SB Nation - Jeff Larish

Tigers Need Room on 40-Man Roster: Who Goes Next?

Ian Casselberry — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:00:15 -0000

More photos » by Gary Malerba - AP

Could Bobby Seay be the next player to be trimmed from the Detroit Tigers' roster?

On his Twitter feed earlier tonight, Jon Paul Morosi pointed out that the Tigers' 40-man roster was full before Tuesday's trade. So with Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson moving over to new teams, and Max Scherzer, Daniel Schlereth, Austin Jackson, and Phil Coke coming to Detroit, there are now 42 players on the roster.

A source told Morosi that Bobby Seay, Jeff Larish, and Dusty Ryan are now available. Seay seems like a candidate to be non-tendered, with all of the left-handed relievers that the Tigers now have. Ryan also could be expendable, with the signing of Robinzon Diaz. And Larish just doesn't seem to have a very high stock in the organization right now. There's no buzz about him, giving the impression that the team has given up on him.

The Tigers probably want to clear at least one spot before Thursday's Rule 5 Draft, unless they're just not interested in selecting any available players.

The implication from Morosi's report is that Detroit would like to deal off Seay, Larish, or Ryan in the remaining two days of the Winter Meetings. But as The Detroit Tigers Weblog points out, couldn't the team also release any players that could've been left unprotected three weeks ago, such as Dontrelle Willis or Don Kelly?

I know the smoke still hasn't cleared from the big trade, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that the Tigers probably aren't done making moves this week. So who could go? Who should go?

EDIT: It would probably be helpful to link to the Tigers' 40-man roster. Sorry about that.

Larish Done For the Season

Ian Casselberry — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:31:14 -0000

More photos » by Gail Burton - AP

Jeff Larish won't be a September call-up for the Detroit Tigers, as he's opted for season-ending surgery on his right hand and wrist.

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Anyone expecting to see Jeff Larish rejoin the Detroit Tigers next week when rosters expand is going to be disappointed. As was first reported in the Toledo Blade (and passed along by Jason Beck on his blog), Larish will undergo season-ending surgery on his right hand and wrist.

Larish had been struggling to play with an unspecified injury to that right wrist, and it showed in his numbers. In August, he batted .185/.353/.259. Over his last 10 games, his batting average was .139 (5-for-35) with no home runs or RBIs.

Those numbers weren't good enough to warrant a call-up to the majors, and Aubrey Huff gives the Tigers much of what Larish might have provided. But another left-handed bat with major league experience, along with time at first and third base could've been useful.

For the season with the Mud Hens, Larish finishes with a .265/.397/.412 batting line, along with six homers and 26 RBIs. He played 32 games with the Tigers this year, batting .216/.344/.446 with four homers and seven RBIs in 90 plate appearances. He was sent back down to Toledo in June when Marcus Thames recovered from his rib cage injury.

Today in Pointless Trades: Detroit Acquires Aubrey Huff

devil_fingers — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:15:47 -0000

The opening lines of the mlb.com story (hilariously titled "Tigers acquire infielder Huff from O's") say it all:

Finally, the Tigers found help at the plate on the trade market. In turn, Aubrey Huff found arguably his best chance to finally get to the postseason.

The Tigers added the bat they've been seeking and arguably needing for most of the summer, acquiring Huff from the Orioles on Monday for Class A right-hander Brett Jacobson.
The hope from there is that he can provide a spark for an offense that has struggled to score runs for most of the season...

I don't know much about Jacobsen -- he's a former college closer from Vanderbilt whose development hit a hiccup this year. I'm sure you can read about him elsewhere.

My curiousity was aroused because I have no idea why the Tigers felt they needed to make this trade. Yes, they're in the thick of a playoff race, but Huff can barely play anywhere on defense at this point. He used to be a bad 3B, then he was a terrible OF, and now he's a below average 1B who is mostly cut out to DH. That's why the "infielder" in the mlb.com headline is so funny -- it makes it sound like he could play 2B or 3B or something. I guess he could stand ouit by second base or something and hope there aren't any grounders during the game.

