After trading for Jacque Jones earlier in the day, the Tigers have now inked Todd Jones to a one year deal. Despite constantly playing with fire, Jones managed to save 38 games in 44 opportunities last year. Although far from dominant, 2007 was his third straight solid year as a closer saving115 games in 132 opportunities over that period. He will be the Tigers closer again this year.
As always, the big question with him is how long can he keep saving games with such a small margin for error. In 2007, he had a 4.26 ERA, a 1.42 WHIP and a 33/23 K/BB ratio in 61 1/3 innings over 63 appearances. He has gotten by on good control and ground balls but even those weren't working as well in 2007. His walks per 9 innings increased from 1.6 in 2006 to 3.4 in 2007 and his ground ball rate dropped from 52.9% to 45.9%.
Today's moves leave the Tigers looking for a set up man and a starting pitcher. They have made an offer to Kenny Rogers but agent Scott Boras has started shopping Rogers around, although Rogers said earlier that he wanted to stay with the Tigers.
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