Tigers would have been better served by picking up Jhonny Peralta's option

First, I’ve said all along that I would rather have the option (overpriced) than two years or more. If we HAVE to sign him for two years, I hoped it would be front loaded so that it’s really like buying the option and having Peralta in 2012 for 3 or 4M (which makes him more tradeable).

While viewing the CoPa splits isn’t encouraging, I’m not as worried about this as some are. His splits come mostly as an Indian, facing Tigers SP. Probably about 15% of his AB’s came against JV. Maybe he has trouble with a Tiger’s SP or two and that contributes to a rough 300 AB’s. It’s a pretty small sample. I’m fully expecting a decent 2011 at the plate from Peralta and he’ll be substantially better than anything we’ve had batting from the SS position in a long time. It’s one less gaping hole in our lineup than we had last year when there were three zero-offense bats in the lineup to start the season.

Beyond that, it allows the club to focus more energy and more cash on LF, DH, C, SP, and other positions. If you can fill one of your starting slots for 5-6M, that certainly allows them to spend money elsewhere.

Give Peralta a shot. He’s the better option at short in this weak F/A class at SS.

Time to focus on Maggs and Crawford now!

Meh.

Sure, there aren’t any good SS options on the FA market, but why not go with a platoon of Santiago and Worth? Neither of them are great with the bat, but their defense is significantly better than Peralta’s and the cost would be far lower. I think the savings and the improvement in defense would have made up for any offensive benefits Peralta might bring to the table.

However, while I do think that this is a mistake, it’s not a grievous one. $6 million per year is a reasonable amount to pay, and if Peralta can give us 1.5-2 WAR each of the next two years (which he probably won’t), it will probably be worth it. I just think that there are better options, and that the money could have been spent more wisely.

I’m pretty confident that our left side of the infield will be one of the worst (taking into account both offense and defense) among next year’s contenders.

Guillen: “Herp?”
Peralta: “Derp.”

The only thing that remotely excites me about Jhonny Peralta is having his bat shore up the back end of our lineup. Really that is the only thing about him that has the potential to be even slightly above average. Defensively he is probably better suited to be a third baseman because he just doesn’t have the range, but still has decent hands. But I’m just not sure what upgrades at short stops are out there. Everybody is a risk, at least we’ve seen Jhonny play. But regardless of the free agent market, we should have picked up his option versus renegotiating.

Who knows what would’ve transpired over the next season? Maybe Jhonny has a hot 1st half and becomes real nice trade bait because of an expiring contract. Oh the possibilities. Oh well, no sense dwelling.

This way we have a decent SS for 2 years at a cheap price tag. 2 yrs is better then 1 with Perlata. GO TiGS!!!!

And by that I mean a player that breaks out with the Tigers.

Also, in mentioning your bad infield defense, you forgot to mention Scott Sizemore and Will Rhymes. Sizemore is below average and Rhymes is average at best. So we’re more screwed then even you think. ;)

Im not sure how many errors he made and I dont think hes that different at SS defensivly then Rentaria will be. Hes a decent player with a nice bat. GO TIGERS!!!