Brandon Lyon To Sign With Tigers

Oh yeah, that 4.70 ERA last season sure is great.

"Oh yeah, that 4.70 ERA last season sure is great."

Because ERA is such a great stat to base a pitcher on.

Lyon a Tiger. That's gold.

2yr/25 million is my guess

jk

26 out of 31 saves isnt to bad.

"Oh yeah, that 4.70 ERA last season sure is great."

Cardinal fan?! Couldn't have guessed :D

Nice deal for whoever grabs him.

It's only a nice deal for whoever grabs him if the terms are nice.

On something like 2/9, Lyon could definitely be a nice grab. But if someone has to give him like 2/12 or 3/16, then I'm not sure the deal is quite so nice.

Lyon's K rate was below 6.00 from 2005-2007, before finally shooting back up to 6.67 last season.

Coincidentally, Lyon's walk rate was 2.68 or higher every season of his career before 2008 when he walked just 1.97 per 9.

Lyon was a victim of bad luck in 2008, although it's unclear how much. His BABIP was .355 this season, WAY WAY up from the .290 and .287 BABIPs posted by opponents in 2006 and 2007.

Those numbers would be a clear indicator, but hitters had BABIP's of over .365 in both 2004 and 2005, so it's unclear which period of time was a fluke.

If Lyon can actually maintain the increased K rate and decreased walk rate while getting some luck, then he could very, very easily bounce back and be a good closer.

It could be a very solid buy-low, but there's definitely some risk involved.

"Don't start with this garbage. Designer stats are ruining the game."

Right, wouldn't want to make million dollar decisions based on the best information. Let's all stay uninformed. If other industries acted this way, we'd still be living in the stone age.

"It shows that Dave actually cares about the bullpen"

Has there ever been a front office executive that didn't care about bullpens?

I'm pretty sure bullpens are an integral part of winning baseball.

The Tigers bullpen sucks so bad that the addition of Brandon Lyon makes it better.

Let that sink in for a while.

Lyon is good, but isn't anything too special. He pitched above-average(in my opinion atleast) in the weakest offensive division in the league.

Quick question:
Does this mean the Tigers r still looking at Izzy?
And
Is Izzy all that good?

Good signing. Stats at this point dont mean jack until the season starts. No one can predict the future and I am sick and tired of people saying the Tigers wont contend. No one knows that, everyone said the Twins wouldnt contend after Johan and Hunter went elsewhere, and they contended until the very last day of the season. The whole division was weak last year.
This should be an interesting season, every team has made some moves besides the Sox, they traded swisher, but they still cant run.
We made some low key moves and who knows, this might just work out. We keep signing relievers to minor leauge deals, and this is adding depth with relievers that were proven at one point in their career. We had one bad year and the whole world ends, just because we cant spend like the yankees did doesnt mean we wont contend. If we can sign lyon, and maybe another reliever we will be good. We dont need proven relievers to have a good bullpen, we just need the relievers to step up their game.
With a refurbished bullpen, regardless of how bad their stats are, it gives confidence back to the starters in knowing if they pitch until they break they wont watch a bullpen blow a lead 27 times.

Actually if you want a good Izzy comp, think Fernando Rodney.

Pskip: dont forget that we have Perry and Satterwhite who should be good enough to get a call up this year. perry who hits triple digits and Sattewhite who throws in the mid-high 90's and also has a pretty good curve. Both were drafted as RP (DD's big 4 RP) so they could make there way up real fast. they both have pretty good control as well

Quick question to anyone:

Do u think that Alex White or Aaron Crow or Tyler Matzek will slip down to the #9 draft pick the Tigers have?
Who would u pick?

As i posted earlier, under a different the "Brewers agree to a two year deal with fielder" post...

Here's an update from Rosenthal at 7:57 EST:

A Major League source claims that the Tigers are close to signing Brandon Lyon to a 1 year deal at just under $5MM plus incentives. Apparently, Lyon saw the Tigers as the best opportunity, despite his agent's rumors that he had received a 2-year $9MM deal from another team.

Posted by: thinkblue | January 22, 2009 at 08:54 PM

The Tigers will use Perry similar to what the Mariners did with Brandon Morrow...rush him to the majors as a reliever then eventually start him....Perry will be in Detroit in '09.

Thanks melonis
Really hoped Matzek slips to #9 tho...

And Perry really doesn't project to b a starter
He was better as a reliever in college
He needsnto work on getting balls low in the zone to b truly effective

Ha. Enjoy your blown saves Detroit!

Ohhh....so this is how you make a Liger.

wow 4 dollars and 25 cents is quite a deal

The Cubs should have gone after him instead of trading for Kevin Gregg. He is a better pitcher for the same amount of money. They also wouldn't have had to trade away their best pitching prospect Jose Ceda if they had signed Lyon instead of trading for Gregg.

haha 92-93, i was thinking about that earlier today. kinda weird how well it fits

Zumaya will come back to life eventually. Zum/Lyon/Rodney is an excellent back of a bullpen. Maybe the hype on the Tigers from last year will come true now.

Oh yeah, that 4.70 ERA last season sure is great.

Posted by: CardinalFaninIL | January 22, 2009 at 03:33 PM

umm...seriously, he had 26 saves & 5 blown saves last year; so if the Cardinals (who had 31 blown saves last year) would've had him then, they would have had the best record in baseball (around 112-50) and they would have not only gone to the postseason but they would have been considered one of the favorites!
yeah i'm kind of wishing management could've signed him! its better than having someone like franklin go out there & suck EVERY game! or having management arguing with Tony to get him to put in Motte/Perez to close out games!