The Spot Starters

Recap: What We’ve Lost

By Blake VandeBunte • Dec 13th, 2007 • Category: Andrew Miller, Cameron Maybin, Dontrelle Willis, Edgar Renteria, Miguel Cabrera, Prospects

Hey, don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t be happier with the pick ups of Edgar Renteria, Dontrelle Willis, and Miguel Cabrera. They push the Tigers to the next level, no question. I’m glad both trades were made and I think they were totally worth what the Tigers gave up. But what did they give up? Most casual fans know the names of Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller, but the Tigers gave up a lot more than just those two players. Odds are that those two will be missed the most in the long run. I’m going to use this space to outline exactly what the club gave up.

Deal Number One: Tigers send OF Gorkys Hernandez and SP Jair Jurrjens to the Atlanta Braves for SS Edgar Renteria.

Heading into last year Jair Jurrjens was rated by Baseball America as the fourth best prospect in the Tiger organization. He was given special mention by Baseball America for having the best control of all Tiger prospects. Jurrjens had a cup of tea with the Tigers last year and made seven starts before it was all said and done. The most impressive stat he put up in the majors? A WHIP (Walks+Hits per Inning) of 1.14. Justin Verlanders WHIP? 1.23. Joel Zumaya’s WHIP his rookie season? 1.17. You get the point. Jurrjens kept big league hitters off of the bases. This is a very small sample and he’s sure to not keep that up, but it certainly shows what he was capable of. A quick look at his minor league numbers show that Jurrjens, only 21 years old, was just as good in AA in 2007. He made 19 starts and put up a 7-5 record with an ERA of 3.20. The Tigers were certainly miss his arm in the organization.

The other player in this deal was Gorkys Hernandez. At the time it seemed that, as good as Hernandez is, he would just never get a shot to play. He was stuck behind both Curtis Granderson and Cameron Maybin. Gorkys was rated the number seven prospect in the organization before the season started. Hernandez is described to have “a gap-to-gap stroke” which is what a team would want in a leadoff hitter. Best case scenario has him being the next Curtis Granderson. That’s probably a bit of a reach but the guy has some talent. He just turned 20 this fall at the end of the season. Last season he played A ball with the White Caps and went deep only four times (it is a tough park for home runs) but did steal 54 bases.

Deal Number Two: Tigers send OF Cameron Maybin, SP Andrew Miller, P Burke Badenhop, P Dallas Trahern, P Euglio de la Cruz, and C Mike Rabelo to the Florida Marlins for SP Dontrelle Willis and 3B Miguel Cabrera.

Much has already been made of Maybin and Miller in this space and other places so I won’t spend too much time here. Maybin was the Tigers top pick in 2005 and Miller was the Tigers top pick in 2006. Both players are still very raw and both were probably rushed to the bigs too soon. Heading into the 2007 season, Baseball America had Maybin as the number one prospect in the organization and Miller as the second best. They also had Maybin as the sixth best in all of baseball and Miller as the tenth. Those ranks alone tell you how highly touted both of these players are. Comparisons for Maybin range from Mike Cameron to Torri Hunter to Ken Griffey Jr. Miller made 13 starts for Detroit and was roughed up pretty badly putting up a WHIP of 1.75. He’ll be handed a starting job right off the bat in Florida but after his time in Detroit, he just doesn’t look ready yet. Just a gut feeling: Maybin out preforms Miller for their careers.

The next best prospect to go in this deal was probably Dallas Trahern. Trahern was rated as the 8th best prospect in the deal and projects as a starting pitcher for his career. His main pitch is his sinker which, when he has it going is tough to get any air under. When his sinker is not going he is suddenly very hittable. Trahern went 13-6 last year with all but one of his starts coming in AA Erie. He is not a strikeout pitcher, but because of all of the groundballs he gets, he will always start a lot of double plays which will get him out of many jams. Trahern just turn 22 a couple of weeks ago.

Euglio de la Cruz was the Tigers 6th rated prospect heading into 2007 and just started pitching as a reliever instead of starter. After doing some reading on him he sounds a bit like Fernando Rodney. de la Cruz has hit 100mph on the radar gun (Rodney cannot dial it up that high) but comes right back at hitters with a nasty curve and change up (a la Rodney). Cruz struggled in the adjustment from starter to reliever. He obviously had a lot more success as a starting pitcher so it remains to be seen what the Marlins will do with him. de la Cruz turns 24 in March.

Burke Badenhop was the Tigers 22nd rated prospect. He has put up some monster numbers in his minor league career. In 2006 for the White Caps he went 14-3 with a 2.84 ERA. In 2007 he went 12-6 with an ERA of 2.92 while splitting time between High A Lakeland and AA Erie. While those numbers are impressive they are taken down a notch or two by the fact that Badenhop will be 25 in February. He is too old to be pitching so low. He doesn’t throw very hard for a big guy (he’s 6′5”) but he doesn’t walk many hitters. Odds are he’s a spot starter or a career minor leaguer.

The final player in the deal was C Mike Rabelo who we are all familiar with. Rabelo became the Tigers backup when it was known that Vance Wilson would be out with an injury the entire season. Heading into 2007 he was rated as the 18th best prospect in the organization. Rabelo doesn’t hit for much power, he hit his first HR in the last game of the season. But he’s steady behind the plate and the pitchers seem to like him. He hit .256 against big league pitching last season and was steady enough. Seems like the ideal backup catcher. He should stick around for a while but will never put up big numbers.

So to recap, the Tigers gave up 6 of their top 8 prospects in these two deals. However, the team did have a strong draft in 2007 and as those players develop the Tigers can hopefully gain back some of what they gave up. Also the new Baseball America Prospect Handbook comes out in February. It will be interesting to see where they have the farm system rated after all of these deals.