Florida

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At BJOL, John Dewan revists the Tigers' super-aggressive plan to move Miguel Cabrera to 3B:

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The White Sox hold a two-game lead over the Tigers today in the race for the AL Central Division title. One of the key reasons the Sox are on top is defense. Not because theirs is so good, but because the Tigers’ is so bad. Detroit has the worst defense in the American League. Compared to the average team, they have lost 39 runs on defense. The White Sox’s defense has saved five runs, which makes them an average defense.

That's a difference of 44 runs, a difference of four games in the standings.

When the Tigers signed Prince Fielder to team up with Miguel Cabrera, the plan was to supercharge their offense. While both players are having excellent seasons, it hasn't worked as well as planned. In 2011, the Tigers scored 4.9 runs per game. This year, they are down to 4.5 runs. Defensively, both Fielder and Cabrera are hurting the team. Ten of the 39 runs lost on defense are from those two, five apiece at their respective positions.

I am somewhat surprised that Cabrera hasn’t been worse at third base. In playing third base with Florida in 2006 and 2007, he lost 29 runs defensively. He was moved to first base with good reason. Returning to third base this year, we projected him to lose about 15 runs for the Tigers this year, and he’s only lost 5 so far. Here are the defensive performances of some of the other players on contenders that have changed positions this year:

Atop the list is a player that has never been synonymous with good defense, Mark Reynolds. This season, Reynolds has moved from third base to first and held his own. His defensive improvement has been a major part of the Orioles’ late-season success and helped him consistently remain in the lineup.

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I/O:  Thus the quote from Drayer:

"At the end of the day, whether it is a year from now, two years from now or three years from now, the ownership group here, the organization, whether it is this year, will step up and give us the resources that we absolutely need to get us over the top and I think we are all excited about that," he said.

CRUNCH:  At times, SSI hasn't given Lincoln and Armstrong enough credit.  In retrospect, they have been (somewhat) willing to clear extra money when they judge the timing to be right.

They cleared huge offers for ARod and Junior, "special hits for special players."  They gave Pat Gillick as much moolah as he needed because "When it's Pat Gillick spending the money, it's very easy to raise payroll."  

Now, apparently, they see the Pinedas and Paxtons and Carps and Ackleys as well as you do, they see the 6 players Jack has in the minors' top 100, and this is the moment that Lincoln and Armstrong reason, "Now is when the mammoth contract will light the fuse on this turnaround."

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I didn't make square contact with the cutter that Spec threw in there.  He went cutter on back-to-back pitches and this time we stomped on the back foot and squared it up ... :- )

Both Clement and Smoak were picked in the 1st round out of college at 21, signed during the summer and went to the Midwest League:

.... [series of age-arc parallels given ]

But . . . Clement did show the kind of stats that indicate the ability to play in the majors.  He slugged close to .500 time and again.  He drew walks.  He didn't strike out all that much.  In fact, he put up pretty much the exactnumbers as Justin Smoak.

My puzzle is: where is the red flag that tells me Clement is a bad bet?

Now I gotcha.  Thanks for leaving it out-and-over.

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Where, in Adam Morrison's college basketball career, was the red flag that told you his game was not going to fly in the NBA?  

Morrison was possibly the best player in college, and there was absolutely no red flag, anywhere, before his arrival in the NBA.  That is because his game was more than enough to ruin any amateur situation he came up against.  But the flaws that did not hurt him in the NCAA, were exploited by bigger, quicker, longer-armed athletes.  

They took advantage of his physical shortcomings to prevent him from getting space for his shot, and Morrison lacked the Larry Bird-type compensations that Michael Jordan (!) thought Morrison would have.

Spec links us to a Hultzen vid:

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I guess he's back to being "Danny."  So there.

Won't cut and paste this time, but the Gameday has all the velo and break info, and it's worth looking at.

3.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

Came right out of the gate at 94 on his first pitch, and hit 95 by the third batter.  Was pretty much 92-94 consistently for three innings.

Hope that is answering the concerns of those who didn't think he'd have that kind of velo.  And it looks like he knows where it's going most of the time.

Gave up a bunch of singles, but got himself out of it with a double-play ball on a slider.

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Then there's an interview (he says he wants to be like Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte) and some game action from his first game here.  Hard to dislike the kid.

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 Am I remembering wrong, or didn't Trevor Bauer also emphasize a number of ML templates he was trying to imitate?  Seems there was some Bauer interview in which he said he tried to learn mechanics from Lincecum, a changeup from some other ML star, pitch sequences from a third one, etc.

Terry McDermott continues to clang the cowbell for Carp at 3B :- )

In the great Yonder Alonso / Joe Torre tradition! Plus, you need to make some space for the rooks in left, whichever ones don't get traded. If it's me, I'd spend some time thinking about a Wells-Ackley-Ichiro outfield with Trayvon as the fourth (switch-hitting pinch-hitter, pinch-runner). If you want to maximize Ackley's bat, CF is at least as good an option as 2B with the added thrill that we get to watch him run more often.