kingofdetroit57 said:

What do you guys think we need, and how do you propose we get it?

I think we could use an upgrade at 3B. Nick might be part of the future, but he's been disappointing since coming up. I believe he's our only below average starting player by WAR, so we should be able to upgrade there. Someone like Brett Lawrie could probably be had on the cheap since the A's stink and he's only signed through 2015 on the cheap. Martin Prado might be another option there, though he's signed through 2016. Todd Frazier or Kyle Seager could be nice gets, but they'd probably cost a good amount since they are young, productive, and signed/controlled for a few years. Lawrie makes the most sense to me out of this group given the likely cost, the A's position, our trade history with Beane, and the fact he'd be a short term rental that doesn't disrupt the future with Castellanos if DD is still enamored with him.

A front line starter would be nice, and that's the rumor I hear on us so far. Cueto, Hamels, and Kazmir are the names I have heard batted around. Any of them would help us and could take the place of Greene if he can't turn it around quickly in Toledo.

I'd like us to get another established BP arm. It doesn't need to be a closer or setup guy, just someone who can give us a clean inning or two most times. Not sure who is out there that fits that bill, but there are probably lots of decent options for us.

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I doubt they sit or send down Nick. Do we even have players to trade? Our minor league system is pretty bare.

2012-2014 Away

Seager (L, 27) .270 BAVG .329 OBP .460 SLG .789 OPS 14.4 PA/BB


Frazier (R, 29) .250 BAVG .320 OBP .415 SLG .735 OPS 13.4 PA/BB

Prado (R, 31) .284 BAVG .338 OBP .395 SLG .733 OPS 14.6 PA/BB


Lawrie (R, 25) .239 BAVG .293 OBP .366 SLG .659 OPS 17.4 PA/BB

Castellanos (R, 23) .236 BAVG .280 OBP .353 SLG .633 OPS 19.7 PA/BB


Seager is signed thru 2021 and DET cannot afford to pay his salary ($19 Mil a season 2018-2021).

Frazier is signed thru 2016 and is skewed by his hitter friendly home park stats. At $7.5 Mil in 2016, he would be overpriced for mediocre production.

Prado makes $11 Mil for 2015 and 2016, with NYY paying $3 Mil of that each year. Even at $8 Mil a year, he is overpriced for his production

Lawrie isn't much of an upgrade on Castellanos. He is arbitration eligible and I am not sure I would even offer him more than his $1.9 Mil 2015 salary.



2013-Present Away (35 MLB qualify with 400 PAs)

10. Seager

23. Prado
24. Lawrie
28. Frazier
35. Castellanos


Top 15 (without Cabrera)
1. Donaldson
2. Beltre
3. Uribe
4. Harrison
5. Rendon
6. Carpenter
7. Wright
8. Alvarez
9. Seager
10. A. Ramirez
11. R. Zimmerman
12. Longoria
13. Reynolds
14. Freese
15. Gillaspie


Reynolds or Freese would be viable stop gaps, iffin you are expecting Castellanos will develop. I am not. So I would talk to the Pirates about either Alvarez or Harrison. I would even consider Gillaspie.

Rebbiv said:

2012-2014 Away

Seager (L, 27) .270 BAVG .329 OBP .460 SLG .789 OPS 14.4 PA/BB


Frazier (R, 29) .250 BAVG .320 OBP .415 SLG .735 OPS 13.4 PA/BB

Prado (R, 31) .284 BAVG .338 OBP .395 SLG .733 OPS 14.6 PA/BB


Lawrie (R, 25) .239 BAVG .293 OBP .366 SLG .659 OPS 17.4 PA/BB

Castellanos (R, 23) .236 BAVG .280 OBP .353 SLG .633 OPS 19.7 PA/BB


Seager is signed thru 2021 and DET cannot afford to pay his salary ($19 Mil a season 2018-2021).

Frazier is signed thru 2016 and is skewed by his hitter friendly home park stats. At $7.5 Mil in 2016, he would be overpriced for mediocre production.

Prado makes $11 Mil for 2015 and 2016, with NYY paying $3 Mil of that each year. Even at $8 Mil a year, he is overpriced for his production

Lawrie isn't much of an upgrade on Castellanos. He is arbitration eligible and I am not sure I would even offer him more than his $1.9 Mil 2015 salary.



2013-Present Away (35 MLB qualify with 400 PAs)

10. Seager

23. Prado
24. Lawrie
28. Frazier
35. Castellanos


Top 15 (without Cabrera)
1. Donaldson
2. Beltre
3. Uribe
4. Harrison
5. Rendon
6. Carpenter
7. Wright
8. Alvarez
9. Seager
10. A. Ramirez
11. R. Zimmerman
12. Longoria
13. Reynolds
14. Freese
15. Gillaspie


Reynolds or Freese would be viable stop gaps, iffin you are expecting Castellanos will develop. I am not. So I would talk to the Pirates about either Alvarez or Harrison. I would even consider Gillaspie.

