeed pitches first.

The algorithm Pitch f/x uses had him throwing a curveball 15 times, a changeup 12 times and a slider 44 times. I’m not sure if he actually throws a curveball that is distinct from his slider or if what Pitch f/x calls his curveball is just what happens when his slider gets messy.

If it’s a distinct pitch, it needs work because when it was thrown it just didn’t seem to work. Batters generally watched it when it was a ball and swung when it was a strike. In fact, he didn’t get one called strike with what Pitch f/x called a curveball.

The pitches that registered as sliders had much better results. He used that pitch 44 times (17.5% of his total) and had a lot better deception with it. It was in the strike zone about half the time, but batters just let it go by 13 of those 22 times. When they did swing, the contact rate wasn’t great (5 of 9).

One problem Mike Rogers noticed was the pitch hanging a bit against right-handed batters. My rudimentary plotting system isn’t good enough to verify or deny that claim, but it was in the upper portion of the strike zone - or a ball high - a fair percentage of the time.

Overall, however, it seemed to be a fairly effective pitch in this small sample and I like how often hitters simply let the strikes go. That suggests they were either letting it go because they couldn’t do much with it or he was mixing his pitches well. I’m good with either.

The last of the offspeed pitches was his changeup. This one only came up 12 times and it seems to back from his fastball by about 8-10 mph. I’m not going to draw any conclusions on such a rarely seen pitch, but at least it was only put in play one time when he threw it.

That brings us back to Weinhardt’s bread and butter, his fastball. We already know he throws it pretty hard, but he also throws it very effectively. He kept it in the strike zone nearly 60 percent of the time and batters still seemed to have a hard time putting it in play.

I mentioned above he went with the number one 180 times. Batters only put the pitch in play 25 times. They were a little fortunate in that 11 of those were hits, but I think that’s yet another way of illustrating his fastball is not an easy pitch to put between the lines.

Having completed this review of Weinhardt’s time and stuff in the AFL, I feel pretty confident he will be one of the pitchers in the mix as the Tigers look to fill the vacated spots in their bullpen. He has a good fastball and a breaking pitch - whether it’s a curve or a slider - that he seems to know how to use and is not without potential of its own.

I have a feeling there may be a point during the 2010 season where Leyland is going to need to be able to look to that bullpen for somebody who will give him strikes. I think it may become evident that the guy who’s most likely to give him strikes that won’t hurt too much is Robbie Weinhardt.

I know it's been slow around here lately. There are a number of reasons for that, and I could explain. But as the reader I'm sure it's kind of like when you go to a restaurant and get bad service. You don't really care to have the server explain why it's happening. You just want the problem fixed. This is me trying to do that.

I've been working on some things that are research heavy, and as I do that I've let a few stories involving the Tigers' minor leagues go without comment. So I'm going to hop in the way back machine and talk about a few stories we've seen pop up over the past month.

Tigers add Brennan Boesch, Audy Ciriaco, Scott Sizemore and Ryan Strieby to 40 Man Roster

I did a post before the deadline for setting rosters where I said the Tigers had some pitchers who might draw some interest in the Rule 5 draft. I also said none of those pitchers really seemed irreplaceable and if any one of them were lost to the Rule 5 draft it wouldn't be that big a deal. I don't know if the Tigers agreed with my thinking, but they didn't add any of them to their 40 Man.

Instead, they stuck to position players who offer skills that may not be so easily replaced. Scott Sizemore is the front runner for the 2010 second base job and I'm going to be doing a post devoted to him in an attempt to ease some of the fears of the more casual Tiger fans. (This idea came to me after talking to my next door neighbor and family over the weekend) He's as ready as he's going to be for a major league job and there's certainly nobody more ready in the minor league system.

Ryan Strieby has had his last two seasons shortened by a wrist injury, but has still pounded the ball. That's despite having a wrist injury that usually saps power. Concerns about the injury were significant enough to pull him out of his AFL assignment to give it time to heal. If that happens and the Tigers get to the end of April and think they want somebody to fill the role that had been held by Marcus Thames, Strieby could be that guy. He's never going to be a defensive cornerpiece, but his bat could potentially make up for a lot of defensive shortcomings.

