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Home , Al Avila, Dan Petry, Hank Aguirre, Jim Northrup (baseball), Jim Price (catcher), Luke Putkonen

Tigers Clips Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Detroit Free Press Tigers' analytics database 'Caesar' nearly complete (Fenech)

The Detroit News Metro area retired priest a faithful (Henning)

Oakland Press Tigers intentionally slow with Joe Jimenez’s development, because it’s deja vu all over again (Mowery) Going for it one more time doesn’t benefit Tigers; ‘Status quo sometimes ... may not be the best decision’ (Mowery)

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Tigers' analytics database 'Caesar' nearly complete October 26, 2016 By Anthony Fenech/ Detroit Free Press

It has a name. And it’s nearing completion, perhaps as soon as January. As the Tigers close in on catching up with the rest of Major League on the analytics end, said last week the organization’s internal software system -- dubbed "Caesar" -- is ready to be powered up. But that news is only the latest step towards Avila’s goal of beefing up the Tigers’ analytics department. “It’s in its infancy, as analytics departments are,” Avila said. Last year, in his first off-season as GM, Avila added four staff members to the department. The most notable was Jay Sartori, who has been behind the development of "Caesar," which could be fully functional by the start of the year. This year, Avila will continue to add people: Two jobs -- an analytics manager and intern -- have been posted online. "We will be hiring several more people in that area that will basically just be doing the calculations, mathematics and formulas that they create to help us make better decisions, which is not in place right now and hasn’t been," Avila said. "In reality, it’s in its infancy right now." Increasing the man -- and database power -- of the team’s analytical department has been one of Avila’s priorities, but he’s also balancing those with the scouting side of the game. Last year, the Tigers added four Major League scouts.

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Metro area retired priest a World Series faithful October 26, 2016 By Lynn Henning/ The Detroit News

Colchester, Ontario — Oh, wouldn’t this have been a perfect World Series for two priests living on dimes rather than dollars. There would be a breezy five-hour drive to Wrigley Field to help the long-exiled Cubs faithful revel in their rapture. And, across Lake Erie from the shoreline cottage where the Rev. Don Worthy sits on a golden autumn day, sunshine in his blue eyes, there, darn near in sight, is Cleveland, where the Indians have raised a rare pennant. “If the Tigers were in it, this would be just a bit more exciting, but short of that, this is the answer to a World Series fiend’s prayers,” said Worthy, sizing up 2016’s showdown, which features two longtime absentees from the championship round, the Cubs and Indians, beginning tonight at Progressive Field in Cleveland. “It’s got everything going for it.” Consider your average, dogged baseball devotee, age 83. There might have been a World Series game or two in his or her archives. Maybe a half-dozen, even a dozen or more, depending upon affiliation. Worthy, a retired hospital chaplain and 54-year Catholic priest who has lived nearly all his life in the Detroit- Ontario radius, will tonight be at Progressive Field, seated in the autumn chill, for his 220th World Series game. Two-hundred-twenty World Series games. “It’s the baseball heritage of these towns and teams,” Worthy was saying as Lake Erie’s waves washed against rocks fronting his cottage. “You become part of this amazing baseball thing. You get to know the fans, and hear of their parents and grandparents and their devotion to a team. You become part of a much larger and richer story.” The story, rather incredible, has an innocent beginning, when the Tigers were playing the Cardinals in 1968, and two young Detroit priests, Worthy and his baseball-adoring pal, Vince Welch, were each assigned at St. Rita’s parish, near the old State Fairgrounds. They had been given tickets to the Series by late Tigers traveling secretary Vince Desmond, which was appreciated in that they could see three games at . But this was to become an epic seven-game Series with four acts in St. Louis. Two men whose vocation seemed to be equal parts ministry and baseball caught a break from a local car dealer, Dick Cote of Royal Oak, who learned the clerics had tickets. Cote would be happy to offer a private flight to St. Louis in exchange for those two unsecured seats and for what became an eternal Tigers triumph: a come-from-behind World Series championship that still, for those who experienced it, has Motown fans afloat. After that seventh game, when ’s and ’s medal-willing pitching valor helped the Tigers to a World Series parade, the two priests were soaring in Cote’s Piper Commanche, over South Bend, Indiana, and the University of Notre Dame below. Worthy turned to his pal Welch and said: “You know, there’s nothing to this. We ought to go every year.” Worthy pauses, nods, and recalls: “We got addicted quick. We were baseball lifers.” It was the ultimate no-frills tradition, at least in the early years. They traveled to all but West Coast games, and, apart from ’68, always by car, flight fare being way past their means. They motored to towns where the religious network might put them up in a rectory’s spare room, or in a dormitory, or in an empty convent. Or, perhaps, in a parishioner’s home where the thought of two priests driving a car to the Series made it all the more pleasing for a family to offer a night’s shelter and maybe breakfast the next morning. Oh, the makeshift way in which Worthy and Welch would do it. There was 1980, Royals and Phillies. Two gents otherwise seen in collars donned fall garb (each had a season ticket to Tiger Stadium, as Worthy has held since 1969) and piled into an old Pontiac. Detroit to Kansas City. Kansas City to . Philadelphia back to Kansas City. And then home to Detroit. Tickets were fairly cheap (about $15 when they began their pilgrimages, with modest increases until recent years). As for getaway time, it could be grabbed in October because two roadsters spent their summers handling parish tasks while covering for other priests who took typical summer breaks. 3

