The Tigers are keeping the same pitching rotation heading into the second half. Jeremy Bonderman will take the ball first though as Leyland treats Kenny Rogers All Star appearance as a start. Essentially Justin Verlander misses a turn which should help on conserving his workload.
Baseball Prospectus muses further on the Tigers potential for a 6 man rotation once Mike Maroth returns. BP astutely points out that the reasons team consider 4 man rotations are because it his hard to find 5 quality starters. Yet the Tigers are fortunate enough to find themselves in a scenario where they can run 6 productive arms out.
UPDATE: Things have changed. I was working off of the Game Notes from today. Since I wrote this Jason Beck reports that the new rotation will be Bonderman-Rogers-Verlander-Miner-Robertson. In terms of order, all that really has changed is that Bonderman and Verlander have flipped.
Off the subject but see John Sickels’ mid year review of the Tigers’ top 20 at minorleagueball.com.
I expect to see a modifed six man, prob no extra days for Rogers or Robertson, maybe not Bonderman. But Verlander and Miner will likely get pushed back and Maroth won’t start every 5th day unless/until he establishes he is healthy.
They are really awash in pitching right now. Ledezma, Grilli and Colon aren’t getting much work and all three could be useful. And they have four starters in Toledo that the Yankees would be happy to audition for their 5th spot. Or many other teams. Of course all this can change overnight.
Are you sure about the rotation? I read somewhere that Leyland is mixing it up a bit and going with:
Bonderman, Rogers, Verlander, Miner, Robertson
The idea being that the Bonderman-Rogers-Verlander combo gives opposing teams so many different looks.
Tigers website is showing Rash’s scenario. That’s still a full 10 days off for Verlander–he last pitched on July 4. I can’t imagine a couple more days would make much of a difference–may start to get too rusty at that point.
Makes sense to put Rogers in between Bonderman and Verlander. Creates two biggest adjustments possible for opposing hitters.
Maybin had three walks tonight, two steals and a three run jack in the 8th to win it.
Speaking of rotation, what do you think the Tigs’ rotation will look like a couple years from now? Can you imagaine Bonderman, Verlander, Miller, Sanchez, and Zumaya? Or Bonderman, Verlander, Miller, Sanchez, and Miner with Zoom-zoom in to close? Gives me chills just thinking about it.
Until one of the starters has two consecutive poor outings, anything Leyland does is OK with me.
I’ve never seen a team this awash in quality pitching. John Sickles is right: Grilli, Ledezma, Colon, Tata, and Sanchez are all under-employed. Now the ball is in Dombrowski’s court.
I think Ledezma and Colon are perfectly employed. They’ve both had a several chances in the rotation and haven’t been able to stick. They may get another shot in the future, but they’re probably only good enough to be middle/long relief.