Who is this “friend?” Can he still pitch?

I don’t blame Leyland for this, but these guys are not doing the team a favor if they’re hurting and won’t admit it.

Good note, Kathy. And I think there is some insight into the real problem here. and I’ve said this before: the pitching coach.

Yer coach should be like yer sergeant. Yer sergeant knows what you can do; how you feel,– every day. and he’s a guy you can trust the most. he’s got to be. and so it has to be with the coach

now as I see it there is not excuse whatever for letting an injured player try to start a game and most particularly an arm issue for a pitcher or that sort of thing which is going to affect performance and like to exacerbate the injury

the more I see of this season the less respect I have for Tigers’ pitching coaching staff

Mike, old friend it has been at least a couple of weeks since we had our last ‘rushing the prospects’ debate. I’ve missed it!

There’s no pressure on Bonderman being a #1. Verlander’s the #1. Has been all year. Matter of fact, with Rogers healthy he’s been the #3 starter, I agree with some of your points, but to blame this episode on the Tigers rushing him to the major a half decade ago is a bit of a stretch.

I was for starting Miller and I don’t think 2/3rd of a year in the majors with an ERA of 5.63(or something like that, not looking it up) is a sign of the apocalypse. I was against Maybin being brought because he’d been in AA for ten days and didn’t seem ready to be in a pennant race; not because i thought this was gonna stunt his growth. Do you really think Maybin missing the last 20 games in Erie is gonna do him irrevocable harm? It hurt the team that he played and played badly, but playing those games against Clemens and the Yankees is all good life experience that will serve him well if he has the talent everyone says he has.

Bonderman’s a big boy, he’s a millionare. Yeah the team needs to have him checked out, but he’s an adult, he’s gotta take responsibilty. I’d hold Rogers to the same standard, but, in the end, he opted out from pitching. As much as a jerk as Rogers has been in the past, he’s a professional.

Let’s just say Bonderman made a mistake, but his heart was in the wrong place. I’ll even chalk it up to youth but it still was lame.

Now if you ask me if Dombrowski should have made a trade for an extra bat or an extra pitcher so Maybin/Miller could have stayed down in the minors– because the major league team had better talent– that’s a point we can probably agree on.

I’m not trying to make it into a “rushing prospects” debate, nor did I mean to make it seem like him being rushed a half decade ago caused this. Honestly, I’m surprised he’s held up as a high school pitcher to such an advanced work load at a young age (20-21-22) without much stretching of the arm as well as he has thus far.

A beating like Miller was getting and an obvious lack of confidence in any of his secondary pitches is what concerns me. And he’s probably going to be in the majors in 08, so him developing that change up is unlikely to happen. Hell, we’ve been waiting for Bondo’s change up for 3 years. I think facing 300 hitters or more in Triple-A is better for Miller’s future. If Bonderman needs any type of surgery, it’s pretty much 100% that Miller’s in the rotation, which, in my opinion, is a bad thing.

No, I don’t think missing those AB’s is that detrimental to his growth. I’m just still upset that we brought him up for no reason when we could’ve called up Timo Perez (as much as we complain about him) and we had Granderson, Magglio, Thames, Raburn and Infante that could’ve been in the OF. Add in Timo, and that’s a ton of options that should’ve been explored before a 20 year old kid.

I guess, what I’m getting at is that I don’t agree with the Tigers philosophy of how they handle their young players by rushing them through the system. And it’s not just for our team, either. Seattle rushed Felix Hernandez for no reason, and countless other kids have been rushed to the majors for not much reason (Justin Upton in Arizona comes to mind, BJ Upton in Tampa, as well). That’s all.

And, for the record, I miss the debates Stephen. I just haven’t been around lately.

There’s no pressure on Bonderman being a #1. Verlander’s the #1. Has been all year. Matter of fact, with Rogers healthy he’s been the #3 starter, I agree with some of your points, but to blame this episode on the Tigers rushing him to the major a half decade ago is a bit of a stretch.

I was for starting Miller and I don’t think 2/3rd of a year in the majors with an ERA of 5.63(or something like that, not looking it up) is a sign of the apocalypse. I was against Maybin being brought because he’d been in AA for ten days and didn’t seem ready to be in a pennant race; not because i thought this was gonna stunt his growth. Do you really think Maybin missing the last 20 games in Erie is gonna do him irrevocable harm? It hurt the team that he played and played badly, but playing those games against Clemens and the Yankees is all good life experience that will serve him well if he has the talent everyone says he has.

Bonderman’s a big boy, he’s a millionare. Yeah the team needs to have him checked out, but he’s an adult, he’s gotta take responsibilty. I’d hold Rogers to the same standard, but, in the end, he opted out from pitching. As much as a jerk as Rogers has been in the past, he’s a professional.

Let’s just say Bonderman made a mistake, but his heart was in the wrong place. I’ll even chalk it up to youth but it still was lame.

Now if you ask me if Dombrowski should have made a trade for an extra bat or an extra pitcher so Maybin/Miller could have stayed down in the minors– because the major league team had better talent– that’s a point we can probably agree on.