They missed only one year in the early going: 1974, when the Dodgers and Athletics played and Worthy was in traction with a bad back. Welch died in 1987 and was succeeded by Mike McNamara, a family friend and Rochester Hills resident, who is president of Dearborn-based Hollingsworth Logistics. McNamara has since joined Worthy the past 30 years. Tonight will be World Series Game No. 163 for McNamara, who handles travel arrangements, beginning after the All-Star Game in July, when home-field advantage for either league is decided. McNamara begins reserving hotel rooms by way of computerized contingencies that cover all teams, towns and venue possibilities. “It’s like anything else in life, I suppose,” McNamara says of his Series partnership with Worthy. “You start going and it’s difficult to stop. Especially when you see Father’s passion for baseball, his pure enjoyment of the game.” Forced to sit out 2002 There has been only one World Series missed in the ensuing years: 2002, when the Angels and Giants met. Old, dependable ticket suppliers simply couldn’t deliver. Worthy and McNamara found themselves high and dry, a situation since remedied by the Tigers front office (Worthy has had Tigers season tickets since 1969, seats that McNamara now oversees), which makes sure two historic customers get their shot to buy World Series seats. “The Tigers have been so good,” says Worthy, who was born in Detroit, grew up in Imlay City, and saw his first Tigers game on July 2, 1940. “But it’s not as romantic as people would think,” he says of these annual October treks. “In ’79 it snowed in Pittsburgh. In ’83 at Philly it rained for three days, torrentially. “In ’97, it sleeted in Cleveland. It was the most god-awful, miserable night of my life. “There have been nights when it’s been 1 a.m. and we’re wandering around the Bronx or Queens trying to get back. It’s cold, really cold, and you’ve been bundled in winter clothes for most of the day and all of the night. “You gotta want to do it.” Even, perhaps, when you shouldn’t. The Tigers and Padres played in 1984 and Worthy and Welch scraped together enough shekels to buy flights to San Diego. But now they were at the mercy of whatever baseball benefactor came their way. They borrowed a car from sympathetic San Diego nuns and drove to Jack Murphy Stadium for Game 1, which the Tigers won. All was well. Until they went to retrieve the nuns’ lone mode of transportation, save their legs. The car was gone. Towed. To a classic tow lot, surrounded by razor wire and guarded by Dobermans. Bailing out the car cost nearly 100 percent more than two priests had in their pockets, until a sweet couple who had taken them to a place as inviting as San Quentin popped for the fee (soon repaid) and allowed Worthy-Welch to reclaim their wheels and make the nuns mobile again. Dinner with famed Dodger They made friends galore along the way. Some of them celebrities, such as , the old Dodgers manager and steady Catholic who was having dinner at an Italian restaurant in Philly during the 1980 Series. Worthy and Welch had already made it through a bargain-priced salad and plate of pasta when they saw Lasorda, which prompted Welch, who never met a celeb he didn’t feel was an equal, to introduce the two from Detroit. “You’re priests?” Lasorda asked “You had dinner? Well, then you’ll have dinner again.” They ate and reveled in baseball talk until the restaurant finally threw them out at 2 a.m. During , 1988, Worthy, who has a way of befriending anyone within earshot, got acquainted at Marchant Stadium with new two box-seat friends. They were the mom and dad of one-time Tigers protégé Torey Lovullo. Sam, Torey’s father, was longtime producer of the corn pone show “Hee Haw” and invited Worthy to call him if he ever was in Los Angeles. Seven months later, Worthy was in Tinsel Town. For the Dodgers-A’s World Series. Lovullo offered Worthy and McNamara, who had been knighted as Welch’s successor, overnight quarters, as well as tickets — behind the visitor’s dugout. They were dead across the field from the Dodgers lair where, in the ninth inning of Game 1, the Dodgers were down, 3-2, with two out. Lasorda was about to order , all but paralyzed with knee and hamstring ills, into the game as a pinch-hitter with a man on base.

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“Across the field, I could see the whole thing,” Worthy remembers. “I can still see Gibson limping into the dugout, using the bat to brace himself. He could hardly walk.” And then, a as fabled as any in baseball history. Fundraiser honors friend Worthy’s life remains, even at 83, heavily split between ministry and the game he loves. Although retired from his 34 years of chaplain’s service, primarily at Mt. Carmel Hospital, he has been a part-time associate since the 1970s at St. Philomena Parish on Detroit’s east side, and still helps there regularly. He satisfies his baseball soul apart from the World Series in various ways. He gets most big-league games via cable at his cottage, which he bought for a song in 1982 when the dollar was strong, “and it was such a good deal I couldn’t pass on it, even if I lost it,” he says. And despite the fact he does not have a cellphone, nor use the internet, he somehow manages to head one of the more amazing charity events in Detroit: The Fr. Vincent Welch Memorial Dinner, named for his late great friend, and now in its 30th year. The dinner is an annual night of baseball goodwill, the Tuesday after each summer’s All-Star Game, at the Polish American Cultural Center in Troy. It has featured a glorious list of marquee guests: Lolich, , , , , , , , , , , Todd Jones, etc., and even non-Tigers such as Brooks Robinson. All have received the Memorial Award. The dinner began humbly, simply as a way for Worthy to cope with his grief following Welch’s death, at 56. It has grown astonishingly, in part because Worthy spends much of his year corralling featured guests and chasing down unique sports memorabilia that is offered during the dinner at a silent auction, treasures on a par with the virtual baseball museum he has built within his Canada home. Proceeds from tickets and the silent auction, as well as from sponsorships, fund scholarships at Loyola Academy in Detroit, and at University of Detroit-Mercy. Money raised for those scholarships in 29 years: $3 million. “Who would have thought?” Worthy says, thinking back to 1987 and to the dinner’s birth. “It parallels, I suppose, the World Series trips: Who knew back in ’68 when there was a first trip that there’d be a second? “But the dinner has really become a $3 million tribute to God’s greatness. It’s the seasons-of-life thing. The only thing that matters now is the people who succeed me in life — that they have a better world. Look what baseball has done for me. In a technological world, I’m completely lost. “But this gives me some relevance.”

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Tigers intentionally slow with Joe Jimenez’s development, because it’s deja vu all over again October 26, 2016 By Matt Mowery/ Oakland Press

DETROIT >> It was a 32-game stretch of sheer, unadulterated, fireballing dominance. The ’ burly, right-handed pitching prospect gave went on a tear from April to the end of July giving up only one run, posting a ridiculous 0.27 ERA as his star just swelled further and further. The season started at High-A Lakeland, continued through Double-A Erie, and wound up in Triple-A Toledo before the season was out — with a detour to pitch for the World Team in the Futures Game in July. Hitters had no chance, no matter the stop. They hit at just a .134 clip, with a paltry .240 on-base percentage, a .143 , and a .383 OPS. He struck out 41 off them, and walked just 11, allowing 15 hits in 33 2/3 innings, posting an 0.27 ERA … before the streak finally ended in an extra-inning loss on the road. At the end of the minor-league season, the 21-year-old was left off the September roster, even with fans clamoring for his arrival. Wait … did you think this was about Joe Jimenez? No, this was Bruce Rondon, in 2012. But Jimenez’s sterling 2016 season ran along very similar lines. He went unscored upon in his first 26.1 innings of work this season, giving up just one earned run — getting a save in the seventh inning of the second game of a June 25 doubleheader — in his first 35 appearances. Through July 6, his stats were just as outrageous as Rondon’s had been in that 2012 stretch: 31 appearances, 32 innings pitched, 12 hits allowed, 55 , 10 walks, 0.28 ERA. He’d allowed opponents a line of .114/.205/.133 and an OPS of .338. His streak, too, ended in a walk-off loss, following a blown save. He wound up in Toledo in August, where he posted a very solid 2.30 ERA in 15.2 innings, allowing opponents a line of .164/.217/.255 with an OPS of .471. Still very, very good. Superb, even. Yet, when the Tigers made their September call-ups, his name was not among those brought to the team, while Joe Mantiply was. Instead, Jimenez was headed to instructional league, and eventually to winter ball. Same thing had happened with Rondon, who might’ve made a difference late in the 2012 regular season — or in the playoffs. Luis Marte and Luke Putkonen both pitched in September/October for the Tigers that season, instead. Phil Coke was the closer in the postseason, after Jose Valverde coughed up the job. Once spring rolled around, though, Rondon was anointed the new closer — a job he wouldn’t even hold onto through spring training. It reverted to a closer-by-committee (set-up guy Joaquin Benoit eventually solidified the job), but Rondon just couldn’t live up to the massive expectations he’d accrued. Now, it’s a given they’re not the same , but they are similar. They’re both guys that have overpowering stuff, and have used it to blast their way through minor-league lineups, without much effort, or much need to resort to secondary pitches. The biggest similarity might be the point they were at, developmentally, at the end of a breakout season as a 21-year-old. And the Tigers don’t necessarily want history to repeat any further than that. Rondon is just NOW coming into his own, four years later (granted he lost one to surgery). “Jimenez went right through the minor leagues. I know there was a big push for him to come up here, but trust me that it would not have been in his best interests or our best interests,” general manager Al Avila said at his recent end-of-season press conference. “There were some things he needed to work on, in particular his slider. And just his command overall. There are certain things that you can do in the minor leagues that you can’t do at the big-league level. When we bring up, we want to make sure that he’s coming up to have success. We don’t want to go through the same mistake we did with Bruce in the past where it just didn’t work out right away. We want to be a little bit more cautious with Jimenez.”

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They want him to be ready. Rondon wasn’t in 2013 until the end of the season, when he had that now-infamous showdown with David Ortiz in Boston. The only thing that held him back at that point was an elbow injury that would eventually linger on into 2014. It might be the same time schedule for Jimenez, before he’s ready to contribute full-time. “I’m hopeful that he can contribute to our success at some point in 2017. I can’t rule out that right out of the chute in spring training — I’m not going to rule him out, you’ve got to give a guy an opportunity,” Avila said. “But is it going to be a month, two months, three months in Toledo before he makes the impact? Obviously that’s in play, too.” Being cautious doesn’t guarantee Jimenez reaches his potential faster, or easier, than Rondon did, but at least — having gone through a nearly identical situation before — it’s understandable why the Tigers would be gun-shy about rushing another one.

