Non-Signings and Latin News

Studies have shown that being depressed can increase a person’s susceptibility to infection. So it shouldn’t be surprising that I’ve spent the past week laid up with a particularly nasty ear infection. Even now, there’s still a perpetual ringing. At any rate, there really hasn’t been a whole lot of news on the Tigers front. There’s not much left to do but wait until pitchers and catchers report. Still, I figured I ought to check in just to keep my credibility afloat.

Just as the whole Jeremy Bonderman thing was about to reach an absolute frenzy on the internet, Dave Dombrowski supposedly threw water on the whole thing by saying that the Tigers were not going to re-sign him. There are also reports indicating that he’s about to sign with the Indians. I already opined on Bonderman last week, so I won’t get into detail about that again. All I’ll say is that this latest development is probably just as well.

While he was on the subject of players that the Tigers wouldn’t sign, Dombrowski mentioned Vladimir Guerrero as another one of those individuals. This was a rumor that never really made sense to me. Actually, it wasn’t so much a rumor as it was originally an ESPN.com article recommending that the Tigers sign Guerrero. I never read the article (I don’t even know if I can, since I don’t subscribe to ESPN Insider), but I’m not sure just how Vlad would fit on this team. My guess is that Jayson Stark’s plan would be to shift Victor Martinez to everyday catcher and have Guerrero DH, but I could be wrong. At least, that was the proposal that other supporters brought forward. Do I really need to remind you that there’s only so much defense you can sacrifice? We tried the all-offense approach before. It didn’t work. As it stands right now, defense is being sacrificed in favor of offense at shortstop, the corner outfield spots, first base to some degree, and possibly second base. If you put Victor Martinez behind the plate every day, that would leave Brandon Inge and Austin Jackson as the only plus defenders on the field. You’re never going to field a team of nine Gold Glovers, but I just don’t think sacrificing more defense is going to be the answer. Actually, if you get down to it, I really don’t think there are anymore “answers” to be had this offseason. I think this team’s already been messed with a little too much.

Finally, I should report that the Caribes de Anazoategui (Magglio Ordoñez’s team) won the Venezuelan League championship and are now representing their country in the Caribbean Series, which began yesterday in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Even though none of my guys are playing, I still have a vested interest in both Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Venezuela did defeat Puerto Rico last night by a score of 5-3. For some reason, this game started at 11 PM local time. I have no idea why you would start a baseball game that late.

Catching Up

I’ve got a couple of bits of old news (as in, from just before Christmas) to catch up on. Unfortunately, it’s been so long that I don’t have proper links anymore, so you’ll have to bear with me, but let’s get to it:

First up is news out of Venezuela that Miguel Cabrera will not be playing winter ball because he is still rehabbing the ankle he sprained during the last week of the season (I verified this story myself with Venezuelan sportscaster Marfa Mata on Twitter; she works with the Tigres de Aragua and is therefore a good source of information on Cabrera). The fact that he won’t be playing winter ball is a bit disappointing, but I wasn’t really expecting him to. The fact that he’s still rehabbing his ankle is a bit odd, considering the injury happened three months ago. However, because the injury happened right before the end of the season, we really weren’t given a clear picture as to the extent of the damage, so to speak (and the Tigers’ front office seems to be very stealthy and quiet about almost everything, be it player moves or injuries, which is both good and bad, I suppose). As I said at the time, high ankle sprains cover a very wide range of severity, so if all you have to go on is the fact that it is a high ankle sprain, you don’t have much to base your assessment on (although they do tend to be more severe than regular ankle sprains). I’ve seen guys miss anywhere from a month to the entire season with high ankle sprains. However, as I am not a physical therapist, I will not speculate as to his readiness for spring training (which is, after all, still about six weeks away).

The second piece of information is that they announced the winners of the This Year in Baseball Awards (which seem to have been rechristened as “GIBBYs”) on MLB Network. If you’ll recall, the Tigers had nominees in three categories: Miguel Cabrera for Player of the Year, Austin Jackson for Rookie of the Year, and Armando Galarraga for Performance of the Year (Yes, Joaquin Benoit was nominated for, and won, Setup Man of the Year, but since he did that with the Rays, I’m not counting it). Now, Player of the Year ended up going to Josh Hamilton and Rookie of the Year went to Buster Posey, and I really don’t have a problem with that because both of them are worthy candidates. What I don’t like is that Cabrera and Jackson weren’t even in the top three in their respective results. However, the Tigers did get a top spot out of the awards, because Galarraga won Performance of the Year by a rather large margin over Roy Halladay and Dallas Braden (Don’t feel too sorry for them; Braden won Moment of the Year and Halladay won Pitcher of the Year), so congratulations goes out to him.