The Tigers don't exactly have an obvious place for him to play elsewhere, with Carlos Guillen coming off of the DL and playing 1B or DH, although the plan was to have him play LF when the year started. Those are Huff's "positions." Oh, and then there's Miguel Cabrera. And Detroit's seemingly endless stream of bench DH/OFs from Triple-A. Let's just stipulate that Huff's alleged "versatility" on defense isn't gong to justify him getting on the field.

But we should also note that his horrible year with the bat so far (.253/.321/.405 for a .307 wOBA) for the Orioles isn't destiny. We want to know what Huff can be expected to do going forward by incorporating past data. So, back to the handy ZiPS in-season updated projections at FanGraphs to see how Huff's projected 2009 performance for the rest of the season compares to his competitors for playing time in Detroit to see if we can understand the justification for this trade.

Here are the wOBAs projected by ZiPS RoS at this time for Huff and the rest of the Motor City 1B/DH/LF/RF mafia going forward, listed from best to worst:

Player	Pos.	Bats	wOBA
Miguel Cabrera	1B	R	.402
Magglio Ordonez	OF	R	.359
Carlos Guillen	1B/OF	S	.348
Marcus Thames	OF	R	.340
Aubrey Huff	1B/OF	L	.334
Ryan Raburn	OF/3B	R	.332
Jeff Larish	1B	L	.327
Clete Thomas	OF	L	.309

I'll give Dave Dombrowski this: Huff's probably a better hitter than Clete Thomas.

I put Cabrera on there just to revel in his awesomeness. But look at that chart. If Cabrera is at 1B or DH, then there are three slots realistically left: LF, RF, and the 1B/DH spot unoccupied. And the Tigers have three guys for those spots who project as better hitters than Huff: Ordonez, Guillen, and Thames.* Heck, Ryan Raburn is almost as good with the bat and he can run a bit and play defense and at a much lower price.

* I've liked Thames ever since I watched him hit his first home run in the majors off of Randy Johnson at Yankee Stadium on the first pitch he saw.

But maybe Huff is being brought in as a platoon guy. I've spent too much time on this minor move at it is, so I'm not going to estimate specific platoon splits for each of these guys, but I'll just apply a standard splits to each player (here is an article on estimating platoon skills). Huff is a left-handed hitter, so we'll just estimate platoon skills against RHPs.

Player	Pos.	Bts	wOBA
Miguel Cabrera	1B	R	0.396
Magglio Ordonez	OF	R	0.353
Carlos Guillen	OF/1B	S	0.348
Aubrey Huff	1B/OF	L	0.343
Jeff Larish	1B	L	0.336
Marcus Thames	OF	R	0.335
Ryan Raburn	OF/3B	R	0.327
Clete Thomas	OF	L	0.317

Huff only moves up one spot, but I guess he makes it into the "mix" as a possible platoon partner for Thames. But how much of a difference is there between just playing Thames or using Larish as his DH platoon partner, really? Given these projections and estimated splits, and assuming equally terrible outfield defense (as bad as Thames is, Huff hasn't played in the OF since 2006), let's check it out.

We can use the same method used to convert wOBA to runs above average (called wRAA at FanGraphs) to get wOBA runs (wRAA, which is just a form of linear weights) above Thames (wRAT) vs. RHP . The Tigers have 45 or so games remaining. The average AL player gets about 4.3 plate appearances per game in the American League. 4.3 x 45 = ~194 plate appearances. About two thirds of those will be against RHP, whic is bout 130 plate appearances. Sooo.... (Huff vs. RHP - Thames vs LHP) x 130 = projected offensive runs gained by this trade. Let's show our work using the wOBA-to-runs formula:

((.343-.335)/1.2) x 130 = 086666667 wRAT

Rounding up, then, this trade projects to gain the Tigers 1 run in their push for the playoffs if they platoon Huff properly with Marcus Thames.

Kudos, Tigers. Here's to assuming the Orioles picked up almost all of Huf's salary and that Brett Jacobsen never amounts to anything.

Was Today's Mariners-Pirates Trade a Precursor to Another Deal?

Ian Casselberry — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:00:16 -0000

More photos » by Gail Burton - AP

Jeff Larish doesn't seem to have a future with the Detroit Tigers. But could he find success with another team? Say, one in the Pacific Northwest?

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So I'm little behind on the MLB trade news of the day, having been nowhere near a computer since about 7 a.m. (I actually thought the Tigers would surely make a deal while I was on internet silence, since that seems to be my curse as a sports blogger.)

But after looking over the deal that the Mariners made with the Pirates this afternoon, I wonder if it could be a precursor to another trade, perhaps with the Tigers.

First of all, if you didn't see the particulars, Pittsburgh traded shortstop Jack Wilson (who I almost want to think of as a honorary Tiger, given how often he was rumored to go to Detroit) and pitcher Ian Snell to Seattle for five players, including shortstop Ronny Cedeno and first baseman Jeff Clement.

Clement is the name that makes me raise an eyebrow. And this is complete and total speculation on my part. But it's that time of year, there don't seem to be many rumblings going on with the Tigers at the moment (though that could certainly change as I'm writing this), and I want to post something on the site before tonight's game. So here we go: I wonder if Seattle might consider replacing Clement in their organization with Jeff Larish.

Both Lynn Henning and the Seattle Times's Geoff Baker have written today that the Tigers could be interested in pitcher Jarrod Washburn. We got a first-hand look at Washburn last week in Detroit, when he held the Tigers to two hits in seven innings. Last night, he followed that up with another exceptional start at home vs. the Blue Jays, allowing just one run in another seven innings of work. As a result, Baker thinks Washburn is as "good as gone."

And both writers point out that Larish was almost traded to the Mariners last December, as part of a package for J.J. Putz. Now that Seattle's Triple-A team is short a power-hitting, left-handed first baseman/designated hitter, perhaps they need another one to replace him. (Yes, Clement has also played some at catcher, which Larish doesn't, but 70 of his 92 games this season have been at DH.)

Baker said Larish's name came up with the people he talked to (he didn't say whether they were with the Mariners or Tigers), and there still seems to be some interest on Seattle's part:

Why would the M's want him? He's got serious home run power. Sort of like a young Russell Branyan. Yeah, the M's have Mike Carp in Class AAA. But he's more of a doubles-guy in terms of pure power. Nothing wrong with using one as a DH and another as a first baseman though. An interesting scenario.

Detroit would have to give up more, of course. Last December's trade rumors also had the Mariners interested in Wilkin Ramirez or Casper Wells. I think it'd be crazy to give up Ramirez for a pitcher, of course. Not to mention one in the final year of his contract. So I doubt the Tigers would do that. But I'm just noting that the Mariners have looked at Ramirez before.

And there it is. See if that sticks to the wall.

The Best Unknown Performances of the Week 05/17/2009

faketeams — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:19:24 -0000

More photos » by Nick Wass - AP

7 months ago: Philadelphia Phillies' Carlos Ruiz singles against the Washington Nationals during the ninth inning of a baseball game, Friday, May 15, 2009, in Washington. The Phillies won 10-6 in 12 innings. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

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There were some data issues with the pitchers. The weekly calculations were incorrect. There is no way a SP can get three starts in seven days. Or eight days. So this week's top unknown performances are all by hitters.

And may as well be for two-catcher AL- and NL-Only players, too.

C Carlos Ruiz, Philadelphia Phillies: For the week, the World Series champions' catcher walked eight times. Maybe he will live-up to his 2008 sleeper status in 2009.

C Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins: His power is surprising. Shocking actually, but it has come without detriment to his batting eye. Mauer walked seven times last week and struck out just twice.

C Chris Snyder, Arizona Diamondbacks: Snyder's ability to draw walks has never been an issue. Nor was it one last week when he drew six and whiffed just three times. He's got a way's to go to make his AVG palatable. Striking out less than he walks will go a ways towards doing that.

1B/3B Jeff Larish, Detroit Tigers: His three HRs on the left-side of a potential platoon are what most people notice. I like to see that power accompanied by five walks and a couple of Ks.

C Kurt Suzuki, Oakland A's: He drew just three walks for the week, but he did it without striking out in 21 plate appearances. I'll take 7-18 with a SB every week from my #2 catcher.

Tuesday Roto Round Up

faketeams — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:15:09 -0000

More photos » by Tom Mihalek - AP

7 months ago: Philadelphia Phillies' Jayson Werth steals home with Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Russell Martin failing to make the tag in the seventh inning of a baseball game Tuesday, May 12, 2009, in Philadelphia. The Phillies won 5-3. (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)

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1B Nick Johnson, Washington Nationals: Lost in the nightmare that is the Nationals' 9th inning is the excellent bounceback season of Johnson. .314/.397/.424 doesn't exactly augur a return to his 2006 form, but it certainly makes last season's .220 AVG look unlikley. With 1Bs Kevin youkilis and Carlos Delgado out for a while, Larry Bowa's nephew looks like a good replacement.

OF Coco Crisp, Kansas City Royals: His walks are way up this season as is his power. He hit his 3rd HR and stole his 9th base last night. The promise of Crisp's 2005 power (16 HR) combined with 2007's spped (28 SB) looks like a possibility now (.382 OBP and .471 SLG).

SP Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado Rockies: After being a trendy mixed league sleeper, Ubaldo opened the 2009 season by getting bombed with 7.58 ERA and 2.11 WHIP. In May, he looks like the player he was expected to be - 2.14 ERA and 1.05 WHIP.

SP Rich Harden, Chicago Cubs: Harden noptched-up his 4th win against the San Diego Padres and lowered his ERA to 4.54. He has not missed a start this season, and his overall strikeouts are great (46 in 37.2 IP). I note his May numbers are 8 BBs and 11 Ks in 16.2 innings, though. A trough or bias against one of the more injury-prone pitchers?

1B/3B Jeff Larish, Detroit Tigers: Larish homered for the second consecutive game and is 4-9 in his last three games. He is the player I thought would be a left-handed Marcus Thames this season - 20 HR and 50 RBI, but he got buried when former-SS-turned-3B-turned-1B-turned-LF Carlos Guillen turned DH.

OF Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers: One the this year's top OF in fantasy drafts returned from the D.L. with a HR. He still has a long way to go to justify his 1st round status, and I worry his 3:17 BB:K ratio means he won't do it.

2B Aaron Hill, Toronto Blue Jays: With his 9th HR and a .357 AVG, Hill is one the most valuable 2B in 2009. His draft day value may make him the most valuable one in fantasy baseball. Are you buying or selling?

OF Adam Jones, Baltimore: A .363 AVg, 8 HRs, and 25 RBIs makes Jones the Adam Hill of the OF. Are you buying or selling?

OF B.J. Upton, Tampa Bay Rays, and DH David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox: Neither hit their first HR of the 2009 season. Who will be first and who will hit the most? Despite 7 SBs, Upton's .160 AVG and 3 RBIs are killing fantasy teams. Only relative to Upton, can Ortiz' .218 AVG and 15 RBIs look good.

OF Jayson Werth, Philadelphia Phillies: With 4 SBs last night, Werth now has seven steals to go with his 6 HRs, 21 RBIs and .295 AVG. I'm beginning to think punting outfielders in mixed leagues is an under-appreciated draft strategy. The 10th-15th rounds should be spent drafting OFers and Saves, no?

8th Inning Set-Up (Holds): Kip Wells WAS (4), Arthur Rhodes (6) and David Weathers CIN (6), Carlos Marmol CHC (10), Jose Mijares (3) and Matt Guerrier MIN (4), Mark DeFelice MLW (3), Eric O'Flaherty ATL (1), RYan madson PHI (5), Octavio Dotel CSX (4)

Saves: Bobby Jenks CSX (8), George Sherrill BAL (6), Trevor Hoffman MLW (6), Jonathan Papelbon BOS (9), Francisco Cordero CIN (10), Brad Lidge PHI (5)

Blown Saves: Joe Beimel WAS (1), Mike Gonzalez ATL (2)

Squandered: Twins 6, Tigers 2

Ian Casselberry — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:51:28 -0000

More photos » by Jim Mone - AP

Armando Galarraga looks for answers to his struggles (or the location on his fastball) in the Metrodome's artificial turf, but finds nothing but cold, sterile carpet.

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The third time was definitely not a charm for Armando Galarraga. With his third poor start in a row, he's officially strugg-a-ling. Once again, The Little Cat hacked up a five-run hairball, while failing to locate his fastball and depending far too much on his slider. Galarraga also hung a couple of those sliders, which Joe Crede (Tigers Killer) and Joe Mauer put into the seats. (Okay, Mauer's homer actually came on a fastball, according to MLB Gameday, but that just didn't flow as well in a sentence.)

As bad as Galarraga was, however, a hint of run support would've helped him out. And the Tigers blew several chances to put runs on the board, grounding into double plays in the first and fifth innings, and failing to drive in runners from scoring position in the second and fourth.

And with Dontrelle Willis scheduled to start tomorrow for Detroit, I think a lot of Tigers fans feel like the team had to get a win tonight to give themselves a shot at a series win. Hopefully, the D-Train has a surprise for all of us, but tonight had a prevailing theme of squandered opportunities.

Roar:

Someone doing well in his third straight game is Jeff Larish, who went 2-for-3 with a home run. (That's also his second consecutive game with a homer.) Larish has batted 4-for-9 in the past three games, with two homers and three RBIs. Maybe Jim Leyland should stick him in the lineup's #3 spot. (Although with lefty Glen Perkins pitching tomorrow for the Twins, he might sit down. Hopefully, Leyland chooses to play the hot hand.)

Whimper:

Someone else who's really struggling is Gerald Laird, whose 0-for-3 night pushed his batting average down to .207. Even worse, Laird apparently feels the best way to try and break out of his slump is to jump on the first pitch he sees. Laird only saw five pitches tonight in his three at-bats. And during the at-bat in which he didn't put the first pitch in play, he struck out on three pitches.

Comment of the Night:

Armando Galarraga Bandwagon

Last stop. Everybody off.
by ReichardZ

With Willis set to be activated tomorrow, the question for tomorrow becomes who gets pushed off the roster to make room for him. I have to agree with Billfer, who noted that Ryan Perry pitching in three innings (1.2 innings of work altogether) had the feel of someone getting a last hoorah before being sent down to the minors.

UPDATE: So much for that notion. According to Jason Beck via Twitter, Juan Rincon draws the short straw. He's been designated for assignment and has three days to decide whether or not to report to Toledo.

Sweep the Tribe, Johnny! Tigers 5, Indians 3

Ian Casselberry — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:00:15 -0000

More photos » by Tony Dejak - AP

Curtis Granderson choo-choo-chooses you, Shin-Soo Choo, as the latest victim of a highlight reel catch. Lesson for Indians hitters this weekend: If you hit the ball into Grandyland, it will very likely be caught.

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When Billfer mentioned to me last night that Rick Porcello might be under some pressure to keep the team's shutout streak alive, I joked that he should just groove the first pitch of the game to Grady Sizemore to reduce the tension. That's not quite how the rookie played it, but the Indians finally broke through for a run in the second inning. Since the Tigers' lineup put up four runs in their half of the inning, however, it really didn't matter. And that was the only score Porcello allowed in his five innings of work.

Roar:

With the Tigers facing two right-handed starters in this series, Jim Leyland made sure to get Jeff Larish some meaningful at-bats. And Larish didn't squander the opportunity, giving the Tigers a lead they kept the whole afternoon with a moon-shot home run to right field. Pair that with last night's RBI triple, and Larish had himself a pretty good weekend in Cleveland.

Can we also officially welcome Magglio Ordonez back to the 2009 season? Getting a day off yesterday appears to have helped Maggs, as he hit 2-for-3 this afternoon, with two runs scored.

And don't look now, but after his own 2-for-3 day (and two RBIs), Adam Everett is hitting .281/.319/.406.

Whimper:

I'm pretty sure we've said this before, but let's go ahead and make sure Leyland gets another copy of that memo, m'kay? No non-save situations for Fernando Rodney. For whatever reason, whether he loses focus or just doesn't see the big dollar signs unless he's earning a save, Rodney doesn't pitch well with a four-run lead.

Last night, he didn't give up a run, but allowed two baserunners. Today, however, Rodney came close to blowing the game, giving up two runs (one of which scored on a wild pitch). But if every closer is due for a bad day, perhaps we should be thankful that Rodney's occurred with a lead big enough to withstand the damage.

