Detroit Tigers

It's been a strong marriage, dating to the golden era of radio and birth of television.

Dave Dombrowski, the Tigers president and general manager, keeps a running tab on the Tigers roster that extends five years forward.

DETROIT -- Help from within could be on the way for the Tigers.

Today, Free Press sports writer Jon Paul Morosi answered questions about the Tigers on Baseball America's Web site. Here are some excerpts:

Free Press sports writer Jon Paul Morosi was apart of a live chat on the Baseball America Web site. Here are some excepts:

Two years ago, the Tigers added one prospect to their 40-man roster when the time came to protect players for the Rule 5 draft. Last year, they added no one. But this is a different off-season in Detroit. Team officials have invested heavily in a small group of veterans, leaving relatively little money -- but plenty of roster spots -- for the rest of the team.

Tigers remain in holding pattern at short

Tigers set 40-man roster

The Tigers announced today Rick Knapp — formerly of the Minnesota Twins’ organization — will take over the duties of pitching coach. I’m a bit mixed on this. First the positive — If you’re gonna grab a coach out of another organization for a job promotion, you could do a lot worse than plucking a Minnesota [...]

I know this isn’t technically a blog post, but I did a blog interview with a local sports blogger who works at the Northern Michigan University college newspaper, so there’s an assortment of Tigerrific thoughts if you’re interested. Related postsNo Related Post

To be fair, I haven’t heard a lot of call by Tigers fans or the media for them to sign CC Sabathia. But I’d just like to get the opinion out there: don’t even think about it. Yes, the Tigers have a few rotation questions to sort out this off season. But much like the [...]

Rick Porcello - cr Roger DeWitt It’s another one of those rites of the offseason, the Baseball America top 10 list. The list itself is available to anyone, but for additional information (like scouting reports) you need to be a subscriber. As for the list, here it is: Rick Porcello, rhp Ryan Perry, rhp Cale Iorg, ss Casey Crosby, lhp Jeff Larish, [...]

Earlier today I questioned the Tigers leaving Luis Marte off the 40 man roster and then exposing him to the rule 5 draft. Yeah, it turns out I was wrong. Jon Paul Morosi noted in his Baseball America chat today ($) that Marte wasn’t eligible. On Beck’s blog he mentioned my article and then later [...]

Today is the deadline for the Tigers to announce who would and wouldn’t be protected from the Rule 5 draft on the 40 man roster. Below is the roster, and highlighted are the 5 players who the Tigers just added: Alfredo Figaro, Casper Wells, Zach Simons, Guillermo Moscoso, and Wilkin Ramirez. That brings the [...]

A while back, I did a post about the 40-man roster construction of the Tigers. The point of the piece was to guess at how the Tigers would handle this day, which was the deadline to set their 40-man roster in preparation for the Rule 5 draft. 

I would like to revisit it to compare what I said would happen and what actually happened. I like to learn from my mistakes and I like to try to be accountable for my bad predictions.

It started off well enough. Using Eddie Bajek's website to see who would become free agents or were arbitration eligible for the first time, I correctly predicted the Tigers would jettison Farsworth, Fossum, Glover, Jones, Rogers, Vasquez, Sardinha and Wilson. That was no great accomplishment, and I was off when I predicted they'd also let Mike Hessman walk. One mistake.

Next, I moved on to the players in the system who could become minor league free agents to see if any of them might be added to the 40-man. I assumed none of this group would, and that was correct. Now we came to the important part, the players in the system who would be eligible for the Rule 5 draft.

Going into this part, I had made a few more mistaken assumptions. In addition to thinking they would let Hessman go, I thought they would sign Freddy Garcia. I wasn't sure they would let Renteria walk so I didn't clear his spot on the roster. I also assumed they would fill the 40-man up when in reality they left two spots open. Combine all those mistakes and you had me thinking they had room for six players when they only had room for five.

The six I said they would protect were Alfredo Figaro, Luis Marte, Guillermo Moscoso, Wilkin Ramirez, Zach Simons and James Skelton. In actuality, they used the five spots to protect Alfredo Figaro, Guillermo Moscoso, Wilkin Ramirez, Zach Simons and Casper Wells.

For all my bad assumptions, I have to say I didn't do too badly. In his chat at Baseball America, Jon Paul Morosi said Luis Marte wasn't eligible for the Rule 5 (why, he didn't elaborate) and that would make my only remaining mistake assuming they'd protect James Skelton instead of Casper Wells.

If somebody selects James Skelton in this Rule 5 draft, I'd make the argument that was the Tigers' mistake. I'm hoping their assumption is he won't be selected, but it's a calculated risk and it's frustrating they're willing to take it.

I just don't see guys like Eddie Bonine, Chris Lambert and Aquilino Lopez - or Wells, for that matter - holding more value for the franchise than Skelton. I hope things work out, but I'll be furious if the Tigers groomed a major league ready catcher and didn't take advantage of it themselves. Especially since one of two catchers in the system who is capable of major league playing time next season is the starting third baseman.