Brennan Boesch wasn't the easy choice to add to the roster Sizemore and Strieby were, but you could probably make the argument he's more talented than those two. He was, after all, taken before both of them (Boesch third, Strieby fourth and Sizemore fifth) in that 2006 draft. The positives here are big time power from a left-handed bat and good athleticism for a corner outfield spot. The down side is he has a long way to go in either plate discipline, pitch recognition or both. He's struck out three times more often than he's walked as a pro and that ratio was closer to four in 2009. Like I said, that's a lot of room for improvement in an area where players generally struggle to improve.

Audy Ciriaco is the one who will make most people scratch their head the most. He just finished his best full season of pro ball and he hit .262/.296/.397 at Lakeland while making 30 errors at shortstop. What exactly made the Tigers think somebody was going to pop him in the Rule 5 draft? The simple answer is he has tremendous tools at his disposal and he plays shortstop. That's a resume that will get you chances with a lot of teams and it's a resume not a lot of players in the Tiger organization have. Clearly, they weren't interested in taking the risk of losing him.

The reasons for adding him aren't limited to trust in scouting reports, though. Ciriaco's line, cited above, isn't all that impressive but did you know it gives him a better than league average OPS in the Florida State League? It was pulled up by him improving in the second half of the 2009 season, and it was also elevated by his showing continued progress in being able to drive the ball with more authority. At 6'3" and 195 pounds, there would seem to be room for more progress in that area. I assume the Tigers are hoping there will eventually be enough to make him an attractive prospect even if he has to move off shortstop for one reason (better option at the position) or another (such as his own defensive struggles).

The reason these roster additions are relevant is they take these players out of circulation for the Rule 5 draft (pending roster moves this week), which takes place the final day of the Winter Meetings. The Tigers are assumed to figure large in the meetings because of trades at the major league level, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't factor into the Rule 5 draft at all. Their roster is currently full, so barring a change in that fact they cannot draft anybody for the major league portion of the draft. Remember, however, there is a minor league phase. They could snag somebody in that process. That's how they acquired Eddie Bonine.

Ronnie Bourquin suspended

I mentioned that Boesch, Strieby and Sizemore were all taken in successive rounds of the 2006 draft. Well, the player taken before those three has once again made the news for the wrong reasons. Ronnie Bourquin was taken in the second round of that draft and he's ran into problems on and off the field since. On the field, he's struggled to hit and I've never heard too much positive about his defense at third. The fact that he was moved off the position in a system nearly barren of third base prospects would seem to support that.

In 2009, he finally hit at West Michigan and it earned him a promotion to Erie to fill in for an injured Ryan Strieby. He eventually came back down to Earth against Double A pitching, but there was enough progress in the year as a whole to at least entertain the idea that he was not yet a second round bust. Well, he has seriously hampered any optimism he may have earned by getting nicked with a 50-game suspension for testing positive for amphetamines.

That means in a pivotal season for his career as a pro, he's going to be missing the first two months. I'm curious to see how the Tigers handle this. I would've thought Bourquin would have been fighting for a job before this suspension. He doesn't have great defensive chops and he doesn't hit like a first baseman. With the suspension, this is the second time (that I know about) he's had to be reprimanded for off the field issues. I don't comment on player's personal issues, but personal issues have clearly been something of a problem and he's behind the developmental curve. It's hard to imagine he's not close to the point where the Tigers have lost their patience with him.

Tigers haven't named Brookens' replacement yet

Tom Brookens was called on by the Tigers to fill in for the departed Andy VanSlyke on the Detroit coaching staff. That obviously means they need to fill the position he vacated, manager of the Erie SeaWolves. Brookens earned his promotion a month ago, yet the Tigers haven't announced who will replace him in Erie. That's not terribly surprising to me. You could make an argument the Double A job is the most important managing job outside of Detroit.

Nearly every top prospect comes through Erie - the same can't be said of Toledo - and Double A is usually seen as the last big hurdle before the majors for a prospect. As Jair Jurrjens (and I'm sure countless others) was told when he was still with the SeaWolves, once you're in Erie you're just a phone call away from being in the majors. It speaks to how important the Tigers think the position is that the last two people to fill the job (Matt Walbeck, Tom Brookens) have left for major league coaching jobs.

I assume the length of time that has elapsed means they're not simply promoting somebody from within, and this post from Jason Beck seems to affirm that. My personal hope is the Tigers will use the opportunity to bring in a manager who's on board with the organizational goal of improving plate discipline. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's tired of having to look past the fact that our most talented players strike out three or four times more often than they walk.

Casper Wells recently finished his Arizona Fall League season with the champion Peoria Javelinas as one of the team’s key contributors. He had a line of .351/.433/.662 and his OPS of 1.096 was better than anybody on the team besides his Tiger teammate, Scott Sizemore. His 4 home runs were second on the team, as were his 13 extra base hits. He had a share of the team lead for RBIs with 25. Unfortunately, he also shared the team lead in strikeouts with 26.

That paradox is what caused me to do some research into his AFL season. Players who strikeout in a third of their at bats typically don’t hit any near .351. They’re probably lucky to hit 100 points less than that.

When a guy hits .351 and has half his hits go for extra bases, your immediate response would be to guess that he was consistently hitting the ball on the screws.  But if he’s seeing the ball so well and squaring up on it so often, why was he striking out so much?

I turned to Pitch f/x to try to figure it out. Wells had 63 plate appearances that were captured by Pitch f/x. That’s more than two-thirds his total number of trips to the plate. In those 63 plate appearances, Wells hit roughly .415/.500/.792 (I didn’t track whether fly balls were sac flies) with 8 walks and 17 strikeouts. That’s quite a bit better than his performance overall, but I don’t think it’s so out of line that it ruins this exercise.

Let’s get down to the numbers. It quickly became apparent from looking at the pitches that Wells wasn’t simply a hacker swinging at everything. In these 63 plate appearances, he saw 263 pitches and swung at 110 of them (41.8%). If you’re not sure what that means relative to a normal hitter, that percentage would have been a team low on the Tigers in 2009 and is a shade less than how often Curtis Granderson swings at pitches.

How often a players swings is only part of the story. The type of pitches he swings at is much more important. If you’re hacking at balls and watching pitches right down the heart of the plate, you’re not a disciplined hitter no matter how often you’re swinging.

Wells saw 263 pitches with 137 being called (or determined by me to be) balls and 126 being strikes. Wells swung at only 23 of the balls (16.8%) and swung at 87 of the 126 strikes (69.0%). He’s swinging at a low percentage of balls outside the strike zone (would’ve been low on the 2009 Tigers; Maggs was low with 20.1%). As far as pitches in the zone, his rate is about halfway between how often Granderson swings at strikes (65.2%) and Cabrera’s rate (71.7%).

We can’t take a whole lot from those numbers in themselves, but I think it suggests Wells’ strikeouts are more a result of being willing to let a strike or two go by than going up there hacking. Of course, deciding whether to swing is only half the story. If he’s pulling the trigger on strikes, that’s a good start but actually making contact is also important.

If we switch to that idea, Wells swung at 87 strikes and made contact with 68 of them (78.2%). Here we see an explanation for the high strikeout rate. That percentage may not sound too bad, but it would have been a lower rate than any semi-regular on the 2009 Tigers. Of that group, Clete Thomas was the lowest with a rate of 78.9 percent.

When the ball was outside the zone, Wells didn’t swing too often. When he did swing, he made contact just 10 of 23 times (43.5%). Again, this is a low percentage as nearly every Tiger regular scored above 50 percent in this category. This is further explanation for the strikeouts, but I think there is one more thing we should take a look at to bring this to completion.

What happened when Wells made contact with these pitches? I found it interesting that Wells put exactly half of the strikes he made contact in play. I don’t have access to that stat for the Tiger major leaguers, but that sounds like a low percentage. That would seem to be especially true when you consider he’s making contact at a fairly low rate.

The good news in this is what happens when he puts those strikes in play. There were 34 instances of this and they resulted in 21 hits with 4 doubles, 2 triples and 4 homers. 17-6-11. If we look at the breakdown of batted ball types, we see 17 grounders (50%), 6 line drives (17.6%) and 11 fly balls (32.4%).

