He DeLines one to left....

That quote has always stuck in my head. It rattles around in there, occasionally surfacing once a year or so. I believe it's one from the insufferable Chris Berman collection... This particular quote refers to former speedy major league second baseman, Delino DeShields.

So anyway, I'm watching the Tigers/Nats collision on MLB.tv. By the way, some of the rejects from the bad old Tigers seem to be having a reunion on the 2007 Nationals, Dmitri Young, Robert Fick, Nook Logan. Again, anyway, the Nat's broadcaster made a statement that I just had to look up, and I have to say, I agree. He said that Curtis Granderson looks eerily like Delino DeShields. I must say, it's not eerie, but it definitely is a strong resemblance:

Redux

So I was busily typing away when Firefox crashed on me, losing my progress. If this isn't any good, trust me, the original was amazing.

So, anyway, here's a roundup of some of the stories I've been following lately. A disclaimer is that most of these stories are either about the Tigers, or about players I happen to have on my team.

The stars of Detroit Tigers camp so far have been Curtis Granderson, Jeremy Bonderman, Gary Sheffield, and Kyle Sleeth. Apparently Grandy has been hitting rockets all over the yard, and seems poised to have a big year. Jeremy Bonderman has apparently been impressing with his newfound (again) changeup. I tell you, if he gets that changeup working, he's going to be Dominant. Don't sleep on Bondo this year. Sheffield has been impressing everyone with that waggling bat.

The most intriguing guy could possibly be Kyle Sleeth. Sleeth is a deep, deep, deep sleeper, not likely to contribute any sooner than next year, if ever. Sleeth was the Tigers' first pick in the 2003 draft. He went third overall behind Delmon Young and Rickie Weekes, and ahead of fellow first rounders like Nick Markakis and Chad Cordero. At draft time John Sickels summed him up like this:

" Likely the best raw arm in the college ranks, although not as polished as Tim Stauffer (see below). Sleeth will probably be the first college hurler drafted. He is big, throws hard, and has pitched well in college. Hard to go wrong with that package."


He made his debut in 2004 in single A Lakeland and performed pretty well (5-4 with a 3.31 ERA, 60 hits, 65/18 K/BB in 68 innings). After that he was promoted to Double A and struggled the rest of the year. 2005 he missed the first few months before finally having Tommy John surgery in June. He came back late last season to single A, but basically got his brains beaten in.

It appears Kyle is feeling better and starting to make big strides on his way back to prospect status. So, if he's getting his career back, how does he project? Going back to Baseball America again, here was the scouting report of Sleeth from 2003:

"Sleeth has far and away the highest ceiling among Tigers farmhands. He had one of the best fastballs available in the 2003 draft, both in terms of velocity and life. He usually pitches between 92-94 mph and touches 96. His fastball seems even firmer, however, because of its movement. It bores down and in on righthanders. It’s a heavy ball. Sleeth throws both a power curveball and a low-80s slider. The curveball is the better breaking pitch, as he throws it in the high 70s, and it features a lot of depth and bite. His slider improved last spring, though some scouts say it’s a bit slurvy. His changeup has the potential to be an average major league pitch. Sleeth has a strong, projectable frame and was durable at Wake Forest. He’s quiet and confident. When the Demon Deacons struggled behind him last spring, he remained poised. Though not demonstrative, Sleeth exudes competitiveness."

Well, all of a sudden the Tigers have a packed young rotation. Bonderman and Verlander figure to be rotation fixtures for the forseeable future. Andrew Miller is likely to join them, barring injury, next year. Nate Robertson and Mike Maroth are both very serviceable starters, and are in their prime years. Kenny Rogers is still pitching well, but is likely to move on in the next few year or two.

In the short term, I don't know how the Tigers are going to sort out their pitching depth. It's an enviable problem to have too much young pitching, but Jordan Tata, Andrew Miller, Jair Jurjjens, Eulogio de la Cruz, Virgil Vazquez, Wil Ledezma and maybe Kyle Sleeth are all pitching prospects that may be pushing for a rotation spot. Given his draft pedigree, if Sleeth can resurrect his career, and it's not uncommon for a pitcher to have Tommy John before making it to the majors, he'll likely get one of the first cracks at any open rotation spots.

To sum up, keep an eye of Kyle Sleeth, he was the #3 pick only a few years ago and appears to be making a strong comeback from Tommy John surgery. He may be a name to know in the future.

A Grand Sophomore Season?

Doesn't that just warm your heart? Alas, I won't be seeing that sign in person this year, but just you wait, I'll be there next year.

Anyway, let's continue our haphazard look at the upcoming year to talk about one of my personal favorites, Curtis Granderson.


Grandy had a pretty good rookie season, all things considered. Hitting leadoff on a 95 win, World Series team, and playing centerfield in Comerica National Park is a lot to ask of a rookie. Granderson definitely was guilty at times of making it easy on the pitcher, as is easily evidenced by his 174 strikeouts.

While I would love for him to have only struck out 74 times, rather than 174, that in and of itself is not the only stat one should look at when evaluating Grandy. He'll be turning 26 in March, so while he's not young, there is still some room and time for him to improve. A quick look at his PECOTA card over at baseball prospectus shows him with a nearly 60% chance of performing at star level in the next few years. It's 5 year forecast shows him in the low 20's in VORP for the next several years. All the fun sabermetric numbers aside, what's he likely to do in the next few seasons?

Well, on the unscientific side of things, I can recall one of the Tigers' coaches saying something to the effect that Curtis Granderson will get every bit out of the talent he has. He has been praised up and down the Tigers organization for his work ethic and dedication, which is certainly not a bad thing to keep in mind when trying to project his future performance. None of that has any tangible effect when he's in the batters box, but we can rest assured that he'll be as prepared as possible for that confrontation.

Last year Curtis ended up with a line of .260/.335/.438. He hit 19 HRs, stole 8 bases, had 59 extra base hits (31 doubles, 9 triples, 19 dingers) and drove in 68.

There are some questions about whether Curtis will stay at the top of the batting order. While batting order isn't terribly important, staying at the top of the lineup may improve his potential to pick up a few steals. He stole 22 bases in Toledo in 2005, so he's not hopeless on the basepath, and double digit steals is probably likely for the upcoming season. The Tigers sent him 13 times last season, and he was only successful 8 of those times. 5 of those stolen base attempts happened in the seasons first month, and he was 3/5. After that, the Tigers were much more cautious about sending Curtis, and his last 3 steal attempts came on July 7, August 2nd, and August 17th. Basically, they stopped sending him.

One of the most vexing thing about Curtis last year was that he seemed to swing through a lot of pitches. His strikeouts were not necessarily a by-product of poor pitch recognition (he did walk 66 times, which isn't terrible) as much as they were an inability to make contact with good pitches he chose to swing at. I'm not sure what that portends for the future.

PECOTA's diagnostics give Grandy a 20% breakout rate, and a 47% improve rate, so better days are likely ahead. It forecasts a drop in strikeouts to the 130 range, which will subsequently likely result an an increase in OBP. Personally, I think with Granderson's work ethic, and room to grow, PECOTA's 75th percentile projection for Curtis sounds about right:

.283 average, 91 runs, 24 HR, 76 RBI, 11 steals.

However, I think he's likely to beat the steals projection easily, as I expect the small ball inclined Jim Leyland to make base stealing a point of emphasis with one of his quicker players. The Tigers basically gave up on sending Curtis last season due to a poor success rate, and I think they'll try to fix that this spring. I think he'll end up with 20 steals when all is said and done. If he achieves 20/20 status, he'll be worthy of having on your team, even in a mixed league format.