One Take on Fixing the Tigers

by Ian Casselberry on Sep 26, 2008 1:30 PM EDT in News Comment 2 comments

In his "Being the GM" series for MVN Outsider, Evan Brunell writes what he would do if he was in charge of the Detroit Tigers. I think more than a few fans would agree with some of the moves he proposes, such as looking to trade Magglio Ordonez and/or Gary Sheffield, bringing back Freddy Garcia, and signing Brian Fuentes as a free agent closer.

But how about a trade for the shortstop whose name we've tried not to mention anymore?

The Detroit Tigers decline option on Edgar Renteria, acquire Jack Wilson from the Pittsburgh Pirates for Dontrelle Willis and Brent Clevlen.

The Tigers won’t have any interest in bringing Edgar Renteria back and will instead acquire Wilson, a target of the Tigers for a while now. The Tigers will acquire a gifted defender who will become a free agent after the season, but has the added bonus of a team option. It is a situation the Tigers would covet to be in.

Or filling the bullpen with, well, scrubs?

The Tigers should also bring in several flotsam relievers (and let Kyle Farnsworth walk) in an attempt to shore up their bullpen, relievers like Rudy Seanez, Ron Villone, Juan Rincon could see invites to spring training.

Detroit's already gone the flotsam route with Aquilino Lopez, Casey Fossum, and Gary Glover. How did that work out? Using one of those guys to pitch mop-up duty or long relief would fill a necessary role. But having all three of them exacerbated what was already a fatal flaw in the roster construction of the 2008 Tigers.

After the hangover wears off and the post-mortems are written, I know we'll be discussing what the Tigers should do to revamp next year's team all winter long. But I thought this might be a good way to get the conversation started a bit. Check out Evan's entire post. Do you like these suggestions? What would you do instead?

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I have to disagree with Ian on Aquilino Lopez. His season stats so far:

3-1, 3.60 ERA, 75.0 IP, 84 H, 22 BB, 57 SO, 1.41 WHIP

As of now, Lopez is finishing the season with the lowest ERA on the Tigers staff, the lowest WHIP among relievers, and the most innings pitched for a reliever. Granted, those comparisons are made against one of the worst pitching staffs in the majors, and sure, he’s had some struggles. But looking at the Tigers’ bullpen, I would say he’s been one of the few guys who has actually NOT been a huge problem.

by Dberg on Sep 26, 2008 2:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm hardly a "stats guy," but...

Lopez is a great example of how misleading ERA can sometimes be for relievers.

How many inherited runners does he allow to score? Those runners get charged to the starter that put those runners on base, not the reliever that gave up the hit. Normally, my argument would be the eyeball test. When is the last time Lopez didn’t come in during a jam and put out the fire? But I’ll try some stats to back this up.

Lopez has inherited 56 runners, and 29 of them have scored. That’s 52%.

In “high leverage” situations (runners on, close score, inning, number of outs, etc.), batters hit .348/.393/.391 against Lopez.

With men on base, batters hit .291/.341/.433. Runners in scoring position, it’s .284/.339 /.368.

I’m not saying Lopez is an awful pitcher, but he’s been pretty bad in the situations he’s been used. Part of that is Jim Leyland’s fault. Part of that has been the failure of the starters to pitch well. (And if they pitched deep into games, we might not see the weaker relievers very much.)

Bless You Boys

by Ian Casselberry on Sep 26, 2008 3:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs