Baseball Historians

Tim Brown is reporting on Twitter that the Tigers have signed Jose Valverde to a two year, $14 million deal.  If this is the caee, I’m pretty disappointed.  I put a question mark next to it because it was Tweet and I haven’t seen anything official.

I’m a little behind on this, but with all of the prospects lists that have already been put out, Baseball America’s list almost seems late by comparison.  BA’s is probably the least Sabermetric friendly but the list is still pretty useful when you compare it other prospect analysts.  There’s no surprise that Jacob Turner comes [...]

The Tigers inked Joel Zumaya to a one year, $915,000 deal today and in the process, they avoided arbitration with the hard throwing right hander.  Zumaya has had his share of injuries the past three seasons but at less then a million, the team should get a bargain assuming Zumaya can pitch most of the [...]

In one of his latest columns, Jason Beck ponders the Tigers choice of closers.  Fernando Rodney and Brandon Lyon are gone so that leaves a laundry list of potential closers with Ryan Perry and Joel Zumaya probably heading the list.  The Tigers are still being mentioned in the talks for Jose Valverde but in my [...]

It’s now 2010.  The free agency season is winding and spring training is less then two months away.  The Tigers made one of the biggest trades of the offseason and the question is, “now what?”
Jason Beck is a little optimistic.  Or at least he’s conveying what the Tigers have told him.  He also talks about [...]

Fernando Rodney got a little Christmas present as he was locked up by the Angels for two years.  The final number is $11 million and he’ll fortify and already formidable Angels bullpen. What’s interesting is Rodney won’t close to start the season.  Brian Fuentes has been erratic in the past though and he’s lost his [...]

The Tigers locked up Ramon Santiago to a two year deal yesterday and with that, the Tigers pretty much have their infield set.  He got a two year deal worth $2.5 million.  With that, he’ll provide the Tigers with the same tools he did last year and he’ll back up both Adam Everett at shortstop [...]

Well, the Tigers got trumped earlier this week depending on how you look at things and the Phillies, Blue Jays and Mariners combined to pull off a deal that moved two ace pitchers in the three team deal.  Fortunately, things have been quiet in the AL Central (unless you count Juan Pierre to the White [...]

Good luck to Fernando Rodney.  He’s looking for a three year, $30 million dollar deal.  That pretty much ends any chance of him coming back to the Detroit unless he really comes down from those demands.  Earlier in this long piece, there’s some cool quotes with Jim Leyland about arguing with umpires.
This is old, but [...]

The Tigers not only didn’t pick a player in yesterday’s rule 5 draft (which isn’t a surprise), but they also didn’t have a player taken from them.  I’m not sure if this is an expression of the Tigers mediocre farm system or just luck, but it is what is.  The Tigers have had some moderate [...]

The Tigers signed backup catcher Robinzon Diaz on the same day the Tigers made announced their big trade with the Diamondbacks and Yankees.  He was given a minor league contract by Detroit after he was cut loose by the Pirates.  Diaz is a solid contact hitter (.301 lifetime minor league batting average) who doesn’t hit [...]

Alright, the deal is done and unfortunately, the Tigers no longer have Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson.  Jackson hadn’t been around long enough for me to grow attached but Granderson was part of that big 2006 run and he’s home grown.  In addition, he’s also become the face of the team and now he’s playing [...]

The Tigers finally got the deal done.  I never thought I’d agree with a deal that sends both Granderson and Jackson out of Detroit, but the Tigers actually got quite a bit here.  I’ll break down the trade in a little bit.

Alright, this was published about a half hour ago and it looks like the big three way trade between the Tigers, Yankees and Diamondbacks is getting closer.  It looks likes now the Diamondbacks are giving up a little more and the Yankees a little less with Michael Dunn coming off of the deal and the [...]

Jon Paul Morosi provides some news via Twitter.  It looks like the whole three way trade talk is cooling off and now the Angels (where I thought Granderson would go) have surfaced as suitors again.