That’s a high rate of grounders, but the balls he hit in the air were brutal to pitchers. There were a total of 17 balls he was able to lift and they accounted for all but one of his extra base hits in this sample. That means 9 of the 17 balls he got under went for extra bases and 4 cleared the fence.

Oh, and what about when he swung at balls and made contact? Well, let’s just say there’s a good reason for him to lay off those pitches. He made contact with balls outside the zone ten times. Seven of them went foul. Two were outs and one was a grounder up the middle for a base hit. Again, we see why it’s important to lay off balls outside the zone.

So what does this (admittedly small) sample tell us about Wells’ approach? Not surprisingly, there is a lot of good and a lot of bad in my opinion. He doesn’t expand the strike zone all that often, which is clearly a positive. However, when the ball is put in the strike zone he isn’t all that good at making contact. Even when he does make contact, he only puts the ball in play about half the time. The other good thing - in addition to his selectiveness - is when he puts the ball in play between the lines, good things seem to happen.

Again, I realize there is some danger in assuming these results represent his approach as a whole. However, if we make that assumption I think there are some pretty serious red flags Wells needs to work to be successful in the majors. His selectivity seems to be pretty good but his contact rate is low across the board and it’s doubtful that’s going to improve when he’s seeing major league pitching.

I know it’s strange to look at what Wells did in the AFL and conclude there is a lot to work remaining to be done. But he’s just not going to be able to continue to have a third of his fly balls clear the fence and have half the balls he puts in play fall in for hits. If he wants to elevate himself to something better than the fourth outfielder many see him as, he’s going to need to figure out how to bump up his contact numbers without losing too much of that power.

It's that fun time of year when the Tigers have to prepare their 40-man roster for free agents and the Rule 5 draft. Once the free agents are taken off the roster, the Tigers will have 36 spots filled. That means they can add four players who are exposed to the Rule 5 draft if they want.

One thing to keep in mind is the Tigers' current 40-man roster - even once they add guys they want to protect - doesn't really even approach being a "ready to go" big league roster. I suspect they will want to add a shortstop and a reliever at the very minimum. That's important for when you go through the 36 players on the roster and think guys could be removed in order to protect additional Rule 5 eligibles.

For example, say you look at Clay Rapada and his zero remaining options and say to yourself that there's just no way he's part of the Tigers' 2010 plans. So, you cut him loose in order to make the extra room you wanted for, just pulling a name out of the air, Brett Jensen. This may sound like a good idea, but there's a potential problem if you jam pack your 40-man roster full of players you don't really view as expendable.

You have to drop somebody you'd rather keep around every time you bring a free agent aboard. It's a lot easier for a team to snag a guy on waivers - which they could do if you remove him from your 40-man roster - and tuck him away in their system than it is to take him in the Rule 5 draft and keep him on their active roster for the entire 2010 season.

Now consider the alternative. You go ahead and leave a little fat on your 40-man and leave potentially attractive players like Brett Jensen and Lester Oliveros exposed to the Rule 5. Sure, they may get snatched up but chances are they won't. If they don't, you have complete control of them for another year and you can go back to bringing them along in your system. This is a nuance I've lost sight of a couple times in the past couple years, and frankly it's a little embarrassing as I look back.

This is also the reason I'm not as concerned about the 39th and 40th players on the Tigers' roster. Yes, they pretty much have to - and will - add Scott Sizemore and Ryan Strieby. Sizemore could be their starting second baseman and if the Tigers miss Marcus Thames come spring time, they could easily use Ryan Strieby to fill his role.

Looking at the other eligible players, there are certainly guys who I'd prefer to have around to see what they can become. But none of them stand out to me as sure bets to be taken if left unprotected. Going down the list of Rule 5 eligibles, the following players jump out at me as players who would at least warrant discussion before leaving them open to the draft:

Brennan Boesch
Brooks Brown
Audy Ciriaco
Scot Drucker
L.J. Gagnier
Brett Jensen
Luis Marte
Jordan Newton
Lester Oliveros
Deik Scram
Brayan Villareal

Brennan Boesch is kind of being tossed around as a sure bet to be protected. But given the nature of Rule 5 picks, Brett Jensen and Lester Oliveros are the names that jump out at me the most. After all, those two are relievers who I could see holding down a specific role in the back of a major league bullpen. Boesch, on the other hand is a right-handed hitting corner outfielder who seems to have a significant problem with either pitch recognition, strike zone recognition or both. As a corner outfielder, he's really going to have to punish those fastballs to make up for an on-base percentage down around .300. I'm not saying the Tigers aren't going to protect him, but I could easily see that profile being a significant obstacle to other teams taking him.

