Tigers Bench Magglio Ordonez Indefinitely

I'd guess we see a grievance soon.

I know the power is gone, but a guy batting .273 in the majors isn't horrible enough to bench. At worst, he should either be moved up or moved down in the order. Batting 2nd or 7th wouldn't be bad.

I have a question for you wizards. What happens if the Tigers cut him, and a grievance is filed and Maggs wins his grievance?

"I have a question for you wizards. What happens if the Tigers cut him, and a grievance is filed and Maggs wins his grievance?"

The Tigers will owe him $18M... or more likely they'd settle with the players union.

thank you

This guy needs to be released. He needs to go back to the White Sox who may be Quentin-less for quite some time and can at least try and get his power back on track. If he still fails in Chicago, he can at least retire on the team that made his career.

How? Francoeur is much worse than Maggs

Compare the two lines

Maggs: .273/.347/.343/.690

Frenchy: .250/.281/.342/.623

out of all RF's in baseball (24 total)

Maggs is 11th in avg, Frenchy 20th
Maggs is 16th in obp, Frenchy 23rd
Maggs is 21st in OPS, Frenchy 22nd

(coming from a braves fan here)
say what you want about how bad Maggs is but outside of Brian Giles, Jeff Francoeur is the worst RF again for the 2nd consecutive season. Now taking salary into consideration, I wouldnt want either player

"Hey Howard Megdal are you related to Warner Madrigal?"

Yes. And he decided to tweak his name when he got off the boat... he's now a very rare breed of Dominican Jew.

csg,

You're completely leaving aside defense though, where Frenchy has always been better than Ordonez. Add that into the equation and there isn't really a whole lot separating the two. Magglio has been worth .1 WAR, while Frenchy has been worth -.3, so its pretty close.

OOOOO!! EEEE!! OOOOO!! MAAAAAGGLIOOOOOO!

OOOOO! EEEE! OOOO! MAAAAGGGLLIIOOO!

I miss Mags on the Sox.

There's no way in the world the Braves would take him on, let his option vest, and pay him any portion of that 18 million next year. He'd be a marginal upgrade over our current options, but he comes with a huge price tag and I'd be worried if he was still in the starting lineup come next year.

Melonis is right. If he wasn't a vet or if his name wasn't Magglio he would cut or demoted. It's that simple.

He is arguably the worst RF'er in the game right now. No way he wins a grievance case. The team doesn't have to show that he is the worst player in the game or that he is even the worst player on the team. Instead, they have to show that they acted in good faith. Hard to prove they acted in bad faith when they bench a RF'er who can't field, can't run, and has a SLG % lower than Chone Figgins.

At least the Tigers have the balls to do what needed to be done. Look at Franceour stinkin it up year and after year and still keeping his job. The young players keep there jobs because there cheap and have 'upside'.

"I don't see how there's a legitimate grievance here. This year he's been nowhere near the player they expected when they signed the deal. Why should they be obligated to play him so his option can vest? If he wanted a guaranteed 2010 deal, he should have held out for that in the contract negotiation. This isn't bad faith (like benching a guy in the last week of the season 1 AB short of the vesting number, and letting pitchers pinch-hit instead of him). It's just a team being rational."

as a player he certainly has a beef .270 isnt enough to warrant a benching and its obvious the tigers are beating around the bush not 2 pay him his 18 mill.

u can say well then he shouldnt have signed the contract but on a real note if he didnt tigers fans know they probaly wouldnt have one the WS

me personally for every contract like this with options based on AB's there should also be clause 2 keep classless orginaztions from pulling bs like this.

maybe something stating the player cant be benched indefinetly unless hitting below .210 25 games into the season

This is an actual case of a guy needing to perform in order to get paid. I wonder who they will make a run at when the deadline approaches. I still haven't heard anything on the Matt Holliday front.

theguy9.....its an $18 mil option and he isn't playing like a $5 mil player I think the Tigers have every right to bench him. They are getting the same kind of production they can get from a minor leaguer with much better defense. Its an insult to call the Tigers classless. They are in one of the worst economic cities in the world and still dishing out more money than 90% of the money hungry teams in baseball. They actually care about their fans unlike the Marlins and Nationals and like minded teams in baseball.

theguy9 - you don't get it.

