Tigers Offer a Lesson In Roster Management

Who are these guys? It might seem to be a strange question to ask of a team that’s in the World Series, but many fans can be forgiven if they look at the Tigers, collectively scratch their heads, and have trouble trying to sort out Ramon Santiago from Alexis Gomez.The Detroit Tigers have been cooling their heels for days since last weekend’s elimination of the Oakland A’s in the American League Championship Series, giving a roster with an interesting mishmash of nonames, veterans, and budding stars an unusual stretch of downtime, and fans some opportunity to ponder why these guys are in the World Series.Possibly one source of the confusion over who the American League champions are is how much the game has changed over time in terms of roster management during the regular season. Now more than ever, fans really do need a scorecard, and not simply because of free agency or other perceived ills of the modern era. These days, teams shake themselves up as a matter of course, adapting their rosters to the needs of the next few games or days, and to help keep players fresh with playing time they might only get in the minors.The Detroit Tigers represent a good example of the benefits from managing a roster aggressively during the year. It’s especially the case because they’re a team that generally goes with a set lineup, as well as one that’s had some pretty good luck as far as avoiding any major injuries. And the Tigers have featured some seemingly improbable postseason heroes, highlighting the virtues in creating and exploiting roster flexibility in a way that gets everyone playing time sufficient to be able to contribute.Which is why some of the Tigers might not just be strangers to the audience now that they’re on the national stage, but also why they may well be strangers to each other to some extent. For example, consider Alexis Gomez, the hero of Game Two in the ALCS. Gomez came to the Tigers organization as a minor league free agent in 2005, abandoning the Royals organization that first found him in the Dominican Republic. After playing regularly for the International League champion Toledo Mudhens in 2005, Tigers’ general manager Dave Dombrowski brought him back as a non-roster invite. Gomez first came up this year on April 15 when DH Dmitri Young initially got injured and was put through waivers and outrighted back to Toledo three weeks later. He was brought back a month later, and outrighted again at the end of June, and was finally brought up to stay just before the end of August.Gomez’s strengths are straightforward enough — defense, and a lefty bat good enough for a big league bench, but only just.At times, the Tigers needed the roster space he took up to bring in a spare pitcher, rather than keep him around for playing time he wasn’t going to get, the Tigers kept his bat fresh by playing him regularly at Toledo.So while he only got 111 plate appearances with the Tigers — not much over six months of action — he really had the benefit of more than 250 plate appearances with the Mudhens, keeping his skills sharp, and helping keep him in readiness for postseason possibilities.Similarly, the Tigers employed reserve infielder Ramon Santiago sparingly on the big league roster, utilizing him as a defensive replacement and garbage time player for starting shortstop Carlos Guillen. Although the originally had him on the Opening Day roster, by July it was becoming clear he wasn’t get a lot of action. Rather than let him continue to rot at the end of the bench, the Tigers could afford to send him to Toledo to get some real playing time. While Santiago’s never going to be much of a hitter, his ability to contribute on any level was shored up by a month spent playing games in Toledo instead of watching them in Detroit.Modern pitching staff management has fallen into certain usage patterns, not all of them conducive to keeping every pitcher sharp or productive over the course of a full season. In particular, the challenges of being a situational reliever can be difficult to adapt to, especially for a younger pitcher who might be more used to starting every five days, or using all of his pitches. A situational lefthander doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to work on his pitches in live action, since he’s often limited to facing a batter or two before he’s pulled; he also frequently has to work from the stretch to keep inherited baserunners close to the bag. Veteran situational lefty Jamie Walker has been solid in the role for the Tigers all season, but finding a second lefty wasn’t necessarily easy.Dombrowski and Leyland found their second lefty by calling up Wil Ledezma in mid-June. Rather than strand him in situational work, Leyland used Ledezma in more old-fashioned long relief work and also used him in a couple of spot starts to help space out other starting pitcher’s appearances. That doesn’t mean that Ledezma can’t now be used as a situational lefty in situations that Leyland doesn’t want to use Walker, but by managing Ledezma’s workload in a way that kept him productive during the regular season, Leyland gave himself an additional postseason weapon for which some teams pay seven figures to a free agent.In all of these cases, the Tigers took advantage of being able to demote and promote people, and give them the playing time to maximize their usefulness now, when they’re needed. Although none of these players will be stars, it underscores the virtue of flexibility in managing your roster and your players, to be able to get the most out of them. Many teams do likewise, but not all.This might be one of several lessons they’ll be able to learn from a pennantwinner in Detroit.Ms. Kahrl is a writer for BaseballProspectus.com.

Tigers Offer a Lesson In Roster Management

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