Why would you go to a 6 man rotation? Everyone is used to having 4 days of rest between starts. I don’t think that throwing less often is going to make anyone any better. If their velocity was on a downward trend start after start, I could see it. But it’s the opposite.

The ‘much needed’ role of long relief? What are you talking about? Lopez can go 4 innings in a pinch. Grilli has a rubber arm. That’s two guys you can count on for multiple innings. I’m sure both of the lefties would go out there for 2 innings if Leyland needed them to eat innings. Cruceta can probably pitch 2 innings.

You don’t keep a not-as-good reliever on the team because he can eat some more innings, especially when there are others on the staff that can fill that role.

I can Samuelson’s perspective to a certain extent. But Leyland has also shown a willingness to go with young guys when other might not have: Verlander, Miller, Maybin. You can argue riding out veterans makes sense, since you have a track record to base expectations on.

Should also keep in mind that Miner pitched very, very well when he was first called up as a starter, but eventually fell off. I’d still lean toward finding a way to keep Galarraga in the rotation, but who do you bump? Hopefully, they make sure Willis is really ready, both physically and mentally, when they bring him back.

The only thing about losing Miner is that he has been pitching better lately and he does fill the much needed role of long relief (when he isn’t getting hammered). And based on the really poor performance of the starting rotation on this team so far, I think the Tigers may need to keep an effective mop-up guy on the roster.

I wonder about the idea of going to a 13 pitcher roster by adding Cruceta while keeping Miner. I know it greatly weakens our position player reserves, but I think that may be a lesser problem then having a bullpen over worked to the point where this team is getting creamed.