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Guillén enjoyed a successful 14-year Major League Career.
Former Tiger Carlos Guillén announced his retirement the other day, according to the official Mariners’ Twitter account and various other news outlets. Guillén, a three-time All-Star, now moves on from a productive fourteen year Major League career that had become littered with injuries in the recent years.
Which Raburn do you think we'll see more of in 2012?
Don’t look now, but everyone’s favorite Tiger whipping boy, Ryan Raburn, is off to a hot spring start! In four at-bats, Raburn is batting a cool .500 with two home runs and six RBI (his OPS is sitting at a robust 2.4000).
It’s obviously way too early and way too small a sample size from which to draw any conclusions about how Raburn’s 2012 season will look, but it may lead one to wonder: will this finally be the year? Will 2012 be the year something finally clicks and Raburn puts it all together? Or will we get the slow start and second half surge we’ve long become accustomed to?
The Tigers top positional prospect may not have much wiggle room in the organization. (Photo/Robin Buckson)
It’s not often a team’s top draft selection, doesn’t have room on the Major League roster within a few seasons of being drafted. It’s also rare when that top selection receives as $3.45MM signing bonus, hits .313 with 79 RBIs in the minors and is named an organization’s best positional prospect at age 19.
As unlikely as all of those scenarios are, they all apply to Nick Castellanos.
Castellanos, now 20 years of age, was Detroit’s top selection in the 2010 draft all the way down at the 44th pick, because of sign-ability questions. To reel in the prep standout, Detroit coughed-up the fifth largest signing bonus in team history, and largest ever in any round later than the first.
Every sign pointed to Castellanos finding a spot on the big league roster by the 2014 season, and maybe even making his debut by the end of 2013, but all those expectations may be spoiled now.
Detroit signed Prince Fielder to a nine-year, $214MM, contract at the end of January, forcing a slight defensive re-alignment throughout the infield. Miguel Cabrera has shifted across the diamond to third base, causing the future of Castellanos in the system to become foggy.
What can the Tigers do with Castellanos, now that his position is filled with one of the best hitters in the game? Should he change position? Could Detroit use him in a trade to get a good return? Maybe they shouldn’t worry about the situation at third and let it play out? I’ll weigh in with my two cents after the jump.
The Tigers dugout congratulates Jerad Head after his solo home run on Saturday. Detroit defeated Atlanta, 2-0. (AP photo)
It would be hard to top the way our boys have started off their Spring Training games in the Grapefruit League. Real hard.
Their official Spring Training opener (box) at Disney World was nearly perfect. The Tigers crossed the plate just twice, for two runs against the Atlanta Braves, but eight of their pitchers combined for a one-hit performance.
On Sunday, the same two teams returned to Lakeland, and Detroit wasted no time jumping out to a controlling lead. The Tigers lit up Braves’ starter, Julio Teheran, for seven home runs in the first three innings of the game. Nine home runs total in the game.
Apologies for the cheesy title. I like my bad puns.
Set-up man Joaquín Benoit was more valuable to the 2011 Tigers than you might think! (Reuters/Daylife)
Closer and fan favorite José Valverde had a terrific and historical 2011 season for the Detroit Tigers, as he set a new franchise record in saves (49). The fact he went without a blown save the entire year is also just as impressive as those lofty save totals. On its face, it looks like Valverde had a dominant year that was more than worthy of his fifth place finish in Cy Young Award voting.
When you dig deeper, however, you will find that that’s not quite the case. In fact, you will find that unheralded set-up man, Joaquín Benoit, was actually better statistically in a number of categories and was technically more valuable to the team than Valverde!
You might be thinking to yourself, “How can this be? Valverde is the closer! Benoit’s only the set-up guy! Teams use their best reliever as closer!”
Here’s how!
I think we can all agree that this is, at least, better than having the All-Star Game decide World Series home field.
Major League Baseball announced its expanded playoff system today, and its merits and flaws quickly morphed into a Twitter debate that made Congress look tame. Some argue that it devalues the regular season, it’s too random, it punishes the wild card…there are many arguments for and against it, so naturally, I have to weigh in. First, we’ll take a look at exactly what the system will be; then I’ll outline what I like and don’t like about the addition of a second wildcard. Lastly, we’ll look at how the new rule directly affects the Tigers.
