Like Stripes on the Fur Coat of a Tiger - 11/20

by Ian Casselberry on Nov 20, 2008 11:00 AM EST in Detroit Tigers News

The Daily Fungo says the Tigers should steer clear of Jose Valverde, if the Astros shop him around. Valverde posted 44 saves, a 3.38 ERA, and 83 strikeouts in 72 innings this past season.

Yahoo! Sports' Tim Brown thinks Detroit should have a paddle in the CC Sabathia auction. If, you know, they want to stay competitive with the Yankees and Red Sox in the American League.

Big Al just wants Dave Dombrowski to do something. Throw us a bone. And it wouldn't hurt if Jim Leyland tried to push his boss to take some action.

The Tigers had to submit their 40-man roster by last night, so we'll probably know about it soon enough. In the meantime, Eddie at Detroit Tigers Thoughts predicts how the final list will shake out.

Darren Oliver's agent says he's had several conversations with the Tigers, as they likely try to figure out what sort of offer they'll make. 10 teams have apparently expressed some form of interest in the free agent left-hander. However, nothing will happen until after December 1, when the Angels have to decide whether or not to offer Oliver arbitration.

Nate Silver takes a break from analyzing polls and appearing on seemingly every cable news show to preview the AL Central's off-season for Sports Illustrated (on behalf of Baseball Prospectus). Should Carlos Guillen be the guy the Tigers should look at trading?

(Hat tip to Kurt for that one)

I already said my piece on Tom Gage's MVP vote for Francisco Rodriguez yesterday, but he made his case in a longer piece for yesterday's Detroit News. I'm not sure he justified basing his vote on K-Rod's save totals any better, but at least he attempts to explain himself.

Over at The Spot Starters, Blake tries to figure out where Clete Thomas fits on the 2009 Detroit Tigers. The Cult is pleased.

Speaking of Blake, he's joined up with me and Mike McClary at our all-baseball blog, Baseball Blend. "You have an all-baseball blog?" Well, that was our intent, but after the first month of the season, we completely buckled underneath the self-imposed workload.

But Blake has been doing a great job at BB over the past couple of weeks, being the posting field we all know him as. Please click over there and check him (us) out, if you get a chance. We're just getting warmed up. We have cool cartoon avatars.

I've been plugging other things too much on these "Stripes" posts lately, haven't I? Sorry about that.

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Unless he moves to SS

Carlos has a full no trade clause if I’m not mistaken and I don’t see why he’d waive it unless a team would allow him to play SS. And if the team that’s trading him doesn’t trust him to play SS, why would you?

Even if there was a team willing to take a chance, they’d probably at least think they were going to contend. That pretty much leaves St. Louis, San Francisco and Chicago (if they’re sick of zero power from Theriot).

Chicago is an intriguing fit because there’s an added bonus to Carlos of playing with Pinella. It still seems like a huge longshot.

by MacRae on Nov 20, 2008 1:50 PM EST reply actions

40 man roster

Here’s the MLB.com story. Looks like Marte and Skelton didn’t make the cut. Perhaps Detroit doesn’t want the rist of Marte’s elbow, or perhaps they think other teams don’t want that risk.

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081120&content_id=3686053&vkey=news_det&fext=.jsp&c_id=det

by Oost on Nov 20, 2008 2:03 PM EST reply actions

Skelton and Thomas

This could be a sign the Tigers are headed in the wrong direction again. I thought you always protected good left -handed hitting catcher that has speed that may be in the MLB within two years. Pudge was not a big man. I like Thomas because of his speed and left handed bat. Why keep Bonine or Hessman? You knows maybe DD is going to sign Varitek to a long term contract.

by Barry2 on Nov 20, 2008 3:51 PM EST reply actions

Thomas is on the 40 man.

I’d be really surprised if someone took Skelton. Pitchers are easy to take in Rule 5. If your not a contender you stick him in the bullpen for a year and you’re done with it. Unless you want to carry 3 catchers you take a huge gamble putting a kid who only has 82 AB’s above A+ ball on your 25 man roster. Especially when no two scouts seem to agree whether he can stick at catcher or even make it to the big leagues.

by MacRae on Nov 20, 2008 5:32 PM EST up reply actions

Skelton

I really am disappointed about Skelton. I flat out like the kid.

by seanheyboer on Nov 20, 2008 10:09 PM EST reply actions

I just don’t see any team taking Skelton. Only 4 teams have space on their rosters and only 2 catchers on them, the White Sox, Padres, Astros and Braves. Three of those teams at least think they’re going to contend and aren’t going to take a chance on a minor league catcher. The Padres could take him but they’re going to want to save room for a Peavy trade.

by MacRae on Nov 21, 2008 12:57 AM EST up reply actions