We're officially less than a week away from the start of the 2011 season! Here are some news items to tide you over as we start the countdown to another great year of baseball…
- Ramon Santiago "is available in the right deal," an anonymous scout tells Steve Kornacki of MLive.com. The long-time Tigers middle infielder started 78 games last season, posting a .662 OPS in 367 plate appearances. Santiago's competition for the utility job, Danny Worth, "has made a great impression on Jim Leyland," Kornacki writes.
- Troy Renck of the Denver Post isn't hearing much "trade buzz" (Twitter link) from scouts about Jose Lopez, contrary to a Ken Rosenthal report from earlier today. Renck reiterated his item from earlier this month about how Eric Young Jr. would draw interest if the Rockies wanted to put him on the trade market.
- Baseball America's Matt Eddy rounds up the week's minor league transactions.
- The Giants "might be the deepest team in baseball," but Dave Cameron of Fangraphs thinks their "big flaw" is Miguel Tejada and Mike Fontenot at short. Cameron suggests San Francisco should try to move one of their excess outfielders for "a real Major League shortstop."
Might as well trade Santiago for whatever fringe prospect we can get. Let Worth be the utility man.
Should Coke or someone in the rotation fall apart, Santiago and one of the OF prospects we have should be enough to land a solid back of the rotation starter from a team out of contention or looking to deal one of their excess starters (Cubs, Braves).
Andy Oliver will have the first shot if there is a rotation opening. Kawakami and Silva are the excess starters on those teams, I’l take my chances with Andy.
I don’t think Nate or Ishi lands us a decent SS. NO WAY Rowand does.
Jose Reyes would be the logical choice but depending on what the Mets would want in return. Then what to do with Tejada and his 6.5 mill
ship Tejada & Nate/Ishi to Baltimore for JJ Hardy? I mean yeah, Reyes would be the ideal fit but I feel like the Mets would force us to overpay for him and/or want some type of pitcher and I don’t think Sabes would be down for either.
I was thinking the same thing! But more importantly, who is this “Dave” Cameron guy anyway? Seriously, think about it! If he could turn Rowand into a ‘major league short stop’, there’s no limit to what he could do. In fact, he just might be…
… Chuck Norris.
tejada its a real shorstop, you’ll see!
Eric Young isn’t that good.
I can see the Tigers moving Santiago by the Trade Deadline. He is a switch hitter with a phenomenal glove and can play SS, 2B and 3B very well. Would be a great fit with an NL team looking for a platoon IF player or a full time stop-gap should an injury bug bit a starter hard. Danny Worth is starting to come alive and seem to be destined to take over the IF utility role. Amazing glove, average hitter, only drawback is he hits RH only but your IF utility player isn’t exactly known for their bat. With a number of LH hitting bench players on the tigers roster or in the minors (Kelly, Boesch, Dirks, Thomas) and Rhymes, Martinez, Avila, Guillen on the roster already, they can sacrifice Santiago.