MVN - Most Valuable Network

Clete Thomas or Dane Sardinha?

As we plod toward the beginning of the season, the only decision left for the Tigers on their position players is whether they will use Clete Thomas or Dane Sardinha as the final player on the bench. This is true because yesterday they sent Freddy Guzman through waivers, and when he went unclaimed they shipped him out to Erie.

Danny Knobler said the Tigers’ preference was to focus their playing time in Toledo on their younger outfielders rather than the minor league vet, Guzman. I’m ecstatic to hear this since it’s right in line with my common assertion that you need to put your prospects where they should be and then fill in the holes with guys like Guzman. My egoism aside, if the Tigers go with Clete Thomas for that final bench spot your likely Mud Hen outfielders will be Timo Perez, Jason Perry, Brent Clevlen and Matt Joyce. If Clete Thomas is in the mix for a minor league job, my guess is he’d replace Joyce among those four and Joyce would go down to Erie.

The first time I realized Matt Joyce may be forced to start another season in Erie I was a little miffed. Then Mark Anderson of TigsTown (also Microline133 on Motownsports.com) made an excellent point during the offseason that there isn’t a great deal of difference in the level of play between Double A and Triple A. I’m paraphrasing there, but the idea is a player who gets bumped out of Triple A for Double A doesn’t miss out too much on a chance to develop. So Joyce can be in Erie for a second season and still be looked upon as an up-and-comer within the organization.

As for the Tigers considering giving Clete Thomas the final spot on the bench, I think he’s an interesting choice. He got his strikeout total (and more importantly, his percentage) down last season, but they did come in bunches the last two months of the season. The good thing about his strikeouts, though, is he is willing to take the walks to even the problem out a bit. His walk-to-strikeout ratio last year - and for his career - was about 1:2, and that’s the point that allows us to be okay with a high strikeout total.

Of course, when he plays in the majors you tend to expect the strikeouts to go up and the walks to go down, but given time I’d expect him to approach that ratio. Keeping the strikeouts down is a good point of focus for Thomas, too, because he doesn’t have a lot of power. His isolated power has been right around league average his whole career, so if he’s not going to hit for power he needs to beat out some grounders to keep that average up.

I don’t think Thomas will be in Detroit for his bat, though. His main job will be providing defensive insurance in Granderson’s absence and when Inge needs to take a day behind the dish. He’s got the range to cover center field and receives rave reviews for his arm, so I’m looking forward to see how he does out in the roomy Comerica center field. That’s in case they go with him over Sardinha, of course.

If they go with Sardinha, the reasoning is obvious. They will have reasoned that they need a full-time catcher besides Inge and Sardinha is the best in-house option to fill that role. We’ll find out shortly which way the Tigers come down on the decision.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 6:04 am and is filed under dane sardinha, clete thomas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.