Thursday, February 14, 2008

2008 Media Guide Released

The Tigers have released their 2008 Media Guide to the masses. It is several hundred pages of some of the most random and useful information out there. Most information inside of it can be found elsewhere, but there are two sections that can come in handy for the true baseball dorks out there:

The Minor League section:
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/pressbox/downloads/y2008/det/player_dev.pdf

Every player in the organization is listed there with their career statistics. While most players are known and their stats are available online, some transactions go unreported, such as the late January signing of minor league utility man Derek Wathan. Also, this is the closest thing we have to an up-to-date list of recent Domincan and Venezuelan signings. Many of these have been reported, but I wanted to give a list of all the players who have been signed that did not play last year:

Gino Aguirre RP R R 6.20 155 9/12/1990 Nueva Esparta, VZ
Carlos Alvarez RP R R 6.10 175 1/15/1991 Caracas, VZ
Wilfredo Hoyer C R R 6.01 180 5/14/1991 Miranda, VZ
Javier Azcona SS R R 6.10 180 8/28/1991 Colui, DR
Alexander Nunez SS R R 5.11 172 5/4/1990 La Vega, DR
Josue Carreno RP R R 6.01 170 6/26/1991 Edo Nueva Esparta, VZ
Ricardo Olivo C R R 6.00 179 11/5/1990 Santiago, DR
Raynolds Guzman C R R 6.00 185 9/16/1990 Santo Domingo, DR
Bruce Rondon RP R R 6.02 190 12/9/1990 Valencia, VZ
Domingo Gonzalez SS R R 6.01 175 3/10/1991 Bani, DR
Luis Sanz C R R 5.10 165 2/23/1991 Gualtire, VZ
Yinio Calderon SP R R 6.04 170 11/16/1990 La Vega, DR
Emmanuel Del Orbe SP R R 6.03 188 12/20/1990 Santo Domingo, DR
Francisco Melo SP R R 6.03 180 2/27/1991 Bani, DR
Avisail Garcia CF R R 6.03 190 6/12/1991 Anzoategui, VZ
Oscar Gomez SS R R 5.11 155 3/25/1991 Miranda, VZ
Francisco Martinez 3B R R 6.01 180 9/1/1990 Miranda, VZ
Hernan Perez SS R R 6.00 160 3/26/1991 Arugua, VZ

These signings happen throughout the year, and more guys will be brought in between the printing of this guide and the start of the summer leagues.

One other name you may not recognize is Darwin DeLeon, previously known as Edward Reynoso. Will he come state-side this year after dominating the Dominican Summer League last year? I know the answer, but can't tell. Check out Tigstown.com to get the list of those coming to the states this year.

The list of major league players in the media guide is pretty useful:

http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/pressbox/downloads/y2008/det/tigers.pdf

Most of the information is available online through MLB.com. There is one bit of information, though, that isn't. That's the service time. It may be a bit confusing when seeing it the first time around. It may seem like a pretty big coincidence that no players have fractional service time that exceeds X.2. This is because service time is not represented in a decimal form. For example, Tim Byrdak's Major League Service is listed as 2.161. This is not 2 years plus another 161/1000 of a year. It's actually 2 years and 161 days in a year, where 172 days counts as a full season. There is no rounding in service time. If you are at 5.171, you have to wait a whole season to become free agent eligible.

Pitchers and catchers officially report tomorrow, but if it makes anybody feel better, most players have already reported to Spring Training. The greatest time of year is almost here. I can't wait.

2 comments:

L said...

Wathan was signed this year? Is there any chance they'll actually let him play a major league baseball game in his career? He really is a great player. The numbers don't show it since he's always batting leadoff for one terrible team or another, but he's long deserved a shot at the majors.

Unknown said...

Where can I buy a media guide?