For those that missed the guidelines I am using for this series of posts, you can find them here.
Team #19: Detroit Tigers
General Managers(since 1994)
Joe Klein (1994-1995): 113-146
Randy Smith (1996-2002): 466-666
Dave Dombrowski (2003-Current): 529-606
Team Performance
| Playoffs | Division Finish | ||||||
| WC | League | Playoff App | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
The Tigers have actually had a surprisingly low amount of success. When I started to think about the Tigers’ performance over the last 15 years, I thought that they had done reasonably well at some point during the time. I knew that the team had some pretty horrendous seasons (2002 comes to mind), but I was a big surprised at how bad some of the other years had been as well. All information is drawn from Baseball Reference.
| Position | Name | Acquired | Years with Org. |
Stats with Organization |
Left? |
| C | Alex Avila | 2008 – 5th Rd | 2 | 69 gm, .253/.342/.437, 8 HR, 25 RBI, 2 SB, 19 R | Currently with Org. |
| 1B | Jeff Larish | 2005 – 5th Rd | 5 | 74 gm, .242/.323/.404, 6 HR, 23 RBI, 2 SB, 25 R | Currently with Org. |
| 2B | Scott Sizemore | 2006 – 5th Rd | 4 | 30 gm, .206/.297/.289, HR, 8 RBI, 12 R | Currently with Org. |
| 3B | Brandon Inge | 1998 – 2nd Rd | 12 | 1 All Star Appearance 1221 gm, .237/.306/.295, 129 HR, 522 RBI, 40 SB, 469 R |
Currently with Org. |
| SS | Ramon Santiago | Int’l FA – 1998 | 6+5 | 485 gm, .249/.316/.342, 19 HR, 122 RBI, 26 SB, 170 R | Traded to SEA – 1/8/04 |
| LF | Ryan Raburn | 2001 – 5th Rd | 9 | 301 gm, .258/.320/.441, 25 HR, 106 RBI, 12 SB, 112 R | Currently with Org. |
| CF | Curtis Granderson | 2002 – 3rd Rd | 7 | 1 All Star Appearance 722 gm, .271/.343/.482, 109 HR, 321 RBI, 73 SB, 461 R |
Traded to NYY – 12/8/09 |
| RF | Brennan Boesch | 2006 – 3rd Rd | 4 | 49 gm, .337/.389/.624, 11 HR, 39 RBI, 2 SB, 24 R | Currently with Org. |
| DH | Cameron Maybin | 2005 – 1st Rd (10) | 2 | 24 gm, .143/.208/.265, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 5 SB, 8 R | Traded to FLA – 12/4/07 |
| SP | Justin Verlander | 2004 – 1st Rd (2) | 6 | 2006 Rookie of the Year, 2 All Star Appearances 73-48, 3.92 ERA, 833 K, 316 BB, 936 IP, 1.271 WHIP |
Currently with Org. |
| SP | Rick Porcello | 2007 – 1st Rd (27) | 3 | 18-16, 4.59 ERA, 122 K, 74 BB, 1.440 WHIP | Currently with Org. |
| SP | Jair Jurrjens | Int’l FA – 2003 | 4 | 3-1, 4.70 ERA, 13 K, 11 BB, 30.2 IP, 1.292 WHIP | Traded to ATL – 10/29/07 |
| SP | Jeff Weaver | 1998 – 1st Rd (14) | 4 | 39-51, 4.33 ERA, 477 K, 209 BB, 714.2 IP, 1.311 WHIP | Traded to NYY – 7/5/02 |
| SP | Brian Moehler | 1993 – 6th Rd | 9 | 48-52, 5.07 ERA, 446 K, 227 BB, 809 IP, 1.397 WHIP | Traded to CIN – 7/23/02 |
| RP | Joel Zumaya | 2002 – 11th Rd | 8 | 13-11, 5 SV, 2.96 ERA, 209 K, 112 BB, 206.2 IP, 1.345 WHIP | Currently with Org. |
| RP | Ryan Perry | 2008 – 1st Rd (21) | 2 | 1-5, 4.32 ERA, 78 K, 50 BB, 83.1 IP, 1.536 WHIP | Currently with Org. |
| RP | Jason Frasor | 1999 – 33rd Rd | 4 | No Major League Appearances | Traded to LAD – 9/18/02 |
| RP | Burke Badenhop | 2005 – 19th Rd | 2 | No Major League Appearances with Org. | Traded to FLA – 12/4/07 |
| RP | Fernando Rodney | Int’l FA – 1997 | 12 | 15-30, 4.28 ERA, 314 K, 170 BB, 330 IP, 1.424 WHIP | Free Agency – 11/5/09 |
| CL | Francisco Cordero | Int’l FA – 1994 | 5 | 2-2, 3.32 ERA, 19 K, 18 BB, 19 IP, 1.947 WHIP | Traded to TEX – 11/2/09 |
| BN | Omar Infante | Int’l FA – 1999 | 8 | 494 gm, .253/.298/.386, 32 HR, 154 RBi, 34 SB, 192 R | Traded to CHC – 11/12/07 |
| BN | Cody Ross | 1999 – 4th Rd | 5 | 6 gm, .211/.286/.421, HR, 5 RBI, R | Traded to LAD – 4/1/04 |
| BN | Scott Moore | 2002 – 1st Rd (8) | 3 | No Major League Appearances with Org. | Traded to CHC – 2/9/05 |
| BN | Andres Torres | 1998 – 4th Rd | 6 | 81 gm, .214/.264/.282, 1 HR, 12 RBI, 8 SB, 31 R | Free Agency – 4/22/04 |
| BN | Trever Miller | 1991 – 1st Rd (41) | 5 | 0-4, 9.18 ERA, 8 K, 9 BB, 16.2 IP, 2.22 WHIP | Traded to HOU – 12/10/96 |
June Amateur Draft
The Tigers have had some really good luck with their top picks of late, with Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello both providing solid performance so far at the Major League level. In addition, top picks Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin were both used to acquire current MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera. They are starting to show some value out of their picks in recent years, with Scott Sizemore, Brennan Boesch, and Alex Avila all starting to bear fruit. One of the keys for the Tigers has been their willingness to pay over slot to their top picks of late, as they have had players who have fallen to them as a result of other teams’ unwillingness to pay those top picks.
International Free Agency
The Tigers haven’t really had a whole lot of success in the international market of late. They had some solid pick ups with Fernando Rodney and Francisco Cordero, but aside from Jair Jurrjens, they haven’t really had any impact signees in a while. Granted that international signees take longer to bear fruit, but even their top-10 from Baseball America doesn’t have a whole lot of IFA signees on it.
Overall Grade
I give the Tigers a grade of C. They have had some excellent draft picks (Verlander, Weaver, Inge, Granderson), and have turned a few others (Miller, Maybin, Cordero) into solid players via trades. There are still some gaps in this roster, with players who have not played for the Tigers or very little for the Tigers, but overall it is a solid roster.
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