Yankee Addicts » Blake VandeBunte

News and Notes

Blake VandeBunte — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:43:00 +0000

A few things floating around my mind as I sit at my parents place, safely back in Michigan:

The Dusty Ryan era is over in Detroit. The Tigers shipped the defensively-challenged catcher to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later and/or cash considerations.
The Yankees got richer. The defending champs picked up Javier Vazquez in a trade with the Atlanta Braves for Melky Cabrera and Mike Dunn (a guy they wouldn’t give to Detroit in the Granderson deal). This trade is strange and could really go either way. Vazquez was a Cy Young quality pitcher last season. He’s clearly got great stuff. However, he spent one season with the Yankees a few years back and had an ERA close to 5.00. I like this deal for the Yankees.
On his way out the door, Ian of Bless You Boys says goodbye to Curtis Granderson.
This post is a bit old, but it’s good. Rogo is counting down his favorite 25 Tigers. Check out Dmitri Young, who I always enjoyed.
Eye of the Tigers has some info on the Dusty Ryan deal if you’re into that sort of thing.
Lee Panas of Tiger Tales shows us the greatest Tigers third baseman of all-time.
Finally, I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting over the holiday season. The recent lull was to do my flight being canceled in Newark on Saturday and having to piece together a “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” type trip back to Michigan. I nearly fully recovered and will post when possible. Enjoy your holiday season.

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Weighing in on Phil Coke

Blake VandeBunte — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:00:25 +0000

From JAYRC:

Perhaps the least talked about of our four new prospects is former New York Yankee south paw Phil Coke. At 27 years old, I think it’s safe to say that the prospect lable is far removed from his name.

Last season in a relief role with the Yankees in 60 innings of work Coke went 4-3 posting a 4.50 ERA. The numbers are respectable but nothing to get to excited about.

You see the Tigers currently have a surplus of lefty relievers on the roster. With Bobby Seay, Fu-Te Ni, Daniel Schereth and Brad Thomas battling it out for just two available slots in the bullpen, perhaps Coke would be a better fit in the rotation.

As it stands now, only Nate Robertson and (long shot) Dontrelle Willis are south paw candidates for the rotation. It’s more than safe to say that neither one of them are locks for a spot.

In further examining Coke one thing that jumps out is his 1.5 HR/9 stat. The unfriendly confines of Yankee Stadium may be to blame for that though. That may explained why in Advanced A he posted much better numbers of 0.5 HR/9 and in AA 0.4 HR/9. Both of which I might add were teams that Coke was used primarily as a starter.

So how long has it been since he started and curious how well he faired? Coke went 9-4 with a 2.51 ERA in Double-A Trenton in 2008. Prior to that in Advanced A Tampa Coke was 7-3 with a 3.09 ERA.

Maybe it’s far fetched and maybe I’m alone on this. However, I would seriously consider giving Phil Coke an opportunity to help balance out the all right handed Tiger rotation.

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Is Curtis Granderson a Top 20 Outfielder?

Blake VandeBunte — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:00:39 +0000

I live in Connecticut. There are Yankee fans around every corner. When I am back in Michigan for family functions, the most knowledgeable sports fan around is my cousin, Rob. Rob is a Yankee fan.

Needless to say, I hear plenty about the Yankees. So, when the Tigers dealt Curtis Granderson to the Yankees last week, I had more than a few conversations about Curtis.

My cousin commented via email that he was excited about the Yankees getting one of the 20 best outfielders in the game. Twenty seems like a lot, but there are three starting outfielders for each big league team, and some usually DH. That should give us about 100 big league-caliber outfielders.

Is Granderson for sure in the top 20? Let’s take a look.

Where Granderson ranked amongst outfielders in 2009:

Hits: 22nd behind Chris Coghlan and Scott Podsednik

Runs: 16th behind Jacoby Ellsbury and Andre Ethier

Doubles: 56th behind Rajai Davis and David Murphy

Triples: Eighth behind Dexter Fowler and Michael Bourn

Home Runs: Seventh behind Andre Ethier and Nelson Cruz

Stolen Bases: 20th behind Alexis Rios and Brett Gardner

Batting Average: 69th behind Gary Matthews and Felix Pie

OBP: 60th behind Mitch Maier and Jeremy Hermida

SLG: 31st behind Matt Diaz and Cody Ross

Extra Base Hits: 17th behind Cody Ross and Shin-Soo Choo

Okay, so that’s last season. Many out there would consider this too small of a sample. So let’s look at the last three seasons (2007-09):

AVG: 29th

HR: Ninth

2B: 29th

3B: First

SB: 18th

OBP: 28th

SLG: 12th

Hits: 10th

Runs: First

Extra Base Hits: Second

Okay, so that looks a lot better, doesn’t it? It really helps put Granderson’s disappointing 2009 season in context. This only looks at offense, though. Defense is notoriously difficult to judge, so the amount of data I have is limited.

