Winter Meetings Links

I've been spending most of my recent blog time crunching numbers so I haven't written much about the Winter meetings. Luckily, some of the other Tiger bloggers did the work for me:

Brian at TigerBlog talks about the acquistion of left-handed reliever Edward Campusano from the Cubs via the Brewers:

Campusano could end up being the left handed relief pitcher the Tigers were looking for although he’s short on experience. He’s 24 and he split time at Low A and Double A in 2006 where he was completely dominating. He struck out 81 batters in only 55 1/3 innings last year with only 17 walks.

To see Campusano's career stats, follow the Baseball Cube link in Brian's article. He had an impressive year last year and looks like a good low risk acquisition.

Billfer discussed some interesting quotes from Jim Leyland. First, Billfer talked about the possibility of Ivan Rodriguez leading off:

Pudge led off in 3 games in 2006, and drew 3 walks. Three games is of course an insufficient sample, but when placed into that role he seemed to make a concerted effort to see more pitches. I don’t know how likely it is that he would be successful in the role, but if it helps him improve his plate discipline the Tigers will benefit.

I agree that it might not be a bad idea but I'm skeptical as to whether Pudge will become more selective anywhere in the line-up.

Leyland also talked about wanting to try Marcus Thames at first base next yeat spring. Thames was one of their most productive hitters this year and it's important for them to get him a good number of at bats next year. Hopefully, he can handle the transition to first base reasonably well. Finally, the Tiger manager also said that Omar Infante would likely be the team's back-up center fielder along with his utility infielder duties.

Kurt at Mack Avenue Tigers talked about the inactivity of the Tigers at the meetings and also about the big spending by other teams, most notably, the Cubs:

Special mention goes to the Cubs, who, ESPN pointed out, spent about $270M worth of contracts so far this offseason. (The new owners are gonna love that!) And while Alfonso Soriano is a really nice ballplayer, they’ll be paying that one for years. Ted Lilly making $10M a year? Ted Lilly? Wow.

Kurt thinks that this winter's big spenders might become more reluctant next winter and I suspect he may be right.