Alright, day one of the Winter Meetings is in the book and the book rumor this morning is a three way deal between the Diamondbacks, Tigers and Yankees.  The Tigers would get Max Scherzer, Austin Jackson, Michael Dunn and Phil Coke and they’d send Curtis Granderson to the Yankees and Edwin Jackson to the Diamondbacks.  It’s [...]

According to Matthew Pouliot, it looks like the Diamondbacks would be willing to part with one time super prospect Max Scherzer in exchange for Edwin Jackson.  It looks like in order to pull it off, the Tigers would have to work another team into the picture that would probably involve Curtis Granderson.

Lee Panas reports that the Tigers have inked Adam Everett to a one year deal.  I think Rick Porcello is breathing a sigh of relief because being a big time ground ball pitcher, he relied on that infield defense that Everett shored up.  It also takes some of the sting out of losing Polanco and [...]

Billfer fills us in on what’s happening with Brandon Lyon.  The latest is he’s going to decline arbitration, but still sign with the team because he wants a multi-year deal.  He was originally pegged to go to Philly, but his asking price was too much.
For more funny stuff, Aaron Gleeman runs down what happened at [...]

This Free Press story kind of sums things up nicely.  The Tigers are close to trading Jackson (again) and there’s five teams mentioned so anything could still happen.
On a lighter note, this is funny.

The Tigers traded relief pitcher Clay Rapada to the Rangers for the infamous player to be named later.  Billfer also reports that Zach Simons has been outrighted and the Tigers picked up Brad Thomas, who’s pitched in Korea the past couple of seasons.

Apparantly, I’m foolish.  I guess I’ll believe it when I see it.  Of course he never defines fire sale so his statement could mean anything.  We’ll see if this is more posturing or whether it proves to be true.
It also looks like Adam Everett is asking for a raise.  The latest has him wanting a [...]

Keep in mind, there’s a lot of posturing going on here.  The Tigers are trying to drum up as much interest in their players as possible to get a bidding war going.  That’s why I take this report that the Yankees are now interested in Curtis Granderson with a grain of salt.  There’s no doubt [...]

The Tigers are one of four teams named by Tim Brown as being in the early market for reliever Kevin Gregg.  Again, I don’t expect the Tigers to move on a reliever until after the arbitration deadline tonight but it’s at least good to see the team is thinking ahead.

This has been picked up by a couple of different people but the Tigers may be looking at a deal with the Dodgers that would bring George Sherrill to Detroit.  According to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi, the Dodgers are looking for a starter.  Edwin Jackson started with the Dodgers so that would make [...]

According to Tim Brown, the Angels have gotten some interest in Gary Matthews, Jr. It’ll be interesting to see how this goes because if Gary Matthews, Jr. gets dealt, it could more readily open up a spot for Curtis Granderson to come right in. With Torii Hunter in centerfield, the Angels would have a formidable [...]

Bob Nightengale at the USA Today recently twittered (I like that term better) that most executives think Edwin Jackson will be traded soon.  He didn’t give the potential suitor, but it’d be nice if there’s a few so Dombrowski can drive up the price and have a choice.  I think that’s one of the reasons [...]

The Winter Meetings begin today and with it we could also see the shape of the Tigers for years to come.  You’ve heard the rumors about the Granderson, Jackson and Cabrera but now the Free Press is saying Gerald Laird is also on the trading block.  Laird is in a similar boat to Jackson and [...]

Alright, it’s almost silly to try to predict what the Tigers roster will look like  on Opening Day, but that’s not going to stop me from taking a stab.  Keep in mind, this isn’t what I WANT to happen, it’s a prediction and it doesn’t look pretty.  Also keep in mind, I have no inside [...]

In case you missed it, Kurt over at Mack Avenue Tigers has done a really good series of columns on Dave Dombrowski.  He finishes things up with some comments from other bloggers, but if you missed it, be sure to back and read the complete series.
If you want even more Dave Dombrowski, be sure to [...]