Monday, March 12, 2012

David Pauley Released and Other Notes

The Tigers made their first moves of the spring today including the release of reliever David Pauley.  Pauley came into camp with a chance to win a spot in the Tigers bullpen, but he struggled in early games just as he had last summer.  After coming over from Seattle in the Doug Fister trade, Pauley allowed 26 hits and posted a 5.95 ERA in 19 2/3 innings for the Tigers.  The 28-year-old right hander is now a free agent.

The Tigers also announced the first round of  "cuts",  or more appropriately - reassignments.  Catchers Rob Brantly, Curt Casali, Patrick Leyland and James McCann. third baseman and top hitting prospect Nick Castellanos and outfielder Justin Henry were all reassigned to the minors.  At the same time, outfielder Avisail Garcia was optioned to Double-A Erie and infielder Hernan Perez to Single-A Lakeland.

None of the moves were surprising.  It was becoming clear that Pauley wasn't going to make the team and none of the others are close to being ready for the majors.  Teams always invite a bunch of catchers to spring training because there are so many pitchers in camp.  If I recall correctly, they usually hang on to most of them longer than this.  It's not a big deal either way though.  They can always bring one of them back if they need an extra catcher for pitchers to throw to on a given day.

In one other move, designated hitter Victor Martinez was transferred to the 60-day disabled list.

Fifth Impressions

The Tigers played to a tie for the third straight day.  This time, it was a 7-7 10-inning game versus the Mets.  Three pitchers vying for the fifth starter job appeared in the game with varying results.  Andy Oliver made a good impression with four scoreless innings at the end of the game.  Jacob Turner made a far less favorable impression allowing six runs in 1 2/3 innings.  Drew Smyly started the game allowing one run in two innings.  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Twitter

Blog Archive

Subscribe

My Sabermetrics Book

My Sabermetrics Book
One of Baseball America's top ten books of 2010

Other Sabermetrics Books

Stat Counter