Jamie Walker
November 21, 2006
The following post by Brian Bluhm first appeared Nov. 17 at tigers-thoughts.blogspot.com.
It seems that success has its cost. Jamie Walker signing a 3 year 11.5 million dollar deal with the Baltimore Orioles marks the first free agent loss the Tigers actually will miss in quite a while.
He performed well while here and was likely underappreciated by the fans. However 3 years and 11.5 million is too much to pledge to a reliever that will not be used much in high leverage situations with Jones, Rodney, and Zumaya on the team.
Look for Ledezma to have a greater role in the pen next season and perhaps someone like Hamman getting a shot.
The Tigers will be receiving a pick between the first and second rounds as compensation for losing Jamie to the Orioles. Given the fact that the drafting has become much better in this organziation recently that is definitely a good thing.
Either way I am personally going to miss Jamie. He was a quote machine while here and seemed to really enjoy baseball. I wish him nothing but success. Hopefully the Tigers are able to replace
