Thursday, December 11, 2008

It's okay. He's skinny.

James Skelton was taken by Arizona in the Rule 5 draft. Kyle Bloom was taken by the Tigers from Pittsburgh. I'll have more on this after the dust settles. A lot of trades tend to take place after the draft.

The good news is that Alfredo Figaro could not have possibly been taken today. Thank God.

Update:
As of yet, James Skelton still hasn't been traded by Arizona. Why is this important? The Diamondbacks already have two quality catchers under 30 in Chris Snyder and Miguel Montero. As it stands, there is no room to stash Skelton on the roster. Unless he or Montero is traded, there is no room for Skelton on the roster, meaning he'd have to be returned. This still isn't sitting very well, although this would probably not be a catastrophic loss. Would is the key word in that sentence. The odds that Skelton sticks all year on Arizona's roster are very low right now, however they have carried three catchers in the past. I still don't like this one bit, as we have yet another sign of backwards thinking by the Tigers' front office this year.

Kyle Bloom is an interesting pick. He'll be 26 when the season starts, so he's no spring chicken. His minor league splits mesh with various reports that he made significant mechanical changes during this season, posting FIP's of 5.40, 4.51, 5.61, 3.33, and 3.33 in April, May, June, July, and August respectively. This improvement continued in the Hawaiian Leagues, where he posted a 1.5 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 30 innings pitched. It certainly looks as if the mechanical changes have set Bloom in the right direction, and this is a worthwhile gamble to take.

Finally, the Tigers passed in the minor league phase, and lost no players. In case you were worried, the math professor stays in the organization.

Update #2:
From the Tiger's website:
"If he throws the way he threw for [Egan], I think he'll be interesting and have a chance to make our ballclub," Dombrowski said.
Isn't this how we ended up with Francisco Cruceta?

2 comments:

Zack Slabotsky said...

Fire Dombrowski? What a horrible two day stretch. Actually, more a like a horrible two year stretch.

Unknown said...

Thankfully for the 1946 Yankees, Dave Dombrowski was not their GM. Otheriwse he may have exposed then small & skinny 19 year-old Yogi Berra to MLB's 1946 version of the Rule-5 Draft.