Wednesday, July 31, 2013

My thoughts on the Detroit Tigers' trade...

The three-way deal, from the Tigers' standpoint, is essentially Avisail Garcia for Jose Iglesias. In regard to prospects, it's essentially a wash at this point. Garcia is an impressive athlete with good speed, throwing arm and ability to put the bat on the ball. At this stage, however, he has yet to develop the ability to pull a good major league fastball with any sort of consistently. It limits his power, and therefore his value. Sometimes stronger players in their early 20s do eventually start turning on the ball, but it's not necessarily a skill that can developed. It's something players, generally, either have or don't have. It does seem to limit Garcia's ceiling.
People seeing Iglesias' .330 batting average with the Red Sox should realize it is misleading. He had a fairly extensive track record in the minor leagues in which his offensive production was been disappointing in Triple A. I have seen him play, but not a lot.  I didn't get a real good gauge from those few at bats and routine plays.
Jose Iglesias: Good field, no hit?
The Red Sox commentators, however, raved about his defense, and you have all been hearing about his defensive skill since the trade, so there is no reason to doubt it. That would make him a big upgrade from Peralta defensively, but it would be naïve to be believe it doesn't hamstring the Tigers offensively.
The good part is that fielding is a constant and shortstop is far more difficult to fill than corner outfield.
Above-average fielders make errors, but they don't go into slumps. Hitting is an up-and-down aspect of the game, for even the very best hitters. The Tigers have the best starting staff in the major leagues and just augmented their bullpen with Jose Veras. Iglesias will help the Tigers' pitching staff, especially Rick Porcello and Doug Fister, who rely on ground ball outs.
The Tigers eventually needed to address the shortstop position after the season anyway, but there is no way general manager Dave Dombrowski would have made this trade were it not for the handwriting on the wall about Peralta's upcoming suspension. It Peralta, 31, were not in trouble with Major League Baseball, it's possible he would have been re-signed as the Tigers' shortstop. He did, after all, just play in the All Star Game, represents one of Dombrowski's better trades (where have you gone Giovanni Soto) and is still in his prime.
There is a lot of focus on Garcia, and the possibility he will come back to haunt the Tigers with the White Sox , a division rival. But the immediate hurt could come in the form of Jake Peavy with the Red Sox. He has tremendous competitive character and it is now very possible the Tigers will have to face him during the postseason.

7 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I hope he can develop into a 280-290 hitter. He's young and could develop a better offensive game. I'm really happy to have a shortstop with some range finally.

12:20 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Peavy does not frighten me at all.

12:22 PM 
Blogger Fred Brill said...

Book,
I like this trade a lot although I am very disappointed we lose Mini-Miggy. But then Garcia couldn’t beat out Tuiasosopo-ring-a-ling-a-ding-dong for the open outfield spot.
I hate that he’s with Chicago.
But the reality is that it’s Peralta’s only business option – should they suspend him – to not appeal and push his suspension to next year – because then Jhonny has pretty much zero free agency market value. He is pretty much hand-tied to take his punishment this year – assuming there is punishment coming.
Iglesias will become a part of the core of this team – as Infante did finally replacing Polanco – and Jhonny did replacing Guillen.
He may only get a couple of weeks for all we know.
But even so – I will contend – Jhonny Peralta fan that I am and have been – that Iglesias is an upgrade – perhaps not at the plate – but put him and Infante together and we are suddenly very solid up the middle – and all we need from Julio – I mean Jose – is base hits. Keep the inning alive – get the guys over for the next batter. We really do have enough muscle – now that Martinez looks like he’s back.
But as I did watch all of Jose Iglesias highlight reels this morning over coffee – the one thing that did come to mind – with off balanced on acrobatic play throws and flips to first is – he might expose some of Prince Fielders first base flaws a bit more – there will be more balls to dig out of the dirt and more off target tosses to try to reign in. This might not be good for the Princester.
But then – Fielder has already improved greatly over the last year or so – perhaps he can adjust.
So I like the Iglesias trade.
And with Veras now to shore up the bullpen – I think Mr Dombrowski did a fantastic job at this deadline.
A pair of Joses – it could be the solution that we all hoped would come at this deadline.
Now let’s hope Miggy and Omar can heal up in time.

12:33 PM 
Blogger section444 said...

Garcia playing at US Cellular field, will hit for home run power, even if it's to right center field or dead center. Also, there is the risk that Iglesias will end up a lifetime .235 hitter, not good enough for a championship lineup.

Dave

12:33 PM 
Blogger Fred Brill said...

Book,

I like this trade a lot although I am very disappointed we lose Mini-Miggy. But then Garcia couldn’t beat out Tuiasosopo-ring-a-ling-a-ding-dong for the open outfield spot.

I hate that he’s with Chicago.

But the reality is that it’s Peralta’s only business option – should they suspend him – to not appeal and push his suspension to next year – because then Jhonny has pretty much zero free agency market value. He is pretty much hand-tied to take his punishment this year – assuming there is punishment coming.

Iglesias will become a part of the core of this team – as Infante did finally replacing Polanco – and Jhonny did replacing Guillen.

Peralta may only get a couple of weeks for all we know.

But even so – I will contend – Jhonny Peralta fan that I am and have been – that Iglesias is an upgrade – perhaps not at the plate – but put him and Infante together and we are suddenly very solid up the middle – and all we need from Julio – I mean Jose – is base hits. Keep the inning alive – get the guys over for the next batter. We really do have enough muscle – now that Martinez looks like he’s back.

But as I did watch all of Jose Iglesias highlight reels this morning over coffee – the one thing that did come to mind – with off balanced on acrobatic play throws and flips to first is – he might expose some of Prince Fielders first base flaws a bit more – there will be more balls to dig out of the dirt and more off target tosses to try to reign in.

This might not be good for the Princester.

But then – Fielder has already improved greatly over the last year or so – perhaps he can adjust.

So I like the Iglesias trade.

And with Veras now to shore up the bullpen – I think Mr Dombrowski did a fantastic job at this deadline.

A pair of Joses – it could be the solution that we all hoped would come at this deadline.

Now let’s hope Miggy and Omar can heal up in time.

12:37 PM 
Blogger Hank said...

Vizquel and Ozzie seem to do ok with limited ability at the plate. Every single baseball guru has said this kid should win multiple gold gloves and with their depth in the OF (Tui and Castellanos) I think this was a steal. Shows two things IMO, people don't know what their talking about when they say the Tigers have no talent on the farm because other teams around the league seem always willing to trade for them and two Dombrowski is one of the best GMs in baseball and like
Y the best one the Tigers have ever had, this guy has traded for maybe the best hitter ever, traded for a cy young front runner in Scherzer who is just hitting his prime along with Ajax. The guy is tremendous

1:22 PM 
Blogger Barry said...

Pat this new ss is going to put on a show. If he can hit 260 he will all star.

9:46 PM 

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