Obviously, Gary Sheffield brings two things to a team.

One of them is natural baseball instincts with great baseball smarts and a stunning bat. (OK, so that’s three of them.). So you can be pretty happy with the content the team gets on the field.

It’s the “content” coming out of his mouth that is bothersome. Especially when it appears his opinion will cost him playing time.

The NY Daily News reports Sheffield is probably going to get suspended for his views on Bud Selig.

This time Gary Sheffield’s mouth is going to get him suspended. Bud Selig would only offer a terse “no comment” when asked on arriving at the Hall of Fame for his response to Sheffield calling him a liar and a grandstander in regard to Barry Bonds and the steroids issue, but sources close to the commissioner say he has no choice but to levy a severe penalty on the outspoken Tigers outfielder.

In USA Today Friday, Sheffield said he was “sick of the way (Selig) and MLB have been grandstanding” and asked: “Why doesn’t Bud Selig tell the truth? Why does he keep lying, saying he doesn’t know nothing (about steroids use in baseball though the ’90s)? He knew everything we knew.”

Now, when I read Sheffield’s quote there, I agree with it 100 percent. I know, we can’t prove it, so it’s not a fact, it’s still an opinion. But it sounds pretty likely to me. That isn’t the point. The point is, he opens his mouth on a weekly basis. He’s gotta learn to shut it once and awhile. Tell his friends and family his opinion, maybe. Tell his teammates. But if you see a guy with a mic or a recorder, zip it.

I don’t want the mouth off the field to keep the bat off the field.

The Tigers apparently agree, as the story also says:

Meanwhile, sources have the told the Daily News that the Tigers themselves have had enough of being embarrassed by Sheffield (who a week earlier accused Joe Torre of treating black players differently than white ones), and have told him to put a lid on it.

We’re going into the final two months of the regular season. Let’s stay focused on playing in October, shall we?

(Hat tip The Cut-Off Man)

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You might remember Doug Brocail. He was a pretty decent reliever for four seasons in Detroit, 1997-2000. He now pitches with the Padres, but in the years inbetween, Brocail could have died with heart problems.

Yahoo! Sports MLB columnist Jeff Passan has the full story of his ailments and his comeback.

Brocail turns 40 in three weeks, though he’s already celebrated one birthday this year: March 11, the day his life changed.

Following a spring-training game in Peoria, Ariz., he had shortness of breath and attributed it to his asthma. Doctors plopped him on a treadmill to test that theory. At 6-foot-5, 250 pounds, Brocail labored. After the results of an echocardiogram, the doctors apologized. The stress test could have killed him.

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It looks like rookie catcher Mike Rabelo is up in the big leagues for more than just a cup of coffee, as all the news on Vance Wilson sounds bad. He can’t throw the baseball. Well, that’s not technically correct. He can throw the ball, but very lightly, not at the level required of a catcher. He has pain in his elbow, describing it as a pinched nerve. Originally slated to make the trip to Kansas City with the team, Wilson instead stayed behind in Detroit for further tests. Danny Knobler reports today on his blog that doctors still do not know what’s wrong, so he’ll be seeing specialist Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. — a renowned Tommy John doctor. It doesn’t necessarily mean surgery, but it’s probably not a good sign.

So it’s probably a good team to look closer at the 27-year-old Rabelo, who actually came up last September. My first stop was the catchers page at Talking Tigers — an excellent minor league blog by Matt Wallace that will soon be moving to the Most Valuable Network.

Rabelo seems to have a low walk rate, but his on base percentage in 2006 in both AA-Erie and AAA-Toledo was a decent .361 and .350, respectively. Combined with his slugging, he was in the mid to upper .700s. That’s not too bad at all for a catcher. He still doesn’t have a lot of power, but his ISO for the year was around .150. (Pudge is a career .170 but fell to .137 last season.)

He is a switch hitter, according to the MILB profile, , but a trip to MinorLeagueSplits shows me he hit lefties a lot better than righties at both levels.

Of course, catching a staff in the minors and putting up decent batting numbers is a lot different than doing it in the majors, so we shouldn’t expect Rabelo in his limited at bats to repeat his 2006 performance. Getting on base a few times and not screwing up is really all that’s asked of him when Pudge takes a day off.

What makes Rabelo interesting, from a personal standpoint, his how fast he rose through the system in the past year, even though he was still at the AA level after being drafted in 2001. In fact, he started 2006 as the backup catcher in Erie, Jason Beck reported. He called it “surreal” in the Free Press.

The article adds that Wilson has a lot of confidence in his stand-in, and Rabelo has a fair amount of experience with the pitchers he’ll be catching thanks to three years in the major league camp for Spring Training.

