Blog Archives
Jose Valverde Returns To The Detroit Tigers: Rondon Also Called Up For The Bullpen
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Follow @mlbreportsWednesday, April.24/2013
Valverde was the best option available for a club that is expected to win the American League Central Division – and possibly return to the 2013 World Series. The ‘Closer by committee’ had less than stellar results thus far- and Jim Leyland was not a fan of operating that way. The slimmer 35 Year Old from the Dominican Republic will assume the Finisher’s role immediately – and should be available for game action tonight in Detroit at Comerica Park.
By Matthew Lafave (Tigers Correspondent) Follow @MatthewLafave
Yes, Jose Valverde has returned to the Tigers and will be available as early as Wednesday night.
This all came quite quickly through the evening on Tuesday. After making three appearances for Class A Lakeland, Valverde was expected to join the Toledo Mud Hens to get some extra extended work before possibly joining the Tigers.
But Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski decided to skip some steps.
Jose Valverde 2011 Highlights – Mature Content so Parental Guidance is advised:
Avisail Garcia Back To Baseball: Decision Possibly Looming For 4th OF Spot In Motown!
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Follow @mlbreportsTuesday, April.23/2013
Avisail Garcia made his Major League Debut during the last part of the Regular Season in 2012. The man hit for a 3 Slash Line of (.319/.373/.692) in 47 AB and played a role in the Tigers World Series Berth of 2012 . Garcia had 5 Hits and 3 RBI during 11 AB in the 2012 ALCS versus the New York Yankees.
By Matthew Lafave (Tigers Correspondent) Follow @MatthewLafave
The Detroit Tigers young Outfielder finally returned to baseball this past Saturday.
Avisail Garcia, 21-years-old, played in an Extended Spring Training – game and went 1 for 3, with 2 Walks, 1 Strikeout, and a Stolen Base.
He suffered a severely bruised right heel injury back on March 16th that has kept him sidelined until Saturday. His next step will be a Rehab Assignment, likely in Lakeland for a couple than up to Toledo.
The real decision is what the Tigers will do with him once he is ready for full duty.
Avisail Garcia – from Baseball Instinct:
Justin Verlander Makes Good On His 1st Start After Signing His Recent 5 Year Extension
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Follow @mlbreportsTuesday, April.2/2013
Justin Verlander paid immediate dividends for his new Salary Extension in the Tigers Season Opener on the road yesterday at Target field, throwing 5 scoreless Innings and fanning 7 batters. Verlander anchors a talented Detroit Pitching Rotation that features Max Scherzer, Doug Fister, Anibal Sanchez and Rick Porcello. Detroit GM Dave Dombroski is smart enough to realize that there is possiblu a small 3 year window with Fielder, Cabrera and the former AL Cy Young Award Winner all on the same team signed – and primed for another World Series Title push with this move.
By Matthew Lafave (Tigers Correspondent) Follow @MatthewLafave
No worries, the ‘Holy Grail’ of Detroit will be a Tiger through 2019. Last Friday afternoon, Justin Verlander inked a record-breaking 5-year contract extension.
He will earn $20 Million this season and next season, then a whopping $28 Million per year for the next five seasons.
In case math isn’t your strong suit, that’s a total of $180 Million. The deal also includes a vesting option for 2020 that’s worth $22 Million. So he could potentially earn $202 Million over the next 8 years.
What is a Vesting Option? It’s basically a clause that reassures teams from overpaying to declining players. While we don’t officially know the Vesting Option clause, it is said to be based on Cy Young Award balloting (as reported by Larry Lage, AP).
Justin Verlander Highlights – Highlights from 2012 – Mature Lyrics so Parental Guidance are advised.
