Results tagged ‘ Jim Leyland ’
Whitecaps Alumni Update
Tigers release Boesch: After years in the Detroit Tigers system, the organization decided to release Boesch from his contract yesterday morning. Apparantly Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski tried to offer him in a trade, but there were no takers. Not there aren’t any teams interested in him, but not at the $2.3 million offered to him by Detroit to avoid an arbitration hearing this winter. Yesterday was the last day they could have cut Boesch, and only be responsible for 1/6 of his salary, less than $400,000 (only..haha). Spring training has been a tough one for Boesch, who’s injury early in spring training put him behind in the running for the final outfield, or even bench position. He’s a career .259 hitter, but only batted .240 last season with 12 home runs and 54 RBI’s. He hit only .230 against right-handers, and Detroit left him off of the post-season roster. Ironic, because after he was injured in the 2011 play-offs, it was seen as a major loss, and a reason the Tigers bowed out to the Rangers. He did have a banner year in 2011, though, hitting .286 with a .799 OPS. Other teams have interest in him, though, including the Yankees, Mets, Astros, and now the Red Sox. Of the teams listed, I like to see him go to the Red Sox. He might do very well hitting at Fenway, and even if he was designated to Pawtucket, I’d be able to see him play in May in Charlotte! As a member of the West Michigan Whitecaps in 2007, Boesch hit.267 with 19 doubles, 10 home runs, and 86 RBI’s.
Brennan Boesch with the Whitecaps back in 2007
Welcome back, Moya: Steven Moya played his first spring training game yesterday, after returning from an elbow injury, which took Tommy John surgery to fix. He went 3-3 against Florida Southern College, with a triple, a double,two RBI’s, and three runs scored. He had a bases-loaded double that scored two runs, and helped the Tigers to an 11-0 victory. During a press conference dicussing the Boesch release, Dombrowski named off some outfield prospects, and his comment about Moya was: “Moya might be better than all of them”. He was having a great season for the Whitecaps last year before being injured. He was hitting .288, with 14 doubles, 13 home runs, and 39 RBI’s at only 20 years old. In 2011, he hit .204, with 10 doubles, 13 homers, and 39 RBI’s as a 19-year-old. Good improvement for him, and he really cut down on his strike-outs, too. Tigers manager Jim Leyland seems to like him, too.
“He’s a prospect, and a good one,” stated Leyland to MLive.com. “That’s where he stands right now. He’s an impressive young man.”
I’m not sure where Moya will start this season, but a good bet he’ll at least be in Double-a Erie by mid-season. I can see him at Single-A Advanced Lakeland due to him getting a late start this spring, and I’ll be tracking his progress this season for sure.
Steven Moya with the Whitecaps last season
Photos courtesy of the West Michigan Whitecaps, Flickr, MLive.com
Brookens back home at third
Brookens signs a baseball card for Lily back in 2007
Tom Brookens patrolled third base at Tiger Stadium for Detroit from 1979 to 1988, and was part of the awesome World Series Championship team of 1984. Now, he’s back, but standing outside the lines as the Tigers new third base coach. He, Gene Lamont, and Rafeal Belliard have done the ‘ol coaching shuffle, with the latter taking over Brookens’ first base coaching job, and Lamont being ‘promoted’ to bench coach. After this season ended, management stated that they would be making adjustments to the coaching staff, and this will hopefully solve the ‘third base coach’ problem. Tigers fans have not been pleased with Lamonts’ performance the last few seasons. The most obvious blunder was sending a not-so-speedy Prince Fielder to his doom in a close game of the World Series. He’s been defended by manager Jim Leyland, though, as he called it “an aggressive mistake”. Leyland said the move was not based on performance, but I’m not sure what other criteria this decision would be based on. It’s also been stated that Lamont wanted the change, due to his bad knees and in-ability to dodge foul balls, so maybe that’s it. Brookens been coaching in the Detroit system since 2005. He helped out as hitting coach with the West Michigan Whitecaps for the first half of the season in 2006, before managing short-season Oneonta the rest of the way. He took over as skipper for the ‘Caps in 2007, leading them to a 83-57 record and a Midwest League Championship. He was great with the fans during his time there, and was really nice to the kids when giving autographs. Hopefully this is one more step toward managing in the Majors.