Of the remaining names, Brayan Villareal had a bit of a breakout last season for West Michigan and I believe he has the stuff to make those numbers intriguing. He's probably next on the list if you order it in likelihood of being protected, and I imagine he'd be followed by Luis Marte. He has a great arm - or at the very least did - but injury problems have shortened each of his last two seasons.

Brown, Drucker and Gagnier all strike me as guys who are good to have around, but if you were to lose one of them it's entirely possible one of the other two could step into the vacancy. Deik Scram has a similar issue. The Tigers' system is chock full of potential fourth outfielders, to the point where even if he were the best of them it's hard to imagine that loss would come back to haunt them.

Finally, you come to Ciriaco and Newton. Neither has had significant time above Hi A and if somebody were to pinch either one, it would almost have to be because an opposing team's scout just fell in love with their potential.

What do I think the Tigers will do? That's hard to say because I don't really know what's going to be available for them to pick up in the Rule 5 draft. I doubt they're going to find either a bench player or bullpen arm that's much of a step up from what they already have in the system. Who are they going to protect?

Based on what they've said about Oliveros in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if he was next in line after Sizemore and Strieby. He would be the 39th player on the roster. After him, my attention would probably turn to Villareal or Jensen but I'm not sure it's going to make too much of a difference.

I'm not too sure the other players would get selected and stick with the team who took them. If they did, I just don't see it as causing a major problem for the Tigers. Here's the other thing to consider. If the Tigers load up all the way to 40 spots, they could pretty easily remove Don Kelly and Clay Rapada if and when they bring in a shortstop and a bullpen arm. Who of the players discussed above do you really think would stand in their way if they found another player who they thought could help in 2010?

Who of the players discussed above even have a better chance at helping the Tigers long term than players who aren't yet exposed to the Rule 5? I'm talking about guys like Cody Satterwhite and Robbie Weinhardt. I like Oliveros and Jensen, but I don't view either one as more likely to pitch for the Tigers in 2010 than Satterwhite and Weinhardt.

I'm sure this is the case most years, but having thought about it this year, I think any player who gets taken in the Rule 5 will be pretty easily replaceable.

If you're like me, you aren't crazy about the rumors you're hearing coming out of the Tigers' camp. If they want to deal Gerald Laird and give Alex Avila and maybe even Dusty Ryan a more prominent role with the big club, that's fine. If they want to do what they think is selling high on Edwin Jackson in the hopes of turning him into two good young players, I can even talk myself into getting with that. But Curtis Granderson? Our Curtis Granderson?

The analyst in me says that if we trade Curtis Granderson, it had better be one great package we get in return. The fan in me says it just doesn't seem right. The guy has the chance to be an iconic Tiger. He has national recognition. He seems like a good guy who has started a charity and does things to help kids and highlight education.

Another thing I like about him is he isn't so guarded about his image that he won't appear in Playboy. He's joked around in interviews about things like slump busters and strip clubs. I'm not saying I'm crazy about all those things, but I like that he's comfortable talking about them. I don't know about you, but I like the players who seem like they'd actually be fun if you ran into them at a bar. More Batman than Superman, if you will.

Like I said, if they trade him - and I don't think they will ultimately - it had better be a package that causes me to do a spit take when the news finally comes. I want to see that deal and think to myself that they absolutely had to pull the trigger. There'd better be no doubt.

So why am I writing about this on my minor league blog? Well, because there is one part of the tone of rumors this year that I do like. The Tigers are looking to get young. That means they will be trading the guys we have already seen and made decisions about, rather than the guys we couldn't wait to see. It's looking like we might be able to rest a little easier about our Casey Crosbys and Scott Sizemores. They're almost certainly not going to be shipped out for a veteran who could put the Tigers over the top.