OF Matt Tuiasosopo Is Making A Case To Head North With The Tigers In Spring Training
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Follow @mlbreportsTuesday, March.19/2013
Matt Tuiasosopo has struggled mightily during his 193 Career AB in the Major Leagues – (All with the Mariners), hitting for a 3 Slash Line of .176/.234/.540. His Spring Training is garnering him a second look from the Detroit Tigers, but will his unimpressive Minor League numbers prove to have him as part of the Training Camp casualties before the team heads up north from Lakeland? The big man from Washington was invited to Florida as a Non – Roster Invitee.
By Matthew Lafave (Tigers Correspondent) Follow @MatthewLafave
LAKELAND — As Spring Training nears its end here in Lakeland, the 25 – Man Roster seems far from written in stone.
The Tigers have been vocal about carrying a Right – Handed Hitting Outfielder into opening day. In fact, Jim Leyland was even quoted as being 99.9 percent sure that would happen.
So your choices seem to be down to Jeff Kobernus, Nick Castellanos, Avisail Garcia, and Matt Tuiasosopo.
Castellanos leads nearly every hitting statistic among Tigers but will likely begin the season in Toledo with the Mud Hens. His development is vital and the Tigers do not want to see him in the Majors getting little playing time off the bench.
Garcia was a strong possibility to be on the opening day roster but has recently suffered a severely bruised right heel that will keep him out for some time.’
The Legend of the Matt Tuiasosopo Home Run Prediction by Mike Blowers:
Rondon’s Struggles Continue For Tigers, Valverde And Wilson Rumors Emerge
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Follow @mlbreportsSaturday, March.09/2013
Bruce Rondon is 1-1 in Spring Training so far with a 5.79 ERA. He has allowed 7 Hits (including 1 HR) and Walked 5 in 4.2 IP. Not such a hot start for the rookie phenom. With World Series Aspirations this year – can the Tigers afford to not enter the Regular Season with a proven Closer?
By Matthew Lafave (Tigers Correspondent) Follow @MatthewLafave
Panic in Motown?
Not quite yet.
But the Tigers ‘chosen’ Closer isn’t making things easy.
Bruce Rondon, 22-Years-Old, is expected to be the closer for this coming season and hopefully many more to follow. Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski and manager Jim Leyland have both made it known that it’s his job to lose this spring.
Losing it is just the path he is on. Through 4.2 IP, he has given up 7 Hits, 3 ER, 1 HR, and yielded 5 Walks..It’s early we know, but at what point does early become too late?
If he happens to pitch himself out of the Closer spot then who will be our fearless Closer?
Bruce Rondon hits 103 MPH!
MLB Reports State Of The Union Part 2: Going Forward
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Follow @mlbreportsFriday, Feb.8/2013
By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024
So I left off the other day talking about some sweeping changes at the site. What I want to talk about next – is what to expect. Our website is revving up to start the baseball year. We plan on posting 3-5 times a day. We will range from about 9 AM EST all the way through to 9 PM EST. Most MLB teams will have about 3-4 articles a month. Once per month May-October, we will also have our Monthly Power Rankings like we had last year. Our Lead Writer Sully will be posting a 20 minute daily PODCAST on the site.
In addition to this, MLB Reports presents the ‘Triple Play Podcast” – will be going ahead with Patrick and Chris with the Big Ticket Show, for about 5 PODCASTS a month during the regular season and about 1-2 per month in the winter months. These PODCASTS will feature yours truly 2-3 times a month as a guest. We will also have Saul Wisnia (Red Sox Correspondent), Jonathan Hacohen (MLB Reports Founder) and other personalities as part of the show.
We plan on interacting with the readers by way of Facebook and Twitter, when we start-up in March. So we will let you know. We have about 7 different general writers and reporters, 5 special analysts and 24 Team Correspondents so far. The goal is to find the 6 new Correspondents from the teams we have left (PHI, ATL, SEA, SD, KC and COL We continue to search for awesome independent writers, that can cover these teams with the same kind of passion our other Correspondents have displayed.
We still plan on having a weekly Fantasy Baseball article, a once a month Cooperstown article and a once a month – live interview from our ‘Junior Reporter’ Haley Smilow. We are also open to many suggestions by our readers, if they have great article ideas.