Photo property of Minoring In Baseball
Whitecaps Update: All in the Family
Second baseman Colin Kaline, grandson of Tigers legend Al Kaline
All in the family is a good way to describe a small percentage of the West Michigan Whitecaps roster this season. Four of the new Whitecaps players are related to a former or current Detroit Tiger! First is catcher Patrick Leyland, who is the son of Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland. Patrick was drafted in the eighth round of the 2010 draft, and played at short-season Connecticut last year. Manning the second base position in West Michigan will be Colin Kaline, who is the grandson of HOFer Al Kaline. Big shoes to fill for Colin, as Al is one of the greatest Tigers ever, winning the World Series in 1968 and being a 15 time All-Star. Colin also played for the Connecticut Tigers last season. Also patrolling the infield will be Marcus Lemon, son of former Tiger Chet Lemon. Chet was a member of the 1984 World Series Champions during his nine-year stint in Detroit. Marcus was actually drafted by the Texas Rangers, but picked up by Detroit as a Minor League free agent in February. Pitching out of the ‘Cap bullpen this season will be Nick Avila. Nick is the cousin of current Tigers’ catcher Alex Avila, and the nephew of Detroit’s Vice President/Assistant General Manager Al Avila. Like I said, all in the family…
Marcus Lemon, son of former 1984 World Champion Tiger Chet Lemon
Joining the above mentioned on the 2012 ‘Caps roster, are seven of the Tigers ten 2011 draft picks. These are some decent prospects consisting of first baseman Aaron Westlake, shortstop Brandon Loy, and third baseman Jason King. The Whitecaps have some quality players returning from last season, too, who made a late season run and barely missed out on the playoffs. Outfielder Steven Moya and lefty pitcher Kyle Ryan are two of those returning players, and give the Whitecaps a more experienced ballclub this season. While the 2011 Opening Day roster consisted of six teenagers and twelve players under 20, this year club has just one teenager and five 20-yr-olds. The lone youngster is Danry Vasquez, one of the top 30 Detroit prospect despite having only one professional season under his belt.
The Whitecaps have been a pretty busy crew, though, despite only being in town a few days. Yesterday they held and open practice for the public, and took time to meet the fans and sign autographs. Today, a handful of players like Westlake, Loy, and Moya, participated in the Tigers vs. Mud Hens game in Toledo. They open the season tomarrow in Dayton, Ohio, against the Dragons. It was a nice surprise to see these guys in the lineup on TV, and a chance to see them in action before our game next week. I’m hoping that this is an exciting year in West Michigan!
Photos courtesy of the Grand Rapids Press
Season ends early for Whitecaps Alumns
Joel Zumaya: Former West Michigan Whitecap and Detroit Tiger relief pitcher Joel Zumaya has seen his season end prematurely once again. In 2011, he suffered a season-ending injury that required a screw to be inserted to stabilize a fracture at the tip of his right elbow. Ouch. Zumaya, now a member of the Minnesota Twins organization, just tore his ulnar collateral ligament, and will miss all of 2012. I’m no doctor, but that just sounds bad. Bad to the point where he may have to under go Tommy John surgery, but the so far Zoom-Zoom is undecided on whether he’ll go that route. He’s have to go through at least a year of rehab after having the ligament replaced. His other choice may be to hang up the glove, and pick up the toy guitar connected to his PS3, and go from there. Zumaya’s injury troubles started by injuring his wrist playing Guitar Hero, and hurting his shoulder helping move boxes in this parents attic. His comments make it seem he’s leaning toward retirement:
“Right now, my perspective is probably not (get the surgery). I know I’m pretty young, but I’m probably going to go on six surgeries if I get another one. I’m only 27 years old. I’ve taken a lot of wear and tear on my body, especially my arm, and then rehab, and it just mentally takes a lot out of you.”
The Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland is still close to Zumaya, and stated: “I sure will call him. I hear he’s pretty upset.” Maybe Leyland can give him some advise on the situation. It’s too bad, because guys that throw 100 mph. don’t come along all that often. As a player, he really got the fans to rally behind him and the Tigers on 2006, but has only pitched about 39 innings since then.
Scott Sizemore: Another former Whitecaps and Tiger Scott Sizemore will miss all of 2012 with a torn anterior cruciated ligament. In layman’s terms…he messed up his knee. Now a member of the Oakland Athletics, he hurt his knee during fielding drills on Saturday…the same day of Zumaya’s injury. Sizemore was slated to be the A’s every day third baseman this season. Too bad this kid can’t catch a break. He injured his ankle during play in the Arizona Fall League just after the Tigers announced that they would not be re-signing second baseman Placido Palanco, and that Sizemore would be given the job. His ankle never really had time to heal properly, and he never found his swing to stay in the Tigers lineup. He hit .223 in 65 games for Detroit in 2010-11 before being traded to Oakland for pitcher David Purcey. Last season he hit .249 with 11 home runs and 52 RBI’s in 93 games for the A’s.