They just can't afford to make that deal anymore. I suppose they could throw one of those guys into a deal that brings back other prospects, but I'd be surprised. When you're looking to get young and gain some payroll flexibility, it's not really wise to deal away players who look like they may be part of that solution. This change in direction is probably going to be best illustrated next year with Scott Sizemore replacing Placido Polanco, but that could only be the start (if the Tigers go that way).

They may need a prospect to step up into the rotation. They may need a couple in the bullpen and it wouldn't be all that surprising if they plucked one for the outfield. That's without really even considering who they might pick up if they do pull the trigger on a trade. It's going to make people uncomfortable. You're going to hear a lot about guys being unproven.

Consider me excited, though. Haven't we found out over the last few years that being a "proven player", a veteran, is quite a long way from being a guarantee?

2004 Draft

Made it to Detroit

Justin Verlander, 1st, RHP - Verlander. You may have heard of the guy. He’s the best pitcher the Tigers have had since...well, this isn’t a history exercise. It’s got to be at least since Morris and I don’t think Morris ever had a season like Verlander just did. Okay, I looked it up. Morris never even came close to Verlander’s 2009 season.

Made it to Toledo

Jeff Frazier, 3rd, OF - Frazier was out of the organization by way of a trade, but came back and just completed his best season as a pro. I wouldn’t call him a prospect anymore - a little too DHy - but it’s good to see him succeed.

Brent Dlugach, 6th, SS - Dlugach missed the better part of two seasons with injuries but came back well last year and could be on the fringe of being a player who shuttles back and forth between Toledo and Detroit as needed.

Dealt away

Luke French, 8th, LHP - French was dealt to Seattle for Jarrod Washburn. That trade was good in theory, but was probably one of a few factors that cost the Tigers the playoffs. Oh, how I love players toughing it out through injuries. Getting back to French, he turned a corner in 2009 after reportedly adding a slider to the mix. Something certainly changed for him.

James Skelton, 14th, C - The Tigers lost him in the Rule 5 draft to Arizona and instead of taking him back when he wasn’t going to stay on the D-Backs’ roster, traded him for Brooks Brown. He struggled badly in Double A this year, and will probably see 2010 is a year that makes or breaks him.

Dallas Trahern, 34th, RHP - He was part of the Miguel Cabrera trade and hasn’t had much success with the Florida organization. He was rocked in the PCL in 2008 and threw less than 30 innings last season, not throwing a pitch after May.

Out of the organization:

Eric Beattie, 2nd, RHP
Collin Mahoney, 4th, RHP
Andrew Kown, 5th, RHP
Brandon Timm, 9th, OF
Cory Middleton, 10th, SS
Josh Kauten, 11th, RHP
Cole Miller, 12th, C
Brooks Colvin, 13th, 3B
Matt O’Brien, 15th, RHP
Steven Young, 16th, 2B
Dan Konecny, 17th, RHP
Tyler Jacobson, 19th, RHP
Ed Clelland, 20th, LHP
Matt Righter, 21st, RHP
Thomas Royals, 22nd, RHP
Vince Berry, 23rd, OF
Jordan Foster, 24th, OF
Robbie Tulk, 25th, RHP
Dominic Carmosino, 27th, LHP
Brian Hensen, 28th, LHP
Octavio Amezquita, 29th, SS
Josh Lee, 30th, 1B
Leonardo Grullon, 31st, OF
Nate Bumstead, 32nd, RHP
Kevin Brower, 33rd, RHP
Jamaal Peoples, 38th, OF
Lionel Roberts, 45th, 1B

Interesting non-signees: Chris Carpenter, 7th, RHP (not that one, but still a good prospect); Dominic De la Osa, 49th, SS (drafted and not signed twice)

Summary: Not a lot of oomph to this draft, but picking up Justin Verlander alone will give it more value than just about anything the Tigers did with the draft in the 90s. By this point, five years after the draft, players' futures in baseball seem to be largely set. They either don't have one, have made the majors, or have a year or two left to fight for a shot at the majors.

2003 Draft

Made it to Detroit

Dusty Ryan, 48th, C - Ryan has spent part of the past two seasons as a backup catcher in the majors and has hit well at the high levels of the minors. It would seem his receiving skills are keeping him out of a semi-regular gig in the majors. I wonder at this point if his chance will come with another team.

