Sheffield placed on 15-day DL
posted in 2008 season, injuries, roster moves |The disabled list would not be denied its victim. After Gary Sheffield brushed off a pair of shoulder injuries, it finally got him with an oblique strain. He left the game after tweaking it in the third inning Monday.
The Tigers called up 25-year-old first baseman Jeff Larish from AAA-Toledo. Larish is third in the International League with 18 home runs and fifth with .959 OPS. Interestingly, he is behind Mike Hessman, a third baseman at Toledo who has 19 home runs and 1.080 OPS, and who might have increased the roster flexibility more. However, Larish bats left handed, joining regulars Curtis Granderson and Matt Joyce, as well as switch hitting Carlos Guillen. So he gives the Tigers a nice, balanced lineup from that standpoint.
A closer look at Larish: He walks 13.4% of his plate appearances this season, down from 17% last year in AA-Erie. He strikes out 25.9% of the time, up from 19.1% last year. His line drive percent is 18% this season, while his ground ball percentage is 39%. Both have improved since last year. His isolated power is a hefty .315, up from last year. Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA is not impressed and does not project him well based on his time in Erie.
Baseball America’s blog has this to say about Larish:
Toledo first baseman Jeff Larish (Tigers) does a lot of things right. He has tremendous raw power to all fields, which he used to lead the Eastern League in home runs and RBIs last season, but his unorthodox stance divides talent evaluators.
And Matt at Take 75 North wrote this morning:
Larish is producing much better than I expected at Toledo and may be the one to get the call if Gary Sheffield goes on the disabled list. As a left-handed hitter with serious power and a willingness to work the count and take walks, he has value.
For now, Guillen is going to DH with a case of hemorrhoids. But Leyland says the Tigers will use Larish as DH against right-handed pitching. I suspect he’ll do more than that and play against both righties and lefties soon than later.
Sphere It
Hessman isn’t on the 40 man roster and is out of minor league options. I believe this means, for a 15 day DL stint for Sheffield, Hessman really isn’t an option unless they drop someone else from the 40 man roster (15 day DL still counts against the roster; 60 day does not). Also, Hessman could not be sent back to Toledo without losing him to waivers (he passed waivers during spring training for his assignment to minor league camp).
I agree on the roster flexibility, but for Sheffield’s replacement Larish (or another minor leaguer with options) I believe is their only available move.
Currently there are only 37 guys on the 40 man roster, so that shouldn’t be part of the consideration.
My math skills are weak apparently.