I am trying to write my historical series on all 30 teams, but am still trying to make it to the regular season first. I have written entire series already for the Nationals, Phillies, Expos, Blue Jays and Rays already here. The plan is to write 1-2 series a month for the teams not done yet. By the end of 2014, we will have a full chronicled series for each team. This will be our legacy. We strive on our mission to include all 30 MLB Fan bases. All of our dedicated Correspondents exhibit the kind of passion for baseball that I am truly proud of. You can see all of their biographies here.
Our general writers and Reporters can be found here.
News:
One of our writers, Thomas Roberts (Dodgers Correspondent), is a top 52 finalist for the MLB Fancave. We hope that he can make it to New York. Please check out the interview (and vote for him on the links provided there) I did with him here
We are going to have 5-6 dedicated pages from our General Writers. I will run a page called “The Baseball Booth”. This is the same as a page listed below here that is for MLB Player Awareness Weeks. In a sub-page to that are my best baseball road-trips advice links here.
Jonathan Hacohen will have his own page called the J-HAY Page.
Saul Wisnia is accomplished writer. He has authored 10 sports books and is one of the best Red Sox authors of late. His page is called the Words Of Wisnia. He will run additional Red Sox articles, and he will have many other fun things to browse in his subpages. You can find all of his archives for his own website here.
Paul Francis Sullivan (Sully) will have his own dedicated page called ‘Sully Baseball’. It is up to Sully to post anything and everything on his own page. I only know whatever he does around baseball is entertaining and worth the time. On the main page, Sully will post his daily Podcast. Subscribe to his daily podcast here.
We may have another website that we will have on board with us to cover a team thoroughly through a dedicated page. We are not finalized yet, so I will announce this on Twitter and Facebook.
We have a few writers from the strosbros.mlblogs.com with us covering the Astros. Lee White and Richard Perez will be keeping it real.
We have Tigers Correspondent Matthew Lafave of the examiner.com – to keep us up to date with what is going on in Detroit.
By the time the regular season rolls on, we will have all 30 MLB Teams Payroll and State Of The Unions done. We are close to finishing the State Of The Unions already. You can view these here.
Here are some really important pages at the Reports. It also says what they are about.
http://mlbreports.com/paystat/
We are going to end every baseball year with a ‘STATE OF THE UNION’ Address for each team and also look forward to the next year’s Payroll for all 30 MLB Teams. This is in addition to all of the other information we will put out in our normal articles. More than ever, team’s salary and current 25 or 40 Man Rosters, are becoming more important to the fanbases. We will take a detailed look at both of these for you and provide some analysis. It will keep us busy and definitely on top of our game. We will be doing these in stages and not all at once, so please check back often for more updates.
http://mlbreports.com/mlbhistory/
This page has links to the entire 30 MLB Teams listed (for a minimum 5 Part Series on each club). These Franchise Series are signature website articles that take 3-4 times the normal amount of regular pieces to write. Do yourself a favor and follow along with us as we take the next 2 years to complete this mission. It is a great way to learn about your Franchises history, including the players, pitchers, management, mascots and the parks they have played in.
http://mlbreports.com/gwr-tracker/
This full-page lists all of the Games I went to in establishing the new “Guinness Book Of World Record” for “Fastest To See A Full Home Game In All 30 MLB Parks from April.6-April.28/2012. The write-ups include many pictures and stories of how I arrived at all 30 MLB Parks and what the travel entailed. I promoted the trip by using Facebook and Twitter and met several top MLB Park Chaser Experts along the way. For someone who may have a similar goal, I think you will find this page quite entertaining.
http://mlbreports.com/awareness/
This was a Twitter concept first driven to a webpage by promoting unheralded players not receiving their due credit. Each week, the MLB Reports will select an active MLB Player and a retired MLB Player to focus their attention on. We will write tweets about the players and showcase them on this page. It is our hope that we can receive some feedback with out twitter followers and website readers. Suggestions may always be presented to us for future nominations.
http://mlbreports.com/wbc-2013/
You have asked for it readers and now it is here! An entire page devoted to the upcoming 2013 edition of the World Baseball Classic! After the initial WBC in 2006, the tournament returned in 2009. The decision was made to have the WBC played three years after the inaugural edition and then four years later from there. As result, after a long wait for baseball fans…the third World Baseball Classic will be back in the year 2013!