From 2006-2008, Granderson was the eighth best center fielder in baseball according to John Dewan’s +/- ratings for players in the field. In many ways, Granderson took a step back defensively in 2009. His range factor numbers were down. He was still better than league average, but he still regressed a bit last season.

So, is Curtis Granderson a top 20 big league outfielder? I’m going to hold my tongue. What do you think?

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Detroit Tigers Shedding the Wrong Key Players

Blake VandeBunte — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:28:18 +0000

It appears that Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson are on their way out of Detroit. Bummer.

Bummer.

In a deal that apparently has been “agreed upon," the Tigers will send Granderson to the Yankees and Jackson to the Diamondbacks.

The current deal has the Tigers receiving Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer, Phil Coke, and Daniel Schlereth. If this is true, the Tigers are receiving a pretty decent haul.

Austin Jackson was ranked by Baseball America as the top prospect in the Yankees' organization prior to the 2009 season. He will be 23 this February.

Scherzer is coming from Arizona and was the number four prospect in their organization prior to the 2008 season. He hits over 100 mph on the gun and has started and relieved. The righty will be 26 in July and went 9-11 in 2009 with 174 Ks in 170 innings of work in the bigs.

Coke, coming from the Yankees, was the team’s eighth highest prospect heading into the 2009 season. Coke is a lefty reliever who posted a 4.50 ERA in 72 relief appearances for the World Champs last season. He will be 28 in July.

Schlereth was the Diamondbacks' top pick in 2008 and was their number three prospect heading into the 2009 season. He moved up the minors quickly and played in Arizona last season. He’s a lefty that works in the mid-90s and will be 24 in May.

All of these guys are coming with cheap price tags. Coke is probably the only “non-prospect” here.

I hate to see Granderson and Jackson go (if this goes through, and it appears it will). This is going to be a really tough sell for the Tigers to put on their fans. The team was decent last year and now they appear to be blowing it up.

I’m okay with this trade if the Tigers shed their actual dead weight. Jackson and Granderson would have been two of the team's better players in 2010, but not the most highly paid.

This deal better spell the end of the line in Detroit for at least some of the following players for me to accept this trade: Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, Brandon Inge, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson and Dontrelle Willis.

Good luck with this mess, Detroit front office.

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Team 89: The 1963 Tigers

Blake VandeBunte — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:12:25 +0000

Year: 1963
Record: 79-83
Win %: .488
Win % Change: -40
Run Differential: -3
Pythagorean Record: 81-81
AL Finish: 5th of 10
Manager: Bob Scheffing and Chuck Dressen
Best Transaction: Picked up Denny McLain off of waivers. McLain’s story is well know in Tigers lore. He reached a very high peak in the late 1960s and then fell apart on and off of the field. No matter what kind of trouble he got into later in his career, you can’t beat the price the Tigers paid to get him. McLain had five productive seasons in Detroit, winning an MVP award and two Cy Young Awards before fading away and going to jail. He made three starts in 1963 at the age of only 19.
Worst Transaction: Selling Mike Cuellar to the Cleveland Indians. Cuellar would go on to have a great career, but the beginning of it was pretty strange. He was the property of the Reds, the Tigers, Indians, the Cardinals and the Astros before finding a home with the Orioles. Once he got to Baltimore he won a Cy Young Award, made four All-Star teams, and topped the 20-win mark four times. So while it stings that the Tigers gave him away for a song, at least there were plenty of others that gave up on him as well.
Upper: This team featured three budding young stars in Al Kaline (28), Norm Cash (28) and Mickey Lolich (22). While Kaline and Cash were in their late 20s, they each had several great seasons ahead of them and contributed greatly to the 1968 club. Kaline was the team’s offensive leader in 1963, winning the team Triple Crown as he led the club in batting average, home runs and RBI. Cash finished second on the club in most of those categories and both players boasted OPS+ numbers above 135. Lolich didn’t blow anyone away with his great numbers, but he was a good young contributor on a team that had a pretty bad pitching staff.
Downer: This team is so high (or low) on this list because they were so good so recently. In 1961, the Tigers had one of the greatest clubs in history to not make the postseason. That year the Tigers went 101-61 but fell short of the AL Pennant, behind the New York Yankees. So, the Tigers went from 101 wins to 79 wins in only two years. The offense was decent but the pitching staff was bad. They finished 7th in the AL in ERA (out of 10 teams), 8th in hits allowed, and no pitching staff in the league gave up more home runs. The starting rotation was full of guys who were roughly league average like Phil Regan and Jim Bunning (he would turn it around later), and the bullpen was a total mess.
Summary: Part of what plagued this talented team was their slow start. Through the month of June, the Tigers were only 29-45. However, once the calendar turned to July, the Tigers went 50-38 the rest of the way. This team had talent, they just really struggled out of the gate and were never able to get back into the race. Luckily, this would be the low point of the 1960s. The Tigers would recover in the coming seasons, gaining speed before winning it all in 1968. It was also around this time that young players like McLain and Lolich began to make a name for themselves in Detroit with the Tigers. A 20-year old Willie Horton also made his debut in Detroit, slugging the first of over 300 career home runs.