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Good ideas on Alvarez, Harrison, and Gillaspie. As you know, Nick's worse on defense than offense, so pretty much anybody in the league would give us a defensive upgrade there too.

Mitchrapp said:

I doubt they sit or send down Nick. Do we even have players to trade? Our minor league system is pretty bare.

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If I was another team's GM, these are the players I would be seeking:

Mike Gerber L, OF, 22

Will Kengor, L, 1B, 22

Wynton Bernard R, OF, 24 (40-man roster)


Buck Farmer R, SP, 24 (40-man roster)

Kevin Ziomek L, SP, 23

Paul Voelker R, RP, 22

Tyler Ford L, RP, 23

Joe Jimenez R, RP, 20


I would also see if I could get Tyler Collins (L, OF, 25) from them, seeing they don't know how to give him a chance.

Honestly I'm not sure we should be looking for upgrades at all right now. If we make trades we should trade for young players, not necessarily players to step in and play right now. And we should not trade any prospects at all, if anything we should dangle Price, Kinsler, and maybe Cespedes or Davis and hope for a decent return in cheap, young, promising players.

Thumb said:

Honestly I'm not sure we should be looking for upgrades at all right now. If we make trades we should trade for young players, not necessarily players to step in and play right now. And we should not trade any prospects at all, if anything we should dangle Price, Kinsler, and maybe Cespedes or Davis and hope for a decent return in cheap, young, promising players.

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I agree to a degree.

Kinsler is almost untradeable with his salary and we have no one to step in to replace him, unless it is the likes of Romine.

Yes, we should look to trade pending Free Agents we do not expect to resign. Price, Cespedes, Soria, Simon, Davis, Chamberlain and Gorzelanny. Davis, Chamberlain and Gorzelanny probably won't fetch anything. Price and Soria could get us a lot.

From what I have read and posted in recent days, it would seem more like DD and the Tigers are looking to find another frontline starting pitcher, or a mid rotation pitcher and an upgrade to the Bullpen once again.

Thumb said:

Honestly I'm not sure we should be looking for upgrades at all right now. If we make trades we should trade for young players, not necessarily players to step in and play right now. And we should not trade any prospects at all, if anything we should dangle Price, Kinsler, and maybe Cespedes or Davis and hope for a decent return in cheap, young, promising players.

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I agree with you. But, as long as Mr I is alive, they will not be sellers at the trade deadline.

If they are going to be buyers im not sold on trading for a starter. Most of the available pitchers will be rentals anyway.

If they could grab a setup man and a left handed bat that would be more useful. Ideally the braves would fall out of contention and become sellers then you could grab Grilli and Kelly Johnson. Both are having very good seasons and affordable.

kingofdetroit57 said:

http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2015/06/ask_schmehl_johnny_cueto_nick.html#incart_river

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Starting pitching will be an area the Tigers will consider addressing, and I suspect they'll have scouts watching a handful of potential trade candidates in the coming weeks, including Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto and Oakland's Scott Kazmir. They may also give Matt Garza, Mike Leake and Aaron Harang a peak in the coming weeks.

The Tigers will also probably look to upgrade their bullpen around the non-waiver trade deadline. I can't imagine they'll add an elite closer, like Aroldis Chapman or Jonathan Papelbon. They have Joakim Soria. And they're happy with Joakim Soria. But could they acquire a late-inning reliever? I think it's possible. Milwaukee's Will Smith makes sense in my eyes. So does Rockies closer John Axford.

This year is an interesting test case for the team. The team's lack of young impact players is catching up. They might be able to swap some of their prospects for short-term help, but it's debatable how much that will help. The team needs top line pitching, but someone like that would clear out our farm system. Further, even landing an ace pitcher may not be enough to make the playoffs (much less actually compete for a championship).

I'm not saying the team should be sellers or anything, but at a certain point the team should realize their best chance at a championship is developing the young players rather than trying to put band-aids on a gunshot wound.