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Going for it one more time doesn’t benefit Tigers; ‘Status quo sometimes ... may not be the best decision’ October 26, 2016 By Matt Mowery/ Oakland Press

DETROIT >> There were certainly reasons for optimism for the Detroit Tigers, after the way 2016 turned out. There was a 12-game improvement in the standings, even if it did officially leave the Tigers 2.5 games out of a playoff spot, and on the outside looking in. looked like an ace again. Youngsters contributed in a big way, giving a flash preview of a bright future. The — while still an issue — was at least somewhat improved. Other than backup and potentially center field and closer, depending on whether the Tigers pick up a pair of player options, there really aren’t any spots where they have a glaring hole. All reasons that the Tigers should just load up for one more season, right? Get the band back together, intact, and take one more shot at it. For fans, that kind of optimism is understood. Hope springs eternal, after all. For a general manager, though, the longer view has to be taken into consideration. And that’s what Al Avila was looking at when he made the recommendation that the Tigers not just stick on the self-destructive path they’ve been on for the better part of a decade, and finally take some hits, in order to get the books back together. Status quo isn’t going to cut it, at this point. CASE FOR WAITING UNTIL NEXT YEAR You could make a case that the Tigers are beginning this rebuild/remodel a year early. Their payroll starts to pare itself down after next season, with the hefty contracts of Anibal Sanchez and Ian Kinsler coming off the books (both have options for 2018, with $5 million buyouts). Even if the Tigers brought back both players with team options this year — Cameron Maybin and Francisco Rodriguez — they’d both be on the last year of their deal, too. J.D. Martinez reaches free agency after 2017, while the smaller deals for Mark Lowe and Mike Pelfrey both conclude. In total, that would be a salary relief of $49.25 million in one fell swoop, when all of them were sloughed off the books. (If Justin Upton were to opt out of his contract after 2017, it would be $71.375 coming off.) “And that’s a good thing, that as we move along year to year, just naturally by deduction, some contracts come off, which is good,” Avila admitted. Left with $132.125 million of money committed to five core players (including the $10 million in buyouts), the Tigers could surely be big players in the offseason a year from now, when a bevy of huge names are slated to hit the free-agent market. Next year’s free-agent class is expected to be as healthy is this year’s is anemic, so that’s when you want to free up money, right? Maybe not. CASE AGAINST WAITING UNTIL YEAR Asked at his end-of-season press conference what he’d say to the average fan about whether or not the Tigers will compete in 2017, Avila wasn’t tremendously emphatic. “That’s our hope,” he said. “I would hope that we could compete in 2017 at least as good as we did this past season. I would hope. I can’t guarantee that, until I start to get into more in-depth talks with other clubs.” If the Tigers were indeed so close, why not just try again with the same crew? “Well that’s a good question, Really, at the end of day, you have to make decisions for the long-term of the organization. If you just (stay) status quo, it doesn’t tell you that people aren’t going to get hurt next year and it doesn’t tell you you’re not going to get people that don’t perform as expected next year. Because every year you do have injuries and every year you do have people that don’t perform as expected. It’s not as easy and clear cut as that. if you look at the organization and the depth and the lack of depth, it’s really dangerous to say, to make