I realize this post was a little self-indulgent so let me give you some further information in case you frown on such exercises...Here's a link to the current 40-man roster...Here's a link explaining that one of those minor league free agents, Ian Ostlund, was signed to a minor league deal by the Cardinals. I wondered last year how long it would be before he'd jet for a team that maybe showed some interest in giving him a shot at the major league level...Soon, I should be banging my head against the wall trying to find three third base prospects in the system. Once I finish, I'll share what I find as the next post in my series on the Tigers' top prospects at each position....I can't decided if this way of putting down thoughts reminds me more of Larry King or Bob Talbert.

I'm feeling a little generous tonight, so I thought I'd dispense a little blogger wisdom to the powers that be in Detroit sports.

You can consider me Detroit's Dear Abby, who's dishing out a little tough love.

William Clay Ford: DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! A vote of confidence, talk to the press, something to let me know you plan on kicking ass and cleaning house when the season ends. 

Martin Mayhew: Yes, you've done well in getting a king's ransom in draft picks for Roy Williams, and I can understand your taking a flier on Daunte Culpepper. But you have the stink of Millen all over you. Your future isn't in Detroit. So please leave.

Rod Marinelli: I'm concerned for your mental welfare. Seriously, stop with the constant allegories, you're scaring me. Just resign, for the sake of everyone's mental health.

Dave Dombrowski: DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! A trade, a free agent signing, something to let me know you're making the Tigers better.

Jim Leyland: I hope you know as things now stand, 3/5 of your infield couldn't hit their way out of a dry, wet or no paper bag. Actually, you don't even have 2/5 of your infield, so how about lighting a fire under your boss' ass?

Rich Rodriguez: Don't you DARE tell the Wolverine fanbase how to think! This is your mess (with a little help from Lloyd Carr leaving the proverbial cupboard barren). Clean it up, and don't start pointing fingers at the fans for caring too much. It's so NOT Michigan.

Mark Dantonio: When you refuse to admit you need to root for Michigan to beat the University of Oho State, you are only confirming the belief MSU has an unhealthy obsession with all things Michigan Wolverines. You want the "little brother" stigma to go away? Stop acting like one.

Mike Babcock: Just keep doing what you're doing. Well, I do have one suggestion. Play Ty Conklin more.

Ken Holland: Tell Uncle Mike to play Conklin. Otherwise, we're cool.

Michael Curry: There's one simple recipe to making it through the regular season. Less starters, more bench. You do NOT need to be playing the starters 35+ minutes in November.

Joe Dumars: I think you have a plan. I hope you have a plan. At least something more than, "I sure hope we can sign one of the big time free agents in '09 and/or '10."

Drew Sharp and Rob Parker: STOP! Just stop it! I've had enough of the BS being spewed from your keyboards. Nothing you could write from here on out will ever convince me you are anything more than hacks. Your time has passed, make way for bloggers.

I'm working on a project, and in my research it dawned on me the Mud Hens play a full month less baseball than the Tigers. Obviously, that's not news but for some reason it had never struck me before that they play only eighteen less games in one less month. That means the Triple A teams are working on a schedule that could easily knock a week and a half off if applied to the majors.

I know the Triple A teams don't have to do cross-continent flights and an average of 28 or 29 games a month is pretty brutal. However, if baseball wants to keep a 162-game schedule and the current playoff format and improve the conditions in which the postseason is played, something is obviously going to need to change. I know some people want neutral site World Series, but would we really prefer no more World Series games in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston or New York? That seems absurd to me, and trimming down the schedule (I means days, not games) seems like the reasonable alternative.

Yesterday, I linked to the Bluhm Memorial Top 30 prospects as selected by avid fans of the Tigers minor league system. Today, the annual Baseball America Top 10 is ready for viewing. You need a subscription to read the full scouting report on each player but the list and an overview is available for free. The top ten are listed below: 1. Rick Porcello, rhp 2. Ryan

Today is the deadline to add players to the 40 man roster in order not to expose them to next month's Rule 5 draft. The Tigers announced this morning that they have added five players: pitchers Alfredo Figaro, Zach Simons and Guillermo Moscoso and outfielders Wilkin Ramirez and Casper Wells. The moves give them a total of 38 players on their roster. With the Tigers looking to fill a lot of

Eddie of Detroit Tigers thoughts has put together the Bluhm Memorial Prospect Ranking which lists the top thirty Tigers prospects as viewed by twenty fans who follow the Tigers minor league system closer than most. Within the link you will find links for each of thirty prospects. Brian Bluhm was an avid Tigers fan who was killed in the Virginia Tech tragedy last year. One of his favorite

This blog has moved. The Tigers Insider is now a part of MLive's Detroit Tigers page. Please look for Danny Knobler's blog entries at http://www.mlive.com/tigers. If you are subscribed to the RSS feed from this blog you'll want to change...

HOUSTON -- The Tigers have signed a left-handed reliever, but don't get too excited. They signed Aaron Fultz, who was released by Cleveland this week, to a Triple-A Toledo contract. Fultz gave up 14 runs on 16 hits in just...

HOUSTON -- Clete Thomas will wear uniform number 36 when he is introduced at Comerica Park on opening day. Thomas was given number 76 as a non-roster invitee this spring. He'll have 36 during the season, taking a number that...