Belated Winter Meetings Wrap-Up

Sorry about not posting in the past week. I’ve had finals taking up my time. At any rate, we got through the Winter Meetings without anything disastrous happening. The only thing rumor to have come out of the meetings that concerns me somewhat is the Tigers’ supposed interest in Tom Gorzelanny. Now, there were rumors of the Tigers expressing interest in Josh Willingham, Fred Lewis, and another trade candidate outfielder whose name escapes me right now (and it’s driving me nuts that I can’t remember who it was), but all those struck me as nothing more than due diligence. I just have a feeling that the Gorzelanny rumor has legs, even though we haven’t heard anything further about it (Remember, the Tigers tend to be one of the most stealthy teams when it comes to moves). You’ve already had my take on starting pitchers, so I’ll not rehash it here. If the Tigers were to get another starter, he’d better be a star that would clearly put them over the top. Gorzelanny does not fit that description. I’m not saying he’s a terrible pitcher (though one does have to take into consideration that he’s spent his whole career in the National League), but he wouldn’t be much of an upgrade (if any) over what is in place already. And the same goes for just about every other starter on the trade and free agent market with the exception of a few that the Tigers don’t figure to be in on at this time. However, things turn and happen quickly with this team. Dave Dombrowski loves to keep bloggers on their toes. For all I know Zack Greinke will be in an Olde English D by dinner tonight (which I may not feel happy about personally, but I can’t argue against professionally).

Moving on from starting pitching to the outfield, there’s not a lot of news on the Magglio Ordoñez front. Both Jayson Werth and Carl Crawford signed ridiculous contracts, which means Maggs is probably the top outfielder left on the market (It’s getting to the point where the Tigers might have been better served picking up the option of his old contract). Now, all the rumors and quotes attributed to Magglio himself suggests that the Tigers are still his first choice, as I haven’t heard of him talking about any other team, but Scott Boras is sure to make things more complicated. It would not surprise me at all if he tried to get the Angels interested (after all, the Angels were considered the big losers in the Crawford sweepstakes). The Rangers were considering him as a plan B in case they didn’t sign Vladimir Guerrero, and at one point I heard that the Phillies were interested, though signing Cliff Lee probably takes them out of it (as a side note, I’m already dreading the onslaught of “OMG! The Phillies have the best rotation EVER” articles that are sure to come). MLB Trade Rumors keeps trying to match him up with the Blue Jays, but I haven’t seen anything beyond opinion that the Blue Jays “should” be interested. The common belief is that now that Cliff Lee has signed, the other top free agents should begin to topple like dominos (as another side note, if that’s the case, he picked a bad week to sign; I’m really busy this week). But stay tuned.

Finally, I have a couple minor notes from this week: First, at the Winter Meetings, the Tigers signed catcher Omir Santos, pitcher Chris Oxspring, and shortstop Argenis Diaz to minor league deals (I think all are expected to be in Toledo when the season starts). Second, Ignacio Serrano of ESPN Deportes reports that the Tigers have refused permission for Armando Galarraga to pitch in Venezeula this winter (link is in Spanish). So to recap, Galarraga doesn’t have permission, Guillen is still rehabbing, Magglio has said he wouldn’t (though his team is trying to get him to play during the round robin), and I don’t know what Victor Martinez is doing. That leaves Miguel Cabrera, who left the door open the last time I saw a quote from him, but I can’t imagine he will unless his team is in a playoff chase (and admittedly, I haven’t looked at the Venezuelan league standings recently). Finally, the Tigers announced today that they have released Alfredo Figaro so that he can go pitch in Japan for the Orix Buffalos (for some reason, I thought they were the Orix Blue Wave, but I don’t pay that close attention to NPB so I guess I deserved that). You should know me well enough by now to know that I have absolutely no problem with this. Plus, I know just what they can do with that open roster spot…

Latin Links: December 3

I am going to try to do a post previewing the Winter Meetings sometime over the weekend, but no promises. In the meantime, there has been a little bit of Tiger-related news out of Latin America to share (most links are in Spanish):

• This morning, Carlos V. Rodriguez of the Venezuelan newspaper Lider posted a tweet regarding Magglio Ordoñez that basically translates to “A source close to the player confirms that all signs point to Magglio returning to Detroit.” I don’t know what that means in terms of actual contract negotiations, and this is the first time I’ve read anything from Rodriguez, so I am unsure of his track record, but his Twitter site is followed by other Venezuelan writers that I’ve found to be reliable, and his tweet was retweeted by Jason Beck (along with my translation of it), so take that for what you will. At any rate, this story has gained traction and has appeared over at The Hardball Times (again, along with my translation; big thank you to Craig Calcaterra for that) and other sites.
• On a related note, I came across some winter ball news, thanks to my discovery of Lider. In addition to his tweet heard ‘round the blogosphere, Carlos V. Rodriguez reports that Magglio will not be playing winter ball this year, instead choosing to focus on his next contract. Additionally, Cesar Augusto Marquez (also at Lider) reports that the president of the Leones del Caracas has asked permission to have Armando Galarraga pitch for them later in the year, but he probably will not (Galarraga could not be reached for comment, according to this article).
• I also found this video from some point during the season where Armando Galarraga talks about soccer. I haven’t had the chance to listen to it myself yet, but I figured I’d share the link in case any of you had interest.