Tigers take the Stairs
posted in roster moves |Man that was a bad headline. Attempting to fix their poor batting, Detroit claimed 1B/DH Matt Stairs from the Texas Rangers this afternoon. He just departed Detroit Wednesday after beting a home run.
Stairs is batting .248 with 18 doubles, 11 home runs and 43 RBIs this season with the Rangers and the Kansas City Royals.
He doesn’t exactly look like a solution either, with the sub .300 OBP and sub .400 slugging with the Rangers. He was posting .359 OBP and .429 with the Royals earlier this year, and his career numbers are closer to that. Which is more likely to occur? Who knows.
Update: Per newspaper reports, Stairs, who cost $20k and will be ineligible for the postseason, will probably be starting at DH quite a bit. Thames was hitting under the Mendoza line since starting in place of Dmitri Young, so this in all likelyhood is a step up.
Sphere It
Harmless addition at a time of expanded rosters. Useful as a pinch hitter if nothing else. Stairs wasn’t with Texas all that long; I’d expect production closer to his career numbers. But I doubt he’ll get more than a couple dozen at-bats unless he gets hot.
Totally agree, john, he cost nothing to add and Thames wasn’t hitting the ball, so it’s not like he’s stealing a roster spot from someone using it better.