What’s All the Fuss About the Sizemore Trade?

After tearing up minor league pitching, Sizemore was awarded the second-base job when they let Placido Polanco walk last season.

A combination of Scott Sizemore hitting .408 at AAA-Toledo and Will Rhymes hitting just above the Mendoza line brought Sizemore back to Motown for a third time earlier this month.

News broke yesterday that Scottt Sizemore had been traded to the Oakland Athletics for left-handed reliever David Purcey. Upon his arrival to the Oakland Athletics, Sizemore was optioned to their AAA Affiliate the Sacramento River Cats.

Purcey has a 3.60 ERA in 14 games this season with Toronto and Oakland. He had a 2.13 ERA with 7 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings with Oakland after being traded from Toronto to Oakland on April 18th.

Is Purcey the answer? Probably not but it’s a step in the right direction. The bullpen is in desperate need of a makeover. Enter hard throwing, left-handed, experienced reliever to attempt to shore things up. Heck, if nothing else maybe the addition of Purcey confirms the end of Brad Thomas!

The departure of Sizemore nearly incited a riot across the Detroit Tigers blogosphere. The ghosts of our past failed trades were thrown around like crazy. Suddenly Sizemore was drawing comparisons to Cody Ross and Jair Jurrjens.

Really?

In 63 at-bats, Sizemore hit just .222 and managed to rack up just one extra base hit–a double. The power never translated in the show and Sizemore managed to accumulate just 11 extra base hits in his 206 career at-bats with  the Detroit Tigers. He was striking out in nearly 30% of his at-bats and posted a weak .223 overall average in two seasons. Although he showed flashes of solid play defensively, his glove was less than stellar too.

Matt Snyder warned you about the negative possibilities surrounding the “Free Sizemore” campaign.

I’m not exactly writing off Scott Sizemore but I don’t see the point in raising hell over his departure. He had three three shots with the organization and he struck out all three times. He has mastered the levels of Minor League Baseball but continued to struggle in the show. Perhaps Scott Sizemore is just a really good minor league player. Perhaps Scott Sizemore has earned the Quad-A title most recently associated with former prospects Jeff Larish, Brent Clevlen and Mike Hessman.

Bottom Line: It’s far more realistic to assume that 26 year-old Scott Sizemore continues to mash in the minors and struggle in the show. I wish Sizemore the best of luck but something had to be done to address our pathetic bullpen. Unfortunately in the real world you can only acquire talent with talent.

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