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Team 90: The 1918 Tigers

Blake VandeBunte — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:00:36 +0000

Year: 1918
Record: 55-71
Win %: .437
Win % Change: -73
Run Differential: -81
Pythagorean Record: 54-72
AL Finish: 7th of 8
Manager: Hughie Jennings
Best Transaction: Purchased Marty Kavanagh. This is a stretch, but Kavanagh is the only player the Tigers brought on bored prior or to or during the 1918 season. Kavanagh was a former Tiger that was brought back for the stretch run. Kavanagh hit .273 in 13 games (OPS+ 133) during this period before calling it a career once the season ended. Told you it was a stretch.
Worst Transaction: Selling George Burns to the New York Yankees. Burns was a regular for the Tigers from 1914-1917 before being shipped off to the Yankees. The Yankees then shipped him to Philadelphia on the same day. That season, 1918, Burns led the AL in games played, hits and total bases. Burns stuck around in the big leagues for 16 seasons, winning the AL MVP award in 1926 as a member of the Cleveland Indians. This one does not look good.
Upper: The performance of Ty Cobb. Cobb was his usual dominant self in 1918 despite missing a couple of weeks due to assorted injuries. Even though he missed some time, Cobb still played enough ball to lead the league in triples as well as in batting average and on-base percentage. The Tigers offense was a joke in 1918 so it really is amazing that Cobb was able to put up such terrific numbers even though the opposition likely pitched around him whenever they could.
Downer: WWI. I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but WWI robbed baseball of some terrific talent during this time period. The Tigers were no different. Many Tigers ended up serving in the Armed Forces and as a result missed good chunks of the 1918 season and forced some pretty awful players into full-time duty. One example of this is at catcher. Archie Yelle was the Tigers main catcher in 1918, though he played in only 56 games. In those 56 games, Yelle hit a pathetic .174 (OPS+ 29). Seriously, have you ever seen an OPS+ that low for a club’s regular? Pretty awful. Interesting side note, Yelle played in only 87 career games and retired with an OPS+ of 24.
Summary: Part of what makes this team so disappointing was how far they fell. In 1915, they won 100 games and won 87 games in 1916. To fall so far so fast is pretty remarkable. In spite of their issues, this team got pretty years out of Bobby Veach and a young Harry Heilmann that provided some hope for the future. Hooks Dauss was the staff ace, but he had a losing record and an ERA+ of only 89. In fact, the pitching staff had a collective ERA+ below 80, one of the worst in club history.