Last 3 Years Away

S. Greene 2.77 xFIP .293 wOBA 1.17 WHIP

D. Price 3.02 xFIP .291 wOBA 1.11 WHIP

M. Scherzer 3.19 xFIP .290 wOBA 1.15 WHIP

J. Verlander 3.36 xFIP .306 wOBA 1.26 WHIP

A. Sanchez 3.44 xFIP .300 wOBA 1.24 WHIP

D. Smyly 3.61 xFIP .284 wOBA 1.15 WHIP

S. Kazmir 3.63 xFIP .303 wOBA 1.25 WHIP

R. Porcello 3.63 xFIP .318 wOBA 1.32 WHIP

J. Cueto 3.77 xFIP .286 wOBA 1.18 WHIP

D. Fister 3.81 xFIP .321 wOBA 1.29 WHIP

M. Leake 3.93 xFIP .320 wOBA 1.29 WHIP

M. Garza 3.96 xFIP .314 wOBA 1.22 WHIP

A. Simon 4.27 xFIP .293 wOBA 1.23 WHIP

A. Harang 4.57 xFIP .331 wOBA 1.46 WHIP



Relievers

A. Chapman 2.54 xFIP .250 wOBA 1.08 WHIP

J. Benoit 2.83 xFIP .283 wOBA 1.14 WHIP

F. Rodney 2.99 xFIP .265 wOBA 1.20 WHIP

J. Grilli 3.02 xFIP .290 wOBA 1.28 WHIP

J. Soria 3.13 xFIP .241 wOBA 1.03 WHIP

A. Alburquerque 3.16 xFIP .297 wOBA 1.30 WHIP

C. Furbush 3.19 xFIP .259 wOBA 1.10 WHIP

B. Badenhop 3.45 xFIP .312 wOBA 1.26 WHIP

J. Nathan 3.51 xFIP .280 wOBA 1.24 WHIP

J. Pabelbon 3.56 xFIP .239 wOBA 0.95 WHIP

C. Fien 3.59 xFIP .259 wOBA 1.06 WHIP

J. Axford 3.61 xFIP .335 wOBA 1.64 WHIP

P. Coke 3.77 xFIP .346 wOBA 1.53 WHIP

J. Chamberlain 3.90 xFIP .301 wOBA 1.32 WHIP

T. Gorzelanny 4.05 xFIP .285 wOBA 1.21 WHIP

J. Veras 4.09 xFIP .297 wOBA 1.36 WHIP

W. Smith 4.09 xFIP .332 wOBA 1.47 WHIP

I. Krol 4.45 xFIP .342 wOBA 1.28 WHIP

J. Hanrahan 4.72 xFIP .327 wOBA 1.45 WHIP

J. Valverde 4.85 xFIP .307 wOBA 1.24 WHIP

Price, Cespedes, Soria, Simon, Davis, Chamberlain, Nathan and Gorzelanny are all Free Agents at the end of the year. The majority, if not all, will not be resigned. We have very little available to replace them next year internally. Using any "prospect" in a trade, almost guarantees no "quality" offseason moves and points to lower level FA signings to "fill" the roster. We still don't know if Castellanos will ever be a viable big leaguer. All of this is just kicking the can down the road.

needs = win streak! longer ones than losing ones!

Trades = 6 loses for 6 wins not going to happen! That's the real problem 6 back in the lose column is getting to be a problem. We have to sweep KC in two 3 game series at this point to draw even!
This outfit better start kicking it in gear! IE refer to needs.

This is what happens when you don't develop the farm system!!!!! And really drafting all these arms over the years. And we need pitching!!! Somehow the plan not working.

Castellanos will never be anything better than below average in the field. Just watch him play and you can see that he's not terribly coordinated or fluid when getting to balls, and his hands aren't very good either. He's probably better suited for the outfield, but that's assuming his bat develops. I can see some potential with the bat and the power, but his plate discipline is horrid. He swings at trash and rarely provides good at bats. He could really use an extended trip back to the minors for more polishing. I have no doubt he could go down there and look like Ted Williams, but the Tigers don't seem to want to go that way. I'm hoping that they wise up and do that by getting a spot filler via trade, and maybe Castellanos can come back up as a late season addition when rosters expand.

kingofdetroit57 said:

Castellanos will never be anything better than below average in the field. Just watch him play and you can see that he's not terribly coordinated or fluid when getting to balls, and his hands aren't very good either. He's probably better suited for the outfield, but that's assuming his bat develops. I can see some potential with the bat and the power, but his plate discipline is horrid. He swings at trash and rarely provides good at bats. He could really use an extended trip back to the minors for more polishing. I have no doubt he could go down there and look like Ted Williams, but the Tigers don't seem to want to go that way. I'm hoping that they wise up and do that by getting a spot filler via trade, and maybe Castellanos can come back up as a late season addition when rosters expand.

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Just another prime example of Tigers mis-management. In reality he should probably be making his major league debut this year...at the earliest. He was not ready but he was forced into action due to poor decisions. They should have been working on his plate discipline and defense in minor leagues over the past 3 years. Figure out what he is and have him READY when he is called up.

lonesometiger said:

needs = win streak! longer ones than losing ones!

Trades = 6 loses for 6 wins not going to happen! That's the real problem 6 back in the lose column is getting to be a problem. We have to sweep KC in two 3 game series at this point to draw even!
This outfit better start kicking it in gear! IE refer to needs.

This is what happens when you don't develop the farm system!!!!! And really drafting all these arms over the years. And we need pitching!!! Somehow the plan not working.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what will happen but you can gain 6 games without sweeping KC. There are other ways.

We cannot be buyers, plain and simple, especially in 3rd place.