The only thing Maggs has going for him is his BA. Quite possibly the most useless statistic available. Let's run down his current status:

On Base skills - LA right now for a RF. Doesn't help or hurt his case.
SLG - His current 343 SLG% is 2nd worst to Giles (who should also be benched/released).
Overall OPS - 3rd worst in baseball behind the every disappointing Francouer and Brian Giles.
Fielding - one of the worst in baseball.
Baserunning - one of the worst in baseball.

His OPS is currently 200 points UNDER his career AVERAGE. This isn't just a blip.

To summarize, Maggs can't hit for ANY power, is unable to run the bases, can't field, and is currently ranked in the bottom 3 for all RF'ers in baseball in most important statistical categories. I'm struggling to see how benching him is a classless move or how this will trigger a legitimate grievance.

'theguy9.....its an $18 mil option and he isn't playing like a $5 mil player I think the Tigers have every right to bench him. They are getting the same kind of production they can get from a minor leaguer with much better defense. Its an insult to call the Tigers classless. They are in one of the worst economic cities in the world and still dishing out more money than 90% of the money hungry teams in baseball. They actually care about their fans unlike the Marlins and Nationals and like minded teams in baseball'

who are you to say who cares about there fans your a yankees fan for god sakes u can sign anyone you like...you rly have no idea
and i call the tigers classless not just cause of this one insident there have been 2-3

"I'm struggling to see how benching him is a classless move or how this will trigger a legitimate grievance."

The union has filed and won grievances with less and won or settled. Sydney Ponson for example... I'm not saying Mags has a case, just think the Tigers will probably have to settle and cough up some money. Also, I'm not sure how grievances are settled... if it's like arbitration and the union can present similar player cases then they'll probably mention Ortiz was hitting even worse, wasn't benched, and now has over a 1.100 OPS in June.

"I still haven't heard anything on the Matt Holliday front."

I think teams are wary that his power outage isn't just a hitting in Oakland problem. Sure, he hits better on the road, but power numbers aren't significantly different. He'll probably get dealt, but probably not for the windfall Beane thought he might get.

i hate accusing guys who have been known to be nothing but clean, but could he have been pumping PEDs a few yrs ago, and someone warned him that he would be suspended if he didnt stop? could explain a lot, although i do hate accusing clean guys

The only grievance that should be filed is by the Tigers, for the steroids that Ordonez used to take having inflated his value. Now they are stuck with a very expensive singles hitter.

The Tigers by not dumping Ordonez are acting with class and Boras with his out right acts of greed in each and every contract, or every time he opens his mouth (like announcing his client A-Rod was opting out of his contract during a WS in 2007)continually works with out class and contempt for the game of baseball.

It would perfectly suit Ordonez, for his performance, much less his contract that he be dumped right now and I have no doubt that they are being held hostage by Boras and his possible grievance if they were to do so.

The next best thing for the Tigers is to waste a roster spot for this season and to just let him sit in a far corner of the dugout and sit for the remainder of the year. Making it worse is the Tigers have 2 of these horrible performance/contract guys in Ordonez and Willis.

The Tigers have every right to bench Mags with those terrible stats. If Big Papi had not busted out a few weeks back, he would probably be benched right now so too bad to Borass for not guaranteeing the contract. The bright dide is that by losing out on 33 million at 5%, Borass loses his 1.6 million cut. HA,HA!

No question that the Tigers have been willing to spend money. They had the second highest payroll in 2008, and actually had to pay a luxury tax.
But the methods of spending are very peculiar. NO team in the AL has acquired fewer free agents or spent less on free agents over the past three years than Detroit.
The list of new free agents in three years is Lyon, Everett, Matt Treanor, Jose Mesa, and Francisco Cruceta. That's IT! All one year contracts, in three years. They also extended Todd Jones and Kenny Rogers, for one year apiece.
Dombrowski over paid for Pudge and Magglio when the Tigers were so bad that no player would come to Detroit. Although the vesting clause is based on plate appearances- and there was another escape clause tied to his knee in the first year of the deal, there is no termination clause based on performance. But that clause is already in the uniform players' contract, and there is simply no way in hell that the Tigers are going to let that $ 18 million option vest. So they bench him, even though there isn't a better player to take his place anywhere in the organization.
Spending money is fine, but they need to win. They have a chance to make the post season this year, but they'll need to replace Guillen and Ordonez in the outfield with bona fide major leaugers, and they'll have to go outside the organization to find them. Spend that money they're saving on Ordonez and pick up a few players instead.

The Tigers desperately need a hitter. They should look at either Russell Branyon or Aubry Huff as neither would be too expensive.

They should just trade Maggs to the Mets for something cheap