Hopefully his storybook year continues in however long he spends in the Tigers uniform. Pudge is hard to get out of the lineup, but as an aging catcher, he’s going to need his breaks along the way whether or not he wants them.

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I am the last to this party, so I will direct you to Bilfer’s Detroit Tigers Weblog for more.

I will just say this: That is a lot less than I expected Guillen to make. It’s a year less. It’s $3M less per year. It’s a good deal for th Tigers, and a nice guarantee for Guillen, who is not without some injury fear. I think it works out well for both sides, and it’s nice to see some good news.

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Thanks, Texas.

The Rangers gave Michael Young, a very fine shortstop, $80m over five years ($16m per). Interestingly, it’s a bit of a speculative contract. It doesn’t begin until 2009 and by 2013, $16m may not seem like that much money. At 30 now, Young will play the 2013 season as a 36-year-old, so there is some risk in it for the Rangers. But he’s a career .800 OPS and currently one of the top at his position, so I guess they decided it makes sense to keep him happy and around.

Carlos Guillen, 31, must be looking at that and salivating. Coming off a .919 OPS year in which he finished 10th in MVP voting, there’s going to be a market full of teams just begging for him to play for them, whether or not it makes financial sense. And if Young can earn $16M, Guillen very well could net more, even with the concern his defensive ability may have taken a dip after his injury. (We’ll learn this year if his 28 errors in 2006 was an anomoly). At the very least, I think this sets 5/$75m as the base price.

That’s a good chunk of change, especially since the Tigers will already see some escalating salaries next year to the tune of about $12m (per Bilfer’s payroll spreadsheet). Adding $10m to Guillen kicks that up to $22m in additional payroll just to keep the players Detroit has. But don’t let me paint too bleak a picture, there’s no reason Kenny Rogers (8m), Neifi Perez (2.5m), Sean Casey (4m), Jose Mesa (2.5m) or Todd Jones (5.5m) have to come back. So that pretty much cancels things out, as there are players waiting in the wings to fill their voids. (Slightly off topic, but that’s why I believe if Marcus Thames can show an ability to learn first, he won’t be traded, he’ll be starting there next year).

Given the Tigers players want to stay in Detroit and given the team should continue to compete strongly behind its young pitching for years, I just hope there’s some sort of “hometown” discount and that earnings continue to rise so a $100m payroll can be maintained.

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Gary Sheffield arrived at Lakeland Wednesday morning, as the Tigers opened Spring Training opened for the full squad today. It’s always fun and exciting when Detroit adds a new star. I’m not sure the reason. Maybe it was several years of not adding a true star player at all, followed by Juan Gonzalez, followed by several more years of not adding a star player. Then Pudge was grand. That was huge. Magglio Ordonez signed, and though it’s only been two seasons, it’s hard to remember how hyped he was. Sheffield himself arrived quietly, but with a lot of pomp-and-circumstance surrounding him. That, and as Tom Gage pointed out in the previous link, the New York media was still chasing him, like Sheffield should care about the spat between A-Rod and Derek Jeter.

John Lowe says Lakeland is starting to feel like a suburb of Cooperstown with all the Hall-of-Famers, future Hall members or possible Hall members around Tigertown. He went on to commit the sin of comparing Sheffield to former Tigers star Al Kaline in a full article.

Lowe: Kaline and Sheffield also each have a few hundred more career walks than strikeouts. That also makes them unusual. In recent decades, high strikeout totals have become an accepted part of the run producer’s resume.

Today in spring training, Sheffield will go to work in a Tigers uniform for the first time. If he does in the next few seasons for the Tigers what he has done across 8,000 at-bats in 19 seasons with a half-dozen clubs, he could become Detroit’s best all-around hitter since Kaline.

I, myself, don’t see the comparison as a sin, as Sheff has been accepted with open arms by the organization Danny Knobler reports. But I know a lot of fans are still iffy on Sheffield, his past and his attitude.

And heck, Kaline likes him.

(Kalinie quoted by Lowe): “This guy is used to winning,” Kaline said. “He wants to play for Jimmy, and he’s going to take a lot of pressure off some of our players in the middle of the lineup.

“He’ll make a pitcher work. He sets up our lineup nicely. He’s nice to have.”

UPDATE: And he put on quite a show, the reporters tell us. I hope the Freep has video of that.

Beck: Sheffield’s batting practice wasn’t one of those home-run derby performances you would think, because there’s a purpose to his hitting work. But to watch his swing up close on a practice field is a sight. You know his swing isn’t going to be the same on the first day of full-squad workouts as it will be come the regular season, but you can still see what’s different about it, and you can tell his wrist injury from last year hasn’t changed that.