Made it to Toledo

Jay Sborz, 2nd, RHP - Injuries and control problems have kept him out of the picture for most of his career but he’s fought his way back into the scene the past couple years. The Tigers added him to the 40-man roster instead of risking losing him to minor league free agency. He could be one of the internal solutions for the bullpen they’ve talked about.

Josh Rainwater, 4th, RHP - Rainwater, drafted out of high school, won’t turn 25 until next season starts. He’s a minor league swingman, though, and likely will continue to serve as a useful member of either Erie or Toledo’s pitching staffs.

Made it to Lakeland

Jeramy Laster, 12th, OF - Laster is athletic and has big power, but is a prodigious whiffer who has seven years in the minors without ever cracking Double A.

Traded Away

Brian Rogers, 11th, RHP - The soft-tossing reliever was given up in the Sean Casey trade back in 2006. He came back to the Tigers briefly in 2008, but didn’t pitch in the pros in 2009.

Out of the organization:

Kyle Sleeth, 1st, RHP
Tony Giarratano, 3rd, SS
Danny Zell, 5th, LHP
Cody Collet, 6th, C
Matt (Virgil) Vasquez, 7th, RHP
Eric Rodland, 9th, 2B
Michael Brown, 13th, OF
Luis Sabino, 14th, OF
Andy Baldwin, 15th, RHP
Jordan Tata, 16th, RHP
Andrew Graham, 19th, C
Nick McIntyre, 20th, 2B
Jacob Ford, 21st, 3B
Richie Burgos, 22nd, 1B
Bobby Huddleston, 23rd, C
Chris Homer, 24th, RHP
Nathan Doyle, 25th, SS
Lavon Lewis, 26th, RHP
Aaron McRae, 27th, C
Kelly Hunt, 29th, 1B
Anthony Tomey, 30th, RHP
Justin Barnes, 32nd, C
Kenon Roz, 33rd, LHP
John McGorty, 36th, 1B
Ezequiel Perez, 41st, RHP
Daniel Spring, 42nd, RHP
Brian Santo, 43rd, RHP
Kurt Piantek, 44th, 1B
William Baez, 49th, RHP

Summary: This method is a little misleading when you consider Giarratano, Virgil Vasquez and Jordan Tata all spent some time in the majors. Still, even if Sborz and Ryan end up working out in the majors this would seem to be a pretty weak draft. Not a star in the bunch and to this point, Rogers has the most value for bringing in Sean Casey.

2002 Draft

Made it to Detroit

Brent Clevlen, 2nd, OF - Clevlen wasn’t called up to Detroit in September for the second straight season. At this point, there seems to be too many outfielders in the mix for him to be a real option.

Curtis Granderson, 3rd, OF - Granderson is fighting with Verlander for the honor of being Dave Dombrowski’s best draft pick, and is arguably the face of the franchise. He has a real chance of becoming one of the most popular Tigers of all time.

Joel Zumaya, 11th, RHP - He’s been plagued by injuries for pretty much his entire major league career. It seems his claim to fame may also turn out to be his downfall, as you have to wonder if his body can keep up with that triple digit fastball.

Traded Away

Scott Moore, 1st, SS - Shipped to Chicago in the first trade that brought Kyle Farnsworth to the Tigers. He’s improved since he left the organization, but hasn’t cracked the majors for good yet.

Bo Flowers, 5th, OF - He was also in the Farnsworth trade. He’s out of baseball, as far as I can tell.

Out of the Organization:

Matt Pender, 3rd (s), RHP
Robbie Sovie, 4th, OF
Chris Maples, 6th, RHP
Wilton Reynolds, 7th, OF
Troy Pickford, 8th, RHP
Marcos Hernandez, 9th, RHP
Luke Carlin, 10th, C
Corey Hamman, 12th, LHP
Jason Graham, 14th, RHP
Jesse Carlson, 15th, LHP
Michael Smith, 16th, LHP
Rob Watson, 17th, SS
Rafael Mendez, 19th, C
Jason Kennedy, 20th, OF
Corey Loomis, 21st, 2B
Drew Caravella, 23rd, 1B
Jody Roughton, 24th, 3B
Billy Kieninger, 26th, RHP
Damian Myers, 27th, LHP
Everett Hancock, 28th, LHP
David Garcia, 30th, SS
Jason Allec, 34th, C
Chris Steinborn, 36th, LHP
Edward Romprey, 38th, SS
Kevin McDonald, 39th, C
Edgar Ortiz, 41st, 1B

Interesting non-signees: Anthony Reyes, 13th, RHP

Summary: This draft brought in a lot of value between Granderson, Zumaya and what Scott Moore brought in. After all, Farnsworth was flipped for Roman Colon and Zach Miner. Three big leaguers from one draft isn’t a bad haul.

