Aaand We're Back!

After a long layoff, we are tantalizingly close to the baseball season again. Sort of. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in three weeks - that's close enough... right? Well, that's close enough to do a pre-spring training Tigers preview I suppose.

Goodbye sweet prince... No, not you T.J. Duckett, get the fuck out of here.

The biggest move, by far, this offseason was the trade that sent Granderson to the Yankees, Edwin Jackson to the Dbacks and Austin Jackson, Phil Coke, Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth back to the Tigers. Granderson was, like many other Detroiters, one of my favorite players on the team and so it is unfortunate to see him go. That said, Granderson has some very real flaws in his game:

• He can't hit LHPs and scouts don't seem to think that the problem is easily fixable. Last year he hit .183 off lefties, in 08 .259 and in 07 .160. Two of those years are, obviously, utterly abysmal. Poor pitch recognition seems to be the culprit. His .183 average against lefties last year caused his BA to plummet to .249 and he lost 78 points in OPS.
  
• His OBP last year (.327) took a complete nosedive from the previous two years (.361 in 07 and .365 in 08). That's not good for a guy who is supposed to hit leadoff since the most important stat for a leadoff hitter is OBP. In fact, his .319 OBP as a leadoff hitter was second worst in the league to B.J. Upton... who eventually lost his leadoff job. Oops.
• Defensively, he wasn't reading the ball off the bat very well last year. Although I think a lot of people will remember the awesome catch he made near the end of the 162nd game of the year in 09, he didn't react very well initially and only his plus speed saved him. Although this is just one example, there was a definite puzzling trend of him misplaying fly balls towards the end of the year.

What also needs to be mentioned is that Granderson is due to be paid $25.8 million over the next three years. Austin Jackson, on the other hand, is playing for the league minimum. Jackson will probably never develop the same power as Granderson, but he is projected to hit for a solid average with some speed (24 swipes in AAA in 2009), solid defense in CF and a good arm. Needless to say, there are going to be a lot of eyes on this kid (am I allowed to call 22 year olds "kid"? I'm only 24) this coming year and it will be fun to see him develop. His defense will earn him the starting CF spot opening day and hopefully his bat will catch up soon.

Granderson was miscast as the Tigers' leadoff hitter, although admittedly there weren't any other great alternatives for the team, which is why I kinda wonder if the Yankees really know what they're getting in this trade since they immediately announced to the media that he was their new leadoff hitter. Jeter had an amazing bounce back season last year - it's a real head-scratcher to me why they are in such a rush to push him out of that spot to insert a guy who just had an atrocious year in the one slot. Dombrowski clearly thinks that 2009 Granderson is the real Granderson (as opposed to 2008 Granderson) and wanted to cash in while he still could. I hope all the best for Curtis, but I feel sorry for him if he's still hitting sub-.190 off lefties midway through the season, the Yankees lose a few games in a row and the New York media decides to make Curtis the scapegoat. If there's one thing he has going for him next year however, it's that he loves to hit HRs to right field (25 of his 30 HR in 09) and so he should feast on that epically short right porch at the new Yankees Stadium. On an amusing side note, it appears as though Granderson will not be able to keep his number (28) because NYY manager Joe Girardi is planning on changing his own number to 28 this season since the Yankees are going for their 28th World Championship. Fucking Yankees.

As to the other parts of the trade, the Tigers picked up a decent left-handed setup arm in Phil Coke, a young SP I really like in Max Scherzer and a hard-throwing left-handed reliever in Schlereth. I have already read some people proclaiming Schlereth the possible "closer of the future" for the Tigers. I thought Ryan Perry was the "closer of the future"? Or is he the "Zumaya of the future" now?

In any case, I think that Scherzer is the real gem of these three; I am really excited to see what Rick Knapp can do with him. He posts big strikeout numbers (9.2 K/9IP last season) and doesn't have too many major league innings on his arm (226.1 career IP). Control is a an issue, but he should also benefit from moving from Chase Field to the wide-open confines of Comerica Park. He is expected to immediately jump into the rotation with Verlander and Porcello.

The other two members of the rotation are unclear at this moment; the names Miner, Galarraga, Bonderman, Robertson and even Dontrelle Willis are all being bounced around. Can we please stop talking about Willis? I'm sure he's a nice kid (am I allowed to call people older than me "kid"?) and everything, but the guy is done-zo. Stick a fork in him. It would be a pleasant surprise to see Bonderman and Galarraga have bounce back seasons since I believe we can also say with a good amount of confidence that we know who Miner and Robertson are by this point in their careers too. They're shitty middle relievers. There, I said it.

Other than the final two spots in the rotation, the only other spot that really needs to be nailed down is LF since the organization seems to be all-in supporting Scott Sizemore as Polanco's replacement at 2B and Magglio - with his ginormous contract - unfortunately didn't die this offseason. I am personally kinda pulling for Wilkin Ramirez to win the LF job just because I like his power/speed combo and Raburn and Thomas rub me the wrong way. I still can't believe Clete fucking Thomas was batting cleanup for the Tigers at one point last season. Ugh.

See ya in Lakeland everyone!

Bondo, My Penis Both Feel Good

This year is absolutely critical for the Tigers organization. The team is coming off a year where they had the second highest payroll in the majors... and finished last in the AL Central. Jim Leyland is in the last year of his contract. Also, GM Dave Dombrowski made relatively few moves this offseason for a team that many thought needed to add quality pitching.

The offense is expected to still be above-average (barring another snail-like start to the year from Cabrera). The return of Binge to the starting lineup and the acquisition of Adam Everett (.213 BA last year? Solid.) shouldn't slow down Magglio, Miguel, Placido and Gramsterdam too much. Gerald Laird is mildly intriguing offensively as well. No, the success of this 2009 Tigers team hinges solely around the pitching.

Placido Polanco was on The Simpsons. True story.

Some of the news coming out of spring training has been good. Other news not so good (Verlander going 9.1 IP with 9 H 9BB 5 K 6 ER so far, for example). But the fact remains that this pitching staff needs to get its shit together. Verlander is supposed to be the ace of the staff - going 11-17 is completely unacceptable. Bondo needs to recapture some of that 2007 magic when he was 10-1 at the All Star break. Porcello needs to step up and prove he was worth the 2007 1st round status and the contract that was so huge it pissed off Selig. Zumaya needs to stop being a dumbass. Galarraga? Keep doing whatever the hell it is you're doing.

Will the pitching turn itself around? I honestly have no idea. This team is just too Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde for anyone to really know. But spring training is a fun time for baseball and is a time when everyone is hopeful and looking forward to the upcoming season, so it's fun to pretend that Verlander and Bondo will both win 20+ games and Big Z will grow into the closer everyone expected him to. It's also fun to pretend that I'm a knight slaying a dragon when I'm in my pillow fort. Rawr. Plus, spring training gives us stuff like this: