I wonder how his WHIP ranks among other middle relieves over the last 2 years?

“…you may not have heard yet, but the Tigers just traded their favorite whipping boy to the Rockies. There is now a vacuum in universe that need be filled, and right now you’re auditioning for the job…”

Good point, couldn’t agree more. Every move the Tigers made (in the offseason) and make will be judged by that standard. Isn’t it great to be a Tiger fan in this age of Win Now?

Still, Jurrjens’s performance with the Braves won’t influence my expectations of Renteria. Looks like win-win, and if it comes to Jurrjens pitching to Renteria in October, I like our chances.

If you’re implying the Renteria trade is better than, say, something like a Jack Wilson deal, however spun — or moving Santiago to the everyday SS, I couldn’t agree more. I like Renteria and think we all will be very happy with his production. How long we will be happy with him is another thing. One year, two years maybe? Who knows.

I also agree that we probably couldn’t have made a deal for Renteria for anything less, given our needs. But that also doesn’t make the deal less lopsided. Per the laws of supply and demand, we’ll all pay $4.50, even $5.00 per gallon for gasoline, when it comes right down to it — if we really need to get somewhere. In this case, that better be Comeria Park on October 22.

Grilli’s quasi sexy numbers were dervived at via mop-up work. He finished relatively strong last year, but in close games this year he only managed to pitch himself into mop up duty designed to clean up his stat sheet and make him attractive on the trade market.

Yet another fantastic job by DD. He received actual value out of a player who in most other instances would have been released at no compensation to the home club.

I have said it before, many times: Dave Dombrowski. The Anti-Millen.

Who knows? Dombrowski has made some shrewd deals in the past, landing guys like Guillen, Bautista and Bazardo for spare parts. Maybe the organization sees something in this kid that intrigues them.

T Smith – The trade was sensible at the time and remains sensible. It could turn out to be regrettable, but that’s another matter. The Tigers, evidently, wanted to replace Guillen with another shortstop who could hit. They could have gone in another direction. We could be complaining now about having Santiago at SS and how poorly Jurrjens was filling in for Willis. I don’t know that the Tigers could have gotten another quality SS, whether glove or bat, and given up any less than they did to the Braves.

Renteria has been good so far, and Jurrjens doing well in the NL doesn’t hurt the Tigers too much. Except that he could be in the AL beating the White Sox and Indians instead, maybe.

That sounds about right. I guess he doesn’t have fit into any particular plan, being a pitcher.

Has a deal like this turned out particularly well for the Tigers in recent years? As in a “sleeper” that came out of a seemingly inconsequential deal. Well, Galarraga comes to mind, of course.

Nothing against Renteria — he is a quality player and a clutch hitter — it has to do with Renteria’s age, his deteriorating range, and what we receieved for what we gave (don’t forget about Gorky). Renteria is an old player on an old team. JJ is at the beginning of his career (a very promising career).

I love JJ — he spun a gem or two last year out of nowhere, and then was knocked around a couple times, which to me just meant he needed some experience and maturity, nothing more.

The counter argument is that JJ and Gorky were not proven players, but if I were a talented scout, I’d be pushing that line, too. JJ is the real deal. The bottom line there is, we gave up too much for Renteria. Let’s just hope Renteria will produce to lessen the pain.

On the games:

The Tigers have put together a nice stretch as far as the win vs. loss column is concerned. Nothing to complain about there. There are still some very troubling issues, however.

Driving in RISP: not so good. Way too many men left in scoring position — especially less than 2 outs. This problem has been overshawdowed the last couple games by the allure of the long ball. Bottom line, it needs to improve if this team is gonna contend.

Control/composure: not so good. Bonderman was extremely lucky to escape the 1st with only two runs scored — as was Kenny Rogers the night before. Last night the score could have easily been 6-0 after that inning. Bonderman recovered (in part because the Tigers immediately answered) but I’d wage to say the innings would have unfolded differently for him if he didn’t squeeze out of that first inning as unscathed as he did. Ditto for Rogers the night before. The starting pitchers need to step up, throw strikes and challenge the hitters. Let’s not let back to back quality starts (coupled with some very lucky breaks) overshawdow a serious need to improve in the starting pitching dept.

I know absolutely nothing about Zach Simmons. But, just shooting from the hip, in general, in cases like this, a scout has seen them and says, ‘I can fix them, if we just do this, or tweak that, we’ll turn him into ‘fill in the blank’.

Also, Zumaya and Rodney are going to return at some time, perhaps DD wanted to move Grilli while his value was high, and before everyone knew he had to do something. Miner has not been given a get out of jail free card, just a stay of execution.

If the guy we got never makes it to the majors it also means he never blew up a close game. (score 1 for the new guy)

I suspect that, if the Cabrera/Willis trade had gone down first, the Tigers never pull the trigger on Renteria and keep Jurrjens, looking elsewhere for SS (Inge? Santiago?) And in that case, probably Nate Robertson is pitching somewhere else this year. Just my hunches.

I think we all knew Jurrjens was going to be a quality starter somewhere — he showed us a lot. But you gotta have a shortstop. I think you have to view the Guillen move as a necessity. You have to preserve his health, and you just have to keep that bat in the lineup.