The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners.***
Chuck Booth- Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner and author of the Fastest 30 Ballgames: To learn more about my “The Fastest 30 Ballgames Book” and how to purchase it, click here . You can also follow my Guinness Book of World Record Successful Bid to see all 30 MLB Park in 23 Days- click here. I am happy to be part of such an awesome Magazine-Style Baseball Website and am looking forward to talking to all of the fans of the MLB. You can reach me on Twitter here Follow @mlbreports
Please e-mail me at: mlbreports@gmail.com with any questions and feedback. You can follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. To subscribe to our website and have the Daily Reports sent directly to your inbox, click here and follow the link at the top of our homepage.
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An Interview With Tigers Prospect Daniel Fields
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Follow @mlbreportsSaturday, January.26/2013
Daniel Fields showed flashes of speed in 2012 -with 23 SB with the Lakeland Tigers (A+) and Erie SeaWolves (AA) in the Minor Leagues. At Age 22 (as of January.23/2013), Fields has been invited to attend Spring Training with the big club.
By Matthew Lafave (Tigers Correspondent) Follow @MatthewLafave
Have you ever had that dream of being drafted by your favorite sports team? It’s a dream that replays in your head as you’re going about your day. A dream that makes you smile in the morning and a dream that you hope you experience again later that night.
Daniel Fields is living that dream. The Detroit, Michigan native out of University of Detroit Jesuit High School was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 2009.
The highly toted prospect is making his way up the Minor Leagues. It’s a name that you’ll want to remember and a last name that may sound familiar to you. Read the rest of this entry
Detroit Tigers Prepare For Spring Training: Invite 17 Players
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Thursday, January.17/2013
Pitchers and Catcher have less than 4 weeks to report in FLA.
By Matthew LaFave (Tigers Correspondent): Follow @MatthewLaFave
The Detroit Tigers announced on Wednesday that they have invited 17 players to Major League camp in Lakeland, Florida.
The names include some familiar faces like Don Kelly, Shawn Hill, and Nick Castellanos.
Kelly, who will turn 33 at the start of spring training, reportedly turned down a National League team to remain with the Tigers. After struggling at the plate last season, his contract was out righted to Triple-A affiliate Toledo. He is the only active MLB player to play all 9 positions in his career.
Don Kelly – Post Game after Game #2 of the 2012 ALDS (Walk off Sac Fly)
Mike Morse Might Be A Fit For The Detroit Tigers
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Friday, January.11/2013
Mike Morse has a Career 3 Slash of .295/.347/.839 and could provide as a great replacement RHB for the departing Tigers DH/OF Delmon Young. Morse can play 1B/OF or DH.
By Matthew LaFave (Tigers Correspondent): Follow @MatthewLaFave
With the Washington Nationals locking up Adam LaRoche to a new 2-year deal on Tuesday, it leaves 1B/OF Michael Morse without a starting roster spot. As many as 11 teams have been said to already be inquiring on Morse.
The 30-Year-Old, born and raised in Florida, mainly played left field for the Nationals last season. A position that the Detroit Tigers just so happen to be looking for. The Tigers are currently sitting with a starting outfield of Andy Dirks, Austin Jackson, and newly signed Torii Hunter. Many feel that Dirks is not an everyday player but is better suited as a 4th Outfielder. He is able to play all 3 positions with above average defense.
Mike Morse Highlights “The Beast”:
