Baseball Historians

John Wagner’s latest at Baseball America is a nice piece on Avisail Garcia. one of the Tigers younger prospects to keep an eye on.  Garcia made his debut with the Whitecaps last year but he’s still only 17 so I agree some more time at Low-A will do this kid some good.  Talk about a wild [...]

It’s official.  The Tigers are going to have a press conference at 2 pm to announce the Johnny Damon signing.  I’m a lot more excited about the Tigers now then I was back in December when the team dealt Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson.

1- Team signed C Rod Barajas Saturday and he is penciled in as the starter. Noted as a very good defensive catcher, he should combine with veteran Henry Blanco to give the Mets a tremendous defensive upgrade behind the plate. Barajas hit .226 with 19 homers and 71 rbi for the Toronto Blue Jays in [...]

After a couple of weeks of speculation, the Tigers finally inked Johnny Damon to a one year, $8 million deal.  That’ll make Damon the everyday left fielder with Ryan Raburn spelling him now and then.  What makes this move interesting is how the domino effect.  Raburn is going to lose out on some time because [...]

Baseball Prospectus recently unveiled their AL Central preview and talk about some interesting results.  The good news is, they have the Tigers tied for first place.  The bad news is, they’re tied with the Twins and White Sox and all three teams have a projected record of 80-82.  That’s right, nobody is projected to have [...]

Baseball Prospectus recently unveiled their AL Central preview and talk about some interesting results.  The good news is, they have the Tigers tied for first place.  The bad news is, they’re tied with the Twins and White Sox and all three teams have a projected record of 80-82.  That’s right, nobody is projected to have [...]

This is some good news.  Lynn Henning’s latest talks about the Tigers who are on the mend and he reports the Scott Sizemore should be fully healed from the broken leg  he suffered in the Arizona Fall League.  It’s also nice to see Brandon Inge has been working hard and he’s been in Lakeland for [...]

If there’s one guy the Tigers regret giving away in the short term, it’s Jair Jurrjens.  He’s had a couple of solid seasons for the Braves and had he replicated his feats in a Tigers uniform, he could have been enough to help the Tigers make the playoffs last year.  Even worse, we ultimately got nothing [...]

Ken Rosenthal is the latest to provide us with the soap opera that is Johnny Damon.  Based on this, it looks like the Tigers are close money wise but this could still drag out if Damon wants to fish for a better deal.  It also looks like the Braves might be out of the running [...]

It looks like Curtis Granderson roaming centerfield at Yankee Stadium isn’t a foregone conclusion.  The Yankees have Brett Gardner and with a hold in left field, Granderson is keeping himself open to manning the corner outfield spot.  When Granderson came up through the minors, many thought centerfield was over his head (one of many things [...]

I’m waiting to write some substantial until the Tigers actually sign Johnny Damon.  In the meantime, here’s the latest mailbag with Jason Beck.  First and foremost is why Damon is taking so long to sign but he also touches on why the Tigers might sign Damon when the dealt Granderson as well as why there’s [...]

I’ve cut out and restarted writing on this site so many times I’ve lost count. Let’s tack one more try onto that number because I’m starting to get the creative juices flowing. Just like the Reds will be playing in a new spring training home, I’m looking for a restart of sorts. [...]

With pitchers and catchers set to report this week, Lynn Henning thinks the Tigers are going to be lucky to hit the .500 mark  in 2010.  He said 75 is more realistic with 80 being a stretch and that’s even with Damon in the fold.  I personally think their hitting won’t be that much worse [...]

It looks like the price to keep Edwin Jackson would have been pretty high because he signed a two year, $13.35 million deal to buy out Edwin Jackson’s final two years of arbitration.  It’ll be interesting to see how Jackson does in Arizona in 2010.  He’s coming off of a career high 214 innings and [...]

It looks like the Tigers are going to sign Johnny Damon and while they play different positions in the field, Damon will fill at lead off and all but try to fill in for the Tigers exciting former centerfielder.  It’s also interesting because the Yankees have effectively made the swap but in the other direction.  [...]

UPDATE OF RECENT METS NEWS:
1- 3 signings announced this week that might have impact for the 2010 Mets, as 1b Mike Jacobs(an ex-Met), LHP Hisanori Takahashi and C Shawn Riggans all signed minor league deals Thursday. Jacobs, who could platoon with Daniel Murphy at first, launched 19 homers for the Kansas City Royals last year [...]

It’s hard to believe Cameron Maybin is just 22 years old because it seems like he’s been around for ever.  He debuted with the Tigers in 2007 and since being traded to the Marlins, he’s spent most of his time playing in the minors.  He made the team out of spring training last year but [...]

I’ve always wanted to go to Tigers fantasy camp and it’s on my list of things I want to do (at some point in my life).  I’ve talked to a few people who have gone but David Laurila did a really nice job of describing his experience this year.  There’s some great stuff in here [...]

Now this is interesting.  Buster Olney is reporting that the two year offer the Tigers made is actually a smokescreen of sorts to help Scott Boras save face over how he handled (or if you like, mishandled) Johnny Damon.  The idea is that the two year offer was publicized but that it’ll eventually be turned [...]

It looks like the Johnny Damon saga is going to drag on for another week because he’s going to wait until he gets back from his Hawaii vacation to make a decision as to who he’ll play with.  The Tigers appear to be the frontrunners but you wonder if the stalling tactic is to see if [...]

Scott Boras must be loving this.  Now the White Sox have put their name in the hat for Johnny Damon.  There’s nothing like your division rival forcing you to push up your price.  The Tigers have more room for Damon but the White Sox have shown that they can make a crowded outfield work although [...]

According to “sources,” Tigers owner Mike Ilitch has told the front office that he’ll go along with a two year, $14 million deal for Johnny Damon.  This appears to be the top money out there so it looks like Damon could be a Tiger in 2010 just a week before pitchers and catchers report.

Bless you Boys gives us a great update on where the Tigers are at with Johnny Damon.  It looks like the Braves are sticking their nose in with the Rays looking to pick up the scraps.  Of course with Scott Boras involved, you never know what’s real and what’s being thrown out to help spur [...]

Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman have been throwing the ball around down in Lakeland and Verlander has some encouraging news.  Bonderman hasn’t thrown well since the first half of 2007 and at this point, having him be an effective starter would go a long way towards the Tigers making the playoffs in 2010.  Verlander reported [...]

With pitchers and catchers reporting in close to a week, I have a few more optimistic pieces planned but I wanted to write one more downer article.  Back in 2006, Tigers fans were sky high.  While the Tigers fell short of winning the World Series, they put themselves back on the map.  Now with that [...]

The Tigers have said that they completed a five year deal that will keep Justin Verlander in town for the forseeable future.  With all of the emphasis toward cutting salary (up until they signed Jose Valverde), this was a welcome move for Tiger fans and it all came down as the arbitration date was getting [...]

Keith Law’s latest blog post is on top rookie prospects for 2010 and he touches on Austin Jackson, Al Avila and Scott Sizemore.  He has some nice things to say about Sizemore which is encouraging.  I’m still a little pessimistic (about him at second next year, not long term) so hopefully I’m wrong.

This is a great story over at Bless You Boys.  Apparantly Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers are doing a number of things to fulfill an injured police officer and big time Tigers fans baseball dreams.

The Detroit News had a quick chat with Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers GM said the team isn’t close to signing Johnny Damon.  It also looks like the Tigers haven’t even talked to Boras or Damon so you wonder if this is just Dombrowski’s usual cryptic response (can’t blame him), or if it’s a play [...]

Tom Gage gave a run down on what he thinks the top ten spring training stories will be as we get closer to pitchers and catchers reporting.  His number one is Austin Jackson and that will go out the window if the Tigers sign Johnny Damon.  I think Scott Sizemore and Jeremy Bonderman will matter [...]