Comment of the Day:

nice to see the team meeting went well for the Indians

by MackAveKurt

I ended up watching today's game early this evening on DVR (Happy Mother's Day, Mom - I cut the grass!), but it was much more fun to catch up on the game by scrolling through the GameThread comments. The BYB bunch is definitely entertaining, if you weren't already aware of this. Toot that horn!

And with the Royals' 4-3 loss to the Angels this afternoon, the Tigers go into tomorrow's off-day as a first-place team. Not a bad weekend.

AL Central Standings

	W	L	PCT	GB	STRK
Detroit	17	13	.566	0	Won 3
Kansas City	18	14	.562	0	Lost 3
Minnesota	15	17	.468	3	Lost 1
Chicago	14	16	.466	3	Lost 1
Cleveland	11	21	.343	7	Lost 4

(updated 5.10.2009 at 6:56 PM EDT)

Leyland makes moves, unveils new lineup

MackAveKurt — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:53:37 -0000

As I mentioned earlier, the Tigers made some shuffling in their 25-man roster today to address some key problems -- notable outfield defense being horrible, and Carlos Guillen being sore. So the moves today:

Carlos Guillen to the 15-day DL
Clay Rapada optioned back to Triple-A Toledo
Left-handed infielder Jeff Larish recalled from Toledo
Left-handed outfielder Clete Thomas called up from Toledo.

The lineup has been shaken up as well. I think this was a good idea by Leyland. Although we know your leadoff batter being able to hit home runs is no problem -- and we saw Curtis Granderson's Cleveland counterpart, Grady Sizemore, is leadoff as well. We know Tigers superslugger Miguel Cabrera wasn't getting enough protection as the cleanup batter, as he could be pitched around to, to get to the injured Guillen, who very well might hit into a double play.

Leyland told reporters:

“We’re trying to shake it up, trying to get something going," Leyland said. "I, obviously, tried to get a little speed up top. One thing I know, there is some energy (at the top). They might run into some outs, but it will be because they’re running.”

Tonight's lineup looks something like this, though I imagine the day-to-day lineup would involve Adam Everett playing at shortstop, rather than Ramon Santiago. What I like about this is the improved defense in the corner outfield spots. Thomas has always been a solid outfielder. What I don't like isThomas batting third, as he has never been real exciting with the bat. I assume Leyland did this to keep the pitcher looking at different sides of the plate, as he's mentioned that as a desire in the past.

Anderson lf (LH)
Polanco 2b (RH)
Thomas rf (LH)
Cabrera 1b (RH)
Granderson cf (LH)
Ordonez dh (RH)
Inge 3b (RH)
Laird c (RH)
Santiago ss (S)

More reading:

Oakland Press beat writer Jim Hawkins' blog (This has the most information and quotes)
Beck's blog
John Lowe at the Freep
Billfer at Detroit Tigers Weblog

So does this stink of desperation to you? Does it make sense? Do you have a better idea? Let's here it.

Rapada Called Up, Larish Sent Down

Ian Casselberry — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:30:09 -0000

After Bobby Seay was used for the third straight game last night against the Yankees, the question was who would be available out of the bullpen if the Tigers needed a situational left-hander for the next two games? (Jim Leyland seems to think Nate Robertson isn't suited for that role.) That little dilemma has been taken care of, according to the Freep's John Lowe.

Clay Rapada has been called up from Triple-A Toledo. Going down to make room for him on the roster is Jeff Larish.

Rapada has pitched in eight games so far this season for the Mud Hens, giving up four runs and 10 hits in six innings. However, he's also struck out seven batters. Last year with Detroit, Rapada went 3-0 with a 4.22 ERA in 25 appearances.

This is a tough break for Larish, who made the team out of Spring Training, and looked to be a valuable left-handed power bat for the Tigers. However, with the emergence of Josh Anderson, and the speed he's added to the lineup, Larish just wasn't getting off the bench lately.

It'll be interesting to see if this turns out to be a somewhat temporary move, as Seay needs a rest for this current series and Leyland likely prefers another lefty against the likes of Grady Sizemore, Victor Martinez, and Travis Hafner when the Tigers play the Indians this weekend.

(Hat tip to Kurt, who's apparently much more alert at his computer than I am. It's probably a good thing he's filling in here!)