Lowe:

Sheffield showed that the baseball makes a different, louder crack off his bat than it does off of most bats. He mashed several batting-practice serves from the coaching staff to the distant parts of the outfield.

Update 2: One thing you can say about the New York media, they don’t give up a story just because it changes teams. The New York Post has a story. You would prefer Sheff stop talking about his former team though, but he is a talker and honest with his feelings.

More updates on this post as more stories come out.

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Dmitri Young is a guy we all want to root for. A loyal Tiger during the down years, a funny guy, a nice guy for the most part, and I even remember he did something on Oprah in 2004 for a fan.

He reveal yesterday he was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. (Hat tip Jason Beck). DY blamed it for his problems with his weight and vision, as well as his mood swings. It nearly killed him, he said. He just wanted a second chance n the MLB and the downtrodden Washington Nationals were happy to do that for him, a nice “buy low” strategy by Jim Bowden.

But he had to get a parting shot at the Tigers.

DY: “I must say [the Tigers] were probably saving their own tail because they thought that the whole court thing there was going to be a distraction for a team that was winning,” Young said. “I thought it was [wrong] on their part, especially the time that I spent with the Tigers and represented them in a positive manner. I would have figured they would support me in the same manner but they didn’t.

I was taken aback by these comments. This team went out of its way to give him a second chance that season, despite the fact he caused his own problems. In the article, he admits a judge ordered him not to leave the Detroit area for 30 days. And he represented them in a positive manner? Does he want a reward for doing what is expected of him? And then there’s that thing with choking a woman, to which plead no contest . Ballplayers aren’t angels, but we should hold them to some standard of decency above that. Being a perennially losing team is not fun, but it does not equate what he did.

Anyway, that’s my opinion. Jim Leyland responded today, too, per Jason Beck update.

Leyland: “(Y)ou can hold me totally responsible for the dismissal of Dmitri Young. Don’t put it on the organization. Don’t put it on anybody else. I did not feel that Dmitri’s performance on the field was an asset to this organization, and it broke my heart. We wanted a left-handed hitter all year. Dmitri Young was a guy that I was counting on. The part that upsets me is this guy missed a lot of the season taking care of a problem that he created, not that the Tigers created.

“I really like him. But if you want to know the truth, it appears that Dmitri feels the organization disappointed him. And I’m sorry he feels that way, but I feel like Dmitri disappointed us. It’s a non-issue. He’s got a new lease on life and he’s on another club now and I wish him the best.”

Update: Apparently he also called it a cheap shot and the comments were not quite that sanitized, per John Lowe
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I never expected I’d be posting about DY in 2007. Meathook — and I know you aren’t really reading — stay happy, stay healthy, and have a productive year. You’ll have a lot of people rooting for you this year. But remember you’re always better off when you don’t blame others for your circumstances.

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The three-headed hydra of Detroit Media looked at Carlos Guillen’ contract-talks today. (Morosi blogged a bit extra). Will the blogosphere follow? (Eric looked at this question in early January, to be fair!)

First, the background. Guillen will become a free agent after this year. He had hoped to get a contract before Spring Training, although the Tigers were pretty busy knocking off the easier deals, like Jeremy Bonderman and Brandon Inge. Unlike Carlos Zambrano, Guillen’s attitude is “No sweat.” As Tom Gage put it in the News, “He’ll get his.” As long as Guillen survives the season healthy, he’ll be in line for a contract that surpasses Julio Lugo’s $9M per year/4 years deal, but Guillen’s numbers look much nicer.

Oh, and to make this seem like a no-brainer for Detroit, there doesn’t appear to be any player coming down the pipeline to replace Guillen at shortstop. Jim Leyland himself said he doesn’t view Omar Infante as that guy. We know it’s not Ramon Santiago, and I don’t have faith in Tony Giarratano. Besides, as Morosi pointed out, several other teams are in the market for a short stop after this year, so there’s no guarantee the Tigers wouldn’t trade down in value. So, based on first-look Detroit pretty much needs Guillen.

To his credit, Guillen would like to stay in Detroit rather than run to one of the big-name teams. Of course, thanks to his bat, Detroit can play toe-to-toe with the Yankees in the playoffs and come out the victors. So why should he leave if he gets a fair contract? The other question is, what is fair? Guillen won’t show his cards in public, so we have no way of knowing if he’s looking for a four year deal worth $50-60M or a 5 year deal worth $60-70.

The concern is Guillen’s defense at short stop slipped in 2006. He made 28 errors, a career high. His knees appear healthy and his range was good, but he just had too many miscues and it’s hard to say if that’s just a one-year outlier. He’ll be 32 after this season, so it seems pretty likely by the end of his next contract he will have to find a new position, likely first base, which he played eight games last season and also played in the Venezuelan League. Thus, the problem. If Guillen is not playing short stop in 2009, then Detroit is back to the drawing board, looking for an above-replacement shortstop while paying $12.5M…ish for a first baseman.

The problem is, Guillen’s numbers compared to other first baseman aren’t as rosy, although a Top 12 AL OPS in 2006 would have looked great at any position. But what about 2009 or 2010? Does carrying expensive and aging stars Magglio Ordonez, Gary Sheffield (in 09) and Guillen at $10M+ a pop make financial and winning sense?

I’m just going to look at the Baseball Prospectus PECOTA card for Guillen (Sub-Req), which projects his next five seasons. The first thing that pops out is the Marginal Value Over Replacement, that is, the sum of what PECOTA projects to be his value during the next five years based on wins-above-replacement-player, surpasses any contract he would liklely receive. As a primer, that is just an estmate of his value on the free market based on the recent market, which has gone berzerk and some project will continue to be berzerk next offseason. And, well, based on what I’ve mentioned, it almost appears Detroit would be looking for a replacement level player.

As expected, he looks like a must-have during the next few years of his contract, if he continues to play shortstop. But let’s say he is able to play short two years, and in 2009-11 he is a starting first baseman. (Sorry Chris Shelton!) He still projects OBP more than .350. That’s nice. He has a good eye. That’s good, too. But his power drops and he comes down to an OPS in the .850 range. Still looks good, but compared to 2006’s first-basemen, it’s now slightly above league-average for the position. Say, a slightly better Richie Sexson, who is about the same age and whose numbers are only slightly less per year over the same time period. As a first baseman, his 800 OPS and 20-something runs are worth about $8M per year in 2009. Guillen will likely have a better eye but fewer homers during that period. Not really your prototypical first baseman. Sorta a better Sean Casey, if you get right down to it. (By the way, PECOTA projects he’d still be better than Shelton, but it may be as confused by 2006 as the rest of us).

(Keep in mind that’s a rough shoehorning. I’d be interested to see what others with PECOTA access come up with.)

So if Guillen’s career path does take the path many expect, his is value a lot less during those final two or three years of his contract. Just a rough estimate, I come up with a value of $55-60M over five years based on MORP and my own playing with numbers. If you take 2007 out of it, because he is already under contract, it becomes more like $40M/4 years for 2008-11 … and you still worry about short stop and powerless first baseman in the later years. I think he’d earn more than that on the free agent market if he makes it through 2007 with numbers similar to 2006, closer to 15M per season x 4 seasons with an option for a fifth is my guess in this market.

So if you start to think of it like that, you understand why Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski has not pounced on a long-term deal with Guillen. Unlike Bonderman, he is not on the youthful side of his peak. Unlike Inge, he isn’t being paid baseball’s new equivalent of pocket change. There is no simple answer.

Detroit’s priority needs to be a short stop who can play the position for the length of the contract. If Guillen can honestly do that, he’s going to be worth quite a bit and that’s money well spent. If he can’t, they end up paying quite a bit of money while searching the free agent market or minors for a new shortstop, thus worsening the problem.

It is probably best to take the wait-and-see approach for a chunk of the regular season before making a decision if Guillen’s move to first is inevitable, or if it was just a gut reaction after a moderate-fielding 2006.

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The Tigers continued dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s before Spring Training opens by signing Curtis Granderson and several others to one-year deals Monday.

Granderson, who is still ineligible for arbitration, was the only major leaguer. Joining him were pitchers new tradee Yorman Bazardo, former prospect Kyle Sleeth and 2006 Tiger Roman Colon. Infield prospect Kody Kirkland also signed.

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Jon Paul Morosi of the Freep reports this afternoon the Tigers signed the rest of their arbitration-eligible players.

The biggest surprise might be Craig Monroe, who’ll get $4.775M, a rather substantial raise. It’s great news for Craigdunitagen, of course, but it does seem a bit high unless he truly possesses that debatable “clutchiness.”

Nate Robertson inked up for $3.26M, Omar Infante for $1.3M and Fernando Rodney for $1.05M. Morosi mentions the Tigers might be trying to add another year to Rodney’s contract. Rodney’s agent is quoted as saying Rodney is in position to be the 2008 closer, which made Eric at D-Town nervous.

Using Bilfer’s payroll information, this puts the Tigers at about $95M, not including a few of the minimum pre-arbitration contracts. So by the time all is said and done, it should near $100M. Wow. That was pretty quick. I never pictured I’d see the Tigers spend that kind of money during my lifetime. I hope they get value for it. Fortunately a lot of flexibility next year remains.

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