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Team 107: The 1996 Tigers

Blake VandeBunte — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:00:04 +0000

Year: 1996
Record: 53-109 (2nd most losses in franchise history)
Win %: .327
Win % Change: -90 from the year before
Run Differential: -320
Pythagorean Record: 56-106
AL Finish: 14th of 14 teams
Manager: Buddy Bell
Best Transaction: This one is arguably Randy Smith’s best move as GM of the Tigers, he sent pitcher Greg Gohr to the Angels for Damion Easley. Gohr was a bust with the Tigers and the Angels thought they could get him on track. Prior to coming to Detroit, Easley was a light-hitting 2B. Gohr kep up his poor performance, but Easley blossomed into an All-Star. If you ignore the huge contract the Tigers would later give Easley, this is just an amazing steal for the Tigers.
Worst Transaction: Randy Smith was notorious for his awful drafts. The 1996 draft was plain awful and was highlighted by the Tigers taking Seth Greisinger with the 6th pick overall. Greisinger would struggle with injures throughout the minors and went 10-16 in the big leagues with an ERA over 5.00. Some of the players drafted after Greisinger include, Eric Chavez, Gil Meche, Milton Bradley, and Jimmy Rollins.
Upper: Bobby Higginson had a monster year in 1996. Then only 25 years old, Higginson sported his cannon arm in the outfield and hit .320. In addition to his high average and stellar defense, Higginson hit 26 HR and posted an OPS+ of 145. Higginson did all of this in only his second season in the big leagues and on an obviously-awful team.
Downer: The Tigers were clearly going nowhere, but it still stung when they decided to trade Cecil Fielder. Fielder was shipped to the New York Yankees on July 31 for a washed up Ruben Sierra and a total bust in pitcher, Matt Drews. Even though the Tigers were struggling to make money, Cecil still put butts in the seats, simply because of his power. He had a pretty amazing run in Detroit, coming out of nowhere in 1990 to hit 51 home runs and slugging his way to All-Star games after that.
Summary: This was manager Buddy Bell’s first season, and he was the clubs first manager after Sparky Anderson left at the end of 1995. Bell had some tough shoes to fill and a bad team to try and make it happen. The Tigers used 27 pitchers in 1996 and none of them were really worth a damn. Omar Olivares was the staff “ace” and led the club with seven wins. Seriously. Seven wins was enough to lead the team in wins that year. Of the Tigers 27 pitchers, 16 of them finished their time with the Tigers in 1996 with an ERA above of 6.00. Let that sink in for a second. This team was just a total disaster. Damion Easley saw some time at the end of the season and played pretty well, ditto for guys like Curtis Pride and Justin Thompson.

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Cup of Coffee: Part 5

Blake VandeBunte — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:39:19 +0000

This segment is taking forever, but I’m having a good time so I’m going to stick with it. Here we go, part five.

Deacon McGuire: McGuire is not a huge name these days, but for a while, he held numerous Major League records including, most seasons played, games caught, and assists made by a catcher. McGuire debuted in 1884 with the Toledo Blue Stockings and caught his last game with the Tigers in 1912 at the age of 48. When it was all said and done, McGuire played 146 games for the Tigers and spent most of his career after baseball in Michigan. He was the baseball coach at Albion College and died in Duck Lake in 1936.
Jose Mesa: Mesa put together a pretty dynamite career as a relief pitcher. He broke into the big leagues as a starting pitcher with the Orioles back in 1987. He pitched for the Tigers for a few weeks in 2007 before failing miserably. In his 11 innings of work with the Tigers, Mesa and his 321 career saves, posted an ERA 12.34. Yikes.
Hal Morris: Morris played for the Tigers in 2000 for the final 40 games of his big league career. Morris went to the University of Michigan. He once had a hit streak of 32 games while with the Reds. The main reason I remember Morris was because of his chase for the batting title in 1991. Morris hit only .318 that season and lost out on the batting title by only one point. It was one of the lowest batting title marks in history.
Hideo Nomo: Nomo burst onto the big league scene with the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 1995. Nomo won the Rookie of the Year award in 1995 and placed fourth in Cy Young voting for the first two seasons of his career. He is one of a select group of players that have thrown at least two no-hitters. Nomo played for the Tigers in 2000 and went 8-12 with an ERA of 4.00. The following fall, the Tigers released Nomo. Nomo responded by throwing a no-hitter the next season and leading the American League in strikeouts.
Troy Percival: Add Percival to the list of big-time closers coming to Detroit (Mesa) and failing. The Tigers overpaid to bring the flame-throwing Percival to Detroit on a two-year deal prior to the 2005 season. In 2005, Percival had an ERA of 5.76 and retired after injuries kept him out of the 2006 season. He made a comeback and had a good year after that. Percival has 358 career saves, most of them with the Angels.
Wally Pipp: Pipp was a slugging first baseman for the New York Yankees from 1915-1925 and lead the American League in home runs twice. However, Pipp is best known for what he didn’t do. In 1925, Pipp went down with an injury and was replaced at first base by Lou Gehrig who then started his 2,130 consecutive game streak. Pipp played for the Tigers in 1913 before joining the Yankees. Pipp passed away in Grand Rapids, MI and is buried there.
Curtis Pride: Pride put together a pretty good career as a pinch-hitter. However, his main claim to fame is being deaf and playing big league baseball. Pride developed lip-reading skills and was played in the big leagues with eight different teams. Pride played for the Tigers in 1996 and 1997 and set a career high for HR with 10 in 1996. He also hit .300 that season on a pretty bad Tigers team.