2001 Draft

Made it to Detroit

Ryan Raburn, 5th, 3B - It took Raburn a while to find a role and stick in the majors but after absolutely destroying Triple A pitching for a while, he seems to be in the majors for good now. It wouldn’t be terribly surprising if he was a close to full-time player in 2009.

Donald Kelly, 8th, SS - This is a little deceiving since Kelly has left the system and come back, but we’ll let it slide. He’s not going to ever have a major role with a big league team, but he’s made the majors and if you’ve been following this series you know that’s not easy.

Traded Away

Matt Coenen, 2nd (s), LHP - He was traded to Atlanta in a Rule 5 deal that brought in Chris Spurling. Spurling didn’t do much in the majors, but it was more than Coenen, who doesn’t seem to have pitched in the pros since 2005.

Jack Hannahan, 3rd, 3B - He was traded for Jason Perry, but that was about the equivalent of him being released. Since leaving the Tigers, he’s been a defensive specialist at the hot corner for the A’s and Mariners.

Mike Rabelo, 4th, C - Another pawn in the Miguel Cabrera deal. He barely played in 2009, as injuries have held him down.

Tom Farmer, 7th, RHP - He was traded to the Dodgers, along with Jason Frasor (ouch!), for Hiram Bocachica. Farmer never did much, but keeping Frasor around might not have been a bad thing.

Humberto Sanchez, 31st, RHP - One of the three pitchers in the Sheffield trade and thought to be the best of the three. That may be, but he’s thrown a hair over 50 innings in three seasons with the New Yorkers so we haven’t had the chance to find out.

Out of the organization:

Kenny Baugh, 1st, RHP
Michael Woods, 1st (s), 2B
Preston Larrison, 2nd, RHP
Jason Knoedler, 6th, OF
David Mattle, 9th, OF
Vincent Blue, 10th, OF
Jamie Gonzales, 12th, RHP
Landon Stockman, 13th, RHP
Matt Williams, 14th, OF
Kevin McDowell, 15th, LHP
Dan Smith, 17th, RHP
Alex Trezza, 18th, C
Billy Ryan, 19th, 3B
Jason Moates, 20th, RHP
Francisco Rosado, 22nd, OF
Mike Scott, 23rd, OF
Chris Kolodzey, 25th, OF
Herman Dean, 26th, OF
Mike Kobow, 27th, RHP
Jon Connolly, 28th, LHP
Garth McKinney, 29th, OF
John Birtwell, 30th, RHP
Trevor Leu, 32nd, OF
Michael Howell, 33rd, RHP
Ian Ostlund, 34th, LHP
Chuck Lombardy, 35th, RHP
Jed Stringham, 36th, OF
Thomas Lyons, 40th, RHP

Summary: This group is a little underwhelming. The guys who were traded away were mostly busts and didn’t bring a lot in return. Sanchez is probably the exception. Forgive me, but I just don’t think Rabelo was a big part of the Cabrera deal. Raburn is the only major league regular of the group and he’s kind of a fourth outfielder/bench player type. Perhaps we should have guessed this draft would be cursed with the way the once promising Kenny Baugh and Michael Woods picks turned out.

2000 and 1999 Drafts

There’s not a single player from these two drafts still in the organization, so I’m just going to skip them.

1998 Draft

This one predates the draft archives Baseball America has put online, so I’m going to cop out and point out that Brandon Inge was a second round pick in this draft.

Wrap Up:

This concludes my look back at the Tigers' drafts that have contributed players to the current Tiger squad. I hope you've enjoyed going back to past drafts, even if the Tigers' haul in those drafts hasn't always been much to enjoy.