I’m glad Sizemore had an opportunity to play in Oakland, and hope next season will bring him some more success there. He was one of my favorite players off of the 2007 Whitecaps Midwest League Championship team. As for this season, though, it looks like these former Whitecaps will be spectators just like us…
Photos courtesy of the Associated Press
Facebook page courtesy of Tauntr.com
Former Whitecap getting Leyland’s attention
Spring Training for the 2012 season is still in its infancy, yet already a former Whitecaps player is catching the eye of Detroit Tigers skipper Jim Leyland. Reported by Chris Iott of MLive, Avisail Garcia is getting some looks for his batting practice displays.
“I think if you watched that young Garcia kid hit, you would have had to have been pretty impressed”, Leyland stated. “But you try not to get too carried away… But he’s a talent that’s coming. It’ll take a little time, but he’s a really good talent.”
Garcia has is 6′ 4″, and was listed last season at 230 lbs. Now he’s tipping the scales at about 240-45 after all the hard work he put in Venezuela in the off-season. Not bad for a prospect who’s only 20 years old. He played for the West Michigan Whitecaps in 2010, hitting .281 in 125 games. He also hit 17 doubles and knocked in 63 RBI’s. He’s been compared to Miguel Cabrera in both his facial features and body type, which isn’t a bad thing, and considers his fellow Venezuelan his friend. He also seemed very proud that Leyland was taking a close look at him at the plate.
” I feel good,” Garcia stated. “I work for that, you know. I’m proud of what he said.”
Photo courtesy of the West Michigan Whitecaps
Armando Perfecto!
First of all, I’d like to congratulate Armando Galarraga on pitching a perfect game. Second of all, I’d like to state with regret that I didn’t watch the game. Nope, not a single inning. I was actually on my way home from coaching my kids Little League game when I turned the Tigers game on the radio. That one word buzzed my ears and caght my attention: perfect. The volume automatically went up, and the kids got sushed a bit. Thank goodness they were stuffing their faces with Dairy Queen at the time to keep them a little quieter than usual. I was just in time for the 9th inning. One out. Two outs. Yeah! Three outs! Didn’t happen. The announcers were going a bit nuts, and couldn’t believe Galarraga’s luck. When they saw the reply themselves, they couldn’t believe the horrible call. Indian Jason Donald was safe, and Jim Joyce had just cost Galarraga his official perfect game. Not being able to see the play myself, I grapped the cell and made the call to my dad downstate, who I know would be watching. “How bad was it?”, I asked. “It wasn’t even close!”, he stated. Wasn’t even close. When I made it home and finally saw the replay myself, it occured to me that the announceers were right, my dad was right, the Tigers were right, and the 18,000 fans at Comerica were right. Donald was out by ‘a mile’. Joyce was the only human on Earth who thought the guy was safe. Even Donald new he was out, looking at the umpire in disbelief himself. A very classy move, I might add, not celebrating what he wrecked. Galarraga retired the next batter for his one-hit victory, that somehow seemed like a loss. Joyce got an ear-full from the Tiger players and manager Jim Leyland. Leyland, however, took the high road after the game and everyone had settled down a bit. Leyland talked about the human elemet of baseball, but let it be known that it WAS a perfect game. Galarraga knew in his heart, that what he accomplished, too, stating: “I got a perfect game. Maybe it’s not in the book, but I’m going to show my son the CD.” After watching the replay, Joyce even conceded that he blew the call stated that, well: “I blew the damn call.” He even apologized to Armando.
I admit, after the game I as fuming a bit myself. I almost couldn’t wait to get on the blogosphere and rip Joyce. After all, he deserves it, right? How can he think the guy was actually safe, when it was so obvious. If it was a close call, then it would be a different story. You could maybe understand. I also don’t believe in ‘giving’ the pitcher a call on a close play. If he really would have been safe, then so be it. What it comes down to, though, is that everyone can make a mistake. It’s too bad that Joyces blunder cost what would have been the first perfect game in Detroit Tigers’ history. This will be Joyce’s legacy now. I don’t think it’s right that someone changed his Wikipedia page to dub him ‘the worst ump in Major League Baseball’, or that they put him dead on June 2. That’s going a bit too far. I think that part has been removed, though, but the conroversial call section was added. One of the worst things that could come of this, is that fans will be screaming for instant replay for just about everything now. It will surely make things interesting in the baseball world for the next few days, anyway. There-I’ve vented.
Photo courtesy of the AP
Minoring In Baseball
Recent Comments