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Tigers to meet Yankees: So Am I

Blake VandeBunte — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:38:05 +0000

I know Paul O’Neill (pictured) doesn’t play for the Yankees any more. I just dislike the guy and he reminds me of everything I hate about that team.

The Tigers' comeback win tonight was pretty sweet. The club has a had a few high-scoring games the past week or so and tonight’s rally was quite inspiring.

So many times this season, we’ve seen the Tigers fall behind early and then have their offense fail to get them back into the swing of things.

Not tonight.

Nate Robertson pitched like the “real” Nate Robertson tonight and got shelled. Alfredo Figaro did an admirable job filling in and picked up the “W”. The real story was the offense.

They got timely hits from guys like Placido Polanco and Curtis Granderson…oh, and Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera was an absolute beast tonight. What a total pleasure it is to have a guy like that on our side. Unreal.

Unfortunately the Twins won as well, so the Tigers lead in the Central remains at only two games.

No matter what happens on Sunday, that series in Detroit next week is looming large. The four-game set will likely decide the division. Luckily, the Tigers are on the good side here. They have two Huge advantages:

It’s in Detroit. Only two teams in all of baseball have more home wins than the Tigers.

A series split will pretty much wrap things up for the Tigers, who will send Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello to hill in the series.

So that would likely leave the Tigers facing the Yankees in the first round. I won’t be able to return to Michigan to see the ALDS (fingers crossed they even get there), so I’ll have to venture to Yankee Stadium. This poses two problems: I don’t like getting murdered; It will probably break the bank.

If I go, I plan on wearing my Marcus Thames jersey and representing the greatest state in the country.

I miss Michigan.

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What to do with Grandy

Blake VandeBunte — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:23:16 +0000

The playoffs are drawing near, and even though the Tigers have struggled over the last two weeks, it’s looking like they will be there. At the very least, the Tigers will be playing meaningful games into October and that’s always a blessing.

Magglio Ordonez is getting his swing back (or so it appears), while Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander are having MVP-caliber seasons. Curtis Granderson, however, is floundering at exactly the wrong time. What do we make of this?

Curtis has never really hit for that high of an average. He hit .302 in 2007, one of the greatest seasons ever by a Tiger. Granderson is what he is though, and that’s a .273 career hitter. His 2009 season has helped take that figure down, as he’s hitting only .248.

Granderson’s struggles have become so obvious that manager, Jim Leyland bumped him down to seventh in the batting order. Leyland also routinely benches him against left-handed pitchers.

The Tigers' success is 2006, 2007 and 2009 have had Granderson at the center. He’s been at the top of the order nearly the entire time and has patrolled center field like a pro. For the past four years, it’s seemed like an absolute joke to even consider benching him for a meaningful game, or, heaven-forbid, a playoff game.

However, that’s exactly the dilemma the Tigers are likely to face in the first round of the postseason. If the Tigers make the playoffs they will almost certainly face the Yankees in the first round. That means C.C. Sabathia and Andy Pettitte, a pair of left-handers. Here are Granderson’s numbers against LHP:

Career .207 hitter against LHP
.168 hitter against LHP in 2009
0-7 against Andy Pettitte
3-19 (.158) against CC Sabathia

Would Jim Leyland consider benching Granderson in two of the first three games against the Yankees? Would he really start Ryan Raburn at the top of the order in a playoff game? These questions really did seem ludicrous three months ago, but here we are.

I’m not trying to dump on Granderson, because I love him. I love the way he covers ground in CF and I love his combination of speed and power. However, his swing has been off this season and the numbers reflect that, at least a little bit.

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