Tigers Trade for Casey and Demote Shelton

July 31, 2006 by cubsnet

"The Detroit Tigers acquired first baseman Sean Casey from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday in exchange for minor league pitcher Brian Rogers," reports ESPN.com. They demoted their current first baseman Chris Shelton.

TigerBlog called the trade "unneccesary." The Detroit Tigers Weblog agrees, writing that "I don’t think they appreciably improved themselves."

The Tigers ostensibly acquired Casey to replace Shelton because of Shelton's post-April struggles (see splits), as noted by The Detroit Tigers Weblog. After famously hitting 10 homers in April, leading to a 1186 OPS, Shelton has had 703, 642, and 730 OPSs in May, June, and July, respectively. The thing is, Casey's pattern is similar. After posting a 947 OPS in April, Casey was injured for much of May, and then had a 668 OPS in June and a 748 OPS in July. Plus, Shelton is a 103 Rate2 defender this year, while Casey is at 95, consistent with the rest of his career. Casey does have the advantage of having produced more in his career.

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