8 it that simple. You’re going to need more than that starting rotation. You’re going to need more than that,” Avila said. “If you lose a couple bats or you have an injury to an older player – you’re not going to get any faster. You’re not going to get any quicker. Your defense isn’t going to improve that much. Status quo sometimes, it looks good but really overall it may not be the best decision. That’s why we’re going to go in with an open mind in the wintertime to see what changes you can make that can not hurt you that much, but at the same time moving forward you can start getting better year by year.” There are no guarantees that this aging roster will produce the same results next year that it did this year. Moreover, the luxury tax will go from 17.5 percent to 30 percent for the Tigers, if they remain over the $189 million threshold. Lastly, this year’s horrific free-agent class means that there will be premiums paid to acquire players by trade. It makes sense not to wait. LONGER WINDOW Avila isn’t just looking at keeping the Tigers’ window propped open for another year or two, though. Not if he wants to keep his job, long-term. But he’s also not slamming it shut now, either. That’s the balancing act. “I wouldn’t say the window’s shut. The two-year window, I don’t know exactly how that became a real big story last year, but I like to look at it as a big window of opportunity and wherever that opportunity takes us. So I’d like to keep the window open as long as it makes sense for the Detroit Tigers. So that’s really my goal is to have a larger window of opportunity to move forward for many many years to come,” Avila said. “Sitting here today, I can’t really give you an idea of the moves that we’re going to make will give us a real good opportunity for that second year and then after that it’s gone. I don’t want to look at it that way. I want to look at it as whatever I can get accomplished this year that is going to make us better as an organization overall, I’m going to try to pursue that and again looking forward into the future too.” GETTING SOMETHING, RATHER THAN NOTHING Other than financial relief, there’s little else to be gained from the Tigers cratering out, certainly, and getting nothing for those expiring contracts. In reality, it’s in the best interest of the Tigers, in a long-term sense, to see what they could get for some of their tradable commodities — be it Kinsler, J.D. Martinez, Verlander or even — in order to keep that window propped open. Bringing back a few viable, big league-ready prospects for one or more of them has the same net effect on the budget as letting them walk a year or two later, in the case of the first two, and is a huge boon, financially, in the case of the latter two. In reality, probably only J.D. Martinez is going to get a qualifying offer from the Tigers (if those outlive the current CBA) in the next few years, and anyone the Tigers would get from that pick wouldn’t be helping the Tigers until 2020 or beyond. The Tigers would be better off bringing in replacement players now, rather than try to win with this group, and then go into a five-year rebuild, like the Phillies or Cubs. BACKUP PLAN Part of the reason Avila couldn’t lay out a definitive plan — like he’d had in 2016, with a shopping list that included two starters, two relievers and an — is that he has no idea when the Tigers may find matches for their trade chips. Or whether they will at all. That’s the bonus of beginning to move now (or at least announcing the intention to do so). Teams that might be hesitant to make a move this offseason will have that in the back of their minds at the trade deadline (when potentially re-upped K-Rod, Maybin, J.D. Martinez and Kinsler could be huge chips, if the Tigers are out of contention) or again next offseason. There’s no need, necessarily for the Tigers to move now. They’re not going to unload all of their excess weight in the next week. Or the next month. Or even this offseason. It’s just nudging the first rock downhill in what could become an avalanche … eventually. 9

“Well, I’m not saying that we’re going to force that issue, no. I’m just saying if it makes sense,” Avila said. “If it makes sense from a financial perspective, from a competitive perspective, that we’re going to have to look into it very, very hard and make decisions based on what we find.”

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LAST UPDATED: WED, OCTOBER 26, 2016, 01:41 EDT

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2016

TEAM PLAYER TRANSACTION

Chicago Cubs Kyle Schwarber Removed From 60-Day DL, (Torn ligaments in left knee)

Chicago Cubs Giovanni Soto Designated for Assignment

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2016

TEAM PLAYER TRANSACTION

Atlanta Braves Sam Freeman Signed to a Minor League Contract

Kansas City Royals Onelki García Signed to a Minor League Contract

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

TEAM PLAYER TRANSACTION

Atlanta Braves Blake Lalli Signed to a Minor League Contract

Miami Marlins Xavier Scruggs Refused Minor League Assignment - Free Agent

Minnesota Twins Andrew Albers Refused Minor League Assignment - Free Agent

Minnesota Twins Logan Schafer Refused Minor League Assignment - Free Agent

Minnesota Twins Tommy Milone Refused Minor League Assignment - Free Agent

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